Cleave 1.7: Print materials, and price change announcement

Hey folks, got another update for Cleave today, and it’s a big one!

Cleave 1.7 is officially released! This is the most extensive update yet. As part of this release, Cleave now has printed materials available! This means, in addition to the online playbook, you can now print off materials for your home games.

As part of this change, I had to rewrite or tweak every single move to fit the printed layout, which means every common move and playbook move has seen some amount of review and changes. The end result is a tighter, punchier game, even for playbooks that didn’t receive extensive tweaks. The full patch notes are at the bottom of this post.

What’s this about a price change?

Right now, Cleave is pay-what-you-want. My priority so far has been to release something and get people to check it out. My current plan is, with the 1.8 release, to increase the price of the game to $10 USD, with the following caveats:

• The people who have already paid for Cleave still get access to it, no matter how much they paid. This includes people who pay for it between now and the 1.8 release.
• The playbooks and other printed materials will continue to be freely accessible, as will be the online playbook tool
• Community copies will be available for the folks for whom $10 is still prohibitively expensive. Also, my BlueSky DMs are open, and I’ll probably just give a copy to those who ask if the community copies run out.

Why am I doing this? Simply put, I think it’s a statement of the value of Cleave. I’m confident enough that this game works that I want the price of it to reflect that value. I still want the game to be accessible, which is why I’m taking the steps above, but I think a lot of creators in indie TTRPGs undermine their own value. I don’t want to contribute to that.

What’s still left to add?

There are two major areas of concern I hope to address in 1.8.

I want to add rules for threats. This includes rewriting/balancing how NPC stats are made, but it also includes things like giving them moves and figuring out their instincts.

I still need advice for preparing players to make the game their own. This mostly involves how to make custom moves, but I want to “peel back the curtain,” so to speak, on a number of design principles I’ve been using for Cleave.

What about beyond that?

To be quite honest, 1.8 will be, in no way, the end of updates for Cleave. This milestone is important to be because I think it represents a shift from a game I'm working on to a game I'm actively able to share and promote, but there'll still be a lot to playtest and develop. I could see this work continuing for years.

I hope to one day be able to say that Cleave is out of its playtest and is on an official, full release, but I'm happy to keep fiddling on it until then.

Where to go for further updates

If you’re not doing so already, you can simply follow this blog. I’ll be posting major updates here. I may even work up some design commentary as well.

You can also follow me on BlueSky and on Itch.

Lastly, you can join the Discord. Sometimes I’ll throw in things I’m working on there or musings. I’m also happy to answer any questions there, so it’s the best place if you want to be really plugged in.

That's it for now! As always, you can access the game at my Itch, and you can view the patch notes below.

PATCH NOTES

GENERAL CHANGES

• "GM characters" to "NPCs".
  • When I first wrote Cleave, some folks on the internet were using "NPC" to mean some unsavory things, so I wasn't crazy about that term. I used "GM character" because the GM is a player too, and I think that term more directly describes what these characters are. However, it was always a mouthful to say, and that unsavory activity has lessened quite a bit over time, so I'm comfortable using this term again.
• Resized to A5.
• Moves across the board have been rewritten and adjusted to be leaner and tighter.
• Certain moves now have advice specifically for the GM on how to run them in the book. This information isn't required for the other players.

HIT POINTS AND WOUNDS

• Wound thresholds adjusted. Now, “wound threshold” means how many wounds you can take and still keep fighting. You are only taken out if you take a wound beyond your wound threshold.
• Wound threshold for PCs is equal to their Resolve. Wound threshold for NPCs adjusted to be 0 for all minor characters and most major characters.
• Adjusted death to be rare as a recommendation rather than a requirement. Instead of now allowing PCs to die, PCs are instead simply incentivized to not die by keeping the mechanic up to GM fiat until they unlock advanced moves, which will then allow them to more directly bargain with their lives.

MOVES

Basic moves

• Removed Resist, folded into Overcome
  • Splitting this move didn't yield as much fruit as I had hoped, and I found it awkward to discuss the differences between these moves. With Resolve now determining Wound Threshold, I wasn't worried about its general utility either.
• Speak Lore, Sense character, and Read situation folded into Gain information
  • These moves already had a lot of overlap in functionality, and combining them made it easier to create related playbook moves
• Avoid harm turned into a basic move from a Combat move
  • There are a lot of combat moves, so this helped reduce the bulk in that section.
  • This move is more general purpose anyway, so it felt appropriate here.

Social moves

• Plead now replaced with Negotiate terms
  • Negotiate terms more directly centers the terms players bring to characters as the focal point of the discussion, and it works for both PC-NPC and PC-PC interactions.
  • Also matches more closely with Resolve, which reflects how committed you are to characters and causes, not necessarily how charismatic and persuasive you are

Combat moves

• Enter combat adjusted so only the PC leading the charge rolls
  • I like how this move disrupts flow a bit and prompts players to review the situation before jumping into combat, but it was too much to ask each player to roll and get separate results.
  • With only one player rolling, it's smoother rolling into combat, and the GM can more directly focus their answer onto a threat or course of action.
• Clash options adjusted
  • Hold back (formerly focused attack) gives you info, so it does something even if you don't inflict a wound
  • Added multi-task, which allows you to deal with other threats
    • Multi-task is how Cleave addresses one-vs-many combats. My focus for combat in Cleave has always been small but meaningful skirmishes. I wanted to avoid battles where one PC could take on dozens of enemies (it's heroic but not that heroic). This option gives players the opportunity to take on multiple enemies but with a clear cost that makes being outnumbered still feel dangerous.

Bond moves

• Combined all the evoking bond moves into a single move

Harm & Recovery moves

• Changed "recovery moves" to "harm and recovery moves"
• Added move for "Take a wound" to make that process clearer
• Moved Taken out to here (from combat moves)

Session & XP moves

• Removed begin the session, begin quest, and end quest moves
  • Begin the session is covered in the GM advice. This didn’t need to be a player-facing mechanic.
  • Cleave resists traditional quests, so quest moves made sense to remove.
• Added return to play.
  • People familiar with "love letters" may see the connection. This particular move specifically highlights the bonds players have and allows the GM to highlight/push on them clearer.

Advanced moves

• Adjusted unlocking advanced moves to something players can unlock wholly rather than gain individually.
• Added new advanced moves related to gaining a position of power in Refuge
• Replaced Affairs in order with Face death
• Removed Retirement, added Journey on

The goal for advanced moves is to push the game closer to an end, and these moves do that in two ways. The moves related to a position of power in Refuge grant players the option to make much more impactful, powerful effects. You can be power players who command the fate of the city. The other is by giving players the option to end their characters' stories, either in death or a different adventure elsewhere.

PLAYBOOKS

Brute

• Brute force adjusted
  • Now you mark the move when you set a goal and unmark it if you complete a goal
  • This move also now gives the opportunity for the target of your focus to boost a bond with you when you complete your goal, but they also become frightened of you
• Added brutal strikes, brute defender, devil you know, and swear vengeance
• Removed body language, bonded focus, claws out, frightening impression

These new moves grant more direct options for violence and action but also continue to give the Brute interesting options for intimidation and manipulation.

Fighter

• Spirit of battle > Battle bond
  • Made it clearer that you can bond with battle as if it's a character
• Battle bonds (old) > Rivalry
• Added fair fight and fighting words 
• Removed vision of death, weapon durability, and weapon master

Fighter's direction is mostly the same. The intent is that the Fighter is a character with a unique relationship to violence. The rewrites make that relationship clearer, and the new moves give the Fighter more dimensions to explore that. The removed moves were fine but didn't directly speak to this theme, so they were removed for space. They'll probably come back in some future content in one form or another.

Hunter

• Removed focused volley, added volley option to hunted strike
  • This move was too weak and unexciting, so combining it with hunted strike made sense
• Sense weakness > sense creature, adjusted effect based on new information gathering moves

Hunter is mostly unchanged, though some moves have been combined or cleaned up.

Knight

• Battle partners: effect changed to let you deal and take damage on each other's behalf
• Bonds of fealty removed (quest moves no longer exist)
• Powerful resilience > grit, effect adjusted.
• Issue order > pull rank, effects clarified.
• Added lend authority, respectful fighting

These new moves care about who respects the Knight, which the Knight can use their order to leverage. It adds a new dimension to the Knight that speaks to the core fantasy.

Minstrel

• Complete rework. New moves focus on building and evoking bonds with songs via Bonded songs and Inspiration.

I'm not going into much specifics because basically every move has been tweaked considerably or adjusted, and not just because of having to fit the moves onto printed playbooks. The new focus on Minstrel is that they have songs that directly inspire others to act. However, they have bonds with their songs as well, and so their bonds also push them to act to live up to the ideals present in the songs.

Priest

• Added Prayer and supplication, Reverence, Divine clarity
• Removed Preach, Holy interrogation, healing miracle
• Faithful requests > Priestly authority

The changes to Priest focus mostly on cleaning up the moves, removing redundant design space, and more carefully crafting a playbook that's all about navigating really complicated relationships with the gods.

Rogue

• Near-complete rework. Added Miscreant, a new starting move that creates trouble for the Rogue but also grants them an additional move based on the kind of trouble.
• Added new moves focused on giving them complicated bonds that invite trouble but also allow them to defy their bonds in interesting ways.

Rogue has been a very tricky playbook to navigate. I really like the idea of a Rogue playbook being more of an outsider and troublemaker, but how to support that playstyle has been difficult. I believe this current direction, which gives Rogues a starting move that invites trouble (but also gives them another move to make up for it), will walk that line a lot more directly and cleanly than it did in previous versions.

Wizard

• Simplified spell technique but kept the overall mechanics similar.
• Added Bonded spells, Ritual Magic, and Tutelage
• Removed Consistent spellcasting, Impressive arcana, and Signature technique

The tension of the Wizard playbook is that they're a great ally and powerful character but they don't make bonds as easily as other characters. Bonded spells and Tutelage give them more advantages of having bonds, but removing Impressive arcana means that they need to work harder to build those bonds. Also, removing Consistent spellcasting and Signature technique prevents the Wizard from making their spellcasting much safer, which keeps it interesting.

EQUIPMENT

Armor and block

• Armor is now split into light armor (1 armor), medium armor (2 armor), and heavy armor (3 armor).
• Block now reduces damage by [-xd6] damage instead of adding armor

The math of Cleave is that small numbers matter, so straight damage reduction is very powerful. Adjusting block to reduce damage by [-xd6] opens up some other options for armor reduction and prevents armor from easily stacking. Heavy armor here represents a fantasy closer to historical reality: that heavy armor is almost undeniably the best option for battle, but its restrictions in price and utility limit who can afford it and how it can be used.

Martial and sidearm

• Added martial as a tag, include it for every weapon but sidearm weapons

As my playtesting has continued, I've become increasingly confident that social play is going to be a major element of Cleave. How you interact in the city matters. As such, I was confident that I could balance around that.

With that in mind, I've added a new tag, martial, which applies to most weapons and armor. This tag tells other characters that you're prepared to fight, and they'll react accordingly. If you're going into a situation where everyone knows you're going to fight, this doesn't mean much. But if you're going into a normal social gathering, it prompts the GM to treat this as odd and have NPCs respond appropriately. The goal is to avoid the expectation that characters are always decked out in full armor and fully armed, and to remind players to treat their characters as people.

The exception to this tag are sidearm weapons (like daggers and certain swords) that can be worn all the time, which reflects the value of these weapons. A dagger will never have the advantage against a halberd, but characters can't take a halberd with them everywhere they go without drawing attention to themselves. The same goes for light armor vs medium or heavy armor.

SPELLS

The design for spells is overall the same, but each spell has been tightened up so much that the PDF of spells allows for you to cut out the spells and put them in card sleeves. This should help the at-the-table experience for characters who use spells.

DEITIES

This section now more specifically includes context on how deities should be used in Cleave.

TAGS

• Removed brave
• Removed ranged and close (Now the ranges are melee, near, and far)
• Updated parry to allow for a new defensive option for clash and avoid harm.