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 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, and making it into her sixties showed how strong she was. I’d always planned to dedicate the book to my mum. She had no particular interest in medieval politics or the eccentricities of asymmetric deckbuilding, but 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 hinted at the book to her once or twice, 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 I coped by distracting myself with other things. I threw myself into 3D printing and even started designing small games that could be printed and played, which meant Nobles & Glory was gathering dust. 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 and start putting the book together properly. The next chapter of the project is publishing.
Here’s a photo of me and my mum at a Medieval Fair – circa 2003…
