As I inch closer to completion of The Heroic Legendarium and have gotten to the point where the contents are pretty much finalized (I just need to finish writing up the details on a few of them) I thought it would be fun to take a look at what the final book is actually going to contain. I know I'm biased but I really do feel like this is going to be a significant enhancement to the Original Advanced Edition game, both by resolving a lot of problem areas that were left open when design priorities abruptly shifted gears in 1986, and by continuing to expand and develop the original creative vision of the game, adopting new content and ideas in a manner consistent with the conceptual and aesthetic framework of what came before. Now I just need to finish writing (and procure some art...)
New PC races: 4 (cat-blooded, dhampir, dragon-blooded, half-ogre)
New PC classes: 4 (mystic, savant, mountebank, jester)
Substantially revised PC classes: 5 (cavalier, barbarian, acrobat, monk, bard)
Expanded PC characteristics: 4 (social class, birth order, appearance, secondary skills)
New PC characteristics: 3 (joss, knacks & quirks, focused energy activation techniques)
New weapons: 19
New equipment items: 41
New spells: 171 (20 for mystics, 55 for savants, 96 for bards)
Essays and procedural expansions: 7 (hiring men-at-arms, wilderness adventures, adventures in other planes, combat procedure, common locations in towns, deities & clerics, territory development and domain management)
New magic items: 32
New monsters: 40
Topics of miscellaneous expansions, clarifications, and revisions: 22 (demi-human movement rates, halfling characteristics, wild elves, druids, weapon specialization, cantrips, thief skill specialization, high and low value currency types, container capacities, weapon characteristics, mounted combat, casting spells in armor, use of spell books and holy symbols, spell corrections, psionics, falling damage, missile fire, reach advantage, space requirements, racial preferences, random treasure in dungeons, monster characteristics)
Pages: 144 (est.)
For clarity's sake; you are still gearing this towards OGL via OSRIC material?
ReplyDeleteYes. It will be OGL and OSRIC-branded (and it’s contents will be OSRIC Reference Content). However, it’s not going to refer to the OSRIC rulebook. Rather, all modifications and additions are built on top of the 1977-85 books that inspired OSRIC and it’s always assumed that the reader has and is referring back to those books (even though I can’t provide direct references, or even mention them by name). This is absolutely an awkward compromise for the sake of legal security and it’s a bit confusing when described this way, but should be totally clear when reading the book.
DeleteThat sounds pretty cool!
DeleteAs David Wooderson would say: "all right, all right, all right!"
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to reading this when it's ready!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the support. I’m still plugging away at the last few bits of content (I’ve got about 40 spell descriptions left to write or adapt) and then some effort is needed on the art and layout front, but hopefully it’ll be completed and released in a couple more months. I’ve also added a few more monsters and have added back one more class (the hunter, adapted from the version published by EGG in 1987).
DeleteLooking foward to this!
ReplyDeleteThanks. The text is done - I put the last finishing touches on it on March 15th. I wanted to procure some art and also do some layout to give it a professional look and feel, but in the past 6 weeks zero progress has been made on either of those fronts and given all the quarantine-enforced weirdness nothing is even on the horizon within the next several months so I’m not sure how to proceed.
DeleteI don’t like sitting on the finished text and would like to get it out to the public, but I also don’t want to release it as-is (a minimally-formatted Word document) because I think that would undermine its perceived commercial value. Formatted like that it “reads” like an amateur fan project that should be given away for free, which I think is less than the content deserves. So I’m torn. I want the release-version to look and feel like a professional-level product, but I have no feasible way of getting there. I can’t do either the art or layout myself but I also don’t have anyone to do it for me :(
How's it coming along, Amigo? Pundemon
ReplyDeleteText is done (as of March 15th). As soon as the quarantine loosens up a bit more I'm supposed to meet with a friend of my wife's who wants to do some art for it. Once I've met with him and seen how much he wants to do (and what his rates are) that will determine how much other stock art I need to buy (I don't have budget to commission any more originals) and then I'll have to figure out whether I can add that and do the necessary layout work myself using Google Docs or if I'll need to use InDesign (which will require a lot of help from my wife because she knows that program and I don't). Unfortunately, all of that means I'm probably still a few months away from being able to put this thing up for sale to the public. I'm very antsy and impatient (because I think this stuff is good and deserves to be seen) and had considered releasing it now, as-is, and then doing an upgraded release later, but some folks talked me out of that, so now we're back in limbo...
DeleteWell my friend, you've sunk a lot of time, effort and love into the project, so take your time and do it as YOU want to do it! Pundemon
ReplyDeleteReally looking forward to this one. Its previous incarnation was sublime - it felt like it picked up right where the the "1977-85 books" left off.
ReplyDeleteThanks for patiently hanging in. I’ve given up on the idea of adding a bunch of art (maybe a “deluxe edition” re-release someday) which means the text-only version will be ready for release pretty soon (hopefully within the next month or so). I’ve added some more material (about 15 pages worth) since this post was made. Also, because there’s no art the book will cost a lot less, which will hopefully seem like a plus.
DeleteNo worries, we're here for those sweet options, not the illos ;)
DeleteAgreed.
Delete