Howdy, Patrons!

Last week on The Great Trim, I crested the mountain of basic abilities, so I started working on Eversaga's 4 specs. For those of you who haven't been following along, a spec in Eversaga is like a class in other TTRPGs; it's a thing that outlines the sort of abilities you have and the powers you specialize in. The Eversaga Core Rulebook has 4 specs in it, with 4 additional specs planned for the Advanced Rulebook. The core specs will be ace, mage, theurgist, and healer, and last week I worked on the ace. It's a skill-focused spec that uses a state called "ace up your sleeve" to take calculated risks for big gain.

This week, I started the mage and ... did almost no work on it!

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DID ALMOST NO WORK ON MY SPEC?!?! Art by Jacob Blackmon.

Whoa, easy there Dyne! I still worked on Eversaga this week. A lot actually. But it wasn't on the Mage. Let me explain.

Following My Muse

Sometimes when you're working on a big project like the Eversaga RPG, you need to switch gears suddenly because there's a necessity. This is what happened with the ace spec for the last few weeks. As a refresher, I was working on the rogue subspec for that spec and discovered that I needed to know precise names for a handful of common abilities, but I had also scheduled to cut a TON of pages from the basic abilities section. Ergo, it wasn't worth my time to work on the rogue subspec (which I knew I wanted in the final book) without having finalized the basic abilities list. Switching gears for the ace was necessary.

For the mage, it was more about the muse. Where my interest and ideas were at the moment.

See, I sat down and started working on the spec. I trimmed up its core abilities, got a lot of the content to fit nice and in the proper areas. Then, I got to the subspecs. As you'll recall, the Great Trim has me cutting 4 of the 7 subspecs I had conceptualized (and even had mostly finished mechanics for), leaving what I consider to be the best 3 options for people Learning Eversaga for the first time.

Eversaga's original list of subspecs for the Mage were:

Artificer, a mage that can basically turn their mana points into gear and allow themselves or others to consume that gear to cast discipline spells (think Green Lantern from the DCU if the lanterns were magic items rather than ... whatever they are).

Esper, a mage that specializes in psychic magic that fortifies the mind and mental spells (think Ebony Maw from Marvel).

Gylph Scribe, a mage that specializes in glyph magic which works by preparing spells as drawn seals in advanced that are activated later (think Luis from The Owl House or Coco from Witch Hat Atelier).

Sorcerer, a mage that draws upon a magical ancestry to enhance their spells (hilariously, think Saske and Naruto from Naruto).

Summoner, a mage that specializes in conjuring facsimile of monsters to fight for them (think Yuna from Final Fantasy X).

Thaumaturge, a mage that specializes in the art of wonder working, which is kind of like divine magic but without a god (think Gandalf from Lord of the Rings if he was flashier).

Wizard, a mage that specializes in rigorous study to unlock arcane secrets (think Merlin from The Sword in the Stone).

But Which to Choose?!

3 was a very deliberate choice in how many subspecs I wanted to keep for each spec. As an odd number, it means you can do an uneven ratio that sets things up for your audience mentally to lean in a certain direction. In the case of specs, I wanted to do, "2 familiar, 1 unfamilar/new" as much as possible. For the ace, I did detective (familiar, PF2's investigator) and rogue (familiar, literally every game ever), and gadgeteer (unfamiliar, PF2 has the inventor but not many games do a nonmagical crafter character and even PF2's inventor is still new). As mentioned, this makes say, "Look this is MOSTLY new things I am familiar with, but there's SOME new stuff for people who want to play a Mountain-Biking Witch." (For those who don't know, Mountain-Biking Witch is Philly for, "Something original and kinda weird, based on this clip: i'm a mountain biking vampire witch from the future clip.)

So, when I looked at the mage, I thought to myself, "Okay, I want 2 familiar, 1 unfamiliar. How am I going to do this?" Obviously, the 2 familiar options for a TTRPG player are obvious, so they're the ones I picked right away: sorcerer and wizard. EVERY TABLETOP RPG PLAYER KNOWS THESE TWO. Perfect. So, which do I keep?

Well, I had a few things narrowing me down. For starters, I'm friends on Discord with a guy named Utunu; he's writing a book series I love about psionic hyenas and fennec foxes called Far-Flung. Here's a link if you want to check it out: Far-Flung at Mapaku Village; I recommend it if you like gay coming-of-age romance stories with flawed but lovable protagonists, psychic powers, and/or furry content. Anyway, I really enjoyed how Utunu presents psychic powers in this story; it reminded me of D&D 3.5's psionic power system, where powers are tiered and improve over time. I even started sketching out a few ideas about how I'd adapt a similar system to Eversaga earlier this year, but it became apparent pretty early on that this was an expansion, not a core system for Eversaga. Since I had this cool idea for psychic powers, however, I sort of decided that Esper was a good subspec to put on-hold until I was able to do more with a dedicated psychic power system.

Summoner was the other one I am PRETTY sure should wait for a future book. Why? Well, in Eversaga most enemies are built using a template system, where you take a template and slap it onto a stat block and BOOM. Done. This system is used for a LOT in Eversaga; summoned creatures, followers, and building NPCs as I mentioned, and while the Core Rulebook is going to have SOME templates (enough to make building NPCs work in the CRB), it's not going to have a lot of them. Likely just enough for the Core Specs. This made me think that Summoner is better off as content in a book with / after more of those templates.

That's 2 keeps (sorcerer/wizard), 2 cuts (esper/summoner). With only 3 options left, I decided to ask my Patrons how they felt; people who subscribe to this Patreon get access to a Discord where I try to reach out every week or so for feedback and a little bit of positive reinforcement. (Seriously, the crew there's only like 4-5 strong but having people to talk about my work with is a HUGE motivator for me.)

So, What Did the Patrons Say?

I only got 2 votes (it could be more if you join ;3), but Glyph Scribe was the favorite. And I can see why. Artificer is a known; WotC does artificers, and they're the industry leader. Plus my ace spec has a gadgeteer and I don't know if I want to undercut that, so artificer is a good choice to bump to a future book. As for thaumaturge, yeah that makes sense. My Core book has a theurgist, and thaumaturge sounds similar. Plus PF fans are going to have a very specific idea of what a thaumaturge should be (to them) because it's a very popular newish PF2 class. But glyph scribe? People weren't sure what THAT was.

Buuuuuut initially, I had cold feet.

Why Motifs?

So, in Eversaga when you learn magic you have to pick a spellcraft. Your spellcraft assigns traits to your Cast a Spell ability when you use mana from that spellcraft to cast a spell. For example, if you're occultivation, you assign traits that give your spells verbal and somatic components, like in D&D and Pathfinder. But calliglyphy, the spellcraft required by the glyph scribe subspec, doesn't have verbal components, it has a glyph component which is basically a drawing you have to prepare in advanced (Eversaga has a TON of lore about spells and drawing seals to make them work that I'll go into next week as part of the paid extras). When I saw that glyph scribe one, it made me think, "Wait, should this be an option for ANY spellcaster? Should it be a motif?

If you've played Pathfinder or Starfinder Second Edition (PF2/SF2), you'll understand what I mean when I say that motifs are Eversaga's archetype mechanic. For those who haven't, an archetype is basically a chain of related options that you can pick from instead of your class's list of options. So for motifs, they're a package set of talents you can gain access to if you want to.

With the idea of, "This could be a motif," I started thinking about motifs and the Great Trim. Originally, the book had 5 motifs on a 2-page spread each; they were Crafter, Cultivator, Hunter, Luminary, and Polymath. Originally, I put down that I wasn't cutting anything from these options in the Great Trim. I was like, "I need all 10 of these pages."

Well, I had just finished so much stuff in the Great Trim that I had thought would be harder (specifically how much space I reclaimed in conditions and basic abilities), I was like, "Well, do I really?" This put me down the rabbit hole of, "Can I get all these motifs down to 1 page while keeping all the most important parts of their identity and fantasy. And honestly, fam, I think the motifs are better now then when I started.

Each motif starts with a multispec talent, a talent anyone can take. Most of these talents have options built within them, but not all do (I believe Cultivator doesn't have any big choices for its multispec talent).

These talents are on each spec's basic talent list (instead of using levels, lists are categorized by basic / advanced / paragon versus 1st-level / 6th-level / 10th-level). Despite being on the list, they have a level prerequisite of "2". All specs talents list "1" as their minimum level. The idea here is that when you first take your spec, you HAVE to pick a talent from that spec to establish its identity. But when you reach Level 2, if you don't want any other talents from that spec you can start to pick multispec options. You've played the game for a level, you've earned the complexity.

After the initial multispec talents, each motif has motif talents that build upon the motif. Most motifs only have Level 4 talents on the basic talent list; Polymath has some advanced talents. Again, given the point at which specs unlock talents, the idea is that you get basic talents at level 2, advanced talents at 6, and a single paragon talent at 10. With this progression, it means you HAVE to pick a talent from your spec at Level 1, can pick multispec talents for 2 and 4 (and even get some new options at Level 4 that you didn't have at Level 2), and then for Level 6 you get your class's new list and pick from those. For the Polymath, which has advanced talents, they're all listed at level 8 for the same reason.

I don't want to go in deep on all the motifs mechanically, but they all kept their identity and lost some stuff that didn't jive with the core mechanic. For example, the Luminary is about Inspiring yourself and your allies for benefits, like a bard in D&D or Pathfinder, so it lost a couple abilities that gave it other actions to use besides Inspire. It didn't need those, the motif's mechanical identity IS Inspire.

Now, those of you who know pagation will see that I took 10 pages with 5 options and slashed a page from each, leaving 5 pages. This means I had a blank page that needed to be filled to fill a spread. Well, I certainly filled it...

A Look at Motifs

The Crafter has a crafter's cache that they can use to Craft temporary gear, and can do it FAST. Art by Eryn.

The Cultivator is a martial artist with an internal pool of mana they've cultivated to do cool energy attacks, DBZ style. Art by Eryn.

The Hunter has an ability that allows them to Hunt Quarry of a specific trait or affiliation, gaining benefits while on the hunt. Art by Ery

The Luminary uses their Presence and words to Inspire themselves and others to bigger and brighter successes. Art by Eryn.

The Polymath allows Protagonists to dip into the special abilities of other specs, enabling multispecing. Art by Karolyne Rocha.

The Zoomer boosts your Speed (or Driving Speed) and allows you to cheat action point costs, activating more abilities per turn. Art by Eryn.

So, What's Next?

Well, you can see I decided NOT to make the Glyph Scribe a motif. I decided to keep it as a mage subspec, so once I was done with these options I got right back to work on the mage. Yesterday. So I don't have a ton to show you from the mage, but hey! I took 10 pages and made them six, meaning I cut 4 pages AND added a new motif to the list. Those are 4 pages I wasn't planning on having, which makes up for the 2 I wasn't able to cut from basic abilities AND gives me another surplus of 2 pages. So I'd say the trim is looking good!

From here, I'll finish the Mage and will likely skip the Theurgist to do the Warrior. The Warrior will be easy; that class doesn't need a ton of work, it's the oldest and the one I have the strongest concept of in my head. After that, I'll do theurgist. Why wait?

Well, I asked my Patrons to do a SECOND Poll this week...

A perfect, 50/50 split. (Technically one patron had a late vote after the poll closed but THE POLL CLOSED!) So, what do I do when I'm at a perfect impasse? Go to Owen K.C. Stephens.

Alex: So, I need to decide whether to put a fifth class into Eversaga OR rules for companions (i.e. side kicks, animal companions). I poled my Patrons, and got a perfectly 50/50 split. What are your thoughts, lol?

Owen: What would the fifth class be?

Alex: Avatar. Think something like warlock where you embody some higher power. Right now that niche is covered by the theurgist, but I'm thinking about splitting its niches apart.Theurgist is currently the, "cleric" class and the "weird occult items" class and I'm thinking about splitting those two apart.

Owen: So, open up an entire class of character concepts there's NO way to do right now, or parse an existing concept into more thinly sliced versions?

Alex: That sounds like your thought is the follower rules lol.

Owen: Well, what is YOUR reaction to my take?

Alex: Honestly? Not sure. I guess my initial reaction was trying to figure out what your vote was far, then going, "Oh NO it's Mr. Miyagi advice!"

Owen: LOL

Alex: I am currently doing The Great Trim on classes, so right now is the appropriate time to be thinking these questions imho. I think the easy option is keeping followers. I already have them here. Currently followers aren't really a part of a class, you pick a talent and get a follower.

Owen: Which I like.

Alex: I think building a brand-new class is the harder option, even if that class is born from focusing the theurgist.

Owen: Which do you think would be a bigger draw for a supplement later?

Alex: Also tricky. I know Tech Core and Alien Archive used companion creatures as major selling points for their projects. Every book ever printed uses classes, so they're obviously a popular draw.

Owen: Yeah. We had talked about doing a new SF1 class in every book at one point.

Alex: I think animal companions especially are a proven draw. The tricky part is that there won't be a ton of options in this book. There can't be at 240 pages. Companions work using the same rules that summons and NPCs need to work, so it's not like the bones to put companions in this book won't be there. And, I need to think financially. A new class means new art. I have all the art for followers done already. But also, this new class would have rules based on Dustin's character in my Starfinder game, so there's part of me that wants to do that for sentimental reasons even of sentiment isn't a good reason.

Owen: Are you familiar with the term "Kill Your Darlings?"

Alex: Sigh, yeah.

Owen: Now, which is a bigger GOAL for creating EverSaga? Financial success or personal satisfaction?

Alex: That is a tricky question. Personal satisfaction and accomplishment is more important to me but I understand that doing more with this game and world won't matter if it doesn't find at least some success.

Owen: So. my VOTE is to keep followers. But I'm glad to have given you some koans to ponder. "You must you your followers, so your followers will keep you."

Alex: Thank you Mr. Miyagi. I think you're probably right. I think that it'd be kind of foolish to drop another 400-600 on art for the new class when I have all the art I need to publish now.

And, there you have it. I ended up deciding to NOT put a fifth class into this book and instead keep the follower content I have. Followers give you another cook thing that any character can do, which feels better for a Core Book. Plus ALL the art for followers is done, and I want to release this game. Not keep it in alpha for ANOTHER 10 years, haha.

I hope you enjoyed a peer behind the curtain. Next week expect a finished Mage spec and hopefully a Warrior spec that's well under way.

Until next time, baaaaaaaaaaaaaaai~!