A Decade in Review

I've been sincerely publishing fantasy RPGs since 2002 (basically producing a new fantasy RPG every two years since that time). Inspired by the way the designers of D+D Next went back and played through every edition of D+D to derive the 'ultimate' D+D experience (at least in theory...), I've started a magical mystery tour through my own work to see what works and what doesn't, and to strive towards a Legacy version of my fantasy rules using the newest version of Resolute as the core system. In the time I've spent going through old files and flipping through old books, I've made a few discoveries:

- Every thing I've created has had some great elements, and has also had a few things that kept it from breaking through. Each was truly a 'fantasy heartbreaker' in every sense of the idea; some great possibilities and flashes of goodness that get bogged down by a few things that don't fit, mechanics ported from other systems that don't belong, or ideas that are not sufficiently developed to really work.

- I have far more material sitting on my hard drive than I thought I did. Hundreds of pieces of art, dozens of maps, over a dozen finished adventures, and all sorts of seeds sit scattered in various places for various systems. My summer project (after getting the new edition of the fantasy rules finished and published) is to go through this material and update it all for the current edition. I can quickly put out a library of support material for the new game; much of this stuff was seen by 8-10 people over the last 5 years, and there's no reason not to take everything I've done, polish it up, align it with the new rules, and get it out to support the game.

- I will need to generate some new art for the new game, but my target is going to be 4-6 excellent, well-designed signature pieces to set up the main categories of the book; almost every part of the book that I need to illustrate has something on my computer that I am proud of, and which I think will work nicely in the new edition. Probably 3/4 of the art for the new edition will be recycled from previous releases, but with the small audience that has seen the bulk of what I've created before, I don't feel too bad about this!