Spellsword RPG Development Update #13 — August 25, 2026
Hello Reader, here are the latest Spellsword updates!
Snapshot / TL;DR
- Campaign Mode jumped forward again. Linked Campaigns and character branching are live, most Runes and Specializations now function mechanically, and several more character-to-character interactions are working.
- We replaced the old Armor penetration and mitigation model with subtractive Armor. The revised rules are published.
- The Spellpower Rework is partly live. The revised Magic chapter and several Rune Families are published, while the remaining Rune Families are being reformatted for one larger release.
- We tested a significant Character Creation balance pass. The first test was much faster and felt good, although some of those changes may still be rolled back or adjusted.
- Ten more monsters are live in the public Bestiary.
- The new Notion Rulebook structure is ready. Actual migration is next.
Major Progress This Cycle
Campaign Mode Took Another Big Step
Our programmer pushed a considerable amount of Campaign Mode work this cycle.
Linked Campaigns are now live. Multiple campaigns can synchronize their calendars and time, and GMs can allow characters to move between them.
Characters can also branch from a master copy into separate campaign versions. Changes in one campaign do not overwrite the original character or versions being used elsewhere, and a campaign version can later be copied back onto the master.
Most Runes and Specializations are now mechanically implemented instead of simply displaying their descriptions. Characters can treat each other's Wounds and Bleeds, spell targeting has been cleaned up, and Blink, Teleport, and Portal are working. There are still some strange interactions between those Spatial effects and Mark that need sorting out.
Spell effects can now target equipment in the public test build as well. That is available for testing, but it has not been put through the wringer yet.
The new Armor and Spellpower systems are also hooked into the app. All major pages have been validated on mobile except Spell Creator, which currently works best in landscape.
Armor Was Rebuilt
We replaced Spellsword's old Armor penetration and percentage-reduction system with simple subtraction.
Incoming damage is reduced by Armor Rating. Enough armor stops the attack. Anything left gets through.
The change touched Combat, Economy and Equipment, Game Mechanics, Classes and Skills, critical hits, examples, and several related rules. Those revisions are published.
This will probably require some Armor Rating adjustments once we have enough testing behind it, but I am holding off on nonessential balance passes while we begin the Rulebook migration. If something is badly broken, we will fix it. Otherwise I would rather collect useful test information first than continuously rebalance the material while moving it.
Spellpower Is Moving Into the Rulebook
The magic-defense work discussed last update has now made it into the Rulebook.
The revised Magic chapter is published, along with major changes to Ward, Negate, Suppress, Spatial, Portal, Active and Passive effects, and several related rulings.
More Rune Families are mechanically ready, but this rework exposed a formatting problem in the chapter. We are partway through reformatting them now. Rather than release the remaining families piecemeal in two different formats, they will drop together once the new format is finished.
The Spellpower Rework is not done yet, but we are closing in on it.
Character Creation Got Faster
We also made a fairly significant Character Creation balance pass.
The largest change sets starting Common, Magic, Professional, and base Fighting Style Skill Values to 1d20 + 20 rather than deriving those starting values from Characteristics.
I am willing to roll back parts of this if testing tells us to, particularly the exact base result.
So far, though, the first round of testing was encouraging. Character Creation moved considerably faster, and we did not run into the disjointed feeling I was worried the reduced Characteristic influence might create. It felt good and quick.
That is a promising first result. It is not enough testing to declare the numbers finished.
Ten More Monsters Are Live
The 70 Monster Challenge continues.
Since the last update we published the Deserter, Bloodfang Wolf, Vampire, Skeleton, Ogre, Kobold, Quilled Bear, Harpy, Gargoyle, and Rune Bear.
That brings another ten monsters into the public Bestiary.
The challenge is also doing a nice job of testing the rest of the game while we build. In fact, the Ogre is directly responsible for the Armor rebuild discussed below.
The Notion Migration Is Ready to Begin
The Rulebook test has moved beyond simply asking whether Notion can handle Spellsword.
We now have the chapter and section structure built around smaller pages instead of dumping entire chapters into giant documents. That should avoid the performance and organization problems we found during the first Character Creation import.
The next step is beginning the actual Core Rules migration.
Google Docs remains the source of truth while that happens. We are moving one source into another, not trying to maintain two competing versions of the game.
Systems Under Active Refinement
What We're Iterating On
The remaining Rune Families are being moved into the new format while we finish the Spellpower Rework.
Campaign Mode still has a few Runes and Specializations without full mechanical implementation, and the Mark interactions with Blink, Teleport, and Portal need cleanup.
The Rulebook migration is about to move from structure into actual content transfer.
Problems We're Solving
The new Armor model needs real play behind it before we know whether existing Armor Ratings are sitting in the right places.
Character Creation also needs more testing before we settle on the exact starting Skill Value formula.
Equipment targeting is live in the Companion App test build, but it needs considerably more abuse before we know what we missed.
Faction Play did not move forward this cycle. The rules overhauls took priority.
What's Still Uncertain
Some Armor Ratings will probably need adjustment under subtraction, and we still need to settle the final equipment-layering rules.
The Character Creation balance changes are still open to revision.
We also need to finish proving the Notion migration process with real Rulebook content rather than structure alone.
Design Insight
As mentioned, the Ogre broke our Armor system.
It wasn't really doing anything particularly strange or unique, which is what really drove the point home for me.
We gave it natural armor, then gave it worn armor on top. Its natural Armor Rating ended up more than twice the Armor Rating of the equipment it was wearing. Just how the numbers made sense for me.
That gap immediately exposed a problem.
We already had a special ruling for the more common situation where natural armor was weaker than worn armor. You just couldn't gain full pen on natural armor. That worked well enough for what we had encountered before as a simple rule patch.
The Ogre flipped the relationship, and the existing Armor model did not have a clean answer for it. By the rules we had, the worn armor layer under the Ogre's natural armor would constantly be fully penetrated by any blow that managed partial penetration against the natural armor. That meant the worn layer had literally zero point. It did nothing.
We could have written another special rule, like before. I did think about that briefly.
But I decided I really did not want to do that.
The old system used several penetration states and percentage damage reduction. It worked, but every strange Armor interaction was starting to require another explanation for how those pieces fit together. Before I knew it, armor became a multilayered rules system, and I was able to ignore it until the Ogre ruined it.
So we pivoted quickly to a subtraction model.
Armor Rating comes directly off incoming damage. If the Armor Rating is high enough, the attack does nothing. If the attack is strong enough to get through, Armor still reduces the damage.
That's it, and it does everything we really need it to do.
It is boring, but it works. It doesn't have to be snazzy or impressive. It just needs to work.
Now, natural armor can stack with worn armor without requiring a special mathematical relationship between them. Strong Armor can stop weak attacks. Strong attacks can punch through weaker Armor.
Layering worn equipment should be fairly simple from here as well. I am currently leaning toward two or three equipment layers, probably something along the lines of Inner, Middle, and Outer, with each piece of equipment marked for the layers where it can validly be worn. That can wait a bit, though.
The next problem before us now is balance.
All of our current Armor Ratings were created under the previous system. I don't expect every number to survive unchanged.
But I don't want to start changing numbers immediately just because they look suspicious on paper. I don't really have time for the guesswork.
We need to play with them first. Testing will win out.
The Ogre did us a favor here. It showed us that we were about to keep patching a rule that was, honestly, starting to show cracks I was content to ignore while I worked on bigger problems.
Sometimes the better answer isn't another patch or exception.
Sometimes, we just need to go with the boring rule that keeps working; it's the better rule.
—Christian
What Members and Testers Should Test
- Try the new Armor rules. Pay attention to attacks that feel like they are being stopped too easily or cutting through protection too easily. Those Armor Rating values are the part most likely to need adjustment.
- Try the new Spellpower material. Ward, Negate, Suppress, Spatial effects, and their interactions all need table time.
- Build a character with the revised starting Skill Values. I especially want to know whether Character Creation feels faster without losing too much connection between the character's Characteristics and their skills.
- Companion App testers: try Linked Campaigns, character branches, Wound and Bleed treatment, and equipment targeting. If you can make something behave badly, please do.
- Use the new monsters. There are ten more chances to find something we missed.
- Share anything weird you find in the Spellsword Discord.
What's Next—2-Week Objective
- Finish the Spellpower Rework, complete the Rune reformat, and publish the remaining Rune Families together.
- Begin migrating the Core Rules into Notion using the new chapter and section structure.
- Continue the 70 Monster Challenge.
