PowerFrame in Print

The PowerFrame Core Rulebook has been out in PDF for a few months now, and while I always intended it to be primarily a digital book, I got enough enquiries that I thought it was worth creating a print-on-demand copy as well.

I got the proof copy a couple of weeks ago, and activated the print option on DriveThruRPG as soon as I was able.

• The physical book includes the PDF at no extra cost, so I encourage you to choose that option over the book-only one. 
• If you have already bought the PDF and now want the book as well, you are eligible for a $10 discount off the book – please contact me at powerframe(DOT)rpg(AT)gmail(DOT)com so I can send you a coupon. 
• Likewise, if you bought the book by itself, you can contact me for a free copy of the PDF.

It's softcover and uses Standard colour rather than Premium, because those are the only options available for A4 books on DriveThruRPG at the moment. Although I made a few layout changes for the print copy, it would have taken too much work to reformat it to US Letter. I'll put up hardcover and/or Premium colour options if they ever become available.

Of course, print has certain limitations. The Mysticism supplement I'm working on has led to a few revisions in that chapter, and while I'll update the PDF and POD files, any books purchased before the update will require errata. I'll be releasing free errata files through the new PowerFrame website as new versions come out.

Arcane Errata

I started working on a book of pre-built Spells for PowerFrame and ran into a small problem. It's certainly not game-breaking, and I think I've come up with an easy fix.

Problem

I noticed when writing variants of the same Spell that it was actually cheaper to have an area-effect centred on the Caster, than it was to affect a single target at range!

• Range:self (-2), Area:area1 (2) = 0
• Range:range1 (1), Area:single (0) = 1

There's an extra discount built into Range:self, which allows me to charge more for Major Arcana intended primarily for self-use. However, it means that while the area or wall Parameters may take up more Vocabulary space, they actually make Spells easier to cast if you can start the effect from your own Hex (which works well for "buffs" but isn't quite as practical for harmful Spells). In effect, if you start with your own Hex you can get better Range for the same net cost by stretching out an area or wall instead of using the range Parameter.

Solutions

The easiest fix seems to be to change the Resistance of Range:self to -1 instead of -2.

This means the Range increments would be priced self (-1), touch (0), rangeX (X, 1 or more). In the above example, the two Parameter sets would at least have the same total Resistance.

The other option I considered was to make the area, cone, and wall Parameters cost 3 instead of 2. I'm not sure if this would be easier in the long run (as there aren't many established Spells that use these Area Parameters compared to the number using Range:self), or if it might either cause other unforeseen consequences or not fix other problems caused by the self discount.

Does anyone have any other thoughts or suggestions?

Conclusions

This change would modify some of the sample Spells in the Core Rulebook, as well as the Parameters section. I'm also thinking of adjusting a few of the Major Arcana Resistances, but I'll save that until I've gone through the Book of Spells and made sample builds for all the Major Arcana in case I run into any other issues.

Once I complete the Mysticism review, I'll update the PDF to v1.2 and release an Errata PDF for people who bought the v1.1 physical book.