Hello to the lovely (former) readers of Soulforged Dungeoneer!
As of a little while ago, I have started posting a sequel called The Fool's Run. I will warn you, first and foremost, that I... have lost a bit of the levity and humor that made Soulforged Dungeoneer what it was. Not so much that it is gone, gone, but... well, the real world isn't great, and right now I'm unemployed. Things could be worse for me, but it's hard to be quite so spontaneous right now.
But more than that, the story that I'm telling is different in tone. Certainly at the start, and probably a lot of what follows as well. Part of the reason is that it will not be a story told by Jerry Applebee. (I tried, honestly, but it made the time skip so much harder to write well!) I will say that, from the start, I know what the story is, if not all the twists and turns along the way. Hopefully there will be a few good moments of humor and light among the dark, but the situation is simply... different.
TFR Will be following the exploits of former side character Michelle Takoyaki, who for those of you who haven't reread the story in a while, is the Kensei that Jerry helped out in Pearland, the one he dragged into that big mummy fight. The story will be set some years after the end of Soulforged, and as with the start of this book, the opening will not explicitly outline some important facts about how the world has changed.
There are a few good reasons for that:
1. There is a secret about Jerry that I want to keep for a while, and it is one that Michelle legitimately doesn't know - in fact, almost no one does. (The SFD universe rules about secrecy still apply, sorry!)
2. The story is at least partly about a game design I have in my head, and if I tried to exposition dump it, it would be an enormous mess. Don't worry, the reasons why make sense in-universe, I promise.
3. Some of the reveals and not-reveals are going to be really fun.
4. Something that happened to Michelle is also not made immediately explicit, though it doesn't get buried for very long. Like it will be made more explicit very in another chapter or two. Keeping quiet about that, though, is more... well, let's say in-character.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
5. If done right (and maybe I'm not doing it right), it really is a nice storytelling method. The people who like to piece together what's happening in the background get things to play with, and patient people can simply wait until I actually explain it, because I will.
That said, there are three main drawbacks:
1. The update rate is not going to be high, and I can already tell that I'm kind of dropping smallish details that people will forget by the time it comes relevant again. And that sucks! I'm sorry. I'm a little ahead but not enough to have a higher posting rate.
2. Some people, especially new readers, will feel like context is lacking to explain some of what's actually going on. My goal is for SFD readers to be able to understand everything that I am not keeping a deliberate mystery. If you feel like I've missed that mark, please let me know.
3. If you are trying to figure out the design of the Run from context clues, before it's canonically described, it's probably going to seem like a confusing mess. There is one word in particular that I don't say for a while, which will help put the rest of the design in context, and people who have played or watched a certain type of game may be able to guess from the title image. So why am I not saying it? Well, mostly to be a dick, I guess. I'm sure it will end up in the comments spoiling people soon enough. Currently it doesn't come up until Ch 14, and this announcement is going up alongside Ch 7. Anyway, when Michelle finally goes back into the Run, it will all make sense.
The timing of this announcement, alongside Ch 7, is mostly so that existing readers who binge those chapters can at least get a nice solid glimpse of some of the things I've left hidden so far. That chapter also more or less canonically explains the name of the book, or rather, makes explicit the name's second meaning.
I might suggest (though it is not required) that you reread SFD; if you don't, there is a brief recap chapter. If you feel like it's missing anything, please leave a comment there.
I hope that many of you will find the new book to your liking. I suspect many won't, and I don't take it personally! My writing is strange, and I am strange. The book is strange, the world is strange, Jerry and Michelle are strange... and none of that is bad. But it may not be for everyone.
At the time this notice drops, my Patreon will also have 10 advance chapters of TFR, and I will try to maintain that, or make it larger if I get further ahead on writing. I also made a Patreon post containing terminology and so on introduced in TFR for those who are not keen on keeping track of the details. That's included with the TFR collection and can be purchased separately.
