The draft for the revised Chapter 1 can be found here (http://www.ramshead.indie-rpgs.com/Stuff.htm)
See if this addresses the concerns raised in the examples thread.
Ralph
Hi Ralph,
The link appears to be broken.
/Peter
Heya,
I don't know if it's me or my computer, but I get an error of the 404 type when I click on the link. Let me know if there is something I need to do to access the file.
Peace,
-Troy
Me too. To be clear, I can get to the Stuff.htm page, but the link to the .doc is 404.
Mike
That's what I get for trying to throw it up on my way out the door this morning.
I'll fix it tonight.
That would be because I saved it to the wrong directory.
It should be available now.
It's right now!
Very nice introduction. It's a complete and understable overview of the game. I don't know if I'm influenced by my previous knowledge of the game, but I read it from the beginning to the end without any trouble.
I especially like some comments about how to drive actual play or what to expect from a typical session (e.g. the paragraph about divergent plots->tie all of the many threads together->complications->climax).
Something that surprise me is that in the paragraph about tenents you are not including some advise about the importance of participation (like in the thread: Tenet Phase Participation (http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=15499.0))
One small detail: In the paragraph about complications (the one that begins with "During play players ..."). I think it is far from the beginning where you say that complications is the way to get more currency, clearly implying that the game is driven by them. Perhaps it is a good idea to add a short sentence to remind it.
I think this chapter is really going to improve the game text.
If you want I may use it to quickly present the game to my players and tell you what is their reaction.
Good job!
Arturo
I liked the chapter also. Obviously having played the game a couple of times it's hard to see it through the eyes of a newbie, but I thought it layed out the concepts clearly and provided the kind of coherant overview which I felt was needed in the original rules.
This new sample chapter does seem a lot clearer than the text I've read so far - a very nice overview. Like Arturo, I liked the description of the likely pattern of play.
By the way, unlike the others, I am a total newbie. I'm about a third of the way through the rulebook. Though from browing the forge and reading reviews I had gathered the basics of how Universalis is played.
Fantastic - I think there's more of your own voice in this than in the original. You're chatting to us here about how we're going to play your game. It feels relaxed and reassuring. It's perhaps the only thing that the crystal-clear-car-manual rules of the first edition lacked.
Having said that, I hope that you'll return to the crystal-clear-car-manual tone when you get to the step by step rules. I really appreciated that clarity in the first edition. Universalis isn't complicated but it is complex.
Tony
I'd just like to say that I find this posting to be a marvelous resource for introducing other people to the game as I would like to play it with them. It gives a good framework for beginning play, with further explanations forthcoming in-game. It would be really nice if you could do an updated version, perhaps as a PDF with the sidebar boxes and the "Actions you can do any time/only on your turn" chart from the back of the book, too.