v0.3.2 Update & Development Roadmap

Greetings, all!

Blades of the Immortals v0.3.2 is now available for download! This update features, most prominently, formatting changes throughout the book geared towards improved readability (more visually distinct list entries & levels, wider column spacing, tweaks to header design, and some other stuff). I'm pretty excited about those, and I hope they'll improve your experience with the book and make it easier to use.

However, it's not all aesthetics: this update also has new game content! The faction playbooks have been expanded with example territories/starting builds, and tables for randomly generating mission ideas suitable for each playbook. The cultivator playbooks now include example beliefs, origins, and starting builds, as well as some short fiction for flavor. I also added some explanation of the principles of Heaven-Defying Chance design, and the first example Mark of the Beast, as well as some more example panoply items. The setting-creation process has also been reorganized to be (hopefully) less confusing/overwhelming. I've made a minor tweak to how heat and rep are accumulated from missions, and clarified the function and design of auxiliary cultivation methods. Finally, I've made a number of tweaks to playbook abilities and starting panoplies. The full changelog is, as usual, included in the PDF.

Going forward, here's what my current development roadmap looks like:

• v0.3.3+ (October - December 2022)
  • The Setting
    • Add 1+ example cultivation systems
    • Expand & refine sections on setting concepts, cultivation system modules, & cultivation system design as a whole.
      • Add genre primer for readers unfamiliar with xiānxiá.
  • The GM
    • Add tools & guidance for long-term game management
    • Add tools & guidance for collaborating with the other players w.r.t. PC advancement and development
  • Example Panoplies
    • Add additional example Heaven-Defying Chances and Marks of the Beast, to bring each up to 3 examples
    • Expand & refine sections on HDC & MotB design principles
    • Add more example panoply items, with the eventual goal of having 3 examples for every subsection
• v0.4 (Q1 2023)
  • Fillable character and faction sheets (PDF & word-processor template). This is a high-priority item, as I've received many requests for it. It's delayed until v0.4 because it requires me to develop a number of visual assets that I don't have yet.
  • Roll20 integration
  • Random-generation tables for mission rewards and panoply items. Potentially, random tables for other things as well. What would you all find helpful on that front? I'd love to hear from you.
    
  • Walkthroughs/examples of play for faction, character, setting, and panoply creation, as well as a complete mission-downtime loop
  • Set up some sort of wiki/forum website/Discord server
• v0.5 (Q1-Q2 2023)
  • Begin work on example settings
  • Begin adding rules/gameplay infographics
  • Actual-play recording for use as teaching tool
  • Begin art design

The pace of updates going forward will probably be somewhat slower than it has been. I've gone back to school to retrain into a new career, so that's obviously taking up a significant amount of my time. I appreciate your patience. I'm very grateful to all of you: your support and enthusiasm has been tremendously encouraging. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me here or on social media with questions, feedback, bug reports and feature requests.