Paper Story v1.3

I like to think Paper Story is fairly solid, so I try to keep updates small - more than anything I want to be fine-tuning it.

In practice, the play-by-post game on our Discord has brought up some issues and missing content that are maybe a little more significant, which has caused me to review a lot of material. So as long as that game goes on, it's likely to keep evolving. It goes to show that a project like this is only ever "finished" when the creator gives up and walks away. And even then, like I keep saying, this game's open source for any fan like me to work on.

If you'd like to contribute or share your thoughts, the Discord is the perfect place!

Anyway, my point is version 1.3 is a little meatier than the last few. The cliff notes are available in the Version History section, but I'll focus on the big changes here and dig a little deeper into the logic.

• Most importantly, four new races can be found in the Race Compendium! I hope that this covers most of the player races you'd expect to see from Paper Mario. There's still some gaps (Fuzzies spring to mind), but I wanted to focus on the humanoid races you see occupying the world. At their core, races are pretty simple - I encourage anyone who wants to see more to homebrew them!
  
  • Clubbas (otherwise known as Spikes) are tough warrior types with +2 Heart and a focus on heavy weaponry. They're not as generally burly as say, Piantas, or flexible as Koopa Bros, which is in large part why they weren't in the game already. But if you're already looking to pack some heavy weaponry, you can't go wrong with these guys.
  • Magikoopas are sturdy wizards with +1 Heart, +1 Spirit and a penchant for shape-changing. Their absence was a glaring omission so I'm glad to have them in now. Magic is an exceptionally potent ability, but because it's so flexible, it's been hard to differentiate between different kinds of magic user. The new Efficient ability is intended to separate Magikoopas from Shamans and Spirits, giving them cheap flight magic and shape changes, on top of an interesting Tech Default in Auto to give their magic a little extra punch.
  • Craws are hardy warriors with +1 Heart and +1 Courage, making them tough on defense. Since there's not a lot in the games to base Craws on, I've focused on their role in Thousand-Year Door as spear-wielding guards. Originally I didn't think there was much to separate them from Koopa Bros, so didn't think to include them, but Craws skill with Guard and Steady gives them an interesting niche in between Koopas and Koopa Bros, and their access to Cure as a Tech Default makes it easy to keep them and their allies healthy.
  • Doogans are cunning merchants with +1 Spirit, +1 Courage and some extra Coins in their pocket. I'm usually opposed to advantages like that, but Doogans present an interesting challenge in making a skillmonkey race in a game with such a heavy emphasis on combat. The idea I wound up going with is that they tend to have Items on hand, represented by their access to item-like effects in Tech Defaults. In fact their only real attack option is Tool, which pushes them into the role of a supporter.
• On the subject of player races, some others have been adjusted to make them feel a bit tougher.
  • Bandit and Shy Guy felt especially bland, since Variant (Trickery) isn't an especially strong Tech Default, and with Disable shared between them they didn't have much to differentiate their fighting style. Bandit now has Grounded to emphasise their speed on the ground, and Shy Guy has Weaken (Attack) to give them another way of messing with enemies.
  • Shaman and Spirit have both picked up Efficient abilities to further differentiate themselves from each other and the new Magikoopas. Largely this helps them to do the things they already do more effectively.
  • Subrace Tech Defaults have been brought up to the same power level as the main races, because some of the Tech Defaults there had a net gain of 0 FP, making them completely worthless. Most notably Para- has Aerial as a freebie, and Spiny- has Piercing instead of Strong.
• SP is now easier to access and has even more utility in battle; Great results net a little bit of SP, and Unbelievable results net a lot. This makes it more fun to get good results. As part of this I've tried to codify what you can generally expect from each Grade of Success, making Nice and Good feel more like the bare minimum to pass.
  • Especially noteworthy, in battle you can exchange the SP you'd gain for free Technique Traits. So if you score a Wonderful hit, you can immediately exchange that for more damage! This isn't really how things work in the games, but it feels expected for a tabletop system. I guess you could call these Critical Hits.
• Overhauled Cheer and Perform so they're not awkwardly limited to once-per-session effects. Now they're easier to access, but repeat actions are punished with more difficult checks until you get some rest.
  
  • Tangentially related - Stylish Moves were awkward and cumbersome, and I don't think anyone in the play-by-post game even knew they existed. Now instead of Perform being used for individual Stylish Moves, it substitutes the entire check (at a higher Grade of Success), and high rolls are rewarded with even more SP.
• The old notation system for damage was difficult to parse and added no real benefit. Now instead of [1Sx4D], you just say 4 DMG. A double-hitter is 2 DMG x2 instead of [2Sx2D].
  • In addition, multi-strike attacks are easier to execute and use less dice rolls. They instead reward the player for higher rolls, which in hindsight is basically how they worked in the games anyway, and makes Simple a more generally useful Technique Trait.