Year In Review

Last New Year's, I made a resolution to both complete and share some of my gaming projects in the coming year. While my output has certainly varied over the year, with the establishment of this blog and the numerous projects I've posted about thus far, I would definitely say I have succeeded. The end of the year being an excellent time for such things, I want to briefly look back over what I've done this year and look forward to next year's projects.

Morrowind Mod: Vil's Indarys Manor

Indarys Manor, lower hall.

This week, I put the finishing touches on my long-overdue Morrowind mod, Vil's Indarys Manor. In the course of the game, you have the option to join one of the great Dunmer (dark elf) Houses and eventually build a personal stronghold. However, I was never fully satisfied with Indarys Manor, the stronghold of my favorite House Redoran. Several Indarys mods existed at the time, but none were to my taste, most of them expanding the manor into a mansion rivaling those of the House leaders in Ald'ruhn. My aim was to create a more tasteful expansion, acknowledging that it is a military outpost first and a manor second.

RPG Superstar 2015

Voting for RPG Superstar 2015 starts today. For those unfamiliar with it, RPG Superstar is a Pathfinder design contest hosted annually by Paizo Publishing for the past eight years. Entrants face a series of design challenges with the winner selected by public vote; the winner receives a contract to write a module-length adventure for Paizo, and the three runners-up receive smaller contracts. The contest attracts a tremendous amount of game design talent, and numerous previous winners and contestants have gone on to successful freelance careers.

Traditionally, the opening round has featured an open call for a wondrous item, the catch-all category for magic items other than weapons, armor, rings, and spellcasting implements. Voters are shown two anonymous entries at a time and have the option of voting for either item or neither. Once voting has concluded, the contest judges pick the best 32 of the 64 items with the most votes, and then the contest proper begins.

This year, the judges have decided to increase the difficulty of the design challenges, starting with the Open Call itself. With only a week between the contest announcement and the submission deadline, contestants were informed that the first round this year would not be wondrous items, but instead would be the contestant's choice of a magical armor, weapon, ring, rod, or staff. The subsequent rounds will be to design a map (also new this year), a monster with stats, an encounter with a map (the map likely drawn from the earlier round), and finally an adventure proposal for final voting.

After many years as a voter and several additional years where I talked myself out of it, I have entered the contest this year. As the first round is anonymous, I can't share my entry just yet, but I encourage everyone to vote on some items if you find yourself with free time over the holidays! First round voting begins today and continues through January 13th.

CAV 2.M Preview 2

The blog went quiet for a little while there but I'm back, with some major project milestones coming up. Work on CAV 2.M in particular is progressing well, and this week I thought I'd discuss the process of rectifying discrepancies between CAV 1, CAV 2, and my design goals for CAV 2.M.

There are three main sources of information on models in the CAV universe. The first two are their in-game statistics from the two editions of the game. Having never played CAV 1, and given the changes between the editions, the CAV 1 data cards are rarely helpful. The CAV 2 data cards are my baseline for in-game stats, but provide next to no extra information on the model.  Far more useful are the Journals of Recognition (JoRs), two softcover supplements printed for CAV 1 which provide 1-2 pages of history and backstory for each model in the game at the time. Unfortunately, there are numerous discrepancies both within the JoRs, between the JoRs and the second edition data cards, and within the second edition data cards. As I had to make adjustments to many data cards in any case, I decided to address as many of these issues as possible.