February 2023 Update

Adam Donovan
Feb 6, 2023
6 min read

[Feb2023]

Greetings all, and welcome to the February (2023) update for Roguelike Games!

In a continuing effort to keep the stream of information on RLG and Moralinth constant and up-to-date, last month I made mention of wanting to do a minimum of monthly updates (potentially more if sharable information becomes available), so this February update is the first of many such updates.

I'll be keeping the format as consistent as possible, so expect to see it laid out in a similar way to January's post.

Lets get rolling!

Moralinth Updates:

It has been a busy month of work on Moralinth: Gothic Horror RPG, with the majority of man-hours put into updates to the Uncanny Edition. A lot of behind-the-scenes system research, playtesting and balancing and software training has also been going on but sadly, there's not much we can show with regard to that yet as its only just started to be put into practical use.

In addition to this, a fairly major decision has been made with regards to the Gloom Edition of the game, which you can read about a little further in this update!

Moralinth: Uncanny Edition

More NPCs (Non-Player Characters), Creatures of Darkness and Cyphers have been added to the book, as well as several sections and whole chapters getting an overhaul or partial re-write. On the art side, I've been designing and prepping a lot of the artwork for the covers and interior art (examples of which you can see at the top and bottom of this post, as well as in the previous (January) update), and the Character Sheets have gone through a second iteration for the Uncanny Edition of the game.

We'd like to share our most current version of this 3-page Character Sheet for Moralinth: Uncanny Edition, which we've included here. They're the second iteration, but please be aware they are not yet final and may be subject to change. Here's a preview:

Character Sheet design by Adam Donovan, Roguelike Games

A slightly modified version of these sheets will be coming with the Quickstart version of the two editions, with some parts removed as the Quickstarts use a "rules-light" version of the game and as such doesn't require all the information provided on the sheets above.

Moralinth: Gloom Edition

For those who might have missed our last update, you can read about it here, but in short the situation with WoTC bringing out a new version of the OGL (Open Gaming License) meant that the second system we were planning to write Moralinth in - namely 5e - was no longer viable. Though WoTC made a lot of changes since our last update, we here at RLG have made our stance clear on the OGL as far as Moralinth goes. While we're not discounting the possibility of writing 5e-compatible content for non-Moralinth projects in the future, Moralinth: Gloom Edition will no longer be written using the OGL 5e ruleset.

Which leads us onto our big announcement nestled deep within the middle of an update blog: Along with Moralinth: Uncanny Edition built upon the Cypher System,

Moralinth: Gloom Edition will be built using:

PATHFINDER: SECOND EDITION!

When Moralinth was first conceived as a dual-system project, it was designed to run using the rulesets for both Cypher System and Pathfinder (1st Edition), but as work continued on the game, the vast majority of people able to play-test the setting and systems were 5e players and, as such, the design migrated in that direction. When the OGL drama happened about 6-8 months of work was lost on the 5e version of Moralinth, but when Paizo made their announcement about the Open RPG Creative License (or "ORC"), we felt it was the right time to bring the Gloom Edition of Moralinth home to its original Pathfinder roots.

While the Roguelike Games team has already begun work on the new Moralinth: Gloom Edition, we won't have *too much* to show until the ORC has been finalised and released to the community. Until we know the ins-and-outs of what is workable under this new license, we don't want to jeopardise our chance at making this amazing game for a second system. As soon as we know more, we'll update you. For now, we'll be getting frameworks in place while we work on the Uncanny Edition. In the next couple of weeks you'll see some changes to the Moralinth: Gloom Edition part of this website, and the front page will also change to represent the Gloom Edition being under PF2E rules. As of now (without the update from ORC), any work done on the Gloom Edition will be operating under the Paizo Inc. Pathfinder® Second Edition Compatibility License and using resources from the Pathfinder: Second Edition SRD (System Reference Document). Please note that nothing will be going to press until we have seen the ORC and signed/applied under the Compatibility License, though you will still see plenty of "Work In Progress" updates here on the site.

As an aside, all blogs, updates, posts and material pertaining to the old Moralinth: 5e have been removed from the site and are now archived.

Moralinth Worldbook

Work continues on the system-neutral Moralinth Worldbook that will accompany the two systems, though it will not be specifically tied to either Moralinth: Uncanny Edition or Moralinth: Gloom Edition. Currently going through final draft and proof-reading before editing, art and layout, this book is on schedule do be released as a stretch-goal for the crowdfunding aspect of this project.

With lots of information on the various nations and cultures outside the cosmopolitan melting pot that is Elysium, it will give Narrators and Players alike plenty of background material to add even more depth to their games and characters.

Specifically in February, work has been completed on the nations that exist past the "Four Borders" of the Empire, mysterious cultures that thrive beyond the recorded lands of 'The Known World'.

Moralinth Quickstarts

Currently the Moralinth: Uncanny Quickstart is "Draft 0 Complete", meaning that all the content is written, has been play-tested, all the stats are in, maps and tokens have been added as well as reference tables, handouts and character sheets. Next, the content will need to be proof-read and edited, art will need to be added and the basic layout completed, at which point it will be "Draft 1 Complete". Once this is completed, a final pass will be done, changes will be made and the Quickstart will be release-ready. On the flip-side, work on the Moralinth: Gloom Quickstart has only just begun, for obvious reasons. All the non-system-specific material has been ported across from the Uncanny Quickstart where appropriate, but until we knew what system we were going to use for the Gloom Edition of Moralinth, work was unfortunately on-hold. This should now pick up apace with the Moralinth: Gloom Quickstart hitting "Draft 0 Complete" in the next few months!

Roguelike Community

FACEBOOK: Alongside the website being overhauled and updated, February will see a specific Facebook group set up for Moralinth, where people are welcome to come and chat about the game, ask questions, or make suggestions and generally get smaller but more frequent updates on the progress of the game as it is being written. Expect to see this up and running at some point in February (with an announcement here when it goes live), and also please feel free to share it about with everyone!

DISCORD: A Discord Server will be set up for Roguelike Games with a specific subsection for all things Moralinth. This will probably be brought online once the Moralinth Facebook Page gains some traction and will offer an alternative place to chat about all things RLG. Discord has a tendency to get busy pretty quickly, so once things start ramping up on the Discord front we'll likely be looking for a moderator to help keep it tidy. Watch this space!

TWITTER: This will definitely be the hardest push for us,as nobody on the team really is a personal Twittter user. That said we do appreciate the reach it has as a platform and as such, can't really be ignored. The RLG Twitter Account will be set up within the next couple of months (hopefully before March 2023) and will use the platform's signature short-and-snappy headlines to promote updates from us.

Crowdfunding

Not much has changed on the crowdfunding aspect behind Moralinth. We're still debating the options of using either Kickstarter or Backerkit, weighing up the various pros and cons of both crowdfunding platforms. It's a little while before that decision needs to be made, and a little further still before we need to start advertising. Although several hundred pages of Moralinth material exists, none has yet hit the layout/design stage ready for promotion. Though this is our first crowdfunding project, we want the majority of the work complete before we present the product, so that if it successfully funds then backers don't need to worry about whether or not they'll receive their pledges, they'll know they will.

Future Plans

Our priority for February here at RLG is continuing work on Moralinth: Uncanny Edition and the Uncanny Edition Quickstart. Secondary to that (and in many cases working in parallel) will be the starting of work on Moralinth: Gloom Edition and its associated Quickstart. The team will be laying the foundations of the Gloom Edition down in preparation for any new information on ORC, but most of this will be limited to easily-amendable draft work in case any major changes need to be made. As mentioned in Roguelike Community (above), we'll also be getting Facebook groups, Discord servers and Twitter accounts online. Phew!

....and that wraps up our update for this month! Feel free to drop us a message or come visit us at our Facebook page if you'd like! Until our next update, Happy Gaming! - Adam