Winter is Coming...

I've decided that this will be the post to wrap up this year, on the blog. I had initially intended to do one post in December to finish things off, but eventually changed my mind for three reasons. First, I haven't been putting enough thought or work into the game (as of late) to generate a whole lot of meaningful development-related content for the blog. Secondly, this would have made for a total of 31 posts this year (one more than last year) and I just felt sort of weird about that -- which ties into the third reason. Essentially the blog schedule that I laid out at the start of the year was done with the intention that it would be continued in following years (allowing for equally-long breaks in summer and winter) and I've changed my mind about that, for now.


Context
Over the course of 2018, I've continued to play D&D quite a bit, adding games to my weekly schedule as the year has gone on. It has actually been really fun and satisfying; it's great to meet new groups of people, but it also has taken up a lot of my free time. I've also found myself spending a lot of thought and energy (possibly far more than is really warranted) tinkering with ideas for fixes and house-rules to use with 5th Edition. Really, it has started to feel like a detriment to the design work that needs to be done on The Next Project, so I am going to have to make some tough decisions about gaming, in the near future.


Scheduling
That being said, I also want to take a longer break than the original one-month timeframe I had planned. Again, there are a couple reasons for this, which I have touched on (content drying up, lack of free time, etc.) One of the more... aesthetic reasons, is that it has always been kind of a weird setup; with the blog intended to be updated 3 times a month, February only having two posts sort of sticks out. I've considered extending the break by a little bit, starting later in the new year, and only doing two posts in January (followed by three in February) but ultimately I decided to make a more dramatic departure from the existing structure.

For 2019, I want to resume blogging in March.

This should (hopefully) allow time for the fresh start that the designs sorely need, as well as to help generate meaningful content and updates -- rather than needing to crutch on retrospectives and the like. Assuming the design work needs to continue for the full calendar year, it's my intent that I will do 24 posts in 2019, as follows:

• 5th/15th/25th of the month, March through June
• 10th/20th/30th of the month, August through November

The Task at Hand

As for the actual design work, I touched a little bit on it in the previous post (as well as other posts, in recent months.) Some classes have been left unfinished, and never were updated to the 2018 designs. It had been my intention to get this facet of the game "feature locked" (so to speak) but it has become clear as of late that the leveling system still has a lot of kinks that need to be ironed out, as well as needing additional features and functionality.

To wit, the customization for some classes just isn't at a level where it needs to be. So I'm going to look at changing the categories of classes -- "Specialist only" classes are probably going away. This will mean that subclass/specialist might get juggled around on certain classes, but (assuming that the "Subclass only" category remains relatively intact, in its current form) we are likely going to see Roles added onto classes that are lacking customization.

As you can imagine, this means a significant amount of additional design work needing to be devoted to the character classes. Just as a sneak-peek example, I can see the Paladin's subtypes changing from specialists to subclasses, and having Defender/Striker/Support roles added to the class. I also want "Role only" classes to be given a little something more; my initial thought is that they should each have access to at least 3 roles. The example I would give here, is that I would like to try and do a sort of "Lord archetype" for the Warlord class -- harkening back to the AD&D Fighter, who eventually would gain their own personal army -- as a quasi-summoner, Controller role.

Restructuring

I also want to just generally put in some work to re-examine the various subtypes, and make sure they work best where they are. If the status quo of class categorization is going to be changing, it just makes sense to do this at the same time. For example: Adventurer's specialist classes (Scout, Skald) might make more sense as subclasses; this in turn asks the question of, does Adventurer make more sense as a "subclass only" class? It might, particularly if the ethos of having that be the "skillful class category" is upheld in the future.

This would have knock-on effects for the Ranger, as they would then be moved to a different category. It might also make sense to have Roles for the Druid class be changed to subclasses, and then have their "forms" instead become roles. Could the Guardian's subclasses (Warden, Shaman) instead function as roles, while keeping their Specialist Class options intact? It might also make sense to have classes which use Subclasses (but are adequately functional without one) to instead have these changed to Specialist Classes; so far I'm not seeing a convincing case, just based on the existing structures, but this all may yet change.

This also leads to some further examination of the distinction between Specialist Classes and the other subtypes. Within the current designs, I feel like most "specs" (not quite all) could probably be changed to either Subclasses or Roles -- but it'd have to be an "all or nothing" change. In some cases, Specialist Class leans more strongly towards being a distinct class/subclass (in the case of Adventurer, or Spellbinder, for example) whereas in other cases, it's used more for... well, specializing an existing class (in the case of Cleric, Sage, and Guardian, in particular.) It sort of begs the question of whether breaking this subtype into two (based on this distinction) would add any sort of value, in the long run. Somewhat related to this, I've found myself (in my own shorthand uses) sliding back to the old terminology of "Archetypes" when referring to Specialist Classes; this reversion might be reflected in future drafts, or the terminology might end up being used if the subtype does (in fact) get split up.

How the Other Half Lives

I should, at this point, mention that my D&D "career" has been almost exclusively as a player, rather than as a DM. Although I've spent significant amounts of time reading up on the game, its history, advice, horror stories, etc. I haven't had a lot of experience with having to actually get in the driver's seat and run campaigns.

What needs to happen now, is for me to take the wealth of experience I've gained (through playing, as well as reading) and combine that with the goals I have for this system, and the intended experience it is meant to facilitate. So, the rules for handling non-combat interactions need to be really plotted out, step by step -- things like, when and how to transition from different types of scenes, using the skill system. Really, I don't want the game to become overwrought with subsystems piling on top of one another, so there is going to have to be a high level of abstraction. That doesn't mean there shouldn't be advice for how to handle things like chase scenes, naval combat, overland travel, etc. but they should be done at the level of abstraction in which the system should comfortably sit.

Just as an example, the baseline assumption is that the universal "DC10" rule applies when making skill checks; however, sometimes it might be appropriate to use "opposed" checks, under specific circumstances. That needs to be ironed out (and mathematically balanced) and explained clearly and adequately in the rules.

The other foundational wisdom that needs to be imparted to DMs of this game, is what sort of campaigns to run with it. For example, I don't think TNP will ever model things like running a side-business in your downtime, kingdom-building, or mass combat -- at least, not in any way beyond the abstract. Clearly, the skill system is meant to cover a lot of the bases that a typical D&D edition would... or at least to touch on them, adequately. It'd be difficult to do anything like, say, a system for losing or gaining reputation with specific factions, without bolting a completely unique subsystem to the game, wholesale.

Essentially, the text of the rules needs to be at a place where it can be picked up and operated by anyone -- without guidance from the designer, or a need for a ton of prior RPG experience. The "playtest" draft of the rules (I think) was a helpful benchmark for me, and it also helped to stress-test the player-side mechanics of the game, but it completely lacked a DM component; that's what I need to work on next, I feel.

Endgame

I know I've discussed it in private with certain people in the past, but I think it's important to just come out and say it here, finally: I don't have any intention to design another RPG, after The Next Project.

I hope this goes a long way to explaining the extensive design process that it has undergone; I want it to be as complete and flawless as possible, once it is a finalized product. It's not something I can see myself wanting to do multiple "editions" of, or something I want to have to worry about issuing errata for. It'll be done "when it's done," but once it's done, it's done.

I've had a few other ideas for how I might want to execute on designs for separate RPGs, but I'm just not sure any of them have enough... going on, there. One sort of idea that I've floated is an "ability scores done right"-take on D&D -- but broadly speaking, those have been done to death (probably the better executions being the 4e or 13th Age models) and also require a fair bit more complexity than I'm really capable of creating. Another idea would be to implement playing-cards in some fashion or another, but the pieces never really all came together on that concept.

My intention has always been to put out a complete game, at a modest price; as the number of class slates expanded, the idea cropped up to sell these additional slates, as "expansions." The question has always been how much polish the game really warrants; does it need professional editing, or commissioned artwork? Personally, I've always wanted to kind of "go it alone" and keep things simple (and therefore inexpensive) but these considerations will definitely have to be addressed and answered, whenever the design work nears completion.


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Finally, I want to thank everyone who's kept up with the blog over 2018. Hopefully you continue to do so in the new year. As always, if you have any comments or questions, please get ahold of me wherever you get your links to TNP, or comment directly on the blog.