June Update!
almost 5 years ago – Thu, Jun 13, 2019 at 12:13:41 AM

Hey everyone, it’s John and it’s time for your June 7th Sea Kickstarter Update.

I wanted to include some art in this update, but unfortunately, the artist we had scheduled to do the Secret Societies interiors suddenly dropped out. We’ve had to reschedule and we're lining up another artist to take their place. In the meantime, here’s what’s going on.

Secret Societies

The writing for this project is done and we’ve lined up Thomas Deeny to do the layout. We’re waiting to hear back from some artists. And do we have plans for the art! The whole book will be almost entirely character portraits. There are so many characters in this book, and we want to provide illustrations for as many as we can. We’ll be doing two kinds of illustrations. The first will be full color action shots. But the second kind are much more interesting. We’ll be doing a play on traditional 17th Century ink portraits for the rest. Also, there will be a whole ton of hidden… no, wait. I can’t talk about that yet. Not yet. I’ll let you know when the time comes.

Maps

Many of you have been asking about maps. Here’s the deal.

Chaosium plans on shipping out all the maps together. That means we’ll be shipping out maps for the Khitai Kickstarter at the same time. We’re working with Mark Richardson—who has been laying out all our maps so far—on building the continent of Khitai. When that’s done, we’ll be able to ship out all the maps.

Gencon!

I will be at Gencon! Not only will I be running special events, but I have plans for a larp involving Five Sails and… a murder. As those plans come together into a more coherent form, I’ll fill you in on the details.

Questions!

That’s it for now. Sorry I can’t provide more. In addition to writing/developing/editing both the 7th Sea and Khitai lines as fast as I can, I’ve also been providing Chaosium help with transferring all the books and cards and dice and everything else to their warehouses. (And prepping for Gencon!) It’s been a busy couple of months, but we’re starting to get everything on track again. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please let me know. I’ll answer them as best I can.

May Update!
about 5 years ago – Wed, May 15, 2019 at 12:53:40 AM

Hey folks, let's have an update!

For those who have been wondering what we've been up to, Chaosium and I have been working together, helping me sort out the money JWP owed and so much more. Rick, Neil and everyone else have made me feel that we are bringing everything back on course. We’ll be able to fulfill the promises JWP made and even more than that. With Chaosium, I’ll be able to deliver the 7th Sea that JWP wasn’t able to deliver. 

Updates will now be delivered on a monthly basis. Our next update will be on June 1st. 

With that in mind, let's talk about the future of 7th Sea.

Progress and Priority

Because there's a lot to do and more than a few bumps in the process, instead of reporting hard dates for when books are coming out--especially right here at the beginning--I'd rather give you updates on progress and the priority we're putting behind the books. This is what we're looking at in that regard.

Secret Societies

The only piece of the puzzle missing from Secret Societies was art. With that in mind, take a look at the cover, provided by the amazing Shen Fei. Interiors are also on the way, arriving in June-July. After that, we'll be heading into final layout. So, you can expect to see Secret Societies in the 3rd quarter of 2019. When we start getting art in, I'll post them in the updates.

Khitai

Work has also begun on finishing up Khitai. Mike Curry and I want to make sure its the product we want, then we'll go into art direction and layout. 

The Colonies

After reviewing The Colonies with other Chaosium line editors, we determined the book needed a good deal of change. While the book contains loads of information, it didn't really address how the players and GM would interact with that information. It was a huge info dump with very little in the way of giving the players an "in" on this exciting part of the 7th Sea world. We decided to take another swing at The Colonies, keeping much of what was written, but adding some more bang! for your buck. I'll be working with a few people on that as we put Secret Societies to bed. Then, of course, is art direction and layout.

Cities of Faith and Wonder

These two books we'll be tackling together and we'll be taking them on after The Colonies goes into layout. So, I expect you'll see them in the second or third quarter of 2020.

If you have any questions, please post them here. Chaosium and I will do our best to answer them.

See you in 15 days!

CHAOSIUM AND JWP JOIN FORCES!
about 5 years ago – Wed, Apr 03, 2019 at 02:35:03 AM

Hey folks!

As of April 2, Chaosium, publishers of the award-winning tabletop roleplaying games Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, and King Arthur Pendragon, has acquired the rights to 7th Sea. I'm joining Chaosium as line editor and will continue to have creative oversight of the game, and will remain a principal author of 7th Sea material going forward. Beyond that, I'll also be writing for other Chaosium game lines.

Upon acquiring this new game line, our paramount objective is the fulfilment of the outstanding rewards from the 7th Sea and Khitai Kickstarters. Chaosium and I are talking about the best way to do that. Over coming weeks, 7th Sea products and content will begin to migrated to Chaosium.com and Chaosium’s page at DriveThruRPG. A 7th Sea discussion board will also be set up at BRP Central, Chaosium’s forums.

All the 7th Sea product and merchandise are moving to Chaosium's warehouses and shippers, but that will take some time. Please be patient while we make the transfer.

If you have any questions, please let me know. 

Okay, okay...April 2nd
about 5 years ago – Wed, Mar 20, 2019 at 12:52:03 AM

Big announcement on April 2nd.  You win. :)

Big Announcement April 1st!
about 5 years ago – Sat, Mar 16, 2019 at 01:49:53 AM

Hello Everyone,

First, I’d like to thank you all for your patience. I apologize for not updating you on our progress with acquiring a publishing partner, but until papers were actually signed, I wasn't able to say anything. I didn’t want to set people’s expectations up and then knock them down. We’ve had one potential partner who made a really appealing offer, but then backed out, and saying anything would not only have jeopardized the deal, but would have also given you, our backers, a false sense of the future.

However!

I'm very excited to let you know that on April 1st, I (and another party) will make an announcement regarding a publishing partner for fulfilling both the 7th Sea and 7th Sea: Khitai Kickstarters. 

While the legal papers are in motion, I can’t say much more, except this: I cannot wait to tell you who has stepped forward to help us move 7th Sea forward. I’d love to tell you why, but that would really say too much.

Thank you for your patience while we put the final pieces in place. And keep the date: April 1st. 

Thanks again,

John