Siren's Call: Week 4

Posted by Thorin Tabor on May 10, 2018, 4:29 p.m.

We've reached the four week point since the Siren's Call Kickstarter ended. This week we've mostly been nose to the grindstone, making our way through book's the initial layout. In fact, as of my writing this post, we only have one chapter left (albeit the longest chapter)!

Now, you may notice the emphasis in the earlier paragraph in the phrase initial layout. What does that mean? That means the edited text of the book has been fit into Adobe InDesign files and we more-or-less know how many pages the book will be and what page things will be on. Doing layout is a bit like doing a jigsaw puzzle. There are a lot of oddly-sized blocks of text that must be matched to pages in a sensible way, where major headers correspond to new pages and paragraphs don't have lone hanging lines on new columns, etc.

This, however, also means that after the initial layout is complete, there will be some remaining odd gaps here and there that must be filled with something. Usually this something will be art, but occasionally it might be filled with a new sidebar, a rules example or other content written to fill the space.

In the next week we hope to finish the initial layout of the book. We can then turn the brunt of our attention to outlining the next round of art commissions and filling the aforementioned gaps. We also hope to finish writing and editing the Pregenerated Colonists. Finally, the initial draft of the first of our two July Patreon adventures is expected to arrive, and we will need to allocate some time to editing it.

Missed the Kickstarter?

You can still preorder the Siren's Call campaign and sourcebook! Just head on over to our Shadows Over Sol: Siren's Call page and fill out the PayPal preorder form.

Week's Progress

Here is a bulleted list of everything we've accomplished in the past week.

• Continued to send out existing PDF rewards to those who got their backer surveys in late.
• Finished the initial layout of the Colony Building chapter, the Alpha Centauri chapter and the Side Treks chapter.
• We continue to coordinate with artists, and the art keeps coming in!
• Started writing the Pregenerated Colonists.

Current Status

Here is the current status of the various bits and pieces unlocked by the Kickstarter.

Siren's Call sourcebook

• 0. Title / Contents: Initial layout of the title page is complete. Waiting on the table of contents.
• 1. Introduction: Initial layout complete.
• 2. ARC Project: Initial layout complete.
• 3. Colonists: Initial layout complete.
• 4. Colony Building: Initial layout complete.
• 5. The Void: Initial layout complete.
• 6. Alpha Centauri: Initial layout complete.
• 7. Siren's Call: Initial layout is in progress.
• 8. Side Treks: Initial layout complete.
• 9. Colony Sheet / Index: Colony sheet is complete.

Stretch Goals

• Player's Brief: Waiting on art and layout for chapters 1 through 4.
• Siren Poster Map & Colony Ship Deckplans: The art reqs have been written. Artists have not yet been contracted.
• Pregenerated Colonists: Writing in progress.
• Prelude Adventure: Outlined. Writing will begin after the Pregenerated Colonists are written.
• Quick-Start Update: We have completed the layout for the updated Quick-Start, but still waiting on one new piece of art for it.
• GM Screen Inserts & Consequence Cards Update: Finished and sent to backers!
• Roll20 Character Sheet Update: The updated sheet is live on Roll20!
• Additional Scenario: Written and integrated into the text.

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