HotDC Quick Start Charts Status Report

I keep a notepad log with my revisions of this book as I change things. I started with version 5.0 I think, and at that time it was just meant to be a reference for me to work with, rather than organizing the loose pieces of papers with rules scribbled on them. At version .9 now, this project has grown into one that could be offered for sale on lulu. The price tag if offered, by the way, should be less than $10 and over 30 pages.

What the book does not have is all of the full descriptions of Creatures and Incantations and other things. The basic rules for playing the game and the charts are included, along with stats for Creatures and Incantation information for Priests and Mages. It's meant to be a taste of what's to come with the Basic HotDC Rulebook coming in the next few months maybe.

Of course, thumbing through this book has revealed the annoying typos that always seem to lurk beyond my recognition until after a test printing. This is why I test print as I don't always catch them while staring at the screen. There were two typos I missed, one being an abbreviation that has changed and the other a messed up abbreviation. I also caught two rules, one in Resistance Rolls and one in the Combat Rules, that needed clarification.

I worry about releasing this book and having more such mistakes. I hate mistakes. They used to drive me right up the walls in my days of doing a short track racing publication.

I had sort of thought the book had enough content and had started jotting down three or four word sentences for describing the Races and Professions for Game Characters (Heroes). You see, I had just about finished reworking them and typing them (all except Halflings) when I suddenly diverted attention from the main rulebook to the Quick Start Charts. Upon reflection, I started considering if I should rewrite them to make them even more unique to HotDC, which is why I started writing the notes. What I got were some raw descriptions and the question I asked myself afterwards.

Should I include them in the Quick Start Charts book? Seems like something I should do, so I am pursuing this more. Recently, I got the confirmation that I am going to Indy and Gencon. With lulu having a booth at Gencon, I have to consider making this available. I'm giving myself until Friday to make a final decision. In the meantime, I'll see about including these brief Profession and Race descriptions in the book.

Last night, I began messing with the Board Game Rules that will be the ninth part of the Basic Edition Rulebook. I intend to fully describe them there, but could I describe them enough in this book to make them usable. I think I can, so I am pursuing this. I typed something last night and may add it to the book.

The next question is should I add more pages to this book? If I don't need to, I won't. I'm going to try to avoid doing that. By Tuesday, I'd like to have the content locked in for my Friday decision. I have worked on the covers already and will need to work on the final adjustments needed to publish. That way I will be able to publish on Friday if that is my decision. That also means that this blog will go live if the decision is a go for publish.

I don't even know if anybody is reading what I have posted these past four months. I have been posting as a record of my thought process and chose not to announce this blog's existence until I felt more comfortable with things. When I was involved in racing, I felt more comfortable with my presence on the web. Gaming is something I did more frequently before being really involved in racing, and it was shoved to the back burner for racing and the fact that nobody played Basic D&D at that point.

However, you have to move ahead at some point. I don't expect to set the RPG world on fire. There are others who have stayed involved all these years and bright newcomers as well. That Basic Game still isn't there yet, though I hear people are working on it. I still think I can offer something worthy. Can I really pull it off? I hope so. I'm enjoying the attempt, and I'm learning more about the community all the time.

One last note. I may offer some of the best moments from this blog in a magazine called The Heroes Chronicle. It would likely be a free pdf on lulu and/or a printable book sold at no profit to me. The magazine would discuss the HotDC creative process and my observations about the community. At this time, I would be the only writer, and there is no artist involved. The only art I've even used for the book is what came with the Publisher's Program I'm using.