[Pugmire] October Update!

Greetings, good dogs! I have a lot to cover, so let’s dive right in!

PUGMIRE MANUSCRIPT

As I mentioned last month, I took a few weeks to carefully go through and carefully revise everything in the manuscript so the stuff I wrote several months ago lines up with the stuff I wrote last month. It’s now in the hands of the editor (Dixie Cochran, who was the editor for Early Access), and I should be getting it back in early November.

I’m also working on art notes with Rich Thomas and Mike Chaney. This includes the folks who backed to have their dogs and cats drawn as characters — as I mentioned last month, some of the cat characters will be moved to Monarchies of Mau, but I’m pretty sure every dog character will be in the book in some way, and I did find a way to sneak a couple of the cat characters into this book. We’re getting artists on board and kicking around ideas to make this book look as amazing as possible with the budget we have.

PUGMIRE PLAYTESTING!

As promised last month, I have a playtest document for everyone! It’s up as a Google Doc, where folks should be able to leave comments. Here’s the link:

Pugmire Gamma Playtest

It’s a rough compilation of all relevant changes from Early Access to the current draft of Pugmire, presented in chapter order. It’s also very long — over 80 pages! In order to keep it from being even longer, I cut a lot of ancillary text. So, if you don’t see something here, it’s probably as written in Early Access, and you’ll need it to test these — if you don’t have it, check the very first update if you’re a backer, or you can get it via DriveThruRPG. Remember that this is a pre-edited version of the material, so it’s possible that anything here might change or be removed before the final release.

The best way to offer feedback is to leave a comment on this document. The worst way is to leave comments on the Kickstarter page or the Onyx Path blog, as I’m unlikely to see them. I might accept email or messaged comments, but odds are I’ll ask you to put them here instead. (My process is to go through all the comments once I get the edited manuscript back, so having them all here more or less in order is really helpful.)

When leaving comments:

• Civility goes a long way, both to me and to other posters. Be a good dog.
• Because this is already in editing, don’t worry about typos or copy editing mistakes unless it changes the understanding of a rule. For example, “heat dmage” isn’t an issue, and will get caught by the editor. On the other hand, “hat damage” might be confusing, so point that out.
• Mention if you’ve playtested the change. Saying “I don’t like this” isn’t as helpful as “My group tried it out, and found this specific problem.”

I plan to close this on or after November 1st, so please get any comments in by then!

OTHER PUGMIRE STUFF

Pugmire Earplay, the fiction anthology, and Pan’s Guide are all proceeding, but it’s still largely back-end business and budget stuff. I pushed each of these forward in some way over September, so they’re not just sitting idle, but I don’t have much to talk about regarding any of these yet.

I’m also thinking of new things. I’m hoping to spend some time this month doing some initial brainstorming and worldbuilding for Monarchies of Mau, as well as some research into other areas outside of fiction, tabletop RPGs, and audio drama. So don’t be surprised if you see some new Pugmire stuff on the horizon!

WE’RE CLOSE TO THE FINISH LINE!

Now that the manuscript is out of my hands, we’re getting close to the finish line. I’ll probably spend a couple of weeks going over the edits I get back from Dixie, and then toss it into layout. Things get tricky around the holidays, and Mike’s a busy guy, but right now things still look to be on track for a January 2017 release of the PDF.

And with that, I’m back to work. Kick the tires on the playtest material, tell me what you like and what doesn’t work, and I’ll see you all again in November!