Player's Guide Feedback
almost 10 years ago
– Sat, Apr 02, 2016 at 08:45:05 PM
Ships of Skybourne will be updated and officially released to the wild next week (we're only waiting on a few pictures), but because I can't leave anything alone, we've been using that time to delve into the airship mechanics again and again to make sure I'm satisfied, which I almost never am.
While there was an update to the Player's Guide a little while ago, we've discovered a few more things we want to change (among other things, we'll be changing how we do airship stat blocks, removing the 'enchantments cost twice as much as normal' clause from siege engines, and changing some of the numbers for crew roles). Therefore, the plan is to have one more update to the Player's Guide at the same time we release the Ships of Skybourne book, after which they will both go to print and get sent out to you at the earliest possible time.
We've considered every piece of feedback we've gotten from backers, but I wanted to officially solicit any feedback we haven't gotten yet; if you've had any thoughts, concerns, questions, or opinions about the Player's Guide, please let us know! We opened a thread on the Giant in the Playground forums, or you can write something on our own forums if you prefer.
The Player's Guide to Skybourne and Ships of Skybourne have taken much longer than anticipated, mostly because I consistently rewrite and re-rewrite everything. However, once these two books are off to the printer, the next two will be ready explicitly faster, partly because most of the groundwork has already been laid, and partly because after rebalancing so many mechanics, I cannot wait to delve into fleshing out the setting of Skybourne for you.
Thank you,
Adam
The Player's Guide to Skybourne!
about 10 years ago
– Sat, Feb 06, 2016 at 11:11:11 PM
I'm never satisfied. In the process of putting the final touches on the Player's Guide, I decided I didn't like a lot of the airship numbers. Long story short, the vehicle guide is now out of date, and will be fixed soon.
Everyone who should be getting the Player's Guide should have just gotten an email from RPG Drivethru with a link to their copy. It's been a long time coming, but the book is finished!
We've decided to delay the general release by 1 week, as there are backers who always help us out immensely by reading things over and finding small errors we miss, and that way we can give you time to look things over and give us feedback before we commit anything to print.
Thank you all for putting up with the delays, but the end result is something we couldn't be happier with.
Thank you,
Adam
State of the Books
about 10 years ago
– Fri, Jan 15, 2016 at 09:34:13 PM
I apologize this is so late; the problems we uncovered were large, and required us to go back and change things in the Player's Guide as well, and we're still putting the pieces back together. However, it's also high-time we got you some of your content, so we've set up a compromise.
Those of you who should be getting the Ships of Skybourne PDFs should have just gotten an email from RPG Drivethru with a link to that PDF; its not up for general sale yet and is still missing some artwork and the 50-some pages of sample vehicles (those are coming, the fixed issues just resulted in a lot of rebalancing and revising), but the rules are there and ready for use. In a week or two we will release the Player's Guide after we have finished updating it to reflect the changes, then we will add the sample vehicles back to Ships of Skybourne, then we will add all of the missing artwork and move both up for general sale.
I apologize for the incremental nature of this release, but this way you can start rolling with the rules as soon as possible, while I get more time to make sure everything is what it should be.
Thank you,
Adam
Quick Change
over 10 years ago
– Thu, Dec 24, 2015 at 07:43:19 PM
Since writing that last update, new issues in the text have cropped up, and snowed-out highways have cut my pre-Christmas writing time. There's no point in sending you something that will change within days, so we'll release the PDFs to you by New Years, just so I can get a few days to straighten everything out. I'm sorry about the delay, I'd just rather my work be late than flawed.
The Books
over 10 years ago
– Mon, Dec 21, 2015 at 08:57:05 PM
As anyone who backed Spheres of Power can attest to, there comes a point in any project where I get so focused on developing that I tend to forget everything else; emails go unanswered, updates go unwritten, and generally I disappear from the world as I try to divert as little mental energy as possible to any task other than writing. We crossed that point with Skybourne a while ago, so I apologize for the radio silence on my part. However, the time has come to force my head up and make sure everyone knows what to expect with Christmas approaching, and when they can expect their books.
The Books
The plan is to release the Player's Guide and Ships of Skybourne by Christmas, but specifically to backers, not for general release. When the campaign moved from 3 books to 4, I knew at least one of them would have to be placed on a back-burner for a while, and we elected Woodfaring Adventures for that. In addition, some collaborators for Andrus have proverbially fallen off the face of the world, some with more legitimate reasons than others. Rather than chase those people down or get a sub-par product from them, I've decided to simply let that go for now.
As for the Player's Guide and Ships of Skybourne, they've both grown considerably beyond what we originally imagined they'd be, and that's with me already planning bigger than normal due to our experience making SoP.
When we say they will be released to backers but not for the general publish, we mean there's still artwork we're waiting for, and the sheer scope of the books has grown so much that we want to make sure we give you sufficient time to look them both over and give us feedback before we do something as irreversible as start putting them in print. I've realized I can never leave something alone if I know it can be more than it is, and both books have developed a mechanical scope far beyond what I'd originally imagined.
For one thing, "Ship's of Skybourne" feels almost like a misnomer now; While considering the role of the airship, as well as adjusted rules for sailing ships, underwater ships, and planar ships, it just made sense to throw land vehicle into the mix as well, and the result has been a set of universal vehicle rules that cover everything from wagons to frigates to mechas to lava-based submarines to space ships and beyond.
Thank you for your patience, and I hope you have as much fun playing with these books as we do writing them.
Adam
