A bunch of announcements

Hope you have a wonderful break!

Apotheosis

It will be on the r/litRPG subreddit.

Shirtaloon

Where can we find the AMA

John M Davis

Sorry about that. I notified the patrons that would be affected by the hiatus (silver+), with lower-tiers and free readers being notified as it gets closer the dates they will be affected. If you aren't happy with the reduced chapter count for a month, anyone can message me directly asking for a refund.

Shirtaloon

While I don't mind hat Shirt is taking a break (by all means he really deserves it :D) it is kind of a dick move that this announcement is only readable for already paying patreons :( I just resubscribed only to see that I will not get anything for the next two weeks and only half the chapters for the month :( (Don't get me wrong, I would probably still have subscribed for the month, but it still would have been nice to know that before deciding to pay the money :D)

Toasty

I would love a dnd campaign setting in Pallimustus. You obviously have all of the races on Pallimustus to choose from, including outworlder (if dm allows). Just imagine, you start as a character with no essences or awakened abilities. The first 1-5 levels is you gaining essences/awakening stones, and it's based off of an ability list for each stone tied to one of your four essences. You roll a d4 for the essence, and two other die, one to choose the column and one to choose the row. That's your awakened ability

Blayne Allsen

That live reading sounds fun as hell

Guðjón

Ever considered making a DND based system or just a DND campaign centered in Palimustos? I'd love to playtest, play or even gladly enjoy anything you might come up with.😂

Azuolas Korsakas

Board game gang, do let us know how Gloom goes, final launch on Steam is soon and super keen.

Ethan

Bad news no daily fix of top grade literature. Good news I get to save 10 bucks next month and binge read the following month. Yay!!!

mhaj58

Hope you have a great vacation!

Arkiula

You enjoy the break. Love your work. Thank you so much for working so hard to continue to bring content.

Josh Teague

Enjoy the time

Stop buying board games? Blasphemy! I just bought cosmic encounter duel to play with a friend since we can't get a bunch of people.

Alfred

Enjoy your break!

Obsessivehobbyist

Speaking of explaining stuff to your Aunt Helen: Is there a Wiki for your book that gives overall summaries of key concepts to date? I'd like to read one for for the whole Earth/Pallimustus connection, and how it relates to the Builder. Like your Aunt Helen, I find that a bit confusing. Yes, I could search back through all the places where the Builder is mentioned and try to put it together myself, so I suppose I am being a bit lazy here. Having said that, here's my current flawed understanding: In creating new universes, the Builder is required to stick to a general template. The differences between different universes then result from either random chance, or deliberate allowed alterations to the template (I don't know which) The last Builder lost its job because it got creative and went beyond this, designing universes for use as experiments. One such experiment involved Earth and Pallimustus, where a no-magic and high-magic universe were linked together upon their creation, and then allowed to coevolve. Even though Earth has none of its own magic, it gets some from its connection to Pallimustus. The monster surges in Pallimustus occur because magical energy is drained from Pallimustus faster than it can be absorbed by Earth (because of its dimensional barrier that keeps most magic out). Thus magical energy builds up in that link, and rebounds back to Pallimustus. [I just made all that up—it's my best guess.] The current Builder wants to create a world where everyone worships it. It's allowed to do that because it's not (unlike its predecessor) messing with the design of an entire universe; instead, it's only creating a custom world in a pocket dimension. On the surface, it makes no sense the Builder wants this, because it's vastly more powerful than a mere god, so why the desire to be a god of a single insignificant world? Nevertheless, because the Builder was ascended from a child, it still has child-like motivations. To accomplish this, the Builder needs physical materials from existing universes. For reasons not explained (or that I don't understand)*, it's sourcing those materials from Pallimustus; specifically, it's taking them from the pocket dimensions that naturally bud off from Pallimustus, as they would from any high-magic world. [*Maybe the Builder is choosing Pallimustus b/c its connection to Earth allows the creation of a huge monster surge that will help soften up Pallimustus's defenders (see below). But why not just take the pocket dimensions from an as-yet unihabited high magic world?] The problem is that the Builder can't just take them itself. Instead, it needs to work through minions, whose job it is to pull those pocket dimensions away from Pallimustus. But such activities will be challenged by the residents of Palliumustus, since each time that happens there is widespread devastation. To facilitate this, the Builder needed a Pallimustian collaborator—and he got it, through the Church of Purity. The god of Purity agreed to this because it wants to purge Pallimustus and start fresh, which seems to mean only its adherents and the Messengers. What's not explained is how Purity expects to get away with this, even if it does succeed. I.e., won't all the other gods simply dispense with Purity if it does this? Or is it the case that the power of the other gods comes from their worshippers, and if Purity succeeds in wiping out their worshippers, Purity will be the only god left with significant power? Then there's Earth. Here's where I get very confused. It sounds like last Otherworlder to visit Earth was an agent of Purity, and weakened Earth's dimensional barrier, which in turn delayed the monster surges on Pallimustus. The idea is that, if the monster surge was sufficiently delayed then, when it happened, it would overwhelm Pallimustus's adventurers, thus softening it up for an attack by the Builder. But what's the mechanism by which this occurs? I can see how allowing more magic to flow into Earth would delay the monster surge, because it would take longer for the channel to Earth to reach capacity; but why would the monster surge be stronger once capacity is reached, as opposed to merely delayed? And then there's the whole business with establishing a bridge (Jason's job); how does that fix things? Does this new bridge have a buffering system, such that the flow of magic to Earth is low and continuous (no build-up), thus putting less stress on Earth's dimensional barrier? And would that mean no more monster surges on Pallimustus?

Greymantle

Have you read Path of Ascension?

Clay Smith

Anyone have some good recommendations for what I should read each afternoon?

The other DB

Your better get that relaxing time in Shirt! You earned it!

Braden Lambert

Looking forward to the next arc, enjoy your two weeks off!

The other DB

Have a great break dude. Thoroughly enjoying the story you've brought forth so far, and plan to continue enjoying it until you end it. Also, definitely never stop buying board games. They're way too much fun

Aaron

Heath Miller was excellent so far with the first two books and can't wait for the third. Being able to get that behind the scenes look sounds amazing. Enjoy your well deserved break!

I'm glad you decided on having 2 weeks off, you definitely deserve it :)

Droxs 魔

Nightshroud, but I miss my Doomslayer

Shirtaloon

Good plan taking more time. Best :)

Aaron

Have fun

Prial

Good job on the 2 weeks!! You deserve it

Thomas

Enjoy your break mate. Loving the face masks up here in NSW….Also liking the Jason/Vesper interactions.

John O'Connor

See you in two weeks! I'll say it here that no matter how you end book 7, you're awesome. (Unless you decided to kill off somebody right as the book ends. I'll find you.)

Reno

Knowing i have to wait 2 weeks breaks my heart and the next days will definitely be darker without your chappies as a good night read at 1 in the morning. BUT, I'm also happy to know you'll be taking some "me" time. Unlike Jason you don't have ragnaroks to worry over, so take the breaks you need to stay healthy mentally and physically and know we'll be here waiting for you when you return:-)

You already got your copy of Ankh? I am jealous. If your shelf of shame isn't too overflowing, you might check out Anachrony from Mindclash or Gaia Project. Enjoy the break.

Scott

Have you played "aye dark overlord!"? Its card based but basically, your all goblins and you job is to shift the blame using the idea cards and direction cards. I have a feeling you'd be good at it. Just channel your MC lol. Have a good break man

Zephen

Thanks for the update, maybe one mid break update saying you're still alive but make sure you just take the break and don't worry about us... at least not too much ;)

Doodlyboy15

Buy less board games? Blasphemy! 😛

Daniel Tickle

Enjoy your long-overdue vacation!

Stephen Pearson

Thanks man I'm glad you are taking some time for you!!! Be good to yourself. Thanks for all the hard work!!!

Xander Cadence

Glad you’re taking a break. What class is your Gloomhaven character right now?

David

...........I wish you well on your break and hope you have a great and relaxing time. I'm going to go scream into a pillow until I'm out of breath and then stare despairingly at the ceiling wondering to do with my evening reading break for the next two weeks.

Knight Axel

Get some much needed R&R Shirtaloon and come back to us stronger than before!

CptJimmy

Shirt I’m glad you’re taking two weeks off everyone needs a break and while it sucks we won’t be able to read for 2 weeks I think it’ll be good for your mind/body to recharge! Thanks again for this awesome adventure!

Tomo_Shiba

Glad you’re taking a longer break!

David Fletcher

Have a fun break

Alexander Dupree