Here’s another of the progress reports originally posted on the Savage Worlds forums. This comes from July 2. I’ll probably post one report a day until we’re caught up.

***********************

Last week I took Chapters 1-5 and dropped them into InDesign to create our first playtest edition Player’s Guide in layout format. This first edition (okay, actually 2nd edition but the first was never used) came to 50 pages without art (which will come later) and was used on Sunday for the first game in our in-house playtest campaign. We’ve run one-shots before, but Sunday marked the beginning of an entire Degrees of Horror campaign. Ed GM’d the game, while I, my wife, and another couple played as incoming freshmen.Two of the players plan on taking their characters into the arcane arts as those edges become available later in the campaign. One player plans on becoming a combat expert, and one plans on using technology in his character’s fight against evil. Of course, for now we’re all just one step above “fresh meat”. Those heroic traits are something that will come over time… if we survive!

It was a good first playtest, and Ed and I both walked away with a list of things we wanted to clarify within the players guide. If nothing else, the character creation portion got a good workout. I think it will take players and GMs alike some time to become accustomed to the Reputation and Studying derived attributes. New players will have to be careful about creating characters that are too specialized. If you build a combat machine in Degrees of Horror, you’re likely to fail your first Final Exam.

It is also worth considering your in game wealth. As ETU students, it is assumed that your tuition, dorm room, and on-campus meal plan are already paid for. What’s left is your “semester allowance”, and your wealth category determines the amount of allowance. Five hundred dollars a semester may seem like a lot, but if you buy a $300 shotgun then there goes more than half your allowance for the semester. Needless to say, there are Edges and Hindrances that modify all of those things.

Meanwhile, I’m working on writing the Plot Points chapter. The other chapters are all sitting at a first draft stage, so after this pivotal chapter is written then it’ll be a matter of filling in the book’s cracks and sanding it down to a smooth finish. Unfortunately the writing has been slow going due to real life getting in the way. Unlike some of the other publishers here, 12 to Midnight is all run during off-hours after our paying jobs and before bedtime. It’s hard to crank out 2,000 words a day when your you’ve only got an hour or two between the kids’ bedtime and your own. Even so, we are making steady progress. Holding that Player’s Guide draft in my hands felt really good.