Hi. Where are we now?
over 3 years ago – Tue, Oct 13, 2020 at 08:50:06 AM

An update this morning

I am roughly halfway through with a rewrite/reorganization of The Sunken Library, the fifth and final book in the More Perilous Journeys set of offerings. 

I took it on myself to do this, as I felt that given the stated preferences of the TFT audience, something that was more sandboxy/setting-friendly  would be a better presentation of the really cool ideas that The Sunken Library contained. 

What I've got done right now is a pretty thorough precis of the various factions, what they care about, what they're willing to do, and who opposes them. I've got most of the key artifacts and items that everyone's trying to lay their hands on (and which, if the PCs start off having played the prior four books, are in their hands as this adventure kicks off). I'm buffing out "Places of Import," a high-level overview (very high) of the territories that the journey might tromp through. And I've got full stats done for 21 different NPCs or critters.

What is left is to finish the Places of Import section, and then start moving the right ideas, including maps and challenges, from the original draft into the reworked one. I'm hoping to make a lot of progress this week, though that may be challenging b/c my wife has to take a business trip to Arizona and the kids are out of school this week. Regardless: my goal is to get another 9,000 to 11,000 words transferred over and amplified.

The goal here is to let the motivations of the factions - including the players! - speak for themselves. Faction A is going to be throwing resources at the heroes over and over; eventually one of the sorties will get lucky or skilled. Faction B is throwing different resources at different goals, perhaps PC-adjacent, but still annoying. Factions C and D just want to kill each other, and Faction A and E have business that they want to do that is both helpful and hurtful to our heroes. It should be a glorious mess, presented in such a way to give the players and their paper people full agency to act, while still pointing at the climax that the five Jok Sevantes books have been building to the entire time.

But once I've got all the descriptive pieces in place, there's really just the segments that talk about...call them the four major movements of the piece, the way a symphony has movements. The first and last are, well, the first and last. The other two, the conductor can play in any order.

Fine, fine. Schedule Please

Here was the original schedule.

• Campaign Launch: May 19, 2020
• Campaign End: June 13, 2020
• Backerkit Phase: July, 2020
• Production: September, 2020
• PDF Distribution: October 2020
• Printing and Delivery: November 2020

We're currently in October. I have 19 days to achieve "PDF distribution." This week will tell a lot if I can make that. If I DO distribute in October, it is likely that The Sunken Library will not be 100% full of art. Printing is the "good news," in that it should only take a 1-2 weeks, rather than the usual 4-6. Then distribution. This still feels like "books in hand in December" to me, rather than much earlier, which I'd hoped.

I'll keep working, and keep you posted.

Catacombs of Living Death: Art
over 3 years ago – Tue, Sep 22, 2020 at 06:28:21 PM

This one you've seen before

But here are three new bits with interior art and layout.

For Catacombs, we're down to three interior images, which I expect in the coming week.

For The Sunken Library, I'm doing a pretty comprehensive structure and edit based on feedback, and that is going to take as long as it takes . . . but I'm making good progress.

When I'm done with all that, the remaining task is to do a book-by-book check and pull the key bits for counters to fit on the last page for all five books. Any critical counters that I don't have usable art for, I'll procure it.

So still on schedule, though with less slack in the timeline than I'd prefer.

Catacombs of Living Death: Art in Progress
over 3 years ago – Wed, Sep 09, 2020 at 06:41:24 PM

As of today I have the art direction done for Catacombs of Living Death, which means layout and editing are also in a good place. I expect to have a distribution-ready preview file in two weeks or so. All the artists have agreed to take the pieces offered, and it's all underway, with 50% advances paid to secure their time. ("I do the job. And then I get paid. But half up front." -Mal Reynolds, contract artist)

That leaves the largest book, The Sunken Library, for editing and layout. I had David look over the draft in parallel with Catacombs, and he gave some really good feedback that shall be incorporated into the final version.

Now that some major, major stuff is out of the way at home (we finished a 2,000 square foot/186 sq. meter basement from concrete to 'it might as well be the main floor, in time to see my girls re-start distance learning for school yesterday), I have only Library and a Day Job search to do, and neither should interfere with the other.

Thanks to the refinish, I have a spiffy new office all to myself as well...it's very quiet (when my 6yo doesn't invade), and much more organized then my prior space.

In any case...things should accelerate here, I hope!

Book Four (Catacombs) in Layout; Art next
over 3 years ago – Thu, Sep 03, 2020 at 07:38:24 PM

Made excellent progress, finally, on Catacombs of Living Death. It's 20 pages, and we're tweaking words and layout now between the authors and me.

I should be able to rouse my art team and get some nice images done Real Soon Now (like tomorrow), and then turn my hand to The Sunken Library. I enlisted David Pulver to give that book a "before I get to it" pass, and he made some great suggestions and observations we're already acting on.

So not at a standstill: far from it.

Finished PDFs (older stuff) Distributed
over 3 years ago – Sat, Aug 22, 2020 at 08:57:18 AM

While I'm still working on the NEW material, there's not a single reason not to distribute the PDFs of the things already done. So I did that just now.

All of y'all who have placed PDF orders for prior products should have them now.