While working on the rules module chapter today, I hit the same unexpected point that I have three or four times before: I can’t write the chapter on special rules until I have my rules catalog system in place.

Which brought me to another improvement for version 1.30: instead of several reasonable, but somewhat arbitrary, categories for rules, the newest version will be composed of actual rules modules itself. These will, of course, start at the foundation and build upward from there. The modules so far:

000 – Core rules
100 – Characters
200 – Extended conflict
300 – Combat
400 – Spellcasting

The first three categories are fairly independent. Combat relies heavily on characters and extended conflict, and so does spellcasting. The intended beauty here is to illustrate the flow of rule dependence, and to make it easier to add or remove groups of rules. For example, if you don’t like the spellcasting rules at all and want a more realistic game, you can easily just unplug the 400-series rules from your game.