The new book is taking a great deal of my time, draining it away from the wiki and this blog. It being Saturday, I'll take some time to explain what's gone on this last week, which has flown by. I'm 11 days into the book's writing, with 14 pages written ... dense pages, 8x11 in size and ten-point font. Managing a page a day is comfortable and practical; the time commitment is some 2 to 4 hours each day. This goes by in a state of flow; a finger snap and it's into my dinner time. I feel like I've spent the last week being shot out of a cannon.
Ran D&D last night. The players achieved their goal of plundering the lost Portuguese treasure ship that had escaped with the Portuguese Royal Family in 1580, when Portugal fell to Spain. This ran over 1,000,000 gold pieces and experience. Every person in the party went up a level, including the ranger that was 9th and is now 10th, and the druid that was 11th and now 12th. The players chose not to plunder the whole ship. Two near TPKs and a whole lot of nasty left, they settled for the first grab and decided they were done with the underwater adventure and ready to return to the above world. That was the end of our last running.
Last night was all record-keeping and accounting. Everyone wanted access to the market place (Las Palmas in the Canaries); they had their character stats and sage knowledge to update; they had all the usual questions to ask and plan-making to do. Nothing was firmly decided, except their intention to return to Europe. During the evening, the players themselves raised the discussion of "Is it worth it to spend a whole running doing bookkeeping." The answer was overwhelmingly YES ... followed by admonitions for people who play such shallow games they don't think any approach is needed towards building up the character's livelihood and personal reach. After all, if we're not going to build anything with the money, what the fuck difference does it make if we're 9th level or 10th?
Today, I'm working on descriptions and pricing for tree nuts. Then it'll be crops for farming cloth fibres (cotton, hemp, jute, sisal, ramie, etc.) ... then vegetables and tubers. I need to calculate the cost to hire farmhands and fruit pickers. Then it's into livestock, with sections on horses, cattle, sheep, goats and pigs, followed by fowl, donkeys, mules, elephants and other various creatures. Then fishes. This is a long haul, and should take me much of February ... but once the animals are done I'll be in a position to work on complex foodstuffs, since I'll have prices for what's grown or raised on farms.
In the distance after that is cloth and clothing, then wood products, with the concommitant sections on vehicles and ships. Then stone and building materials, construction rules, followed by chemical products like perfume, paint, lamp oil and what else. Then, finally, after all that's done, I can sink myself into the horror that is metallurgy and metalwork. That, then, would be the whole book.
This'll be well over 2,000 products. The size, at the going rate, is going to be big. I'm operating on a principle that the final product will cost 50 cents a page. I'm considering the practicality of drawing a line at 200 pages and calling it "volume 1," if need be. I really have no idea how big the work is going to be. I only know that I don't want to hold back. If I want to use 45 words to describe "gooseberries," then I will. Many things, much more complex, will need many more words than that. I want to give it all as much verbiage as it deserves.
One page a day. I just need to keep myself in a good state of mind, to feel comfortable working and to feel assured that I'm not going to quit, as I have with so many projects. Those failings haunt me ... as they haunt any writer. Thankfully, much of the head-and-design work has been done. Readers who have seen my pricing tables know exactly how big they are, and how many things they include. Those tables are the crutch I need to hobble my way home.
Okay. Post done. To work.
Not caring about the length is a good tactic. Figuring out how many physical volumes can wait until the content is done. Though part of me would love a huge table-breaking book, but I understand that is not practical.
ReplyDeleteI HATE spending money but THIS I'll purchase. Already happy to find out the land/price calculation! Might a kickstarter be in order?
ReplyDeleteA kickstarter is in consideration, but ... like with the menu, I'd rather not initiate something like that until the project is effectively finished. IF I were to start a kickstarter at that time, it would be to provide additional funds for the artist, Kelly. I'm able to provide $1,000 towards her work, which is enough to spackle the book with images. A like amount of money might be raised to increase the book's appearance.
ReplyDeleteI am a believer that part of the original DMG's success is that it's made of TEXT, not images, upon which later splatbooks excessively depended. Most of what the WOTC has pumped out in the last ten years has been a JOKE, with 12 point fonts, 1.5 inch margins, huge deserts of whitespace and full and half-full pictures without relevance to the text. Utterly forgettable works, just as most of the 3.5 stuff was. Whereas the DMG was 8 point font, solid text without about 10 tiny pictures throughout and loads of solid information. That's what I aspire towards.
I think this is work worth doing in every sense and I have no doubt you will see it through.
ReplyDeleteVery excited. I'm ready for volumes 1 through 8. I'll spring for even more if you include every magic item in the DMG and how to create it, hah!
ReplyDeleteAgree with you about pictures in the D&D 3rd edition books (or especially Pathfinder) which is usually just a picture of a singular character and nothing else. Not necessarily unwelcome, but if it comes at the cost of losing a half-page of text because the book is capped at 64/96/128/192 pages, then it is of questionable benefit.
ReplyDeletePictures ideally would be for things where a visual helps to really show a concept, such as the layout of a thorp, or the differences between an Asian/European/American steppe. But if we have to sacrifice a thousand words to put the picture in, the picture has to be worth a thousand words...
Your campaign event sounds like it was a lot of fun, I wonder what kind of enemies/encounters were involved.
I have two books planned. I have yet to start the writing for either. Frankly, I am intimidated by the prospect of both.
ReplyDeleteBut, then, I also have less than 2-4 hours to write every day.
: (
Which is NOT to drum up any kind of sympathy, rah-rah bullshit, etc. Just want to say I'd LOVE to be making the kind of progress you are, and I am thrilled you're able to do what I haven't.
RE plundering Portuguese treasure ships:
No comments on this? That's great stuff...and it sounds like the party made the correct (i.e. smart) decision. After all, the ship's not going anywhere. If they need more wealth, they can always take the "plunge" again, right? Good for them.
I will possibly use this as an example on my blog of an appropriate "non-adventure adventure" for characters of mid-to-high level. You continue to inspire, Alexis.
I hate to throw this at you, but I also only have about 2-4 hours a day to write this book.
ReplyDeleteYou're the second person to ask about the party's adventure. I'm loathe to talk about war stories ... always have been. It's dry content for those who weren't actually a part of it, it's never as intense as it is for the players at the time ... it never makes good reading.
They fought mind flayers, spectres and wights. They nearly had a TPK, despite the whole party having a combined 59 levels. They had some energy levels sapped. They decided they didn't like that particular aspect, took the money and ran.
I'm in for tome 1 to whatever, I have much use for such books.
ReplyDeleteWill there be PDFs too ? So much easier to search through...
... so much easier to put on line and have everyone steal ...
ReplyDeleteIf it were my intention to create electronic versions, Vlad, I'd just put the content on my wiki.