GEARS Third Draft is out and available!!!
It is still a
draft, complete with occassional typos and inelegant grammar, but it is a usable game already. The main thing needed is an equipment list, which will be initiated in Fourth Draft. Meanwhile,
Third Draft has more than
twice the amount of material of Second Draft, and nearly all those 40 spanking new pages are dense character creation stuff:
- Booster Abilities, from a simple adrenalin rush to being empowered in service of your faith!
- Special Power creation (demo examples include a detailed Fireball and the power to absorb other people)
- Disabilities, from cat allergies to psychotic urges against Elves!
- Item-specific Abilities, and complete personalization or combination of items
- Relations! Yes, the old, unpublished Relations system was completely revamped into a cool new one!
- The beginnings of Equipment and Creatures (pets! You can have pets! Theoretically, you can also be chronically stalked by a pack a feral sloths, if you feel like it... Or have to take care of you aunt's pet iguana, lest her wrath strike you from the will and testament. It's just 'Creature Relations'. No, I'm dead serious, why do you ask??)
- The Ability List has been expanded with dozens of new arrivals, including Talents. Which in turn has allowed the creation of a fully fledged sample character (though he is still 'just' a fairly straight-forward fighter pilot).
- Layout! See below for details...
- Print option! See below for details...
Readers should make sure to please read the
Third Draft Status page (page 3) closely.
GEARS Third Draft is not a complete game yet, and not
nearly the game it is designed to be; expectations are that there will be a total of 7-9 drafts before the true First Edition is released. However,
Third Draft is freely available as PDF, in three forms:
Raw (single-coloumn, good for screen reading),
Nice (Double-coloumn, good for printing and paper reading), and
Color (first attempt at actual graphical layout;
very bare-bones graphics that will be replaced, but a good test of options). Print-on-demand options will soon be available, too.
Yes, cheap prints will be sold of an incomplete game. It's mostly because some playtesters request it, but also because, hey, we're arrogant enough to think someone will actually buy a few copies already
