It wasn’t much, but I did a little work in the WttW peripheral materials when I wasn’t working on the update. Mostly I was building up the profile for Djalli Djalli, the founder and Captain of the Black Rhinos. I imagine that now that I’ve started, I’m going to have to finish it before I can move on. The work to be done on TKoH remains prominent in my mind, but we’ve got to move that energy from the tip of my brain to the tips of my fingers if anything’s going to get done. Stay tuned.

As you can tell from the update, I finished Chapter 18 of RttW. Once that was finished, I of course spent some time in the peripheral materials.

I mentioned the generational labels I had for grouping the characters in an earlier post. Well, I went about figuring out the dividing lines to make it work. At first I just tried the US generational cohorts, but that didn’t quite serve my purposes, so I settled on simple 20-year blocks that happen to split the characters off where I want them. I did, however, have to move Oscarius and Dupont over to Gen 2, at which point I realized I hadn’t done character growth charts for Dupont or Mariangela, so I worked on that.

I believe I’ve mentioned before how I enjoy getting into the characters’ heads when plotting out their stat growth. There was an extra layer of interest as I used the data for Crispo and Soraya (Arjun’s mom) as the starting point, so I was able to see how the characters diverged as they went. For instance, as a Relic Hunter, Dupont cross-rated into Cleric and had to start bumping up his Spirit stat, while Spirit was less important to the Highwayman Crispo, who put a lot more of his points in the traditional Thief strong points of Dexterity and Speed (though he did still need to boost his Spirit a little while cross-rating to Bard prior to promotion).

I need to be thinking about switching over to TKoH, but I imagine the lure of the WttW peripheral materials isn’t going to release me just yet. I will try to prioritize getting the chapter finished first, though. Stay tuned.

My task was simple: Write the last page or so of Chapter 18 of RttW and be done for the deadline. With the exception of one period proctoring a test, I had the whole day wide open. No problem, right? Well, can you guess what happened next? That’s right. The old lure of the peripheral materials got its hooks into me. I started by writing about the respective rights of bondservants and serfs in the guide, then set up the outline to give details on the peculiarities of the different Trials, then started writing descriptions of the Trial Masters, and then the big one, working on the rarity of different critters in the bestiary. I’ve actually finished all but about 200, all the common Beasts (excluding the domestic Beasts, which was the first thing I did). To add rigor to this, and to better define what occurrence rate means, I started doing research on different animal populations by country. If I had sense, I’d just do the countries that have equivalents in the World, but I’m trying to get more of a big picture view first that I can distill down later. All fascinating stuff, I’m sure, but it doesn’t get me any closer to meeting my deadline, so I’m going to have to get the chapter knocked out in the morning (or later, knowing me) and then post it later on Saturday (or even Sunday morning). I really don’t have that much further to go, and if the office productivity specialist will grant me a little time, I should be able to get it taken care of fairly quickly. Stay tuned.

Another day of respectable progress on Chapter 18 of RttW. One more round like this and that should do it. I also went ahead and wrote a little on a yet to be enumerated chapter. I know I really should have everything plotted out before I start writing (definitely before I start serialization), but as you may have noticed, as I went through my backlog of stories I’ve been planning since high school, I’ve started to do more writing on the fly. I won’t say it’s the best model to operate under, but I don’t know if I’m going to break the bad habits I’ve picked up anytime soon.

I didn’t do much in the peripheral materials this time, but while I was proctoring tests, I was doing some research on the seed rate and yield of various crops because I want to sort out both the game mechanics of farming in the World and also the social factors as well (taxation, land usage, etc.). All thrilling stuff, I know. Maybe if my folks hadn’t worked so hard to veer me away from agriculture, I’d already know this stuff. Anyway, I need to focus on getting that chapter done, so I’m going to get to it. Stay tuned.

I made some good progress on Chapter 18 of RttW. I also started to do some work on creature rarity in the bestiary. Obviously, marking the Trial Masters as unique was easy, but assigning rarity levels to the rest of the current 693 entries (plus the 45 special-class critters) is going to be a fair bit of work. I’ll be directing most of my attention to the chapter first, though, so if I can keep up my current pace, I should be ready in time for the deadline. Stay tuned.

As you should know from looking at the main site, I made teasers for the new WttW4 and WttW6. I decided I might as well do it sooner rather than later. Once that was done, I did more work in the peripheral materials, but I did actually start on Chapter 18 of RttW. It wasn’t much, just the opening paragraph, but I’ve got the ball rolling and besides proctoring a few of the finals later in the week, my schedule has opened up for the time being, so I can actually focus on making some headway. I’ve already been simulating some part of the chapter, so it should make the writing process go faster. And with that, I’d better get back to it. Stay tuned.

So Sunday we had our graduation ceremony and in the evening my colleagues held a party to celebrate with me squeezing the weekly shopping and chores in the middle. As a result, I didn’t have the usual time to get the update put together, so that was my task Monday. Once that was done, I was supposed to do some writing on WttW1, but instead I continued on the peripheral materials. There are a lot of considerations that go into establishing Gen 4. (For the purposes of grouping charas into cohorts more so than setting proper generations, Ramachandra and all them are Gen 1, Pawel & Co. are Gen 2, Arjun et al. are Gen 3, and the kids to be born are Gen 4.)

Maternity tends to hit female Adventurers hard. Because I don’t ascribe to the trend in a lot of modern media of making pregnant action girls, the pregnancy alone is going to cost you at least two Levels in Atrophy while you’re out of action and unlike modern society (in some parts of the world, at least), it’s not common for new mothers to get right back to work after giving birth. Typical maternity leave goes from when the pregnancy is obvious (usually in the second or third month) to the child’s second birthday. It takes six month for Atrophy to properly kick in and after that it’s a Level every three months, so that can leave you ten Levels down by the time you get back in the Game. If you have multiple pregnancies, you may as well abandon the idea of progressing any further. Now, because of how XP is weighted, you can rehabilitate your Level more quickly by taking on higher-Level Monsters with a smaller Party (taking advantage of higher-Level companions to protect you while you grind XP), but when maternal instinct kicks in, you might find yourself questioning why you’re risking your life when you’ve got kids at home to take care of. How childbirth affects Adventurers, male and female alike, will be a major element of later entries in the series, so be looking forward to that. (And if you’re not looking forward to it, hopefully you’ll find enough else going on to keep you invested in the story.)

While working on the Gen 4 situation, I’ve gotten closer toward setting the chain of events leading to the endgame. One thing to consider is the affect of age on the characters. You see, you can only exercise your full potential during the period of adulthood. I’d previously set it at 15 to 35, but I decided to up the line of middle age to 40, so you have 25 years at max potential. The status debuff of middle age only affects your physical attributes, so Mages, Clerics and Bards remain more viable at older ages, but Fighters, Archers and Thieves are at a disadvantage, especially in the late-Game scenario. While Pawel’s Tier 3 class is Mage Knight, his skills are more weighted toward his physical abilities than magic, so his age is going to be a concern. (Pawel is a couple months shy of his 26th birthday at the start of the main story in WttW1, so that leaves him with 14 years if he were to develop grander ambitions than just earning enough money to return to Earth.)

There’s still a lot more work to be done, but that work isn’t necessary for the next chapter, so I’m going to try to at least get the daily quota’s worth of writing done before spending more time in the peripheral materials. We’ll see how it goes. Stay tuned.

I continued my work in the WttW peripheral materials getting the timeline and raid schedules sorted out. I’m pretty satisfied with how things are up to the point where the White Lions cashed out and am moving forward beyond that. There’s a lot of soap opera shenanigans on the horizon and I don’t know who’s going to be left standing at the end of it. One thing’s for sure, there’s a good two or three more books to be had out of this. I need to decide on where the breaks will be and I’ll be coming out with teasers in the near future.

As you know from the currently available teasers, I’m not ordering the stories chronologically. We start with Pawel and Zofiya’s resummoning (Year 652 by the World’s calendar), Volume II covers Pawel, Zofiya and Jun’s time in the White Lions (640-645), Volume III their time up to joining the White Lions  (637-640), then Volume IV around the time everything is falling apart (around 656). Volume 0 of course starts at the very beginning as more of a side story. I’m thinking about putting new volumes on either side of the current Volume IV (which would make it the new Volume V). There’s plenty of room for additional side stories, prequels and such, but six volumes for the main narrative should do the trick. One more thing to work on, but first I should actually try to get the next chapter out. That needs to be the priority for next week. Stay tuned.

I continued my work on the WttW timeline, getting raid scheduled and levelling trends sorted. I think I’ve mostly got things squared away up to the point where RttW begins. Before dealing with our gang, I realized I’d overestimated the levelling Crispo and Mariangela would do after their ranging days ended. You might ask why I’d spend so much time on characters that are secondary at best, but all the details matter. The more consistent the scenario is, the better the overall work. Anyway, I scaled them both down about ten Levels from where they were. It’s worth noting that those two still go out occasionally to get XP so as to continue to grow, albeit far more slowly than a fully active Adventurer, and more importantly, to ward off Atrophy. This is in contrast to fully retired characters like Jean and Dupont and one who is secretly too afraid to go ranging again (Oscarius).

I told you that some plot elements revealed themselves in the course of this work and I’ll share a few examples with you. My original intention was that Mariangela and Jean’s relationship began when she treated him at the Great Temple in the aftermath of the White Lions’ failed Helheim raid. However, as I looked at their respective career paths, I saw an opportunity. They actually worked together previously, their Parties clearing the Seventh through Tenth Trials together. They would go their separate ways after that, but then had intermittent contact years later when she was sent by the Great Temple to fill a vacancy in the White Lions’ Troop B. By that point, the Temple was already grooming her to become the Archbishopess of the Cult of Nyxia in Axios and needed her to raise her profile. She would clear the Eleventh through Thirteenth Trials with the White Lions, but unlike her previous experience, she did not constantly remain attached to the Company. By the time of the White Lions’ raid on the Fourteenth Trial Master, they already had found a permanent member to fill the slot she had been occupying, so she would clear the Fourteenth Trial with the Black Rhinos three years later (partially because the Captain of the Black Rhinos was a fellow Nyxian) and then the Fifteenth Trial as the capstone to her active Adventuring career before becoming Archbishopess. This would be three years after the White Lions’ failed attempt on the Twentieth Trial.

Speaking of the Black Rhinos, they were the White Lions’ main rival as the top Adventuring Company of their generation. Ramachandra tried to negotiate an alliance of their Companies for the Sixteenth Trial (if not an outright merger), but the Black Rhinos’ Captain Djalli insisted on being the sole commander rather than share authority with Ramachandra, which was something few of the White Lions would assent to. Because the deal fell through, the White Lions had to train up two more Troops to put them at full strength for the Sixteenth Trial. This took the whole five years of cooldown time before the Fifteenth Trial Master would respawn. Troops A and B set up a base in the Sixteenth Trial to prepare while the new Troops (which would include Pawel, Zofiya and Jun) were brought up to speed. Although the Sixteenth Trial is serious business (as are all the Trials until you gain a significant Level advantage), this comparative downtime was when Arjun, Fedor and Zsuzsanna were born. Yes, the core sextet of the White Lions were still active, but with their rapid progression through the Trials brought to a halt, their minds turned to other things.

And to touch on the rivalry with the Black Rhinos, the basic pattern was that the Lions would clear a Trial and the Rhinos would follow after. However, Djalli was superstitious about timing his raids. “Fight a winter enemy in the spring; fight a summer enemy in the fall,” he would say. The idea was that the Trial Masters’ powers were rooted in the seasons and so attacking once their season of power was ended was the best time. There was no substantiation for this belief, but he was not a man to be challenged. Anyway, this created an opportunity when the Fifteenth Trial Master respawned in Martius of 644. As the Fifteenth Trial Master was a “summer enemy”, Djalli wouldn’t attempt a raid until October. The Fourteenth Trial Master respawned the following month, so Troops C and D of the White Lions rushed in to defeat her mere days after she respawned, then went on to take down the Fifteenth Trial Master the next month. Normally, it’s prudent to at least give yourself six months to prepare before a Trial Master raid, but there was a cadre of veteran members (like Fedor’s parents and Jean) to support the younger members. It was still a risky proposition, but it saved the Lions another five years of waiting and pushed that wait on to the Rhinos (who were as happy about it as you can imagine). You can argue that the Lions’ haste to get ahead of their rivals led to their downfall (as the Rhinos’ haste to catch up to their rivals led to their end), but hubris is a thing. There is some justification in that Troops A and B were quite well-equipped for the task and while underlevelled, Troops C and D were talented enough to keep pace. Also, the last few Trials are quite inhospitable and removed from all human civilization, so you don’t want to stick around too long.

Some of all this you’ll see play out in Volumes 2 and 3. A few elements were already in my mind, but a decent chunk was purely emergent from my work in the timeline. Serendipity is neat like that sometimes. I’ve made some good progress on getting all this stuff sorted, but there’s a bit more I want to do yet. Maybe I’ll actually get to some story writing, but obviously the release of the next chapter is being pushed to next week at the earliest. We’ll see what comes. Stay tuned.

There may not have been any story progress, but there was a flurry of activity all the same. After rebalancing the boss fights, I needed to take a fresh look at the timeline. Because I adjusted the recommended Level to challenge the Trial Masters, everything was thrown out of whack. Besides adjusting the times different Parties defeated the various Trial Masters to make them more plausible, I had to consider issues of overlap. You see, the Trial Masters have a set cooldown period before they respawn. For the first few Trials, it’s just a month, so you don’t have to wait too long if you’re next in line, but as you progress, that cooldown time increases. As an example, getting to the Eleventh Trial is seen as a critical juncture in an Adventurer’s career because it’s where you form proper Adventuring Companies rather than just the ad hoc alliances that are the norm from the Fourth Trial on.

Part of the reason for the cooldown is that it allows time for Players to level up, form alliances and so on. It also discourages premature attempts on the Trial Masters, which usually end in total Party wipes. However, accounting for this cooldown period means that I have to do extra work to make sure all the pieces fall into place. Twelve Adventurers are summoned every month, so even factoring in the high attrition rate, a lot of juggling must be done to get everything to work out. For instance, I had to move Jun’s summoning back a year so that the timing would work with Pawel and Zofiya. I’m sure there will be other adjustments that need to be made, but I’m going from the top down, so the sticky bits are on the near horizon.

I had to force myself to go to bed last night because I was so wrapped up in this, so it’s going to be my little obsession for the next day or two. In my next post, I’ll bring up a few plot developments that have come up due to this work. Stay tuned.