I didn’t make any story progress, but I spent a lot of time in the peripheral materials for the WttW series, particularly plugging in the weights and measures system into the spreadsheet. I’ll be posting a simplified version of this in the appendices later. The system used in the World is a hybrid of Roman and traditional English units, so there’s a bit of difference between the units used and the ones you know. For instance, an Axian inch, like the Roman one, is 2.46cm rather than the 2.54cm US inch. One thing I had to go back and change in the item list was all capacity references using liters (which was a placeholder for convenience). You see, I set a block of storage at half a liter mainly because I started with accounting for water storage first. A pint is close enough, though in the current system, the dry pint is less than that and a fluid pint is more, but it’s a workable compromise. I was then trying to edit some of the assorted containers. I want to arrange the storage blocks in three dimensions, which means the actual capacity doesn’t always quite match, but if you’ve studies traditional measures, you know there was historically a lot of shenanigans involved. Anyway, this is the sort of thing I do with my free time. Expect more of this to continue. Stay tuned.

I made some more progress on Chapter 10 of RttW, but not enough to finish it. I’m going to give it another week, but now that finals are over, I won’t have as much free time in the office as this week. As you might imagine, I was also doing work in the peripheral materials. I’ve added socks. That may not sound significant, but to the degree I’m trying to replicate reality with the World’s game system, it’s no small thing. You’ve got to take care of your feet, after all. Before there was just one layer to feet armor (the “armor” category applying to most coverings for the body, not just what we would conventionally regard as armor), but I have made it three layers now to accommodate socks and to allow the wear of regular shoes or boots under sabatons for heavy armor types. I’m also starting to sort out the characters’ equipment and realizing that because gear is going to change somewhat frequently, the current spreadsheet is going to be expanding a fair bit. Some other mechanics are bubbling into my head, so that’ll be other things to account for. Oh, what fun complexity addiction is. Anyway, I’ll be keeping you posted. Stay tuned.

I made some progress on Chapter 10 of RttW and did some work in the peripheral materials, settling on the XP scale and adding some items to the list, namely accessories to gauge things like HP, MP, and XP. You see, in the time period the main story is set, Players are issued magical devices called “Player Slates” that are magic tablets similar to the Sheikah Stone in Breath of the Wild, but you can’t be looking at your Slate while in active combat and there’s no magic HUD to display for your convenience, so there needs to be another solution. I might do a commentary post at some point to explain how the gamey aspects of the World are handled to give it a little more verisimilitude than just having holographic popups like you see in a lot of game-world stories. Anyway, I’ve still got a fair bit of work to do before the chapter’s ready to go, so I need to focus on that. Stay tuned.

I only managed to get a line or so written in Chapter 10 of RttW as I was mostly working on the site. I also started trying to figure out the XP requirements for levelling. The idea is to not make the requirements too steep or too shallow to maintain a reasonable timeline for advancement. The XP yields for mobs are already rather low, which gets reduced further when divided among party members. If you’re industrious enough, you should be able to advance at a decent clip, but I need to make sure the math works out because I’m being so autistic with the details of the system instead of just glossing over the details.

Here’s an example of the rate of progress for an active Adventurer that I use as a baseline:

Lvl 10 – 6 months
Lvl 20 – 1.5 years [1 year]
Lvl 30 – 2.5 years [1 year]
Lvl 40 – 5 years [2.5 years]
Lvl 50 – 8 years [3 years]
Lvl 60 – 12 years [4 years]
Lvl 70 – 16 years [4 years]
Lvl 80 – 20 years [4 years]

As I said, the trick is to make the numbers work, which requires a bit of wizardry. God help me if I feel compelled to track every encounter and quest for every Adventurer character. If I’m not considered certifiable now, I will be by the time the series is done. (For the sake of what shreds of sanity I have left, I may want to dial things back a bit, but I don’t know if I will.) With that happy thought, I need to get some actual writing done so I can meet my deadline. Stay tuned.

I did a little writing on Chapter 10 of RttW, but mostly worked in the peripheral materials. I need to account for the purchases made during the market visit, which led me to fiddling around with the item list (which is only going to keep expanding and expanding). I’ve got a lot of work to do, but I need to juggle site stuff and story progress. Fun, fun, fun. Stay tuned.

I went to the Book Off back on Thursday and was browsing some manga and a bit of inspiration started stirring in my brain. After percolating a couple days, I had to jot down the exchange I had brainstormed. Yes, I have other things that should be afforded a higher priority, but you know how creative whimsy can be. If this idea gets developed further, it’s going to go into the Else Arc, possibly bundled into this little continuity I’m developing based on an alternative game system I developed when I thought the system for the WttW series was getting too complicated. Anyway, I’m already enjoying the dynamic with the main characters. We’ll see what comes of it. Stay tuned.

I had to do some reworking of Chapter 8 of RttW before publishing it as I realized that I was shifting perspectives between Arjun and Pawel. While there are plenty of authors who fluidly move among their character’s POVs, it’s not what I like to do. I like to maintain the third-person limited and not switch POVs without at least doing a section break. I do occasionally flub it, but I try to avoid it. I also did a little checking over Chapter 9 and started in on Chapter 10. I’d like to get more done, but we’ll see. Stay tuned.

Rather than story progress, I spent some time fiddling around with the WttW peripheral materials. I wasn’t really writing much in the way of new material, but I was making actual tables for table content rather than just the plain-text approach that wasn’t always lining up quite right due to variable spacing when you go from one platform to another. Maybe the process would go faster if I’d transfer the content over to a spreadsheet and then copy it back into the WP. I still have a few I haven’t made yet, so I may give that a try.

You know, now that I think about it, there is some new content. I’d decided that sugarcane wasn’t going to be available in the World, with sugarbeets and sorghum being the main sources of molasses, but I was doing some more research into the history of sugarcane cultivation and decided that it’d be fine. Cacao remains out, however, so no chocolate. You see part of the idea was to have certain things from our world simply not be available just as a little extra something the Players have to deal with. Anyway, we now have sugarloaves getting added to the item list. I have to decide if I want to add all the associated tools as well.

Anyway, maybe I can get some more substantial progress done over the weekend. Stay tuned.

I did some writing on Chapter 9 of RttW. I could probably have it finished with a little more work. I could use the lead time, so I may stick with it rather than switching over to TWH. Stay tuned.

I finished up Chapter 7 of RttW and then checked over Chapter 8, which was already pretty much ready to go. Can’t decide if I’m going to switch over to TWH or spend some more time with RttW. We’ll see. Stay tuned.