Skip to main content

Just Another Update

This has been a crazy, crazy month. To say it's gotten away from me would be an understatement. I won't bore you with the grisly details of life outside the lines of TATG but it's been a doozy of a month.

  • Research and Investigation? Done. The entire chapter has been re-written, simplified and tested out thoroughly. It does what you'd think it would do. I had more grandiose plans for a sub-system of Investigation and such but that blew up in the face of people trying to, you know, play it... so... I settled for a section that promotes highly emergent play with a few guidelines and rule enhancements to help groups out if they need it.
  • In-Between Adventures? Done. This chapter retained its same core. The tables in the chapter have been simplified and the rules for using them have been simplified as well. Rules for "Assets" and "Relationships" have been added. These rules are very simple. Like 1 or 2 pages simple. But they're just enough to get the point across. Characters can (and should) win fortunes, find love, get married, have children, encounter misfortune, and suffer tragedy. In essence, this chapter brings its own "mini-game of life" into TATG and helps to answer the questions of (a) how long has it been since the last adventure, (b) what have the characters been doing in that time and (c) what have the characters' adversaries been doing in that time? On paper and in practice, it helps answer the key question so many asked in early playtests: "So now what?"
  • The How-To chapter? Well, it's got a lot in it. But it's still in draft. Most of it is in some written form at this point. It features some general advice for running a game. And also some specific ideas for campaigns in TATG. The largest section left is the Example of Play, which will be pretty significant.


Geez Dude, Is That All?

No, not really. ;-)

  • Several awesome individuals have sent edits for the TATG Quickstart. Those have all been completed. I'm trying to figure out what to do about a cover, given that I am not going to have time to make one myself. Beyond that, it's ready for layout. I'm hoping to run it at NTRPG-Con.
  • I created two sets of tables that will be included in Transylvanian Adventures. Both sets are related to randomly creating adventures or ideas for adventures with a Hammer Horror theme. They will be featured in a new section titled "Adventuring Tables". There's somewhere between 6-8 tables in total. One group of tables create an entire adventure on the fly. So a Judge could roll up an adventure, then prep it out and run it at the next session. The other is a relatively large table called "Kickoffs" which illustrate a situation that the characters must deal with. It can be used to either generate an opening scene for an open-ended adventure or it can be used in conjunction with an existing adventure. The Kickoffs table may be shortened during edits. But right now it requires a d100 to roll on.
  • I also revisited Rituals. Simplified upgrades. And started working on a few tables that should make 0-Level characters (and the 1st level characters they become) more fun.
  • We've got fonts picked out for layout. And a design template should be completed in the next week or so.


See you all at NTRPG. Once again, thanks for your patience.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Back on the Rack

It's been a long time. But I'm still here. Still working on stuff. Over the last few months, here's what I've been up to. I took a brief hiatus around the end of last year and the start of this year. The holidays are always busy. And work was busy as well. Work's really continued to be busy. I consider that a good thing but it does hamper my ability to devote time to writing. During this hiatus, I took the time to explore what the tabletop RPG community had been up to. I read a number of books, played in some games, ran some games, funded some Kickstarters -- all that stuff I enjoy doing when I'm not the "Transylvania Guy". This is generally a time when I collect ideas. It was helpful when I came back from hiatus to look at Transylvanian Adventures  again with fresh eyes. I've been in contact with a potential co-author for TA . He's very interested and a legit writer to boot. Because he's legit, his schedule is just as crazy as mine...

Happy Halloween

Don't thank me. Thank Deadstop. Here to add some treat to your holiday are some of Dr. Frankenstein's prized creations with a few tricks up their sleeve. This is the first entry in the monsters section of The Hanging Judge's Guide to Transylvania . Enjoy. And don't forget to leave the lights on when you go to sleep. Transylvanian Adventures' Abominations

Only Mostly Dead

Well, that went by quickly. It's been a couple of very challenging months here. I've been able to dive into TA sporadically. But it's not uncommon at this point for my work hours to be 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. or later. So time has been at a premium the last few months. Here's a brief update to remind everybody that I am still, in fact, working on this. NTRPG I did not make it. I was on a plane with my 7-year-old and 5-year-old to fly them to the grandparents. I was optimistic that this would free up some time for the book but it didn't work out that way. As far as the book, here's where it stands. The Good I'm about a third of the way through re-writing the monsters. The new format works fairly well for me and exists in some strange place in between DCC RPG , 13th Age, and Dungeon World . As part of the Monsters section, I'm working on the Advanced Rule Options as well. This where the infamous "cleavage rule" joins us. The prima...