Welcome to the March update! I’m excited to share more BP goodness.
Maps
One of the best things about producing the new edition of Blue Planet is getting to work with Mark Richardson of Green Hat Designs fame to create all new, full-color maps! As a professional, working cartographer and a game designer in his own right, I cannot imagine a more perfect matching of skillset to purpose than Mark and Poseidon.
Though I know I previewed the main Pacifica Archipelago map before, that was a low resolution draft. Now that the final versions are in, I want to share the Northern and Southern Pacifica detail maps so you can see how good the high resolution versions look. You’ll have to click here (north) and here (south) to download the hi-res files this thumbnail can’t do them justice.
Art
Some might argue that I should save some of the art reveals for when the books are finally released, but it’s hard to resist. I am excited for you all to see the amazing images, and since I figure you’ve already paid for them, why not share? What do you all think? Should I leave some in the vault so they will be surprises when the books come out, or should I keep them coming?
This image of the Niños Muertos is in my top five favorites of the project. There is so much going on - the alien biology, the violent attack, the desperate reaction, the bad-ass POV, the amazing creature design and the perfect color palette. The artist absolutely killed it!
Words
In the November 22 update, I previewed the 12 campaign archetypes we are packing into Recontact. In the comments, backer Troy G made a great point about the lack of a mining-focused archetype, and though long john mining is the background MacGuffin for many of the archetypes, I realized he was right and we should include one. Accordingly, I refocused the newcomer hook to present the travails of managing a cooperative mining colony. The final draft was submitted over the weekend, and it’s so good I'm previewing it here. Please keep in mind the caveat that this is the raw text and has yet to go to editing.
This is the last of the archetypes, and later this morning I will send the lot to our editor. Though I was motivated to provide these new moderator resources in Recontact, I did not expect to be so excited about them. The value, diversity and inspiration they bring to the project are amazing, and I can’t wait to see what players do with them.
Production
We have mostly transitioned from production of text and art to editing and layout. Accordingly, I thought I would share a little about our editing process.
Much of my time on the project has been spent content editing text – both new and existing material. I edit the new content to fit freelancer contributions into the Blue Planet setting and style. I edit the existing content to keep the cool stuff we want, cull the stuff that just won’t fit, and update, modify and add to that original material. There’s been 25 years of technological, scientific, societal and game design advancement since the 1st edition was published, and one of the main reasons we are doing Recontact is to catch the game up with all those improvements.
I’ve finished the content edits on almost everything, and our editor Rachael is cranking through her two-phase process. First she makes a line editing pass, editing for structure, grammar, comprehensibility and continuity – facts, dates, names, locations etc. Then she sends the files back to me for line-by-line approvals, after which I send them back to her for final proofreading - spelling, fine grammar and anything missed in the first pass. When these come back, I make a final review, and they go to layout.
Keeping this process flowing is critical so there are no production bottlenecks with someone having to sit on their thumbs waiting for files to come in. The process is optimized when each of us - production, editing and layout - have stockpiles in our queues so we can all work in parallel. So far we have been able to maintain that balance, and it is serving the project well.
Storm Surge Playtest Updates
In the January update, I mentioned that playtesting on the stretch goal campaign “Storm Surge” would be resuming this month. We had our session zero last week and made the first of the three sets of characters I plan to run through the perspective-shifting story. I’m happy to report that with very little input from me, the players – three of whom had never made a Recontact character before - were able to do so in about 30 minutes. This is pretty great given how rich the resulting characters feel. I hope to be able to share the character creation section here soon.
We are starting with the native insurgent party, and our first actual play session is next week. Depending on how things go, I thought perhaps I might provide monthly updates in these…monthly updates, so stay tuned.
Shipping Reminder
I know I’ve shared this before, but I feel compelled to occasionally offer a reminder. Shipping costs continue to be gravely impacted by the outsized influence of major corporations, and though they have come down some in recent months, they remain high and unpredictable. I just wanted to remind everyone that shipping for physical rewards will be charged when we open the pledge manager prior to going to press. This will not only keep us from losing our wetsuits if prices go up again, but hopefully will allow us to offer you all lower costs should they continue to go down. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
