Within Midian many classes have a per additional level. I have always assumed that "per additional level" was meant as levels beyond the last level listed on the class write up. 

Is this assumption correct or does the per additional level begin after level 1?

I have been working on the Association again lately and I have been thinking of making some changes. (See the talk page for possible changes in the titles.) 

Up until this point I have allowed the idea that the Association was more or less a confederation of Baronies in Western Suditerre but as I have worked on it my mindset has shifted. The framework that I have drafted, pulling heavily from the US Cnnstitution, is clearly not confederal but is in fact federal. Previously I allowed for the idea that some number of small baronies within the boarders would be "unicorporated" but the more I consider it, the more I realize that it would not work. 

With time and reflection, I now believe that all of the Baronies would be part of the Association, though it would have started with a subset of the total. The title Baron & the territories known as Baronies might also be changing. (again see the talk page.)

What would you recommend as the best class for a brand new player to play? As in, someone who has no experience with roleplaying.

Traditional wisdom has been to play whatever class has the least overt abilities. That is, when someone brand new to gaming starts in D&D, they are told to roll up a fighter. I disagree with that logic. As the original tank class, fighters are expected to slug it out on the front lines. Not only does that mean that there's a good chance that the new and inexperienced player dies early in the first session, but they are involved in the mechanics of the game each and every round--multiple times per round, as often as not. Plus, since fighters in that system can use every weapon and armour, there's a paralysing number of choices when making the character, and not much gold to go around. The expense of armour and weapons does eat up a lot of gold pieces right away, but that can leave a player feeling unprepared, which can be worse for their confidence than the value of the time saved.

Instead, for D&D, at least, I would suggest a starting player run a mage. Low hit points is a perfect excuse to stay out of the direct battle. Rather than having to instantly memorise much of the game's combat engine, you can sit back and watch how it plays out for a while. A first level mage's main job--especially in earlier versions of that game system--is mostly to just sit back and wait for that one shot to cast their solitary spell. Trust me, the other players will let you know when that one chance is appropriate or not. No armour, and only a staff or dagger as a weapon, means that the player has more freedom for shopping, but with things that make more sense for a newbie. That is, it's much easier to figure out if you want to buy more rope or more torches, and harder to figure out the difference between a glaive-guisarme and a fouchard-fork. If the new player is impetuous, really anxious to roll some dice, and isn't a complete dick, then playing a cleric may be an option (decent combat abilities, mostly waiting to heal someone else) but wizard is the best bet... even though most old-school gamers would directly disagree with me.

But, this isn't D&D, this is Midian. What do you feel is the best class for a new player? Rogue seems like a good choice: the class is cheap and easy to get into, and has a very fuzzy role. Scout might also work well. However, there may be some benefit of a heavier class. That is, having fewer free skill selections to pick (after 'buying' the class) reduces the problems with having a glut of options, and a better defined role may be easier to get into. Syndic is almost certainly right out, though.

What do you think?

Do agricultural students at Caerwyn study abroad? The environment the school is in is somewhat cool, dry, and elevated. Growing crops around the Grim Sea, for example, would be quite different. If students do travel to learn about agriculture in other parts of the world (or at least the Middle Realms) do they study as part of a group, or is it more like a short-term apprenticeship?

This mod reduces the effectiveness of psychic powers in combat. It's simple, they each now require one action to be spent on concentrating first. Changing modes (switching from telekinesis to heat point, for example) also causes the psychic to refocus and spend an action concentrating, as does switching targets. The stronger version of this mod (James Randi Doesn't Have Time for Your Crap Hack) increases the concentration time to a full round.

This isn't an official addition or change to the Midian game. Rules hacks/mods are optional rule tweaks that a troupe may implement in their own games. Mostly though, they are playing around with game mechanics for the sake of doing so.

No, seriously, I'm asking. It's never really been something that we've needed an official guideline before. I've kind of avoided this topic, I'll admit, but haven't really had any pressing need to have solid mechanics.

Other game systems commonly give a rather low attack penalty, I'm guessing with the assumption that most combats are with large melee weapons in a confined space. This ranges from -2 to -10, or perhaps there's a 50% chance that the shot will miss regardless of the roll. If we were to just use the extant guidelines for Midian this would be either the -4 to attack and -8 to defend using Transparency as a reference, or count blindness as 100% cover for a -20 penalty. Should we instead just do a straight 1D20 for attacks without bonuses?

What do you all think?

What got me thinking about this was while working on siege engines, and the chances of hitting something on the other side of a castle wall. I figured that this would be a blind shot, but realised we don't yet have an established way to handle this.

If we do a -10 penalty, this is pretty close to a 50/50 miss chance for most spuds. With a -20 penalty, we can use a simple skill check for a forward observer to reduce the penalty for blind catapult shots. This is admittedly a rather rare and specialised instance, and as such I don't think that I want it to be the entire reason for justifying a -20 penalty. With some of the new demonic familiars getting blinding attacks, this is something that needs to be addressed.

I'm looking for input from the Midianite community on this.

Do they use the bezant, or at least accept it at its fair value? Do they use hacksilver or bartering exclusively (both of which seem unlikely)? Is there some other unit of exchange or monetary system? Also, is the money used in the Association used throughout the Western Territories, or do the minor baronies have some other economic units?

This post is intended to show some of the behind-the-scenes design process. For our example, we'll use a newly proposed feature called Metallised. Metallised weapons and shields are made entirely of metal, rather than having much of their mass in the form of wood.

I first used the Alternate Materials page to determine the cost difference. Converting an item from oak to steel increases the cost by about two and a half times. Unlike the Alternate Materials feature, the density of an all-metal object would be much greater: the item would now be about fifteen times heavier.

There should be some mechanical effect of turning your quarterstaff into a solid iron bar, or making your axe's handle out of steel. One possible solution would be to look at the Dense feature. To replicate the increase in mass, this is similar to taking that feature fifteen times. However, that would also add a +15 to attack rolls, and bump the load of a medium encumbrance weapon up to Heroic+12. The cost would also be much, much higher than the 2 1/2 times we figured earlier.

Forte is another possible feature to model the effects of metallising. This feature gives a +1 to parries and damage, which works well with the solid thwacks against both flesh and steel that a metallised object should have. Forte doubles the cost--not too far off already from what we already figured--and has no inherent weight increase.

Heavy may also work well. The damage value is increased by two, pretty much bumping the damage up to the next higher die. Weight and cost are increased by about a third, and the added mass adds a -2 initiative penalty.

It could be argued that metallised weapons are an example of Iron-shod taken to the extreme. This adds a +1 to parry for an increase in weight and cost of 10%. As the Iron-shod feature presumes that the weapon isn't extraordinarily heavy, and is an entirely defensive feature, I don't think that this one is quite what we are looking for as a model.

Mass: There's a feature that's pretty much a given, no matter what else we do here. This doubles the weight, but doesn't add to the cost. There is a -3 additional initiative penalty, but no bonuses are added. We'll need to keep looking through the extant features for more inspiration. The upgraded version, Weighted, may be closer to what we want. Weight and cost are trebled. The weapon gains +1 to attack and damage, but would also have a -2 to parry and -5 to initiative.

Looking back through the seven different features selected to be a model, a combination of Heavy and Weighted seem to be our best bet. As their names imply, these two features are as similar mechanically as they are semantically. Though our metallised weapon would be able to strike an enemy's weapon much harder, it would be much slower in doing so. I cannot really see giving this new feature a parry bonus. Beyond the weight increase, usage of the weapon wouldn't be all that different. Also, with many metallised weapons a far greater proportion of the weight would be in the handle, so I don't think that we'll fold Mass into this feature the way Weighted does.

The added mass would almost certainly add to the damage dealt. I rather like the idea of increasing the size of the dice used. It's a fairly simple addition, and easy to implement. The slow swinging speed would reasonably limit a further increase in striking force.

Speaking of how slow these weapons would be, a -3 initiative penalty seems about right. As the weight increase guarantees multiple levels of load gained, the penalty would effectively be greater. We don't need to increase the penalty here.

As an added little bonus, we'll give this feature a bonus against Weapon Breaker attacks.

Now we just need to put all of this together. I think that we'll copy the description from earlier to start us off. So, here's our final write-up:

Metallised: Metallised weapons and shields are made entirely of metal, rather than having much of their mass in the form of wood. This feature is only appropriate for items that are not already mostly metal. It could be argued that it represents a different metal, such as uranium. It could, but have fun with your cancer. Metallised weapons are much heavier and harder-hitting. They increase the size of the damage die to the next larger size: 1D8 becomes 1D10, for example. The weight is increased by fifteen times, which is guaranteed to increment the load category. The slower speed that the added mass causes brings with it a -3 initiative penalty. Metallising a weapon increases the cost by 2 1/2 times.

So is it Heldannic or Heldanic?

According to old notes Lucien started a Werewolf Company in Citadel. I don't have a name for the company yet. Any ideas?

Oy, spud. SPOILER WARNING This article contains plot details about an adventure hook, mystery, campaign, character, cursed item, secrets you don't want to know, or something else your Game Master would rather keep hidden for now. You have only yourself to blame.

Is there a preference for bloodlines descended from Magnus and Lucien? Or any other Vampire in particular, for that matter. Do they have bloodlines, or even descendants at all?

Some Vampires always pass on certain of their Dark Gifts and Flaws, and this can be hereditary. For other Vampires, not so much, and what gets passed along is entirely random. It's largely a story point either way, rather than any mechanical determination.

Precedence for how to handle this can be found with the Aerinidae. For a Vampire descended from the CVS, the Dark Gifts are always the same, but with the Dark Flaws one is consistent while the other is random.

While I recall Magnus becoming a Vampire quite well,^{[citation needed]} I don't remember how it happened for Lucien. I also can't remember which one turned Hadrian.

☥“	If one person asks, ten need the answer.	”☥
——Shou Tu

Is there a guideline/rule that you find confusing? Is something ambiguous? Overly complex? Morally challenging? What guidelines do you have problems with? This thread is for those questions.

Should skill suites have a default setting? That is, should we assume that they default to an apprenticeship, proficiency, or basic skill? It's fairly simple if all of the included skills are of the same type, but what about mixed suites (which, I think, is nearly all of them)?

One way would be to assume that skill suites default to apprenticeships. Basic skills, of course, wouldn't be affected, but we could treat any included proficiencies the way I handled the islander suite. That is, proficiencies start it I, increase to III at journeyman, and V at master.

Is this something that we should consider going forward? Should all skill suites just be apprenticeships? Should we allow for special situations like all basics or all proficiencies? What if the bulk of skills are proficiencies? Do we treat the whole thing as a proficiency and convert the included apprenticeships then?

What sorts of guidelines should we set?

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Are there any major steppe regions in Midian?

I feel like I found the Reaver Class on a long dead version of the old forums. I believe I was "archive diving" when I stumbled acrossed it. Kinslayer, do you remember anything about the class, the intention behind it, or the culture that it was intended to be tied to?