Hey Everyone,

Aruneus is not dead! My development has slowed down a bit due in part to some personal problems (having my left shoulder reconstructed wasn't fun).

I have been working on Aruneus over the past few weeks, combining all of the individual documents already created into a master document to be completely reformatted, with new material added in. Along the way I'm cleaning everything up, editing and adding. 

This work in progress will be the final Aruneus product, with two modules, all of the existing body of work and then some.

I have some new, very good artwork coming in the near future as well and as soon as I have some finished art to show you, I'll be sharing it!

I've included a concept sketch from the new artwork - nothing finished but enough to show you all what's coming.

I've been able to get in a few hours of work on Aruneus lately, and I plan on cranking out some more work in the very near future.

The Supplicant class has been completed, and is now going in to layout! Work continues on the Quantamancer class as well.  The two will be bundled together in the same PDF.

Here's a quick preview of some of the Supplicants powers and the BAB progression.

And here's a working copy of the cover for this next PDF. It's just a first go at it for now.

I'm expecting to get this PDF out fairly soon - in August at some point although I can't commit to a date at this time.

Hello again!  It’s been a little while since I’ve sat down and talked Aruneus, zombies and where I am in the production of this source book.  I’m a bit overdue.

The long and short of it is, I took a two month hiatus from the project, for a variety of reasons I’ll get in to in just a little bit. But before I get in to all of that, let’s start of with the good news (there really isn’t any bad news either!) When last I talked about the Aruneus universe, Mirkmoot’s second magical item compendium had just been launched and Mirkmoot had been officially added to the Aruneus book.  He’s out and about, doing his thing and you can find him right here. 

At long last, the next installment in the Aruneus PDFs is just about ready for publication!  The Herbology of Aruneus will be arriving in a day or two.  It features a new type of magical item, the Elixir, as well as a study of six magical plants with a variety of interesting properties that can by use by, for and against your party of adventurers.  The Herbology features artwork by our youngest contributor, Hayley, who was 13 at the time she created the watercolors for this PDF.

Now, on to why I took the hiatus, and what’s going on with the rest of Aruneus.

It wasn’t really planned, but a number of things lined up to make me want to take a break.  First, I was weary!  The day job had taken over much more of my life, and as the dude writing down all this stuff, I needed a change of pace.  When a completely unrelated idea (you can read more about that here) popped in to my head of its own accord, I decided to take a few weeks and work on that. This was just the kind of break I needed. I was still feeling creative but wasn’t creating a broken, barren, undead dominated world.

The next factor was that two of my go to people, who really help with my creative drive, suddenly found themselves diverted and doing different things – out of necessity, and of no fault of their own.

Add to that my key artist finding himself with a third child (congrats Tim!) and well, there was no new material flowing in to me, and not as many people to bounce my own ideas off of as I was used. to.  So that’s that.  Now I’ve gotten a huge chunk of my other project done, and done to my satisfaction so I’m returning to Aruneus recharged and ready to go!

A work in progress are the two new classes. The Supplicant class is finished (some rough artwork for this featured above) and I’m really excited about them.  What better way to fight the undead than taking the ambient energy of the divine that is enmeshed within the cosmos and using it to kick some undead ass?

Along with the Supplicant class, the Quantamancers are getting started.  I don’t have much more than my notes prepared, but the class is essentially laid out in my head and just needs to make it to paper, where it can be beaten about and broken until it works.

Let’s not forget the Gods of Aruneus now either.  This will feature artwork from Seth Kumpf and will go in to depth about the missing gods of Aruneus, as well as have a few new surprises in the way of divine magic and power.  That’s just a rough of the cover, by the way.  This work is coming along nicely, but there’s still a lot to do.

Lastly, there are the two adventures.  The Haunted Mine sits in a state of near completion. It’s about eighty percent written and 25 percent illustrated.  This is the introductory, 1st level adventure for the World of Aruneus. It’s been played many times now, run by myself and a few others. I’ve gotten a ton of great feedback on it and it’s ready to go, as soon as I get it ready to go that is.

The second adventure has been played twice now, and all of the notes are in place. I’d put it at about 25% done with only about 10% of the artwork there for it, but it’s started!

There will be a few other additions to the final product as well, which won’t make their way in to PDF format before the final release, and which I won’t be talking about much until they’re ready to go.

I was also planning on having an atlas of some sort, with an overview of the world and a few more detailed maps.  At this point I'm not sure if that will be possible. I had, at one point or another, several folks working on this but they all seem to have faded away.

For a gallery of artwork pertaining to this project, some old, some new, stop by http://trollitc.com/2011/07/the-state-of-aruneus/

We’re a few days in to 2011 and getting closer to completion of the Aruneus project! Here’s a brief overview of where the project stands and what’s coming soon.

In late 2010, the Zombies and Orcs each went through several rounds of playtesting with great results. The Zombies are in the process of being revised a final time. The Orcs will see a few changes but overall they’re doing well as a race for Aruneus and Pathfinder.

Good old Mirkmoot is nearly done. I’m just waiting for two more pieces of art from the incomparable Tim Reardon – other than that the document itself is in the hands of my layout artist Eric Vernon. He’s in the process of putting it all together right now, along with the revised zombies.

Another expansion document nearly done is the Herbology of Aruneus. I’m planning on having the draft over to Nick, my Editor, by Friday. This expansion will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 pages in length and will deal with six species of plants found in and around Aruneus which have magical properties.

When I first started the Aruneus project, one of my primary goals after creating the source book itself, was to employ non RPG industry people who wanted to get their feet in the door and gain some experience working on this indie project. The cool thing about this from my side of things is that I’ve met a number of interesting folks who are all wildly skilled in areas that I am not. One of those folks is 13 year old Hayley Ehrenfeld. Hayley has provided the artwork for the Herbology. In continuing with my policy of being open about the development of all things Aruneus, I’ve put up the complete gallery of Hayley’s works.

You can view it here: http://trollitc.com/2011/01/whats-new-with-aruneus/

The Herbology of Aruneus should be available in a week or two at DriveThruRPG.

I’m about 1/3 done with the two new characters which will be featured in one document. The Supplicant is complete, although I’ve yet to create the necessary NPCs. The Quantamancer currently exists as a series of notes and thoughts but I’ll be organizing them soon.

The first adventure, The Haunted Mine is at 75% completion. Artwork and lots of polish are needed but I’m getting there. The second adventure currently exists as my play notes when I ran my party through it. Lots of shuffling will have to take place on that one.

That, my friends, is the state of Aruneus as of January 2011.

A lot has happened since my last official update in late July, so lets dig right in and see what’s new!

We’ve come a long way since then, starting with a little guy named Mirkmoot.

Initially developed before the whole Aruneus project got funded, Mirkmoot was a sort of diversion for myself. He’s a crusty old Goblin, who against all of the odds was able to master (and I use that word in the loosest sense possible) the mysteries of wizardry. He focused at first on creating magical items specifically for Goblins and other smaller races. His items were quirky and fun, particularly when a party of PCs has not experience Mirkmoot’s particular blend of magical items. He’s also a lot of fun to write.

I’ve decided that above and beyond what is already planned for the first Aruneus source book, Mirkmoot will be included as well. As both an NPC and as the source of a number of interesting magical items. Why? He’s there to add a bit of light-hearted humor should the GM wish to include him. He won’t be appearing specifically in either of the adventures to be included in the source book but he will be listed with the NPCs.

On that count, I’d like to introduce the face and the ample body of Mirkmoot, as composed by our new artist, Tim Reardon. You can find him at the end of this update.

Tim will be illustrating the entire Mirkmoot II expansion and will also be contributing to the Aruneus project as a whole. The new Mirkmoot expansion will be available in just a few weeks, barring anything major getting in my way, and I can’t wait to get it out in to the world!

Next, we’ve begun official play testing with the World of Aruneus.

http://trollitc.com/2010/10/world-of-aruneus-play-test-challenge-has-begun/

We’ve instituted play test Challenges – events that GMs and their players can take part in and complete to earn points. The number of points earned in total will determine where and how each group of play testers are recognized in the Aruneus source book, and may even lead to a few other neat things. You can hit that link to read more about the Challenges, and sign up if you’re interested. We’ve just begun, so you haven’t missed anything yet. Also, you can see another bit of artwork from Tim, in the form of a zombie there.

More cool news, I’ve been asked to attend Total Confusion XXV, in Mansfield MA as an industry guest! I’m very excited to be attending my first con as an industry person. I’ll be running two sessions of the introductory Aruneus adventure, The Haunted Mines while there. I’ll also be running a Talisman game and I plan on playing the heck out of a bunch of other stuff while there too. If you’re going to be in the neighborhood, please let me know and we can say ‘hi’ at the con.

http://www.totalcon.com/

Work continues on the Haunted Mines, with more artwork coming in for that after Mirkmoot II is finished. Then it’s on to two new classes, which are fairly well statted out and getting close to play-test ready. After that, we’re looking at the long neglected Gods of Aruneus for which I already have a bunch of art. Next the Herbal Supplement, on which I’m waiting for some art. There are also going to be a number of NPCs in addition to Mirkmoot included in the source book, several of which are created and just rearing to go.

As you can see, things are moving along quite nicely! Questions or suggestions, let me know, or head over to the forums and ask away.

The first Aruneus Play test Challenge has launched!

http://trollitc.com/2010/10/world-of-aruneus-play-test-challenge-has-begun/

You let your sword arm droop as you look at your companions. Three of you are still standing. The Cleric lies immobile and feverish, surrounded by rotting corpses. Wiping sweat from your eyes, you shudder as you hear the moaning challenge of the undead coming from the wood to the East.. This days work is not done yet.

The first Aruneus Play Test Challenge has begun! Each team of play testers will strive to meet the challenges before them. For every challenge met, they will gain points. How many points each group earns in a challenge determines their rank. The highest ranked teams get listed with the greatest honors in the Aruneus Sourcebook.

Our first challenge consists of testing the mechanics of the zombies. That sounds a bit cold and clinical, so I’ll put it another way. We need PCs to stand together, back to back, and be assaulted by increasingly larger hordes of ravenous undead until the last player falls. We’ll be doing this to check some final changes to the Human Contagion Infected Zombies before we put these changes in to print.

Please feel free to stop by and observe what's happening with your game.

If you're looking for more frequent updates, and are interested in following the play testing that will be starting soon, have a gander at our official forums:

http://gamershavenpodcast.com/forum/viewforum.php...

With a thanks to the folks at Gamer's Haven for hosting them for us.

Even as I type this there are a bunch of padded envelopes with Aruneus T-shirts packed lovingly inside them. They are wending their way through the US Postal Service with all the speed of a limping duck.

Folks in the US should have them in 3-10 days. For you Canadians who've backed the project, it may take up to 5 days longer.

So if two weeks and a day go by and you don't have your shirt, let me know!

I am very pleased to announce that we have a new artist joining our talented ranks for the Aruneus Project! Tim Reardon will be contributing original artwork, featuring among other things, zombies!

Tim is a very talented artist, working in mediums ranging from pencil and napkin through digital painting and CGI. He’s got a ton of experience doing things like digital animation for some pretty well known projects. He also happens to be a great friend of mine since childhood and I’m very excited that he’s contributing! I’m so happy that I want to share a preview of his work with all of you, even though it means divulging a bit more about Aruneus than I had planned at this time.

Now that’s not just any ordinary Contagion Infected Zombie there. I can’t give out specifics yet, but as the World of Aruneus gets further into development there will be some new nasty undead types to mess about with and this fellow is one of them. Something more suitable for mid level characters to square off against.

To all of our backers who qualify for PDFs - you'll be receiving an email from DriveThruRPG or something similar with a download code to obtain them today!

Of the available PDFs, the Zombie Cards and the Contagion Infected Human Zombies have both been revised and subjected to a visual overhaul by our layout artist, Eric Vernon.

I'm expecting to get the revised Orcs of Aruneus to Eric today and have a newly corrected and laid out PDF up at DTRPG next week.

Since by then you'll already have the old copy, you can pop back in to DTRPG and download the revised edition as soon as it becomes available. If you set your notification to remind you when new products appear from us, you'll even get a nice email when the new Orcs arrive.

In other news, the T-shirts have shipped to me and I'm expecting them any day now. Give me a week or two and they should be in your hands for all who qualified for them.

-Ben

Here's a preview of the T-shirts. The design is pretty close to being finalized, using artwork created by Seth Kumpf exclusively for Aruneus.

I'm still toying with one other idea but I'm not sure if it's going to come together. If it does, I'll offer all backers who qualified for T-shirts a choice of one or the other.

I've had a few requests already for the ability to purchase additional T-shirts. These will be available as well. Once the T's have been ordered for backers, I'll post a link for anyone interested in acquiring more.

One last note of thanks and praise to all of you, and then I'll only email updates and new happenings!

Again, without your support this would never have happened! Thanks to you all there will exist an exciting new world to adventure in, and a hard copy of that world to hold in our hands.

You rock!

-Ben