Heyo!

I just wanted to take a moment to touch bases with everyone. Vaeldriil and I have a couple more little surprises on the horizon, but other than those, things are going to be relative quiet for a lil' bit.

Why?

Because what's coming next is fairly Big Stuff. By that I don't necessarily mean "OMG Bards is uber now!" stuff, but I do mean some fairly large-scale projects. One of these is actually undergoing internal testing and quality control now, and in fact a few small pieces of a very massive system are slowly being released already.

Yes, I'm talking about the infamous Mythical Beast. It's not completely dead yet, but it's finally been dealt a mortal blow. It's just a matter of time now.

But there's more beyond that. A very large Bard area is under construction. By far the largest the guild has ever seen, hands down. I think I'm safe in saying it will boggle more than a few minds, both in size and scope. All I'm willing to say now is that things are well underway, and we have another team helping us on the project, so I'm confident it will see steady progress. The downside is that it truly is a massive undertaking, and giving anything even remotely resembling a timeline on this is just impossible at this stage. Once the end is more clearly in sight, perhaps we or our fellow conspirators will share a few more teasers.

In addition, I'll be pushing very hard on the Gnome Village for the next month or two. It is yet another long overdue project on my plate, and now that the Bard's Mythical Beast is finally in its death throes, I'm going to shift more of my attention to the Village. While this one doesn't relate to most of you, I just wanted to let you know I'll be focusing some attention there so that you aren't wondering why I suddenly got quiet.

As if two major projects that have eaten many GMs aren't enough, I've actually inhereted a third. Fortunately, this one is almost finished now, so it shouldn't eat up too much of my time anymore. No, it's not Bard-related, and no, I really can't discuss it except to say I suspect a lot of jaws will hit the floor when this one finally gets released.

There is one other thing I should mention. While I am primarily working with Bards these days, I'm technically on the Systems team under GM Ssra. My primary focus there, at least for now, is lore systems. However, I have at least one other system on my plate, and I've been gearing up to begin work there. What this means, in a nutshell, is that some things will be slowing down a bit, but then again, I think we've been moving along fairly well given that I've only been back two months.

All in all, I think Bards will have a pretty good year. We have a lot of catching up to do, but I think we are slowly getting there, and I certainly have no intention of letting the momentum die. Just understand that I do have some Very Big Things (tm) to do now, some of which are directly related to you guys, and some of which are not. If things seem to slow down for a month or two, don't despair -- it's just the calm before the storm. Just bare with me, and I'll do my best to live up to my tagline.


- GM Dartenian

"You ain't seen nothin' yet!" - Al Jolson

LiveJournal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/dartenian/