Topic: Director's Briefing - February 2023

[NicholasHMCaldwell]

Welcome

To the one hundred-and-thirty-ninth Briefing and second scheduled Briefing of 2023. The Briefing has been delayed as I had been hoping to announce the corrected version of Core Law.

RMU

First off, thank you to everyone who has spotted one or more of the residual typos and errors that made it into the first pdf copies and the very small number of proof copies of RMU Core Law. Second, thanks to Colin, Jonathan and Nick for persevering with the corrections, and putting up with me then checking that the corrections had all taken when they all thought it was all done and dusted. Third, a big thank you to Raymond for reworking the cover completely and some of his interior pieces, and to Maria for adjusting one of her illustrations.

So why have we held on release? In the last round of fixes, the page count shifted which throws all the indexes and bookmarks out. None of the fixes should have done this but we have identified the page that wants to keep changing the page count. If I say “click click click”, some of you will guess which page it is and how it is so poetically appropriate it be that page.

Click click click.

Absolute Success bonuses to everyone who guessed that it is the page showing the Black Reaver.

Click click click

Yes, Nick Morawitz is going to fight a Black Reaver.

So assuming Nick Morawitz survives this – put the layout cup down, Nick – and he needs to as Spell Law is to be finalised next and then HARP Subterfuge … - then we will upload the corrected pdf and get the print masters into DriveThru for their checks and onward to LightningSource.

Colin will light the signal beacons as soon as the corrected version goes up.

Until next time

Please stay safe and keep gaming.
Best wishes,
Nicholas

Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd

[Wolfhound]

Saw Nicholas's post and had to call Nick Morawitz... 

Just got off the phone with Nick Morawitz about his battle with the Black Reaver.  Sounds like it has been rough, but he is managing to hold his own against the creature so far (but just barely)...   

[5th Knight of Xar]

Each of these books are a massive task to complete, well worth the wait. I've seen discussions about people wanting to help do tasks to speed up the work getting the books done, last on Discord a few days ago. Is that something worth addressing?

[Wolfhound]

I think part of the problem with brining on more people, is that it can sometimes muddy the waters so to speak.  To bring them up to speed on how things are handled and the process involved.  But with me only being partially involved (freelance writing projects and coordinating some of the GenCon activities), I can't say for sure. 

But I know that Nick Morawitz is pretty busy with handling all (I think anyways) of the layout work (due to his past experience doing this very job for some of the books back in the original ICE organization), so if there is anyone else who is knowledgeable and skilled with publishing layout work, that might help some by splitting that work between two different people. 

Likewise, Jonathan Dale is now serving as the Line Editor for all of the Rolemaster Unified products, while I think Nicholas Caldwell is still trying to fill that role for all of the HARP products.  Not sure if Nicholas would be willing to turn that over to someone else to serve as the Line Editor for HARP or not, but that might be a possibility, if there was someone both knowledgeable and skilled who could commit to that (but again that is just a guess on my part).  But both of those would require a considerable time commitment and quite a bit of knowledge of the relevant subject matter. 

I could also potentially see someone possibly stepping in to handle a Line Editing role of setting/adventure/module type stuff for both RMU/HARP.  But again, that would require a moderate time commitment and considerable knowledge of the rules for both systems.   As I think the plan is to try to have many of the future support products like those be cross compatible with both, at least that it what I am trying to do with several projects that I'm working on after the Creature Law I & II books are completed. 

But again, my involvement is somewhat limited, so I can't say for sure if those are possibilities or not. 

[pastaav]

Great news with upcoming release of Core Law. I have started to recruit new players and am so excited for the prospect of getting a printed copy of the book.

But I know that Nick Morawitz is pretty busy with handling all (I think anyways) of the layout work (due to his past experience doing this very job for some of the books back in the original ICE organization), so if there is anyone else who is knowledgeable and skilled with publishing layout work, that might help some by splitting that work between two different people.

I seem to recall that Terry also did some of the layout work earlier and if is just Nick Morawitz these days it sounds quite possible that layout might be a narrow section that slows down the pace of new Ironcrown releases.

Just a random idea...what if Ironcrown held a kick starter to temporary hire a full time layout crew to get all the RMU books over the line more quickly?

I think many us would be ready to sign up for multiple copies of each books if we could get them all in our hands in a more timely fashion. Having spare copies to give to old players, that you want to recruit back, sounds like a great birthday present. I am of course guessing, but it seems to me like having one person working on each RMU book, and Nick Morawitz doing the finishing touches, have the potential to cut a lot of calendar time.

[5th Knight of Xar]

Nicholas was pretty clear on his view on Kickstarters and ICE in a recent monthly briefing, judging from that it will never happen.

[pastaav]

The updated version of Core Law can now be downloaded from DriveThruRPG!

[jdale]

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/431090/Rolemaster-Spell-Law-RMU?src=newest

[Ecthelion]

 

[Barner Cobblewood]

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/431090/Rolemaster-Spell-Law-RMU?src=newest

This is good news.

[Hurin]

Congratulations!

[Temujin]

Awesome.

[nash]

Practically speaking; RMU is now a playable system.  GMs will need to dig through betas to grab monsters - but GMs have been doing such stuff for decades.   Players really only need Core + Spell.

Tree-ware will be the icing on the cake!

* nash just needs to get his Roll20 character sheet working.

[Hurin]

* nash just needs to get his Roll20 character sheet working.

When you do, let us know! That would be huge.