POST #1
SO WHAT’S GOING ON?
It’s very late, and I should be in bed, but I want to dish on some things whilst I still have them rummaging around in my muddy noodles. As you know (and I’m sure you do), I’ve been working on a number of projects, including a monster of an adventure called “Mine”. I call it the “forever adventure” because it never seemed to be getting done. No matter how much I’d write, there would be that much more still to be done. It was maddening. I’m not sure why it ballooned on me the way it did, but I know that at some point I embraced it. Or it embraced me. We grabbed one another. I’m not sure who won.
PROGRESS
I’ve been sawing on this thing for a long, long time now, and I just finished Act IV. There’s a lot of material there, and most of it probably won’t be used in a given playthrough. In fact, I highly doubt it. That was kind of the point. After three monster acts, I’ve finally got the final one in proofreading to fix the invariable dumb mistakes I make when I’m writing. The story has been told. The plot hooks for follow-on adventures have been laid, and all that’s left is to put the bow on top with the denouement. I’m told that’s French for “unknotting”. It’s the part of the play where all the loose ends are tied up and mysteries are solved. Cummupence is doled out by the shovelful, and everybody lives happily ever after – if that’s the kind of stories you tell. I’m really relieved to have so much of this in the rear-view mirror.
WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG?
Well…. because I’m poor at time management and I’ve also done several other projects that I haven’t released yet because I wanted Mine out of the way first. There are two other adventures ready for preflight (A Dark and Stormy Knight and Frostwind Grotto), as well as a third adventure that’s practically done (A Giant Pain). On top of that, I’ve been refactoring the Player’s Guide for a 1.0 release, and again with the exception of some art pieces, it’s ready to go out the door too. Somewhere in there there was a pandemic, a heart attack, 4 heart stents, and a really badly broken foot that still isn’t healed. Throw in a bout of clinical depression and two absolutely humongous spell writing projects, and it’s easy to see why things might have been delayed a bit. But don’t worry, I felt bad about it the entire time.
SO WHAT’S COMING NEXT?
I’m glad you asked! As soon as Mine is through preflight, the bespoke 1.0 build of the Chronicles of Ember Player’s Guide is next. I’ll follow that up with Frostwind Grotto (which will be an optional pack-in for the Starter Set and will be a free giveaway on my website… once I get that all wired up again. Some cheeze dick bombed my site to hell and back, and my IT guy, along with a bit of help from me, managed to get it to a kinda pretty but not exactly working state. Mine really took all my attention and I hate doing online stuff. But I digress.
After Frostwind, three deities will get a closer look with “The Canticles of Dawn”, “Divine Entropy: The Book of Mordain the Stormbringer”, and “The Leaves of Nanawen” being banged together and offered for sale. The oft-referenced and occasionally seen “Weapons & Armor Guide” is up for final polish too. I don’t want to mention anything else at this time, because that’s already a LOT of work. Suffice it to say that the rabbit hole goes deeper that I’m personally comfortable with. What an odd thing to admit.
CONCLUSION
Uhm… that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll be back with more tidbits on a regular basis. Thanks for reading!
— Alan