The Elite Encounters Alpha Rules were uploaded into the wild on Friday 20th December!

Yes, the first draft of the rules is even now being scrutinised and (hopefully) enjoyed by the lucky "Playtester" pledgers.

It's a nerve wracking time. I don't know what the response will be. I don't expect I've got it all right on the first draft, but I do think that it's a workable system and that when I tested it out on myself (since the FDA wouldn't give me a human testing license) it seemed to work well enough.

Only time will tell!!

There's no rest for me, though. Now that the Alpha is out my attention will turn from the rules system to the prose side of the book. I'll focus on the background details, the Elite Universe and the short fiction submissions through the latter half of December and into January.

I'm very conscious that time is running short for that April deadline, especially with artwork and layout options to consider (not to mention proofreading and editing).

Dice Rings

The dice rings offer has got off to a good start, with more than 20 rings flying off the virtual shelves in the first few days of the offer being live. A few questions have come up, though, that I should deal with here.

The first is that this is an offer that's only open to people who have purchased the RPG. This is a condition made by CritSuccess and one which I am completely happy to uphold. The intent of the special offer is to promote both the RPG and the Dice Rings, and as such both must be owned. This means that if you haven't bought a copy of the RPG you will need to buy one (in whatever format you prefer) before you can take advantage of the offer. If you have already purchased the RPG book then you can buy away.

That's the only restriction. Again, you can buy as many dice rings as you like and if you want to buy some to gift to other people then that's up to you. I will be making manual checks against names and addresses to ensure that each dice ring purchase is being made by someone with a copy of the RPG.

Sorry to be all "official" about it. It's a GREAT offer, and a chance to own one or more of these fantastic rings for a fraction of the retail price.

That's it for this update. Thanks for reading and thanks for supporting the book.

Merry Christmas to you all, and I'll see you in the New Year.