I'm going to drop this without comment. I may comment later on the podcast side. Oh, and a LotFP update later today ;)
July, and Progress on the Book
Posted by Judges Guild
Jul 5, 2019
- Update from Bob Bledsaw II.
I could not simply sit on my hands here (having promised to halt other Guild projects and stop my convention appearances). I want the City State to be better, and so began a rewrite of the original texts. This is changing the City State Book in the following ways:
1. Additional material is being added to enhance and fresh-out the descriptions of people, places and things. Some of this material draws from Bob Bledsaw's original 1970's campaign (unpublished writings), and alternate drafts, the Guild's unpublished works Gem City, Bob's Lonely Mountian, and Book of Rumors.
2. Weapons on NPC's are now described as in-hand, worn, secreted, or near-by. This will help judges determine readiness in combat situations.
3. The Tri-stat system is has been stripped out for the lighter generic version. This is the one thing that has been altered away from Bob Bledsaw's 1999 Universal design. (the last digit imposed an endurance factor to all stats, meaning how many times per day the stat held without degradation). This is a good feature, but for this product, I have bowed to popular opinion here.
4. Many NPC's have now complete stats, where before it was only sketched. This created full NPC listings for many new characters.
5. Many NPC's have been given their own combat style and tactics which they will employ if provoked. Their aggressiveness or passiveness with help judges determine how they with interact in various situations.
6. Drawing from Bob Bledsaw's unpublished ideas for monsters and items, some new surprises in the way of creatures, rare weapons, and back-stories have been applied.
7. The original artwork needed cleaned and digitally enhanced. Also, new illustrations are being applied, but sparingly to avoid over-extending page-count (which has jumped significantly with the additional text).
I feel this expansion of the material will enhance your product, because aside from the great map and concept of the City State as a whole, the meat of the product has always been the richness of ideas within. Although a lot of the new material draws from Bob's scattered thoughts jotted down on scraps of paper, I think they have a place here, and have inserted the best of these where I felt they fit best.
I want you all to know that as of yet, no large project has added substantial funds toward the account, but the account is growing from sales royalties coming in from third-parties. As for now, I continue to make this something you will all treasure. My goal remains to get this into your hands as soon as possible.
- Bob Bledsaw II
So damn frustrating that they won't even post a snippet of what they are working on.
ReplyDelete"My goal remains to get this into your hands as soon as possible."
ReplyDeleteThis sentiment is ludicrously belied by the fact that he is apparently rewriting the damn thing (shades of Gareth M. Skarka?)
Over-promise, under-deliver.
ReplyDeleteIOW, he’s adding work while not cutting the existing work and trying to get the whole project done faster.
ReplyDeleteThat’s a bold strategy. Let’s see how that works out for him.
Object lesson: have the text done in a form you approve of before you crowdfund.
ReplyDeleteThis. Always this.
DeleteFor those that missed it- an additional update showed up today with two before/after inns. This is presumably in response from several backers asking for a sample of the new content.
ReplyDeleteIMO, we'll get something close to what we paid for, the only question is "when".
I had completely forgotten that I backed this. "Estimated Delivery: Nov 2014" -- we'll see if this comes in before it's five years late. FWIW, the example he provided in the KS backer-only updates isn't bad, but I think he is interpreting things differently than his dad, which is a pity. For example, in the original it's the "Bellowdeck's Inn", which I always thought was somebody's name, say "Beldin Bellowdeck" the dwarf pirate. In the expanded text, it's clear it's going to be the "Below Decks Inn" even though the name hasn't changed. It's an incredibly minor nitpick, but I liked drawing conclusions from the way Bob wrote stuff, and it seems like a lot of little areas are going to be far more defined.
ReplyDelete