Demon Steel, Reforged

Long time no see!

For what feels like close to a year, I have been sitting on a pretty major overhaul to essentially every single aspect of Demon Steel (enough that I'm comfortable calling this a 2.0, rather than a mere 1.1 or 1.5) - you wouldn't think that a 3-page microRPG would have much that could be changed or improved, but many elements of the original were cribbed verbatim or almost-verbatim from the 24XX SRD, but this week I finally got the boost of motivation and ideas to get it over the finish line, with something I think is that much stronger and tighter!

Going section by section...

RULES: The big thing here is the addition of the Hits system, as featured in the 199X series of games by my friend Thursday Garreau (go check out her work, she's got some real good stuff over there!), providing a bit more structure to tracking character injuries - maybe not the most kosher NSR design, but it appears to work well enough!

CHARACTERS: Probably the most significant changes took place here; the same five callings and three origins are still here (though 'humans' are now 'mortals'), but their entire structure has been overhauled - each now provides a list of three skills that you get to spend three skill increases across, as well as two pieces of complementary gear (most of which has likewise been overhauled) - this should allow for quite a bit of customization within each calling despite the tiny page space. Callings have likewise gotten updates (hellspawn's two options should be more meaningfully distinct now, and mortals have a slightly more unique identity now as well which plays into the new Hit rules), as have skills (it's a much tighter list that keys off the callings directly, with a couple wildcards like Driving and Medicine) and gear (the SRD-derived commlink is now the more flavorful hellphone, characters now begin with a random Boon, and there are now bespoke weapons - with upgrades! - rather than the old wishy-washy "melee or ranged" choice). This should all hopefully make characters feel quite a bit more distinct both internally and amid other 24XX games!

COVENANT: Fewer changes here, though it's now possible to unlock both bikes and a truck for vehicles, and some less self-evident options like hellfire engines and hex-wards now have explanations of what they are meant to do.

DETAILS: The styles table has much more evocative options now - everything from damned cowboys and bloodsports-wear to Purgatory grunge and redemption pop; And there are more options for defining aspects of the group's covenant, including demeanors of your demonic patron. Insignia have likewise been streamlined to two smaller tables of group-wide symbols and individual forms.

THE CRUCIBLE: The final page has likewise been overhauled significantly - the NPC and location descriptions are mostly the same (though with nicer formatting and some flavorful punching up - every place has a name now!), but the job and patron desire tables are both shorter and hopefully a bit more robust, and there is even a brand-new table of holy and unholy relics for your covenant to find in the world - have fun with the holy LONGINUS plasma lance, the lcs_2 (Lesser Key of Solomon) sorcery-zines, or the demon-powered Pale Horse hoverbike!

And that just about does it! I'm significantly happier with the game now, and it should hopefully feel much more like itself rather than a slightly wobbly paintjob over the SRD template with some original writing thrown in.

And maybe one of these days I will write a complementary game that expands this weird heavy metal universe... But that's for another time.