I am not one to rant. Over the past few months, Amethyst has had numerous positive reviews. In fact, I would say we've been blessed. Of course, it's not all been smelling roses. We've fielded our critics. Even the ones that love us have commented on certain decisions we made in service to the setting. One of the biggest changes we made concerned the lack of gods. Since Amethyst is set in the real world, we couldn't have proof of god/s. Therefore, we removed divine classes, as we could not alter them to fit fluff per GSL. I note The Tome Show, although praising the final product, mentioned this as a sticking point. The interviewer even asked me that exact point. Amethyst says no when the new mindset says yes. Beyond the fact that this is not true (as I feel like a broken record saying), I have explained that Amethyst is not a DnD setting but a fantasy setting using DnD base architecture.

Well, now we have a new DnD setting, Dark Sun, which is a return to an old setting I never played. Yup, full disclosure, I ran Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms and even Spelljammer for a short time, but I simply missed out on Dark Sun, despite the appeal the setting actual has on me. I didn't know a lot of the specifics, including regarding the new 4th Edition update. That being said, imagine my surprise upon being told that divine classes are nowhere to be found in this new setting. Wow. No divine classes. Of course, WOTC also says that you can make an exception with a rule saying a cleric is a primal class instead of a divine class…which is great. Too bad GSL stipulations prevent us from saying the same thing. As it is, we are putting a lifepath in the next book that offers a loophole, but we only inserted this because of the backlash we received for removing divine in the first place. And here is a first party DnD setting doing the exact same thing. I am laughing…on the outside and the inside. So I guess it's okay if WOTC does it but heaven forbid a third party company does something against expectations.

…sigh…yes well; this is what happens when you try to be different. With NeuroSpasta, we are offering non-combat classes and free enhancement without the need of buying gear.

The latest (and probably last) set of NeuroSpasta files have been sent out. If you have expressed interest in these rules and have not received them by the end of Thursday, reply back and I will look into why. Remember, for those who have yet to do so, I need your forum ID and the names of the players in your game group.

NeuroSpasta now boasts over 100 playtesters.

Now that's over, I can finally dive into the next Amethyst book...

NeuroSpasta is crossed its last "T" and dotted its last "I". It now stands ready. Anyone that has been tapped for playtesting, if you have not faxed in or emailed the NDA, now is the time. For those still interested, from the date of this post, you have 48 hours before the files go out.

We recently added super heavy weapons, action set pieces, and general combat encounters.

Another addition is an optional rule I want to throw out there for people to read and gauge their interest. It may help people wanting a more traditional role-playing game without being tied down to tracking every 24-hour period.

OPTIONAL RULE –
EXTENDED RESTS, POWER RESETS, & MILESTONES
Simply put, there are NO extended rests in NeuroSpasta. The GM may allow them at the end of an adventure, with the GM determining when said adventure is officially over. The rules regarding extended rests are ignored (and in effect removed) until the adventure is concluded. If the game is considered one unbroken campaign, this rule is still in effect, meaning the resetting of powers and healing surges can only occur through the use of milestones.
Milestones: When you reach a milestone, not only do you gain an action point, you also recover ¼ of your total healing surge value (round down), and can reset one daily power (daily attack or daily utility). At 11th level, you can reset two daily powers instead of one and at 21st level, you can reset three daily powers. However, at these additional tiers, you still only regain ¼ healing surges and one action point. If in a fantasy game, the resetting of one magic item’s daily power does not count towards your resetting of others.

Two points today, both involving interesting posts on the DEM forums.

The first regards the definition of disruption and how it affects classes. Martial classes are not magic but the items they wield are. So someone asked if a techan class could dive into fantasy multiclass feats. And the answer is yes, absolutely.

Humans can choose any of the available classes listed, so the four techan classes and the growing list of fantasy (from PHB1, 2 and 3) save for divine and psionic paths (and all arcane save for two). When you choose a class, you fall into the role of echan or techan human at that point...well...not technically. Yes, if you chose a techan class, you are a techan human. When you start using magic, you turn echan, but you could be a techan human fighter and until you start using magic, the choice to wield tech is still there. It’s when you start to use and carry magic when things get difficult.

You can ABSOLUTELY select fantasy multiclass feats if you are a techan class. Obviously, you would have to stick with martial class multiclass feats but that still allows you to tap into fighter, ranger, rogue, warlord, etc.

And by the way, this should also work for hybrids as well. Until you start using magic items, you are still open to use technology. This works the other way around to. Pick a fighter and grab a techan multiclass feat. Or better still pick that along with the Crossroad's Drifter lifepath. Grab an immune gun and presto, you're a magical fighter with double barreled shotgun...all perfectly legal and canon in Amethyst.

The second point involves our motivation for having limitation in the canon Amethyst setting. Specifically, the point involves our "mindset" and if we were still thinking like 3rd Ed player or 4th Ed players. The answer is that there was no "game mindset” when we created Amethyst. It's a very specific playground, as specific as playing in Middle Earth, Harry Potter, or A Song of Ice and Fire. That was the mindset, as a novel or non-game setting that was adapted into a game, rather than a game setting built from the ground up.

This was first brought up with The Tome Show. They mentioned Amethyst is about saying no while 4th Ed is about saying yes. Obviously, I have issues with that. Games, by definition, must limit player freedom. 4th Edition does say no, as do DMs. They say no all the time. Classes are limited in their roles. Powers have specific attributes tied to them (oddly enough NeuroSpasta counters this by offering incredible adaptability). My group made a joke recently that 4th Edition gives the illusion of freedom but in actually is nearly as limiting as the previous edition.

Amethyst has a lot of detail, but I wouldn't say it limits freedom anymore than playing in Middle Earth or Song of Ice and Fire. I think people were expecting Amethyst to be Eberron, meaning its everything DnD offers plus ours. Amethyst was written as a separate setting away from DnD and then it was adapted into 4th Edition.

There was a mindset, but it was not 3rd- or 4th-oriented. Amethyst was a setting created in 1992 and this is an adaption of that setting, in as much as the aforementioned fantasy novels mentioned above. Of course, a lot of people just want the techan rules for their own custom-created game. Some others adapt Amethyst to their own voice, which is also supported and encouraged.

This is only the official canon Amethyst setting. You are free to do what you wish in your own custom game. It's also ironic that WOTC, encouraging "yes", released the GSL, which limited the freedom of 3rd Party Games. “No” and “Yes” and interchangeable. It is correct that we say no to divinity. There is a very good reason why (as further reinforced by the GSL) they were removed. We could also say that we say yes to technology, yes to power armor, yes tanks and robots. We say yes to druids, barbarians, fighters, rogues, shamans, rangers, monks, and others. We have a massive world the size of North America and detail less than 1% of its landmass. 4th Ed has one elf race, we have three. Our humans are the same with additional options for techan paths. In the next book, we say yes to evil races, corrupt magic, and invaders from another planet (might said too much).

You may be surprised some of interesting ideas I have seen players come up with. One DM on the WOTC forum told me of a player that is using a Warforged template to create a robot PC. I think that's really clever. Another group simply pushed more into DnD and has an Amethyst party with tieflings. My group involves the following:

Techan Stalker
Human Monk
Tenenbri Wizard
Narros Ranger
Gimfen Rogue
Human Warlord

The wizard is off and on (more off) so we are about to add a techan grounder into the fray in a few weeks.

Here is another interesting oddity: Next week, we are taking a break from our regularly scheduled campaign to run a one-off WOTC dungeon WITHIN the architecture of Amethyst. It is P3-Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress. There shouldn't be a lot of alterations to make it work. This group consists of a damaskan melee-ranger, a chaparran archer-ranger, a pagus shaman, a pagus barbarian, and a kodiak warden. Not sure why a scholarly and civilized damaskan is wandering around with a bunch of uncultured warmongers but hey, whatever.

Also remember, we removed divine only because the GSL prevented us from modifying them to work within our framework. If we could have, we would have removed the proof-of-god-requirement and fluffed them back in. You're more than welcome to do the same. We also made an exception for runepriest. Also note that all primal classes are in, including druid.

The first piece of “leaked?” art for the second book of Amethyst (title still pending) has been released. This is a sketch and not the final work. You can find it below as well but it’s been available on Amethyst’s facebook page for several days now. Check there for more posts and sketches.

The second book is at about 88,000 words so far. This is not including the new techan class being offered. Also expect to be able to go evil in this one, with rules on Ixindar and corrupt races.

As some you know, neither I nor Goodman Games are attending GenCon. This does not mean in any way we are dropping 4th Edition or gaming in general. I’m half-way across the country for one thing. HOWEVER, for those at GenCon, if you happen to see Amethyst related areas (games, booths, etc). Please take a photo and post it. Thanks all.

I hope to have something about the next book ready for next week.

For now, here are two NEW reviews I found on Amethyst...

http://grandexperiment.livejournal.com/103300.html

And here is RPG.NET finally speaking up...

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/14/14897.phtml

That last one is really extensive. I mean, he leaves no stone unturned.

The first review mentions that issue with DDI, which currently doesn't support third party mechanics. It is something I would love to negotiate with WOTC over. But it really depends on if they are open towards that sort of thing.