I know. Not much has been said in the past few days. As you might have read here already, the book is done but now needs testing. Artwork is currently flowing down from the mountain as the long train of testing begins. For those that have already received the play testing package, we have made so many changes to the rules, we are not able to release an update file and will actually have to print up a whole new set of rules. This comes down to game balance issues mostly, though we did make some changes to starting techan classes that offer a few more build options. I also had to make significant changes to equipment.

With a hard-line cut-off of 195,000 words, give or take, and 256 pages for the first book, we are looking at what can be moved aside for now to offer the best value while still conveying why we think this setting is so special. The setting detail, also called framing fiction, also called “fluff”, will still be a strong component and one I am unwilling to compromise in favour of rule crunch.
There will be an announcement soon regarding the release date. On that day, we will unveil our new company logo and the product plan for the future. Once you all read that announcement, I think you will understand why we have been so cautious about timetables. I would hate to announce something we couldn’t deliver on.

One thing I have been wondering about is if people would rather have the skeletal framework for large-scale campaigns the DMs can design and customize themselves or they would rather have dungeon crawls using our races and monsters. Amethyst encourages larger story-arcs and vast, encompassing storylines and I hope to challenge storytellers out there to take our setting and create an original tale that takes characters across the world, uncovering a great mystery, meeting strange new people...and killing them. So what’ll it be? A skeletal framework for a campaign or a classic dungeon crawl?

I should add that we have created techan characters to test our system. Obviously, we are injecting our own unique brand of humour into the affair. I play a character named Steven Van Damme, Conan has created a gimfen (Halfling) called Sgt Reginald Steele Esquire and Schuyler has entered the fray with Alexander Cosmonaut---yes, you heard right...Alexander...Cosmonaut.

Oh, and Amethyst’s first book has a name. We can’t and don’t really want to call it core rulebook, so as of this week, it has been titled Amethyst: Foundation