It's been almost a year, but Slipstream RX v1.1 is finally out!

Tabletop RPG development is a significantly different beast than video gamedev, let me tell you. But it's good to be able to put out a solid update for a product. A lot has changed in the interim--a LOT. And there's going to be a lot more down the line as well! I'm already working on a supplement to this, one that's been getting a lot of testing in the Discord server.

As it stands now, though, here's a changelog:

MAIN FOCUSES:

• Previously, Slipstream RX was very much a defender's game. There was only one way to attack, but three ways to defend against it--and higher Body builds, counterintuitively, were easier to defend against. Likewise, being Retired was just an inconvenience, so it was actually more viable to just leave someone limping at 1 HP and running off. Now, attacking becomes a system of escalations where you outplay your opponent--and either side can cement it. Combine this with (slightly) higher rewards for Retiring, a (slightly) harsher penalty for being Retired, and the game should be much more aggressive now.
• Rehauled Boost system. Previously, players were hampered by what I joked about as "going too fast to Boost"--your hand had too goddamn many high-value to make use of Boosting consistently. Now, cards can be whittled down to [Boost - 1] values, which should result in more Boosting, faster gameplay, and more aggressive matches.
• Rehauled Pilot stats, now called Aspects, and introduced Blind checks/challenges.
• Two extra Stunts, for more variety.

MINOR CHANGES:

• Included a new section introducing people to TTRPGs and providing some setting starters.
• Numerous pictures with transparency have been cleared up to look cleaner.
• Clarified the safety warning with the final line being the #1 rule of the game.
• Minor rewording on Setting Up's clarifications of 3-6 hours. Specifically, I said that roleplayers might take a little bit more time in playing the game than normies. Just a touch more time. A wee hair. A mite.
• Corrected a typo that said that doing a stunt permanently sacrificed your hand until the end of the race.
• Clarified the "cardinal directions" in the Playing Cards section of the Basic Rules.
• Intro to Stunts rewritten to be less fluffy.
• Cut-Off has been clarified that it procs off of the played cards, rather than other cards.
• Corrected that NPCs do not have infinite Energy, because THAT WAS A FUCKING LIE
• Clarified diagonal OoB tiles as being an exception to the diagonal tile rule.
• Clarified that Rough can still be moved on if only 1 square of movement remains.
• You are now allowed to drive backwards past Checkpoints. It just removes you from registry if you do so, preventing you from lapping.
• You are now allowed to drive backwards past Finish Lines. It explicitly does not count as crossing it.
• Clarified that using a Jump Pad to launch over vehicles counts as crossing over them.
• Clarified that Jump Pad mid-air flight can end early.
• Expanded fluff on the back cover.
• Removed a couple potentially unfortunate terms I was unaware were potentially unfortunate. Now I know!

GAMEPLAY CHANGES:

• The defense rules were inconsistent; they mandated an equal-or-under value for dodging and over value for blocking on a NPC, and under value for dodging and equal-and-over for blocking on an player attacking. Equal-or-under is now the standard across the game.
• NPC attacks are now considered a default at 3.
• Rehauled the Attacking system completely, it is now a singular conflict based on a series of matches and escalations.
• Rehauled the Pilot Stats system, now referred to as Aspects.
• Pilots now start at 2 Resolve, plus modifier.
• Checks now have the option to make the player lose Resolves or cards, depending on GM preference.
• Escalation of non-PvP challenges now have card values stack on top of each other.
• Included Blind Check/Challenge rules to the Pilot section.
• There are now two more additional types of stunts, a Full Throttle and a Smash Cut.
• New Features have been added: Barricade, Energy Stations, Magnetic, and Warp Points.
• A higher-value card can now be whittled down in value for Boost to operate it. Doing so will put it at a [Boost - 1] value.
• Retiring makes someone lose their hand. They fill up a new hand on respawn, if respawn rules are on.
• Respawning now puts someone at Body - 3 Energy, rather than Body - 2.
• Retiring a player nets 3 Energy, with the potential to overflow 1 extra Energy if at the cap. Enemy NPC racers do not overflow.
• Not just a Dash Zone--now respawning on Features in general do not activate them. You can respawn in lava, now, if you REALLY want! Why would you, though? (Out of Bounds is exempt from this)
• If a player does not want to play a card their turn, they can simply cruise two orthogonal squares.
• Updated the Track Generator to include d10s or d12s.

STILL TO DO:

• Pilots are still relatively untested, unfleshed out, and imbalanced as a result. Gotta test 'em out more!
• Cut-Offs still have an annoying "latency" issue to deal with. For online play, it's easy for someone to do a Cut-Off and then lag and/or someone more prominent in VC overlays them, so the timing doesn't get recognized and people continue their turn. The Discord crew's had a few workarounds for this, but none of them have sat 100% with me.
• NPC attacks are unpredictably random and have no real consistency. The lead could go the entire race without once being attacked, or could get hammered the entire run.
  

There's still a lot left that I want to do for the game, but this is a huge step forward that I think puts the game in a pretty solid enough place that I can let it rest for a bit.

I think I'm going to take the rest of 2023 off and then get back to working on things in 2024. Hopefully everyone's had a wonderful holiday season, and let's get hyped for a good new year!