December 2023 Update
- Adam Donovan
- Dec 31, 2023
- 7 min read
[December 2023]
Greetings all, and welcome to the December (2023) update for Roguelike Games!
As the year wraps up and 2023 starts to vanish behind us, the staff here at RLG would like to express our appreciation and excitement for the support and enthusiasm we have received for our ongoing products, Moralinth especially. Though the book(s) have been in design for a good few years now, 2023 has marked the first major year of official production and things are coming together at a rapid pace. Among the many excellent things that happened this year was the addition of Jondo to the team, turning this one-man passion project into a bonafide group collaboration!
Before we wrap up for the year and get some much-needed holiday time, we wanted to pull together a list of everything that has happened this year in a snapshot for you to enjoy!
Roguelike Games: A Year in Review, 2023
January 2023:
After a long hiatus and a period of radio silence, Roguelike Games had a website overhaul and began an update cycle of monthly blogs (much like the one you're reading right now). The previously-named Cypher Edition of Moralinth was officially renamed as the Uncanny Edition, and rewrites began to bring the book up to speed with the rules changes brought about in the Revised Cypher System Rulebook. It was also at this time that the project moved from the Cypher System Creator license to the Cypher System Open License.
The Uncanny Edition was only one of two rules systems designed for Moralinth. The second - the Glood Edition - was originally meant to be written using the 5e application of the d20 ruleset but this was put indefinitely on hold following the OGL drama.
Work continued on Quickstart Guides for the Uncanny and Gloom Editions, stripped-down "rules light" versions designed to get people playing Moralinth quickly and to be released ahead of the Core Rulebooks. These Quickstart Guides also came with a free adventure, "Sleepers at Dockside".
Lastly, we announced that a separate Lore-only book would be released to go alongside the two editions. Tentatively entitled the "Moralinth Worldbook", this product had no game mechanics included but was indented as background material to be used in the game covering everything from holidays and traditions, culture and fashion, and notable personalities throughout the Empire.
February 2023:
The month of February focused primarily on the Uncanny (Cypher) Edition of the game, adding in more Non-Player Characters (NPCs), Creatures of Darkness, and Occult Items (Cyphers). The Character sheets underwent a second revision and art was beginning to be produced for the Uncanny Edition.
February also saw the announcement that the Gloom Edition of Moralinth would be using the d20 ruleset, but this time would be using the modified rules designed by Paizo and used in Pathfinder: Second Edition. Sadly at that time, the OGL drama was still ongoing, so could only do so much work on the Gloom Edition while we waited to see how things might pan out (we had previously had to erase years of previous 5e work and were cautious about the same thing happening).
Work continued on the Worldbook and the Quickstart Guides, and we began discussing the use of Kickstarter or Backerkit to raise funds for the product's completion. We also briefly touched on using Facebook, Discord, Twitter, and other social media to begin expanding our audience.
March 2023:
The Uncanny Edition of Moralinth more or less dominated the month of March, with many hundreds of pages written and new rules implemented into the system. While the RLG team eagerly awaited the arrival of the Open RPG Creative License, production on the Gloom Edition of the game slowed by comparison. The Quickstart Guides for both versions finished their first main pass in March as well. Lastly, we took the choice to not promote Moralinth on Twitter (or "X" as it would become known), feeling that the limited character input of posts did not meet our requirements.
April 2023:
April saw ongoing work on the Uncanny Edition of Moralinth, and because so much was going on in that part of the project, we decided to start releasing roadmaps: bullet points of progress carried out that month. These roadmaps also included progress on the Quickstart Guides.
Also in April the Official "Moralinth Facebook Group" and the "Moralinth (Official)" Discords were launched, giving us a place beyond these blogs to update and interact with people following the project.
May 2023:
In May work continued on the Uncanny Edition of Moralinth, with most of the book being first-draft complete by the end of the month. Three pre-generated characters (Sir Charles Henry Corbeid, Ms. Isobel O'Neil, and the Clockwork known as Octavius) were added to the Uncanny Core Book. Though the ORC License was still not released by the time the May update blog went out, Jondo began converting our original 5e classes over to the new system. Also in April the creators of Pathfinder - Paizo - announced a Remastered version of their Pathfinder: Second Edition game, which was due out in November 2023. Knowing that we would need to adjust our work further to meet these new remastered rules, we took the decision to keep the Gloom Edition as a single book, rather than breaking it down into a player and gamemaster volume as was the intention for the Pathfinder Remastered editions.
Even with these upcoming changes, however, we started laying the preliminary groundwork for the Ancestries and Heritages for our Gloom Edition character creation options.
June 2023:
In June we announced that both versions of the Moralinth Core Rulebooks (Uncanny and Gloom Editions) would each come bundled with a free introductory adventure entitled "The Ties That Bind". This adventure was written up to a base standard by the end of the month, and work began integrating into both systems. Work also continued on the Moralinth Worldbook and Quickstarts, though there was a notable imbalance between the Uncanny and Gloom Edition Quickstarts, with the Uncanny version being completed, while we were still very much on hold with the Gloom version while we waited for more information on the Pathfinder: Second Edition remaster.
July 2023:
July focused almost entirely on getting The Ties That Bind adventure completed and, by its end, it turned into a multi-session, several-hours-long adventure set over four distinct acts. Because of the somewhat laser-focus of our workload over July, from a blog update perspective, it felt a little light as we weren't in a position to show the finished product material . It was very much a case of telling over-showing.
August 2023:
August brought with it some exceptionally useful news for us here at RogueLike Games. Paizo released a preview document of their rules changes to the Pathfinder: Second Edition Remastered Rules, and this gave our team some much-needed insight as to what they were going to change, and what they were going to leave the same. Armed with this knowledge production of the Gloom Edition switched into high gear, allowing us to make great strides over the remainder of the month. Work began on rewriting the Gloom Quickstart Guide, and we were even able to squeeze some editorials into the Worldbook.
Speaking of the Worldbook, as we mentioned previously the name was a working title, and in August we unveiled its final title: The Imperial Encyclopedia Estania.
September 2023:
September was our shortest blog of the year, primarily because we had been working hard throughout the month but the work had mostly been behind-the-scenes write-ups, proofreads, and editorials: nothing we could show on the website.
Speaking of websites, we were finally able to update this site with the Moralinth: Gloom Edition page due to the fact we had confirmed the system we would be using for the Gloom Edition.
October 2023:
Our Halloween update in October was great fun for us here at RLG. As well as working hard on the Uncanny and Gloom Core Rulebooks, the Uncanny and Gloom Quickstart Guides, and The Imperial Encyclopedia Estania, we took the time to run a spooky writing competition on our Discord and hand out a free gift by way of our Shadefall Manor supplement. The writing competition awarded our winners with their own copy of either of the two Core Rulebooks, and our Shadefall Manor supplement has been downloaded over four hundred times! (we hope you enjoy it!).
November 2023:
Rounding off our look back over the year with November, we had another month of nose-to-the-grindstone work (we don't mind, we enjoy it!) and made alterations to the Gloom Edition once we were able to get hold of the new Pathfinder: Second Edition Remastered ruleset. On top of all this writing, we also spent many man-hours working on art, adverts, maps, and tokens for use both in printing and Virtual Tabletop (VTT).
Roguelike Community
The Moralinth Official Facebook Group is the place to visit for quick and concise updates for those who only want the summarised details of what is happening with Moralinth, and is a great place to see the artwork, lore snippets, and updates. We're looking to add more to it so that we can add extra information, but we need your help! What sort of things would you like to see included in the Facebook Group that isn't there already? Feel free to leave comments so we can know what is a priority for everyone - and make sure you tell your friends!
DISCORD:
For a more in-depth and interactive playground for all things Moralinth, you can head over to the Morlainth Official Discord Server. We're looking to foster the community and grow it out, and a few of the messages we've received of late have asked for more ways to interact with the game world as well as an increase in setting information. We're looking to try and grant both requests simultaneously, so keep an eye on Discord for more information! Feel free to invite anyone who you feel might want to follow the project but please remember they need to verify their account when they first join the server (you need to click the little "tick" to be granted the Uncanny role and gain access to all the Categories, Channels and Events).
Future Plans
Wow, what a year! and this is just the beginning. With work ramping up into 2024 and beyond, we hope to start rolling out more information and previews about Moralinth's approach to the crowdfunding campaign, as well as start some fairly widespread marketing to get our names out there. We can't wait to see what 2024 brings and we're glad and humbled to have you all along for the ride!
....and that wraps up our update for this month! Feel free to drop us a message or come visit us on our Facebook page or our Discord Group if you'd like! Until our next update,
Happy Gaming!
- Adam
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