Wetrunner: Cyberpunk Fishing Heist Action

September Update, a stream today, and PAX
3 months ago – Fri, Sep 27, 2024 at 08:35:02 AM

Hey! I'm here with your "I'm still alive" post, some details on what's been going on, and a couple announcements.

General Update

Things are going Okay over here. First, some context:

For the last few years, I've been helping to take care of a relative with Alzheimer's. We've got things handled, but in the last year it's become more time-consuming in ways that have impacted my work. I hoped to be on top of that by now, but I'm still behind on tasks.

I'm also still waiting for some art pieces—it's mostly backer portraits for the tiers that get them now. Due to how long Wetrunner has taken, a few extra costs have stretched by budget; I decided to dump a bunch of art pieces and do some more cool layout stuff instead to compensate. (I've also cut some unnecessary sections to speed up my other tasks.)

(A note for Join the City backers: Originally that add-an-NPC tier wasn't going to include a portrait, but a while after launching the KS I decided it would. At the moment though, I gotta go back to the original plan and lose the portraits to stay within budget. (I was thinking about launching without the art and using early sales to get them done before I release the print version, but that could easily turn out badly, so we'll see how it goes.) If you're one of the lucky few who backed at this tier and responded to my emails, and this is a problem, contact me and we can work something out.)

I'll have more time in October. I plan to knock out as much as possible then, so when the art comes in I can just slide it in place and go live. That includes backer content—if you're waiting for an email expect one soon. If I've emailed you, try to reply when you can.

Wetrunner Stream Today

Okay, first announcement: I am doing a Wetrunner stream in less than 24 hours! I've had to cancel a bunch of stream plans in the past year so I'm pretty excited. I'll be using some new material I haven't covered before, to hopefully give you more of an idea of what to expect.

Where: My Twitch channel, Ettin64

When: September 28, 10AM GMT. You can convert that to your time zone of choice, but if it helps, it'll be around 18.5 hours from when I sent this email.

Ettin @ PAX

Also: I'll be at PAX Aus again this year! Last year, I hosted the trivia panel Melvin Mindslapper's Cursed D&D Trivia; this year I'm pleased to report that PAX somehow agreed giving me a badge so I could come down and do it again was a good idea.

If you're at PAX and want to say hi, you can find me running Melvin Mindslapper's Cursed D&D Trivia 2nd Edition: Elminster Boogaloo on Sunday (of PAX, not this weekend) in the Fruitbat Theatre.

Anyway, that's all for now! I'll be back to report on our progress around the end of October.

Cover!
4 months ago – Thu, Aug 29, 2024 at 09:11:08 AM

Hey! I'll come back with a longer update soon, but today I'd just like to say check this out.

Rebirth of Update
6 months ago – Wed, Jul 17, 2024 at 10:45:08 AM

Hey! It's been a while. Life has continued kicking my ass, which I'm sure will be pretty funny in hindsight. I've spent most of July sleeping off another Covid infection which presented symptoms immediately after I first started this update. Absolutely impeccable timing, frankly.

Anyway, where we're at:

Art: This is the main thing that needs doing. At the moment we're mostly in need of a cover, the remaining backer pieces, plus a setting map and some logos. (For the latter two I've recruited neon shudder, who did some logos for Hard Wired Island, to get things done faster.) I've had to cut a few pieces for budget reasons.

This will be ready when it's ready. I'm not confident we'll be ready this summer, but we'll at least be ready well before Australian summer, which I like more.

Text: There's some sections that need to be tied off, and a few places (particularly NPC writeups) where I'm waiting for the art to make sure everything fits neatly. (The worst section right now is probably the example scenarios/plot hooks, which is mostly just a bunch of unsorted text blocks.)

I'll basically be knocking out the rest of it as I wait for art to come in. While I wait I've also been making a few other tweaks to the book, like adding custom layout bullshit to more pages and adding more random tables, which will hopefully make the wait worth it.

Once the cover is done we'll be looping back to the remaining backer art—the backer PCs are done but the other tiers are incomplete. I'll be aiming to wrap up as many conversations with backers as I can this month; later than expected, but given that I'm still waiting on a few responses, it hopefully works out.

I'm planning to do another Wetrunner stream soon, so when I nail down the details I will let you know. See you soon, hopefully!

General Update
9 months ago – Fri, Apr 19, 2024 at 09:27:33 AM

Hey there! It's been a while, so let's do an update. (I was hoping to post when I had a fully-completed chapter, but I've been jumping around and redoing sections a lot, so that's not happened. I think we've passed the point where people would rather I just post the fucking update though.)

The Short Version

Writing is fine! Right now the main thing that needs doing is the character sections—I'm going back and forth over PC/encounter stats and how to tune them. The main issues right now are Real Life related—I'm currently a carer for an elderly relative and that eats up a lot of time, for example.

Art is also doing alright! It's slowed down recently as Lo handled some Life Stuff, but we're picking up speed again. We've got a lot out of the way already; at the moment it's mostly backer stuff, and then filling in whatever we can with the remaining budget.

Right now I'm still aiming for a summer release. My plan is to wrap this up ASAP and move on to the Secret New Project (it's a full Hard Wired Island expansion, it's not secret, I tweet about it a lot).

The Longer Version

Look At This Guy

I'm not going as deep as Hard Wired Island on the setting, but I've been trying to throw in enough details to feel satisfying. This is the Zaur, a neogenetic dinosaur reverse-engineered from birds. It is basically Pinnacle City's pigeon. I love it. Look at it.

Character Stuff

Some of you have seen this already, but I've been experimenting with the sample PC spreads. I was having trouble fitting the character writeups/stats and art on one page, so I tried breaking them up into spreads and using unique layouts to spice them up a little. Check these out these drafts:

I think these look cool so far. The main problem I'm having is actually with approaches—right now the left column uses the standard Fate approaches but set slightly than usual (with a cap of 2), while the right column has three roles rated at +3/+2/+1. I'm debating whether it might feel better to switch over to capping the left column at 3 and giving the right column two roles at +2 and +1. This is the gripping life of a game designer.

(Encounters are easier, at least—instead of approaches, most NPCs just have a list of things they're good at. For example, an opponent who's good at fighting and meant to go toe-to-toe with the PCs could just have "Gunplay: Superb (+5)". I'd like to get the PC approaches nailed down before I finish the encounters, though.)

Backers

I'm currently writing up the backer content. All but one backer PC has art, and we'll be completely moving on to the other tiers this month. There are some folks I still haven't hashed out all the details with, but I am running out of other backers to work with. There are also a handful of backers who haven't finished their surveys yet, but as long as I haven't finished the rest of the backer content I don't mind. (Check your inbox though!)

The Future

Real Life has been getting less busy again, so I'm going to try to knock out as much of the game as I can. My current goal is to be text-complete before the art is done. I'll aim to post an update within a month, draft or no draft.

Finally, just in case anyone was squinting at Bazza's spread earlier, here's a bigger version.

February update, setting draft (PC backers, check your emails!)
11 months ago – Wed, Feb 14, 2024 at 08:54:03 AM

Hey folks! We've had another delay, and I'd like to apologise for that. Long story short: in January I got hit with some (non-TTRPG) work with a tight deadline, and I had to focus on that for a while. (I also had some family stuff going on near the end of the month, but nothing major.) I've spent the last couple weeks getting back on top of things.

I also decided to left-justify everything instead of full-justify, and had to change a bunch of stuff to fit. Worth it, probably!

I'm probably going to be pushing delivery back at this point, though I'm still aiming for a (northern hemisphere) summer release. I probably would have had to push back anyway to get all the art in, but that's easy to say in hindsight and it doesn't matter now.

So, here's the news I've got:

Setting Preview

So, I tidied up a bunch of the setting chapter draft and made it available through BackerKit. (It should be available through the Digital Downloads section of your survey.)

This includes the opening pages of the setting chapter (with a general overview of the City), various corporations, a writeup of major locations in Pinnacle City, and a temporary map for reference (I'll be commissioning a better one.) This is a work in progress; I'll probably rename or replace a few locations at least.

It is missing:

• Some stuff about technology in the setting overview (I've been flip-flopping on how much of the augmentation section of the rules chapter should go here instead)
• I feel like I should add a couple more corporations, but I haven't decided what else would generate the best plot hooks, so here we are
• A bunch of corporate logos (I'm waiting on those at the moment)
• A section on minor corporations (it's done, but I want to redo some of it)
• Other factions (Reclaimers, Gangs, and Misc)—these sections have holes in them and I'd rather fill them first
• A section about smaller notable places (e.g. specific buildings with plot hooks) within the listed locations
• Hubs where the players can hang out between jobs (e.g. The Reef, which is mentioned but not described)—this will include a bunch of backer locations so I'll sort those first
• An editing pass, probably

I'm gonna use the rest of the month to tidy some of this up, expand the later chapters, and work on backer content. Speaking of:

Backer Update

First off, some PC backers need to respond to their emails (and one needs to finish their survey)! I am willing to wait until unresponsive backers are the only ones left before cutting them off, but please reply when you can.

Anyway: Lo is currently working on the final backer PCs we have the details of, and then art will move on to the lower tiers. I was waiting until that happens to do more writing, to avoid spinning too many plates at once, but right now it seems like it'd be faster to just go for it. I'll get on that this month.

It's getting late here, so I'll wrap up for now. The next update will come sooner, unless I get hit by a truck and isekai'd or something. See you then!