Last week was the UK Games Expo. One of the things about that was C&S Essence was up for a “Best RPG” award. I didn’t get it (Airship Pirates did) but that was never a surprise. Goven other entrants like “the One Ring” my simple RPG which started out, even in this second version, as something to be given away, wasn’t a contender.
The nomination was flattering enough.
I had had a revamped and reformatted version of the rules. I had added the non-human character stuff because I had it and tested it. I used some clip art to space things out. Ideally I would have used some art from Mike Gilbert, but I couldn’t get permission from his widow.
However, as soon as Steve had said that he thought it was worth charging for, I thought “EEEK. Better put more stuff in”, so the Darken background got in there, and the adventure and the quick skirmish wargames rules. These were all things I had in my files anyway. Stuff I had been working on, that were tweaked and refreshed before adding.
I had forgotten how much stuff I had created that hadn’t seen the light of day thanks to projects folding or delays for one reason or another. Vis Imperium Victorian II will benefit from the work done on Rocket Jocks, since the mad science in that, in part, covers Victorian times.
There is research, as I mentioned before, that is finding its way into the next Apocrypha, which I am wondering if I should turn into an actual supplement.
What I am saying is that nothing is wasted. If it doesn’t work out, fine, file it away. maybe in a few months time, or a few years, soemthing you are working on may require research you already did, and you can return to your unpublished notes to give you a head start.
Speaking of which. Sometime this weekend I want to recreate parts of my old website, get some of my wargaming articles back up, but here now, could I do them in the blog. A job for tomorrow or Monday.