ShoH Update (December #1) (Patreon)

Hi everyone, happy holidays!!! <3

After a very hectic few weeks, I am now safely situated at our new place in NYC! The Big Apple! 🍎 Still getting my bearings, so unfortunately, I was not able to work on ShoH for the past week since I was busy packing, working, and spending time with family and friends for the holidays (and there were FIVE birthdays on the same day)! 

This is the first time in a while that I haven't been able to get to ShoH, and playing catch-up with work and getting settled into the new place makes me anticipate not being able to write for the next few days, either. Needless to say, though, I'm itching to get to it, but there's at least lots of content that was added in the last few weeks! That assuages my guilt just a little, lol!

Currently I'm planning on writing Red and Ayla's introduction scene next. Going through old drafts and outlines of ShoH for last month's Q&A had me realizing that Ayla went through several iterations of her own chapter before being folded into the Mage's Circle in Capra... these iterations varied wildly from finding her in her desert home village (which would be suffering from a water shortage) or Lavinet's own town as part of an Elemental rebellion! I would toy with maybe giving her her own chapter still, except I just feel like those missions lack the same substance and luster as the others... like they'd be there just to be there, not because I felt passionately about them or really gunned for their impact on the story. And it would also introduce Ayla later into the sequence, which would make the appearance count of each character uneven again! So... long story short, I won't be doing that, haha.

I am (tentatively) having ideas about doing another short side-game like Soldiers of Hael, where you'd play as a Mage student attending the academy at Capra before the Castigation. I'm currently in "school mode" after this post and the recent release of Creme de la Creme, and I think this could be a fun way for players to leave easter eggs for themselves to find in the present when MC explores the Circle at Capra in Shepherds of Haven!

This is all very tentative, though, because I mostly just have fun ideas for choices like what dorm or class schedule you'd pick and not an actual conflict or anything... so we'll see if I can work on it in between work, writing ShoH, and exploring New York!

Finally, for those in the Captain and Commander tiers, a commission for the Briony and Croelle tarot cards is underway and those will be done very soon! They look GORGEOUS, so I can't wait to show them to you in due time! For everyone else, you'll get to see them in the game when you max out your relationships to those characters! :)

Sorry there's not too much to report on this week! But in the meanwhile, I'd just like to remind everyone that the ShoH Holiday Contest ends this month, on December 31st! All you have to do to enter is PM me a contest entry with your name and country of residence, detailing your favorite aspect of Shepherds of Haven! You could win a curated gift box with a Shepherds of Haven bookmark (just saw the first mock-ups, and they're amazing!), an Amazon Echo Dot, or a cash prize! More details here!

Thanks for reading, as always, and I hope everyone is having a cozy, warm, and happy start to their December! <3 And if you have any favorite holiday recipes to share, or any recommendations for things to do (eat) in NYC, please comment below! 

Until next week!