This is cross-posted from the GKG Patreon, with some tweaks and additions.

Patreons got the PDF of the game if they are pledged at $10 or higher.

Layout by Robert Denton. Art by Perplexing Ruins.

Shadows of a Dying Sun (SoaDS) is "GKG-100", meaning it's the 100th SKU that we've set up in DTRPG and our system for product identification (this excludes things like the "TinyZines" as they are a GKG-TZ SKU, char sheets, free downloads, etc.)

It's crazy to think how far we've come in under 7 years (we ran our first Kickstarter in Q1 of 2016), and here I am uploading the 100th major product between our product lines.

It's also meaningful to me because SoaDS is the second product I ever began designing with the intention of releasing it. My first draft is from 2014, so nearly ten years old.

Big feels this weekend as I uploaded it.

It’ll be coming to a crowdfundr soon, as we want to print some for retail, but backers will get POD codes and PDFs basically right away. So it’s gonna be a fun and fast project.

Well, mechanically, it's been through a lot of iterations. Here's some of the various rulesets (roughly in order) I tried working on it with:

- D6^3 (Mayhem - the Planet Mercenary system)
- Savage Worlds
- various OSR engines
- diceless games (this one died fast).
- the "MAIL" system (the current system).

Currently, the only playable characters are humans, but in my original draft, I had notes for things like: 

Lanternkin: weird luminescent beings

Morlocks: Underground dwelling beings

Aeonblooded: cosmic travelling weird fantasy beings.

Some of those might make an appearance in a later book, but I elected to really tighten down the focus of the game into a really tight book. I was trying to write a 300 page detailed setting and that's not what I wanted to do as I learned more about the game. 

I'm really happy with how the game is now and it fits my vision (that I didn't really know I had) at the time. Maybe one day, I'll get my first game (Gallant) up and moving again. I did name the company after it, after all.

If nothing else, I want this book to stand alone and be well done.

But I have some ideas. We'll see if I decide to pursue them… (small hint below).

It was interesting to sit back, look at what I’d written nearly ten years ago, and see what I’d written in the last few months or last year. Very different style of thought and approach.

I often feel like I’m exactly where I was ten year ago in my game career, but SoaDS was a nice reminder of exactly how far I’ve come as well. I’m very proud of this game.

See you in the World of the Dying Sun soon.

Alan