itch.io

https://jagganoth.itch.io/boti-ea/purchase

It's pay-what-you-want, so if you want it for free, just hit the link that says "No thanks, just take me to the downloads" when the popup appears.

Thanks for your kind words! ^___^ I've been busy with other obligations for the past few months and haven't had much time to work on this, but thankfully things have finally cleared up and I'll be able to start pushing updates again, so stay tuned!

Several people have asked for sheets, so it is on the agenda. I don't have an ETA for them yet, though ^^;

I've had several people recommend Cradle to me lol, but I haven't gotten around to it yet, so I can't offer any advice ^^;

I'm glad to hear it! ^___^ I wish you luck finding a group lol, please let me know how it goes if you find one. There's a thread on RPG.net about the game, you should share your homebrew there! I always enjoy seeing what people come up with.

Sure, I'll change up the list level bullets in v0.3.1! I can see how they'd get visually confusing, especially with the lists now being spread across two columns.

In re the Assassin, I hadn't put any specific thought into what happens if/when you manage to kill your Prey. In a real way, you've got a lot of mechanical incentives to keep them alive - they give you access to a higher-tier faction's resources, they can generate XP for you via the connection clock, etc. It is somewhat unsatisfying if you just lose a playbook ability for doing the thing your playbook is nominally about, I'll admit - I haven't yet figured out a good way to reconcile the fact that the Assassin is, conceptually, about not yet having gotten your revenge, with the inevitability that you will at some point get that revenge. Swapping the Prey over to another faction seems like a pretty straightforward and generally workable solution, though. I'll think on it and put something in the next update.

Thanks for reading the game, and for bringing that stuff to my attention! ^___^

nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!! i was so sure i'd gotten all the layout problems fixed T___T. thank you for catching that, rip. tbh character and faction sheets were not high on my priority list at all because I naively assumed that everyone was like me (literally has never used a provided sheet in any game), but I've come to understand through talking to people that this is very much not the case lol. so, sheets are on the agenda, but I've never built one before and I think it will probably require putting together some visual assets that I don't have yet, so I can't give a solid time estimate. hopefully i'll release them with v0.4?

Oh boy I'm so glad you asked. Various media have differing interpretations of corpse puppets, but the general idea is that it's an animated corpse, frankenstein, or other form of corporeal undead that obeys a cultivator's directions. I was principally inspired by the Black Fiend School arc of Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality (chs. ~279-330) in re the ascending-in-Realm thing; the main antagonist of that arc had several corpse-puppets that were possessed by spiritual clones of him and were capable of independently cultivating.

I am planning to include at least one "classical" cultivation system in the setting chapter in v0.3, which is like 80% of the way to being done rn I'd say, hopefully should be ready by the end of the month.

I'd probably do it as a special kind of mission, sort of like a Major Entanglement. Smack em in a desperate position, mission objective "survive", etc.

It can vary enormously from table to table depending on your group's vision, which I realize isn't a terribly helpful answer. If we were doing like, the most stock and straightforward xianxia system possible, it would go like:
Realm 0: Qi Condensation
Realm 1: Foundation Establishment
Realm 2: Golden Core
Realm 3: Nascent Soul
Realm 4+: who knows
If I had to phrase it as generically and setting-agnostically as possible, I guess it would probably be like:
Realm 0: Minor supernatural feats; fights will involve one or two techniques at most, unleashed at critical moments.
Realm 1: You are a wielder of supernatural power. Conflicts become exchanges of spell arts.
Realm 2: You are capable of larger-scale miracles and sustained magical exertion. You have largely transcended mortal frailties.
Realm 3: You are an arch-wizard, capable of prodigious supernatural feats and only barely human anymore.
Realm 4: You are a demigod.
Realm 5: You are a god.
Realm 6: You are a cosmic sovereign, treading stars to dust beneath your feet and ruling over hundreds of worlds.

also i'm glad to hear that you like the game and are excited about it! thank you for your kind words! ^___^

once I had the idea to do Forged in the Dark xianxia, everything just started making sense immediately tbh. it sidesteps a lot of unnecessary and tedious attempts to quantify stuff that's fundamentally not quantifiable because the only thing that's really crucial is the internal logic of the fiction

so the HDC cultivation method's idea, which could potentially be explained better now that I think on it, is that it's got very significant and specific demands in terms of materials, but it gives you a fine realm without the need to hit the usual +3 threshold for fine-quality. so like, as long as you meet the required minimum quality for a breakthrough, it's automatically fine-quality without the need for any bonus materials or suchlike.

Frankly I haven't figured out how I want to cost linked techniques yet. To a certain extent this is a table style thing; if you want to hit a more Exalted-3E-esque tone then linked techniques could be free! It also depends on the technique, what it does, and how hard it is to unlock; a powerful technique that's very difficult to unlock probably wouldn't affect Quality at all.

As far as cultivation methods go, yeah, 0-2 linked techniques would be entirely reasonable imo. I also think that if a cultivation method requires some sort of external skill (like binding familiars for the God-Imprisoning Art) then it should include a linked technique that lets you do that.

Thanks for bringing that to my attention, I did forget to add some explanatory text in the appendix. Cultivation methods set their required quality like any other panoply item (except for the fine/poor wrinkle discussed in the section on breakthroughs), based on their edges:flaws balance, linked techniques, etc. Then, you slap a +3 tax on top. The examples in the appendix don't include the +3 modifier (because of minor realms).

As for clock size, it's just based on vibes. Assume the default is an 8-clock: adjust that up for more powerful or time-intensive cultivation methods, adjust it down for more materials-intensive ones or ones with bigger drawbacks/harsher flaws.

I'm glad you're excited about the game overall though! I hope you have fun, and please let me know how it goes! ^___^

my god. xiao jie you are down bad like so down bad like down horrifically bad for this girl

anyway i loved this to death, thank you so much for the meal

I do have a Discord, hmu at Jagganoth#6685. I've got some example panoply items written up, I can get you a copy of the doc once I polish it up a bit (~a day or two).

That's a tricky question lol. I think the game is playable in its current state, but I'm an experienced FitD GM and also I'm the one with the clear creative vision in my head for how it should all work, so ymmv. :P

I've been putting off writing the GM section because I haven't had a chance to run more than two or three playtest sessions, and therefore am not sure what advice to give GMs yet besides just regurgitating stock FitD advice. Have you read Blades in the Dark, Beam Saber, or any other FitD games? If so, their GM sections would probably provide mostly-applicable guidance. If not, I can bump the GM section up my priority list and include it in the v0.2 release that I'm almost done with. If there's anything in particular you'd like guidance on, lmk and I'll be sure to include it.

If you do decide to run it, afaik you'd be the second person ever (after myself) to do so. As such, I'd be very interested to hear how it goes, since you'd be providing valuable playtest data that will influence the game's ongoing development. For the same reason, I'd definitely be available for detailed consultation about anything that you'd like advice on or that's giving your group trouble.

In any case, thanks so much for your interest! ^___^

Yes, I'm still actively working on it! A lot of the stuff that's left is more dense/less of a retread of other FitD games, so it's taking a while, but progress is very much ongoing.