Sorry for the silence during February - I've been hard at work both at my day job and working on MG2e. The Tracking Subphase is the last structural part of MG2e, and I'm pleased to let y'all know that I just sent the Tracking Subphase and the expanded Once-Emerald Forest off to my playtester/feedback team. The other two Hunting Zones still need to be developed, but we're one big step closer to MG2e's text being fully finished. I'll talk about how the Tracking subphase works below, but I have one other big announcement.

I've partnered up with the folks at Plus One Exp to handle EU fulfillment for MG2e. If you'll recall, the EU late last year changed its import regulations and made it trickier for smaller businesses (like me) to ship commercial products to folks in the EU. Since I wasn't sure exactly how that would impact shipping prices, I hadn't been able to finalize the backer survey. With their (much appreciated!) support, that can now move forward. Look to get your backer surveys this coming week. I'll be using these surveys to coordinate with my monster-maker backers, collect shipping fees, and so on, so please fill them out as soon as you can.

As described in the QS, the Tracking subphase guides your scavengers from the Village into the first Bout against their quarry. During the subphase, you'll collect Traces of nearby monsters. Once you have enough Traces, you can confirm your quarry is nearby (allowing you to start the Bout) or somewhere else entirely. The rarer your quarry is (Common, Uncommon, or Rare) the more Hunting Zones you'll traverse during your search.

However, as you seek out these Traces, you'll also slowly fill in sections on the Monster Awareness clock. When this clock fills, a nearby monster notices you and attacks! You'll need to fend it off in order to continue pursuing your quarry.

You'll search for Traces in Locales unique to each Hunting Zone, determined by drawing a playing card. The value of the card (Ace through King) describes the ecosystem, while the suit determines the state of that ecosystem. As an example, a 5 of Spades in a Once-Emerald Forest represents an acidrainforest at the height of poisonbloom fruiting season.

One scavenger will explore the Locale to see if they can glean any Traces, but their search runs the risk of encountering a setback. Setbacks might fill in segments of the Monster Awareness clock or lead to encounters unique to each ecosystem. While most are negative, a few grant unique benefits or extra consumables.

There's a lot more to the subphase, of course, than what I've shared above, but that should be enough to get you excited for the full release. One of my hopes with this framework is to make it easier for all of you to make your own custom Hunting Zones, and I'm excited to see what you come up with.

Oh, speaking of which:

Once MG2e is digitally released, I'll open a game jam on itch.io for all of you to make your own monsters, weapons, Hunting Zones, or whatever else you want to dream up for MG2e. I'm not sure of all the details yet (dates, duration, etc.), but I wanted to put it officially out there. As I figure those details out, I'll share them here, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, good hunting!