Slog, slog, slog . . .
There are some parts of the production of a book that are just no fun at all.
I’m in a few of those parts.
Hall of Judgment
Oh, sure . . . it’s getting done. Bit by bit. I should have another major revision to Hall of Judgment done either late tonight or tomorrow. Hopefully tonight (assuming my cat gets off my manuscript, but there are fairly sure-fire fixes for that).
But this is the part where you read . . . each . . . word . . . carefully to make sure things are just right, and you still manage to miss stuff.
But what’s going on and changed from last time?
- Lots of revisions to the Backer Credits
- Updated the front matter to hopefully include all my contributors
- Updated all of Glynn’s maps to tweak out a few things, like labels
- Lots of final editing and small corrections
- Removed some DnD-isms from things
- Rewriting some descriptives to ensure they jive with the evolving monster bits
- Completely re-did the cover . . . and got word from the printer that it looks pretty good
There might be other things too. But I still feel like I’m on track to deliver the finished product to backers next week, on schedule.
Dragon Heresy
We’re in a bit of a dead zone here. The “F&G” (Fold and Gather) milestone “should be” coming up by Friday. If those are OK (and I’m not sure if I get samples or no), I give the “OK to bind” with the first advanced copies of the book arriving to me at the end of the first full week in August. If that’s what I think it is, it’ll be the first time I hold Dragon Heresy as it’s meant to be (well, as the Introductory Set is meant to be!) in my hands. That will be a good day.
Other Things
As with many others, I was saddened to hear that business conditions have led to the shuttering (at least temporarily, but plan for the worst, hope for the best applies) of Pyramid Magazine.
I got my start there, and in a very real way, a succession of Pyramid editors taught me how to write and organize text. I list my 13 Pyramid articles proudly on my resume, and in no small part, I know that my history with Pyramid plus my playtesting org skills got me the nod to be the first third-party publisher for the DFRPG.
It served as a garden where the seeds of future authors were sown and watered, and those of us that had been published there would frequently go out of our way to help others. For 25 years, it was a monthly dose of GURPS and Powered by GURPS.
Alas, and farewell.
I cannot while, GURPS 4E, ever see Pyramid coming back.
The path up for GURPS 4E is incremental at best. Even the ‘magic bullets’ of Discworld and DFRPG weren’t break out successes like they might have been ten years ago.
Elsewhere I have suggested some upsides. Perhaps there is room for small scale subscriptions e.g. You pay one dollar and get one monster.
Perhaps new authors are disadvantaged, but I think that’s an exaggeration. I’m yet to see a statistical analysis of how many people got their break in Pyramid and then went on to write GURPS books. If GURPS production isn’t prioritised now then new authors won’t be able to write GURPS books either.
Also:
There are a lot of Pyramid authors who wrote articles between 1993 to 2008. Some of them are the same authors who wrote post 2008.
As per here:
http://www.sjgames.com/ill/archive/2018-07-24
If they wrote a compatible article for DF then all they have to do is crawl through the hoops (admittedly difficult) to update it to 4E.
And if that’s successful then there is certainly at least a possibility the experiment might be extended to Transhuman Space or anything else.
That’s a pretty good opportunity to nurture new or veteran talent.