The latest issue of Savage Insider saw release this past week and, in addition to a bunch of great Savage Worlds-related articles, I speak a bit with Vickey Beaver about the process of conceiving and designing the Streets of Bedlam game line. For a peek behind the curtain, grab your copy of Savage Insider #4 for free from DriveThruRPG. The design diary starts on page 20. Flip through the rest of the book to see the game’s first print ad as well!

I’ve talked a lot about Archetypes. As I see it, they’re a big part of the book and setting. The world of Bedlam is very character-focused, event-focused. As I write the text, the question “Does this facilitate story?” echoes in my head. Giving you all tools to create your own world, your own characters, your own stories is hugely important to me. And some of the best tools I can give are great Archetypes.

So, I’ve decided I want to start showing you all what I’m doing when it comes to character. Click the image below to check out the 4pp-spread for one of my favorite Archetypes, The Bulldog. The first step in character creation is picking an Archetype. (If you don’t like any of the pre-fab, you go off the Citizen Archetype as the “build-your-own” option.) The Archetypes are designed to help you create an interesting character who’s ready to play.

For those familiar with Savage Worlds, the nuts and bolts of character creation are identical. Points are earned and spent the same, with the same limitations. But Bedlam goes beyond that as well with drama- and story-driven Edges, Hindrances, and Skills.

Anyway, enough preamble. Check out the pdf below, and let me know what you think in the comments.

.

For those of you who may have missed it, last week was a bit of a crazy one for me. The first half anyway. While resuming the hunt for full-time employment ate some more of my time after, I did manage some work on Streets at the tail end. This week, though, I’m all about the Streets of Bedlam and should have a much more impressive “done” list next week. My goal right now is to get the PDF out by month’s end.

My focus has been on characters: PCs, Major NPCs, and Minor NPCs. My thanks goes out to everyone who has submitted their Kickstarter questionnaire. Using your bases to add variety and personality to Bedlam has been a treat. I should be through them all by week’s end. That’ll be a big load off my plate and should put us in the home stretch.

Sounds of Bedlam
Ed sent over some tracks this past week and, lemme tell ya, they are so good. I’ll be sharing some samples later this week along with the final track list.

Five-Story Drop
I’m in talks to bring another writer into the mix for the scenarios. Nothing finalized yet but I’ll let you know how that goes.

In Sum
Not nearly as much as I hoped but I’ll be pushing along hard this week. Speaking of which, today is a full-day workday for me so I best get back to it. Talk to you later this week!

The initial plan, as listed on the Streets of Bedlam Kickstarter, was to release the corebook in April. As it is now the first weekday of that month, let’s take a look at where things stand.

Text
The text is going well. As of today, the parts of the book are in the following state:

Introduction (Premise and Basics): Written, Edited, Laid Out—COMPLETE
Chapter One (Setting): Written, Edited, Laid Out—COMPLETE
Chapter Two (Characters): 75% Written, Initial Stages of Layout (To give some context, this is a BIG chapter. It covers all the Archetypes.)
Chapter Three (Setting Rules): 50% Written
Chapter Four (NPCs): 20% Written (Still compiling backer data, speaking with high-level backers to get more info. This will go smoothly once I put my back into it.)
Chapter Five (Plot Point and Orphan Stories): 0% Written (But the backbone is there.)

Art
Shawn continues to crank out images. They look great. Being the only artist on a book carries a heavy burden but Shawn’s taking it in stride. All the character archetypes are in, along with most of the chapter intro images, about a dozen interiors, and a handful of “filler” pieces (standalone images for end-of-chapter white space).

In sum
That’s the state of the book. If the unfinished parts look scary to you, please don’t be alarmed. I’ll have a lot of time the next two weeks to focus on this book. I plan to finish both the writing and layout for Chapter Two and Three this week (I tend to do those stages in tandem) and get them over to the editor. I’ll knock out Chapter Four in a weekend, which will leave me with Chapter Five. That should take another week or so.

I wish I was farther along but some medical issues (including a broken elbow/sprained left wrist/bruised right hand following a fall and an outpatient surgery slated for tomorrow) and a sudden influx of job opportunities (one of which I accepted) pushed me well off-track. I’m not offering these as excuses, just a look at what’s happening behind the scenes.

Once the PDF is up, I want to give folks a week or so to find all the typos and errors that escaped our attention and make the corrections to the corebook. The corebook will take about a week and a half to get to me in print. I’ll ship them out immediately. I’ll keep everyone abreast of that process as well.

Soundtrack
The tracklist and intent/mood/tone of all the pieces have been finalized. We’ve gone over the broad strokes so now it’s on Ed. He is currently working his magic and I hope to have some preview tracks up this month.

Five-Story Drop
The first supplement is slated for June but I will try to pull it forward, if at all possible, so that I can get it out before my impending move (see “accepting a job” above). I will begin that immediately after finishing the corebook. If that experiences any hiccups, I will let you all know immediately.

Next Update
I will update again next Monday to let you all know how things are going. I like to be transparent and honest with folks so nobody’s wondering or making bad assumptions. I’ll keep updating as the book wraps up so everybody knows their money isn’t vanishing into thin air. In the mean time, if you have any questions, please get a hold of me at jasonlblair@gmail.com.