Hello Metadungeoneers! 

(Metadungeoneers is sticking, despite some delightful suggestions following the last update. Sorry. I don’t make the rules.)

This update’s all about the work in progress because, uh, that’s what’s happening. Headlines: Gar’s really good at this, and we’re on track for getting our first draft of the complete manuscript in at the end of the year.

So far, Gar’s sent us the Persona Generation chapter (character creation, for those of you not yet initiated into the rituals of DIE). 

This first chapter is really good work. It’s got exactly what we wanted, which is a way to bring together a group of characters with very different gaming interests and connect them all to each other, and to the Gatekeeper, the GM who has decided they all need to learn the true meaning of roleplaying. It’s also where you’ll create your Gatekeeper. 

My favourite bit is the set of handouts Gar’s done for character creation. Each one reflects a different era of gaming, and what mattered to a character (and, implicitly, to a player) in that style of game. Obviously these haven’t been through graphic design yet, but look how fun they are:

Also, I feel personally attacked at least once in every paragraph where Gar talks about the ’90s-style gamer (who didn’t necessarily start playing in the ’90s, but I did). 

And. And. The Persona Gen chapter includes the first roleplaying and combat encounter. It’s just outside the Metadungeon, and it’s set in the village of Braunstein! If you don’t know what it is, I won’t spoil it here. You can choose to click on the link or not. But this is TTRPG HISTORY, BAYBEE!!! Gar’s done some fun things with obtaining the magic die that grants you your Paragon status (and abilities). 

Gar’s also sent over a bit of Level 1: 1970s but, in all honesty, I haven’t looked at it at time of writing this update. I suspect it’s very good. 

Importantly, this review is not an edit. This is where we look at the broad strokes of the text and check Gar’s going in the right direction: that there’s a nice blend of TTRPG history, emotional hooks, and genuinely exciting encounters (not so much in Persona Gen, this part).

For Metadungeon specifically, this is also where we check with our lawyers (OK, with Maz, who has… had some training on this from, I think, their journalism days) that we’re not saying anything libellous or defamatory. This is not a challenge we’ve had before - Hitler doesn’t have an estate that would sue us over Eat the Reich, and we’re too clever to get caught out with vaguely referential characters in fantasy worlds. So far there’s only one “can we say that?” note on Gar’s draft, but we’re not actually in the dungeon yet.

So, we get the manuscript in right at the end of December. What happens then? What, pray tell, are the stages that get it from “in Chant and Kieron’s inboxes” to “in your inboxes, and subsequently into your flesh-mitts”?

Editing. A ton of editing.

First, Kieron (as the Grand GM, the Progenitor God of DIE) and I (as the book janitor) review Gar’s work in detail. At this point we go beyond flagging big, high level changes that could affect the rest of what Gar writes, and into the nitty gritty of “I don’t like this Persona Gen question”, “that’s not how that Dictator ability works”, “what if the hydra’s heads included Luke Gygax as well as his dad?”,  and “dial up the gags in the ossuary of deceased childhood dreams”. 

The latter two examples don’t exist. Yet. But Gar does sometimes read these updates, so don’t rule it out.

After that, the manuscript goes back to Gar to either make the changes we suggest or tell us in no uncertain terms that we don’t understand his artistic vision. Given the enthusiastic tone of our group chat, probably mostly the former - but it’s sort of important that writers get to make the thing they wanted to, you know?

Next, it goes to Maz, RRD’s editor-in-chief, for a tech edit: double checking the mechanics, confirming that the information flow actually makes sense (you know those TTRPGs where there’s a reference that only makes sense 20 pages later? We try not to make those.), and a general third opinion on whether it is, in fact, as good as we think it is.

Then it’s line and copy editing (also Maz). This is what most people think of as editing: a slow dungeon crawl through the manuscript, grinding through messy sentences, odd word choices, and spelling and grammar mistakes until the editor’s levelled up/found the way out/died in the prose equivalent of a pit trap. Sometimes Maz does the line and copy edit at the same time as the tech edit, because it’s hard not to get bogged down by details. Depends on the manuscript.

And then we send it to a sensitivity consultant, if we need to. Not sure whether we will on Metadungeon, because so much of the difficult content is in the hands of the players: exactly what an encounter represents, or how it’s flavoured, depends strongly on the characters you’ve made. And we’ve already got a robust set of safety tools in DIE to make sure groups are embarking on their adventure fully prepared for, and comfortable with, the types of content that could come up. They’re called The Magic Circle, and they’re the work of Kienna Shaw and Lauren Bryant-Monk, who you might know from the excellent TTRPG Safety Toolkit. 

This gets it ready for your playtesting and feedback. Then we read the feedback, implement the feedback, and move on to layout and graphic design. Historically, this is also what we call the “fuck it, we can do it better” period, where someone has a last minute, truly superb, idea that we decide we can most definitely squeeze into the book. I am… trying to avoid that, because I have a timeline, but I’m not ruling it out.

All this is to say, when you see several months for editing on one of our timelines, we have good reasons. If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right. This is also to gird you against possible disappointment when I say, in December, “manuscript’s in!”, then in February “review’s finished!”, and so on and so forth.

But for now! No disappointment, only text extracts! As you can see, Gar’s way ahead of the game on this “avoiding getting sued” scheme. 

Until next time,

Chant