Hi everyone,

Huge list of changes that I've been working on this past 2 weeks. Wandering Souls has some new mechanics, updated rules, and overall more things to play with while making it feel more alive. A lot of balancing to make the game more difficult but not unfair.

What's New

• Added Shadow Events, which reveal what happens to you from the Shadow's corruption (and are lore friendly)
• Added Shadow Tests, so that Shadow is not automatically gained but can be prevented by testing against the Spirit of a character
• Updated spells, removing some and adding more, including ones that can be used outside of Combat
• Fleeing has been updated to roll vs. the target DS, but equal to or lower than it (reduces the chance to just run from everything and makes running easier vs. really strong enemies)
• Replaced 'species' with 'folk' as it felt more accurate to the world of Wandering Souls
• Added clarifications on Max and Current stat values (max is your total allowed, current is the present value)
• Adjusted 'target' to 'enemy' where applicable to remove confusion
• Updated the Morale Tests rules to properly explain how they work and when to do them
• Updated the Combat rules to better explain armor, and updated the ruling on how Ranged combat works (you can now attack until you miss)
• Removed the Magic section from Combat rules as it did not align with the actual rules for spellcasting
• Defense now only works in Combat
• Added rules for Journeys, which dictate the number of encounters and locations you will encounter between civilized spaces
• Added rules for Travel and Fatigue when adventuring, including rules for hunting, foraging, and camping
• Added rules for reaching the end of a journey and taking some time to rest in a friendly location
• Locations are now more likely to just supply a Track/Lore (50%)
• Updated weaknesses to use a card draw instead of die roll, to balance the chance of getting all results
• All Backgrounds now start with 3x rations, which can be used to remove Fatigue, and recover 1HP
• Re-wrote the Setting and Resolving rules for scenes to include the new rules and increase clarity
• Increased the Lore/Tracks needed for quests, so that the previous lowest (2 Lore/Tracks) couldn't be complete almost immediately
• Increased the difficulty of multiple tests, balancing out the 2d6 + stat averages
• Adjusted Morale on all evil beings
• Fate has been removed and is the re-roll of a die is no longer implemented 
• Spirit is now a static stat that is used for Challenge tests
• Added rules for Titles, awarded at Reputation milestones
• Rewrote the weaknesses to be more abstract for those who want to use them
• Updated Backgrounds to be better balanced, and offer a challenge for players from the start
• Separated Evil Beings into Minions and Special (minions can appear in up to 6 combatants)
• Updated Item Use rules to be more clear and removed the chance for an item to fail
• Updated Things table with new stats, better balanced, and more interesting variety
• Updated character folk starting stat bonuses to be better balanced

Have fun and enjoy!

- Cody