Hello, and welcome back to #MortalRealmsMonday. Emmet here, producer on Age of Sigmar: Soulbound. I hope everyone is keeping safe and well, given the current health crisis. Like the rest of the C7 team, I’ve been working from home the last few weeks which has been a slight adjustment — there’s nothing quite like being around the team to collaborate and build excitement. But we’ve all been keeping in regular contact and haven’t slowed down one bit.

With that in mind, I wanted to share an update. We know everyone is excited about Soulbound and keen to hear news, so this week I wanted to let you know how things are progressing.

What’s in the Book?

When you open the table of contents of Soulbound, you’ll see that there are 13 chapters to sink your teeth into.

Introduction: A short intro to the Age of Sigmar for new players and those who are already fans of the setting. Character Creation: A step-by-step guide on how to create your character. Archetypes: A full list of archetypes to choose from when making your character, each with stunning art and a full page of lore, plus reasons they would become Soulbound. Skills and Talents: This chapter explains the Skills you’ll use in Soulbound, and contains around a hundred Talents, special abilities you can use to really define your character. Equipment: The Mortal Realms are a dangerous place, so you’ll need weapons! This chapter includes rules for weapons and armour, aetheric devices of the Kharadron, Fyreslayer runes, and (most importantly) the price of ale! Rules: How to play the game. Vital to any rulebook. Between Adventures: It’s rare to find a moment’s peace in the Mortal Realms, so you’ll need to make the most of your downtime! The Mortal Realms: Over 40 pages of lore and information on life in the Mortal Realms, an overview of each realm, and the major factions you’ll meet. The Great Parch: A 20+ page setting guide for running adventures in the Great Parch in Aqshy, the starting realm for adventures in Soulbound. Religion and Belief: A guide to worship in the realms, and a look at each of the gods — and what their goals and plans might be. Magic: Magic permeates the Mortal Realms, and the effects of the Necroquake have caused cataclysmic disruption. This chapter presents a guide to magic in the realms, dozens of spells (many of which Warhammer: Age of Sigmar players will recognise), and even rules for creating your own spells. The Gamemaster: Advice for GMs on running adventures and campaigns in the Age of Sigmar. This chapter also includes a toolkit of optional rules you can add to your Soulbound game. Bestiary: There’s always something looking to kill you in the Mortal Realms, and this chapter presents dozens of monsters and creatures for the party to face, including Daemons, Undead, and crazed Grots and Orruks.

Progress

We are now at a stage where every chapter you need to play Soulbound is complete, which is an incredibly exciting time for us all. Of the 13 chapters mentioned above, 12 are fully written and edited — all that remains is the introduction chapter, and implementing a few last pieces of playtest feedback.

The words in a roleplaying game are obviously vital, but what often really draws players in is the art. Soulbound contains over 100 pieces of stunning new art created by over a dozen artists. Of these 100+ pieces of art, only 10 pieces remain to be completed — and then our artists can take a short breather before diving back into the Mortal Realms!

With a large chunk of writing, editing, and art complete, we have been able to start getting the book laid out. Our graphic designers have been working their socks off to get everything in place and bring everyone’s work together, and you’ll be able to see a preview of some of their hard work very soon. 9 of the 13 chapters have gone through initial layout, and now it is a lot of back and forth between myself, our CEO Dom, and our graphic designer Rory to get everything just right.

The last step after a chapter is laid out is to send it to proofing. This is the stage where we aim to catch those typos and layout quirks that have slipped through. At a certain point the core team working on a book max out their capacity to catch errors — this is where an external proofreader is vital! Two chapters have already been through proofing, and we expect to send another 3 or 4 in the next few days. Once all chapters have been proofed, we can bundle everything together and then release it to the wild!

Art by Dániel Kovács

Hurray! … but when?

Trust me when I say we are as keen to release Soulbound as everyone is to play it. Our team is working incredibly hard and haven’t missed a beat with the switch to working from home. We expect all chapters to be fully written, edited, laid out, and proofed in the next few weeks. If everything goes according to plan, we hope to release Soulbound in PDF form by the end of April. It’s obviously a very unusual time right now with the global health crisis, so it is important to remember that this is a best estimate — factors outside of our control may cause delays. If that happens, we will keep you updated.

Be sure to follow our social media channels for more updates, and keep looking after yourself and one another.

Verminlord by Pasi Juhola.

Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd. © Games Workshop 2020