Progress Update: v1.15 (Techniques, Character Sheet, Skill Updates) Now Available for Download!

Firearms and Gunsmithing are both skills in Bunker Radio.

 

Version 1.15 is now ready for your reading pleasure! As a reminder, if you play Bunker Radio, do me a favor and give me constructive feedback on how the game ran using this form. It will help me improve the game for future versions, so you and everyone else who plays has a better time.

You can find the downloads for the new Basic Rules v1.15 and the Techniques v1.15 in the Downloads section. The new character sheet is coming soon, but it's not quite ready yet. Update (11/16/23) It's ready now, go check it out!

The focus of v1.15 is on overhauling the Techniques, which form the main body of player customization in Bunker Radio, with all the cool abilities and special features you can buy with skill points to make your character feel powerful and unique from the other players.

Falconry can help you hunt, or alert you to coming danger as you listen for the cry of your avian friend.

 

There are 216 Techniques, and some of them were, in previous versions, just not that interesting. Buying them really just gave you a little bonus to some skill check, or even combat, but I really needed to sit down and spend a good amount of time coming up with interesting game mechanics for each of these. To do this, I utilized more of the conditions that can be applied to characters, such as Stunned, Diseased, or Joyous, modified the combat economy, adding in an initiative system to determine who gets to go first in combat, a gun jamming mechanic, which also means guns can be upgraded by a gunsmith to be more reliable. On, and on, and on, this is no small update. The changes made to the Techniques is huge.

 

Fishing is an efficient way to secure food.

 

Updates to version 1.15:

• Tweaks and fixes, fixed some typos, etc.
• Added a section on how to use techniques, and when some of the abilities from techniques reset (typically at midnight).
• Rules for Hunting (and fishing, tracking, skinning, trapping, etc.)
• Descriptions for each disease.

• 

  Parkour helps you evade your enemies.
  

  Naturopathic remedies - basically the post-apocalyptic version of potions!
• Reworked the character sheet (forthcoming)
• Reordered the ability scores to alphabetical
• Reduced the real life player info
• Reduced the size of health scores to just straight numbers rather than a progress bar.
• Coded in some unused skills.
• Added a second sheet for Compound tracking.
• Added a second sheet for displaying which Techniques you have acquired (and their descriptions)
  
• Added materials to the rules.
• Added sand to the compound sheet.
• Added refinement processes and their associated buildings (lumbermill to turn wood into lumber, etc)
• Added warehouse for storage of supplies (materials only)
• Added silos for storage of food.
• Modified some building supply requirements
• Reworked the compound needs rules (Some systems made no sense. It's much more streamlined now.)
• Added extra requirements to some buildings utilizing some previously untouched factors such as population when building buildings.
• Added space requirements for buildings.
• Renamed followers to citizens.
• Reworked supplies - consolidated, and new rules. Now they're all in one place, as a table.
• Solidified the need for the Unity mechanic in a compound.
• Wrote a new alternative combat structure.
• Wrote an initiative system to determine who goes first.
• Removed the Force skill, reincorporated some of it's Techniques into Athletics.

• 

  Foraging for food. Careful with mushrooms!
  

  Reappropriated some major and minor abilities for skills.
• Added Animal Handling skill
• Wrote a gun-jamming mechanic
• Completely overhauled Techniques!
• Rewrote boring Techniques
• Wrote new, exciting Techniques
• Some alter the combat economy
  
•  Added the burning condition
• Added the stunned condition
• Separated Deception from Leadership
• Reordered the Skills in the character sheet
• Fixed some broken calculations in skills in the character sheet.f
  
  AND MORE!

 

Coming soon, I am going to be adding some extra rules for the crafts skill to build in mechanics for repair and dismantling objects, some extra rules on sleeping, radiation, attacks of opportunity, docks for boats and other watercraft in your compound, and many many roll tables. We're going to be building a GM screen with handy rule references for gameplay that you can print out to use at home, producing some artwork for the final product, writing a campaign setting in which you can play out your adventures.

We're getting to a point in writing this game here where it's starting to take real shape, and I'm so excited to share it with everyone.

Q: Will Bunker Radio Be Free Forever?

"I think a lot of people started as a player, and the DM was the only one with a copy of the book."

A: My philosophy on the pricing model for Bunker Radio is this: Get people playing and enjoying the game first, then sell them a copy second. That is to say, I want there to always be a version of Bunker Radio that is completely free, because I want people to play the game. I think the most likely scenario after launch is that the main game with all its features and accoutrements will be available in hardcover and for digital download on stores like Amazon or from your nearest game store. But I'll write a stripped down version, available for free as a PDF, that will be available for download to just get people playing.

 

"Roleplaying games extend far beyond the game table."

I think Wizards of the Coast got that one right. Tabletop Roleplaying games are not so easy to market. What are you going to do, make an ad, play it before the super bowl? I mean, it might work, but it's very difficult to convey exactly why these games are so fun in a short form ad. I think the best advertisement for TRPG's really is word of mouth, and to that end, just bringing someone in to play the game for a session as a guest. How many of us who play D&D started by downloading the free PDF that WOTC published for exactly that purpose? I think a lot of people started as a player, and the DM was the only one with a copy of the book. Once you realize this is something you're going to get into, people are happy to shell out for a nice book that they can read over and over, drool over, carry with them and look at when they get a chance to plan their next big adventure, build their most broken character with an edgelord backstory. Because Roleplaying games extend far beyond the game table. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that 60% of the game happens outside the game table. All the other stuff, building characters, writing adventures, drawing maps, painting minis, all of it - it's part of the game, and it's a huge part of the hobby.

So that was a very long-winded way of saying that a hardcover book is important to a games success because it's vital to a lot of people's full enjoyment of these games, as it lends to that mind-fantasy, allowing people to dream up new dreams. But on the other hand, having the game be approachable and freely available is important as well, which is where the free PDF would come in. So yes, I'd like a free version of BR to be available forever.

Folks, we ain't even done yet, but we're getting there! Enjoy!