Adding More Content - A short break before 0.4!

No document update yet, but I do have some more content to preview!

Ashes and Smoke was conceived as a small-scope project, and I very strongly intend to keep it that way. Beyond polishing up existing material with short fluff sections and art, the things I'm about to show off here, and an .lcp file, I do not expect the subject of Ashes and Smoke to grow much past this. This project was... a bit of an spontaneous undertaking, so I've constantly been on my toes, and I'm extremely humbled and flattered by the response it's gotten so far from the community!

As for timelines, I'm trying to aim for wrapping up all 0.3 content by the end of September to keep on my 1-big-thing-month pace. I am one person and I have other obligations to attend to, such that I can't really make this my biggest priority!

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Some existing content has seen revisions (examples: the Renegade has had its less interesting options polished up, and the Fusilier's Doctrine will be getting a more thorough look-over after some particularly thorough feedback from Reconus). I will try to push this into an 0.3.1 update before I start putting everything in an lcp file.

Additionally, even though this is primarily a supplement for GM usage, I felt a little bad not writing any player-side material. With the caveat that this will likely not make it into the 0.3.1 update (though it will be in the subsequent 0.3.2 update!), I have some new stuff to show off and announce:

• I've gotten a little sentimentally attached to the Lutestring's story (the Renegade is probably my favourite NPC out of this lineup from a conceptual standpoint, so this is completely writer bias). And, as a result, I've written an alt-frame* for the SSC Metalmark based off of it. The Lutestring can be voluntarily taken at ll2 of the Metalmark by a player instead of the default frame, or doled out as a piece of exotic gear, as below.
• To bundle with this, I've written five pieces of exotic gear* - each based off of one NPC. As a GM, you can use these as mission rewards to represent salvaged equipment, as combat reserves, or the results of a particular downtime action.

*alt-frames and exotic gear are introduced in Massif Press's 'No Room for a Wallflower', but will also be explained in-text. No other documents are necessary to use them!

In addition, I have the following in the works:

• An alt-frame for the HORUS Gorgon, based off of the Park Armored Systems Kizi (also represented by the Candle NPC). Park Armored Systems are characterized in relation to Harrison Armory, yes - but, Horus pattern groups are often spread through the medium of other frames and not as frames in their own right. Even in core material, your HORUS Manticore could be flavoured as a jailbroken HA Tokugawa. If you're bothered by this, I don't particularly mind.
• The previously hinted-at Director NPC.
• I am also very tentatively considering a talent that lets you represent having a wingman, though this is obviously very sheer territory and I have some unfortunately complex thoughts on it. It would go against the spirit of the rest of the supplement to just give a player their own Subordinate. The closest I think I'm willing to go is having a 'build-your-own' modular drone talent, similar to Engineer's Prototype Weapon. One that explicitly does not represent agency over a person.

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Of course, take everything in this post with a grain of salt. Nothing is locked-in for certain, and this project is tertiary to my interpersonal obligations and my degree!

If you have any particular biases, thoughts, or feedback you would like me to hear, I am as always extremely open to hearing 'em. Feel free to email me, message me on here, through Twitter, or over Discord.

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Take care, stay safe, and tell your friends and/or partner(s) how much they mean to you.

-Sasha