The Adventurer’s Logbook will be a real must-have for seasoned players, completionists and anyone hungry to unpick the secrets of the Steam Highwayman series. And it will be ENTIRELY FREE in the first 48 hours of the upcoming Kickstarter campaign!
Last year I was prompted to create a list of 94 things to do in Steam Highwayman: Smog and Ambuscade. It was offered as a hint list for those struggling to make progress and as a set of achievements for anyone keen to feel they had made the most of the first volume.
Now with the Adventurer’s Logbook, you’ll be able to record your adventures, tracking which events you have experienced and edging ever closer to “completing” the books. Much as a modern crpg will give you a percentage tracker, indicating how much of the map you’ve explored, or how many side-quests you’ve finished, the Logbook will allow you to tick off the quests, the events, the friendships – and even the beers drunk – in each of your playthroughs.
The exact design of the Logbook isn’t set yet, but I want it to be a notebook that sits alongside the Touring Guides, with separate sections for friendships established, beers drunk and encounters met. There’ll be a rarity indicator of some kind to show what’s harder to accomplish or rarer to find, and probably some other bells and whistles included. I don’t think it will be a full replacement to the Player Companion, which is really a glorified Character sheet, but rather a record to look back over, maybe with the dates of your playthroughs and sessions.
And what do I mean by free? If you order Princes of the West with the new map pack (The Touring Guide Number 2) within the first 48 hours of the campaign, you’ll be able to get the Adventurer’s Log bundled in for no extra cost. Look out for the Earlybird Committed Villain and the Earlybird Mastermind to take advantage of the offer. When the time comes for fulfilment, the Log will be shipped along with your Touring Guide, with no increase to the shipping cost.
Essentially, I want this to be a real thank-you to everyone who has previously supported the project. Perhaps it will also encourage people to join the campaign early on, and help us reach – and surpass – the funding target…
So please share this opportunity with friends who haven’t yet discovered life on the midnight road, and are yet to taste the adventure found astride the Ferguson velosteam. They’re all welcome to back the Kickstarter in the first 2 days and receive their own free Adventurer’s Log!
Finally, make sure you’re following the Kickstarter to get a notification as soon as it goes live. I’ll be updating again here too. After all,
YOU are the Steam Highwayman!
Will there be an option to get all the books on pdf only?
No, I’m not releasing these in e-format. There are already 5-8 sites boasting ‘Download Steam Highwayman pdf FREE’ that clearly would love to pirate the books if they could get hold of them, and I’ve seen AI generated material clearly drawn from other independent publications that make me even more careful about holding onto the digital files. I realise this is a bit of a restriction on playing style, Darcy. I hope that with the current work going on, the Steam Highwayman app will become the better electronic option.
Woohoo, looking forward to it! 🙂 I hiked to Swindon from Poole last week, and it was fun seeing some town names in the east along the route mentioned from the Steam Highwayman! 🙂
I always wanted the book to have that kind of real-world echo… I enjoy when I drive west out of London up the M4 and I can announce to my family “You are now entering Steam Highwayman Country!” Perhaps one day there will be a brown roadsign…