Product Line Status?

[MetalBoar]

Hey there everyone. I'm a long time Earthdawn player and 4th edition Kickstarter backer, love the step system. I've thought that 1879 looked like a pretty cool setting but never gave it a lot of attention until very recently. I've now developed a keen interest in giving it a try but... I'm wondering if it's still an active product line. Looking through the forum I see a lot of posts from 2+ years ago that make it sound like the Player's Companion and other titles were pretty much complete or at least closing in on the final stages but I don't see (or missed) any recent posts that indicate what's happened to them or whether they'll ever see the light of day. So I have some questions:

• Is 1879 still under active development?

• If so, what's that look like?

• Regardless, how complete are the Player's and GM's Guides?
  Is there enough material there to support a long campaign or will I be doing a lot of the leg work myself and cursing about holes in the setting info?

• Are there other supplements available that fill in the blanks?

• Is the London book or any of the other supplements must haves?
  On a limited budget where would you start?

Thanks!

[Slimcreeper]

Most active, my friend! Andrew is cranking a novel a week or so worth of new content. If you want to give the game a try, my group is starting a new arc in the new year and we explicitly welcome guests for a single adventure arc, although I do have room for a permanent player or two.

The only real issue with the game is the character creation in the core book is sort of squirrely, an unfortunate case of first edition-itus. There is an extended thread here on the forums resolving the issue, or I can send you a link to my google doc o' house rules. I have a house rule problem - I make more than necessary - but I also have a character creation summary that should clean up any confusion.

1879 is an awesome world. Strong recommendation.

(The Discord is somewhat more active than the forums)

[Slimcreeper]

Sorry, I should answer more of your actual questions. The London Book is really great. A must have ... A strong, strong recommendation. There will be a Gruv book coming out at some point, so I guess it depends on where you want to start. I have a couple adventures that you are welcome to. They are posted on the GM forum in varying degrees of completeness, but I can also PM you google links if you want the whole deal. They are amateur/professional ready.

Honestly, because the alt-history theme is so strong, wikipedia is like an unofficial and exhaustive sourcebook.

On limited budget, try out an arc with our group, then get the PG and GMG on pdfs. There are also a lot of $2 personalities that are really well written if you want to get a feel of the world.

[Andrew1879]

I've got a state of the line post going up on the blog at the end of the year. To summarize: 1879 development is moving along, but we're stalled in production. The Companions have been in lockdown since early spring, waiting for layout. Our primary layout person for 1879 developed medical issues and had to retire. We've had a succession of issues since then, including a hard drive crash in which a layout person lost the files for the first five Personalities. The first wave of Personalities are done up through #11. #12 is in draft, and there will be a 13th when we compile the Personalities into a book. The Fort Alice book is well under way. I'll post an excerpt from it on the blog.

Really, the state of development can be tracked through the blog. Over the course of this year, I have written over 83,0000 words for the blog, which is a 224 page book. There's been a new post up every week this year. Please, go read the blog. It could use the page views, it's lonely.

[MetalBoar]

Thank you both for the replies! I'm glad to hear it's still going strong. I just added the pdf for the Players Guide to my wish list for a Secret Santa thing my wife's family is doing. I'm not much into receiving gifts through gift exchanges and always feel a little weird putting a wish list together, but hey, the price for the pdfs are right at the middle of the price point that's been established and I'd love to have them.

@Andrew1879 - I'm sorry to hear about your layout person's medical problems. Layout's an important job and really hard to do right. Now that I know the product is still alive I'm more than happy to be patient so that things can be done well. I'll go take a look at the blog to get caught up on the current state of affairs. Thanks!

@Slimcreeper - Thanks for the info and the game invite! What's the format for your game, play by post, online chat, online voice/video? I'm lucky enough to have a great group to game with 2-4 times a month for ~15 years now so I'm only peripherally aware of roll20 and the advances in online game play. If it's a time and frequency I can make I'd love to participate! I'd also appreciate any adventures/house rules you'd care to share.

[Slimcreeper]

We’re pretty primitive. Roll20 for pictures, sound and maps and Discord for voice. Other than generally knowing where everyone is, I don’t do much mapping.

We are biweekly Sunday afternoons est. we keep it episodic, so guests can easily join us for an arc just to try it out.

I’ll send you some google links tonight!

[Libby]

Our group is giving the game a go but wondering if there’s any update on publishing dates for the Companion books? There are a lot of references to them in the core books.

[Slimcreeper]

I can't tell you when it'll come out, but I can tell you the social/economic development is top-notch.

(I contributed!)

Also, if you're getting started, make sure you grab the errata document. There's some squirrely stuff in character creation in particular. Also, join us in the Discord!
https://discord.gg/xdSGRw

And post character journals here on the forums! If you do, Andrew will send you one pet hamster per post via the post.

[Andrew1879]

Our apologies, we have had a series of problems with layout with the Companions. The Players Companion is in layout at this time. We hope to Kickstart it before GenCon.

Also, I'm out of hamsters. The postage on those got prohibitive anyway.

[yankeeschic]

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