2017 So Far

So far, 2017 has continued to be a busy year for the project. We started out the year introducing two new Prestige Class concepts, known a Cursed Classes, for players who want to play Vampires and Were-creatures. This theme continued with adding over 30 iconic Tamrielic items and 2 artifacts, that relate to these cursed creatures, along with a handful of new customized spells for the Vampire. The Crusader also found two new subclasses, perfect for an evil character or NPC.

After that, I went back to the long awaited Factions of Tamriel, detailing fan favorite groups like the Fighter's Guild, Thieves Guild, and the Temple. There's still more work to do with this theme. I'd love to see something built up for the Arena, The Imperial Legion, and of course, The Dark Brotherhood.

Unexpectedly, basic rules version 1.3 was also released at the beginning of this year, only two months after version 1.2.2. This wasn't a small update either. The revision log was over 8 pages and included major changes to most races and classes, and swapped out the skill and damage lines to be in line with the standard D&D skills and damage types. This change was a huge step in the right direction and made the game much easier to jump into. Although the update was so close to the previous version, it was definitely worth it to put this together. I'm really happy with how the game is looking at this point and have started working on new, supplemental content, rather than tweaking and perfecting the existing rules.

At the beginning of the year, I put together a game plan of what I wanted to see done this year. Now, after the first quarter, I'm already falling behind on those plans. The biggest reason to that is what I just mentioned above. The update to version 1.3 was not expected anytime soon, at least not at the time I came up with the plan. But as I was working on new things, it just became apparent that the best thing to do is to fix the existing basic rules, rather than build new content. The new content would just have to be reworked later if it wasn't fixed now. So the original plan took a back seat, and I think everything is better because of it.

The important part now, is that the basic rules are looking really good, feedback has been positive, and the amount of revisions that need to be implemented are mostly minor, so far. Since then, I've expanded my online presence by starting to get engaged with the Reddit community by creating the full colour Races of Tamriel package. The feedback from that has been, well, nothing. Which I'm choosing to believe that means it's good, right? The amount of traffic I've been getting, specifically from Reddit, has seen a pretty positive boost since then, so I think it's good. I would like to put together more packages like this in the future.

On top of that, I'm also getting back on track with my original plans. I'm really excited about what I've been working on and I've been having a lot of fun doing it. You've already seen some of this, but a lot will be brand new content which can be used by both DM's and players. This first new package is already over 80 pages of content and still growing. It's become a bigger project than I had originally anticipated, and I'm hoping to share more in the coming months.

After that is complete, I still have plans for 5 other packages to work on, each of which I'm hoping to include content for both DM's and players. So I know I'll be busy for the rest of the year, and likely beyond that.

The month of March also included my first donation to the project, which was humbling and energizing. It means a lot that what I have worked on has provided value for someone and inspires me to keep working at it. With that, I will ask for the first time, if you are enjoying this work, find value in it, and have the ability to donate some money, please do. I know time is rough right now and not everyone is able to give, your comments are enough. But for those of you that can give, $10, $5, or even $1, it would be appreciated. (Keep in mind Paypal takes 30 cents + 2% off of every donation – but it's still an effective way to share.) All of the money goes into a separate account that will be used to help the project. I do this as a passion and have a day job that provides enough for me and my family, so the money donated to this project will go back into website, domains, an advanced comment app, editors, and commissioned artwork.

With all of that, I wanted to let you know that while I work on this next project for the game, I might slow down on the blog posts, as they do take time away from working on the project. I didn't expect to make it to March with weekly updates, so making it to April has been amazing for me. I will continue to share as I build, but it may be a little more spread out. I still check my comments everyday and if you want to continue a conversation, you can always reach me at UESTRPG@outlook.com, or on twitter.

Thanks for making an awesome 2017 so far and I look forward to the rest of the year.