Re-write almost done, playtesting to ramp up soon

So a quick update: The rewrite is nearing completion. I've even run some early playtests since February with small groups. I expect to finish all the rules by the end of June. I'm focused firmly on playtesting throughout the summer with the SNSO stable of GMs.

Character generation, skills, combat, magic/spells, and space travel are in the can. I'm working on space combat, robots, aliens, and GM tools (building encounters, etc.) now. As those things wrap up and I begin recruiting playtesters, I'll start to post more often.

MEANWHILE... 
I'm super excited to report that CONCEPT ART IS UNDERWAY! Twin Cities-based artist Bill Hauser is working on sketching out the five main character classes. You might recall that Bill created the logo for Rad Astra as well as Saturday Night Space Opera. He's got a fantastic aesthetic that I think fits great with the theme of the game and the indie RPG scene in general. I'm hoping by the end of summer/early fall we'll have some visuals to share.

 Keep your scanners tuned to this holo channel for more news and updates!

A REWRITE IS COMING

It's been a loooooong time between posts. But to summarize the machinations of the last year, I've been doing a lot more under-the-hood tinkering with the rules."But why?" you might ask (as I often do of myself).

I spent a lot of time kicking myself about that. So much so that I'd considered scrapping the current work and just returning to a setting only version.

But because I'm always finding new things I want to incorporate--not for the sake of complicating things, mind you.--just the opposite, actually. I find cool thematic ideas I want to incorporate (like funky space travel rules) but I want to keep things tight, so I have to continuously find the simplest solution for those problems. I don't know if I succeed in that path, but at the very least, it's a challenge I enjoy. And when I stop enjoying it, then we're in trouble!

In other news, I have a group of GMs ready to playest without me present. That's a HUGE benefit as I'm the only person to have run it thus far. So that round of playtests may end up being more of a "play-fest" where I get input from from a bunch of folks.

So what does this mean for the publications of Rad Astra? Well, hopefully a volley of lots of playtesting over the next few months. A debut of the new rules at Con of the North in February. And if I can manage to get some decent scratch together...some art.

At the moment the artist who'd agreed to develop concepts has had to take other gigs. I expect I'll need to find some new talent to flesh ideas out soon.

Stay tuned.

Basic rules are ready!

I've ironed out most of the basic rules, and am currently writing setting material based off that set. I ran a really helpful playtest on November 11. There were a few hiccups with skills and attributes  (I'd thought previously they were ready) that had been bugging players, so their feedback was super helpful in solving those issues.

I've also figured out all the components of the character sheet. I'd still like an artist to take a crack at crafting something cool, but at least I know what needs to be on there.

Feels like progress is being made--chugging along towards publication!

Progress update

Just a quick update to say that the rules for character generation, skill checks, and combat are complete. A few more playtests on magic are needed to refine rules, but I finally settled on a few solutions I'd been batting back and forth.

Progress on art is slooooow. May need to reconsider how that's handled. Switching to more setting work for now, until I get an update from the artist. Still hoping to publish in 2017, but might 2018 if things continue down the same path.

More soon!