Author Topic: Director's Briefing - February 2016  (Read 3414 times)

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Offline Colin-ICE

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Director's Briefing - February 2016
« on: February 01, 2016, 01:10:13 PM »
From the desk of Nicholas H.M. Caldwell:

Welcome

To the fifty-seventh Briefing and the second scheduled Briefing of 2016.

We persist and we persevere.

RMU

Dan Henry has stepped down from the RMU development team for personal reasons. Joining the RMU development team are Graham Bottley (who is the author of Rolemaster Rome among other rpg works) and Jonathan Dale (whose character creation spreadsheets many of us have come to rely on). Graham is already labouring on the todo list for Spell Law, whilst Jonathan is supporting Matt with Arms & Character Law and Joeri with Creature Law, including migrating a number of races from Creature Law into Arms & Character Law to enrich the core set of player-character races.

Shadow World

Somehow the master softcover print files for Eidolon got lost at the Lightning Source end of the process again. As Lightning Source have now changed their cover specs very slightly, we've adjusted the cover and reuploaded it. Hopefully this will be third-time lucky.

Contracts to arrange for the return of The Orgillion Horror and Alchemy Companion are with Tim Taylor.

Brian Hanson has been in touch to indicate he's closing in on the next full draft of Priest-King of Shade.

Software

There have been a series of updates to the ERA software package and its datasets, notably in terms of the inclusion of additional Shadow World material such as Loremaster and Navigator spell lists.

There have also been further updates to the AutoHARP suite, and I have supplied David with the relevant material from HARP Folkways so that a Folkways dataset can be ready for simultaneous release with the pdf.

HARP and HARP SF

In HARP Bestiary, I have completed the text of the Elemental chapter, so the only part of that left to do is the actual stats. As soon as I can get a couple of evenings, I will get the stats resolved. I have donated the creatures which were originally intended to be Elemental planar creatures to other chapters. I have already seen John's reconstruction of the Flamedarter and I am very happy that I made the right decision to delegate these. John, by the way, has completed his Dragons chapter; once he reconstructs the other extra monsters, he will be onward to Lycanthropes.

Jon Cassie added some culture tables to HARP Folkways for the GM whose inspiration is flagging on how to differentiate cultures in his or her setting.

For HARP SF, I have a substantially complete draft of The Poseidon Gambit to review.

Until next time

Back to more persistence and perseverance. The next scheduled Briefing will be in March 2016

Best wishes,
Nicholas

Director, Guild Companion Publications Ltd

Offline Hurin

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Re: Director's Briefing - February 2016
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2016, 01:49:42 PM »
Glad to see more races coming to Character Law.

Congrats to Jonathan and Graham!

'Last of all, Húrin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed'. --J.R.R. Tolkien

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Offline assur

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Re: Director's Briefing - February 2016
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2016, 02:28:53 PM »
I wiould like to see more hardcover options for games at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.

Offline MrApollinax

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Re: Director's Briefing - February 2016
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2016, 04:36:01 PM »
Very pleased to see that (hopefully) material from the Alchemy Companion might be used again: loved that book! Will Tim Taylor's work from other RM Companions be available too?
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Offline craggles

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Re: Director's Briefing - February 2016
« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2016, 05:01:42 PM »
Glad to hear of the new additions. I learned all I know of Excel by customising Mr Dale's character sheets for my group. :) 

...but I've since forgotten most of it now that I use Fantasy Grounds. :P
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Offline jdale

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Re: Director's Briefing - February 2016
« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2016, 05:08:06 PM »
I learned most of what I know about Excel by creating that sheet!  :)
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Offline pastaav

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Re: Director's Briefing - February 2016
« Reply #6 on: February 03, 2016, 09:44:15 AM »
More like congrats to the rest of us that Jonathan and Graham wants to contribute so we get the new edition. Kudos Dan Henry for the excellent work he has done so far.
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Offline Arc

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Re: Director's Briefing - February 2016
« Reply #7 on: February 05, 2016, 04:38:43 PM »
When is the RMU Beta 2 playtest scheduled to end? I'm just trying to assess if it makes sense for me to test it out before it closes.

Offline pastaav

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Re: Director's Briefing - February 2016
« Reply #8 on: February 09, 2016, 04:02:08 PM »
When is the RMU Beta 2 playtest scheduled to end? I'm just trying to assess if it makes sense for me to test it out before it closes.

I would say that it is always good with fresh eyes on things so if you have the time I think it would be valuable.
/Pa Staav

Offline jdale

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Re: Director's Briefing - February 2016
« Reply #9 on: February 09, 2016, 04:30:34 PM »
No dates, but A&CL is necessarily going to get finished first, followed by Spell Law, and then Treasure Law and Creature Law (not sure which order for those two). The latter two especially could use feedback in my opinion, in part because (unlike A&CL and Spell Law) they have only had a single release. And because they are complex and cover a lot of ground, not all of which will apply to every game, there's more material in each of them that has never really been discussed at all.
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Offline Hurin

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Re: Director's Briefing - February 2016
« Reply #10 on: February 10, 2016, 01:16:43 PM »
No dates, but A&CL is necessarily going to get finished first, followed by Spell Law, and then Treasure Law and Creature Law (not sure which order for those two). The latter two especially could use feedback in my opinion, in part because (unlike A&CL and Spell Law) they have only had a single release. And because they are complex and cover a lot of ground, not all of which will apply to every game, there's more material in each of them that has never really been discussed at all.

I wrote quite detailed feedback for Arms/Character Law and Spell Law, but to be frank I found it hard to get through all of Treasure Law and Creature Law, even just to give some feedback comments. I like many of the things these latter two books do, but they are simply way too complicated IMHO. I agree that the Creature Law book should be spread out into two releases: one just listing the creatures and giving the stat block, the other giving the customization options. You can't print a book with 900 pages. As for Treasure Law, again... too complicated and bloated. Very few people I know need a Random Coin-Shape generator.

One last point I wrote down but am not sure I posted anywhere: in regards to Treasure Law, some Herbs say they heal muscle injuries of all severity, while others just say they heal muscle injuries (leaving the question of severity unanswered). The language needs to be standardized here.

Sorry, that's about all I've got for those.
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Offline jdale

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Re: Director's Briefing - February 2016
« Reply #11 on: February 10, 2016, 02:37:04 PM »
I wrote quite detailed feedback for Arms/Character Law and Spell Law, but to be frank I found it hard to get through all of Treasure Law and Creature Law, even just to give some feedback comments. I like many of the things these latter two books do, but they are simply way too complicated IMHO. I agree that the Creature Law book should be spread out into two releases: one just listing the creatures and giving the stat block, the other giving the customization options. You can't print a book with 900 pages. As for Treasure Law, again... too complicated and bloated. Very few people I know need a Random Coin-Shape generator.

One last point I wrote down but am not sure I posted anywhere: in regards to Treasure Law, some Herbs say they heal muscle injuries of all severity, while others just say they heal muscle injuries (leaving the question of severity unanswered). The language needs to be standardized here.

Honestly, I did too and I still haven't read all of Treasure Law. That's still a valid topic for discussion though. If you thought a particular section was too complex to actually be usable, that seems like useful feedback to me. What sections work for you, what do not? (Better to discuss that on the board, though, not here.)
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Offline Arc

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Re: Director's Briefing - February 2016
« Reply #12 on: February 10, 2016, 06:43:12 PM »
No dates, but A&CL is necessarily going to get finished first, followed by Spell Law, and then Treasure Law and Creature Law (not sure which order for those two). The latter two especially could use feedback in my opinion, in part because (unlike A&CL and Spell Law) they have only had a single release. And because they are complex and cover a lot of ground, not all of which will apply to every game, there's more material in each of them that has never really been discussed at all.

ok! I'll happily test it out and give my input. It's just that if you will be closing it in the next few weeks, my feedback will be too late to matter in any way. But as promised I will give it a go on a new campaign I'm starting in Shadow World. I will try to make an extra effort to use the Creature Law and Treasure Law  ;D