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Hi everyone!

Just a quick update on where I'm up to with the book.

The manuscript has come back from editing and I've worked through all of the suggestions and changes. I've been doing a lot of playtesting, though, and I've realised that although the manuscript is complete and playable, it's lacking a little something.

I've been playing Dream Askew and Dream Apart again, and something that really makes those games sing are the setting elements. In The Library With The Wrench has a couple of these - the Mansion and the Investigator - but I don't think it's quite enough. The elements themselves are lacking some detail to make them meaningful and to make people want to actually pick them up and use them in play, and there aren't enough setting elements to make the game feel rich and alive.

I've decided that I'm adding a few more setting elements to the game. I'm in the process of writing elements for The Storm, The Body, and The Staff, to bring the total number of setting elements to 5. I'm also fleshing out the extant ones to give them a bit more narrative weight.

That writing will be completed this weekend, and Ste will get the manuscript back to me by the end of next week. At that point I'll give you the text-only version of the game to look over and start playing while I move into layout.

I know this is a deviation from the timeline I originally set, but this is why I built extra time into the project. We're still well on track to fulfil this on time, and the game is going to be better as a result of this delay. I'm very excited to put this in your hands!

Thanks,
Chris

Hi all!

A belated "we funded and it's over!" update here - my day job is exhausting and I wanted to wait until I was feeling a bit more rested to sit down, take this in, and say thank you.

I'm incredibly excited to get the chance to make this book and I'm very grateful to all 367 of you who have supported this project and made it possible. Not only is the book going to exist but my partner and I are going to have a really nice contribution to our honeymoon fund as a result of overfunding, and we're both very grateful.

My editor returned the manuscript to me earlier this week. Over the next week or so I'm going to be going through his edits, accepting and rejecting (mostly accepting) changes, and doing any rewrites that we need. It will go back to him for a second pass, and then I'll have a final manuscript and will be able to start layout in earnest. When I have a "text complete" manuscript I'll share the plain text version with you so that you can see the full game before it gets turned into a book.

Generally it takes about two weeks for Backerkit to deliver funds to me. I don't know if I'll have finished layout by the time that happens, but I'm aiming to get it done as close to that date as possible so that when the money lands I can immediately send the books to the printers and start getting things manufactured. Printing generally takes two weeks, too, and then I'll be able to start posting things!

I'll update you along the way. Thanks again for your support!

-Chris

I decided early on that I wasn't going to include any stretch goals in this project. The book is written and I wanted to be able to just give it to my editor and get it printed without any messing about. But Little Miss Scope Creep is always present in the back of my head, and tinkering with things is in my blood.

I ran a session of In The Library With The Wrench for some friends last night, and for the first time one of the suspects died during play. And this raised an interesting question - what happens when that happens? Suspects getting killed and multiple bodies stacking up over the course of the story is a massive trope in this sorts of mysteries, and right now the game doesn't account for it. 

So I'm going to fix that. I'm not tying this to any specific funding goal, because I'm not convinced that people actually back campaigns to unlock stretch goals. I'm just going to make the book slightly bigger by introducing rules for playing ghosts, and writing a handful of ghost playbooks. I think there will be six of them.

Here's a quick preview, for backers only.