Updates to Tricube Tales and Tricube Tactics

There's been a lot of feedback and questions about Tricube Tales and Tricube Tactics since I first published them, and I've collected all the comments with the intent of eventually updating the books. With the DriveThruRPG print prices going up again in February (and this time, I needed to raise my prices as well), I thought it would be a good time to update both books.

Note that Tricube Tactics has not yet been updated, as there were a few issues with the first print proof, but I've already placed another order, so it should go live in a couple of weeks. However, I'll list the changes for both products below.

Tricube Tales

The Tricube Tales rules have not changed, so you can still use the old books. However, I wanted to clarify a few things, particularly sections that have caused confusion over the years. I also improved the color saturation on the cover and made a few other cosmetic improvements.

• Changed the color of the headings to blue/purple to match the cover (in the same way that Tricube Tactics has red headings).
• Changed the dice symbols from outline to filled versions (easier to read, and consistent with other products)
• General proofreading and minor grammar and punctuation corrections.
• Cover: Added the text "Core Rulebook" underneath the illustration.
• Page 2: Set the version to 5, updated the copyright date, and updated the credits to use Rick Hershey's new art company name.
• Page 3: Removed the blank line under "Contents" and added "Examples" under "Characters".
• Page 4: Changed "Drive Thru RPG" to "DriveThruRPG", and for layout reasons changed "promoted" to "introduced".
• Page 7: Changed "narrate the outcome" to "narrate the story and NPC actions"
• Page 8: Rephrased the example to use the term "challenge", to use "easy" and "standard" for difficulties, to clarify that you lose a die when the challenge falls outside the scope of your concept, and make it clear that using a magic-themed perk doesn't change the trait.
• Page 20: Rephrased the "Challenges" section to clarify a few points of confusion.
• Page 21-24: Rephrased to include a specific section on Exceptional Success. Also rephrased "Afflictions" to make it more concise, and "Recovery" to clarify what causes permanent afflictions.
• Page 26: Rephrased "Resolution" to clarify that during combat, players only lose resolve on a failed defense roll.
• Page 28: The "Archetypes" section now explicitly references page numbers and the "Combat Styles" section.
• Page 29: The "Combat Styles" section clarifies that combat styles apply to both attacking and defending.
• Page 31: Very slight rephrasing of the "Perks" section on page 31.
• Page 32-33: Rephrased "A Deeper Look" and clarified that spending karma to automatically bypass a challenge also applies if the challenge uses effort tokens, also changed the example perk on page 33 to better fit the described usage.
• Page 34: Rephrased "Another Perspective" to clarify that it doesn't cost karma if you're only using a perk to flavor the narrative.
• Page 35: Rephrased "Stacking Perks" to clarify that it doesn't let you lower the difficulty more than once.
• Page 36: The "Quirks" now clarifies that you can't use both a quirk and an affliction for the same roll.
• Page 54: Corrected typo "Manueverable vehicle" to "Maneuverable vehicle"

Tricube Tactics

The combat supplement has mostly undergone clarifications as well, although one new addition is ballistic armor, which is treated as light cover against firearms (technically, it's always been up to the GM to decide if something is "light cover", so this isn't exactly a new rule, but more of an official interpretation of an existing mechanic).

There is a change in terminology, though: "threat range" is now called "melee reach". You use the ranged combat style to make ranged attacks with ranged weapons against opponents at short, medium, or long range -- and you use the melee combat style to make melee attacks with melee weapons against opponents within your threat range melee reach. It feels more consistent now.

Other than that, the changes were mostly just minor tweaks and/or clarifications of how things already worked (or were supposed to work).

• Tablet PDF had a low-resolution cover image, fixed. Also changed the layers to be consistent with Tricube Tales.
• General proofreading and minor grammar, punctuation, and alignment corrections
• Replaced all instances of "threat range" with "melee reach" (pages 25, 52, 55, 56, 58, 63, 65, 75, 78, 95, 98, 99, 100, 103, 113)
• Replace two references to NPCs losing resolve with NPCs losing effort (pages 38 and 73)
• Page 2: Update the copyright notice and version number, added a mention of the Discord server, and changed "Legalese" to a minor heading to be consistent with Tricube Tales
• Page 12-14 and 18: Sorted subtraits and substyles into alphabetical order.
• Page 14: Where it says "This trait is split into the following" for Melee, Ranged, and Mental, replaced "trait" with "style"
• Page 30: Rephrased "Aim" to clarify that it also applies to mental attacks and resist, not just ranged attacks and evade.
• Page 32: Rephrased "stand" to clarify that it's a swift action if you're unarmored and not encumbered
• Page 37: Rephrased the page to add a section about ballistic armor.
• Page 41: Clarified that you can attack foes in the same zone without engaging them in close combat, if your melee reach exceeds theirs.
• Page 44: Clarified that you can attack foes in the immediate range band without engaging them in close combat, if your melee reach exceeds theirs.
• Page 51: Rephrased the "Attack Range" section to clarify that small ranged weapons lose their short range bonus when used within the target's melee reach. The "Attack Range" subsection is now called "Reach Versus Range".
• Page 56: Updated "Short range" to clarify that it doesn't apply when within your target's melee reach; rephrased "Vulnerable" to make space for the extra wording.
• Page 57: Removed the vague comment about thin obstacles and added "Ballistic armor offers the wearer light cover against firearms (see page 67)." and "Anyone engaged in close combat who isn’t “vulnerable” has at least light cover."
• Page 61: Mentioned that you can stand as a swift action if unarmored and NOT encumbered
• Page 62: removed extraneous space at the beginning of the last line of the first paragraph
• Page 67: Updated the "firearms" section to mention that ballistic armor is treated as light cover against firearms.
• Page 77-79: Rearranged the minions section, and added a "Fallen Leaders" section, describing how players can continue using their minions if their PC is killed or incapacitated.
• Page 78: Clarify that if you use the retreat action, then your minions also use retreat
• Page 82: Rephrased the first paragraph of "Instant Death" to make it clearer that the roll is for the affliction you just received
• Page 86: Replaced reference to "melee combat" with "close combat" (I used to mix these two terms up during early drafts, and it looks like I missed one when I finally settled on close combat).
• Page 104: Added an example showing that a monster's perception is treated as the difficulty for stealth challenges
• Page 16: Added a "(see page 92)" to the end of the "Buffs & Summonings" section.
• Page 32: Rephrased "Recover" so that you can perform it outside your turn if a knack lets you recover as a swift action. Rephrased "Retreat" to make space for the rephrased recover.
• Page 68: Made "collateral damage" bold for emphasis, making it easier to spot at a glance.
• Page 69: Rephrased incendiary weapons, they now cause collateral damage on a roll of 5 or less (instead of always).
• Page 72: In the last sentence, replaced "reduce the challenge difficulty" with "adjust the challenge difficulty", as you will either reduce or increase the difficulty depending on whether the NPC is attacking or defending.
• Page 77: Rephrased the first paragraph of "Melee Reach" within the "Minions" section, as the wording was a bit awkward with the new "melee reach" terminology.