Saturday, June 29, 2019
Two big updates just a couple months apart! Don’t worry, though, these ones actually remove some complexity to streamline the whole experience a bit!
The first big change streamlines the way a character’s Inventory works. Previously, it was “Hands and Pockets” but this update removes Hands from the equation because the whole concept, while interesting to me personally, added an unnecessary level of complexity. You had to juggle what hand you might be holding an item in while moving things around, and it was ultimately just a completely unnecessary distinction in the long run. Plus it made keeping track of things on paper that much harder. You also used to have to take your clothing into consideration, for example, wearing a dress would make it so you only had 2 items lots total (your hands) unless you had a bag! That was a huge deterrent for people who wanted their characters to wear the clothes they wanted.
Now, characters always have 10 inventory slots no matter the clothing they wear, and they can use whatever items are in their inventory whenever they want. Similarly, if a character is wearing a bag of some kind, they get an additional 10 inventory slots. Previously with bags, you had to move an item from your bag to a free hand to use it, but now bags are just an expanded pool for your items to be in and can be used no matter where they are. Lastly on the Inventory side, this update removes the concept of “Bundles:” previously, items in your pockets did not stack, so if you wanted more than one of an item, you had to create a “bundle” of that item to save space in your inventory and to use an item in a bundle, you had to have a free hand/pocket slot to separate it from the bundle before you could use it. No more! You can simply add a counter of how many of an item you are holding and use it as you need it!
The second big change simplifies the Health system a bit and adds a rule for protective clothing and accessories. Before, the Injury chart had different spots to mark injuries for each part of the body plus a 10-slot bar for “Strain,” but now the spots have been removed, opting to simply mark up to 2 Injuries on the chart itself before it becomes unusable. This change comes with a general shift in how Injuries are received because they are now much more dangerous than they were before; Status Conditions (formerly Status Effects) now play a much larger role in your character’s current condition. If your character is hurt but not in a way that could lead to loss of the body part, they might gain a status of “hurt” instead of getting an Injury. I believe that this simplification will make it a little bit easier to jump in with as well as more interesting to role play.
Along with this change comes the removal of “Strain,” which was a frankly unnecessary “tiredness” mechanic originally. Now a status condition of “strained” will only matter if your character uses the Optional Magic System. If your character has strained themself through strenuous activity, they will now simply be given a status condition to indicate the exhaustion.
These changes come with updates to each of the rule books and also the character sheet itself. You can always get the character sheet here:
Download the New Character Sheet!
but if you want the previous one so you can follow the more complex old rules, you can use this link instead:
We hope the changes to the rules help make GUTS+ even more enjoyable to use!