Shaping the future

I came across a post on /r/dndnext the other day that had me actually make a post. It asked "What's the elevator pitch for your homebrew setting?" Something short, ideally interesting and sets it apart. I gave it a shot, even if I feel conflicted about this much truncated version:

"Five years ago the Veil that closed off the Southern Reaches fell. Now, an expedition of guilds, mercenaries, artisans and statesman seek to push back the frontier. A world rife with the decaying remnants of biological monstrosities, living machines and the truly unknown, where ambition and legacy will shape your fate."

I've said to my players (Luke especially) that in time I want SR to be a game that thrives on their time and effort being invested, with personal narratives or arcs forming the backbone of it all. For Luke, it's his father's ancestral sword and the reskinning of the Rune Knight flavour to tie to that. I know Josh has big plans that feel like they could easily run out of my control but we'll see. Before dropping out Steve had already made an impact by reclaiming the farm as his own. But over a year in we are still in the early stages due to playercount reaching a critically low point and poor scheduling.

It's a small point of pride that Luke asked me about making explicit reference to the Southern Reaches in his own homebrew world, Mortaria. Obviously just as a minor easter egg, but he's looking to try out some of my custom items in his own game, which I am grateful form finally, some playtesting. An interesting follow-on effect of this is his game canonically taking place in the same realm as James' game, just different continents. Not sure what his thoughts are on it as yet.

Since the beginning of the year, when I first considered turning SR into an actual product, vanity project or otherwise, I've frequently grappled with how much is "enough". How much is enough to publish or how much is enough to go public and seek more resources. Throughout these conversations with myself, or the conversations with Jess, I've maintained that I wanted at least one subclass for each existing class. This is a difficult goal for me, this project evolved from "item ideas" to "foundations of a setting" when I wrote my first two subclasses, the Relic Hunter Ranger and Eidolon Patron Warlock, classes I've played and enjoyed. Over time I've come up with ideas that either subvert the stereotype or push the class in a different direction (at least that was the intent for most), but many of the remaining classes are classes I have little personal experience with or little desire to play, like Barbarian or Wizard. WotC's release of Van Richten's Guide definitely makes me more comfortable in leaving out classes if it comes to that, but I'll probably wind up doubling up on some classes, like the Blademaster and Lord Commander fighter. I put aside a vague idea for a madness domain cleric awhile back, maybe that can get a revival.

Just yesterday I came across a Reddit post from a fella saying his stone-age D&D setting was getting officially published and it really made me feel proud for the guy. We can make it if we keep pushing through. Tangentially related, I was reading an archived /5eg/ thread on /tg/ and saw some folks discussing the abandoned Prestige Class idea, so that keeps me afloat a bit. Always good to know you aren't writing just the ramblings of a madman. While discussing the idea with Richard I mentioned the way I fall prey to self-sabotage on this project primarily boils down to the idea that 5e is almost certainly at the apex of it's popularity at the moment, every day I delay makes it slightly less likely for SR to become something, whatever that means, if the market has moved on by the time SR is something approaching "finished" then it's not my fault if it doesn't succeed. I try to keep it in mind that I've already identified it so I can combat it but easier said than done.

Burnout is the enemy. Apathy is the enemy. I need to keep that passionate medium. The oldest related thing I have is a txt document from December 2018 when the Archer's Jawed Vambrace transformed from dream into content. Looking through Discord I can see that the original piece was done somewhere around 12/6/18. The only other entry is for the Longstriders, a concept I originally made for the 4e Character Builder in my short-lived time making homebrew content for that. Content completely lost to time now, stuff that almost certainly nobody used. Southern Reaches is now over 3 years old, growing in stops and starts, slowly coalescing into something recognisable as it's own entity

Burnout is the enemy. Apathy is the enemy. Passion lives somewhere in between.