Life is stressful. Game night shouldn't be. Welcome to a 5E campaign setting where player absence is built into the story.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Editing and Writing Update
over 1 year ago
– Thu, Aug 10, 2023 at 07:54:02 AM
Hey Folks!
I normally post these updates once per months on Monday's but this weekend is my 10 year wedding anniversary so my wife and I will be taking a long weekend away.
Editing
Adventurer's Agency is still in the content editing stage with Ash. I spoke to Ash and he should have all of his notes finished by next week, at which point Alex and I will review all of the changes and wrap up the content portion of the editing phase. Frank Ard, our typical copy editor, is currently in the middle of upending his life as he moves to Gerogia, USA after accepting a new position there. Congrats, Frank! He will still continue to provide editing for us, but he will need the next month or so to settle in and begin his new job. In the meantime, I have brought on a second Copy Editor, Becky McKenna, whom I have known for nearly a decade. She has already worked with HHP as a playtester and she is excited for a more permanent role. It is likely that she will take over providing the final layer of copy editing to Adventurer's Agency beginning in late August. She is extremely detail oriented but works quickly. We expect her to complete the final round of edits by late September. From there, we will need about two weeks to finalize the layour for hardcover printing before sending the book off to the printer.
Agency Contracts
The companion adventure booklet is progressing smoothly. I talked to Alex last week and we compared notes as we are writing this book jointly. At this point, four of the six adventures are nearly complete. And significant playtesting has already occurred for them. One of the adventures, Prison Break, will have the party break into the Franzhold, a coastal prison north of Blumont, to rescue a wealthy merchant who was (allegedly) smuggling magic items into the city. Here's a sneak peek of the adventurer's map. If the party can successful rescue Urgan One-Eye, they'll be rewarded with some of the merchant's wares - assuming they don't end up in prison themselves.
That's all for now! I will have another update in September to let you know how things are looking!
Shane
Major Editing Progress
over 1 year ago
– Mon, Jul 10, 2023 at 07:47:28 AM
Hey Folks,
First off, I just want to apologize for the delayed update here. I've recovered about 95% from my surgery so almost back to normal but not quite. Between that, going to Origins Game Fair, and then my kids having all of last week off, I've gotten behind on a lot of things. However, significant progress has still been made!
Editing
Frank Ard finished his first round of edits, sent them back to me, and I spent my evenings last week going through them. I finished going through the edits, made some formatting and layout changes, and then sent the book off to Ash Monogue for Content Editing. I spoke to ash and he is returning from vacation this week and should be able to get to work after that. I'm anticipating I will have his feedback to review in early August. As soon as I receive it, lead writer Alex and I will review them, make changes, and send the book back to Frank one last time for copyediting. We are getting close here!
Agency Contracts
The adventure booklet companion to Adventurer's Agency is the only area where we've had delays this month. I have been too busy to begin writing my portion and Alex has had to take some extra shifts at work. Despite this, as the booklets will be printing in the US, we have an extra two months to work on Agency Contracts compared to the Adventurer's Agency timeline.
That's all for now, everyone! I will be back in early August for the next update. I hope you're all having a safe and enjoyable summer.
Shane
Survey, Editing Update, Agency Contracts, and Origins Game Fair!
over 1 year ago
– Mon, Jun 05, 2023 at 10:20:35 AM
Hey Folks!
It's been quite a month and I'm excited to share where we're at!
Survey
We're currently conducting a survey with our backers and email subscribers. We really want to hear from you about what you want, what we can do better, and your input on our ideas for the future! The survey will take about 5-7 minutes to complete and at the end, you'll receive a code for a $5 credit you can use on our website for anything you'd like. Your feedback is super important to us and I can wait to hear your thoughts! https://forms.gle/qQEuezNqNooo3fTr8
Bad News
I'll start with the bad news first which, luckily, shouldn't affect Adventurer's Agency too much. Last Friday, I had a common surgery that had some complications. My recovery was supposed to be about 1-2 weeks but now it will take 4-6 weeks and I am in significant pain and am bedridden for the time being. Luckily, as you'll see in the next section, that won't have too big of an impact here. I still have a lot of work to do for Adventurer's including designing the Deck of Many Things cards and the Agency Contracts adventures but my role in the actual book over the next month or two is pretty small.
Editing Update
Not a ton to share here other than Frank is still completing first round editing on the book. I was hoping he'd be done by now but Frank is juggling multiple projects right now, along with a lot of stuff in his personal life. I checked in with him last week and he's hoping to wrap up this editing stage in the next two weeks. From there, it goes to Ash Monogue for Content Editing.
Agency Contracts
Now that the book is out of my hands, the new big focus are the adventures for the Agency Contracts. Alex has two of the six adventures mostly completed and playtested. I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago and we agreed on the next steps moving forward. He has ideas and outlines for about 15 adventures. I will choose four and will write these adventures myself using his notes. Luckily many of these adventures have been playetested already and its simply a matter of converting notes into adventure text. The turnaround time on printing Agency Contracts is significantly shorter than the hardcover for Adventurer's Agency (weeks vs months) so they should end up arriving at our studio at roughly the same time. My goal is to finish a rough draft of these adventures before the end of July and start editing and playtesting them.
Origins Game Fair
I'm also excited to share that Joe and I will be at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus Ohio later this month. If you'll be there, come say hi!
That's it for now! Next time I should have another update for you on the editing progress.
Shane
Editing Progress, Updated Timeline, and More!
over 1 year ago
– Mon, May 08, 2023 at 05:39:50 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Editing
over 1 year ago
– Mon, Apr 10, 2023 at 08:57:09 AM
Hey Folks!
We're making some good headway with editing and formatting Adventurer's Agency. In the last month, we've done a lot of balancing and playtesting of the original monsters in the system. In particular, we've done a lot of work on the Rexenant and have even added two new stat blocks to the section: Hive Tendrils and Infant Overqueens. The second stage of editing and formatting is nearly finished - it should wrap up this week with just a few more sections of rewrites. At that point, it will move on to the first stage of line editing (stage 3 of 5 of the editing process). The editing process has been much slower moving than anticipated, a combination of factors including the HHP office shutting down for nearly a week after we got 58" of snow, me becoming bedridden and hospitalized after multiple illnesses over the last few months, and a significant family emergency for Alex, the project's lead writer.
Rexenant Drone
The editing and playtesting is such an important part of the process and so we won't fast track any part of this to meet our deadline. We are making good progress and have a lot of momentum now. I am still hopeful that we can begin fulfilling orders by June but I think July or August is more realistic now at this stage.
