State of the Realm: Q2 2023
TL;DR
We’re behind our targets, but still making progress.
We’ve delivered a great deal already in 2023, and are focused on working through our backlog of committed work from Kickstarters.
I remain committed to finishing our backlog of promised work as our top priority. My continued plan is not even consider any future kickstarter efforts until I successfully complete and deliver on the outstanding committed work from old kickstarters.
Detailed Project Status
2023 has been very productive so far, but I am eager to keep delivering.
Recently, and the Immediate Future
Infinite Adventures: Western Realm [completed]
The “Adventure Book” that corresponds to the Gazetteer, Infinite Adventures is the first FlexTale 2.0 product that will be released. It’s an 800+ page behemoth and there’s more to come in the future.
FlexTale Hexcrawl Toolkit [completed]
An element of both the Solo Adventuring Toolkit and Western Realm Gazetteer projects, this definitive and comprehensive—yet accessible!—guide to all things overland adventure has been very well received. At customer request, I also published three separate 800+ page Hexcrawl Atlases: a blank one that’s terrain-only, a Cities & Roads version, and a Full DM View.
Gauntlets & Gaslight [in process]
It’s finally time! Next in line for Kickstarter fulfillment projects is this much-delayed, yet insanely ambitious, adventure setting that combines Victorian-era steampunk, mad-scientist atomic-age monster laboratories, and gothic horror into a vibe I’ve labeled “fleshpunk”. This is my full focus right now, until it’s delivered.
Mapping for the setting of Nycarrad is completed, and the commission for the coverart has been completed. I’ve also commissioned and have received dozens MORE pieces of artwork, and am expecting even more artwork by the time I cross the finish line. New to the promise here is that it will be a full-on campaign setting unto itself: 13 new classes, new skills, feats, spells, items, monsters, and more. A single book will provide full game mechanics for all of the rules systems IGS typically supports: 5E, PF, P2E, DCC, and OSR.
Very psyched about this one, and eager to deliver things ASAP. As of this writing, it’s already ~200 pages; this will balloon (naturally; it’s the IGS way!) to at least 400 once all is said and done.
I realize those folks who backed the G&G Kickstarter have been waiting patiently for a VERY long time to see the fruits of the concept. I’m fully committed to it still: G&G features heavily in the evolving detail of the mythology of Aquilae.
Targeting August 2023 to complete.
Artifacts & Artifice 3 [in process soon]
Nearly everything is done with this. Still. I need only to finish laying it all out and finish a small handful of the items’ flesh-outs. It should be some low-hanging fruit that I can complete quickly following some of the above items.
Targeting October 2023 to complete, hopefully.
FlexTale Encounter Generator v2.0 [in process]
FTEG SAT has been gifted free to all of the good folks who have been patiently and eagerly awaiting FTEGv2. In addition to being a nice little thank-you for waiting, there’s no better thing to whet your appetite than the Solo Adventuring Toolkit, which contains a good deal of what will be in FTEG: Quests.
As in Q2: I’ve been working on this for years already, and I cannot wait to put pen to paper laying it all out. Much is already in Excel in various forms; the layout itself should be disturbingly straightforward once I wrap up the predecessor work.
I’ve actually begun work on the FTEG v2: Monsters tome, as a natural consequence of working on the Master Index. That book is probably about 30% complete at this point.
Targeting 2023 to complete.
Deeper Pipeline
Villainous Locales [in process]
Per before:
Tangible progress: As part of developing the Western Realm Gazetteer, I’ve placed more than 150 Points of Interest directly related to the Villainous Compendium and the baddies therein.
The VL book will include an overland “heatmap” of the western continent of Aquilae, highlighting the locations of villainous hideouts and maps. In addition, more than 50 regional maps will be included, showing the surrounding region where each and every villainous point of interest.
You’d be inclined to ignore these of course if you’re not playing in the campaign setting of Aquilae, but even if you aren’t using the IGS setting, having regional maps ready to go with zero prep describing the area around each zoomed-in actual map will be useful for many GMs.
This is all in addition to and a bonus on top of the actual planned content: a villainous locale map for each baddie in the Villainous Compendium. That’s still happening!
Each and every one of the dozens of maps has been sketched out by hand. Figure about a half to a full day per map to adapt to CC3+ and flesh out and lay out.
Targeting 2024 for completion.
Prior Lives [in progress]
Per before:
This, too, has been part of developing the Western Realm Gazetteer: each and every one of the dozens of NPCs featured in the Prior Lives stories has two points of interest: one for their present location, and one for their “Prior Lives” formative adventure.
I realize it’s not much, particularly for those awaiting the actual adventures, but it’s in progress!
The adventures and backstory for all of Volume 1 is sketched out; I need to draw the maps and lay it all out.
Targeting 2024 for completion.
Dark Harbor [in process]
Since last writing, I have been mapping this intensively: hundreds of roads and landmarks are already present, with hundreds more to come.
I cannot wait to focus fully on this. So many dozens of pages of notes, sketches, and ideas, just yearning for the time available to put on page. I know a lot of you are excited about this, and some have even told me outright that they’ve gotten even more psyched having now seen the Western Realm work and having more of a feel for what’s in store. Be patient and hang in there—it’s coming for sure!
Targeting 2024 for completion, hopefully.
Other Planned Work
I’m well aware that there are other books waiting in the wings. These are largely planned out, outlined sketched, and/or otherwise in a ready state; it’s just a matter of freeing up enough time to launch them in earnest.
To those eagerly awaiting such concepts, I can offer my continued apologies, and to verify that I have in no way forgotten them, nor even neglected: simply that I need to wrap up other work first.
Thank you for your feedback—positive or negative, it’s still constructive!
Other Detail (unchanged from the start of 2020)
I’m not good with deadlines. We’ve established that over the past 5 years.
We’ve also established that I will, and do, deliver. And that the end product tends to be massive, and beyond what was originally conceived and promised.
Whether our ubiquitous delays are “worth it” relative to the end result is up to your individual assessment as a backer, a user, and a player or GM. I try to be as transparent as I can be, but it’s an unavoidable fact that I have difficulty predicting my output, and so target dates continue to be more of a guideline than a commitment.
I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from backers and customers. Ultimately, it seems as though there are two general camps.
Those who have gotten something from IGS remain almost universally very positive about the situation. They may be frustrated, or disappointed, in the pace of what is delivered when, but they tend to be thrilled with the products they’ve gotten, and are eager for more.
Those who are still awaiting anything that they’re owed are also pretty positive, but the frustration is greater. This only makes sense: they have much less in hand to demonstrate the value that will be coming, and the longer it takes to receive what they’re owed, the more that absence penalizes their interpretation of the situation.
I get it. As I’ve said numerous times, I’m a backer and a customer, too, and I get frustrated and disappointed when I’m put in the position that many of my backers are in. All I can do is to remain transparent, and to work as hard as I’m physically capable of to deliver everything as quickly as possible.
Self-praise by omission, then: Deadlines, crap. Everything else, aside from delivery timing, I’m super proud of.
Conclusion
Thank you. I’ve said it before, and hopefully I’ll have many future opportunities to say it: I get to do what I want to do most. This is the most intellectually, professionally, and creatively rewarding work I’ve ever done, and it’s only possible because of all of the people who see a spark of potential in what envision. From the original 56 backers of Dark Obelisk 1, to the now-six-thousand-plus customers who have grabbed at least one of our products, it is all of you who make my work possible.
I endeavor as hard as I physically can to make it worth your confidence, your patience, your input, and, well, yes, your money too. I lose money on every hardcopy I deliver, and at best I break even with Kickstarters. I invest every single minute of time, every dollar of income, into making more, and making everything better.
Onward.