Update - 20/05/2024

Hello, and welcome to another weekly update! Last week was the launch of Ruthless Heavens, Boundless Fate, as you all know. It finally funded, but it's going much slower than I had hoped. I wasn't expecting the same level of success as Across a Thousand Dead Worlds, but definitely higher than Ker Nethalas, since it's what I would call a much more commercial game. I spent more than ever before on art, I used a super simple ruleset (yes, I know, the procedures make it crunchier, but those are circumstantial and not something you must pay attention to all the time), the setting is quite colorful and bright, and I even included classes and ancestries. I was hoping to reach a new audience with this game but I've clearly failed to do so, and my regular audience doesn't seem to be that much into this sort of setting. I don't want to sound bitter or anything, I'm super proud of this game and I think it's a really good one, I've learned a lot writing it and it has the best weapon development system I've written so far, among other things. I also had fun with the setting, and it's really nice to have a change of pace. This way I've returned to my beloved grimdark stuff with renewed energies.

What is clear, though, is that I should just stick to what I know instead of trying to reach new audiences. I sort of tried that with Riftbreakers, but I didn't go all in with that game the same way I did with RHBF. So for the time being I've decided that I'm just going to focus on Sacrifice/Warlord Ascedant, Ker Nethalas/Carnage & Aether, Across a Thousand Dead Worlds and Broken Shores, and stop trying to work on games that don't have the sort of tone that I enjoy. I will release the Guild Edition of Riftbreakers sometime next year to try to wrap that game up, and consider it done. The same goes for RHBF, this is the first time EVER that I don't have pages and pages of notes of things I want to include, and that's simply because I really worked very hard making sure the game has everything I could think of. The only thing missing, in my opinion, is the random Trial generator that is the Kickstarter's first stretch goal, and quite honestly I think I'll include that whether we reach the goal or not, so I feel like the game is really done.

I've been working really hard on Carnage & Aether, and things are moving along very nicely. I've added a whole section of advance combat rules with optional mechanics to make the fights more interesting, and I'm just about to finally wrap up the rules chapter. The next chapter has all the rules about how to deal with the arena fights, then the bestiary and all the rules explaining how the enemy AI works (it's the best I've written, ever), and finally the gear section with all the crafting rules. I'm absolutely sure this is going to be the best arena/boss battler game ever released, barring those boardgame monstrosities like Oathsworn or Kingdom Death Monster. What I'm still not sure about is how I'm going to implement the tactical aspect as an optional rule for Ker Nethalas. I might need to release that as a separate expansion just for KN. We'll see.

This week will be dedicated to wrapping up the second issue of The Vaelorian Codex, since Richard sent me the Domain he wrote, and I need to see if this fits in the zine, or if it should be its own release. Yes, it's that massive. It's really, really cool, with lots of Dark Souls influences, references to the KN lore, explanations to some of the game's mysteries, and a lot of cool tweaks to the rules. You'll see!

So that's it for this week, I hope you all have a great one!