One Year Later

I’m going to take a moment away from hacking at the classes to mark the milestone of this blog’s one-year anniversary. (I also need an excuse for a break; the Specialist Wizard was a monster, and the Cleric is shaping up to be worse.)

I really didn’t know what to expect from this thing when I started it. I had just finished the 2e Primer, and I really didn’t want to stop writing. Cracking into the system was pure fun; I thought a blog would be a great way to keep that ball rolling. So, I made an account, gave the blog the stupidest name I could think of, threw the Primer in the first post, and made a commitment to myself: one post every Thursday for as long as it remained fun.

80,000+ words later, it has remained fun.

1. Evolution

I thought this blog would be a place to jabber about the mechanics and oddities that interested me, which is evident from the first few posts: some system discussion, a defense of descending AC, and some thoughts on ability checks and ability score improvements. By October, I’d started digging into each Ability Score, and something had changed. I was no longer just thinking about 2e, but was instead making changes to the system. I introduced that first post on Strength by saying I’d “break this as though I were developing my own hack.”

By December, I realized that was exactly what I was doing, and retroactively appended the Hacking 2e title to anything that was serving that purpose. If I could start again, that’s probably what I would have named the blog, considering that those posts make up about three quarters of all my writing.

Still, there’s been other stuff. Along the way, I released a DM Screen for 2nd Edition, a random encounter table for Planescape’s Sigil, and recently dropped a breakdown of alignment in every edition of D&D, of which I’m particularly proud.

 

2. Goals for the Next Year

While working on all this, I’ve also been running an active game of 2nd Edition set in the Planescape Campaign setting. I’ve been implementing a few of the changes I’ve written about here, but all on the backend; we haven’t gone full into playtesting.

That needs to change. I need to finish the classes, write up an alpha version using the rules thus far assembled, and then get it on the table.

That’s a lot of material; the whole thing can be seen at the Hacking 2e page. It’s also missing a lot, including but not limited to: Weapon Proficiencies, Morale, XP, Movement, Overland Travel, Magic Spells, and Magic Items. Until these items are finalized, it’ll be an imperfect document; a work in-progress, where playtesting will resemble laying the tracks in front of a moving train. Of course, that document will be posted here.

Once things are moving, this blog will chronicle the completion of the rules and alterations based on the results of play. These updates will not occur at the same tempo as the past year; I’m giving myself permission to take more time between posts, especially when the topic grows too large, or I hit a snag, or when the playtest or the writing just doesn’t line up with life. I will continue to give myself this permission unless the lack of a deadline affects the project’s progress.

 

3. Conclusion

All in all, I’m quite pleased with the behemoth I’ve constructed. It has served its purpose to keep me writing, but also blossomed into a project that I didn’t imagine I would undertake. I’m excited to mold the past year of design ideas into a single ruleset, and to see what works and where the wheels fall off. I hope it makes for interesting reading.

Aside from everything above, the coolest part of this blog has been the occasional reader. This is not a high traffic blog; I have no social media presence and I don’t do much in the way of promotion – aside from things like the 2e Primer and the DM screen, there’s nothing to really promote. These are all pedantic design notes masquerading as blog entries. However, to those of you who have read, commented, or made the insanely kind decision to throw a few coins my way, I am extremely grateful.