Across a Thousand Dead Worlds

Editing done!
over 2 years ago – Sat, Jun 18, 2022 at 10:15:49 PM

Hello, everyone! How's spring treating you? It's been the hottest spring on record here in Madrid, so it's being tough, haha. But the work on our beloved game has continued, and we are done with the editing! Aside from a couple of pages left (the scenarios written by Donn and Leo that we unlocked as stretch goals), and a couple of minor things, we're truly done! Vi has done an absolutely incredible job, I'm SO happy to have decided to work with them once again.

I just realized that we haven't shared the scenario titles! 

- Rains of Felonis, by Donn Stroud. This scenario will take you off world, to the ruins of an ancient civilization.

- The Archive of Minds, by LF OSR. Something's wrong aboard Karum Station... can you find the missing Divers?

I'm excited to play these myself as soon as the PDF is finalized. Which takes us to the next step: Layout! Phil has been working hard on establishing the basic template for the book, which is what takes the most time. He has also been assembling guns for our armory section. Take a look at these!

I think these don't have the final text because Vi were still working on it, but you get an idea. It's looking super cool!

Speaking of cool stuff, Likozor contacted me and told me he was able to work on a couple extra illustrations, which is fantastic! He finalized his Known Threats series, and I hope we can ask him to work on some other stuff as well. Here's one of his last ones!

I assume we might need some more art once layout is close to being finalized and Phil realizes there are some holes he needs to fill, so let's hope Likozor is back for good!

Now that the editing part of the project is essentially over, I personally don't have much to do, aside from overseeing Phil's progress with the layout (not like he needs it, he is a master at what he does and I rarely have any constructive criticism to give him). This means that while we wait for the final PDF to be done I'll be working on some other projects, as well as preparing what comes next for ATDW. I also want to make an SRD available as soon as I can, we'll see how I go about that. I'd really love for people to come up with their own material for this game!

So that's it for now, next time I'll be back with plenty of spreads to show you!

- Alex

And the work continues!
over 2 years ago – Fri, May 13, 2022 at 08:56:49 PM

Hello!

It's been about a month since my last update, so I'm back, reporting on our latest progress. As most of you know, we're in the editing phase of the project, and Vi has really gone deep with this one. This is my third project collaborating with Vi, but I've never seen them work this much and with so much attention to detail. I was always confident about this project, but I was scared that the layers of complexity would be too dauting for some people, and that my explanations didn't come across as intended. But after seeing what Vi's doing with it, I'm really confident everyone is going to be capable of grasping all the gameplay concepts at a glance. Let's take Talents as a simple example; my initial goal was to have a D100 table, with 50 results. I then came up with some extra Talents and decided to make three different D20 tables, and that is how it was during most of playtesting. This was apparently very confusing for players, who didn't know which table to roll on (you're supposed to pick a table yourself); to make it clearer, I separated the talents by function into Combat and Non-Combat Talents, creating two different 3D10 tables. I'm sure many of you are already thinking "wait, what about the bell curve?", and yes, what about the bell curve indeed... Paying attention to the bell curve is Game Designer 101, and somehow I completely forgot about it! For those of you who don't care about game design, a bell curve is "a graph depicting the normal distribution, which has a shape reminiscent of a bell. The top of the curve shows the mean, mode, and median of the data collected. Its standard deviation depicts the bell curve's relative width around the mean", according to Mr. Google. What this means to us is that if we roll 3D10, the most likely results would always be 14-19. Now this is an excellent tool when you need the results eschewed in one particular direction, but not when the goal is to have even probabilities. Fortunately for us, Vi saw this immediately, and what I ended up doing was trimming a couple of boring Talents and leaving it back as a D100 table with 50 potential, evenly distributed results. 

So yeah, you guys should be really excited because the game is really shaping up very nicely! I had some Player Aid sheets already written, but after Vi's work I realize that they're clumsy and even outdated, so I'll have to redo those. They'll be part of the printed material that comes with the Deluxe Murgo Edition!

As for the art, Vil (it's confusing to have a Vi and a Vil in the project, isn't it?) is tirelessly churning out illustrations. Here's a view of what will be your home in the stars, Karum Station!

You can't see it from this angle, but there are tunnels connecting the human-made part of the station with the asteroid, which is the original Àrsaidh facility, a rock completely full of tunnels and hangars with hundreds of ships.

I asked Likozor one last time if he would be able to work with us, but he said no, so I'm afraid we must find a replacement, and that is what I've been trying to do these past couple of weeks. I need someone who would be able to work in a style similar to Likozor's, in order to have some continuity, and that is capable of working fast. Unfortunately, so far I haven't had much luck because everyone is either busy, or are asking hundreds of dollars per illustration, something I can't afford right now if I want the project to work out. Keep in mind these are small illustrations, the type of ones used to fill holes in the layout. I'll keep looking, though! I'm not terribly worried because we have about a dozen or so of Likozor's illustrations, and many, many full-page illustrations from Vil, so the book is going to look gorgeous; either way, I wanted to cover our backs, in case Phil needs some spot art for the layout.

Speaking of the layout, I'm confident I'll be able to show you some final spreads very soon! I'm afraid we've driven Phil a bit nuts with the text ("are you sure this is the final version" "oh yeah, go for it"... a week later... "Actually, this is the final version, scrap that!") so he has been back and forth with the pages more than he should have, but I also know he's been keeping himself busy with the gun designs.  Here's him pairing up in-game weapons with gun models:

And this is how they should end up looking in the book (at least for now and as far as I know, Phil is always testing things):

I think it's going to be really cool!

So that's it for now, I'm going to hop back into the editing because I need to arrange a clear step by step method of setting up combat, and it's not going to write itself!

Talk to you soon!

- Alex

Things keep moving along!
over 2 years ago – Wed, Apr 13, 2022 at 02:07:27 PM

Hello guys! I figured it was time for a new update, even though there isn't much to report. So let's go!

- We're deep into the editing phase now. Vi has finished the first two chapters, and it's now working on the meat and bones of the system, the core rules. This chapter is extremely long and complex due to the multiple things it covers, so Vi is trying to make it flow better and it's really moving things around. This is why an editor is priceless: they go in and see things that I, as the writer and creator, have gotten used to, but that they can identify as problematic for those who are not familiar with the text. It is super exciting to see the text take its final form!

- Speaking of final forms, since chapters 1 & 2 are done, they're now in Phil's hand for the final layout! Originally we had planned to wait until Vi was done with all the editing, but since chapters 1 & 2 are completely finished, this way we save time and get things done ASAP. I suspect this might be necessary because the different paper and material shortages are not getting any better, so I'm honestly afraid that once we are ready to print the printer will tell me that we need to wait months until they can get their hands on the necessary material. They have our rough delivery date estimates, which should mean they're prepared to work on our project the second they receive it, but the world is a mess right now and it's difficult to tell what will happen in three months.

- Both Leo and Donn are almost done writing their scenarios. They should have been done by now, but since Vi's busy editing other stuff, I figured they could use the extra time to perfect what they have. They are two wildly different scenarios, which is awesome because that way you get to experience the game in all its glory! All I can say is that Leo's scenario takes place in Karum Station, while Donn's happens on an alien planet.

- Vil is constantly churning out illustrations. This one is probably my favorite of the last batch!

- I spoke to Likozor since our last update, and he seems to be doing fine. He's in Kiev, has access to the Internet, and sounded okay. Working on the art for us isn't really an option though, so I think I'm going to need to work with someone else because this damn war doesn't seem to have an end on sight. I told Likozor about all your support and he was really thankful, and he also promised to let me know if he can start working again. If it doesn't work out for this project, I'll be collaborating with him in the future for sure, and we already have several of his illustrations that will make it into ATDW, so it's better than nothing, I guess.

- Some of you have asked about the Pledge Manager. I'll open it once we're closer to finishing the project, so don't worry! Everything's under control.

So I think that's it for now, we'll keep working, and hopefully next update I'll have some final interior pages to show you!

Cheers!

- Alex

Progress continues!
over 2 years ago – Mon, Mar 14, 2022 at 04:00:00 AM

Hello, how is everyone doing? I've wanted to post an update for a few days now but I kept getting distracted, apologies! Things are moving along nicely though, so let me tell you what the team has been up to:

- First of all, I finished writing all the stretch goal material! This means that now there's a chance you'll run into a quite terrible cast of creatures that will make your character's life shorter, or at the very least more difficult! The cool thing is that getting rid of these Known Threats (as they're called) grants you commendations which you can spend on unique gear that you'll not be able to obtain otherwise. Yes, this goes against my design goal of not rewarding combat, but since these are relatively rare and interesting, I think it's nice to offer a different objective for the crew, aside from collecting relics. These creatures are different from any other you'll encounter, since they each have their own behavior table instead of relying on the Combat Role tables. I think they're a really fun addition to the game! I've also added all the associated gear you can get with the commendations, as well as a few extra pieces to the other, normally accessible lists of gear. And since I had time I've added tons of little details here and there, too many to list here, many of them as a result of playtesting feedback. This goes from new, optional rules, to new gear, and QoL fixes.

- Speaking of playtesting, the playtest is officially over! And the reason why is that Vi has finally started editing the text! They say it will be done around mid-May so we seem to still be on track. 

- Vil has been churning out illustrations all the time! Here's the latest:

Isn't it amazing? I personally love it, very moody. I'll not mention anything about what it is, since it has to do with Leo's scenario...

- Due to the despicable situation in Ukraine, our second illustrator, Likozor (who lived in Kiev) is obviously incapable of producing any new art. This is a potential setback, especially since I must admit I haven't felt comfortable with the idea of simply replacing him. I still hope things will calm down enough for him to be able to continue working with us, because I imagine he'll definitely need the cash once he's able to get back to work... So far I know he's safe, but not much else. So I think I'll hold as long as I can, before deciding to replace him. I hope you guys understand!

- Last but not least, both Donn and Leo are still working on their scenarios. They have time to finish them still, so it's all good. I can't wait to play these! It's going to be hellish, I'm sure.

So there you go, that's all I can tell you guys for now. But as you can see, we're all busy, working on the game, and things are still looking great. If you guys have any questions, or want to ask about any specific systems, let me know! And as always, we hang out all the time in the Blackoath Discord server, so that's the best spot to find me and ask me whatever you want directly!

I think that's it for now, stay safe!

- Alex

Things happening in the background!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Feb 11, 2022 at 08:58:10 PM

Hello, everyone!

So it's been a few weeks since we wrapped up the campaign, and I just wanted to let you guys know what we've been up to:

- Vil keeps churning out illustrations for us, he's right now working mostly on landscape stuff, all full-page illustrations that will draw you into the setting at a glance.

- Both Donn and Leo are working on their scenarios, and they are two completely different gameplay situations, which is great because it will showcase the variety of problems and places you and your crew will go through.

- Phil is busy working on the final playtest document update. This helps him visualize how the actual layout will look like, and allows him to test ideas in a more realistic way for when Vi is done editing and he can work with the final manuscript. 

- Likozor is also working on his smaller illustrations, he finished a few ship illustrations and it's now working on creature illustrations.

- I'm keeping myself busy working on tweaking the rules, adding new details I think of occasionally (I just realized an Overwatch action would be a great thing to have, for example!), and most importantly, working on the stretch goals. Here's a first draft of one of the Known Threats that can appear as a result of a Site Activity check:

So as you can see, each Known Threat has its own Combat Behavior table, instead of relying on the Combat Role tables that the rest of creatures utilize. I think this is a great way of making each Threat feel more unique and interesting! What I'm trying to figure out now is the rewards for defeating Known Threats; I have some ideas but I don't want to spill the beans just yet! As I mentioned before, I don't want to incentivize combat under normal circumstances, but these guys are cool, there's no way of "farming" them because they appear randomly and in limited numbers, and they're quite tough so I think it can be fun to get something in exchange.

In other news, the pledge manager is open for pre-orders! If you know anyone who missed the campaign, they can pre-order a standard or digital copy right here!

And last but not least, I wanted to bring your attention to Phil's solo project, which is already funded but I think is such a cool idea you guys might enjoy it as well. It's a solo RPG compatible with old D&D, so if you have some OSR character around and want to go kill some skeletons or whatever, go check Fable Paths! 

That's all for now, hope everyone has a great weekend!

- Alex