There has been constant change. There have been a few stops and many restarts. I don’t consider any of this a problem. Instead, I see it as normal to the development process.

I consider the starting point to be my restating of the goals of the project. I also laid down a few ground rules to guide development. Looking back, I am happy with the progress considering my lack of large blocks of time. (Large blocks means more than 20 minutes at one sitting.)

The Arcanist class, my attempt at a skill-based Mage, has undergone several transformations. I feel good about where the class and the spell-building system used for this class are right now. I have a working copy of the spell building system and it seems to work fairly well. I may even translate the 3.0 SRD if I have time.

The Skill System was the biggest change. Rolling under a d20+d10 presents some interesting possibilities. In my goal to streamline sub-systems, this system guides non-weapon proficiencies and Rogue Skills. It also appears in the spell-building system. It may be a personal weakness that I keep this subsytem. We’ll see what happens with the class builds!

Overall, I’ve tried to develop the entire game in three different ways: I tried sketching it in M20 first, reorganizing the rulebooks, and just editing LLAEC and changing the parts that don’t fit. I believe that I have the definition of magic finalized, so I do not expect large changes in Player information at this point.

For the GM, though, the cycle may be pretty severe. I want to have lots of information and tools. While magic may be in good shape, the random tables and “how-tos” have yet to be created.

I expect to have it finished in 2012. I’d like to believe that it will be sooner rather than later, but who knows what tomorrow may bring.

I hope that whatever your secret project and/or labor of love is that you will be able to finish it in the coming year. Good luck!

Yet, this year promises a lot more. Things have changed for the better.

Positive Changes

1. I write for Nevermet Press (new setting coming on Jan 11th!)
2. I became a layout/editor for Basic Fantasy.
3. My friend, Jeff, has a really good board game ready for market.
4. I have a 2hr window on Saturday to write that doesn’t get moved.

More on all of this later. Suffice it to say, that I hope to have a lot more content here in 2010.