1.5 release, Discord announcement, and incoming price change

Hey folks, Cleave 1.5 is now here! You can now download it on Itch. I've included the patch notes with all the important details at the bottom of this post.

Before I get to that, though, I wanted to go over two quick updates on Cleave-related matters.

The Discord is now open!

You can join the Cleave discord now at this link! On this Discord, I'll be sharing future patch notes, discussing WIPs ideas, and answering any questions people have about the game. The things I post here may or may not get into the full game, so this may be the only place to see them. For instance, the WIP channel currently has a playset I made for handling political elections in Refuge, something that's come up multiple times in playtests.

As a reminder, you can also follow me at BlueSky if Discord isn't your thing.

Incoming price increase

One of my goals for 2026 is to add a price to Cleave. While I want the game to be as accessible as possible, I also want to adequately represent the amount of time and effort poured into it and the value I think it provides. So here's my current plan for increasing the price:

I'm currently starting work on building printable reference and playbook materials for Cleave. As is usually the case with PBTA games, those will be released free-of-charge.
I'm going to figure out how to release community copies as well, so if price is truly an object, you'll have a way to access it.
Timing is TBD. I want to be confident that the free materials adequately represent the game and the price-gated materials truly communicate value. I'll release another update when I know more and give people more heads up.
I want to give a big thank you to everyone who's already supported me. If you've paid any amount at all for Cleave so far, you'll continue to have access to the game. Even if it's just a dollar, and even if you pay now just to get ahead of the price increase, I still appreciate the contribution and don't want you to lose access.

1.5 PATCH NOTES

Common moves

Updated overcome to be more specific, added resist for challenging consequences imposed by GM
- This is an experimental change. It allows for players to use vigor and precision more flexibly.
- The goal is that resist here works like a resist roll in something like Blades in the Dark.
Moved inflict violence to combat moves, renamed coup de grace.
- I resisted adding this move to the combat moves because that section already has a lot of moves.
- I went with this change, though, because I think its intended use and way of play is a lot more clear.
Updated enter combat miss effect to be more flexible.
Updated coerce to be clearer about differences between 9-12 and 13+.
- The change to frightened below allows me to make this move simpler.
Updated Plead (Player character). Added notes for the GM.
- The goal is to eventually add GM guidance throughout the common moves.
- For this move in particular, I wanted to make the design goals clear, as its design is now a bit more unique.
Updated volley and hinder to increase clarity
Updated charge to grant foes additional options instead of removing options.
Changed XP granted from end of session to +4XP on a 3+ hour session, 2 XP otherwise, no longer remove marks.
- Marks were generally not building like I wanted.
- Making mark removal exclusive to major rests will make that move feel more impactful and make marking something more significant.
Updated trigger for deceive to require suspicion.
- The goal is that you should be able to follow a trigger whenever it occurs.
- It seemed silly when there was a lie that the character had no reason to not believe yet it still required a roll.

Tags

Updated frightened to be temporary by default.
Updated parry to be cleaner and also apply to avoid harm.
- I've gone through several different versions of this tag, but this one is the simplest iteration yet.
Updated loud and sidearm to have clearer social implications.
Fatigued now only goes away after a major rest.

Equipment

Added sidearm to pistol, reduced damage
Changed Treasure to Coin, no longer counts toward total equipment
- Collecting treasure as a core tension was a vestigial feature of earlier designs.
- The more I develop Cleave, the more I'm confident moving it away from "delving into a dungeon" fantasy, so finding a bunch of treasure and then turning it in is no longer a core loop.
Removed clumsy from heavy armor
- New clarification for loud covers downsides for heavy armor.
- I'm still reviewing potential downsides for heavy armor. I want them to reflect how armor actually works without bogging the game down too much. So this may change again in the future.

Hunter

Replaced Earned respect with The reason I hunt.
- Earned respect had an awkward trigger and hasn't come up in the playtest I've been running, so I'm trying to replace it with something that ties into the core mechanics better.
Updated GM bonds to be more active and pressing

Knight

Replaced Issue order with Pull rank.

Minstrel

Reworked nearly all the moves here.
- As far as moves go, this is practically a brand new playbook.
- Removed the complicated power song mechanics, changed focus to getting benefits from telling stories.
- Should play a lot smoother while still covering the same fantasies.

Deities