First, let me happily report that I finished Chapter 11 of RttW, so we’ll be able to go forward with the update on schedule. Of course, I spent a lot of time on the peripheral materials as well. I proceeded down the family tree of the High Kings to Domhnall V (#17). That may not sound like a lot of progress, but there’s a fair bit that went into getting that far. I always end up making such soap operas when I do genealogy work. Anyway, I’ve already done some work on Chapter 12 before, so I’ll try to get more done over the weekend to give me some lead time for next cycle. Maybe I can get more that four High Kings sorted while I’m at it. Stay tuned.

I made some respectable progress on Chapter 11 of RttW, finishing the first section and cracking into the second, but a lot more time was spent in the peripheral materials. Similar to what I’ve been doing in the Tellus Arc peripheral materials, I’ve been providing regnal years for the High Kings of Axios (and will do so for the monarchs of the other domains as I flesh them out) and I also wrote up summaries of the Trade Guilds in the Player Guide (as it was relevant to my work on the current chapter). I’d say I’m pretty well positioned to meet my deadline at this point, so yay for that. Besides doing that. I’d like to finish detailing the family tree of the High Kings. My earlier work left off at Dubhgall the Terrible, the thirteenth of 36 High Kings, so I’ve got a bit of work to do there. Well, all fine things to keep me out of the beer joints. Here’s to another productive day. Stay tuned.

I was actually spending a fair bit of time yesterday rereading posts on this blog. I had to go back and apply a recent retcon regarding Emperor Michael I Neologos in “A Brief History of the Emperors of Earth” among other minor tweaks and corrections. There was stuff at work that chewed up a fair bit of my time in the office, but I did actually start digging into Chapter 11 of RttW. Will I make my deadline? That remains to be seen. Anyway, I can try focusing on that and see where it gets me. Stay tuned.

More work on the WttW peripheral materials. I was doing some work on Sanity Checks and their intersection with Charisma Checks. Thrilling stuff, I know. We’ll see what else comes up. Stay tuned.

I continued to do some work in the peripheral materials of WttW, working on the system for NPC companions, dubbed Hirelings, Pets and Familiars. Hirelings are People of the World contracted to serve the Player, Pets are Beasts and Monsters that are either tamed or subdued by Players, and Familiars are Beasts and Monsters bound to Mage-type Players by a Pact. The method of acquiring these three classes of companions vary, but the general restrictions based on Level category is the same. There’s a singular cap, so if you want to mix and match, you have to be Level 11 and up. The max is 95, which aligns with the 96-Player limit of an Adventuring Company, treating the Player as the anchor for the formation. (For reference, a standard Party is six Players, a Troop consists of at most four Parties, and a Company of four Troops.) While this might sound rather broken from a gameplay perspective, the People of the World are actually a liability at the more advanced Trials because their Level cap is so much lower than Players (PotW cap at 40 while Players cap at 80) and there are a lot of complications with trying to manage an army of high-Level Monsters.

I’m glad I already have this week’s chapter ready because I haven’t done any story writing and it doesn’t look like I’m going to get to it anytime soon. It’s pushing my limits just to jot down some of these ideas amid all the other stuff demanding my attention. We’ll see what I can get done. Stay tuned.

I was doing work in the WttW peripheral materials and while I was trying to figure out which Trade Guilds would actually have Trade Skills associated with them, I came up with the idea of guilds without official sanction, covering the goings-on in the grey and black markets. They mostly serve as a way to better organize the activities of organized crime in the World. How much our gang gets caught up in this sort of thing remains to be seen. Once I make some more progress on the Trade Skills list, I’ll try digging into Chapter 11 of RttW. Stay tuned.

I did some work in the peripheral materials, both for CoP and for the WttW series. For the former, I spent an inordinate amount of time working out the rank structure of the military of the Kiennar Federal Republic, even though I don’t think it’ll end up being all that prominent. Their Army Chief of Staff is at best a second-string character, but I guess we’ll see if something develops. I am thinking about doing a gaiden about the political machinations in that particular country, so it may come in handy for later. As for the WttW stuff, I’m working to codify the Trade Skills, as it’s particularly relevant to Chapter 11 of WttW1. We’ll see what else I can get up to. Stay tuned.

The plan was to get Chapter 10 of RttW done in the morning, let it sit for a few hours, then go back over it before posting. It didn’t quite work out that way because I was getting distracted by adding stuff to the peripheral materials, like separate mail sleeves as a medium-level alternative to the plate arm armor set. Anyway, I did get the chapter done in the afternoon and prepped and ready to go in the evening… only to discover that it wasn’t Chapter 10’s turn yet. It was Chapter 9’s turn, so I had to go back and prep it instead. This is why you check things first, not that it hurts to have the next chapter already ready. Maybe I can stay ahead of the game and avoid the sort of delays we’ve seen with TWH and that CoP has been dealing with right out of the gate. More work on the peripheral materials followed after the update. I really should sort out the ability list, but that means squaring away over 400 abilities. Whee fun. Well, complexity addiction is what gave birth to this series, so I’m stuck with it to the bitter end. If I can, I may squeeze in a little more WttW-related work before switching over to TWH for next week. Stay tuned.

Yesterday was a 12-hour monster that didn’t leave me with a lot of time for writing, but I managed to squeeze in a bit of work on Chapter 10 of RttW. Unsurprisingly, when I figured I’d make more progress in the evening, I passed right out. I would decide to try to finish the chapter the following morning. If you’ve been paying attention to the main site, you know how this story goes, but for the sake of narrative continuity, we’ll save that for the next entry. Stay tuned.

I worked more on Chapter 10 of RttW. Due to work stuff going on, I’m a little dubious about making my deadline, but I’m going to try to make the magic happen. I may end up doing like I did last week where I get the chapter finished Saturday morning and then post it in the evening. We’ll see. Stay tuned.