NickDaniel wrote:
Are any of the SKG bods on this forum? Maybe they can give us an update....! Now there's a thought!
At least one is, yes. But it's up to them if they post or not.
Speaking completely on my own account, based on what I've observed, I think it needs to be remembered that SKG is a very small operation and the people running it all have real lives and real day jobs and other priorities in their lives that have to come first. Having been involved in the writing of the Players Guide and having seen the virtually completed Players Guide, I've got some real awareness of how much work has been done to get the Guide to that stage. It's a lot more than I ever imagined. I assumed it was fairly easy to put together a book as a PDF, even when you are trying to match the appearance of a bunch of previous books. Trying to make sure every apostrophe is in the right place. Trying to make sure that words are capitalised consistently. Find a missing word - add the word - and watch as it mucks up the formatting of the next 80 pages in the book.
When James Wallis pulled the plug on the Magnum Opus edition, it really did look like the Players Guide was going to vanish. Some of us had already put a lot of work into it at that point - and some few (Not me!) committed to doing the long haul to make sure the book would eventually see the light of day. Note that 'Not me!'. I've done at least thirty hours of proofreading, on top of maybe half that of actual writing - that's nothing compared to what must have been done by those at the core of the book.
I'm as frustrated as I think anybody could be at the fact we don't have it in our greedy hands yet - I took printouts of the cover and the contents page to a convention last October where I had permission to show it to DW fans (here in Melbourne, we've had conventions where three different Dragon Warriors games were running - for some reason, the game really does have a 'live' following here) telling them that it's going to be released very soon. I spent the weekend before last at another convention where I was constantly being asked for an update. My game for the convention at Easter ('The Kestrel is a Knave') assumes that the Players Guide will be out by then, and that is now literally less than two months away. If it isn't, I may be burned in effigy - or at least scowled at. I am proud of the work I've done on this book, and I want it out there. I've got other reasons for wanting it out there as well, as it potentially brings the release of something else closer which I desperately want - and I can't really talk about!!!! I'm not good at not talking about things!
I have asked SKG whether or not the contents page can be shared here. I haven't had a reply yet. I know that's because the people I've asked are busy.
I genuinely believe that what we're going to get with the Players Guide (and remember I have seen it all - well, there might be one page I haven't seen in near-final form) is a slick, professional, publication that any games company would regard as worthy output. I'm also sure it's going to be criticised by some people (just as any other product is, and damned well should be - part of putting out what should be a high quality, professional product, is accepting everything that goes with that including it being criticised as a high quality, professional product. Criticism is fair). Yes, it's taken years to get there. But it's got there.
When Magnum Opus pulled out, I seriously considered the possibility of putting in a bid for the licence myself, if nobody else did. I am so glad I didn't. I thought this would be a fairly simple job. If I was doing it, I'd now be hiding in a cave somewhere half-insane, and the Players Guide would either be less than ten percent edited, or 8000 pages long and not even 1% edited.
This is (at least I intend) all I'm going to write on this right now. I'm not even sure I should be writing this. But I suppose my point is this - I am sure that everything that can be done is being done to get the Players Guide released as soon as possible. I really am. I'm not sure what the technical glitches are, but as I
know the book is done, I know that's the problem that needs to be solved. I'm avoiding pestering the people at SKG, mainly because I am worried that answering my pestering might take away the time they need to solve the problem. But I will ask again about releasing the contents page.
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