Point System Open Alpha Test

It’s been a long few weeks since I posted a development blog of any kind. For any unaware yet of the situation, Catalyst has been going through some upheavals; business mistakes were made and I’ve had to focus all of my attention on fixing those errors and laying the ground work of new processes to prevent it from happening again. It can’t be done overnight, but we’ve made amazing strides in the last month and half and will continue to march forward, every day better than the last as the ground work we’ve laid begins to catch momentum.

We’ve reached a place, however, where I can start looking around some and getting back to various other work put on hold. I spent most of a year updating MITS.com almost weekly, so it felt odd to have to go so long with only occasional fiction posts…but hopefully this is a sign of me getting back to regular posts.

“Okay, okay, but what about Leviathans?!” That’s really what you want to know, right?

What all this means for Leviathans is that it won’t be available for a Spring release. What’s more, at this time I simply can’t tell you when it will be ready. There’s too many factors at work now. Obviously once I have more concrete news I’ll be shouting it from the forecastle. I can say, however, that we’ve some really exciting developments going on beyond the boardgame that may ultimately help launch Leviathans in a great way…developments I hope to be able to share with you as well in the near future.

While you all await that news, however, I’m here to announce the Point System Open Alpha Test. I’ve been kicking the point system around for some months now. As with everything about Leviathans, I’ve tried hard to balance a workable system with a simple system. For those that have seen the Battle Value System for BattleTech…well, it’s pretty complicated. Then again that game has far, far more moving parts, shall we say, and trying to address all of that in a game balancing framework is enough to unhinge the sanity. Leviathans doesn’t have near that same issues…but it still has its own internal complexity and addressing that in a way that’s relatively easy has been challenging.

However, while I’m happy with the over-all direction, there’s still some niggles I’m not too happy with. With that in mind, and more fully embracing the Creative Commons aspect of Leviathans than ever, I’m tapping the growing community to playtest the Point System as fully as possible in the month of May.

On both DriveThruRPG and the BattleShop you’ll find a free PDF, “Point System Open Alpha Test”, containing the Point System as it pertains to the Lieutenant’s Manual (as well as all other released PDFs), along with extensive examples for ease of understanding and use.

As mentioned in that PDF, I’ve started a “Lieutenant’s Manual: Determining Points Value Alpha Test” on the forums, under the Game Rules Discussion. Any specific questions regarding the Point System should be directed to the thread, where I’ll try and answer as often as possible.

Comments will be received until May 31st, at which time we’ll lock the thread. Anyone that provides feedback on that thread during that time frame will have their MITS.com forum name included in the credits for the Point System.

Thanks for your patience while we work through what’s occurred and start getting back on track for preparing to release Leviathans down the line. And of course we remain committed to bringing you great, new web content as well. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy some game play while you help me blast this system into shape!

See ya next duty shift!

Randall