Lightspress Handbook R1.2
The Lightspress Handbook is envisioned as a living document, constantly evolving, regularly tweaked, and updated as needed to keep up with changes and feedback. This isn't a one-and-done deal; it's a flexible resource meant to grow alongside the needs of its readers. Below are the latest updates and adjustments, in alphabetical order.
Beat Charts: We clarified a few things, including how to determine the number of beats per adventure and how detailed you should be when putting together your own beat chart.
Bibliography: A list of books that were influential in the creation of The Simple Approach in general and this Handbook in particular. It’s not exactly Appendix N, and it contains some things that you might find confusing, but I assure you, they all contributed to the philosophy and attitude if not the actual mechanics and genre tropes.
Build Points: Yeah, we didn’t bother giving you specific totals in earlier versions because, get this, they vary by setting and genre. The whole point is that there’s no one-size-fits all. We figured you’d just create a few sample characters and, you know, use your brain to figure out what works best. But since some of you need the dots larger and practically touching, we went ahead and added a baseline. You're welcome.
Creating Traits: Less of a how-to and more of a rant that you’re never limited to any list in any book, you can and should create your own, borrow from other games, and assert your creativity and imagination when putting together the character that you envision and want to play.
DoubleZero Conversion: We’ve added notes on converting the old version of DoubleZero to The Simple Approach, which is easy because it’s basically a different core mechanic, some semantics, and a lone instance of basic math.
Frequently Asked Questions: There are more of them, hopefully addressing some of your more insightful, sincere, and sometimes inane queries.
Glossary: The glossary has been updated to reflect a few things added via our most recent books.
Level of Expertise: In previous versions, we made the egregious mistake of using "level of experience" and "level of expertise" interchangeably. Why? Because the original manuscript said "level of efficacy," and frankly, we got sick of giving out vocabulary lessons. So, we're clearing it up now, it’s "level of expertise" from here on out.
Negative Traits: Call them disadvantages, flaws, drawbacks, whatever you like. We’ve added a section to clarify how they can be used, and the role of both the player and the gamemaster in using them effectively.
Trait Costs: We’ve taken extra-special care to devote additional word count explaining that, during character creation, traits cost 1 built point per point of rating. Hopefully, this addenda will clear up any confusion.
