November Update
about 4 years ago – Tue, Dec 08, 2020 at 01:15:12 AM

November Progress

We've finished the Campaign Play chapter which gives advice for games that run multiple sessions. Generally games won't go more than 10 sessions on the long end, but it's still a different beast to run a single session game versus a longer story.

We also got the majority of the Guide chapter done. The Agendas and Principles were relatively straightforward, since they're more like guidelines for what tone you're trying to achieve and some big picture ideas to keep in mind. When we got to the Guide Moves, things got a bit trickier.

We had a good first draft list of Moves ready, but we found that it leaned a bit too heavily into the abstract. We got the design team together and hammered out a new list that we'll be fleshing out this month.

We're also progressing on the layout front, reviewing sample pages and starting on the Chapter 1 layout to see what real content looks like when it's laid out.

What's Next?

We're filling out the Guide Moves, then moving onto the general Guide advice for how to create and use NPCs and antagonists, help make each Playbook shine, lead the group in table safety, and prepare between sessions without planning too much.

After that, we'll clean up the chapter on running the first session. The plan is to have a step-by-step guide to help you run the first session. Running Powered by the Apocalypse games can be intimidating if you're new to role playing games or are used to games where the player running the game can do lots of planning ahead of time. This section should help make the introduction to the game for the group a little easier.

A Final Word

I've done my best to be as transparent as possible with how we're doing both personally and in terms of the project. It's been a tough year. Our initial estimate when we launched the Kickstarter was that we'd have everything written within a few months and printed and shipped by the end of the year. Obviously that wasn't how things went. That said, the extra time, like with any project, has allowed us to refine the game. It's going to be better because we've had more time to work on it.

There are three chapters left after the current Guide chapter, plus a few miscellaneous sections like an index and the listing of backer submitted art captions. I'm going to guess that at the current rate, we'll be finished with the first complete draft of the text at the end of February. We'll still have copy editing, layout, accessibility review, etc to do, but we should have a head start on most of those things. It's been a longer road than we'd anticipated but we're moving forward.

We're incredibly grateful for everyone's patience, and we can't wait to get this out to everyone once it's ready. In the meantime, stay safe, stay healthy. Love from all of us,

- Richard and the DiM Team

October Update
about 4 years ago – Tue, Nov 03, 2020 at 10:10:23 AM

October Progress

The Playbooks chapter is finished! We did another pass through the playbooks for balance, formatting, and renamed some mechanics to better convey their meaning. Additionally, we added sections that briefly tell you what each playbook is, some reasons why you might want to play them, and offer up some sample characters.

What's next?

We'll be diving into the advice for multi-session games, and advice for the Guide. We have quite a bit written, but we need to whittle it all down into something that flows well and distills down what we've learned from a few years of running the game into practical advice. We're hoping this section will move a bit more quickly because we don't have to worry as much about the interconnected moving parts of the mechanics.

After that, there's only a few more large sections: a chapter on how to run the first session and a chapter on how to customize the game (with custom Moves, adjustments to the rules, etc). We also want to create a section that goes into a bit more depth about how to maintain table safety and how to make the game accessible. Part of that will also be doing a pass through the existing content to make sure that table safety and accessibility aren't just siloed into their own chapter as an afterthought.

We still have a good deal of writing to do, but things are progressing. Again, we really appreciate everyone's patience, as this year has slowed things down much more than we'd anticipated.

A Final Word

For all of us in the United States, please make a plan to vote safely if you haven't already. This month promises to be an incredibly stressful time, regardless of how things turn out. Please stay safe and remember to look out for each other. Check in with friends when you have the energy, and be kind to yourself.

Love from all of us,

Richard and the DiM team

September Update - Delays and Writing Progress
about 4 years ago – Sat, Oct 03, 2020 at 09:22:17 PM

Delays

We're not going to finish the book by the end of 2020.

I'd remained hopeful but it is becoming increasingly obvious that to push hard for that deadline would put the mental health of the team at risk given all the other stresses everyone is facing. We appreciate everyone's understanding and support, and are working steadily to complete the book. If you want to jump in with the playtest version of the game, you can get the Quick Start Guide and play right away.

My best guess is that the first draft text of the book will be done by the end of the year, but we will probably still have some layout and editing to do. As soon as we have a digital copy of the book ready, we'll distribute that.

Physical copies will go the printer as soon as we have the files prepared, which will probably be early 2021.

September Writing Progress

On the up side, the writing progress has been steady, if not as rapid as we'd like. We finished the Moves chapter, have updated some of the typographical choices to make information clearer in the previous chapters, and started on the Playbooks chapter.

We're moving the updates to a monthly schedule, but feel free to reach out to us at any time on Twitter (@DiMRPG) or here. We'd love to hear about your experiences with the Quick Start rules or field any questions you may have for us.

Thank You

Finally, thank you again to everyone. The world is a frightening place at the moment, especially in the United States, and we're incredibly grateful to have so many people believe in us and the game we're creating.

Love and care from all of us,

Richard

August Update - New Art & Writing
over 4 years ago – Thu, Sep 03, 2020 at 03:52:37 PM

August was a good month for progress on the game! Check the bottom of the update for a new art piece.

Just a quick reminder that the game is 100% playable right now. You can find the Quick Start Guide on the website to get started right away. The writing progress we're describing below is for the final text of the book, which will go more in depth and provide more resources for players and guides.

This month we completed the following:

The Basics chapter is now 100% first draft complete. It includes basic information about the game and details on the mechanics.

The Characters chapter is now 100% first draft complete. It includes information about the information contained in Playbooks and how to choose one.

The Moves chapter is about 50% done time-wise for the first draft. The basic information about moves and the section on the Basic Moves is complete.

Finally, we have one more fantastic piece of artwork from Devon George to share...

We hope you're all staying safe and doing what you can to improve the lives of the most vulnerable people in your communities. 

-Richard

Characters Section & Audio Editing
over 4 years ago – Fri, Aug 07, 2020 at 09:02:42 PM

Writing

The Basics section got a once-over by the team and is ready to head to the editor.

I'm currently in the middle of writing the Characters section. Trying to encompass what a character can be in Descent into Midnight can be tough because things are so wide open, and having the Echo as part of the setting means you can be a lingering psychic impression, an aspect of the collective consciousness of a city, or just a plankton with a biotech octopus mech and a surly attitude. Still, it's been fun to try and capture all of that and emphasize that what's important to these characters is their internal journey and their relationship within the group and to their community.

New Actual Play Episode

In addition to the writing work, I've been editing the audio for an actual play episode for International Podcast Month 2020. Technically I'm representing Whelmed: The Young Justice Files for IPM, so you might have expected it to be a superhero game, but I couldn't say no to running more Descent into Midnight. I'll have more details about that when it airs in September, but in the meantime, you can familiarize yourself with the voices you'll hear by checking out The Magpies, Stories of a Broken Sun, and Queer Dungeoneers.

Artwork

We've now received the last of the cityscape illustration submissions from backers, and Devon is charging ahead with those illustrations. We got a color study this week for one of the pieces that is in progress and can't wait to show off the finished piece once it's done!