Operation Nemesis: Finished! (sort of)

OK, it's a long, long ways from being finished finished, but I've finally finished the manuscript.  I'm giving it a little polish over the next couple of weeks, and then I'll fling it up here at the start of August.  Defence Mech patrons will get it first for a couple of weeks.  Once I've taken into account any observations and feedback I get from them, I'll put it up for the rest of my patrons.

This will be a very basic document.  No bells.  No whistles.  Very little in the way of illustrations.  Basically saved straight to PDF from a Google Doc.

But this means that I will have August to transfer the manuscript into Adobe InDesign (or possibly Affinity Publisher - I'm trying to decide if I'm really ready to learn a new software package, right now) and get it all laid out beautifully with nice borders and other cool features and suchlike, plus I get to finalize art with my artists (I've got three working on it, now!) and work out where the photos have to go.

This, then, will leave September for painting and photography and October for snagging.

I also plan to release the digital edition as a discounted public beta for one month in PDF only.  It was so helpful after I released Zero Dark to get feedback I was able to fix and correct before I finally put the print edition out there that I want to learn from this.  Anyone who buys the discounted PDF will, of course, be able to download the updated final version in November when the POD edition drops.

At the same time as the POD edition goes live there will be a PWYW "rules only" PDF released that includes all of the new game rules from Nemesis but none of the missions or setting stuff.

I was going to call this Zero Dark: Mission Creep, but that seemed too misleading given that it contains no missions.  And Zero Dark: New Rules of Engagement seems to wordy.  Suggestions are welcomed.

Anyway, I'm busy doing a very complicated payroll spreadsheet while you're reading this, so I'd better get back to work.  Next week will be a bit of a monster...