Silvervine Games : Svg / Newsarchive2

2006-12-28 :: Probably not though 12-28-06

Well now we're just being snarky.

2006-12-28 :: Maybe the Last News of the Year 12-28-06

There is a surprise here. There is much relief here. There is nap time here. We've got the beta edition 9.0 out, 10 is the final product. From 9.0 to 9.5 there will be grammar, writing, final system changes. From 9.5 to 10.0 is design, final artwork and final final polishing. Go check out the beta book over at lulu, or check out our character creation guide there as well.

2006-12-22 :: The deadline approaches, and I feel good 12-22-06

The year end deadline for finishing SVG beta book 2 is almost here. We are in final proofreading stages, and even began work on detailing some of the Cyrus information. Started out in the Dwarven port town of Judarin and it was grand. There are close to 2 hours of information on Judarin including the fun things like:

The grand steps of Judarin
The basalt plains
The rock window ports
The Twilight inn in the middle of the steel spine tunnel
Clan relations and what tasks the younger unmarried clan members have to server before getting a real job

So a new beta book will be out soon, which we will probably make available for purchase at cost. The world of Cyrus is starting to go through the Revamping process. Things are looking good.

2006-12-13 :: And now the headache comes 12-13-06

It's full of stars. Adobe is beautiful. Converted our working copy to an adobe PDF for transport and it made it 6 mb. A 320 page, 33 mb file converted to 6 mb. So the beta copy needs some spell checking (tonight or tomorrow), a little formatting, and then it's completely usable. Amazing.

We've got the new character sheet up. It's a little hacked till we verify there are no more sheet relevant system changes.
Alec is working on design for a few more sheets to go along with it.
The weekend will be for updating pictures and some other web things.
Arcadian has a headache, he's been working hard. He needs scotch and about 4 hours of sleep.

2006-12-08 :: What is coming next 12-08-06

Now that we've got a new beta edition of the book we're working on a few new things.

Updating some stuff on the website (including pictures).
Getting some fun extras and sneak peeks out here (still looking for a good map maker)
The never present level 0 guide (Maybe someday, sigh)
A new character sheet (to reflect the changes we've made)
A bunch of formatted player/GM aids.

Keep your eyes peeled.

2006-12-08 :: A new cover, a new day 12-08-06

We've been busy. We fairly well met the deadline, did some play testing, made some major changes in record time, Alec finished a new book cover. You can see it fullsized here. Is it not spiffy.

2006-11-30 :: Deadline 12-02 11-30-06

From John: Well I've set myself a deadline of 12/02/06 to have the second beta of the book finished for all of the system stuff. That was officially done as of 11:31pm tonight 11/30/06. I be good. There are some tweaks I'll be going through and making, mostly verifying, checking numbers, etc. Then I've got one more week to go through and reorganize the world of Cyrus information. Alec, Matt, Ed and I will be doing a lot of tweaking and expanding of that up until we start the design process, but I'm going to lay the framework of the section in the next week. I'm also going to be doing grammar editing, which means I need to recement my grammar again. This should preserve the sanity of my editors this time around. Better communication should also avoid some of the headaches of the next official grammar edit. If I clockwork orange grammar rules back into myself, then I can hopefully make the editors have next to no work when I put them to task on the next official grammar editing.

Be Seeing You

2006-11-18 :: A brand new magic system 11-18-06

We've got the magic system re-written to a play testable level. That means next on the list of things to do is go through the book and give it a playtest polishing. Once it gets a playtest polishing and everything has been mathematically balanced we'll start playtesting again and find out how its really broken despite being balanced by the numbers. If you'd like a bigger explanation of the new magic system John is writing one up over at http://arcadian.deadjournal.com/.

2006-11-06 :: Time for some what's been going on 11/06/06

Well we came back from the dead, we've been churning along and have a final play-testable rough edition of the book. By final I mean final. Almost everything that needs done and in there, is done and in there. The magic system, as always, is our final big gambit. With an actual play-testable version, that means that we may actually finish the Level 0 guide. Don't freak, we're serious this time. It's about 60% finalized and written.

Now, we just have to be sure that nothing distracts us.

2006-10-27 :: When we get quiet, it's because we are busy or dead. In this case. . . . 10/27/06

We are mostly dead. We've been working on a lot of the little things, but it's been in a bit of a holding pattern until after Halloween. Mostly cause we are all about Halloween. In fact, just because we've been so lax on news lately, you can check out the Halloween plans over at Arcadia's site http://arcadi.org. Click on the costumes and stuff link. Our next big projects:

2006-10-15 :: A brand new Character Sheet 10/15/06

While we are still working on finishing the Magic List, and yes the Level 0 Guide, we've got a brand new character sheet all finished up. It is still a beta copy, but the only thing left on it are tweaks. We've also taken the time to work in forms and Fields into it. That means it's a type and print sheet. If your handwriting is as bad as Johns, this is a blessing.

http://www.silvervinegames.com/cyrus/uploads/Downloads/charsheet10.15.06.pdf

2006-10-12 :: The Sea of Magic is almost filled with fishies 10/12/06

We've almost got the magic system re-worked and redone. There is still a lot of rote work to do with the actual spells, but we're almost almost done and have everything beautifully tuned.

2006-10-09 :: The Magic Migraine continues . . ., but we're near the end 10/09/06

Alec can be credited with the main part of what the new magic system will be. We are modeling it off a standard list style magic system (a list of set magical spells) with a weapon technique sort of edge. Since a fair amount of the planning is done, now all that is left is the retooling of 85 pages worth of spells. Yaaay.

2006-09-29 :: Images Updated, Some Site Redesign, tonight = Magic Headache - 09/29/06

Well we applied site updates, cleaned some pictures, and updated some things. There are some sections of the site looking much much nicer, and giving a better impression of what exactly we are doing here.

The latest project for the SVG team is a revamping of the Magic System which will be starting today. This will be a major headache, but what we come out with should be much better than what we went in with. Check back for more news later.

2006-09-25 :: Image Changes - Site may look off for a little 09/25/06

In the ever ongoing battle to keep the site updated and looking nice there will be some image updates today and tomorrow. If things look odd, they will hopefully be resolved within a little while. If you notice any changes that aren't going away, inform Arcadian-=-=-@-=-=silvervinegames.com

2006-09-12 :: Pirates in Full Swing, Magic is on it's way 09/12/06

The pirate play test, over at http://www.silvervinegames.com/pirate/, is in full swing and going great. Aside from some of the tweaks we have been making, we are going to be working on revamping the magic system here in a bit.

2006-09-06 :: Messing With CSS 09/06/06

I've been tweaking the sites CSS elements a little, it's a pity I've got no eye for color. So at least not everything is the same old purple, and grey, and white. I need to get someone who knows what they are doing to mess with it though. I've got someone in mind who I may ask about it, but I am always, more than, incredibly willing to take help from people with experience who would like to provide aid. So if you've got CSS knowledge, and a decent eye for design send an email to Arcadian-=-=-@-=-=silvervinegames.com, and we'll work out the details.

2006-08-30 :: Character creation guide . . .08/30/06

Well, we've stumbled across something wonderful. In trying to streamline character creation for play tests for the book we put together a little rough packet of all the things you need for character creation. This 27 page doozy gives you everything you need to create a character in one single swoop. It's exactly what we wanted, and it's wonderful. We're going to improve upon the guide, make a minimal guide to showcase the system for free, and then do a big one which can be purchased cheap and given away at conventions. To us, this is the fun epitome of the system. That we can do this at this point, is amazing and wonderful.

2006-08-23 :: Pirate Games Rock 08/23/06

Pirate games rock. They explode a lot too. http://www.silvervinegames.com/pirate. for more information. We'll be heavily encouraging the players to post on ALWNB and will be heavily using the Wiki there for information, background, and promotion.

2006-08-22 :: Consolidation 08/22/06

Doing some site updates. Now EVERYTHING should be incredibly faster. Excellence. Starting up a new play test.Check it out, Here. Haven't uploaded much, but it will probably be the next big playtest, as opposed to the imperial war one. Everyone wants to play pirates, arrrghh. More info later.

2006-08-08 :: Writing and messing with site design 08/08/06

We've been working feverishly on getting the book re-written for a new playtest and despite mono, stresses in life and unavoidable circumstances we are making headway. Today if work doesn't prove excruciatingly busy I might have time to make some site updates to the design. The modified themes are okay, they just don't say anything about what I want them too. In the end if it proves too busy I might have to hire a good web person freelance. We'll see if I can cobble something I like though.

2006-08-01 :: Finally The Level 0 Guide, almost 08/01/06

The level 0 guide is being worked on right now. We've finally narrowed down enough system processes to their final styles that we can write up the guide now. It's the next project on the block and should be finished shortly (hopefully by the middle of august). Once it's done you'll be able to get a hands on look at the system.

2006-07-24 :: Snippet of Races Text 07/24/06

Hey all. I included a page of the current races text that I've been working on. You can find it in the journal.

2006-07-24 :: Long in the Tooth 07/24/06

It's been a long time since we've updated with any news. There have a been a few site updates. A new version of the Cyrus map is available over in the Cyrus Geography section. The Imperial war play testing wiki has been updated. Work moves along on the remaining changes to the system. The only thing left to do is update the play testing book and prepare for the upcoming play test and fighters tournament. We've been talking about the work that will be going into the next setting, Longcount. This is our designers pet project and we talked for a good 3 or 4 hours the other night about what he wants to do with it. Once the initial book is out we'll start working on Longcount and maybe one or two other things. There is also a new post up in Arcadian's Developers Journal. More to come later.

2006-07-03 :: The Trip To Origins 07/03/06

Not much to say except that there is a convention report posted at Arcdian's developers journal . It is extensive but it gives a little bit of info on where we are going with the next couple of steps in Silvervine.