ABR: Extended Update; Production Update
about 6 years ago – Wed, Apr 25, 2018 at 10:02:20 PM

Production Update

Sitting pretty at 334 monsters completed; 1,336 statblocks thus far. That's more than 75% of the way to ABR books 1&2, and more than 27% of the way toward my now-total goal of 1,200 critters for the ABR: Extended set of books.

Now begins planning for the crunch that follows. I have over 300 new custom monsters that I've named and sketched out in brief; my original target for ABR Volume 3 was around 50, so I need to start prioritizing things a bit!

But who knows... perhaps the ABR:E KS will open up more and more of these via Stretch Goals!

ABR: Extended Update

To confirm, in response to backer request, I will still be producing and publishing the "ABR Volumes 1 & 2" books, so if you're entitled to those and don't want to upgrade to the full 1,200 beasties, that's totally fine; just sit tight.

I'll likely be hitting go on the ABR: E KS once the current longer-term KS of Western Realm Gazetteer ends in a week or so.

Onward!

ABR Extended: Getting Much More for Free
about 6 years ago – Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 04:25:53 PM

Short Version

You're getting much more for free.
I'm behind schedule.
One of those doesn't really impact the other.

Medium-Length Version

The core books of ABR, volumes 1 & 2, were going to give you 400 monsters.
I'm expanding that, from two books to six, and from 400 monsters to 1,200.
If you're already getting volumes 1 & 2, you'll get the extra books and critters FREE in PDF.
If you're already entitled to hardcopies of the two-volume approach already, you'll be able to get the four new extra books at a discount.

The Longer Version

Here we go. Words are fun.

Where Things Stand With ABR

As I've made clear via updates, I'm behind schedule. Dark Obelisk 2 may be the single largest RPG adventure ever published, but it took a lot longer to produce than I had originally anticipated.

I'm extraordinarily proud of the results, and I'm thrilled that it's being enjoyed by so many folks, but the unavoidable fact is that the timeline of me other Kickstarter projects and products have been impacted.

Recent Progress

The good news is that I've continued to make outstanding progress with ABR.

I've completed the crunch generation for all of ABR Volume 1, and am about 40% through the crunch for Volume 2. I've started to get lots of commissioned artwork for ABR Volume 3, and I have outlines for several dozen Incarnae for Volume 4. All while making steady progress toward completing my backlog of products.

281 monsters completed; 1,124 statblocks finished already, for the scope we had originally defined for the core bestiary.

So I've hardly been idle. :)

Looking Forward

I'm going to launch a new Kickstarter. This will be "Aquilae: Extended Bestiary of the Realm".

This may frustrate some of you.

So let me just say right up front: this really won't delay things more than they already are. AND, more importantly, you will all be getting a LOT more content, for FREE.

You can safely ignore it, and still get what you're already entitled to, plus probably a great deal more, without lifting a finger, and with no further delay than what I'm already experiencing.

A Brief Digression on the Nature of My Work

There's a lot of work I do with my RPG projects. There's cartography/mapping, there's writing, there's layout, there's artwork commissioning, there's publishing, there's marketing, there's fulfillment... the list goes on, really.

It's all hugely fun, and I enjoy every single part of it. I'm supremely fortunate that I get to do this, and that thousands of people across the globe are interested enough in what I do that I can afford to do it. Every time someone gives me feedback that they used and something I wrote in their game, my middle-school geek self gets all giddy about what I've been lucky enough to achieve.

Why this digression on how I work? Well, the good news (at least for ABR backers) is that all of this work generally speaking falls into two categories: repetitive work, and focused work.

Focused work is things like writing the backstory for a magical item: it's really like writing a very very short story, a dedicated, encapsulated work of fiction specific to that artifact. Cartography and layout fall into this category, too.

Focused work demands attention. It's hard to multitask while doing focused work. It's difficult to do much focused work at the end of a full Day Job of work and putting three toddlers to sleep. I still throw myself at it nearly every night, but my brain taps out much quicker than I'd prefer.

Repetitive work is mainly things like crunch, for creatures and characters. I have spent a lot of time and effort developing extensive tools and a system to make this as quick and thorough as possible, while ensuring consistent quality of the result. I feel the results are staggeringly useful.

I can multitask while doing repetitive work. More to the point, I can still produce high-quality, high-throughput repetitive work even after getting, say, 3 hours of sleep and working a 10-hour day which includes a dozen conference calls.

The work for the core books of ABR is, fortunately, repetitive work: taking the monsters that we know and love, and transforming them in the light of the Quadded Statblocks concept, so that each might be used across a wide range of PC levels and difficulties.

The Thought Process of an Extended ABR

Okay, now that I've bored you with a description of my work habits, I can get to the point: Since ABR's crunch is largely repetitive work, I can churn it out quickly, even while focusing on the completion of projects like Artifacts & Artifice. An hour spend heads-down after the kids go to sleep is spent on focused work; a bumbly, cramped train ride commute into the city can be dedicated to repetitive work.

Fundamentally, I cannot put Book X on hold so that I can publish Book X+1, so I have a pipeline of a few books that I simply have to finish before I can finalize the books in Aquilae: Bestiary of the Realm.

That means I've got some time. And my track record seems to be "late, but over-deliver".

So, here we go with my latest crazy, ambitious, insanely-huge-result idea.

What I Always Wanted

From the start, I envisioned Aquilae: Bestiary of the Realm to be the biggest, most complete, most massive bestiary ever published. I'm fairly certain that it's already that. But it's not enough.

ABR volumes 1 & 2 comprise over 400 monsters, and 1,600 statblocks. But my list of monsters I can apply this approach to is actually larger.

Much larger.

My complete list is actually over 1,200 monsters long.

This is what I always wanted. A *$#ing bookshelf of crunch. Monsters enough to use forever. A one-stop shop of endless threat and possibility.

The only Bestiary you would ever need.

ABR Extended: Monstrous Compendium Homage

I've made little secret that I'm inspired by the old-school, AD&D Monstrous Compendium, three-ring binder approach to bestiaries. The thought of having TONS of monsters, organized alphabetically, has massive appeal.

I used to organize my MC in alphabetical order, because in the end, who cares if Monster XYZ came from Ravenloft, or Spelljammer, or the "core" MC? Making things alphabetical just made sense, and made it possible to find what you were looking for.

So I'm going to go for it: 1,200 monsters, 4,800 statblocks, 3,600 pages of content.

That's six massive full-color, hardcover books.

Why Do You Care as an ABR Backer

Coupla things, here.

First, if you're already entitled to PDFs of ABR 1&2 from the original ABR kickstarter:

Good news: you'll get the complete six books of ABR:E for free. Instead of getting two PDFs with 400 monsters, you'll get six PDFs with 1,200 monsters. At no additional cost.

If that's you, and that's what you want, sit back and relax while I make it happen, and my thanks for your patience. ABR volume 3 and volume 4 are unaffected by all of this, btw.

If ABR 1&2 wasn't included in your pledge for the original ABR kickstarter:

Good news here as well: you can get ABR:E at a discounted pledge rate just for folks in your situation.

Finally: if you're already entitled to hardcopies of ABR 1&2 from the ABR kickstarter:

This is actually most of you! Good, but complex, news.

Because printing costs serious money, I cannot just offer you an additional 4 massive hardcovers for free.

BUT, I can offer two things in deference to your being "in on the ground floor" of the pledging.

First, if you don't want to spend more money, I can completely appreciate that; just sit back and relax, and you'll get PDFs of all six ABR:E books. You'll get hardcovers of the first two books in recognition of what you've already pledged and paid. I'll send you discount codes for the other four if you want to get them later. Your call.

But, if you definitely do want all six books and all 1,200 monsters in print, I can offer an even cheaper option: pledge at a special level just for you in the ABR:E. You'll get the extra 4 hardcopy books, at a discount, with no shipping--since you've already paid for shipping as part of the original ABR KS!

So to summarize: Do nothing, and you still get any 2 of the 6 ABR:E books for free, as well as discounted print codes for the other four books.

That's still 400 monsters in two books, as originally promised, plus PDFs of all 1,200 critters. Or, if you know you want hardcopies of all six books, pledge at the new ABR:E kickstarter, and get them even cheaper.

Feedback Welcome

Elated? Worried? Thrilled? Pissed off? Eager? Somewhere in between? Let me know.

All of this is ultimately in service to you, the backers. If everyone replies that they hate this idea, I'll nix it... but know that it probably won't accelerate delivery much at all, since again, focused vs. repetitive work, and the pipeline, and all that.

This approach may sound completely crazy, I'll admit. But damn, won't it be nice to have the result?

And besides, everything I'm most proud of in developing RPG products as Infinium Game Studios in the past few years as been the result of being crazily dedicated to insane levels of ambition. In that context, this is just a continuation of things. :)

Onward.

Dark Obelisk 2 Published: Discounts for Backers!
about 6 years ago – Sat, Apr 14, 2018 at 01:42:08 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.