The Road Ahead (2025)

As we close in on the end of 2025, I figure it's worth it to look back on what the blog has been about.

Broadly, I think it would be fair to say that the biggest focus has been on the sequel mechanics -- figuring out what the game is (and isn't) going to be. Along the way, there was also some discussion of other systems, and how they handled mechanical options; the intention with these posts was usually to make some judgment on how such things could/should work in the TNP sequel. There were a few posts here and there about "d20 TNP" but those were few and far between.

With entering into a new stage of my life, I'm finding I have less and less time for actual TTRPG playing, design work, other social activities, as well as just generally balancing out necessary life tasks. The TNP blog has become less about TNP, and more about the sequel, and I'm often using the blog to ask "what should I do?" rather than answer that question with, "here's a new update!" So, overall I'm feeling like I need to rebalance my schedule a little bit.

Barring some unexpected improvement on one of these other fronts, I think it's safe to say that I will be pausing the blog, after this post. As with other periods where the blog has been on hiatus, my hope is that I can still be doing work on the system(s) in the background. But I don't think the current posting frequency is sustainable; even if I were to stick to just sequel content, I feel like I'd want to scale back from 3 posts per month (10 months of the year) down to about 1 post per month. If I do go ahead with that idea, I'd likely start a separate blog -- since this blog is supposed to be about "The Next Project (d20)" as the title says.

5e
On the topic of mainline D&D, we're just starting to see the first splatbook for 5e 2024 with Heroes of Faerun. I would be remiss if I didn't point out how similar this naming convention is to the Essentials line of 4e D&D books. As much as I might like to talk more about D&D and its ongoing development, the reality is that both groups I currently play in are sticking with the 2014 rules, at least until the completion of their current campaigns. Having started in January of this year, we're sort of ballparking that these will take another 2 years to complete.

So, realistically, I think throwing out my opinions on other peoples' summations of new 2024 content would be a bit gauche. If I am to continue with D&D as a hobby in the future, I am sure I will pick up the new materials, but for now I don't see it as something I can/should reasonably be mining for blog content. (For what it's worth, I think D&D still continues to make baffling design choices, some of the time.) Also, nothing against the idea of playing other games -- I just don't really have time, as I mentioned off the start.

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I guess I'll close off by saying that I see a lot of potential in the sequel designs, but it's a potential that is still so very raw, and unrefined. I feel like I've hit at something, and the more I can put into it, the more I will get out of it. As I've said before, the contrast is that TNP has some loose ends, but the refinement is basically done -- it's more a matter of codifying and formalizing. The more I put into it, the less I feel like I get out of it.

That being said, I think that getting TNP done should be something to refocus on. The question of what the sequel really is still hasn't been fully answered, and that leaves the door open for TNP, in my eyes. I look back on the recent post about 'plug & play' mechanics, and it makes me think about how I didn't even really talk about the "class dice bonuses." The fact that these bonuses were able to be worked out and balanced to such a high degree (albeit within a limited d20 scope) makes me think that perhaps there might be room to port this idea into... whatever comes after TNP, and its sequel. Perhaps these mechanics not making it into the sequel could end up being a blessing in disguise, after all...?

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Anyways, I'll leave it at that for now. Check in on the Discord or other social media channels, to find out what comes next for TNP.