Recap

On may 15, a year passed since the final Alpha update I had planned for the game. Since then, I've been working on and off on the Beta version, editing everything bit by bit and porting it to a new layout, which I've talked about in the past. I figured that since it's been so long since then, I could do a little progress report on how things have been going.

Progress Report

First things first, I've been doing bimonthly previews of the Beta thanks to GDG's Showcase Weekend, which I organized myself. You can check out the last preview here, and the next one should be in June. You can get the beta preview PDF and check out stuff for yourself!

Like I said in the last post about the beta development, this process is much slower than I imagined. Partially because it's more difficult than I imagined, but mostly because I have very little time after my day job (I'm a game designer and graphic designer at a local videogame studio) which means my workflow with this game has greatly diminished. I still advance bit by bit when I have the time, but it's a slow process.

So slow, in fact, that I've been taking the time to polish some more stuff along the way. Beta is promising to be a whole lot more than what I originally envisioned, with lots of little bits and pieces of lore thrown about and small bits of new content and much needed revisions.

The combat chapter is much more elegant and versatile than it was before, for example. Ancestries have changed a lot, too. The core resolution mechanic is seeing some further polish with the removal of what Alpha had introduced as close hits, instead introducing Misses (un-rerollable results of 1) to make things as engaging as I can without further complications. I might revise the actual numbers during the beta, though, because I'm in dire need of playtesting.

I have plans for a general revision of the magic rules that should give me and homebrewers more freedom to work on magic subsystems. There's also a fifth Arcane Discipline in the works, something I'm invariably calling the Symbolist or the Wardweaver. I had planned to save that for a future splatbook, but at the pace I'm going with the beta of the core rulebook I may as well focus on this as a unique product for the time being.

Journey rules, the last hurdle I'm facing for Book 3, might see some tweaks and polish along the way, but it might just be a direct port until, again, I can allow myself to pinch some numbers.

Once I'm done with Book 3, the only thing that will be missing will be the GMing-centric chapters. I'll try to tackle monster creation first, as the other chapter in this section is just a collection of tools and advice that aren't 100% required to run the game. Maybe that way I'll be able to open an early beta playtest, who knows.

Feedback Required!

If you're familiar with the Alpha version and/or you've checked out the Beta preview, please take the time to follow this link and give me your general thoughts on the state of the game. I'd greatly appreciate your thoughts.