Core Rulebook

(Forward to Chapter 1 - Getting Started)

THE PURPOSE OF THIS "CORE RULEBOOK"

My biggest weakness when I work on Naeja-related material is that I stretch myself to thin with different topics, and I get too distracted. I found myself always having to open a new instance of the website to use the search bar in order to reference a page or a document for what ever it was that I was working on at the time.

This Core Rulebook page is meant to be an index for pages that directly correlate with the Pathfinder Core Rulebook itself. It's just an easy way for me to remember where everything is supposed to go. A page I created that has to do with types of armor, for instance, will be under the CH 6 link, since that's where armor can be found in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook.

That is not to say, that this "Core Rulebook" will be the format for the actual Naeja book. Again, this is simply an organizational format for my ideas. What we actually publish will be completely different and will be organized in a different manner as well, I'm sure!

In addition, I don't want to overreach with this project. "Civilized Verosia", to include Old Camus and Valdarheim, is a massive beast in and of itself. When you start getting into Shuro-Tahn, which we haven't even begin to really touch on, it becomes too much. As such, I'm going to treat these topics much like Pathfinder did: just as they've really only focused on the "Inner Sea Region" for their products, so I am going to stick with what's familiar. We can eventually go from there!

Going by the Pathfinder format, this book is divided into 15 chapters, along with a host of appendices. Chapters 1 through 11 cover all of ideas and concepts that I had that correlate with the rules needed by players to create characters and play the game. Chapters 12 through 15 contain ideas and concepts that I had that correlate with the Game Master running the game and adjudicating the world.

The following synopses are presented to give you a broad overview of the rules and concepts I'm proposing. To the extent possible, I'm using the language and formats already utilized in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook. This will hopefully keep me honest when it comes to issues like power/game balances, etc.

Chapter 1 (Getting Started): This chapter covers the basics of Naeja as it pertains to the Pathfinder RPG, including information on how to reference the rest of the book, rules for generating player characters (PCs), and rules for determining a character’s ability scores. Ability scores are the most basic attributes possessed by a character, describing his raw potential and ability.

Chapter 2 (Races): This chapter contains my proposals and ideas for the core races of Naeja. The rules needed to play a member of one of these races will be linked to in this chapter, as well. Anticipate also some ideas related to the Valdar.

Chapter 3 (Classes): This chapter contains my proposals and ideas for the core classes of Naeja.

Chapter 4 (Skills): This chapter covers my proposals and ideas for skills unique to Naeja and how to use them during the game. As the Pathfinder skill set is fairly comprehensive, I anticipate the majority of these entries will relate to skills that would fall under the Craft, Profession, etc., categories (but are not represented properly), and the mechanics to go with them.

Chapter 5 (Feats): Expect a fairly detailed chapter focusing on two major concepts. The first will be the re-working some feats to match proposed alternate combat systems (see Chapter 8). The second, and more important, will be the introduction of several brand new Feat Trees that, rather than simply trying to introduce "rule of cool" concepts or duplicating other Feat effects for classes that couldn't have them originally, seek to faithfully replicate several historical styles of combat. Food for thought: a Feat Tree that focuses on the "Longsword" (that is, the D&D "bastard sword") school of swordsmanship, based on maneuvers from the historical German sword of swordsmanship. I'm very excited about this.

Chapter 6 (Equipment): This chapter is going to be a re-write of the various types of weapons and armor found in the Core Rulebook. The intent is to make both weapons and armor more realistic because, in all honesty, the real stuff was far more interesting than what is found in the Core Rulebook.

Chapter 7 (Additional Rules): The rules in this chapter cover several miscellaneous rules that are important to playing this RPG in a Naeja-specific manner. The idea is to also propose more realistic alternatives to some of these rules.

Chapter 8 (Combat): This will be another very comprehensive chapter, aimed at introducing an alternative combat system based in large part on the "Armor as DR" and "Called Shot" systems, combined with new rules aimed at making initiative more realistic and a re-defining of the striking and parrying/dodging concepts. The idea is to make game play (A) more fluid and (B) more realistic, and (C) to give the player more control than ever by getting rid of arbitrary rules systems that rely on vague concepts.

Chapter 9 (Magic): I don't anticipate much (if anything) in this chapter. I simply don't have as much of a dog in this fight, and you, Ken, have rightfully taken the lead in this area.

Chapter 10 (Spells): Anticipate spells developed by Kalthanan, and that's about it.

Chapter 11 (Prestige Classes): This chapter will cover prestige classes related to the Gelvani, the Parthans, and the Valdar.

Chapter 12 (Gamemastering): As per CH 9, don't expect much here.

Chapter 13 (Environment): Any ideas offered here will be aimed at making more a more realistic, fun alternative that would encourage a GM to take the environment more into account (and thus make skills more useful).

Chapter 14 (Creating NPCs): This chapter will focus primarily on offering alternative takes on the "non-heroic" classes and how they fit in the game world.

Chapter 15 (Magic Items): I'm not sure to what degree, if any, I'll focus on this.

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