Howdy adventurers, update time: Layout for the GM's Handbook has officially started!

When SaB released, we hoped to have this released in december, but life got in the way like always. Still, we managed to keep a mostly steady pace in making and testing things, and we got a new plan for it: Zinemonth!

We'll do it this way: The text is written, just ironing out details. We'll get layout mostly ready now and when february hits, the book will go through itchfunding as part of Zinemonth, so we can get some funds for extra artwork and hiring an editor. Since we're already working on it, supporters will have immediate access to the mostly-ready PDF and get updates to it as they happen. 

It's worth noting: THIS BOOK WILL HAPPEN. Independent of the Zinemonth results, we'll finish it. The only changes will be speed of the process, better art and proper editing. 

That all being said, what does it contain? Glad you asked! It will cover the following:

• Rules for Dungeon and Wilderness Exploration.
• Procedures for adjudicating "skill based checks".
• A "cheatsheet" on how to build and run your NPCs.
• How  to create and use encounter tables. 
• Advice on how to run Spellcaster NPCs
• How to handle different languages.
• How to run factions on your game.  (You can actually get a sneak peek of that here)
• How to handle PCs training for new Special Abilities.
• How to customize and create Archetypes for SaB.
• How to run Deities and their Clerics.
• Rules for Supernatural Patrons. 
• And to close it off, a bunch of tables to generate useful stuff like NPCs and Treasure. 

The books is also filled with examples of all that being used, which also doubles down in ready-to-table content.

New Roadmap

As planned before, we're still going to keep supporting the game with small releases from time to time. We already talked about the GM's book, but the other things we are working on:

• The Space Playset. This was mentioned in a past devlog, but progressed slower than expected. We just finished a short playtest with it last week, and realized we want to spend more time with it before releasing to the world. There are some things (like spaceships for example) that we really want to test a lot to be sure. So we're pushing this forward, with the new tentative release being the end of the 2023, or early 2024. 
• Spellburn and Battlescars Presents: Fleeting Luck. This a new one! One of those ideas that come out of nowhere, makes so much sense and you immediately start working on it. This is going to be a table-ready companion book. That is, while the GM's Handbook aims to help you run and customize your games, Fleeting Luck will simply offer straight content that you just use straight from the book: more Spells, more relics, expanded bestiary, new archetypes, etc - Just grab and use it. - Being a more straightforward project (it's essentially a tome of tables), this should be quicker to complete. This depends on how the GM's Handbook goes, but we expect to release this mid 2023.
• The West Marches Supplement. This is still very tentative, we're deciding the actual format (check the next session for more). But it's a very simple and short release on how to run West Marches style games. So things like downtime rules and how to handle a rotating cast of players and characters. No envisioned release date yet for this one. 

#Dungeon23

This is extremely tentative, be warned!

You might have heard of the Dungeon23 thing being talked about everywhere. Well, we gonna try to do this (at least for a part of the year) and the result might be released, along with the aforementioned West Marches Supplement, since this is the best campaign style for a megadungeon. As mentioned, this is tentative and will change a lot, but here's a few pitch points of what we'll try to build:

• Led by a prophecy of incoming cataclysm, a group sets to build a massive underground complex that would serve as fortress to their people, archive of knowledge and temple to their god in the coming times.
• Due to multiple external influences, the endeavour doesn't go as fast and orderly as planned. And to cap it off, the prophecy not only proves to be true, but the cataclysm comes much earlier than expected. 
• As the builders desperately try to salvage their plans, external forces and greedy outsiders turn their eyes to the depths of chaos-ridden construction, who becomes the great center of attentions in this land doomed to fall. 

Well, that's a lot, but there you go! Hope y'all are as excited to see this as we are to work on it. See y'all next time.