Love that! X3
Sorry for the late reply; I was in the hospital for a while and this got lost in my inbox. To answer your question, I think it's mostly quite clear, but I do have some feedback.
I think the extras of the character sheet (background & head) could be clearer. I also think the amount of Equipment you can hold at once is insanely high, to the point I can't really see a PC needing to drop items or decide what to carry?
Luck is interesting to me, because you loose luck when you pass the test. That makes sense for stakes and to make rolls interesting, because that means it'll be harder to pass next time, but as a player, I feel cheated when I lose something for succeeding. I also have qualms with, "You can spend N luck points to replace the result of one die from a card roll with a result equal to N," because if I want a 5 or 6 on certain cards (Easy/Normal/Difficult Action), that's normally more than half of my luck points. Whereas for other cards, I would only spend up to 4 (Twist & Danger). I think it should cost 1 Luck point to change the dice, because otherwise, I can't see players choosing to spend their precious luck to do that at all. Also, can Luck be gained back again?
Question: does a twist, if it happens, have to be inherently negative?
I don't understand the turn order process with the chits. So we pull out one chit at a time, and what chits are pulled out first determines who goes sooner? I feel like this can be simplified and done with dice much more easily, too, because this involves extra supplies that I'm not sure everyone will have (I know I don't have colored dots on me for such a purpose).
I like how the number of things you can do during a combat turn is matched to an Easy, Normal, or Difficult Action. I think in that case though, it would make sense for the odds of the dice to change based on what Action you're doing. For example, Easy with No at a 1, Yes But Setback at 2-3, and Yes And Progress at 4-6, Normal as is, and Hard at No And Setback at 1-3, No But Progress at 3-5, and Yes at 6.
I don't understand the money bundle scales at all. Why does 5d10 = 1d12?
100% agree that, "The finest monsters are puzzles." Total banger line!
I never fully learned what Skill Points are, which is a problem, because they come up a lot in the book and are clearly very important. I know you get them by using skills, and you can use them to get more dice in a roll, but what is defined as a skill? How many skills can a character have at once? Are skills attached to equipment? Etc.
Btw, I love the illustrations in the book. They're so fun and well drawn! Especially with the cards--I love how you drew the tornado on the "Twist" one! Also, the color-coding in the document is well done!
P.S. The Spotify links appear to go to their creator platform, not to the episodes themselves. I'm unable to listen to them for that reason.
Wow, thank you for the deep dive! Hope you are feeling better now :)
Morpho's rules are still a living document which I develop as I play with it. That being said, I can give you some clarifications over the text:
-You are absolutely right about the extras, I should at least give some examples. Extras are self contained rules that are character-dependent. Like a gravedigger might have as extra: "you can talk with the dead 2 times a day"
-I have to say that I very very seldom play games where equipment management is an important focus... so that aspect has never been deeply tested. I should test it out further. Most probably the best solution would be to leave the number of item slots open, as I do with the number of conditions.
-Luck is one of the mechanics that has been tested the most and in my groups works fairly well. It feel worse to loose luck when you fail a luck roll than it does the other way around and luck reduction turned out to be critical to put pressure on the character's resources. It's alwas possible to choose to fail a luck roll and keep your points. As for spending N: this is meant to be a one -off last resort type of move. Something you do only if you really really REALLY want to fix a card roll. It has worked fairly well so far, but another option you could try is to spend N luck to add that amount to one die. However, in my experience, this way it gets way too easy. Luck is meant to be recovered in a number of was, depending on the game you want to play. The most straightforward way is by resting (see "resting" under core activities), but I plaed a short cyberpunk campaign where luck could be regained only using drugs. That's why I did not specify one method to regain it in its entry on the manual.
-Twists don't have to be inherently negative. But it's better to have them add a fair complication to the situation, so that they don't become just a way to bypass an obstacle.
-Yeah, having chits on you is not the easiest thing... I should add an alternative way to determine turn order. I do,in fact, have a few ideas I'm thinking of testing out.
-One of the core ideas behind Morpho is that having cards to represent situations allows for flexibility on how to describe what. If you feel like you should have a set of cards expecially for combat, you should totally try them! I do have a number of cards that are not described in the core manual: like a specific card for magic, one for hacking, one for testing yourself etc... I'm planning to release them as part of dedicated supplements.
-The idea behind money bundles is that each die step represents a substantial level up in lifestyle.
-I would say that the best way to have an idea of what a skill is, is to look at a typical character from Troika! I often use Troika! characters when I don't have time to write my own. Skills can be acquired and there is no limit to the number of skills you can get, only the number of points a skill can have (max is 7). When you make a card roll you can increase your chances of having a desired otcome by spending skill points in a relevant skill and add that many dice. That's the basic idea, but you are right: I shold add a list of example skills to the manual.
-I hope I can make more pictures for the game. Totally need to make some for the monsters.
-Ah damn! I deleted my spotify accont due to the very bad business practices of the platform, and didn't realize I had my podcast there! Uhhhhh will probably have to start from scratch. Thanks you for reporting it!
Hope this makes things more clear! Thank you again and if you have anything else you want to ask I'll be happy to reply! :)