Note: Due to some recent confusion, the Pugmire and Mau Kickstarters will now get separate, unique updates. I’ve removed KS-specific information and combined the rest of the news from both of those updates for this blog, and will do so in future months.
PUGMIRE SEEN IN THE WILD
Over the past few days I’ve been tagged on Facebook and Twitter by people excited to receive their Pugmire shipments. I’m really glad it’s finally in people’s hands. Plus, the original Kickstarter had delivery listed as “August 2017,” so we’re exactly on target!
MONARCHIES OF MAU
I finished up a detailed outline for Monarchies of Mau, and hired six incredible people to help me bring this book together. Some you’ll recognize from their work on Pugmire, while others are talented writers ready to put their mark on the monarchies.
- David Bounds, my co-conspirator on Pugmire for several years now, will continue his magic (har har) on the spell section.
- Matthew Dawkins has been a rising freelance star over the past few years, and a staunch supporter of both Pugmire and Mau. I’m thrilled to have him work more centrally on Mau.
- Elissa Rich is best known for her work on Shadowrun and Orpheus, but she’s also someone I’ve wanted to work with for years. Mau was finally the right project to do that on!
- Lauren Roy is new to me, but certainly not to the craft. She’s an accomplished novelist and RPG writer, working on such diverse properties as Chronicles of Darkness, Scion, and Trails of Cthulhu.
- Vera Vartanian comes highly recommended for her work on Scion and the Dark Eras Companion. Plus, she’s a self-confessed lifelong cat person, and I’m thrilled that she wants to bring her skill to Mau.
- Rob Wieland was a huge help during the writing of Pugmire, and I loved what he did with the Enemies section. I’m looking forward to bouncing ideas around with him on Mau.
I’ve put together a Slack channel for the team (a first for me), and we’re now brainstorming ideas while the writers start tapping on keyboards. One thing I mentioned up front is that very little from Early Access is carved in stone. Some things are staying as they are, but feedback from you, the Kickstarter community, got me thinking about areas where the game could be improved. Further, looking at it with fresh eyes, I saw plenty of areas I wasn’t happy with in retrospect. Don’t worry — the core ideas of Mau will remain intact — but it’ll be good to get some fresh voices offering new ideas to refine the ideas in Mau.
This means that, with parts of the game and the world being reconsidered, I can’t start on other stretch goals until we nail things down. I expected this, and we budgeted it into our timeline when we launched the Kickstarter, but for a few months it might seem like not much is happening. I promise you, this is all part of the creative process, and everything will kick into high gear soon enough!
GEN CON 50 IS GOING TO THE DOGS, BUT IT WILL BE PURR-FECT
I’ll by flying all the way from Ireland to come to Gen Con 50. At the Onyx Path booth (#501, by the Paizo booth) we’ll have plenty of cool things for Pugmire and Mau fans!
- Short 10-minute demos of Pugmire and Mau Early Access for people who want to learn more
- One-hour games of Pugmire and Mau Early Access, run by me
- Lots of full Pugmire and Mau Early Access events run by our tireless demo team, The Wrecking Crew
- A panel about Pugmire and Mau (as well as other OPP games) on Friday, 1pm, at Crowne Plaza Hotel Indianapolis Grand Central Ballroom A
- Copies of the Pugmire book so folks who missed the Kickstarter can buy one
- Maybe some secret Pugmire news or swag? Who knows?
Even if you just swing by to say you backed the Kickstarter, I’d appreciate an opportunity to thank you for your support!
OTHER PROJECTS
- Writers are continuing to rewrite their stories for the Pugmire anthology.
- Pan’s Guide has moved on to the next stage: Creating a series of short YouTube videos for players interested in learning Pugmire!
- The non-interactive drama is moving along. I can’t wait to hear how it turns out!
- Earplay is getting very close to launch.
Pugmire & Mau!!!
What about Scion? WE’ve seen alot of these but nothing of Scion! At least in the monday meeting notes.
Its all about the Kickstarters.
Scion just got an update to the KS today, with previews from the Netjer pantheon and character creation. I’ll try and put it up here next week; it’s our usual practice to put things up for backers first, as we did with this Pugmire/Mau update.
The reason there’s not much action in the Monday Meeting notes is that Neall is deep in development, the integration and polish phase of doing a book (or two books, in this case). There’s often not a lot to say during that phase, because what the dev is doing is stuff like “integrated two writers’ drafts into a single section” or “moved the section on firearms to before the section on melee weapons” or “clarified the text of a power.”
I backed the Mau KS at the Kittens and Puppies Living Together level (the one where you get PDFs of both Pugmire and Mau); is it known yet when backers at that level will get their Pugmire PDF links? Thanks. 🙂
I was ‘off the grid’ for a couple of weeks, so I didn’t get the heads-up that my Pugmire book and screen were shipped. I was (very pleasantly) surprised to see it the other day. It’s a thing of beauty, to be sure!
Thrilled to hear it!