General Project Update!
almost 4 years ago – Thu, Jun 11, 2020 at 06:06:09 PM

Hey Everyone!

I hope you all have been hanging in there through everything that's been going on in the past several months. I can certainly say that it feels like it's been a non-stop barrage of one thing after another.

First, some good news: some of us are back, albeit in a limited capacity. I, personally, am working in a limited part-time capacity. This means that I'm able to start writing alchemy stuff again! :D Barring any craziness happening that forces us to re-furlough everyone again (fingers crossed), this should mean that we can keep plugging away on this again.

Second, I want to let you all know that with the limited time available to work on the project per week, I'm not going to be doing regularly occurring updates. There will still be updates, but they won't be weekly, or bi-weekly. Given the nature of the process, there could be weeks where the progress made might be more incremental than others and I don't want posts to feel redundant.

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OK, so, that out of the way, I want to give you all a look at my goals list for the project as it currently stands, so you have an idea of what's being worked on and where certain elements stand. There are some sections that are far along, some that are partial, and some that haven't been hit yet. Here we go:

Creation Process: Functionality is firm and established

Associations: Core information ironed out, need to write the additional flavor

• Want to write up some things about the history, possible events that happened in their pasts, how they dealt with rogue members, how they interact with authorities, how they view non-association practitioners (such as a blacksmith in a remote village or something).
• This could even leave room for a small subsection in the book for determining the general structure of each association in your world, a la settlements-style tables. They could determine the governing body, their views on certain key topics relevant to the association, etc. (This is not for certain, as the page count may already be getting very high, but it's a thought)

Specializations: Main ideas written, some expert abilities still need to be created, all expert abilities will obviously need testing.

Quests: Alchemy Quests - Written; Crafting Quests - Partially written; Enchanting Quests - Not written yet

• Still need to check written quests to make sure they fit properly; most will need adjustment; working with Josh on this.
• Note: The quests are meant to be things that introduce and familiarize association members with things that are important to the association and their work, such as the alchemist's association needing the member to handle the safe transport of a volatile alchemical shipment in order to demonstrate their understanding of that part of the association's business and practices)

Bad Standing (Section now addresses the following):

• What can cause someone to fall into bad standing?
• What happens when someone is in bad standing?
• How does someone get out of bad standing?
• What if someone is repeatedly placed in bad standing?
• How does one deal with being in bad standing?

The Underground (Section now addresses the following):

• Training: Non-association members must still find another non-association practitioner who can train them, similar to how they would if they still were in the association. One way or another, they still need to learn from someone.
• Connections: Those not in an association (or who were kicked out or left) do not have access to their association's network of connections and materials, so need to create their own connections, and acquire necessary materials by other (sometimes more costly) means.
• Non-Association Recipes: Associations have strict guidelines about what recipes are allowed to be practiced at what point in a member's progression in the ranks (and some recipes aren't allowed at all). This is often in service to safety. In the underground this is less of a concern and one may be able to find recipes that the associations would not permit.
• The Black Market: Similar to the recipes mentioned above, the black market is a place where one might be able to acquire materials that are harder to find, or which were perhaps acquired through less-than-legitimate methods...
• Your Own Underground: Subsection which contains rollable tables that cover the underground organization's reach (from small and local, all the way up to global), the organization's oversight (who, if anyone, runs it?), preferred forms of payment, how they deal with law enforcement, and how they deal with infiltrators. 

Recipes: Josh reports that they’re 90% complete (the current Recipes chapter is roughly 173 pages typed, and includes the information on ingredients). 

• Need to make adjustments to the time/value shown for many of the recipes. Current goal is that, in general, crafting will generally be the fastest, followed by alchemy, followed by enchanting. This is based on the fact that often the returns tend to be greater for alchemy and certainly for enchanting. This part is still being discussed and we've only scratched the surface.

Magic Item Compendium: Here are how many items there are for each category (and corresponding deck)

• Weapons & Armor - 14
• Rings & Wondrous Items - 51
• Rods, Staffs, & Wands - 7
• Potions, Poultices & Powders - 4.
• The decks that will correspond to these items, for practical purposes, will need to be 50 cards each. That means that in the case of the rings/wondrous items deck, we will need to remove some (based partially on testing, and also on whether we come up with others that are even better than what's there currently)
• These are all new, non-SRD items

Currently written items will need to be checked against existing SRD items to ensure that their abilities are not unbalanced or out-of-place. All items will need to be written with their card counterpart in mind (based on trap cards, roughly an approximate 900 character limit). If an item description is too long, one of two things will happen:

• If the information can be shortened to fit a card, while maintaining clarity, it will be.
• If the information cannot be shortened to fit a card, the item could conceivably be moved to a “book exclusive” portion of the magic item compendium and a new, simpler item will be made to take its place.

Both these steps ensure that the creation of the card decks should not prove hectic or tricky.

Once magic items are made, they will need as much testing as possible. Some may be powerful, some may seem weak or niche - that is the nature of some magic items. What is most important is that an item is not game-breaking or easily exploited or abused.

Appendices: We are coming up with things that can go in the appendices, such as a section that has many of the monsters from the mm and a particular type of ingredient that could be found on it. Ultimately, the appendices are the lowest priority compared to the rest of the book.

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WHEW! Ok, that gives you all a very clear look at what I'm looking at. A lot has been done, there's a lot to do, and I'm going to do it pretty much the same way one eats an elephant: one bite at a time.

As always, if any of you have questions or suggestions, hit the comments. I love to hear your thoughts. Obviously I can't implement every idea, but every once in a while, someone will mention something that hadn't crossed my mind and it might just fit perfectly into one spot or another.

As for time outlook, it's still currently hard to say, but my guess would be maybe end of summer 2021, but possibly later depending on how things go. I say this in an effort to be conservative, and please know that it is only a personal guess. I would much rather plan on a late date and release early than the other way around.

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On a separate, tangentially-related note: Our THREE previous Kickstarter projects (Spectacular Settlements, Treacherous Traps, and Ultimate Bestiary: The Dreaded Accursed ) hardcovers are done printing and are on their way to us (I believe that they're on a boat somewhere on the Atlantic right now)! In anticipation of that (for Spectacular Settlements, in particular), I've just put up two new videos that give you a first-hand look at what that book can do (the PDF is available right now, as well). You can give those a look and if you enjoy what you see, it can be a great book for filling the time while we wait for this project to get completed. Hope you all like it!

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Thank you all very much for your time, patience, support, and excitement. I really appreciate all of you and the positive and kind attitudes you've all shown. It's that kind of thing that helps us all get through the tough times. Keep being good to one another!

Happy Gaming,

Andrew

Important Update / The Creation Process
about 4 years ago – Wed, Apr 01, 2020 at 01:13:47 AM

Hey everyone! Andrew here. I hope that you're all doing well. At the moment, it seems like almost no one is 100% fine, and the current world situation has been affecting everyone. So, first and foremost, I hope you're all staying safe, keeping healthy, and washing your hands for two "happy-birthdays" (roughly 20 seconds).

This update is a tough one to write, but please bear with me.

Nord Games is a small company. Our current staff includes roughly 10 people (which includes a few contractors). With the situation being what it is, small companies like us are straight-up closing their doors and going out of business. We are not, but times are still hard and Nord is not exempt from this.

As such, as of this week, the vast majority of our staff, including those working on this project, will be on furlough (which is essentially a mandatory leave of absence). We have not been laid-off or fired, but will not be able to do any work for the company while we're out. This means that progress on the book will be halted, and the delivery date of the book will have to be extended by whatever amount of time we end up being out, which we're expecting to be at least a few months. Once we come back, we're going to pick up right where we left off.

Please understand that these actions being taken by the company are a matter of company survival. The times we're in are categorically unprecedented and we, as a company, are trying to do what we can in the short term in order to ensure a more stable long-term for Nord. If we had to close our doors, that doesn't do us, or you, any good whatsoever.

Having said that, I and the rest of the team here ask (and are grateful) for your understanding through this difficult and uncertain time.

--

In the meantime, I wanted to leave you with a look at one of the key portions of the book. I know it might be a while before we post another one of these, so I thought this would give you something to chew on in the meantime.

This is the rundown of the overall creation process and covers the general way things will be created if using the associations within your games (there will be more specifics in the alchemy/crafting/enchanting chapters respectively).

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The Creation Process

Regardless of profession, there are several steps that must be taken to create an item, an alchemical solution, or carry out an enchantment. The steps are as follows:

1.  Training. Attain ranks in an association (or get equivalent training from another source).
    
2.  Recipe. You choose a recipe from those available at your rank.
    
3.  Supplies. Acquire the things necessary for the recipe.
    
4.  Facilities. Have the tools and environment to facilitate the creation process.
    
5.  Begin the process. Make any appropriate rolls in order to determine success.
    
6.  Receive item. Once everything is complete, you have your new creation.
    

Step 1 - Training

In order to make things, you must learn the correct practices and processes. This involves everything from construction techniques, particulars about different materials, safety measures, and other nuances about the discipline. Obtaining a rank (such as within the crafters’ association) represents receiving this training.

To attain a rank, you must find someone who has mastered not only the things pertaining to the rank they’re seeking, but also at least one rank above that. These are the individuals who can bestow rank.

Note: The only exception to this is that only a master can raise an artisan to the rank of master.

The ranks, and what they represent, are:

•  Novice. A novice is someone who has demonstrated a desire to take up a certain discipline and is being taught the fundamentals.
   
•  Apprentice. An apprentice is someone who has been taught the basics and has now chosen a specialization to pursue. They will now be learning techniques that pertain to their particular specialization. Also, from this point forward, only higher-ranking individuals who share that specialization may train them and elevate their rank.
   
•  Expert. An expert is someone who has mastered the fundamentals and techniques required to pursue the craft of their chosen specialization, and have honed it to a professional degree. An apprentice would not train others or set up their own shop. An expert could.
   
•  Artisan. An artisan is someone who has worked at their craft long enough to raise it to an art form. They have mastered the fundamentals and overall techniques to the point where they are now able to inject a large degree of creativity, flourish, and nuance to what they make.
   
•  Master. A master is someone who is at the top of their field. They have refined their craft to the point where it is nearly perfect. In terms of traditional training, a master has learned all there is to learn. This does not mean that there are not interesting new approaches, exotic techniques, or even lost magic that could be used to elevate their work, but those are matters of personal pursuits, not traditional training.
   

Before the member applying for a new rank can be awarded with such, they will need to do two things to demonstrate their readiness to the ranking member:

1. Demonstrate their skill be showing that they have completed 10 recipes of the rank they currently hold. The only exception to this is when someone wishes to attain Novice rank.
    

Example. An apprentice is applying to be raised to the rank of expert. They must show 10 examples of apprentice rank recipes they have completed.
 

1. The ranking association member will set the applicant a task or quest. This task will often teach the applicant something about what is important to the association.
    

Once these two criteria are fulfilled, the applicant will be raised to their new rank.

Step 2 - Recipe

Creating anything is done by following a recipe, which shows you what is required to produce the item. When you attain a rank (whether you’re an alchemist, crafter, or enchanter), you are provided with a booklet of recipes designated for that rank. When you want to create something, you select a recipe in their possession.

Anatomy of a Recipe

 Item. This shows the item’s name.

Profession [Specialization] - Rank. This shows which profession (alchemist, crafter, or enchanter) and the rank of the recipe (novice, apprentice, etc.). If the recipe is above novice rank, it will list the specialization(s) which can create the recipe (some specializations may overlap).

Note: There are some few recipes where the actual professions overlap. In cases like this, they will be shown as: Profession [Specialization] - Rank, Profession [Specialization] - Rank, etc.

Time: This shows the total in-game time it will take to create the item. Times will either be shown in minutes (for much simpler recipes) or more typically in hours (which can amount to days, weeks, months or more). Projects which take longer than 8 hours will need to be returned to and worked on piecemeal.

Total Value. This shows the total monetary value of the completed item. The monetary scale used is 10/1 (10 copper = 1 silver, 10 silver = 1 gold, 10 gold = 1 platinum).

Ingredient(s). This shows which important ingredients are required for the recipe. This does not include basic things that are a typical part of the craft (such as tools and such). These are intended to be things that are the main, defining components.

Tools. This shows which tools are necessary for the creation of the recipe. To use these tools for the purpose of completing these recipes, you must be proficient with them.

Note: If multiple tools are required to complete a recipe, they will be shown with “and” between them.

Ability Check. When you are the rank of the recipe and are creating the recipe for the first time, there will be a check that must be made. On a fail, the creation of the item is unsuccessful. Once they succeed at creating the item, all future attempts to create the item are successful. Any attempts to create an item that is below their current rank succeed automatically, whether they have created the item before or not. It is assumed that your additional training gives you the knowledge to fundamentally understand how to create it properly.

Keywords. Some recipes will have various keywords. These are used as points of reference for various different things (for example, “if you have attuned to 2 items with the flaming keyword, this item makes you glow.”). It will be obvious when these are needed.

Banned or Non-Association Recipes

Some recipes may not have been deemed as appropriate by the associations, and as such, there may be some recipes which are not included in the recipe booklet a craftsperson receives upon attaining rank. These recipes will have one of these keywords (banned or non-association) which are described below.

Banned. A recipe that is designated as “banned” is known to the association but has been disallowed for member use. These recipes are not included in the booklets that are provided to the association members. If it is ever discovered that an association member is using a banned recipe, it could easily be grounds for demotion, being placed in “bad standing” with the association, or revocation of one’s association membership.

Non-association. A recipe that is designated as “non-association” is a recipe unknown to the association, but is not necessarily banned. This could be the case with rare or strange recipes from other cultures, such as those lost to time or kept secret. These could be discovered and brought to the attention of the appropriate association for approval and inclusion in their recipe archives. Depending on the recipe, doing this could prove very lucrative or otherwise beneficial.

Step 3 - Supplies

Once you know what you want to make, you need to look into getting what you need. There are multiple ways to accomplish this:

1. Purchase
    
2. Find
    
3. Quest
    

Purchase

This may seem obvious, but you may be able to simply buy the things you need for your recipe (though as the recipes increase in rank, the important ingredients may either not be available for purchase in the quantities required, or may not be available at all). In any case, this is often the most convenient and straightforward option.

Find

If it is clear what the ingredient is, and where it could be obtained, you may know where to find it. This could be as simple as tracking down a wildflower known to grow in a certain region or hunting down a dragon in the wild for its scales. If one keeps their eyes open, useful ingredients can be found all throughout the world.

Note: Instead of choosing a recipe and finding the ingredients for it, some will choose a recipe based on interesting things they have already found. This is a completely valid approach to determining what you wish to create.

Quest

It may be that certain ingredients have known locations, but other things stand in the way. These things could be distance, accessibility (such as being in a place only accessible by magic), the presence of a guardian, missing or inaccurate information (such as a report from long ago which, when investigated, turned out that what was sought may have been there at one time, but was since moved), etc. Acquiring these items usually involves taking deliberate and sometimes extensive action in order to acquire what you’re seeking. These quests can often be the stuff of legend and involve danger or challenges that may well be insurmountable on one’s own, but the rewards often amount to much more than just the ingredient itself.

Step 4 - Facilities

To create any given object or enchantment, the craftsperson must have the necessary tools, and be in the proper location.

Tools  

To attempt the execution of any given recipe, the craftsperson must be proficient with any tools listed on the recipe.

Location  

Not all pursuits are portable. For example, a blacksmith requires a workshop (after all, hauling around an anvil, forge, and the supplies to use them would weigh a ton!). When it’s time to make whatever the craftsperson intends to make, it’s important that they have access to the right place. An important consideration is thinking about what happens if the shop gets closed, taken over, or destroyed? If working on a long-term project, the wise craftsperson will make sure to do so in a place that is as safe and secure as possible.

Step 5 - Begin The Process

Once the craftsperson has chosen a recipe of their rank or lower, acquired the necessary components, and assured they have the proper tools and place to work, they are ready to create!

1. All recipes will have an ability check. If the recipe is the same rank as that of the crafter, the crafter must make the ability check.
        - Source. In the case of enchanting, there is a source component, which has to do with the type of magic being used to carry out the enchantment (arcane, natural, or divine). Each one has a different way the source is interacted with; oftentimes involving rolling on tables. Any enchanting rolls should be made simultaneously with the crafting check.)
        - Note: Source related rolls still need to be made regardless of whether the enchanter needs to make an enchanting roll.
    
2. On a failure, the craftsperson may try again after waiting a day.
        - If something happens to any of the materials, these obviously need to be re-acquired.
    
3. On a success (either by making a successful check or by being of a rank higher than that of the recipe), the process is considered successful (obviously). From that point forward, the craftsperson simply needs to spend the appropriate amount of in-game time working on it, and ensure that the process isn’t tampered with during that time.
    

Step 6 - Receive Item

If the crafting was successful and the craftsperson worked on the project for the required amount of time, the item is completed and now in the possession of the craftsperson.

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That process was developed to be thorough, flavorful, and easy to inject into just about any setting. It ought to play nicely with the core systems in place without bogging things down terribly, and should also be intuitive for those using it.

Some things we're working on at the moment:

• Finishing the recipes for the SRD items. We want to make sure that, with very few exceptions, there will be a recipe for each item in the 5e SRD (you can find the magic item section on page 207). These are roughly 85% complete. We are still working out how best to handle cost and appropriate time requirements while integrating those with the ingredients list.
• Ingredients list. This is another big one. Initially, we were leaning towards having separate ingredient lists for alchemy, crafting, and enchanting, but the more we looked at it, the more sense it made to have one collective one (i.e. it doesn't matter which profession uses oil, oil is oil). This list should have things like costs, difficulty to find, things like that.
• Expert abilities. When you reach Expert rank within your chosen specialization, it comes with an "expert ability" which will affect something about how you do your particular craft. Some of these are created, some aren't. All of them need testing.

There are many other things as well, but this list would go on for days and frankly, with all this time available to you, I'm sure you've got much more entertaining things to read.

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I want to leave you all with a last note just saying thank you. Your enthusiasm and support for this project, for this company, and for all of us individuals working at Nord makes a huge difference in our lives. The state that the world is in right now is ever-changing, and it's really easy to get confused, worried, or (understandably) incredibly frustrated with everything that's been going on. On the other hand, it has been inspiring to see the love and kindness that this situation has brought about, and one way that's happened has been through games, like the ones we play. I want to encourage you all to use this time to think about the things that matter most: your family, your friends, your home and your life outside of whatever job you have. Take advantage of this time and make the best of it. Enjoy it as best you can. Personally, I have a standing D&D game every Monday night with some close friends where we use Roll20 and it has been something that does wonders for keeping us sane through all of this. 

Let's do what we can to support one another. Talk down in the comments, connect, find some new folks you can add to your virtual game table if you have room. Share stories of your adventures. Hop into our discord and talk with us and each other. We're all stronger together, and if there's one rule to remember when adventuring, it's this:

"Don't. Split. The. Party!"

Take care, stay safe, and most importantly, be good to one another.

Andrew

Progress Update #1: Mechanics, the Glorious Complexity of Enchanting, and a General Nord Update!
about 4 years ago – Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 02:57:09 AM

Hello everyone! Megan here :) I hope you all are doing well and are safe, wherever you may be! 

To begin with a nice, fun distraction this Monday: our first progress update for Alchemy!

Recipe Creation

In these few weeks since Alchemy's funding, us writers have been hard at work on finagling the core mechanics of the book. We want to make sure that our crafting mechanics are solid every step of the way before we run wild with creating more of our own recipes. To do this, we are formulating our crafting rules and recipes using the SRD (Systems Reference Document) as a template.

For those new to the term: the SRD is the compendium of all content available from Wizards of the Coast (the makers of all licensed 5E products) that is available for open use. 3rd party publishers like Nord Games are able to use and reference this content freely in their books, to ensure that our content works seamlessly with the 5E core rulebooks. This is thanks to the OGL (Open Gaming License) agreement that allows companies like ours to make 5E content at all!

Thus, our latest endeavor has been creating recipes for the vast majority of items that you already know and love from the SRD. This includes potions, weapons, armors, jewelry, and other supplies and oddities from the mundane to the magical. By breaking these down into recipes, we can see how our alchemy, crafting, and enchanting systems should function to create these items before creating and bringing in more of our own. All of the SRD recipes we create will be featured in the book, for your crafting delight :)

Enchanting

Andrew, Josh and I knew going into this book that enchanting was going to be the most difficult beast of the three professions. While crafters and alchemists will be able to make plenty of strong and exciting items, enchanters carry the most inherent game-breaking capacity. We've spent a lot of time over the last few weeks mulling over the best way to allow players to create both the SRD magic items and items of their own creation. We believe we're headed in a great direction for both of these options, though it'll need some more finagling before we provide you any concrete examples.

We're also in the process of using SRD items as inspiration for creating some basic enchantments and magic items for novice-level enchanters. These have been loads of fun to create, and we believe they will help beginning enchanters still feel like they can make fun items to practice their craft before they get into the more powerful possibilities. Some potential novice-level enchantments may include:

The Happy Zapper. This ring, from the outside, appears to be a simple silver band, but on the palm-side of the ring is a small silver orb. Once a minute, when it comes into contact with any flesh (such as via a handshake or slap), it delivers precisely 1 nonlethal lightning damage and a shocking jolt sensation.

Toque of Discernment. Any successful scent-based perception check a creature makes while wearing this chef's hat reveals each unique component of the scent (such as individual ingredients).

Tasteful Dude Pockets. These pant pockets appear small and aesthetically pleasing from the outside, but contain 10 cubic inches of room on the inside thanks to a very minuscule pocket of extradimensional space.

(If it wasn't obvious, the last enchantment was my idea; I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to bring home a win for ladies everywhere, even if only in the fantasy realm...)

And Lastly, a General Update from Nord

Since that's all we've got in the way of Alchemy updates for this week, we thought we'd end this update with a personal, general company update.

In these strange times during the COVID-19 outbreak, Nord Games will be doing everything it can to prioritize the health, safety, and well-being of its employees over all else. This means working from home, providing sick leave as needed, and generally fostering a safe virtual space for our employees to take needed coping measures however necessary. We will continue handling virus-halted printing and shipping issues while trying to keep content creation, sales, and customer satisfaction a priority. However, we anticipate that these coming weeks could be especially stressful, and we ask for your understanding as Nord does what it can to make ends meet at this time. If we are a bit behind to answer comments, messages, or emails, please know we will get to you as soon as possible!

Thank you in advance for your support here, and please do have a safe and happy start to your spring, friends. If you are unexpectedly home-bound as we are, we also wish you lots of unexpected, happy gaming time with your loved ones! Feel free to join our Nord Discord Channel anytime if you'd like to hang out with our community and employees, talk gaming, and enjoy some nice nerdy distraction for a while :)

Happy Gaming,

Megan

WE MADE IT -- thanks to you, beautiful human!
about 4 years ago – Sat, Feb 29, 2020 at 12:52:15 AM

Hello from the ENTIRE Nord team, everyone! We are SO excited to have ended this Kickstarter with such incredible funding -- an accomplishment possible only because of you! It was thanks to all of our fine backers that we were able to get as far as we did. Thank you from the bottom of our nerdy li'l hearts.

We wish so much that we could share this cake with all of you! For now, the picture will have to do:

After a small break for rest and recovery, get ready for regular updates (at least every two weeks) from us as we finish creating this awesome book! Don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for sales and fun content from Marketing Manager Megan! You can also join the discussion on our Discord server!

Again, an enormous thanks from Nord Games to you.

Happy crafting!

-The Nords

Writers' Bonus Unlocked!
about 4 years ago – Fri, Feb 28, 2020 at 12:58:47 AM

...

Wow, everyone. Just... wow.

Thank you, each and every one of you, for all the support. This campaign still has until about midnight tonight to go, and you all blew through this with a speed I could not have anticipated. Seeing everyone come out and push things as high as it's gone has been truly gratifying. Hitting this goal is something that personally means a lot to myself and the other writers because it directly helps to make our lives easier. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, and our families, who will get to enjoy this as well.

The next stretch goal is an additional specialization to the crafting association! Keep sharing the campaign, and let's see if we can hit it! :D

~Andrew