Setting Limits: Part 2 (Player Motivations/Behaviors)

Just as the Simulation Scale can help you when identifying rules implementations, understanding your player's behavior tendencies can help you to tailor game content.

Everyone sees the game table a little differently. Over the years, I have observed a few motivational tendencies in players that I will share that you may want to watch for. These give you clues as to what plot devices the PCs will tend to latch onto, and what things bring them entertainment. Often times a player will exhibit multiple motivational tendencies.

Explorer

Players motivated by exploration tend to crave world content. If someone in your group volunteers to draw maps of each encounter, then you may have an explorer. Explorers are fun and allow you to dangle rewards that aren't limited to a pure monetary 'treasure' value. Keep in mind that explorers are sometimes easily distracted and may pull the party off task. If you take the time to describe a feature in the landscape, be prepared for them to want to investigate. You can use this to your advantage as well, just be careful when adding content to your game.

Completionist

Completionists feel the need to explore, loot and 'beat' everything you have prepared. A completionist will volunteer to return to a lair or dungeon and face almost certain death, just to see what is behind the last door. When playing with a completionist, be cognizant of how much content you have time blocked. A mega dungeon can provide nearly endless entertainment, or prove a burden for the rest of the table. Some completionists may thoroughly search every room for secret. Others will not be happy unless they have uncovered every encounter. Be sure to tailor the amount of content you have so that you satisfy the completionists without hanging up the campaign.

Treasure Hunter

This player's character is motivated primarily by greed. For this player, the acquisition aspect of the game brings a great deal of enjoyment. This can be tricky to balance. By making treasure rare, you increase its value and meaning when the PCs acquire it. However, treasure hunters generally become dissatisfied if some treasure isn't forthcoming. Some players expect treasure after every encounter, while others will be satisfied knowing that some will come as they adventure in search of an artifact, or some alien technology. Treasure frequency is a rarely discussed and a great topic to cover during session '0'.

Murder Hobo

I won't spend too much time on this behavior as there is plenty of information already out there. The short is, that unless the entire table consists of murder hobos, this player will likely cause dissatisfaction with other players. In particular, Murder Hobos may upset the Story Player as they tend to attack significant npcs. If this is the case, understand that instances of roleplay may make the murder hobo uncomfortable. Discussing the level of 'roleplay' and backstory required in session '0' is important in setting the expectation and determining if this is the  right gaming table for everyone in the group.

Story Player

In many ways, story driven players are almost opposite of the murder hobo. These players tend to find satisfaction in interaction with NPCs in the game. If you have a player who spends a great deal of time writing 'backstory' for their character, then they may be a story player. You can take advantage of this by incorporating their backstory into your campaign. Be wary though, such players may also have a tendency to become attached to their well fleshed out characters. For session '0', discussion about how much backstory is acceptable, and what the backstory is, is important. If the player decides their character is a cyborg 'sleeper' agent unaware of their history, that may not fit neatly in the game you are planning to run. Additionally, always discuss relative danger and the potential of character death. If not all of your players are story driven, then you will have to play a juggling act between story and action which is not too uncommon.

Slayer

Slayers look forward to the tactical aspect of the game, primarily combat. Some slayers may tend to ignore or tune out during story progression, so be aware of this. If you have entire sessions without some form of combat, this person may grow bored unless they have other behavioral motivations to occupy them.

All Star

All stars typically want to be at the center of all of the action. Contribution is a very important motivator for the all star. This individual may be a min/maxer or a leader but not always. Obviously you want to allow the all star to contribute or they will become frustrated. However, it is very important to present opportunities where all party members can contribute. For this reason, look for encounters and scenarios that give each player opportunities to contribute to the session, or they will likely find themselves simply watching the game as the All Star takes over.

Min/Maxer

Min/Maxers can come from any range of styles of play, but generally this player feels compelled to 'optimize' their character sheet. Min/maxers are often uncomfortable with the idea that their character may not always have the best advantage. This can make roleplay challenging, if you are intent on a story focused campaign. Also be extremely careful about the rulesets you incorporate, the more supplemental rules you add to your campaign, the more material the min/maxer has to research to become a powerhouse that you didn't see coming. Be sure to review character sheets with your players periodically. Also, similarly with the all star, find ways to balance the min/maxer's ability to overshadow other players, while also throwing them periodic opportunities to utilize their optimized attributes.

Leader

Some tables have multiple leaders, and others have none. Frequently, a leader won't become apparent until gameplay begins. Try to spot them in session '0' if you can. This individual will tend toward making executive decisions for the party. Some PCs are leaders simply because of roleplay, but more often than not, the actual player that people are most comfortable leading will stand out. If your party has multiple leaders, this can be a problem and you may have to tell your players that they need to sort this out or delegate who will be in charge of what. If your party lacks leadership, then you as the GM have a bigger challenge. The party may have difficulty focusing on plot hooks and may flounder on which path to take. You may have to nudge them a little for them to accomplish things, and that is ok. They will likely look to you for direction.

While this list is no way meant to suggest that everyone fits neatly into a category, or that these are all of the motivations of players, it should get you thinking about playstyle and motivation. If you haven't figured out by now, everyone at the table has a different approach to gaming.

It is for this reason exactly, that you should evaluate and discuss with everyone what type of game content and rules you intend to run with. Setting limits is a positive thing that sets expectations and will lead to a better game.

Next up, Campaign Setting and World Limits.

Setting Limits in your Campaign: Part 1

I was reading some comments and posts today which characterized GMs which do not allow whatever the players want at the table as 'lazy' or lacking creativity.   

In defense of preparation and boundaries, I would like to share some thoughts. Specifically I want to talk about session '0', setting and rules clarifications and why I think that drawing some lines up is a healthy thing for your home game.

What do you mean I can't play a koopah/dragon turtle gunslinger in your low fantasy game?

Several years ago, I was DMing a 3.5e game in our custom setting which would eventually become the 'Sonnegard' setting. While the players genuinely enjoyed the setting, I found myself bending rules frequently to accommodate setting. Eventually, new players were bringing in prestige classes and other findings from the many 3.5e supplements.

I found myself telling the players 'you can't do that' and 'that doesn't fit the setting' quite frequently.  I consider myself a pro-player GM. I think that player agency is paramount to running a successful game. Inversely, GM agency over the world and setting are equally paramount.

It was in large part because of these instances, that my wife and I chose to create a new game. This new game would be one where I could point out what the player's 'can' do a little more frequently. Though all of the setting restrictions still existed, new mechanics and options could be implemented that better suited the setting.

While our response was admittedly extreme, it was liberating and eye opening.

The TTRPG 'Simulation Scale'

In roleplaying, I believe there is a scale in which gamers tend to fall. For simplicity sake, I'll call it the simulation scale. The concept is that all RPGs are an abstract simulation of events that take place in our imagination to some degree or another. The scale is not meant to be comprehensive, but a general guideline that I think of when attempting to understand fundamentally what type of system/homebrew people might enjoy. 

The left side of the scale tends toward mechanical game play. This is where you find players who enjoy playing the game for the sake of the game. Often times, players on this end of the spectrum may view the game objective as a means to acquisition and advancement of the PC. Another tendency of players on this side of the scale is the tendency to be more 'rules' focused.

The right side of the scale tends toward roleplay. The concept that the 'abstraction' is less focused on rules and mechanics and more toward story. The left and right do not have to be mutually exclusive, and many gamers find themselves deriving equal enjoyment from both aspects of play.

The scale is also divided from top to bottom.

The top half of the scale leans toward crunchy mechanics. Players here prefer to have more rules and formulas to create more robust outcomes.

The bottom half of the scale leans toward rules light systems. Players falling in this area tend to prefer more expedient conflict resolution or at least prefer that the variation in outcome can be determined with less 'crunch'.

This isn't meant to be some major psychological graph or anything like that, but players and GMs probably have some idea of what gives them enjoyment and if they lean to one degree or another on the simulation scale.

Using what you know about your group

Every table will have a unique feel, and you will likely find that the people at your table fall in different places on the scale. Gamemasters should be aware of this and keep in mind what type of game drives the players. As a GM, you will have to craft out a set of rules and a setting that is enjoyable for the entire table. You should put careful consideration into what rulesets you intend to use, and how adherent to those rules you will be. After some careful decision making, I suggest making a list of all core rulesets you intend to include and take some time to document any 'house' rules you intend to incorporate into a shareable document. Setting these aside as the 'core rules' of your game prevents confusion down the road regarding supplemental rules or expectations at the table.

Welcome 2021!

Is anything happening at Lost Relic Industries?

So it has been quite awhile since I posted anything and Lost Relic Industries has been relatively quiet on social media in 2020.

Behind the scenes was a different story.

2020 was a tough year for me personally. My day job that pays all the bills saw quite a bit of turnover and as a result, I was putting in extra time to pick up all the slack. 

That coupled with, writing, running a custom game campaign, and hosting a podcast, something had to give.

So midyear last year, I took a break from hosting RPG Coast to Coast. This was primarily because I simply didn't have any extra time to coordinate lining up the guests, and frequently I was working those nights as well.

The Cons..

Conventions just didn't work out very well for us in 2020. We had some favorite conventions cancelled early in the year. We also found ourselves having to cancel mid year for personal reasons. The few remaining on our list were sponsoring political organizations. That's just not something we want to do. 

We are hoping that a few of the conventions will be better geared for online play this year and that may be something we are able to accommodate. 

So what DID we do?

Despite all this, we did accomplish what we set out to do last year.  We produced a new quickstart guide which included basic rules, pregens and an adventure to ease new players into the game!

Swords & Shaman of Sonnegard QuickStart-Adventure 'The Beast of Murghadem'

This release contains a beautifully illustrated map by Misjay Maps as well as illustrations from Juan Ochoa .

We also managed to complete all editing and layout, and received the final art for our  

Swords & Shaman of Sonnegard Player's Book!

We worked very hard to offer this in essentially four formats as our first fully published book, and we were very excited to get it approved and live on DriveThruRPG before the end of year!  

Again, Juan Ochoa does a wonderful job of illustrating and making this a beautiful and fun book.

Cool, so what about 2021?

Well, we still have this other book. The Game Master's Book. We've been working diligently on making changes, corrections and a couple of really cool additions to this book from the present beta format. At present we are working to have this book illustrated to the same degree of quality as the Player's Book and with luck, we will have it released this year.

Also expect to see at least one hack for S&SoS. :) After having playtested for a few years now, we're still wanting to improve. We are compiling a short list of changes to publish in a free 'Advanced Magic Rules' pdf. The focus of this would be to move away from a pseudo vancian/daily spell system, toward a point driven magic system. There are a couple of other goodies in there as well!

There may be other hacks as well, but we feel there is still something missing from the game to help ground Player's and GM alike. Besides publishing the GM book we are going to begin compiling a third core book. This book will consist of the Creatures and Lore of Sonnegard. While we feel this is a necessary book, there are only two of us and one artist at present. So unfortunately, I have no expectation of this releasing in 2021.

In closing, I'd like to thank everyone who has followed and supported us. I hope 2021 is a good year and I hope you all have good gaming and make new friends at the table!

-B

Orcs are people too?

In case you didn't see it.
Earlier this week, WoTC announced that they would be changing their depiction of two classic races in the D&D lineup. According to WoTC's official announcement., Orcs and Drow need a rework because of ' descriptions that are painfully reminiscent of how real-world ethnic groups have been and continue to be denigrated'.

Essentially, they wish to portray Orcs and Drow as people too, because they have been 'unfairly' portrayed in the past.

As someone who strives to have inclusion in their game and at the table, I have always been drawn to settings that are more Swords & Sorcery related. I prefer a globe spanning setting, capable of acknowledging any number of cultures and people.

Is there any basis?
So in looking to our roots, I am greatly disappointed that I find the work of Robert E Howard to be tinged with his own style of racism. A man with such an imagination, the father of Swords and Sorcery, had difficulty seeing people as they are.  If you disagree, I suggest you read 'Shadows in Zamboula', 'The Vale of Lost Women', or 'The Horror From the Mound', and decide for yourself.

Given all that, many of us strive to advance the Swords and Sorcery genre to be the inclusive genre it should be. 

D&D however, has its own roots in classic modern fantasy. Tolkien himself, coined the word 'orc'. In his Silmarillion, he explains how the dark god Morgoth stole away some of the first elves and tortured and corrupted them. He broke their bodies, will, and souls to create the orcs. The orcs being a purely evil race and the embodiment of corruption.

So it is that the inventor of the orc, states plainly that this fictitious race was essentially born out of hell, implying that there was no redemption in them.

This tends to follow suit in early editions of D&D which places their alignment squarely as lawful evil. They were for most campaigns, a fictitious monster for which PCs would have no guilt in slaying and looting.

Ironically, Tolkien himself is sometimes accused of racism through his depiction of orcs and his heavily euro centric setting. First, Tolkien was fascinated by his Germanic heritage and there really should be no conflict between appreciation of one's own culture and the respect and appreciation for another. 

Tolkien was in fact deeply offended by the racist ideologies which took hold in Germany during the early 20th century. This is well documented and anyone researching should find ample evidence of his disapproval of using his work for racist agendas.

The drow, were more an invention of Gygax' own. Although wikipedia implies that they were inspired by a much earlier book on fairy lore. 


So definitely evil and entirely fictitious.
That both races have been depicted as evil is fairly cannon for most D&D settings. There are some notable exceptions (Drizzt Duorden). This also is common in gaming, players and characters aren't bound to be the 'same'. Each character can have a convincing reason for going against the grain and these things are often encouraged in home and public games alike.

To change the overall depiction of Orcs and Drow into a 'friendly' race, goes against nearly 50 years of D&D cannon.

Despite all this, I'm fine if WoTC wishes to change this to create something new or more interesting.  That is up to them, afterall, they legally own the IP now. It is also still a free country and we can be creative and express ourselves as we wish.


This bloggers opinion.
Up to this point, I have never been openly critical of Wizards. That ends today.

What I'm not ok with, is their statement of justification. To suggest that Orcs and Drow have been fictionally mistreated and that this somehow relates to 'real world ethnic groups', simply looks like a branding ploy.  It comes across as disingenuous to me. Frankly, I find it offensive as it makes a mockery of real people who have endured real trials and challenges.

In all honesty, it leaves me wondering what is next. Once they have attacked all substance of content, what will be left of art, games and storytelling?  All while extolling that this is for some sense of justice which to me, they seem not to actually believe in at all.

The Mystara Player's Book, First Impressions

Glen Welch and I regularly meet to discuss TTRPG topics. Though the conversations are often at a very high level, it would seem that we often share similar opinions. At other times we are able to have friendly differing opinions.

Glen has been working diligently on a Mystara Player's Handbook project for some time now. I have been fortunate enough to get an early peak at his work. The book presently sits at a beefy 224 pages. It is filled with history, maps and many other useful bits of information about the fantasy setting, 'Mystara'. I am told that we are simply waiting for Wizards of the Coast to green light this project to see it published on the Dungeon Master's Guild.

I'm not a professional, but hold my coffee while I do this thing.

I don't want to call this a proper review, the following is really better qualified as 'first impressions'. I realise that I am perhaps not the best writer for this task. I would, however, like to share a few words about the book.

If you don't know what Mystara is, it is one of the earliest published D&D settings, meant for use with the D&D Basic and Expert rules. The setting first makes its printed appearance in the Expert Rules. The 'Isle of Dread' adventure included in Expert Rules takes place in the Mystara setting.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystara 

Before I proceed, I would say that I was only peripherally familiar with the Mystara setting from playing Isle of Dread. I had also owned two Gazetteer issues on Ylaruam and Karameikos during the time I played Basic. These 'Gazetteers' were supplements for the setting, intending to give more detailed information regarding specific nations of Mystara. In honesty, I found the gazetteers to be dry reading in my teenage days and they found little use. It is fair to say that I was not particularly enthused about the setting.

Glen, however, IS enthused about this setting.

It shows, and what Glen has put together is something that was fundamentally missing from the lineup.

History is Prologue...

The book begins with a timeline. This timeline is a brief history of accounts of the setting. If you are like me, you skipped right past this. It is a useful tool, but it doesn't get me into the heart of the setting. I have little point of reference for it at this point in the book if I don't already know something. The timeline is good to have, and I know where to find it later.

The next section delves right into the Nations of Mystara. This section includes over 50 pages devoted to 17 of the nation/states of Mystara. I found this to be of great value, as I don't know of any other readily available supplements that condenses this information in one document. The information is also condensed to about three pages for each nation. This includes maps, description, government information, languages, capitals and other relevant details.

Glen then dovetails this nicely into other details about geography, including major cities and locations of interest across Mystara. We get a nice briefing on all of the nuances of living in mystara, what races are included, what coins, calendars, what crime and punishment look like.

Less is More, especially when you have a lot already.

In Glen's own words, "What you leave out is as important as what you put in". One example is that all of Mystara's exotic lore races are included. Drow, however, are intentionally absent from the lineup. There should be plenty of exotics to keep your interest though with races like the Phanaton and Tortles.

Another way in which Glen takes the 'less is more' approach that works very nicely is that the book is not overly wordy. If I need to know something, I can look at the table of contents and get the information in brief. In my opinion, this is well executed. Mainly because there is so much material that could be included in a setting book like this.

Basically, you could stop reading here, and you would have enough to get you started. However, the second half of the book contains many other details including how various PC classes fit into the world, as well as some new feats and subclasses for players to try.

I also did not see anything that suggests it would not be compatible with various editions, and this is important. It gives newer edition players an opportunity to explore something new. Also, OSR players have so many flavors of their favorite system!

One of the only things that I felt inclined to be critical of was the cohesion of the art styles. Some of the artwork is very good, and some of the artwork doesn't feel like it 'fits' with the style. Keep in mind, I'm looking at an early pre-release, and Glen has indicated that he is aware and working on this.

Conclusions: Who should be interested?

Anyone wanting to try a fully fleshed out fantasy setting who is tired of Eberron and Forgotten Realms lore. This is material that was never really compiled by itself (to my knowledge), and in many ways it is 'new' and fresh. The best historic compilation is probably the D&D rules Cyclopedia which includes Mystara content but is also much more specific to D&D Basic.

If you plan to play in the Mystara setting, this could make a great go to book for most of the important stuff. I personally don't like having piles of books to rifle through at the game table, and I think this eliminates (or at least reduces) the need for multiple setting books.

If you are new to Mystara, this is the book that was missing back in 1983ish or so (my history here is fuzzy). Here, you have a book that tells you what your setting is and where things are.  I would recommend this book before investing in a Gazeteer for Karameikos or something similar.

I know this wasn't a formal review, but these are my thoughts on a book that I hope to see available on the DMs Guild soon!

LRI is Course Correcting

So it turns out that having a following of backers might be important to a crowd funding project.

If you are following us, thank you!

The reality is, the few people that we have managed to engage at a convention level is not driving a great deal of traffic or support our way.

To correct this, we're adjusting priorities for 2020.

Crowd funded release is on hold
This is very disappointing for us, however it makes no sense to plan a large party for a handful of your friends. This really means adjusting expectations and getting to work on other things. With the core content of the books complete, we can focus on new things!

We're continuing to work with artists
So we're still getting artwork for the books, which means that they will be that much more impressive when we do release the finals. This is bitter sweet because we're paying for all of our art and map commissions out of pocket.

QuickStart Guide Incoming!
This is a no brainer for us. SSoS is one of the easiest TTRPGs to jump in and play as a newby (at least that is my opinion). 

While this may be less exciting for anyone following right now, the QuickStart should not take as much time to produce and distribute as the core rulebooks. The aim is of course to lower the bar of entry so that we can introduce the game to newcomers. It will include an adventure that some of you may have already played at conventions.

Short Comic
Yes, I did say that we're still working with artists. Juan Ochoa will be working with us to storyboard and produce a short comic strip that will be released monthly as a teaser!  Stay tuned.

Regards,
Brian

Lost Relic Industries 2019 Year in Review!

It's that time again when we demark the passing of a year. Much has happened over here at LRI, and I'd like to share a little of what we've been up to!

January

We joined the Tenkar's Tavern online discord community. This was a big step for us, as Liz and I have been very self conscious of community and peer reception of our efforts. Eric Tenkar and Pexx, of the Tavern, were super supportive, and the community is great!

Brian and Liz attended their first podcast! Pexx of the Tavern community invited us to Breakfast Club, and we got a chance to jibber jabber with other designers and makers in the industry!

Erik interviewed Brian on the Fireside Chat channel (thats me, I feel weird talking about myself in third person!).

Collected Comics and Games of Fort Worth hosted a great charity event for The Safe Haven of Tarrant County. This event was coordinated by Rie Conley and was a lot of fun. I volunteered to GM SsoS but ultimately ended up playing in a 5e AL game. They are hosting again this year Jan 11 to 12 at https://www.staycollected.com/ the Alta Mere location. It's billed as UniCon, and we're going to be there Sunday!

February

We spent a crazy amount of time crunching on the game. There was so much work to do. We were trying new formatting and writing examples to help clarify rules.

March

Minor updates to both books! This includes the new example rules and some expanded adventure content in the GM book.

April

Juan Ochoa joins the project. We met Juan through another designer and hit it off right away. When we described the project, he was on board right away, and he has helped us to create a new a unique look for SsoS.

Flyers! The first contract art came back from Juan for the 2019 con year and with the help of Rob over at Squid Pie Printing, we were able to produce some really nice looking flyers to hand out this year!

Tshirts! Rob also handles tshirt printing and whipped us up a bunch of free SWAG shirts for the conventions this year, complete with the mammoth skull shield!

Players book 2.0.0 released! Kind of a big deal for us. This release contained a lot of the core feedback that had to go into the rules to make the game what it is today. This also consisted of a complete rewrite of character creation by Liz, which was no small feat!

May

Chupacabracon! With 2.0.0 ready and pushed on drivethrurpg, flyers, free tshirts, and a new adventure (The Beast of Murghadem) we were ready to take on Round Rock, Texas. Our first time at Chupa was amazing, and every one of our three game sessions filled up! We had the widest age range of players at any convention so it was a different game everyday! We met some really cool folks here, and will definitely be back in 2020.

June

Free RPG Day! Doc's Comics and Games of Frisco has always been very supportive. Doc asked if I would like to come out again this year and GM SsoS at the store. This is really cool since we don't have a distributor, so there is really no SsoS merch they can sell in store. We were there in 2018 but had no players for the SsoS game, however, we ran an excellent FATE game that year. So, we were very surprised to get players show up for two back to back games in 2019. We had a great time!

NTRPG Con! Had to go to this local con! It's part of the Tavern Community and is run by Bad Mike over there. We had work/life and ended up showing late. We were only able to fill one game on Sunday, but we were so grateful for the players who came out and gave us feedback. We also got to meet Eric Tenkar and Rachel at the Frog God booth so that was really cool!

July

Frantically working on GMs book most of this month. We had editing, revising, rules tweaks, the mini campain needed a lot of love, and we wanted to rework monster creation.

August

ReaperCon! Our return to Reapercon! 2018 Reaper was our first convention before having anything published. We had only one game fill with players that year, so this year was amazing as we filled three games with players and had a blast running The Beast of Murghadem one last time in 2019.

We also got to meet our buddy Pexx in person finally! As well as many of the staff of Frog God Games who were attending Reaper for the first time!

Our friend Pexx was offered a position with Frog God Games! Because of this, he needed to relinquish some of his duties on the Tavern discord. I volunteered to take over hosting the RPG Coast to Coast Podcast! This has been a wonderful opportunity, and we get to chat Friday nights with different folks in the industry! Be sure to check out RPG Coast to Coast on discord if you ever just want to hear folks in TTRPGs and OSR community talk casually.

September

GM Book 2.0.0 FINALLY! This thing was so much work getting tidied up, but it had to happen. We got most of the loose ends taken care of, and this beta version is much easier to read and play from. We still have some content that we intend to release in the final book that isn't included here yet!

October - December

Crunching on 3.0.0 of the player's book. Basically we reviewed this book forward to back at least a half dozen times, searching for errors and typos. We clarified spells, skills, and took another stab at revising character creation. We split Character Advancement into another chapter and added quick templates to give players everything they need to advance their character!

The final version 3.0.0 PDF of player's book went online (DriveThruRPG) the day after Christmas! This was a huge deal for us and the PDF landed in at 133 pages with formatting for artwork when we go to finalize.

Obviously, many other things not mentioned here happened in 2019 as well. We've been very busy and wanted to share to let people know that we aren't sitting around doing nothing.

So what's in store for 2020?

First things first! The situation at Lost Relic is pretty much that we're wanting to produce these awesome books for an admittedly home made game! :) Reality is that we've done nothing to monetize this. In fact, we probably won't be able to afford to finish everything we want to do on our own.

At present, we're taking a break from content creation/correction to focus on what crowdfunding options we have. This is a pretty intimidating thing as we're not marketting/sales people, and our community is smaller than most people's personal FB accounts!

That means we have to keep our overhead costs for fulfillment and shipping as low as possible, but we still want to produce a quality product. We're going to be reaching out to anyone and everyone in our network who can help with this while we dig in. We really want to get something launched and funded soon (Q1).

We will be looking to do one book at a time, so we can focus on succeeding and not sucking!

So what's left to do anyway?

The player's book is still short 3 core pieces of art. We've been commissioning art out of our own pocket this year to try to complete this book. It was very important to us that we have something finished to show before asking the community for financial backing.

We also have a lot... A LOT of extra space in the player's book to fill in with additional art which we just can't afford right now.

We would like to add some graphic art to the character sheet and spell books, if possible.

The GM's book has more content that we would like to add

• Optional Exotic races
• Optional Exotic class

MAPS! We have contacted an excellent map artist who is presently on board and will embody the spirit of the project, but we havent been able to commission anything yet for the GM's book. This includes the world map, as well as maps of Akmon and... Hdathem!

GM Screen. We will be looking at how to put together a handy screen for GMs. Nuff Said :)

Future Planned Books

Bestiary – We've really gotta have a proper bestiary. The GM's book bestiary chapter is enough to get people started, but we want something proper that sustains the game better and provides more detail to the setting.

Murghadem Campaign – Murghadem has been a player favorite setting in Sonnegard, and I feel like we have enough here to begin to flesh it out for people. This would make an exciting first supporting book!

That's mostly it! That's what happened and what we plan to happen. The amazing thing is that pretty much everything that we said we were going to do, we did. We're going to push hard to make sure that holds true in 2020 as well.

Wishing you a Happy New Year and Great Gaming!

- Brian & Liz