The world has been stuck in amber for almost a eight months as the GM was distracted by his job, his soon to be born child, an achy-pregnant wife, and his Western Fuzion and D&D 3rd Edition campaign. So, it has been a rough time for his main campaign. Still, I am confident he will come crawling back to us in no time when he is looking for a richer story line and more detailed world. Yep, it is only a matter of time before he is begging our forgiveness…..on his hands and knees…..yep, only a matter of time.

Okay, I am sick of waiting; let's get this game jump started without him. Who needs him.

Now that we are fully looking forward to the “Great Shift” I thought I would discuss what changes I see coming in the world from a warrior's perspective. First, the various fighting orders are finally becoming more flesh that bones as the Knights Companion floods the GM with ideas about how to more fully describe all knightly orders. I expect to see the Guardians get a makeover, but I will leave that discussion for Alanna, as well as the reavers. In addition, having peeked at his notes I can assure you that there are several Dakarian orders, some attached to the Temple of Light and other independent, about to be born. Since the Reavers are some of my favorite people to slay, lets talk about their changes.

Most of the backstory will remain the same with these baddies; however, I expect to see some of it fleshed out more fully. They are still crazed lunatics that have dedicated themselves to Danshi of the Berserking Crazed Killer sect. They still rove from town to town, slaughtering all who get in their way before disbanding in the face of those that hunt them. This ability to simple break their warparty apart and escape individually make them very difficult to destroy. Instead, they seem to be able to simply get together again at a set place and time to ravage the land again.

Under the old system the Reavers each bought a package of goodies and got a discount on the price. This package included their religious benefits from Danshi as well as their bloodthirsty disadvantages. They had no choice about the package — it was take it or leave it. Under the new system things become a bit muddier as the system doesn't take into account shifting vocations. Because a Reaver is not exactly a vocation the character will start with from the beginning it must be built the hard way.

While it is possible for a Reaver to come from any background, most that have been touched by Danshi are those that already seek out confrontation. Man-at-arms, Sergeants, and Foresters are all prime candidates. Most knights will avoid these pitfalls, but it is possible that a fallen or weak knight could be influenced. Battle mages and thieves are also acceptable because of their proximity to danger. Of course, those dedicated clerics of Danshi are always accepted.

Now comes the difficult part in the creation of a secondary vocation for a Chivalry and Sorcery character — the system simply doesn't support it. Instead, the character is assumed to be happily marching down their original path with no deviation other than the conversion of some hobby skills to secondary skills. Since it makes no sense for a character to advance along the vocation of Reaver; in fact, there shouldn't even be a vocation of Reaver to start down. Instead, these are like D&D Prestige classes. It needs to be a bolt on class that can tweak a vocation that the character is already using. Prestige Vocations

When a character wishes to add a prestige vocation to their current vocation they will take one of their mastery slots, or some allotment of their experience pile, to add the prestige vocation to their character. Both of these cost methods are use to imply the difficult in adding even slight difference to your main thrust. Once this is done the character will then gain the primary and secondary upgrades to their existing and any future skills. Obviously, the character does not receive a reduction on the cost of any skills already paid for — in the same manner as moving a skill from a hobby to a secondary skill. Skill promotion

This method is more inline with existing rules. If the character is making this move then a set number of skills are added to the character's secondary list. This requires the least change and fits within the current existing structure. It is like the advancement of a bunch of related tertiary skills to secondary status. In some circumstance a skill might even be advanced into a primary skill; although these should be rare to avoid the abuse.

But that is just one character's opinion.