Update - 27/07/2026

Hello, and welcome to another weekly update! I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was really nice; on Friday night I went to a friend's place and we spent it chatting and watching videoclips, and on saturday I had some friends and my brother over and we played League of Dungeoneers. I still feel it's such a privilege to have gaming space again, it's fantastic. I did work as well, though, especially Sunday, since I have a lot to do. I'm trying to wrap up the exploration chapter for the first Broken Shores 2e alpha PDF (which you'll get this week), but I'm not sure I'll have the whole thing because, as usual, I keep adding to it. There's also the fact that I'm always iterating on some of my systems, one of them being the overworld travel and exploration. I initially started using a version of the one I had in 1e, but then I realized that I didn't actually like it. So I ended up writing a different one, but that one was too complicated, and finally I've decided to use the one from Machine Gods, but adapted to hexes instead of squares, and adding a couple new things. It's a system that works, and it's simple enough to learn quickly. I still have to make sure I like the ocean exploration procedure, but it should work very similarly. I'm not sure if I'll be able to write the ruin exploration procedure, because I might do something completely different. I had an idea for a different system from the one I used in 1e, but I need to write it before I see if it could actually work.

So as you can see, there's a lot of deliberation and experimentation going on. I think I can always do better than I've done, so I keep trying to come up with new ideas and solutions, always based on feedback and your preferences as players, without sacrificing what I enjoy from my games, of course.

It's been a week of frustration with shipping companies, and I've spent a lot of time dealing with them and customs, which is why I really hope the GamesQuest deal works out well and I don't have to ship a book ever again. It's truly becoming a nightmare and spending a whole morning on the phone trying to find out if a customer will get their book or if it will be lost in customs is not what I signed up for. Things are moving forward, though, and I'm hoping the printer will have the Machine Gods boxed sets ready to go in late August. Right now what's delaying us is the illustration for the box itself, but it's a giant one so it makes sense Simone is taking so long. The printer will be closed during most of August, though, so I don't think we'll see any movement until early September. Let's hope people can start getting their boxes that same month! And once all that is done, I will move forward with the next Kickstarter, which might very well be Broken Shores 2e. We'll see!

The year of bad luck continues, and the brutal fires we're having in Madrid (the worst ones in its history) had forced my father to evacuate from his home (he lives in the outskirts of Madrid, in a more rural area). So far he's been lucky and his house is still standing, but it all depends on the wind. It's an absolute ecological catastrophe, truly heartbreaking. And there are thousands of abandoned cats and dogs as well, so all the shelters in the region are getting flooded. I don't own a car so I can't volunteer directly but I am doing what I can, buying food and supplies that they need. It's just horrifying.

So this week, provided I don't have any more fire-related distractions, I will just keep working on Broken Shores and little else. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the Vaelorian Codex for Ker Nethalas is going to be delayed, unfortunately. I discovered an error and I need to order new proof copies, now that I fixed it. But Glynn is on vacation so I have to wait until he's back before he can work on the new DTRPG files. I'm still hoping I'll be able to release the book in late August, though!

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