The Status of sha-Arthan

As promised, here's the latest word on how things are unfolding on my end.

1. Needless to say, I'd hoped to be farther along the path to completing the Player's Guide than I am. Two things have prevented it. The first are the distractions of everyday life; since September I've simply had to deal with all manner of mundane issues that have diverted my attention – nothing horrible thankfully but diverting nonetheless. The second is my own second guessing about several rules matters, about which I'll say more below.

2. I've been spending a lot of time working on the monsters of the setting. I've got quite a few new pieces of art, with more on the way. I'm happy with the progress here, but I haven't shared much of it, for reasons related to the Player's Guide (and about which I'll say more below).

3. The fellow with whom I'd working to do layout has been busy with other (better paying) work, so that's prevented the sharing of anything more about the possible look of the final book. Admittedly, this is a low priority, but I like the idea of showing this off so that progress can be seen.

4. The overall setting continues to percolate. With my fingers crossed, I hope to share a 500-1000 word snippet of this every week, like the one I posted earlier today. The development is uneven and I flit from topic to topic as it interests me. 

All that said, rules are the real impediment to progress. I began this project in the belief of using the base of the excellent Old School Essentials and tweaking it as needed to fit my vision. That's still something I would like to do in theory, since OSE is easy to use and accessible to most people. However, I've found myself contemplating numerous significant tweaks and alterations to the rules (above those I've already made, such as spells). For example, I've been toying with a more expansive skill system, since I consider the acquisition of knowledge an important part of the setting. But I've not yet found a system I like and that doesn't require an extensive rewrite of some of the classes like the scion and Chenot. So I've been pondering and thinking and not coming to any solid conclusions yet. Rinse and repeat.

The long and short of it is that work is happening at a slower and more frustrating pace than I'd have hoped. I'm frustrated by this, both for myself and for you, since I know many of you are quite keen to see where I'm going with sha-Arthan. My plan, such as it is, is simply to forge ahead without any expectation I'll finish it all on a schedule. I also plan to share more of what I'm doing, regardless of whether it's "ready for prime time," so to speak. My hope is that, in seeing the response, it'll encourage me to keep at it. Right now, the creative process feels particularly lonely and there are times when I don't see the purpose of it.

More soon!