Developer Update :: August 15th, 2022 (Patreon)

We’ve got some major topics to discuss in today’s update, so without further ado, let’s get started.

New Server Event Launching September 2022

A server event is a West Marches campaign we run for the entire Discord server. If you’ve never heard the term before, you can think of it like an MMO-TTRPG: everyone plays in the same universe, but everyone can be off in their own corner of the universe, doing their own thing. Something one fireteam does may affect another fireteam they’ve never even met before, and you may encounter situations that are the end result of the choices another fireteam made.

This is the fourth such campaign we’ve run. Previous campaigns lasted anywhere from a few months to a year, but this time, the plan is to go for 2–3 years.

We’ll be starting in the late City age, just before the events of the first Destiny game. The Cabal have a firm grip on Mars, the Hive controls Luna (which is on interdiction by the Vanguard), the Awoken of the Reef are still distant and aloof, nobody goes to Venus much anymore, and the major Fallen Houses are still at large (Devils, Winter, Kings, and Exile).

The plan is to work our way through the events of vanilla Destiny, slowly expanding the list of destinations players can venture to as they are unlocked through the completion of quests, strikes, and other content. Some of this content will be storylines individual fireteams will have to work on, while others will be ventures the server will have to band together to overcome.

The length and scope of content we intend to tackle is new for us, so we’re very much planning to play it by ear and remain adaptable. After all, this is NOT meant to be a complete re-telling of the Destiny story. We want to let player actions and choices shape the outcome of this universe, which means accepting that some events may play out very differently from what you’re familiar with in the canon Destiny universe. In fact, Stasis might make an appearance in this universe much faster 😉

Canon Races—To Start

The server event will kick off with only canon Guardian races available. This means you’ll only be allowed to make a human, Exo, or Awoken character. You’ll be able to pick any class or subclass you want, though. Other races will be ‘unlocked’ as the story progresses.

All new characters must start at level 1 with D&Destiny’s standard array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 9). For character traits, you may either use the standard racial traits in the PGB, or you may buy your racial traits as defined in the AG. You only have 6 points to work with if you buy racial traits. A list of what traits are viable choices for each race will be provided when we launch the event officially.

You may have up to three total characters in the server event, and all characters must be approved before you can start playing them. We’re going for a mostly-serious tone in this universe.

Equipment Management

In past events, we’ve allowed characters to freely transfer gear and money between themselves. We’re making a few changes to this event since it is meant to be so long-term.

Exotics will be bloodbound. Once your character obtains an exotic, it cannot be transferred to any other character. If a fireteam is awarded an exotic, whoever decides to keep it is the one to whom it becomes bound.

There is a 50% transfer fee for moving glimmer. If you want to transfer 20,000 glimmer from one character to another, you’ll actually have to pay 30,000 glimmer to make it happen. The 10,000 extra is lost to the ether. You can think of this transfer fee as a combination of current transmat methods not being as robust as they will become in the future + natural degradation of glimmer as it changes state or storage location + taxes and other literal fees, depending on the method of transfer.

We’ll also have a new rule for how to calculate your Ghost memory: it will be five times their Intelligence modifier. For example, if your Ghost only has an Intelligence mod of +2, they have 10 memory slots. Use them well!

Your Vault at the Tower will have unlimited memory, so don’t worry about storing stuff at home.

Other Rules and Info

Downtime will make a comeback in this event. You’ll be able to invest in career paths such as becoming an Agent of the Vanguard, a Crucible Contender, or Cryptarch; you’ll be able to adventure across the Sol system between sessions; you’ll be able to discover and craft exotic items.

The server event will also function as a place for us to test out some new D&Destiny content, from new downtime activities and Expressions to new class features.

Parts of our server event, such as individual strikes or story missions, will be released as stand-alone content to integrate into your home campaigns. It won’t be exactly the same as what you experienced in the event, because we will be making changes based on feedback, like we always do.

On that note, some content will be ‘replayable’ thanks to Ikora’s Meditations. Even if your character missed out on playing through strikes like the Devil’s Lair and the Summoning Pits, you can still play through them in a meditation (aka “dream sequence”) and experience it for yourself. This gives us an in-universe explanation for replaying content, and lets us gather more feedback before releasing items to the public.

We’re really looking forward to running this event for everyone! Our first month of the event will be open to the public, meaning anyone can play, patron or not. And who knows—it may be open publicly for longer, if it goes well.

Starting mid-September/early October, we’ll also return to streaming D&Destiny sessions on Sundays, so follow us on Twitch to keep up with that.

D&Destiny v2.0 In Development

D&Destiny v2.0 is underway. This version of D&Destiny will include our most-requested items: Stasis, feats, and multiclassing. However, when it comes to feats and multiclassing, keep in mind that it’s probably not going to be the same as what you imagine for regular 5e play.

We’re also going to update the current D&Destiny classes to match Bungie’s Light 3.0 changes. If Bungie adds more Darkness subclasses, we’ll consider adding those to D&Destiny 2.0, too.

Though development has begun, expect it to take at least another year before any rulebook comes out. These things take a lot of time to put together, and we want to be way more thorough with our rules and content than we were for v1.0.

If you want to help us out, the best thing you can do is to support us through Patreon. We’re a small team and this money gets split between us. The more there is to go around, the less we have to work “real” jobs on the side—meaning there’s more time for us to focus on content!

If Patreon isn’t your jam, you can also donate through PayPal. Or maybe our upcoming product, the Deck of Possibilities™, is more your style. Speaking of which…

Deck of Possibilities™—Three Days From Launch!

On August 18th, in just three short days, the Deck of Possibilities™ Kickstarter is going live. We previously released a video going over some basic card information, and today we’ve got another short video interviewing a GM who uses the Deck to keep their adventure fresh, no matter how many times they play it.

Follow the KS to get emailed when we go live. A standard Deck will only cost $25 during the first 48 hours, after which it becomes $30 per Deck. We’ll also have a limited amount of awesome mini figures you can add on to your order.

Aplaydia!: The Next Phase

Aplaydia! is the name of a custom D&D setting we’ve been developing on the side for the past few months. It started as an excuse to get some additional/last minute Deck testing in, but the most recent version of the setting (set in spaaaaacee) went over so well, we’re going to continue developing the lore and bring it back in the future.

In all likelihood, you won’t see it again until 2023. This year our main focus is on the Deck and getting the server event up and running. The occasional one-shot may pop up on the schedule in the meantime.

Stay Safe, Stay Cool

PHEW okay, that’s all the major news. On a more minor level, our YouTube channel has been dormant for a while, but that’s about to change. Between uploading highlights from our Twitch streams to new videos on game development to bite-size GM lessons, expect to see a lot more popping up over there. Working on videos like these is a bit new for us, so apologies in advance as we work out the kinks, but we’re excited nonetheless to be working toward a regular upload schedule.

Stay safe out there folks, stay cool in the heat, and as always: Make Good Choices!

-GoodGameKitty