Thanks a lot for your patience on Interloper, I wanted to let you know that the draft is completed and has been sent to the editor. Finally! I’ll be charging credit cards for shipping and late pledges shortly and delivery should happen February-March.
My apologies for the lack of communication between updates, I prefer to keep you in the loop more than I have been this project. Frankly the issue that came up is that I was hit with one of the worst cases of writers block I've ever experienced on Interloper, after it turned out I needed to restructure the initial draft. My estimates on the time required was constantly inaccurate and I found myself stuck in a cycle of not putting out an update because I hadn't made expected progress and felt I was almost to the point of wrapping it up to pass by that expected deadline and feel the stress about being yet further behind which slowed my pace further and made me resist putting out another update about delays without concrete advancement in the process. I really try to maintain a higher level of service to backers of my stuff like as in past projects and will keep in touch as we get this wrapped and shipped out. Whenever I've published anyone else's work I've made sure that they were entirely wrapped with a completed draft prior to crowdfunding because it's the easiest thing to promise future creative work but the process isn't mechanistic and life happens, blocks show up and having a thousand or two backers waiting eagerly for something you've promised adds a sharp edge to the writing of a project.
I knew this but thought that this time, I'd be the exception. I was not, and I'll be holding myself to the same standard of having a content completed editor review ready draft ready for all future projects. I've been around and releasing stuff long enough to not make mistakes like that still. But on the whole I'm really excited about Interloper's approaching production and getting into your hands now that the choke point has been removed. Editing should be wrapped by end of the month and we'll go into layout by end of December. Depending on Jostens our printers time frame we're looking at a February- March delivery. I'll be reaching out again in January when I've got the timeline firmed up and to let you know we're locking addresses. Thanks for your support and I hope y'all do some quality gaming over the holiday season with good company.
Thanks for your patience. Right now I'm behind where I'd like to be in the process of shipping Interloper by a couple months and am finally closing in on delivering final draft to the editor, apologies for the delay.
Currently the timeline looks to be pushed back into the winter for delivery.
I really try to ensure the writing for my modules is 99% final before I run a crowdfunding campaign so these delays don't crop up. However the major reshaping this one needed and the new format of a murder mystery investigation vs my usual exploration faction sandboxes has required a lot more writing post campaign then planned.
Interloper is looking to be the largest Mothership module I've written. Juggling this with life delays, work, and the fulfillment timeline has been slow going but I'm just about wrapped and aim to get the rest of production wrapped as efficiently as possible.
I value your support and want to make sure that as in all my past projects, I get a quality book to your doorstep as soon as I can. I'll get another update out with a draft PDF for review when it's ready.
Also here's the album files for the Interloper OST. Eric Hines and Kevin Gundlach did a great job on it! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mcZ3nCiVNzwLFjxIFKysOq-AWYjKsHWQ/view
Just want you to know things are still trucking along with Interloper! As the scope of the module and sandbox increased, region locations on Interloper that seemed wrapped needed to be changed and expanded upon with more detail and NPC's relationships need to be reflowed for a better investigation playground. This scope creep means more work and more time, but will lead to a better and more complete book at the end of everything. I'm expecting to go to print by end of September.
Layout, and comprehensive editing will kick off as soon as the manuscript is feature complete and so far the tariff chaos seems to have not caused crazy price hikes in printing costs or holdups with my US based printer but I'm keeping an eye on their production pipeline and building in time to accomodate any delays.
In the meantime I wanted to share the completed PDF version of the add-on module 'Til Death Do Us Part- a space gothic horror mansion module by Josh Domanski (writer of The Bloom and The Parthenogenesis of Hungry Hollow). It's sweet.
Dive into Enoch’s Landing, a once shining symbol of progress now fallen into decay. Within, your crew will be entangled in the desperate plans of the station’s last matriarch. Will they bring forth the salvation she craves or fall victim to the perils within? If anyone wants the physical copy you can still include it as an add-on via the Pledge Manager.
Thanks for your support, I generally like to give a project update once a month and will aim to get back on that going forward.
I'm closing in on the final manuscript to submit to my editor and get into layout. Writing has taken longer as the book has expanded with additional location content and revising the webs of clues.
The central Thomas Forysthe murder mystery in Interloper forms a node network of clues that offers lots of directions to take the investigation. A compelling network of clues is real important on a mystery adventure that isn't linear or solved in a quantum state. It's not too different from designing a dungeon where it's good practice to provide looping and interconnected paths for more varied and interesting navigation choices. The clues act as "doors" between locations on Interloper. For an interesting investigation I've tried to ensure that there's always some clues that are easily found and interpreted to provide forward momentum on investigating, some that are more hidden to discover, and others with a more obscure meaning. Some of these clues lead to entirely different side mysteries and hooks.
I've found variety is also key to the gameability of a sandbox module, allowing players to zig instead of zag. As in previous modules, like Desert Moon of Karth, I've worked to make the world of Interloper more dynamic is filling it with plenty of interesting interactive content hooks in the form of the interplay between NPC's- want they want from each other and the crew as useful tools. Ideally, if your players never even tried to solve the murder, they still have a great time with the module getting up to other shenanigans as various clocks ticks down to doom and mayhem.
Currently we're still on track for a Q3 2025 release!
Here's some of the illustrations for the introduced modified bioforms roaming around Interloper from Francesco Zanieri, doomed to freeze as the planet drifts into darkness.
See ya soon, Joel
P.S: The 'Til Death Do Us Part zine is in final layout and digital versions should be released shortly.
