It’s been a couple of months since I last touched Nobles & Glory. The project went quiet, and I suppose I did too. I wanted to take a moment to explain why, especially for the few people who have been following along and wondering where it went. The reason for the pause was that my mum passed away. It wasn’t entirely unexpected; she’d lived her whole life with a condition that put her on borrowed time from childhood. The fact that she made it into her sixties was a testament to her strength. I’d always planned to dedicate the book to my mum; Not because she had any particular interest in medieval politics or the eccentricities of asymmetric deckbuilding, but because she loved card games, books, and puzzles. She would have understood what I was trying to do, and I wanted her to be proud of me for finishing it. I only ever hinted at the book once or twice to her; maybe because I wanted it to be a surprise. I’ll never know. But I do know she would have smiled at the dedication.
Her passing didn’t hit me all at once; I’m fairly stoic by nature, and the way I coped was by distracting myself with other pursuits. I threw myself into 3D printing, and even started designing small games that could be printed and played that way; but that also meant Nobles & Glory was gathering dust. But now I’m ready to pick it back up. The playtesting is done and I’m happy with where the rules have landed. It’s time to move into Affinity Publisher, to start putting the book together properly. The next chapter of the project is about publishing.
Here’s a photo of me and my mum at a Medieval Fair – circa 2003…
