Update - 04/10/2021
Hello, guys! Before we begin, let's welcome Cristina N. to the Order! Thanks so much for joining us in such admittedly irregular times!
So how was everyone's weekend? I had a friend come over and we played some Shadows of Brimstone. Feels good not to be the GM for once, even if it's just playing a dungeon crawler boardgame. It remains my favorite boardgame, so fun and so many surprises always! My friend found an item that made him more powerful the more corruption points he would accrue, but it also made him more likely to mutate. Which he eventually did, with the resulting mutation causing the item to be absorbed into his body, meaning it became a part of him. Nothing better than interesting emergent gameplay!
So this is the first update in the new post-Disciples and Seekers era; the contract was finally signed on Thursday, and we are going to officially announce the rights transfer this Wednesday. All Seekers and Disciples content has been removed from all my storefronts and website, as you know. Which means that all my time is now dedicated to Across a Thousand Dead Worlds! Well, to be honest I've also started to work occasionally on the next game, the sword & sorcery one (I keep calling it like that but who knows what flavor it will end up having, these things take a life of their own), mostly trying to set up the base cultures and decide the overall tone. I am even considering maybe initially focusing it on urban adventures, instead of the standard wilderness exploration... I have to think about it!
As for ADTW, I've done more progress on the Planetside Exploration rules, and started to look into what comes next after that. Initially I wanted to have the gear chapter done, but I might tackle the GM emulation rules because I'll use the Seekers ones as a starting point and I think it shouldn't take me too long to figure it all out. I'm not sure if the Planetside Exploration rules have enough deepness though, especially compared to the Site exploration rules... I did intentionally simplify it, but it might be too simple. This is where playtesting comes in, I'll need a lot of feedback before I can consider this finished. I need to know if this is fun and entertaining to play!
I've also been thinking about the traditional group gameplay experience the game can offer, and I think I might have unintentionally created Paranoia in space. Between all the stress mechanisms that trigger while aboard the spaceship, and the fact that gold=XP (not gold, but you know what I mean), teamplay is not really encouraged. The fun part is that you cannot really pretend to survive on a mission by your own (unless you're going solo, of course), so you are forced to collaborate with your teammates, regardless of how much you hate their annoying laughter or tics. I think this can be a fun game to GM!
So that's it for this week, I'll continue making good progress on ATDW and hopefully it will all be done soon! Have a great week, and expect the Through Sunken Lands pre-orders to open very soon!