The last few weeks of Nautilus have mostly been spent getting myself organized and figuring out what needs to be done next. I ended up with a to-do list two and a half pages long (and it’s not even done yet)! I also reorganized a lot of the development wiki, condensing down the number of categories and pages to make the development versions of the book (which are compiled directly from the wiki) more print friendly.
I’ve also been slowly taking care of a bunch of little things. Adding new pieces of minor equipment, putting in old edits to clarify rules and set down in writing rules that were created in playtesting, adding item descriptions, that sort of thing.
I’m a little worried right now because when I went to work on Nautilus this morning, for the first hour I felt like I’d totally lost the thread of what I needed to be working on. The issue I’m running into is that the last few big mechanical pieces (ship combat, relationships, defining the roleplay/mission phase cycle, and incentivizing exploration) are tricky as hell, and so I freeze up sometimes when I need to work on them. At the same time, a lot of the little things that need to be done (examples for a lot of stuff, gamemastering advice, the introduction/tutorial section, etc.) really need the game to be mechanically *finished* before I write them, to avoid needing to triple-check every example for little discrepancies. But I plan on putting my head down and soldiering on, because that’s what needs to get done.
I’m also hoping to accelerate my current pace a little bit, but we’ll see how that goes. I’d like to have the core book (what I’ve been primarily working on) as a completed, self-edited first draft by the end of the calendar year, and to have started working on the first draft of the setting/encounters book. But we’ll see how it goes. I imagine things will be a lot clearer on that front in a month or so. (A lot depends on things like me getting a day job and what hours it has, that sort of thing.)
This has been your Nautilus News Network update! If you’re interested in getting in on the playtesting of Nautilus or want to know more, feel free to shoot me an e-mail or tweet using the contact information in the right sidebar.
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