Greetings, Knaves!

I'm going to start where this all began back in January.

Please help me decide which campaign to GM on Baldr

I created this post because I had two goals for this year:

1. Learn to use Baldr
2. GM a campaign (one out of eight selected via poll)

On February 12, the poll closed and Brancalonia had nearly a third of the votes making it the winner. And on February 18, I opened the Game Forum for those who voted for the campaign to join. Since that time, as I have slowly fleshed out the Game Forum, I feel confident with using Baldr now. However, I must admit that I will not reach my second goal.

It's not as bad as it sounds. I just will not be reaching that goal this year. That's because the official start of the campaign will begin on the anniversary of the Game Forum opening.

On Sunday, February 18, 2024, I will be dropping the first post of the campaign.

You probably have some questions, so I'm going to try to cover as many as I think would be asked.

What does that mean about the Playtest?

The Playtest is over. Although I did not get to test the combat rules (we never even got to the combat 🙈), I really learned a lot about using Owlbear Rodeo. I also learned a lot about how it's going to take time for everyone to feel more comfortable using it, so that has given me ideas about how to best design and run combats.

Who is invited to play?

@SMARTAgentKC and @Shocker have been here since the beginning and they already have approved Knaves, so they are in.

@guitarist still needs to submit an approved Knave.

@Wizard of the Coat and @Morphling are invited to join and will need to submit an approved Knave.

@Mizukami has been on standby since February and has not been active online since March. However, if they return and submit an approved Knave in time, then they will be joining as well.

When is the deadline to submit an approved Knave?

The deadline is February 4, 2024 - two weeks before the campaign starts.

You mentioned something about Boons for participating in the Playtest. What's happening with those?

More details about Boons will be provided before the campaign starts. Boons are not character-defining powers so you don't need to know what they provide when creating your Knave. Boons are useful for any type of Knave.

Are you going to resume the weekly campaign progress updates?

No. I think a comfortable rate for me at this point is to provide monthly updates about changes to the Game Forum.

Will the Adventuring and Combat sections of the Compendium be completed by the start of the campaign?

No, because I'm okay with leaving most of these sections as a work in progress that can be fine-tuned once the campaign starts. For some of the information that will go in these two sections, I think I need to be playing the campaign to find what is going to work best for us.

As much as I'd like for the Compendium to feel more complete, I have to be honest with myself and you all that I don't think I will ever feel like it is complete. I've recently accepted that because I don't want that to be the reason why the campaign is continually delayed from starting. The Compendium is in a great place right now and there is no reason why we should not be playing even though some portions have not been completed.

So then why are we not starting the campaign sooner?

It's the holiday season, I'm still recovering from whatever I caught, I have a good chance of getting a promotion in the next few weeks, and we only have two accepted Knaves so far (Ren Gunther and Giacomo). For those reasons, I think it would be best to hold off on the campaign starting until Sunday, February 18, 2024.

What are your posting expectations once the campaign starts?

2-3 posts per week if your Knave is actively involved in the situation at hand (such as a conversation between just your Knave and an NPC), 1-2 posts per week for combat and all other situations.

I do not expect you to provide lengthy content for every post. Just as long as you maintain the Themes presented in the Game Expectations. The greatest of these Themes is "Light-Hearted Tone" because my aim is that this campaign has a good deal of comical moments throughout. That doesn't mean that you can not play a serious Knave. Please understand then that your Knave's role will be more of the "straight man" to provide a contrast to the comedic things that are happening around them. In that sense, a serious Knave can be an invaluable part of this kind of campaign.

I think I missed all those important dates - what were they again?

• Sunday, February 4, 2024 - Deadline to submit an approved Knave. Please do not wait until this date to submit your Knave for the first time, unless you are 100% confident that they will be approved.
• Sunday, February 18, 2024 - The campaign starts.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments in the section below!

That's all for now 👋

Until next time...

For the bounty!