Version 0.9.1

HIGHLIGHTED CHANGES

No More Combat Skills

Combat Skills have been ELIMINATED. In their place, weapons have been assigned a ruling attribute to roll with. Tricks for these skills were disseminated into the rest of the skill list. This was done because of what I dubbed the "skill inflation" issue. Combat Reactions were effectively attribute saves, but instead of going up against a flab attribute modifier, they were being rolled against a combat skill which could potentially increase to +10, the same as any other skill. This means it wouldn't take long before Reactions became basically useless. Several solutions to this problem were drafted, including putting Reactions themselves on a skill-like mechanic. In the end I decided to eliminate combat skills all together. The new attack formula allows for a reasonable cap of +6 hit, and this can be balanced out with Tricks that enhance certain Combat Reactions. Players should now be able to reasonable attain 1 favored Reaction that can reach a cap on par with what is possible for attacks.

Related to this change, Weapon Proficiencies have been added. Each Archetype gains proficiency in ONE weapon at character creation. They can learn to use other weapons through practice and in-game training. Getting a critical success 5 times will grant them proficiency in the new weapon, but they can spend time training with someone who has proficiency already. Each evening spent with a trainer is equivalent to one critical success, getting them to proficiency much quicker. Proficiency bonuses are added on top of the attribute score when fighting, so the new formula is: [3d8 + ATTRIBUTE MODIFIER + PROFICIENCY BONUS] to attack.

Secondary Skill Mechanic

Players can now take bonuses to skills they do not have from Citizenship, Armors, and other in-game sources, allowing them to have more than just 6 skills to call on. These secondary skills cannot be improved and characters can't learn tricks in them.

Astromancer Overhaul

Astromancy has received a significant re-work, no longer functioning as a hidden skill. Instead, it works more like it did originally, where Astromancers simply roll to gather their dark energy without a skill check. This energy gathering roll can crit following standard Heliosail rules (IE: the majority of dice roll their maximum number.) When it does, the Astromancer receives another d6 for their dice pool and unlocks some new abilities. They cannot gain more than 1 die a day, and they are still capped at 5d6 total. 

• Changed "Seek Rift" to "Detect Anomaly" and expanded its functionality.
• Astromancers can now 'crit' when gathering Dark Energy, which is how they expand their dice pool. They gain access to more powerful Disturbances with each die they add to their pool.
• Eliminated the Time Bubble Disturbance. It overlapped too much with Slow Time and was unclear in its functionality.
• Slow Time has been renamed "Distort Time" in order to capture some of the vibe of Time Bubble.
• Eliminated the Visions Disturbance. It was too similar to Bad Vibes, and Gateway Tree was overpopulated
• Eliminated Worm Hole - It's utility was similar to Passage, and I have decided to save all possibility of travel to the Nether for future expansions.
• Added several new Disturbances to balance things out. Every tree now has 8 abilities including the Base one.
• Reworked Disturbance descriptions to cement changes and clarify cost and effects

Equipment Overhaul

Tons of new armors and weapons have been added, along with armor properties. In particular, the Bioactive property means that the armor is a living organism and provides some exemplary benefit to the wearer as a result. 

Also, carrying capacity rules have changed. Players no longer need to count items or worry about carrying things as long as the items can fit inside their bags. In short, players now only need to be concerned with how they carry and transport large or heavy items. 

All Other Changes

Combat System Changes

• All range measurements for movement, weapons, and abilities, have been edited to be values divisible by 2, since a single square on a grid or hex map will represent 2 meters.
• All Damage Reduction values for armor have been rearranged in an attempt to make the order consistent with how they appear on the character sheets. DR values should always be listed in the order of Edged, Blunt, Firearms, and then Elemental if applicable.
• Lingering damage rules and values have been changed. Lingering damage is always 1d4, for an amount of time specified.

Skill Changes

• Some lower level 1/day Tricks have been adjusted to be a number/day equal to the skill modifier, so that they become more useful as your character grows more skilled.
• Reworked the "Execution" trick. The old version required a certain amount of metagaming on the part of the player, as it required them to the know the actual remaining HP of the creature they were fighting. The new version still allows for a possible instant kill without the need for this meta knowledge.
• Adjusted Formal Challenge Trick (Now under Etiquette) to have a time limit.
• Buffed Dual Expertise so that both weapons can deal critical damage.
• Edited Cutpurse to be more useful.
• Eliminated Cryptography skill, distributed tricks to other skills. Cryptography itself is now a Lore Trick.
• Added several tricks, including enhancements for specific weapons.
• Adjusted Resist to apply to ALL lingering damage.
• Mentor skill made higher level

Cardsharp Changes

• Buffed Gambler's Luck so that it can be applied after a roll has failed.
• Added the ability to collect Gambler's Luck on a crit fail as part of the core Hot Streak ability
• Added a trick to donate points of Gambler's Luck to allies' rolls

Engineer Changes

• New drone mod to improve range.

Ancestry Changes

• changed human self healing from 1d6 to 1d8
• Adjusted Anthroparian to have only -1 to Social

Edits for clarity and quality

• Clarified explanation of Attribute Saves to explain when they are used instead of contested rolls.
• Visual upgrades in spacing and formatting, plus added some green into the color palette.
• Updated character sheets.
• Added a Netheran language option.
• Added some place holder art to the handbook that I created.
• Typos