ad astra games – Sharrukin's Palace

Erratum in “Architect of Worlds”

January 7, 2025 Sharrukin Comments 0 Comment

Quick note this evening, to report that I’ve caught an erratum in Architect of Worlds. Somewhat significant one, too, affecting the generation of Galilean-like satellites for gas giant worlds. Fortunately, it’s an easy fix.

In the formula for the mass of a gas giant’s major satellite at the top of page 85, the multiplier up front should be 10^-5 instead of 10^-6.

Essentially, we’ve been developing satellites that are one-tenth as massive as they should be, if we’re going to match the results we see in our own planetary system.

I’ve reported this to Ken Burnside, so it should appear in the Ad Astra Games errata at some point.

2024 in Review

December 30, 2024 Sharrukin Comments 0 Comment

2024 had its ups and downs, and the completion of a big project left me kind of unfocused for several months. I’d have to say it was a decent year, though.

Past as Prologue

The biggest item, of course, was the final completion and publication of Architect of Worlds, now out as a 192-page softback and PDF from Ad Astra Games. Sales have been pretty decent, resulting in probably the most profitable year for my creative life since I quit working for Steve Jackson Games about 2006.

With Architect done, I kind of flitted from one project to another for the second half of the year, making some progress on several items but never quite settling on one.

Then the US federal elections took place in November, and bang my Muse had me focusing almost entirely on the Human Destiny universe. Which was probably predictable: that universe involves a benevolent alien empire coming to conquer Earth to save us from the weight of human folly, so every time a lot of human folly happens in the world I start thinking about it again.

Meanwhile, I started a transition away from using Amazon KDP and Patreon to get my work in front of an audience, largely because Amazon has been utterly useless in that regard and Patreon has made some policy changes that don’t fit my “business” model. Instead, I’ve set up a Ko-fi page and shop and will be moving almost all of my finished work to that venue. That’s where I’ll also be releasing draft and partial material, some of it free for all subscribers, some restricted to the higher tiers.

Meanwhile, the entire calendar year had me working on the single largest curriculum-development project of my entire career, first working with a senior official, more recently independently. This is a project that will probably occupy the rest of my tenure as a civil servant, however long that may be. I’m also continuing to work toward a second undergraduate degree and (possibly) a master’s from the Open University in the UK. I’m not feeling quite as stressed as I was in late 2023, but I certainly have no difficulty filling up my days.

The Year’s Blog Traffic

The top ten posts for 2024 turned out to be:

Looks like the most popular posts from the past year were a mix of status updates, posts about SF mapping and worldbuilding, and items related to Architect of Worlds. Which makes sense.

Looking Forward

So – objectives for the new year? I’m probably going to be focusing on Human Destiny projects for the time being, including publishing regular updates to the RPG book and (once again) trying to get some new fiction written.

In particular, I intend to publish early-draft material for the putative Atlas of the Human Protectorate, in the form of short writeups for individual worlds or star systems. The first of these, a description of the sigma Draconis star system, has already been posted to my Ko-fi shop and is free for Silver- and Gold-tier subscribers.

I also have in mind to assemble the first of several “supplements” for Architect of Worlds, laying out improvements and additions to the existing material. Look for that sometime this spring, maybe – it depends on how much I decide to include, and how long it takes to write and edit. These may or may not be released through Ad Astra Games.

In any case, new items will be appearing at my Ko-fi page and shop, some free for subscribers only, some with a modest price tag attached (but subscribers at the Silver and Gold levels will get discounts on those).

As for my social media presence, occasional long-form posts and status updates about my creative work will continue to appear here, while daily slice-of-life items and short updates will appear at my BlueSky profile. I’m also investigating Mastodon, but that hasn’t come to fruition yet. I fully expect my Facebook account will be moribund for now, and may be shut down entirely if Meta implements some of the changes they appear to be planning.

A lot depends on how things in my non-creative life go – that is, my family commitments, my day job (subject to the whims of the new US administration), and my university courses. I’m trying not to make big commitments for the coming year, and will be taking things one day at a time.

Thanks for sticking with me, regardless!

Where to Buy “Architect of Worlds”

July 7, 2024 Sharrukin Comments 0 Comment

Been meaning to post this for a while. Now that Architect of Worlds is well and truly on the market, it might be prudent to let everyone know where to pick it up. This post will be pinned to the top of the blog for at least a couple of months.

At the moment there are three distinct places to buy the book. Here are the links:

Ad Astra Games website (hardcopy version):
https://www.adastragames.com/products/architect-of-worlds
(Ignore the note that says it’s a pre-order link – that’s out of date.)

Ad Astra Games website (PDF version):
https://www.adastragames.com/products/architect-of-worlds-pdf

DriveThruRPG:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/483143/architect-of-worlds

Enjoy!

Planning for May 2024

May 9, 2024 Sharrukin Comments 1 comment

As of this evening, I’ve completed the final edits for Architect of Worlds and sent the release-draft PDFs over to Ken Burnside. Assuming all goes well, that’s the project finished. Ken tells me he ought to be able to make the complete PDFs available for purchase (and for me to share with patrons and playtesters) very soon. I imagine the process of printing and shipping physical copies won’t be too far behind.

My next big project is going to be to put together a Human Destiny package for the Chaosium design challenge, due at the end of this month. I suspect that’s not going to involve just adding to the existing partial draft of the sourcebook. Instead, I’m probably going to take the material I already have, maybe add some additional content, and assemble a package specifically for the contest.

Meanwhile, I have the finals for my university courses coming up at the end of the month too.

All of which is to say that there probably will not be a substantial new release for my patrons this month, although I may have a small item or two for them that won’t amount to a charged release. Once I get into June, however, a lot of my prior commitments are going to be off my plate over the summer. I’m hoping to get a bunch of useful and interesting creative work done in the June-September timeframe.

Here’s the current lineup, notable as the first time in years that Architect of Worlds hasn’t appeared as a front-line item:

Front Burner:
- Human Destiny: Continue rewriting and adding to the setting bible (BRP sourcebook).
- Human Destiny: Complete and send a contest entry for the Chaosium design challenge.
Back Burner:
- Human Destiny: Write a new Aminata Ndoye story, set when she’s about seventeen years old and attending an academy for officer candidates for the interstellar service.
- Great Lands: Begin work to revise the geography and back history of the setting.
- Fourth Millennium: Resume work on the new draft of Twice-Crowned.
- Fourth Millennium: Resume work to rebuild the alternate-historical timeline.

I’ll keep everyone posted with a Status Update or two as the month progresses.

Planning for April 2024

April 1, 2024 Sharrukin Comments 0 Comment

The planning messages remain fairly short and simple, as my status isn’t changing much from one month to the next.

I know, it’s April and Architect of Worlds still isn’t out the door. Ken Burnside has been having a difficult few weeks, and the final textual edits on the book are still on his plate. At this point I’m not going to make any more estimates as to when the book will be finished – hopefully sooner rather than later, but it’s not in my control.

For the moment, I’m focusing on the Human Destiny setting bible and RPG sourcebook, with an eye toward being able to send an interim draft off to Chaosium at the end of May for their “design challenge” contest. I was able to push out a medium-sized update to my patrons on 31 March, and I’m hoping April will be a productive month for that project.

In particular, I’m going to be concentrating on those parts of the book that are directly tied to game mechanics. The Chaosium blog has mentioned that one of the things they’ll be looking for in a successful entry is clever and original ways to apply the Basic Roleplaying rules to support a game’s themes. That’s something I think Human Destiny can do very well, once it’s closer to completion – in fact, I have several game systems in mind that are not quite like anything that’s been done with BRP before. So that’s where my focus is going to be, leading up to the deadline for the contest.

Which is not to say I won’t be continuing to add to the setting background, of course. The sourcebook has a lot of outline sections that are still incomplete, and I’ve found it’s best to work where my muse wants to work on any given day.

So here’s the formal plan for April, very similar to the plan for March:

Front Burner:
- Architect of Worlds: Implement final-release changes to the text and turn the release draft over to Ken Burnside for publication once his editorial work is finished.
- Human Destiny: Continue rewriting and adding to the setting bible (BRP sourcebook).
- Human Destiny: Write a new Aminata Ndoye story, set when she’s about seventeen years old and attending an academy for officer candidates for the interstellar service.
Back Burner:
- Great Lands: Begin work to revise the geography and back history of the setting.
- Fourth Millennium: Resume work on the new draft of Twice-Crowned.
- Fourth Millennium: Resume work to rebuild the alternate-historical timeline.

There may or may not be a charged release for my patrons this month, most likely some combination of new Human Destiny setting-bible material and a new Aminata Ndoye story. As always, that depends on whether my other commitments leave me enough time and energy to get creative work done.

Planning for March 2024

March 2, 2024 Sharrukin Comments 0 Comment

Fairly short planning message this month – things are straightforward at the moment. Getting Architect of Worlds into people’s hands is taking a little longer than I expected, but we’re getting there.

Ken Burnside is still working on the final round of textual edits, but it sounds as if he’ll be done with that sometime around the GAMA Trade Show this week. He and I have discussed the number and nature of his editorial requests, and aside from the tweaks I’ve already made it sounds as if I’ll be able to rip through the whole list in just a few hours. So the current guess is that he’ll have the final release draft in hand by about 9-10 March, after which he’ll be able to do his first print run and start shipping hardcopies. The e-book version should be available about then too, including rewards for my patrons. Further delays aren’t impossible – Ken is a one-man shop too, and he has a lot more on his plate than I do – but we’re certainly getting closer to release day.

Meanwhile, I was able to release a substantially revised version of the Human Destiny setting bible to my patrons as a reward, the first charged release I’ve made since April or May of last year. That’s still going to be my primary creative project over the next few months. I feel as if I’ve underestimated the amount of setting-bible work I need to do before I start writing new fiction in that universe, but I’m at least getting closer to the point where I’ll be confident.

Here’s the formal plan for March:

Front Burner:
- Architect of Worlds: Finish editorial work on the release draft and turn that over to Ken Burnside for publication in the mid-March timeframe.
- Human Destiny: Continue rewriting and adding to the setting bible (BRP sourcebook).
- Human Destiny: Write a new Aminata Ndoye story, set when she’s about seventeen years old and attending an academy for officer candidates for the interstellar service.
Back Burner:
- Great Lands: Begin work to revise the geography and back history of the setting.
- Fourth Millennium: Resume work on the new draft of Twice-Crowned.
- Fourth Millennium: Resume work to rebuild the alternate-historical timeline.

I’m betting on a charged release for my patrons this month, most likely some combination of new Human Destiny setting-bible material and a new Aminata Ndoye story. That all depends on whether my other commitments leave me enough time, as usual.

“Architect of Worlds” Page Under Construction

February 7, 2024 Sharrukin Comments 0 Comment

With the imminent release of Architect of Worlds, I’m starting to rework the page for that project on this site.

First and foremost, the partial draft once offered from that page has been taken down. The release draft is significantly different, and at this point I want to encourage people to pick up the actual book once it’s available. I’m not going to take down any of the original blog posts in which I posted a very rough draft of the design sequence – if anyone wants to page through those, they’re welcome to it.

Meanwhile, moving forward I intend to use the project’s page to offer long-term support for the book: a place to ask questions, a (hopefully well-maintained) errata list, and a place to collect any blog posts I make about new science or more detailed world-design techniques. There’s some possibility I’ll be looking to produce a second edition of the book in five or six years, and the rebuilt page will be a good place to collect material for that project.

In the meantime, if you haven’t seen it already, here’s a link to the Ad Astra Games catalog page for the book. Pre-orders are under way!

Meanwhile, here’s a link to the first (glowing!) review the book has received, from Amazing Stories.

Planning for February 2024

February 2, 2024 Sharrukin Comments 0 Comment

Getting back toward a more normal planning-and-execution style this month, now that Architect of Worlds is just about out the door. Couple of status items before the planning message, though.

Architect of Worlds

Ken Burnside and I are working on a final editorial pass through the book, finding and stepping on the last few textual bugs. Last I heard, Ken thought he would be done with his piece of that sometime next week, after which I suspect it won’t take more than one or two evenings for me to make the necessary tweaks to the text and layout. At which point I generate two PDFs (full-color and greyscale) and send those over to Ken, and my editorial involvement with the project is done.

Ken is working to ensure that hardcopies will be back from the printer before the GAMA Trade Show in early March. He may be able to ship the first batch of hardcopy editions to the folks who are pre-ordering the book before then, otherwise it will probably be mid-March before that happens. E-book copies will likely be available to the general market about the same time. I should be able to distribute e-books to my patrons and play-testers before that, but I don’t have a firm date yet. Patience a little while longer, please.

Human Destiny

With Architect of Worlds finished, I think my first new creative project is going to involve turning back to the Human Destiny setting.

My long-term plans for that setting have changed a bit. I have a couple of stories from that universe already published (“Pilgrimage” and “In the House of War”), but those have never sold very well for lack of advertising and word-of-mouth.

I think I may actually pull those stories back, do some setting redesign to match my more current thinking, and then start releasing fiction through a different avenue: the Royal Road website.

Royal Road tends to focus on so-called “progression” fiction – long-running serialized stories in which the protagonist gains in personal power and influence in the course of the narrative. It occurs to me that the story of my central character – Aminata Ndoye, the first human to become an officer in an alien interstellar service – would work pretty well as a (subtle) progression story. After all, she works her way upward in social status and rank throughout her career.

The nice thing about Royal Road is that it enables you to start building up an audience for your work, eventually working toward a paid-publication roll-out that’s likely to be more successful. We’ll see.

So the plan there is to rework the “setting bible” a bit, firm up the plan for a long-term narrative for Aminata’s story, rewrite the existing pieces to fit the new narrative, and start writing new fiction as well. Once I have a good chunk of Aminata’s early story down, I can start releasing that to Royal Road and attracting an audience for it. Patrons will, of course, get to see that new material as I get it laid out.

The new version of Human Destiny is also likely to tie into a tabletop RPG project, most likely using Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying (BRP) system. In particular, the setting bible is likely to be framed as a BRP book that might get self-published in the long run.

Other Projects

There are also a couple of other settings I’m thinking about spending some time with, notably the Great Lands setting (high fantasy, related to my first published novel, The Curse of Steel) and the Fourth Millennium setting (historical fantasy, related to my unfinished novel, Twice-Crowned). These are likely to be back-burner items through February while I work on finishing Architect of Worlds and getting some material laid down for Human Destiny.

So here’s the formal plan for February:

Front Burner:
- Architect of Worlds: Finish editorial work on the release draft and turn that over to Ken Burnside for publication in the February-March timeframe.
- Human Destiny: Outline and begin rewriting the setting bible, possibly in the form of a draft BRP sourcebook.
- Human Destiny: Write a new Aminata Ndoye story, set when she’s about seventeen years old and attending an academy for officer candidates for the interstellar service.
Back Burner:
- Great Lands: Begin work to revise the geography and back history of the setting.
- Fourth Millennium: Resume work on the new draft of Twice-Crowned.
- Fourth Millennium: Resume work to rebuild the alternate-historical timeline.

I would estimate a 75% chance of a charged release for my patrons this month, most likely some combination of Human Destiny setting-bible material and a new Aminata Ndoye story. As usual, that’s more likely as I produce more than about 10,000 words of substantively new material, and becomes a near certainty as I approach 20,000 words. We’ll see how the month goes.

Status Report (30 January 2024)

January 31, 2024 Sharrukin Comments 1 comment

Just a quick note to let patrons and readers know how things are going.

Things are moving very quickly with respect to getting Architect of Worlds out the door. We have a book cover (see above), and Ken Burnside and I are doing our final editorial-and-layout-adjustments pass. I expect I’ll be handing a final-release draft off to Ken in no more than a few days, after which the book may be on the market in e-book format very quickly. I should have patron rewards ready to distribute almost immediately after that. Hardcopy will take longer, but that may be available for pre-order on the Ad Astra Games site fairly soon too.

I don’t have a tranche of new original fiction to release to patrons before the end of January, so this will probably be the last month in which there’s no charged release on Patreon. I may have a free reward to push out by tomorrow – a bit of fan-fiction I wrote a while back, which I obviously won’t be charging for. It will still serve as something to remind my patrons that I do actually write fiction from time to time!

Decent chance I’ll actually have a book review out shortly as well. I tripped over a book that’s surprisingly enjoyable, even though it breaks about every rule I have for “this is worth reading.” As I mentioned earlier, I’ll be serving as a judge for the Indie Ink awards for the next few months, but this one might get a quick review before I have to settle in and get working on that.

Otherwise, day job and university courses are keeping me at a dead run, but I’m somehow managing to keep ahead of it all. More news as we move into February.

Planning for January 2024

January 6, 2024 Sharrukin Comments 0 Comment

Once more, my creative situation hasn’t altered much since last month . . . but that is about to change dramatically.

At the moment, I am only a few days away from being ready to hand Architect of Worlds off to my publisher at Ad Astra Games. Last night I reached the end of the draft in this final editorial-art direction-layout pass. That doesn’t mean I’m finished just yet, but I can now do things like resolve the last “p. XX” references, build a Table of Contents, and so on. I’m guessing I may be ready to send the production PDF files over to Ken Burnside by the end of next week.

Now, the rest of my life is uncommonly busy at the moment.

My day job is as an instructional designer and instructor; I do research, write course materials, and occasionally teach. At the moment we’re about to begin a pilot offering for the biggest single course I’ve ever designed . . . and we plan to pilot two more courses after that, stretching through most of 2024, courses I haven’t even started on yet. Let’s just say I’m likely to be putting in a lot of hours on evenings and weekends over most of the coming year.

Meanwhile, I’m also working toward a second bachelor’s degree, and eventually my first graduate degree, with a plan to complete the course of study about the time I’m ready to retire from my day job. So far my coursework has been almost entirely review, but it does take up some time. For example, this weekend I’m working through some material I hadn’t had time to stay caught up on throughout the month of December.

So that’s the background noise that’s going to stay consistent, even while I put (the first edition of) Architect of Worlds on its final glide-path to release. Still, once those PDFs are out the door, a big slot will open up on my calendar for new forms of creative work. How completely I’ll be able to pivot in the month of January remains to be seen, but by the end of the month I hope to at least get started on some new creative work.

What’s that going to involve? At the moment, I think I’m going to get back to working on my more-or-less-hard-SF universe, under the working title of The Human Destiny. Which will involve some combination of:

Doing a zero-based review of the existing setting material, some of which I’ve decided to rethink from scratch. For example, elements of the history of the galaxy and the structure of interstellar civilizations, some of the specific aliens I designed back in the day, and so on.
Revisiting, revising, and possibly repackaging some of the fiction I’ve already written in that universe, in part to fit the revised setting assumptions.
Writing some new fiction, most likely centered around my character Aminata Ndoye, the first human to become an officer aboard an alien starship. I’m planning to start releasing some of that online as serialized fiction, through vehicles like the Royal Road website. Hopefully that will help build a bigger audience that I’ve had so far.
Starting to collect material for a tabletop RPG treatment of the setting, most likely structured around a licensed game system such as Monte Cook’s Cypher or (more likely at present) Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying.

I’m not going to try to build a formal task list, as I’ve done in previous “planning for the coming month” posts. Things are too much in a state of flux at the moment. It’s safe to say that January 2024 will involve two major themes: (1) finishing Architect of Worlds at last and putting it in the hands of my publisher; and (2) pivoting to resume work on the Human Destiny setting. Exactly where I stand on 31 January will inform the more structured planning messages for February 2024 and onward.

For my patrons: There may be a charged release at the end of this month, for the first time in quite a while. It depends on whether I can produce enough new or substantially revised Human Destiny material to justify that. You can probably count on charged releases resuming on a more-or-less regular monthly basis by February 2024.

Sharrukin's Palace

Building fantastic worlds of the mind

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