Thank you so much for your interest! I had many of the same thoughts as yourself when playtesting Xenthra, and during my experience with Blades in the Dark I often felt like there was a high fantasy Blades niche that needed filling. Internal playtesting is still in the works and I'm hoping to add some artwork to the playbooks in due time. I would appreciate hearing your thoughts on the game!
So nice to hear it! I will definitely test Xenthra soon.
I had an idea after I saw a video today on YouTube about familiars. I thought "you know, finding and magically binding a familiar to you could be a downtime activity". And then I thought that a lot of things could be done in the downtime activities for a fantasy rpg. Of course, blades in the dark system already has this covered; you could say it's a long term project. But maybe the list of downtime activities could be expanded, with special actions for every class.
And others could be added also, like drinking and celebrating in a tavern after a dungeon crawl.
Just sharing with you some ideas that got me excited :) if you ever want to reach out to me, I have Instagram, reddit and twitter:
Insta: @thiago.petru
Reddit: u/thpetru
Twitter: @thiago_petru
Hey! Sorry for the late reply, my career has kept me busy. ^^
That's a very clever suggestion for downtime activity. Class-based expanded downtime options would go a long way towards strengthening class identity, and I've sometimes had players desire more structure or solid options for fantastical downtime. A joint activity that all players can take part in and benefit from could make for a fun crew ability, (Like a tavern crawl)
It's very kind of you to offer your art skills! I like your style and I think I will commission some art from you at some point if you have time. As soon as I am less busy with work I will start spending more time on art.