Interstellar Operations Pre-Beta Alternate Eras File: The Dirt Behind The Scenes

It’s been too long since I was able to get IO work done, unfortunately. As I’ve mentioned, just a case of too many duties and projects and not enough time in a day. However, despite the years of delays, I remain committed both to getting IO out, but getting it out in a way that does the entire line justice.

After all, how could I publish a line of rulebooks with “everything and the kitchen sink” and then drop the ball on the capstone to the entire series and short shift that depth of coverage? But that very desire to go to the extreme and cover everything, combined with all my responsibilities, directly leads to these types of delays.

The latest big project on my plate, designing Shadowrun: Sprawl Gangers with Ross Watson, has reached an equilibrium that will allow me to get back to several hours a day working on IO…but at the end of this month. I’m about to leave for a 10 day almost 5,000 mile driving trip to visit family.

In the meantime, you guys have been waiting exceedingly patiently, and so I thought…what the heck…I’m asking you guys to participate in playtesting a BT rulebook like never before…why not show off a document “in progress”. One of my favorite portions of the whole book, actually.

Feels weird, though…almost like I’m showing off my underwear. As you can see, there’s large swaths of question marks, yellow areas of cut and pasted in text from old rulebooks that need to be completely overhauled, as well as a lot of internal commentary/playtesting I’ve not yet folded in. I’ve got at least 5 full days of work on this Word doc before it’ll be ready to turn over to layout and get it out to you guys for Beta Testing.

But, with the “beware the scaffolding and dirt”, dive in: Interstellar Operations Pre-Beta File: Alternate Eras.

Note that there’s no corresponding threads to ask for input…the document simply isn’t ready for that. So if you do have questions, feel free to jot them down and when the real Beta Test PDF is released, you can see if perhaps we already answered them, or if not, then you can ask.

As I mentioned, ultimately, I feel you guys have simply earned the right through that very patience to see how awesome this book is going to be…and hopefully you’ll agree.

Enjoy!

Randall