martin barnabus noutch.com

Update 34: Further Fulfilment Progress

I know, that’s a catchy title, isn’t it?

I’ve just completed another small batch of shipping orders and prepared a set of reward packages for posting, bringing me up to date. Together with a double-check of the payment records, I’m confident that everyone who has paid for the shipment of their rewards has now either received them or has them in the post! This brings me to:

255 / 313 or 81% book shipments ordered

217/ 237 or 92% map and guidebook packages posted

One of the biggest issues of my payment system is that I haven’t always matched payments with your backer details. This has happened when a different email account to your Kickstarter email has been used and I’ve done my best to follow this up when I can identify you by other means. However, in a few cases it has led to delayed shipments – I apologise for that. I think these could have been avoided.

Fulfilment has been a bit trickier than I hoped and it’s taken longer too. The financial viability of the project has always depended on printing the books regionally, but with the loss of European printing, this has really changed the shipping situation for Europe. In previous Kickstarters – which were also pre-Brexit – tariffs were lower and the shipping route was a lot more predictable. I’m having to deal with many more returned packages and other disruptions – but almost exclusively with the European shipments. Elsewhere, things are going smoothly. So I’d like to thank all you European backers – which includes among you some of my earliest and most committed readers – for your patience.

It also seems that the tracking emails from the printer/distributor IngramSpark are a bit unreliable. All the tracked shipments do generate tracking details and where you’ve paid for them, I’ve used your email as a reference, but these don’t always seem to arrive – or if they do, they get spam-classed. So do ask – I can use a back route with my account with Ingram to retrieve them – and I’ve had to do this to chase up several parcels across the world.

If you haven’t yet received anything and you paid for your shipping before September, please let me know, ideally in reply to my emails from steamhighwayman at gmail.com. You can respond here on Kickstarter but just be aware that it can take me a while to get time to log in and check through comments and messages. Either way, I can then check for you and we can carry on via email.

I also attended Fighting Fantasy Fest 6 in West London last week and it was a joy and a privilege to see so many of you in the flesh. Around 30 backers collected their rewards in person, so that was a big step forward. But it was also a blast. I was chatting and comparing notes with Ken Boyter on the table next to me for most of the day. He was selling his new gamebook To Kill a Thief and had an enviable greatcoat – mine went mouldy some years ago. If you want a flavour of the whole event, there’s Jon Green’s great video here in which Ken and I did a giggly double-act at Jonathan’s expense, and then there’s Gil Jugnot’s charmingly breathless and excited video here, translatable from French through the wonders of youtube, making his waterfall of narration more-or-less intelligible.

There are a couple of other hand-deliveries and collections to make in the next few weeks, which will lower my stock of books I’m holding here in the flat. However, I estimate I’ll still have about 15 boxes of map packets when this is all done! I’ll have to find somewhere dry and safe to store these, either to sell through my site over the next couple of years or to reserve for the next Kickstarter…

Where from here:

Clearly there’s a bit of following-up with backers to do, but some of this is now in your court: if you haven’t yet paid for shipping, please do as soon as you can. There should have been at least two emails to the account you registered with the campaign – although it is possible they got spam-classed – and all the details are in there. I recognise that this means there will be a long tail to this project and it may be several months before I can rejoice that the final reward package is shipped or ordered. Pity my family, who still have a pile of boxes in the living room!

I have some more Collections and drop-offs to arrange, particularly amongst friends and family who supported the project. These will be a nice chance to share the new book too.

I mean to complete the new Steam Highwayman Companion fairly soon, which can be printed off to allow you to play the books without marking them. The old one (for books 1-3) is here – although there are a couple of missing pieces I’ll also be correcting. A couple of people have already asked about this and when it’s done you’ll all receive a copy by email – and I’ll then post it on my website with the other Steam Highwayman resources. Perhaps this’ll make a nice printed reward for the next Kickstarter…

Because, yes, a part of my brain is already thinking about the next books and the next Kickstarter. But let’s leave that for now.

I also have to put a good bit of time into marketing the new book, ensuring that previous backers who missed their chance to join in with this campaign get a chance to add Princes of the West to their collection. This will probably coincide with quite a bit of work on my website, so if you’re a follower there, expect some changes. If you’ve not yet taken a look, please have a rummage around: I’ve got material on how the Steam Highwayman books were inspired and produced going right back to the beginning, together with other bits and bobs you might find interesting.

And the mini-adventures are pressing hard against my conscience. I’m actually really looking forward to creating these – something shorter but perhaps more concentrated than the big books – like little shots of Steam Highwayman goodness. One reason I haven’t got further with them yet is that I haven’t yet worked out how much of the Steam Highwayman game system they need to include. They will probably be linear rather than open-world, so I may not have to include exploration, pursuit, large shops, arrest and punishment and maybe not even random encounters… So what should I include? It really gets me thinking. If they work, I may write a lot of them. There are a couple more hinted at in Princes of the West, if you’ve taken a trip down to the Atmospheric Union Airfield…

So watch out for another email with the new Player’s Companion – hopefully before the next update.

Next update due: 28.9.26

July 30

Update 31 – Princes of the West Fulfilment Imminent!

TLDR:

Princes of the West ready for fulfilment
Shipping payment and address update email to follow
Backer Order shipping
Stretch Goal stories will happen… just not yet.

In the last update I listed jobs to do and, despite the heat, two god-daughters staying with us for a week, an overnight trip to the airport and four small children to entertain and provide for, I managed to hit them all. Crucially, the acknowledgements were finished and final edited files for Steam Highwayman: Princes of the West were uploaded to IngramSpark. A single copy is now on rush production as a final (I hope) print proof. Since the last copy produced some weeks ago there have been hundreds of tiny changes and a few big ones – all improving gameplay, clarity and consistency. Phew!

That means that I can begin fulfilling your rewards. I dropped the fourth map from the Touring Guide – it was taking too long to produce and did not significantly add to the gameplay – and now have all the parts to assemble the map packs. The Adventurers’ Logs are complete too and I have packaging to ship these around the world.

In the next few days I will also correct outstanding errata in Smog & Ambuscade, Highways & Holloways and The Reeking Metropolis so that anyone who has ordered these will get them in the best possible state.

I’ve spent a lot of time on shipping and the original plan is still the cheapest and in the majority of cases my shipping estimates were good. In most cases your physical rewards will travel as two shipments – this is still the cheapest option, as the maps have to travel from the UK (print-on-demand not an option for these) and the books can be printed in the US, UK or Australia. In some cases (especially Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong) I’ll need to send a single package from the UK.

In the next few days I will be emailing backers by country with links to pay for shipping. Prices vary by region and also depending on whether you backed just for the books or for books and extras, but I will detail it all in the email. Up-to-date addresses will be gathered with payments.

I will do my best to fulfil the books in Backer Order – as long as I have your shipping payment and address. If you have ordered a Custom Wanted Poster Frontispiece but haven’t yet provided an image, you will have to wait until you do. In a few cases I will make shipments to single countries in one go (eg Singapore).

I can manage about 20 shipments a day, but there are interruptions and I do have other commitments over the summer, so the majority of your rewards will be on their way by the end of August. Please be patient with me – it’s a huge job and not one that I actually take any payment for personally.

Remember, if you can wait until 5 September and are attending Fighting Fantasy Fest 6 (the premier gamebook convention), then you can avoid any shipping charge, meet me there and collect your reward in your hand. It’d be great to see you: just fill in this form or indicate in response to the shipping email.

And the stretch goals? Well, these were a stretch! You got a stretched book (it increased by about 400 sections after the Kickstarter!) but you will get Harvest of Death and Dark Satanic Mills as well… When they’re written and done. I’m looking forward to writing these as little standalones but with all the benefit of the improvements I’ve made to Princes.

I probably won’t update on here until towards the end of the shipping process – I’ll be working by email with you personally where necessary and working through the batch of boxes etc – so expect that email and expect another update on here towards the end of August.

Next update due: 26.8.26

July 16

Update 30: Princes of the West now fully edited – wow!

Late on Tuesday night I completed the final corrections and edits to Steam Highwayman IV: Princes of the West. Final tweaks included standardising a key character’s accent, which was amusing. She started off a bit too proper and by the end of the book I was writing her in proper Wes’ cunn’ry aaczent so I had to find all the instances of her speech and westify them. I also wrote a couple of last-minute additions – a sequence that allows you to close up one of the major quests in a more on-stage manner and an encounter with a strange man in a new location, high on Dartmoor. That was an interesting one – but I’ll write about it another time. Today you get more news.

That was the key target for the fortnight so reaching it is a big success. I also completed the Touring Guide and the large maps, so these were sent to the printers… As were the files for the previous maps and Touring Guide. These all arrived over the last few days – 28 boxes of printing.

Some of your rewards arrived at my flat on Monday. The A2 flatpacks each contain 250 maps.

And here is the other half of the shipment, arrived on Tuesday. 19 boxes of booklets and folders for the Touring Guides.

I already had the Adventurer’s Logbook printed (three more boxes by my bedside. The only outstanding rewards are now the smaller A4 maps for the new Touring Guide: I have to complete the titling and superimposition of troop movements on the map of the Siege of Tintagel, and then I’ll order the A4 maps too.

The Adventurer’s logbook looks nice in the sunshine too.

Some of the many, many quests to undertake, all graded by difficulty.

The living room is now piled with boxes. Over the next few weeks, my wife and I will be folding maps and assembling the Touring Guides. With a nice show on (Ludwig returns in August…) and the children asleep, it’s actually a very pleasant job.

So where does that put the project? I haven’t had the time to finalise shipping costs to Europe, so that is the next priority. Once that is done (perhaps before the next fortnightly update), I’ll be sending out postage costs collecting postage payments. I may delay this for the very beginning of August or may get to it before then.

I also have to complete the Acknowledgements section at the rear of the book – your featured spot, dear backers! This can take a little while (it isn’t simply a list of names), but once that and a fresh blurb are done for the cover, the book will be complete. I will certainly be ordering another print proof and then I will get moving with shipments.

Thanks for staying with me all this way. The book is a great adventure – as are the previous ones – and seeing it and the accompanying paratexts in solid form is deeply exciting.

PS – I suspect there are more of you attending Fighting Fantasy Fest 6 on 5 September than have yet said so. If you are, you will be able to collect your pledge with no postage to pay – but only if you tell me! If you’d like to collect at FFF6 and you haven’t yet let me know, please use this form. So far I’ve only got 8 out of 330 backers collecting. And let me tell you, collection is also a lot simpler for me!

Next fortnight’s jobs:

Complete final postage costs
Create postage payment links for each region/country
Complete acknowledgements
Re-write blurb
Chase outstanding Wanted Poster images
Complete final A4 map
Order A4 maps
Order packaging for extras

Next update due: 30.7.26

July 4

Update 29: Wheels of Cheese and some Essextraordinary Shenanigans coming up

Well, the first-ever print copy of Princes of the West arrived on Saturday and I still can’t quite believe it. The colour is bright, bold and… physical! In fact, the size and weight of the entire book is one of the things that is impressing me the most. After more than two years of existing in some digital form or other and after almost ten years as a title, the book now has a physical form.

I’ve begun a playthrough of Princes and I’ve been having a great time. Fine-tuning mechanics like damage, repair, fleeing from the Constables and selling loot have all really added to the core gameplay loop and it now feels like the reader is more a dark, mysterious figure of ambush than ever. But there are also the classic Highwayman challenges: I’ve succesfully located victims, impersonated a Constable to get them to stop, beaten them in a duel, robbed them and then set off back to my hideout… But with a couple of unlucky rolls, I’ve then had Constables on my tail – in an airship, no less – and then crashed my velosteam and been taken up.

But your adventure doesn’t end there. There is a long quest sequence to occupy you the first time you are arrested and subsequent shorter ones and so far I haven’t been notorious enough to merit hanging… So I escaped from gaol once, served one term and, in my playthrough, am currently back on the road with a couple of debuffs and a steep hill to climb to get back up to where I want to be. But my hideout is still stuffed with items and I have reliable friends and good revenue avenues to explore among the smugglers. And a nice cheese-trading route I found.

The cheese-trading route is something I want to tell you about. Steam Highwayman is carefully plotted, but as an entire book it is more of an environment containing stories rather than a single narrative. That means that although there are characters and quests that you can enjoy, much of your tale is really an emergent narrative that proceeds from ingredients in the game system. So, for example, I have a strong trading system across the book with around 100 items traded in 50 locations at variable prices. Local supply and narrative causality demand that the prices are lower in places and that means that occasionally, just occasionally, it is possible to make a profit with entirely honest trading.

In previous books this has occurred – sometimes less-carefully – and it has sometimes been criticised as a bug or at the very least as an exploit – but because of the travel mechanics I use, it is very rare that these sales are totally risk-free. So, in my wheel of cheese example – I noticed, while visiting an industrial area in the south of the map, that the sale price of a wheel of cheese was pretty high – presumably because of all the workers demanding good, nourishing home food and the fact that no-one there has the time to make their own cheese. In fact, that rang a faint bell and I think I probably chose that price with exactly that justification.

In the next few places I visited, I kept my eyes open in the markets but didn’t find cheese available at a price lower than that sale price in the industrial location. But when I ventured to North Devon, I found a place that sold wheels of cheese at a great price – I could make a healthy profit on each one I carried. So I did what any self-respecting road pirate would do – jettisoned cheap and unnecessary equipment, hid the good stuff and bought as many cheeses as I could strap aboard my vel.

All was going well as I rode south in the Devon sunshine. Birds singing, cows mooing, Constables tipping their hats to honest cheese salesmen – when I encountered a weird, folkloric event that tossed a spanner into the works. I ended up crashing my velosteam badly and while the cheese was okay, my Ferguson was leaking steam and barely running. I made it to my destination, limping along on partial pressure, and sold the cheese, but then had to find somewhere to mend the machine. I didn’t want to risk going far, so I found a nearby repairman… whose high prices swallowed nearly all my cheese profit. I had made a few shillings and left all my good stuff at the other side of the county.

And I laughed. Because, frustrating though it was, this was exactly the kind of ‘partial success’ that makes a good story. Duncan Thomson has a gamebook underway in which dicerolls explicitly lead to success, failure and partial or flawed success, and it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot. There have been other big wins in the playthrough – a visit to the roadside fair with some lovely prose, a pretty girl and a stat buff – a big sale of my first smuggled firkin of liquor allowing me to buy much-needed customisations for the vel – the escape, by the skin of my teeth, from an island prison – but it is the partial successes that really make me feel like I’m inhabiting something. Another velosteam crash left me with two wasted firkins of whisky and a spoiled quest. An accident while labouring with a steam-chisel in a prison quarry left me with a wound and a heavy Ability debuff, meaning my character is going to become dependent on those powerful pink pills if I want to regain my prowess. I snuck into the Constable’s store to regain my confiscated equipment, but when I got there… ah, I won’t spoil that one for you!

Steam Highwayman isn’t just about the stories I have written in it – it creates stories as you choose within this explorable environment. That’s why I love an open-world gamebook – or an open-world game. From Pirates! Gold to Fable Lands, Skyrim to GTA, I love how our experience turns events – even randomly generated ones – into coherent stories – so long as the world is well-crafted.

And speaking of craft, I’ve put a lot of time into smoothing out the first few hours of gameplay in Princes. I have another set of edits to put into the files and mean to continue with the playthrough and other checks for at least another fortnight. I’ve also had some more feedback on the introduction to the book, spent a lot of time working on shipping costs and been drawing some illustrations for the Guide.

Here’s the Old Devon Inn – the Princes analogue of the Old Exeter Inn in Ashburton. I haven’t actually been there – I couldn’t fit it in on our tour of the west last September – but it is still a bucket list. I mean, they have a painting of one of my great heros on the wall outside!

And on Sunday I won’t be serving at my church but attending the League of Essextraordinary Gentlemen’s Steampunk Shenanigans at the East Anglian Railway Museum at Earl’s Colne, near Colchester. It’ll be my first steampunk event for a year, but a group that I know and like and a location I really enjoy. I’ll be reading – it’ll be the very first reading from Princes – and selling books to the unsuspecting steampunk and non-steampunk public. See you there?

I’ve made progress on the map of Tintagel; scrubbed the map of Plymouth (I didn’t like drawing it) and re-organised the passages for Plymouth in the book so you won’t need a map; sketched out another map to replace it; drawn two guide illustrations (at least 1 more needed); continued the codeword check; priced about half of the shipping.

In the next fortnight I will:

complete proofing the print and create a final edit of Princes of the West!
complete the Touring Guide and order the prints!
complete the maps and order them too!
finalise shipping costs!

Next update due: 16.7.26

June 18

Update 28: Print Proof Ordered

Now we’re really steaming. I completed all the corrections earlier this week and I’ve uploaded the first digital files to Ingram so that I could order a print proof. It should arrive in the next couple of weeks and you’ll be treated to a photo of me holding it in the next update, if all goes well.

Here’s a screenshot of the print order. You can see that the print cost of the book implies a large volume… We’re looking at 438 pages and 2250ish passages.

The book isn’t quite finalised – there are a few gameplay edits still pending, but I want to have a think about these while turning the real pages, and I’ll take the time to have a playthrough as well. You can always catch a few more errors in print too.

However, having digital files ready is a crucial catalyst for the project: it allows me to get a final print cost and book size and weight, which I need to proceed with the shipping preparations. I’ll explain more soon, but rather than use the Kickstarter pledge manager, I’m going to be collecting shipping costs directly through Stripe. It means I can tailor the costs a lot more finely, hopefully keeping shipping to a minimum for all of us! I’ve begun looking at the costs and overall it seems my estimates were fairly good, despite the time that has passed.

But there is one particular shipping option I want to draw your attention to: collection. The final costing of the book and extras has shown that the project is within budget and therefore then there is nothing more to pay if you collect your rewards. When and where? Howabout at Fighting Fantasy Fest 6, on Saturday 5th September, in London, UK?

If you haven’t been, the Fest is the premier convention devoted exclusively to gamebooks – including, of course, the Fighting Fantasy series. However, it has also become a haven for the independent authors of the gamebook renaissance and a great place to meet heros of the medium both past and present. It’s organised by the stalwart Jon Green whose work bridges both the original Fighting Fantasy books and modern independent gamebooks. What a legend.

COLLECTION FORM

If you mean to be there, then use this form to register to collect your rewards in person. Please try and use the same email that you used for your pledge so that I don’t lose your response!

If you can’t make it to the convention but would like to arrange collection in London, UK on a date following 5th September, just put a note in the form.

Otherwise, I’ll be sending out links to collect shipping payments and arrange final addresses in about a month for everyone who wants their rewards delivered to their door. I’ve put a lot of work into shipping costs but they aren’t quite finalised yet.

It was late last year when I first wondered if this was all going to come together in time for FFF6 and I’m pleased to say that I’m on schedule for a complete set of physical rewards by then. The extra adventures may take a little longer or may also be ready in time – I’m not sure.

So what else needs doing? Here’s a longer list of the remaining jobs of the project.

– Acknowledgements

– Complete 2 maps (Plymouth and the siege of Tintagel)

– Write short adventures (Dark, Satanic Mills and Harvest of Death)

– Complete shipping estimates and plan

– Digital decorations for boxes, frames etc

– Look over / improve character sheets

– Codeword check (partly done!)

– Create companion (partly done)

– Order maps

– Complete Touring Guide 2 (about 20 pages to do)

– Draw pubs (at least 3 to draw)

– Order guide folders

– Order guidebooks

– Assemble folders

– Order packaging

– Assemble TG2s

– Order TG1s

– Assemble TG1s

– Chase Wanted Posters

– Create remaining wanted posters

– Set up stripe links for shipping payments

– Update SH1-3 companion

– Update SH1

– Update SH2

– Update SH3

– Update errata

In the next fortnight I’ll be keenly awaiting that print proof, doing the taxes for my wife’s small company (an home education hub) and trying to survive in the heat. I may get to the drawing of the maps or work on the guide – pretty much all of the remaining jobs are pleasant ones and I’m not pressurising myself now.

What’s in the Steam Highwayman’s tankard? A pint of Marston’s Pedigree.

Next update due: 2.7.26

May 22May 19

Update 26: Editing Going Well

I’ve just managed to put two full days into editing Princes of the West and it is exciting to feel the draft nearing a finished state. I’ll give you a window into the process…

I sat down on Monday at around 9am – after tidying away breakfast for the family – and began to work on the Introduction. These pages take a lot of focus – they need to be clear while setting the atmosphere, cover all the crucial systems while not boring a player. For some readers, they’re the first thing they encounter – for others, they’re a reference to find answers for rule queries. Some of you will no doubt skip them, having played Steam HIghwayman before – and then have to return to them to see what exactly they say about the Devon Music Tour…

It took me most of the day to get the Introduction how I wanted it. I also corrected some small issues at the front of the book – typos in the copyright section, a missing icon on one of the maps – while crunching celery and raw carrot to stave off my sugar craving. I incorporated a change to the combat rules that I hope will make fights less punishing after a recommendation from one of you with a background in statistics and responded to a set of thoughts from the first playtesters who saw the draft in April and May 2025.

I’ve begun an investigation into strange grey lines that accompany some of the spot illustrations… These are pesky, spoiling the monochrome clarity of the pages, and unpredictable. Why do they appear in some places and not others? I’m not sure yet – but they also turned up in the previous print of The Reeking Metropolis, so I think they’re an artefact of the conversion into pdf…

While pursuing this, I began formatting the acknowledgements section of Princes – and would have liked to simply copy and paste the formatting from Metropolis – except that – now I reveal a secret – I lost the print-ready .pub file of The Reeking Metropolis some time ago… The version I have is some way off the final printed version, with errors, placeholder images and no paratexts at the back – including acknowledgements. That’s one reason I haven’t released an errata and revised edition of The Reeking Metropolis before now. All my searches on the old laptop – and my various googledrives – turned up blank.

But with the focus of a sunny Monday morning and an empty house (my wife and children had left to go to a home-education meetup), a faint bell rang in my head… Didn’t I use a USB stick for a while? I dug around to see which ones I could find and unearthed a few from odd places – bedside drawer, spare wire pot, spare board-game-piece box.

And there amongst teaching resources was SH3.5 – and my heart leapt with gratitude and joy! I’d just read the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son in Luke’s Gospel to my children, so I had to rejoice. And make multiple copies of the file.

I’ll be releasing a tidier errata list for all previous volumes of Steam Highwayman when I fulfil this project as well as making sure any corrections are incorporated in newly-printed versions.

And many of you actually backed The Reeking Metropolis and are named in the acknowledgements. So – here’s an important point – unless you tell me otherwise, each backer will be acknowledged in the book by: previously-chosen backer name; or Kickstarter provided name. That’s the plan, anyway.

I’ve messaged those of you who are looking to have a Wanted Poster created as a frontispiece for your book (s) and already received the first image in reply – a fearsome, but somewhat foppish, Italian claimant to the title of the Steam Highwayman. If anyone is thinking of the upgrade, it’s not too late. I think these are a great way to personalise your books.

And among the corrections I completed was an inconsistency in the naming of the Cornish revolutionaries. You know how those splinter groups are – barely able to agree on a name, let alone a coherent policy – but in this case I still had fragments of older names betraying my own struggle to give them a name. Were they to be the Free Defenders of Kernow, or the Defenders of Free Kernow? I even found myself referring to them as the Free Forces of Kernow at one point. And then there is the tin of fruit / tinned fruit fiasco. Boy oh boy.

That’s about one day’s work, finishing at 5pm. Then on Tuesday I began at a similar time and focused on the main gameplay passages, screwing myself into the seat until I had reached 500 of the 2250 or so… The sort of mistakes in here varied from typos (nice and easy) to missing passages… For example, passage 147 was entirely absent from the draft but I reckoned I had written it as I had a vague memory of some of the dialogue. I found it in the gdoc draft, pasted it in, matched the formatting, shuffled nearby passages, removed whitespace, replaced larger spot illustrations with smaller ones, renumbered the page tops and sighed in relief that I hadn’t needed to increase the page count. Then there was a broken link that sent me back to the very first part of Princes I planned and wrote in October 2023. Images follow.

The notebook is labelled up for reference, so I found it exactly where it should be and found the original flowchart/network sketch – with annoying gaps in the numbering. But I was able to reconstruct and correct the flow. This is a location that can be reached from two directions and can bounce the player back the way they came, but in the interest of saving passages I used a noted passage mechanic to identify the direction of travel… It was all such a good plan except that at 278 I had instructed a player Wanted by the Haulage Guild to proceed directly to… 278. Doh!

There was a passage I had already passed dealing with the event, but it spat the player out in the wrong direction… And oh yes, another passage with the right orientation. Phew. Plug it in.

The other day on the Discord chat someone came to me with a broken link – they knew it was possible to meet acrobats somewhere in Smog & Ambuscade because I referred to the encounter in later books – and in fact I’ve used the codeword you gain early in the main quest of Princes – but they couldn’t see how to get there. I investigated and discovered that back when editing Smog, around a decade(!!) ago, I had cut a link to save passages – and inadvertently isolated the acrobat encounter, meaning that no-one has ever been able to honestly access it and gain either the fun codeword or the NIMBLENESS +1 bonus… Doh!

Needless to say, I’ll be fixing that.

These wiring issues are almost unavoidable in my writing process. I track my ins and outs and links as best I can but I have to recognise that my method is not infallible. Another reason I’m so grateful for the help provided by readers and playtesters.

I’m sometimes recommended software to try and write in, but even a platform as resilient as Twine struggles with a 1000+, let alone a 2000+, gamebook with the density of variables I use. I’ve certainly improved since writing Smog and I’ve realised that modelling sections on paper is the most reliable thing I can do… So the next two books should be easy to write, eh? And have no errors.

I also began work on the final map that will be included in the Touring Guide – a map of Plymouth – so that feels nice. 2 of the 4 are complete. There’s a bit more drawing to do for the guide itself, particularly some pub illustrations. But I’m certainly nearing the end of this phase.

Which will give me chance to get to the standalone adventures I’m still aching to write – Harvest of Death and Dark Satanic Mills. I had originally thought I could do these while the book was out with playtesters but that hasn’t been how it has worked! You’ll get them, don’t worry. I’ve even referenced two other standalone adventures buried in Princes – they’ve been spotted by at least one eagle-eyed playtester.

What next?

More editing of the main text
More work on the Guide maps
Writing of acknowledgements
Creation of the first Wanted Posters

Next update due: 5.6.26

May 7

Update 25: More completions

The big map is complete and print-ready! I had to stop myself from ordering it immediately – it’ll be better value to order in a complete set along with all the parts for the old and new guidebooks from my printer – but I’m excited, clearly.

I haven’t sat down and begun the corrections yet: on the one hand, there’s been an awful lot of other work to do, and on the other, I must admit I’m a little daunted. But once I’m working through them, I won’t easily be able to stop. The allure of a fourth printed volume is strong… And I might have that precious printed proof in my hands in a matter of weeks now.

I’ve done a little more work on the guidebook, including rearranging maps for the scenic routes and some work on the pub list. This isn’t yet finished, however.

The 100 Endings Playthrough month is going well: there are more than a dozen contributors on Reddit and Discord sharing their ideas about the books, with fresh posts most days. A couple of potential readers have become late-stage backers as a result and there have also been a flurry of map and book orders to dispatch.

I’ll be away at a church conference for part of next week, so there won’t be a large amount of time for more work, but the week following should be a good chance to get down to some of these: I’ve been instructed to turn up for Jury duty at the start of July, so ideally I’ll have the corrections and internals completed by then. It makes a good deadline, eh?

Not much other news: a few bits of family business have needed my attention this week, but I won’t detail them here. I also addressed an online entrepreneurs group last weekend about the lessons drawn from crowdfunding – and noted the importance of creator credibility and communication! And then there’s a friend’s book of poems I’m publishing, with a book launch in London on 23rd of this month.

Thanks for your patience over all this time. Next update due: 22.5.26

May 1May 1

Steam Highwayman featured through May on the 100 Endings Book Club

May is here and it is Steam Highwayman‘s turn to be featured on the 100 Endings Book Club, hosted by Duncan Thomson of Rand Roll.

For the duration of the month, I’m offering a special bundle of the first three books with maps for £45 + shipping and there’s already been a new crop of adventurers ordering their copies so that they can explore the woods and lanes of the midnight road…

As the month progresses, I’ll be lurking on forums, answering questions, offering hints, behind-the-scenes explanations and maybe some pictures of planning maps and things – if you like to know how these gamebooks get created. I plan to be running at least two AMA (ask-me-anything) sessions too – I’ll signpost these.

The main discussion will take place on Discord, with some more on Reddit, and you’re very welcome to see what new explorers make of your old favourites. Mayhaps this’ll prompt some of you faithful backers to pick the books up once more and explore corners never previously reached!

After all…

YOU are the Steam Highwayman!

April 23

Update 24: A look at the big map

Hello everyone. It’s been a good fortnight for Princes of the West. What have I been up to?

Checking in on proofreaders and playtesters ahead of their May deadline.
Working on the maps and guidebook
Unpacking the first printed rewards!

The proofreading and playtesting team have been wrapping up their work and I’m incredibly grateful. I’ve ended up with … around 700 issues to respond to! These aren’t all errors or mistakes and very few of them were gameplay problems, but I’m grateful for all the time that has been spent by keen supporters checking my work, both minimising the mistakes that could cause problems for you when you play the books and getting the pages looking their best.

My plan is to begin the editing in corrections and changes in May – so I should have begun by next update.

The original A2 map design I made was just a bit too short for the map design, so I spent a bit of time on a large ipad doing a digital tracing and drawing to extend the map eastwards. I was pretty happy with that, so I pushed on with the design and ended up with a great-looking design that is nearly finished. Rather like the map for The Reeking Metropolis, I’m including a gazette of locations on the map itself, with grid references for some of the important ones. There’s also going to be at least one in-world advertisement filling in gaps and adding to the lore. Perhaps I can bury a clue in there too?

I also drew up a map for Dartmoor, which is going to be one of the smaller maps in the pack. Whereas in the first one I had three gamebooks to map and offered three A2 maps, this time I have a single – massive – volume, so there’ll be one A2 map and three smaller ones covering different regions or sections of gameplay – I won’t say more right now.

I’ve also been writing the booklet that will accompany the maps and that has given me the giggles, I can tell you. The in-world creator of these guides seems to be a bit clueless about the political situation, though reliable on where to find cheap coalgas for the velosteam.

In my previous update I mentioned the arrival of the first printed rewards – the Adventurer’s Log. The delivery of these was far from simple but I got my hands on 300 copies after ten days or so. They look great and the responses I’ve had really vindicate my decision to put time into producing them. In a way, they act as a little ambassador for the whole project, giving an idea of the sort of quest content in the four books so far.

What’s next?

Throughout May, the 100 Endings Book Club, hosted by Duncan Thomson on Discord and Reddit, are holding a playthrough of Steam Highwayman. I mean to be participating in a couple of AMA (ask-me-anything) sessions as well as hanging out on both forums to advise, hint, tease and generally enjoy my books through other players’ eyes. You’re all welcome to join in – and if any of you are desperately keen to join in but haven’t actually got copies yet, let me know and I’d be willing to split your bundle.

And on the project?