Today I've started streaming Voyager: Tactics on YouTube, documenting my work and working in real time with my followers! A summary of the stream's development points can be read below:

The Current Action Loadout & Possible Flaws

In this stream, I touched on a new proposed overhaul of the Action Loadouts. In V0.4, there has been some issues with the current Action Loadout system: namely how during play, the Loadout seemed more like an obstacle to the Players executing what they wanted to do, and they would find ways to reserve or discard dice in order to reset their Loadout ASAP -- which was the intended design when I created the Action Loadout system to encourage a degree of strategy and resource management ("should I use all my HIT Actions this turn and not have any later, or save them in case I need to use a Reaction?"), but it made me wonder if a better alternative existed using the same base. Were the Players enjoying the action management aspect, or was it an obstacle to them being able to fully utilise their Voyagers' skillset?

There was also the added possible issue of tracking Loadouts in physical and digital sessions: Having to either memorise or constantly mark/erase used Action Dice from your Loadout may prove cumbersome over long-term campaigns. I loved the visual of the Loadouts and how they communicated information about the Venture's playstyle from how their Actions were distributed, but now wish to consider how to change the way Players view and interact with their Loadouts.

Simply put, Action Loadouts were treated as a resource, denoting the Action Dice you could "buy" from it to constitute your actions each turn.

Proposed New Action Loadout

NOTE that this is all just brainstorming and subject to change.

In this new in-progress rework of the Action Loadouts, they would be treated less as a resource to spend and more as a visual reference for the types of Abilities you can use. This would make Loadouts closer in line to stats/attributes.

Abilities and Techniques would have a certain Action type and "level" requirement associated with them. If your Loadout does not meet the Action requirement of that type, then you cannot learn or use that Ability (by default at least).

This means that a jack- of-all-trades Venture like the Heir would be able to do a little bit of everything, able to use most early level Abilities of any type. However, they will be unable to learn more powerful Abilities of any given type.

Conversely, the Drakenought, a Venture more specialised towards defense and ranged artillery, is able to learn more powerful ranged Abilities, but unable to access complex mobility or magical Abilities.

HOWEVER, this is only based on the default Venture's Loadout. In this system, a Player would have the freedom to mix and finetune their Loadout at character creation (similar to how the Venator works), using the Venture's Loadouts more as a recommended template if they want to learn the Abilities and playstyle associated with that Venture.

This means if you want to play a more magic-focused Heir, you would take the Heir Loadout template and switch out one of their SAVE Die for a CAST Die. This then allows your Heir a higher ceiling to learn magic, but at the cost of less defensive options and Abilities at their disposal.

Benefits of the New Loadout

• Strong playstyle identities. Since Loadouts always have only 10 slots regardless of Venture, Players can choose to generalise or specialise into multiple or singular forms of combat, whether it be mobility, melee, magic or otherwise.
• Less strict adherence to Venture archetypes. Ventures, as the name suggests, would more closely embody a life path or vocation the Voyager chooses, whose Abilities represent a suite of abilities and skillsets at their disposal. The Player, upon choosing their Venture, would be able to tweak their Loadout to better reflect their Voyager's unique playstyle. 
• A greater degree of player freedom at character creation. Beginner players can simply choose one of the recommended Venture Loadouts and play right away, while more experienced players can build their Voyager's Ability list and fully customise their Loadout around their requirements.
• Multiclassing would be much easier in this system (in V.04 there's currently no solid rules for multiclassing), as you could learn any ability from any Venture, provided your Loadout matches the Ability's Action Dice requirement. 

Planned Changes

This proposed change to Action Loadouts would of course necessitate changes to Abilities and Techniques as a whole. Each Ability would have its own Action requirement. I will also be considering changes to the actual Action system and how using Actions affects your decision making and turn management.

As an aside, I also plan on fleshing out the Rest system and how healing works, as I don't think they're fleshed out in a satisfying manner yet. Needing to rest after 5 Skill Challenges in V0.4 feels strange and arbitrary, and I'd like to experiment with other methods of incentivising Rest, to better pace adventure sessions and encourage RP and character interaction.

And that's it for this update! To give your feedback (particularly if you agree or disagree with Loadouts being changed), feel free to drop a comment or drop by the Discord server!