The summer has been fruitful with opportunities to incorporate the updates into the rules and work on the design and layout. In my spring update I mentioned that I was targeting a summer "soft launch" of version 0.2.x, with the exception of the Setting and GM Advice ... however, this summer release will have a portion of the Setting chapter included as well! Factions and creatures are still being re-drafted and redesigned, and I am hopeful that they'll find their way into an update later this year. 

I won't be pulling the earlier version completely; I zipped the v0.1.2 files and keep them included. Anyone interested will still have access to that version of the rules, which includes the details about factions and creatures that haven't yet been polished up for the 0.2.x release. 

Change Log

• 0.2.0
  • The game rules are complete and can be played; this initial 2.x release does not include the full chapters on Setting (features, factions, opponents) or GM Advice, which will come later. 
    • The Midnight Vale setting and inhabitants continue to exist in a state similar to 1.x releases; those previous releases are bundled in a zip file still available to download.
    • Setting and GM Advice are planned to release in 0.2.x at a later time.
  • New layout and organization for the whole rules text
    • Additional microfiction included, written from the perspective of characters within the Midnight Vale.
  • Brand new character and company playsheets. 
  • Complete rewrite of nearly all major rules and game sections.
    • A vast number of renamed concepts or terminology.
      • Approaches ▶️ Tenets
      • Fortune Roll ▶️ Chance Roll
      • Glare ▶️ Exposure
      • Journey Fates ▶️ Boons
      • Beliefs, Drives, Quirks ▶️ Personality
      • Your Darkness ▶️ Your Shadow
      • Aspects ▶️ Edges
      • Bond Marks ▶️ Trust
      • And more!
    • v0.1’s modified Action Roll evolved into something more like Blades In The Dark’s recently expanded Deep Cuts optional rule, the Threat Roll.
    • New clock types add additional uncertainty to events when desired.
    • Every special ability/feature has been reworked to interact with the other rule rewrites.
    • PC Edges (formerly Aspects) add 1 or 2 extra dice to rolls, instead of modifying the Threat or Impact levels.
    • The number of Despairs has doubled! Each tenet now has an associated deficiency AND excess despair. Keepers can apply whichever they think fits their character or the moment at hand.
    • Keeper advancement integrates a memory flashback scene that echoes forward into the present moment.
    • Teamwork and Bonds have been revised. 
      • Solidarity integrates into other procedures, such as traveling and keeping watch.
    • Interactions and the connection procedures for souls within Fragments have been redesigned.
    • Resources have been adjusted, in type and gathering method.
      • New resource: Genesis Seeds are harvested from defeated nightmares, and used for various improvements or crafts.
      • Lumos acquisition has changed, and is necessary for your sanctuary to function at peak capability.
    • Downtime has had a major rework. 
      • Downtime starts with Respite scenes, to build your effective potential for your time within your sanctuary.
      • Keep Watch has restructured results, aka Fallout, tied to the level of Exposure your company has earned.
      • The number of downtime options depends on the amount of Lumos you gain on vigils to power your base.
    • Some specialized forgecraft are detailed, and some limits are in place to the kind of items your forge can create.
      • Prisms are transforming objects; they can provide light while you travel, or you can permanently anchor them in the environment for additional benefits.
    • Sanctuary improvements (aka base building) has been simplified greatly. 
    • Increased Exposure (formerly Glare) leads to more dangerous complications and fallout.
    • Regional influence, hold, and expansion has been removed. 
      • I made the judgement that this kind of expansion wasn’t core to the story of the keepers, and was initially an attempt to port the basic FitD gameplay around turf expansion. Base expansion/improvements are VIGIL’s growth path.
      • Pushing back the darkness is still certainly a core play value, but the mechanization of it wasn’t implicit to this ruleset. 
        • Previous advancement tied to expansion has been changed; that advancement now relies more on the number of souls who join your cause and attend your sanctuary.
      • This kind of domain play could be added as a modular addition, or as a campaign frame that is focused on it specifically.
  • The clock tracking the passage of time (The Vale Clock) is simplified from six to four “times”, with Midnight lasting the longest. 
  • Nearly all of the text of the game has been revised, and almost none of the Forged in the Dark SRD material remains in its original form. As such, this game has evolved from a strict FitD hack, but I intend to retain the attribution and license info (and in case a phrase or paragraph of the SRD did make it through the revisions). The DNA of FitD is still deep in the design and gameplay of VIGIL; it would not be the game it is without John Harper’s original work.