Beta 2.2 - Waterloo

• Converted Iron & Blood from Make 50 to a Difficulty Level (DL) based system. Most players will find DL feels better and creates a stronger sense of power scaling. Mathematically it’s no different from Make 50.
• Difficulty Modifiers are now used in place of roll deductions/penalties. Difficulty Modifiers are normally added to a roll’s Difficulty level. Since this is mathematically no different from deducting the Difficulty Modifier from the roll, Historians and players are free to use whichever calculation they prefer.
• Full top-to-bottom review of the rules with a 1.0 release in mind.
• Reformatted the whole document, including widened margins and less tables getting cut between pages.
• Fixed and standardized grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
• Added detail and clarification to various rules. Special attention was paid to the most opaque High Seas rules.
• Standardized and improved the legibility of tables.
• Added hyperlinks throughout the document.
• Added the knowledge roll, allowing players to roll Intelligence for the Historian to give them key historical information their PC is likely to have.
• Added the Melee Defense stat. This is the combined Melee Weapon skill, Melee Bonus of a target’s weapon, and that weapon’s aptitude. Melee Defense serves as the DL a Melee Attacker needs to equal or beat to land an attack.
• Ranged Attack DL is determined by distance to target.
• Both melee and ranged attacks now benefit from +1 damage and +1 penetration per 15 degrees of success on their roll to hit.
• Added Weapon Limit, which limits the total bulk worth of weapons a character can carry. No more walking arsenals.
• Removed the starting 2 carry capacity. Carry capacity is now just Vitality + Carry Weight/5 (+1 for having Carry Weight at any level)
• Modified character sheet to include new stats like weapon limit. A melee defense slot has been added to all melee and ranged weapons for easy reference when attacked.
• Removed unnecessary, overcomplicated, and little-used mechanics.
• Added a new custom point of sail diagram to high seas
• The Technical Requirement penalty has been changed to a flat Difficulty Modifier of 20 to any character whose technical skill is not equal to or greater than their weapons tech req.
• Removed multi-target Melee Attacks as they were rarely used and historically implausible. It is better represented by making 2 Melee Attacks in the same 6-second round.
• Moved QCC aging information from QCC to progression where it is more relevant and to reduce confusion.
• Renamed Perception to Observation so it more clearly includes inferring information such as in social situations.
• Clarified movement rules in Ship Combat.
• Moved Re-assure crew to Captain actions and added heal wounded crew to ship actions.
• Partly re-wrote the introduction to give the Players and Player Characters a more active role.
• Added a criminal shareholder option to ship financing.

Beta 2.1 - St. Helena

• Re-orgenized rules into a single consolidated PDF.
• Re-orgenized afflictions into much more readable tables.
• Rebalanced Quick Character Creation.
• Buffed throwing weapons to balance their short range.
• Moved the highly detailed premade NPC list to another project. Replaced with simpler easier-to-use NPCs for the core rules.
• Characters may now make unlimited opportunity attacks per round, but each carries a cumulative -10 penalty.
• Characters may riposte opportunity attacks, returning the old cycle of riposte-and-miss melee. Now with the cumulative -10 penalty.
• Technical requirement is now added as a penalty when tap loading.
• Added feedback form link.

Beta 2.0 - The Return From Elba

With additional design by Andrew (Commander Kettle.)

• Reorganized the rules into several documents available as individual PDFs hosted here on CallMeEzekie.store

• Added Quick Character Creation.

• Total Rework to progression including Estates and Dynasties, the new name for the previous Bloodline system.

• Added premade NPCs section. Each NPC comes with a brief description and equipment recommendations.

• Civilian NPCs are broadly organized into 3 social classes. Military NPCs include dedicated sections for cavalry, early modern infantry, linear infantry, and the navy. Every section includes an exposition explaining the NPC’s broader historical context.

• Firearm complexity has been renamed to Technical Requirement (Tech Req.). Artillery complexity remains untouched.

• Tech Req. is now a penalty to hit with all firearms that have one, offset by a character’s technical skill. This makes Technical a very important skill if you want to use advanced firearms. (No more Pike & Shotte era machineguns unless your character heavily specced into it.)

• Rebalanced custom firearm creation for the new Tech Req. stat and for balance in general.

• Remade all pre-made firearms to adjust for Tech Req. and other balance changes.

• Custom firearms now support historical TL3 revolvers.

• Removed multiple barrels and integrated melee weapons, the implementations of which had too many edge cases.

• Melee weapons bonus to hit has been renamed to “Melee Bonus.” Melee bonuses are both offensive and defensive: a bonus to hit, and also a penalty applied to melee attacks targeting you.

• Armor rework - armor is now a simple damage deduction offset by attacking weapon penetration. Shields can still be used a limited number of times per round to increase protection.

• Buffed melee weapon damage but lowered penetration to make armor more important.

• Simplified Bayonet rules. Affixing a bayonet now allows melee attacks to be made with a firearm as though it were a short spear, spear, pike, or newly added stabbing spear (representing the shortest such weapons like the Japanese Pillow Spear) based on the firearm’s barrel length

• Reworked equipment and gear into the new Tools system. Tools can be created for listed skills following some broad guidelines with Historian oversight, similar to the outfit system. Outfits remain unchanged

• Renamed Horseback penalty to Mounted Action Penalty because it is hard to fight from camelback too.

• A character with Athletics 10 or above may move 1 additional m/yds per move action. A character with Athletics 25 or above may move 2 additional m/yds per move action.

• Additional editing passes clarifying rules and examples.

• It is now 10% less likely to roll a poor family background and 10% more likely to roll wealthy.

• Failing a tap load now disables a weapon for the rest of the encounter.

• Rain now gives penalties to hit instead of increasing complexity/tech req.

• Added an exposition in ship creation regarding Tons bm vs displacement tons. It also explains the difference between the tonne, long ton, short ton, and how they are used in Iron & Blood.

• Added several historical paintings.

• Changed Army Support Engineer’s Survival Roll to Vitality from Control

• Added the Poleaxe.

• Rebalanced bows and crossbows so bows are better to a character specialized in archery but crossbows are better for everyone else, even reducing the penalty for lacking Marksmanship.

• Renamed dynamic character creation to lifepath character creation.