Welcome back, good dogs! Since my last update in May, things have continued moving forward. Here are some highlights:

• Talked over spells with David, and how we can make artisans and shepherds distinctive spellcasters
• Reviewed Rob’s initial enemy ideas, which led to some discussion of other species in the world
• Outlined Pugmire Earplay story, which I’ll be discussing with Dave Grossman
• Getting some support material to Ivan and the crew at “No Survivors” to help them prep for their show on Geek & Sundry’s Twitch stream
• Working with the Onyx Path team on the Pugmire presence at Gen Con, as well as working with Gen Con as an Industry Insider this year
• Processed some of the backer rewards, and started adding backer character names in where they make sense
• Lots and lots of rewriting the manuscript

As planned, May was the beginning of a top-to-bottom rewrite of the manuscript. This rewrite is less about rules and more about making sure that all the bits and pieces I wrote before still do what I need them to do, revising the parts that don’t do what they should, adding material where it needs to be added, and pulling everything together into a more cohesive whole.

Part of this is adding more support for newer players — Early Access was always intended for people experienced with RPGs, but I want to give resources to people who have never rolled a d20 before. One of those resources is the introduction of sidebars featuring Yosha and Pan, in the style we had on the Kickstarter campaign page. Yosha talks about things that newer players need to know, while Pan points out elements more interesting to established players. Here’s an example from the current text (caveat: this is all pre-editing, so it may not resemble the final text).

Before you can start exploring the world of Pugmire, you need your own dog character.

[YOSHA SIDEBAR]
If you want to get started right away, you can portray me or one of my five friends! All you have to do is pick a dog that you want to play, copy down the relevant information, and start playing.

[PAN SIDEBAR]
Everyone shouldn’t try to play me, though — one dog per player, and that’s it. However, if you’re a veteran dog, or you just want to be a free dog and make your own character, skip ahead to p. XX. There you’ll find information on how to build a new dog from scratch.

Another area I’m in the process of rewriting now is the breed section.

(… hi, this is Eddy from the past. When I posted this on Kickstarter, I got a lot of confusion from people on this, so I want to take a moment and clarify something. Players will still be able to make their own breeds. Just like Early Access, players will be able to make any breed they want. That hasn’t changed, and won’t change. So please, there’s no need to email me to ask if you’ll be able to play a Swedish Vallhund or a Bedlington Terrier or a Finnish Spitz or a Norwegian Lundehund or a Catahoula Leopard Dog. The answer is yes! What I’m talking about below are simply example breeds. And now, back to your originally scheduled blog….)

The example families in Early Access generated a lot of interesting feedback! Even with the sidebar explaining that the breed groups are meant to be evocative, and the fact that some of my “breed groups” don’t have any real-world analog, a number of folks had some strong opinions about which families went in which group. I took that feedback very seriously, and combined it with a few obvious examples I just missed last time. In addition, I reformatted them into a simple 1d6 table, so people who are feeling uninspired or need to quickly make a character can roll a family name. Here are the current tables!

(… me again. These are different from the tables I posted on Kickstarter earlier this week, updated based on some more great feedback from the Kickstarter backers. I’m done fiddling with these now, so thanks for all your help!)

Companions
1. Affenpinscher
2. Chihuahua
3. Papillion
4. Pomeranian
5. Pug
6. Shihtzu

Fettles
1. Bernese
2. Bulldog
3. Dalmatian
4. Doberman
5. Mastiff
6. Pyrenees

Herders
1. Briard
2. Canaan
3. Collie
4. Corgi
5. German
6. Sheepdog

Pointers
1. Bloodhound
2. Dachshund
3. Labrador
4. Rat-Terrier
5. Staffordshire
6. Weimaraner

Runners
1. Afghan
2. Borzoi
3. Greyhound
4. Shibainu
5. Whippet
6. Wolfhound

Workers
1. Akita
2. Chow
3. Husky
4. Laika
5. Malamute
6. Salish

As I mentioned last month, other projects aside from Earplay are largely on hold until the core rulebook manuscript is done, or at least in a state where I can use it as reference for people I plan to hire. I might start on the anthology in June or July, however, since that only requires the setting to be formalized, and I could get those pieces in place sooner than the whole manuscript. We’ll see — my focus still is on getting the book folks backed together on time.

That’s it for now. See you in July!