Since the last update, I haven't accomplished as much as I'd like. I'm moving into writing an April novel with my local NaNoWriMo group, so I don't know that Exoworld is going to see a lot of progress, but given that a lot of what I've been doing revolves around fitting small pieces in place as I go over things the progress has been more limited by my ability to spend some thought-time tackling a problem than my writing schedule.

Recent Progress

In particular, I've been going through the attributes and character creation section because I'm trying to get playtest ready. I didn't get nearly as much done on armor and weapons, but that's partly because I've been very productive on other things and not getting around to doing work on Exoworld, and it's just a matter of prioritization when you're running as many projects simultaneously as I am right now (starting Thursday, I will be working on three blogs and three books simultaneously, if we count Exoworld as a book).

With that said, I've also been piecing together bits and pieces of the fiction. I've got the idea for the final pieces of the intro fiction in my head as far as the events, but I haven't been able to conjure up any of the evocative elements that I need to flesh them out in a way that makes sense and is compelling to read. I'll have to rewrite bits of the ending, but I have no compulsion against killing my darlings in that way.

Anyway, because progress has been slow I'll just refer back to the previous update instead of rambling about the work on the game itself.

@loreshapergames/exoworld-update-15-how-its-going

When I said I still expect to hit the 25k word mark by the end of April, that's definitely still on track. I just haven't been moving through interesting things as fast as I thought I would. Next step is to give each faction their unique attribute, which will also come with a slight tweak of the Expertise system to make it so that Originals can use Expertise as a flexible attribute based on where they distribute their Trait points in it, giving them an easy attribute to advance to achieve a solid basis for a good number of rolls.

The way to think of it is sort of how the Star Wars D&D variant had a rule where Jedi could wind up replacing other skills with their Force Use skill. It was a little broken over there because it meant that they were replacing a skill and attribute combination with something entirely unique that gave them benefits for its own sake.

Here, it's more of a case where Originals can choose to be versatile in certain areas based on how much they've chosen to go down that path. It's basically an easy build for players who want to do a couple things well and always be able to bring at least one good attribute there (e.g. Expertise: Vehicles covering both operations and repair, letting them use their Expertise attribute and either Reflex or Education respectively).

I like this mechanic more, and it makes Expertise a relatively cheap buy. I'm considering having a system where the first two are discounted to one and two Trait Points respectively, and then the later Expertise picks cost three Trait points each, to make it something with an excellent early return but also a potentially strong meta for a polymath build (at the cost of operating exclusively within standard rules and missing out on some of the cool rules exceptions that other traits offer).

Plans

One thing that I hope to do with Exoworld is pursue crowdfunding. In the past, I've funded my books from my own pocket, but Exoworld is both going to be way too long for that (at least if I want to have anything more than a pretense of having internal illustrations), and way too complicated for me to do as simply a one-man team, though the rules and setting itself may materialize in a functional totality without reaching their fruition.

That's a fancy way of saying that I need an editor.

Now, if time were no object, I could turn Exoworld into a five-year project of working with dedicated fans, and I might wind up having to do that, before it hits a commercial level of polish. It's not that every game I've ever put out there is perfect. Heck, I didn't notice a major error in Waystation Deimos for years, and people seemed not to care given the fact that it is and was still my best received game in some ways (namely the number of people who donated, but also just in raw traffic).

One thing that's important there is to create a complete overview of marketing materials for a crowdfunding campaign. Fortunately, I feel confident in my abilities to (after some trial and error) write a good presentation for a Kickstarter and make a little money there.

Unfortunately, that's not the only expense involved in crowdfunding, since you should have some visual stuff ahead of time. I don't ask artists to work on anything other than a solid contract basis with them getting paid, so that's the roadblock right now. I have a couple solutions in mind, but this is not the place to discuss them (nothing criminal, just partnerships that I don't want to bring up and risk embarrassing people over).

Wrapping Up

Slow progress, but not no progress. I'm still captivated by the Exoworld setting, which is good, I'm just having problems bringing it to fruition in the fiction elements. I've been slowly expanding the setting sections just based on what I wind up getting around to.

One piece that I added was the settlement of Arrival, on Miranda. A colony for the elites who founded the Exemplars to receive a "reward" for the contribution of their peers, Arrival was the pride of the continent for a few years.

Then the civil war broke out. Being on the receiving end of jealousy was not good for the colony, and "the city with its own sun" quickly became a battleground and a target of looters and mercenaries seeking easy prey.