Tacticians of Ahm: Tactical Roleplaying
Monthly Update #2 - v0.8.3 is live now!
Full spread art by Helena Santana depicting Early Graduation's opening field exercises!
Greetings Tacticians!
Monthly Update #2 is finally here! With it comes the early access version of the setting book, The Ahmian Almanac, which features its first sample region of Ahm, showcasing the style and structure of setting book I am hoping to create with the Almanac. The book will feature lore and locations, of course, but it will also feature more in-depth maps, new NPCs, unique equipment, a complete new Class, and more! I want to create a book that it as much a sourcebook chock full of new things for GMs to bring to the table as it is information about the world of Ahm and inspiration for adventures.
Thanks you so much for the continued support of and engagement with the game! I used more of the raised funds to commission more art from Helena Santana including a new, full-spread art piece for Early Graduation (at the top of the post) and a piece of Dekkin Von Lopesbane character art (also for Early Graduation). Plus, I've worked with Jean Verne on a second preview spread of our planned look and feel for the game's final layout, this time utilizing some of Helena's awesome art from Monthly Update #1!
Because of my delay of this update (it was originally slated for last month) and the update overall being smaller than I originally was hoping, I am delaying this month's price hike on the game so if you enjoy Tacticians of Ahm now is still a great time to get on board! Tell your friends to do the same! Next update, the price will rise by $5 USD and that will continue apace (barring unforeseen delays like the one I suffered this last month, of course).
Lastly, I recently ran the opening two hours of Early Graduation over on The Weekly Scroll. Check it out if you'd like to see the game in action and see how I run it as the GM!
Thanks so much for the continued time and attention,
- Christian Sorrell
PATCH NOTES - v0.8.3
Tactician’s Textbook
- Clarified Conditions to apply until the end of target’s next Turn (as opposed to confusing wording regarding Rounds).
- Renamed “Shield” Condition to “Ward” to avoid having the same name as a shield, the piece of equipment and updated relevant uses throughout the text.
- Ward condition now explicitly blocks all damage AND any/all Conditions while in effect.
- Updated Mage Ability - Barrier to include “May be cast on self (1 target maximum per use)”
- Added clarifying text to Shields in Equipment section: “(does not block Conditions)”
- Added clarifying text regarding applying multiple Conditions to a single target: “A target may suffer one or more different Conditions at the same time. If a target currently has a Condition, they may not be affected by that same Condition again (nor does it add turns of effect to the current Condition) until the current instance has ended.”
Gamemaster’s Guidebook
- Added Boar (EL1) to Bestiary
EARLY GRADUATION
- Added a massive new piece of art from Helena Santana to the title page, depicting the Tacticians sparring with Imperial Army soldiers during the Field Day exercises!
- Added Boar (EL1) to “BATTLE: Wolves in the Woods” and adjusted combatant numbers at various party sizes to more accurately reflect typical intended difficulty.
AHMIAN ALMANAC (NEW!)
- Lake Traecine region added, includes the following:
- 5 Major Points of Interest: New locations for your Tacticians to travel to and explore!
- 20 Calls for Aid: Adventure hooks and strange happenings across the region!
- 1 Class: New classes, accessible only to Tacticians who prove their worth!
- 11 Abilities: New combat skills, taught to those favored by a certain faction!
- 2 Enemies: New combatants, unique to the specific region or faction!
- 2 Relics: New guarded/lost pieces of equipment, be they mundane, magical, or corrupt3d!
- 2 Factions: New groups, wielding political, cultural, or magical power!
- 1 Shop: A New specialty establishment carrying new and rare items!
- 4 Characters: New NPCs for your Tacticians to meet, interact with, and fight alongside!
- More detailed (placeholder) map of the region with travel paths!
Comments
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While the premises of the system looks very promising, for a 20 $ purchace I'm a little hesitant because after reading some post on reddit about playtesting the system, they said that overall the differences between characters and their roles feels minimal, abilities are very basic and not much interesting, with positioning being the only main true tactical depth. Also I'm concerning that the gameplay and character building will just reduce to being able to gain enough speed to always be able to backstab an enemy, almost one shotting it, with any other ability (especially buff or debuff) being secondary at best.
I don't want to sound cynical or antagonistic, far from it I'm really interested in the game developing, but as a tactical game I expect a certain degree of depth and abilities (both for characters and monsters) to be interesting and not basic (like only changing range and targeted squares).
Any reassuring thoughts about my concerns would be highly appreciate!
Thanks for the interest in the game!
In my own playtesting and the playtesting feedback I've received overall, I haven't found that to be the case (with the most recent version of the game, at least), but your mileage may vary. This is a game building on OSR-style, player-driven roleplay so your character sheet isn't necessary a guide to who you are and all you can do as much as it is a toolkit for your character to use. In playtest, I've seen a huge swath of memorable and fun characters, seem folks go all in on Health and Armor to great effect, all in on Speed to powerful but fragile results, and seems people multi-class and go all in on unique conditional abilities as well. It's not perfect yet, of course, but I have rarely encountered someone going all in on Speed and feeling uniquely overpowered.
The most recent version of the game did tweak Backstabs, making them less powerful than in the original early access launch version. That said, positioning and backstabbing are intended to be powerful tools in this system but focusing on Speed as you advance means sacrificing Health so you tend to become a glass cannon. Great when it works out, but it can be scary when it doesn't (and things start to get weirder and more uncertain as you face off against more and more corrupted foes).
If you are looking for something with the tactical consideration of say something like Descent (the board game) or lots of layers of complexity like Pathfinder 2e, this game is definitely not that. Tacticians is mean to speed up and streamline DnD-style tactical combat to retain the fun combos and dramatic moments without slowing things down by giving you a massive character sheet, lots of die rolls, etc. So some depth is definitely sacrificed as part of that trade-off.
That said, I never want to pressure anyone to spending $$$ they are unsure about. The game is going to continue to grow and develop in the months to come so there will be more options, further tweaks from further play testing, etc.
I hope that helps!
Thank you so much for your reply. I'm actually looking for a middle ground between a Pathfinder 2e and something more streamilined such as OSR, but while looking for a game like that in the past I was usually left "disappointed" by the lack of depth of characters and monster options, so that's why I was a little scared when I read about the online opinion. But truth to be told, reading and testing the actual game is the only way to be sure if it is what I'm looking for, so I will need to think about it a little longer. But I will surely follow closely the project as it grows and develop!