Earth 1066 Update
Dont give up on Earth 1066! See us at
http://www.earth1066.com. We have seven authors under contract, many thousands of dollars in development, and three large volumes in various stages of completion.
One of the crucial decisions we made very early on was what we wanted our first three months of product release to look like and whether we should push for a very early release (to establish a presence) or whether we wanted to be able to have a full suite of mature products to offer to retailers. Obviously, we opted for the latter.
Although we are not on track for a Christmas release we are on track for a release within the very near future. Our first book (Earth RULEZ!) has gone to our edit staff. It will be nearly 400 pages and will be packed with add-on rules and aids that make GM-ing a society-based roleplaying game both easy and exciting. Our core philosophy in writing this book was NOT to make a GM aid. The book is primarily a reference for the players to use and its focus is to offload the work of defining actions and roles in a societal-based roleplaying scenario from the GM to the player - much the same way that D&D offloads the combat and skills actions by providing clear and concise rules for carrying them out.
This first book is part of our overall design philosopy. Earth history (even our fantastical version that does contain spells and monsters and miracles) is one of society - of exceptional people gaining power and prestige (and social recognition) through heroic actions. During development we found that we needed a way to make roleplaying in a society REAL for the players, and MANAGEABLE for the GM. This book makes that possible, and can be used to enhance any D&D campaign.
Our second book (Earth 1066 Codex) is about 80% complete and will likely go to edit by February. It will be about 300 pages and contains all of the major Religions, Guilds, and Magical Traditions that have a world-wide (or multi-regional) presence in the world. Each of these has a historical slant while still intended for a fantasy milieu. For instance there are (among others) Priests of the Cross, Priests of the Goddess, and Priests of the Feathered Serpent. Likewise Mages of Alchymae vie for power and knowledge with those of the Hermetica and those of the Eastern Mysteries.
In all there are over forty very well defined prestige classes in this book that all present just one role that a player can take in the Earth 1066 milieu.
Our design philosophy can be summed up in a hand-scrawled motto that many of our writers have taped to the wall above their desks that says "A Gee-whiz on Every Page!" Everything is EXTREMELY well researched with the intent of taking concepts and history that a player may well have heard about but not fully explored and adding detail and depth to create a player class that can both interact within the world that Book One creates, or provide a completely playable prestige class within the context of a traditional D&D campaign.
Our THIRD book (Earth 1066 Region One: Albion, Ierne, and the Land of the Nortemen) is about forty percent done and presents maps, statsblocks, detailed descriptions, lists of important characters and locations, and rumors and plotlines for each of the twenty or so small countries in this region of the world. Some specialized prerstige classes are also included. Again, the book can be used as part of a full-on earth 1066 campaign, or it can just as easily be used in a traditional D&D game.
Sorry about the web site and the mailing list. Simple fact of the matter is we currently have no product on the street and are not yet in a "marketing" mode. Daily we are faced with deciding whether to work on developing that product or work on developing a customer base. Of course we feel that working on the product and getting it available to you is far far more important that posting chapter-by-chapter updates on what our authors are doing.
Thanks you for your patience. We can only make two solemn promises. First that we are committed to completing and publishing the Earth 1066 world, and second, that we are making every possible effort to make sure that it is going to be one of the best, most intriguing, and most well thought out fantasy campaign worlds ever developed.
Thank you,
Faust
Senior Editor
Earth 1066 Design Team
