I Hope You've all Been Well!

I wanted to update everybody on Into the Woods... The Changing Seasons since we have reached September now. In my last post, which you can read here, I mentioned that my initial goal was to release August or very early September at the latest, but anytime in 2019 was pretty much fair game. Unfortunately, I have been fairly busy with other projects and work and have had to delay my work on the expansion. Worry not though, it is still happening, just a lot slower than expected!

Here's what I have done so far:

• Rules are finalized and written. They aren't that complex, as they fit on 3 pages (probably less if I weren't formatting for beauty in some cases). Mechanically, the expansion relies on simple tables like the core book based on cards drawn from the discard pile.
• The remaining 14 pages I've managed to complete is all content!
• I've outlined the entire expansion and finalized art for each major section of the book. There is still art to add, but all of that will be done upon book completion.
• Completed 8 full events. These are more detailed and contain choices, tables, etc... for you to choose from.
  • All events worked on so far are for Spring. Nearly all of them will provide a benefit to the player, but how good the boon is will be based on decisions you make and/or checks. There are a few bad things that can happen, but Spring events will always give you something so long as you survive them.
  • Each end of season's event pool will have different proportions of good and bad events with Winter being more of an "end of story" challenge than anything. Of course, as mentioned in the original post, your journey can easily be continued if desired. These aren't conclusive events, just a nice place to stop the story you are telling.
• Created 2 new traits:
  • Life Steal (pretty obvious what that does).
  • Madness - Roll 2d6 and take the lesser value when performing checks.
• Created 2 new pieces of equipment:
  • Cooking with "The Gourmet" Cookbook - Provides a buff to food but at the risk of failure. I'll leave this mechanic to be discovered in play ;)
  • Weather Warding Totem - In the core game, the most obnoxious thing for players to deal with is the weather. I had items that negated each type, but you still had to make that pesky choice regardless. This item lets you bypass the initial choice and just do the check (and yes, this stacks with all the other weather gear in the game so far).
  • Traps - These are a WIP still. They are in the book, but how exactly I'll have these work is still being determined. Right now I'm thinking that you may declare the use of a trap prior to checking the next set of cards in an encounter to gain some small advantage at the expense of the trap (regardless of what turns up). So a kind of push your luck mechanic that will nearly always payout as long as you are paying attention.
• I've created the bestiary section, but at this time there are no entries. As I'm still working in Spring, most of the things I add will be events, equipment, or traits that can be earned.
• Have provided a few FAQ items to clarify how some of the new mechanics interact with old ones. Nothing fancy.

I appreciate your understanding as I continue to work on this and for your anticipation for the completion of this expansion! Since things are so busy I may put out a demo version (A d6 table for each season) that will be freely available to hold you over until the final product is complete. Plus that'll give you a preview for what the whole thing will look like since I'm charging for it. No ETA on that, but I'll get it out when I can. Another project of mine has me dabbling with custom cards, so you might see a print-and-play set of those as well. No promises though, it'll largely depend on my schedule.

If you have any questions, ideas, etc... please leave a comment here or email me at jonspencerreviews@gmail.com and I'll get back to you ASAP. Until next time!

-JS