Chant (Voidheart Producer)

CREATOR

about 1 month ago

Project Update: Post-Campaign Update 10: Measure by Measure, We Advance

In which we feel the Seed stir within and the omens of our grim purpose steal over us. In other words… we’re getting there.

MANUSCRIPT

Last time we spoke, we thought we were just about done with the technical edit; that turned out to be not the case. Hollows is easily the most technical game we’ve created, and we’ve been taking the time needed to make everything as robust and watertight as possible. We’ve been working through the feedback on abilities, Entities and campaign play from our playtest - thank you to everyone who took part and took the time to give us your thoughts! - as well as ongoing playtesting discussions in our Discord (thanks to everyone there, too; Maz would like to shout out hierotelephony in particular, whose questions prompted a full review of combat action sequencing).

So we’ve now fully reworked the entire Weapons chapter to bring everything into a specific set of standardised language. We’ve also got new sections in the rules to make it easier to understand what happens in what order, and how to cope with strange edge cases. Most of the changes we wanted to make in response to playtest feedback have now been fully integrated.

Meanwhile, Grant has finished writing up new material on the nations beyond the Isles, and that’s also been read and discussed with our sensitivity consultant; it’s now being adopted properly into the setting chapter where it belongs.

All of which is to say: progress has been slow, but when we’re in a position where we have to choose between doing something fast and doing it properly, we’ll choose properly every time. I will need to give you an updated timeline, but I’ll do it once we’re finished with edits and firmly into layout.

When I say we’re thankful to the Discord and our playtesters, by the way, I mean we’ve significantly overhauled sections of text to address the very sensible questions they asked. This introduction to using Weapon abilities is a great example:

Using Abilities

Both Hunters and Entities have access to a variety of abilities, including generic manoeuvres available to all, and other abilities that are unique to the Weapon wielded or the Entity being hunted.

There are a variety of ways that abilities can be triggered or activated. Ability text usually includes at least one of the following:

Limits, like “once per round” or “on your turn”.
Conditions, like “while you are in Ranged” or “while you hold Focus”.
Triggers, like “when your turn starts” or “when you inflict damage”.
Costs, like “spend Resolve” or “place Threat on your area”.

In general, if you fulfil all the requirements to use one of your abilities, you may choose to use it but do not have to.

Entity abilities often also specify targets or target areas, like “all Hunters in Close” or “one Hunter in a Flank area”. There must be at least one target who matches the ability’s target description in order for it to be triggered.

Some ability effects are automatic, while others depend on a dice roll or on additional conditions. Generally the ability text will say what happens and when, and sometimes multiple abilities on both sides of the fight can trigger off each other. If there’s doubt about what order things should happen, the GM decides.

UPDATED GLOSSARY

All that work on the technical detail means we’ve been able to bring the rules text closer to its final form, so we’ve also spent some time applying all the edits to our player-facing glossary. You can't quite run Hollows straight from this document, but it's not far off.

Check it out here.

And if you think this is good, you should see the 10-tab spreadsheet we've got behind the scenes.

ARTWORK

We are now officially art complete! Last month, Sam Lamont was still working on the slipcase. He’s finished, and it’s beautiful. The idea is that the yellow areas will be cut out and you'll see the hideous, roiling interior design on the back cover of the Hollows book through them.

COMPONENT KIT

We’ve received our production samples! Look! Look at them! BEHOLD!!!

Obviously, the box won’t be white in the final version, and nor will the cardboard dividers inside it. We’ve got a couple of small tweaks to make - the ones you’ll notice most are replacing the dice with a sort of bone effect, and making the capacity holder and tokens darker, more gunmetal and brass than the silver and gold of the samples. This is progressing very nicely and we’re well on track.

It’s about time to start ordering our challenge coins and faction pins, so there’s a good chance we’ll have some visuals to show off there next time, and we’ve also got a delightful set of page backgrounds for the scenarios.

Soon. Soon.

- Chant

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