The Echoes of Heaven Developer’s Journal

No new news on the job front. I’m still plucking away at the pagemaking for product 5, but of course I don’t have all the art yet.

My mother went into surgery last week, but she’s recovering nicely now. Things are something like normal again, so I’ll keep at it.

I have tentative names for the last two interim adventures, the ones that come between adventure 9 and 10. They are The Center Cannot Hold and Slouching Toward Bethlehem.

With the medical stuff, that’s all the news at this point. Talk to you next week.

Bob

I’m curious to see the page count for product five. Obviously, it varies by system (HERO runs longer than RM, for instance). Right now I’m doing the master page make with the RM version. The Last Hallowed Place came in at 47 pages (I think the makes it on the shorter side as the adventures go). In His Name looks to make up for the page count, though.

At the end of the Introduction, the book was 15 pages long (not to surprising, and that might change when I can do a TOC). Part One details the Faithful and that was a bear to pagemake. It brought the count up to 49 pages. The Eldinarans came next, and I just finished them today, bringing it to 66 pages.

So I’ve already hit my minimum goal of 32 pages of sourcebook and 32 pages of adventure. So that’s not a fear.

Anyway, I just wanted to throw out an update.

Bob

Just a quick update. Yesterday I finished the master layout for The Last Hallowed Place. Don’t have all the art yet, of course, but I have placeholders where I need them (there was only one in the adventure itself.) It feels good to have it at this point. I intend to finish the same for the main book, In His Name, over the next week.

On a semi-related note, I’ve plucking away at a 4e version of the campaign setting (about 5-10 minutes a day and I feel like I’m making progress but not interfering with new work). I’m getting to the end of the geography section, doing a country a day (which is basically just editing the country and adding two little items I’m doing for each country in 4e).

That’s the main events this week. Still unemployed.

Bob

I just posted Adventure Seed 4a on RPG Now on on our Final Redoubt Store. On the Final Redoubt Store, it might be appearing at the bottom of many of the pages. I need to rearrange everything on those pages again, but that will likely not happen until Product 5 is ready to ship.

Expect Adventure Seed 4b sometime in May.

Bob

[A lot of this post is the same as the one on Playtesting.net, but the product update section is different, if you want skip to that paragraph.]

So we’re now past the third week of me being laid off. I’ve received my severance check, but if I get rehired by the same company within 60 days, I have to pay 75% of it back. Since my best lead right now is a job that opened up there the same day I was laid off, I have to be VERY careful with money.

So updates: Product 5 is out of editing. It’s also been proofed and the maps are done. I’ve started working on layout, but right now the big problem is the art. I have some art outstanding that I had to commission outright instead of setting up on a royalty. My contract requires me to pay within a certain time after the last piece is turned in. I have that money, of course, but paying it could put me into a situation where I couldn’t accept a job from my old company. So while I’ve been putting the books together, I’m not asking the artist to start working on the art in earnest. When he finishes, I’ll pay him, but I don’t dare hasten the event from my end as it could mean something of a crises here if the timing is wrong.

Meanwhile we’re currently running the Rolemaster play test of Product 7 and the 4e play test (which is now mostly serving as a story/design play test) on product 9.

As for cancer and chemo, this Thursday is my mother’s last chemo infusion. It will almost certainly be the worst, and I’ve cleared my weekend for it, but after Sunday, every day should be better than the last. Hopefully, forever.

I think that’s everything. Enjoy.

Bob

So, I was laid off last week. Just now getting my head above water and thinking about it. Anyway, this has some implications on anything that requires me laying out cash (paying artists for new art and sound techs, for instance), but I’m hoping to get rehired by the same company right away. They offered me a tech I position (or told me I’d be welcome to one, if I applied), but I don’t know if I can make my mortgage at Tech I pay. Plus, if I get hired back too soon I have to pay back 75% of my severance. So I applied for another position at the company that is approximately the same pay as the one I just lost. I’m cautiously optimistic. I’d be great at that job.

What am I doing with my free time? Twitter (Among other things, of course . . . Twttter is probably ten minutes of my day). You can find me at @robertjdefendi. I’ll try to tweet things like how recording is going and where we are in the various Echoes playtests. Jump on and follow me if you tweet.

Doesn’t mean that I won’t be updating here as well. I just know I’ll tweet more often, so I thought I’d let you all know about it.

Bob

So that cancer news wasn’t good. My mother’s had a double mastectomy since I last posted and she starts chemo this week. I post about that more on Playtesting.net.

As for Echoes, here’s the state of things. The entire thing has been written and is back from editing. I haven’t run through the edits on all the versions of Part 8, which is the rules section, and therefore needs to be redited in it’s entirety for every system.

The main document is back from proofing as well.

There are some changes I need to confirm are in the right documents. These were added to the adventure during the last playtest and I just need to double check they are correctly handled, and if not, mark them for proofing and moving over from the HARP version.

Finally, my license with HERO Games expired. We don’t have the new contract yet, but I believe we’ve agreed on terms, so I don’t foresee an issue there.

All the art is in except for one batch. That artist was brought in to pick up the art from another and I haven’t been rushing him, so that’s not his fault. What I’ve gotten from him is great.

I think that’s everything important. Things are pretty busy with the cancer and the chemo, but I’m still plugging a way. Thanks for you patience.

Hi. I was planning on posting an update on status this week, followed by some insights into time management. However today I discovered that a lump my mother found in her breast doesn’t look good to the doctors. They’ve drawn the biopsy, but they aren’t expecting good news.

I might be a little out of it the next day or two. I’d appreciate any prayers, meditation, or general well wishes you might throw our way. Her name is Patricia Christine Adams.

Thanks for your time and your attention.

Bob

You must go to Schlockmercenary.com. You must read up on the delightful product XDM. You must buy it.

If you’re going to GenCon, buy it anyway (if you ship it priority I bet you’ll get it before you go). When you get there, buy another. If you hand Howard both, I bet he’d doodle something special for you. Tell him I said he would. But you have to buy one now. And one there.

Actually, you love your family, don’t you? They each need one. Oh, I understand. No, no. No need to explain why you don’t love your family. I get it. I won’t tell them. I mean, I will probably never see them, right? This will likely never come back to haunt you. I’ll just go weep for your cold, stony, heart.

I need to go rethink my view on humanity.

Or DO I?

The HARP Version is kinda done. I’ll still get notes back and have to fix them, but we’ve gotten through the adventure’s notes, and those are certain to be the most complicated.

I did the d20 Teaser though Act II. Act II has a really awful fight in d20. Right now I have it calibrated so everyone will likely die without a little luck if their characters are vanilla (because most d20 characters are more powerful than that) with a note of warning to the DM to adjust for his party.

So I will likely have a big part of that version finished this weekend. That’s the last one.

I’ve done an art audit and sent it to the artists. Only one’s replied.

That’s where we are.