Hello! 

It's been a slightly hectic few weeks on my end, so I haven't made as much progress as I'd have liked on the first draft, but I have been making some progress on other things. Namely, reached out to a few artists and editors. 

Nothing exciting to report at the moment. Will send something when I've got something interesting to report. 

The campaign ended, and we raised 5x what I initially asked for, which is still roughly $10,000 more than. I expected. 

Really exciting to see so many folks grabbing all four books--new folks finding my work is really rewarding. I don't know how many of y'all who just got VW are returning to the series, but I assume it's at least a few, and so thank you all for coming back.

Plan for now: Finish my initial edit on the draft so I can get it out for Dev Editing, and then finalize some art pieces and do the layout. I'll keep y'all posted as I go (I'm setting a reminder to send updates about once a month). 

Thanks again, everyone. I'll see y'all in the DreamScape.

I don't recall whether I've said it before, but I was pretty sure funding would happen, but it'd be a struggle. I didn't expect to go over 4x the amount I set out to raise for this thing.

I wanted to take a minute to thank you, everyone who's backed, everyone who's thought about backing, and everyone who's going to pick the book up in the future. 

This has been a wild ride. Yes, I am just refreshing a page to watch a number go up, and it's like, not that big a deal, but it does represent like, 220+ people who believe in this book as much as I do--or at least enough to give me money for it. For my first crowdfunder, that's a really big deal. 

If you haven't picked the book up yet, it will be available after the campaign. Still figuring out those details, but I am printing more than we need. I'll also eventually have some Community Copies on the Itch page. But, if you want to get in on the First Printing, don't wait too long. Campaign ends in 48 hours. Holy carp!

It's the start of the last week, and we're back with more Designer Thoughts on one of the pillars of the book: 

I meant to talk more about the Data Heist when I sat down to compose the last Diary. But instead, you got a preview of the Boilerplates. I'm still excited about them. But, I'm also excited about heists.

For the last 11 years, my day job has been in cybersecurity. I'm a technical editor (also now a content manager), but I read a lot of reports, vulnerability descriptions, and research accounts about cybersecurity weaknesses (related: Don't reuse your passwords. A password manager is likely a good investment). I'm not like, an Expert, but I know my way around the cybersecurity sphere.

And they're always saying "write what you know."

You see where I'm going with this? I'm structuring the data heist around cybersecurity attack research. The planning and execution of the attack is currently written to follow the flow of Reconnaissance to Initial Access to Exfiltration that I've been writing about for about a decade (unless I get an editor who tells me that's too boring).

As for the target, I'm bringing back some of the Media-centric bad guys from Station-bound Semitones: Maile-Wildner Multinational Industries. MWMI isn't just in contract disputes with a specific jazz band anymore, they're now playing the part of my Space Disney megacorp mentioned in the last update. They're also the parent company of Wildplay, who sponsor the DreamScape Gamecade, the collection in-game games that players can play. 

Commway Communications has essentially been a payphone company up until they launched the DreamScape, I figured they'd need a little help from someone who knows how to do Media--thus MWMI's partnership was born. 

The Data Heist is around a piece of what should be Public Domain media that MWMI is putting in their "Vault", after buying up and acquiring as many legal and bootleg copies they can get their hands on. They'll tell people that they're working on a Collector's Edition, but the reality is that they're trying to drive up the prices and create demand. 

And the Vade Mecum don't jive with that. Which is where they come in--and why they're hiring your team. 

I still have a ton of editing to do on this, so it's possible a lot will change, but I hope that the cybersecurity framing stays in place, and is a useful and interesting way to structure the Planning and Heist phases of the mission (also, I'll likely crib a flashback mechanic from Forged in the Dark games or something similar, because as much as you want to plan ahead, Heists never go to plan--and I wouldn't expect players to just know how to plan a heist--that's what TTRPGs are for!)

I've been having a kinda crazy couple of weeks, so I apologize for being quieter than I was at the start of this thing. I promise I haven't forgotten about y'all! I've got one more Designer Diary in the queue, and I'm cooking up some upgrades to make this book even better.

In the meantime, however, a podcast to whet your appetite: the latest Ansible Uplink.

In it, Eryk Sawicki from Peregrine Press sat down with Chris Auriau (who you may recognize from fellow OB Month project ⁠Paramour by Josh Domanski & Chris Airiau) to talk through Electric Sheep Shuffle. The first module I wrote for OB (and I think the first one I'd written for any game?)

It is honestly a really neat podcast in general, but this one is particularly of interest to people excited for Vaporwave Wanderlust, and/or people who've picked up ESS in the Add-ons.