First Quarter 2010 Tab Update

First Quarter 2010 Tab Update

This last quarter has been a busy and productive one for the Tab Creations Collective. We've not only released two Trystell: Reborn supplements and a Freebie Spotlight, but we've made substantial progress on other projects as well, including the secret project mentioned last in our Third Quarter Tab Update last year.

So let's first address the progress on Trystell: Reborn. As last promised, we finally completed thecTrystell: Reborn -- Lifepath Module this last quarter, but barely making the deadline by a couple hours. It is and will probably remain our largest single supplement working towards the eventual release of the Trystell: Reborn book. We'd never developed a lifepath-style character creation system before, and the whole process was very much a learning experience. But now that we have the Lifepath Module out of the way, that clears up our pipeline to work on other things.

Speaking of other things, coming out just a week or so before the Lifepath Module was a second (albeit much smaller) Trystell: Reborn supplement--Trystell: Reborn -- More Traits & Equipment. This supplement added to the new traits available for the Trystell setting, and added a few more pieces of equipment characters might use. Some of these traits added even made it into the Lifepath Module.

Then, supporting the Lifepath Module, we released last quarter's Freebie Spotlight: the Lifepath Worksheet. When making a lifepath character one needs to take a number of notes, and the worksheet helps keep all those notes organized, for ease of reference and ease of organizating when integrating the events of the lifepath into the character's back story.

At this point I'm tempted to talk about where we're headed, as it involves Trystell in many ways, but I think I'll first talk about the other projects we've been working on this last quarter.

Matthew Pennell has been working on a tactical card game based on the Trystell setting. Alpha decks were printed up and the game was playtested several times before our semiannual Tab meeting in December. While it still needs a bit more playtest, and some cards for it are still in development, it shows a great deal of promise and has come a long way. He and Jesse Pingenot also continue to slowly work on supporting material for the Trystell setting.

We also unveiled the "secret project" we've been planning for the last half year, a relatively hard sci-fi horror setting set in our own solar system: Shadows Over Sol. Taking place a few hundred years in our future, Shadows Over Sol is a world where corporations vie for power with national governments, were underground conspiracies hide their unauthorized experiments and genetic failures out in the darkness of space, and where something lurks out there amongst the asteroid belt and the moons of Jupiter. A fair amount has already been written for the setting, which will use the Saga Machine rules. Expect it to be released sometime in 2010.

Now back to what the future holds: We have many things planned. On the Trystell: Reborn front, we expect to get another supplement of two released within the next quarter. At the very least, we expect to get out the doorEven More Traits & Equipment, which will be the last of the new traits to be released for the Trystell setting. It will finally include the Language traits for Trystell, a system for Archmagery and Trystell-specific artifacts. Once this is out, we plan to compile all of the player portions of the Trystell supplements we have released so far into a Trystell: Reborn Beta -- Player's Guide. We've spoken of this possibility before, but we've decided for the time being to release the Player's Guide under the Beta label so as to be clear about its "still being playtested" nature. Accompanying the Player's Guide will likely be a Trystell: Reborn Beta -- GM's Guide booklet. This booklet will contain the GM portions of the supplements released so far, and possibly the contents of the Trystell: Reborn -- Bestiary Supplement we also have in the works. In this way all of the new mechanics for Trystell: Reborn will have been released in the Beta booklets for playtesting and use until all the supplements are finished and the finalTrystell: Reborn hardback is released.

On the general Saga Machine front, we plan to get The Zeotis booklet out sometime in the next two quarters. A substantial amount has been developed during various Tab meetings for the setting, and with the Lifepath Module out of the way, this setting is the next big release and will be the first full setting released for the Saga Machine rule set. In addition to The Zeotis, we also hope to get out a number of general Saga Machine Freebie Spotlights in the next couple quarters, working towards the eventual release of the Saga Machine Companion.

Finally, in the general Tab front, we plan to revamp our Tab Store in the very near future. We're looking to migrate our non-book Print on Demand products to a new publisher that offers a better product selection, particularly the ability to print poster-maps, which we plan to make use of with our upcoming settings.

Hope this next quarter is a great one.


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