Compatibility

I have realized in the editing process that I'm hitting the point where Sentinels is no longer fully compatible with Saga of the Splintered Realm... it is 90% the same engine, but there are enough changes (level system, the exact math of FEATs) that the games were starting to diverge.

And then today I was working on time. I had already changed the base move to 50' instead of 40'. But, in reading about rounds and turns, I realized that these were not logical, and didn't reflect the feel of superhero comics. To say that it takes an average character 10 seconds to move 40', when that character is a superhero, was just off... so I have changed the length of a round to 6 seconds (and a turn to 1 minute from 10). Now, a character can jog 50' in 6 seconds (which most people can do), and can sprint 100' in 6 seconds (which is basically a 30-yard dash. That's reasonable). The old numbers make sense when you think about big dudes in heavy armor trying to slog across a slick dungeon floor; not so much when you think about Captain America running through the streets of NYC.

I want the game to 'feel' fast, and I think that this has a subtle but important impact on how the game feels... there is also the benefit of additional drama. Fights can last for more than 10 rounds, and this means that powers and abilities can refresh during the course of a fight. Near round 8, you might start just trying to hold steady for 2 rounds, because your heavy attacks are about to reset, and if you can survive long enough, you'll be able to really lay the smack down. Ten-minute turns make that impossible.

Editing work continues apace. Right now, the draft is near 200 pages in 6x9 format (and that's without any illustrations). I have some clean-up work to do, but it won't surprise me if the final version is over 200 pages. I went back and forth about the size, but I am pretty sure I've decided to stick with the 6x9 format. It's cleaner layout wise, and it looks much better on a device (which is how I expect that some people use it). I've made minor changes to the fonts and the tables I'll be using, which makes the game a little sharper looking overall (in my humble opinion, of course).