So, uh, I've not done much work on Beneath a More Auspicious Star recently. I've posted even less of that work here.

Actually, that's not *entirely* true - I have been working on my hack, just not directly. I realised that I wanted to explore how various things might interact, what interesting ways and things might be done with mechanics. Of course, Beneath a More Auspicious Star is not the right place to tinker with mechanics in that sense - it's a place where the mechanics should all be polished and sharp.

So I wrote a mini-hack called Escape from Thanatos! to see what would happen if you stripped out basic moves and replaced harm with conditions. And writing and playing it was pretty fun so I wrote a couple more.

At the moment I'm still exploring this format and still enjoying it. I've already decided to use conditions and custom moves instead of harm in BaMAS.

So I've not forgotten about this, or abandoned it, or anything like that. But progress is slow. I don't know how many of you are paying attention or still awaiting this eagerly but the game is still close to my heart and I'm still determined to make it a thing worth of play and enjoyment.

Stuart.

This thing isn't dead, it's just playing possum. Meanwhile, after marking enough circles, you get to advance.

I kinda wanted to root the advancement within the fiction slightly more. Part of it was making your House and Philosophy continually relevant - so they take part of the work of providing Advancement Options.

However, I also decided to add in something else to the mix. It's something that's already there in part with options like "get a gang and {MOVE}" - advancements that are baked into the fiction. So I'm cooking up a bunch of "Special Moves" that you can only take if you meet the requirements.

If you've held your own against overwhelming odds, you can take Renowned when you Advance. If you've communed with the First Emperor you can take Destined.

You don't get these moves automatically, and neither do you have to take them but they provide a nice way of making every game different, and every character unique whilst reinforcing the setting.

So does it sound appealing? And does anyone have any ideas for "conditions" for these bonus options?

Oh, and this project is most definitely still on despite radio silence here.

Unlike vanilla AW, BaMAS is huge in scale. Estimates/census put the population of China at something like 50,000,000 before the Three Kingdoms Period (the period in question) began.

In BaMAS there are People and then there are Pawns. Pawns are like stuff - they have separate moves for manipulating them. Pawns don't have names - not really. Pawns can't hurt you any more than a bowl or a knife. People have names. People can hurt you - with a knife, or a Pawn, or an Army. Name someone and they're a Person - not a Pawn.

In AW, gangs, large gangs, are still a sensible number of people. You could fit a gang into a large hall. In BaMAS the halls are that much bigger to fit everyone in. It has three scales - Personal, Tactical and Strategic for dealing with large numbers. It has War Moves for dealing with Armies.

What needs work, and fiddling, are the exact numbers. At the moment the Governor and the General are still using AW numbers (and tags) with a few more zeroes. This is high on the list to be sorted.

Tactical and Strategic are not just terms for Warriors, Tacticians and Generals. Courtiers, Governors and Ministers use the same scale for dealing with politics.

So, scale, think BIG.

Here are the classes as they currently stand in their variety of completednesses. Still to be written are the Tactician, Minister, Philosopher and Scholar (or maybe Philosopher or Scholar).

I'd like those interested parties to opine on the various contents, point out obvious spelling mistakes and balance issues. Additionally, if anyone has any ideas for any of the handbooks still to be written or glaring omissions from existing handbooks put them here. Some ideas I may have already considered and dismissed or put into operation elsewhere - others I may just have neglected to think on. Whichever it is, it's all good for discussion!