Seven Years In The Making...

Releasing WEGS 101 this summer is going to be a major milestone. It is the culmination of a seven year journey in game design and play testing.

Yes... Seven years!

WEGS officially took serious form in 1999. The players in my gaming group had been complaining about my nameless ad-hoc rule system for some time. Taking this as a challenge I delivered the aptly titled WEGS 99 to them in July 1999. It was a 60 page spiral bound notebook with a clear plastic cover. It was a superb garage gamer publication!

WEGS 99 included all the base rules of the system I had been knocking around with for a couple of years. The core mechanics of the system were tight. The character generation was sweet. The combat was diabolically brutal. And, so, using these rules, we officially began a-WEGS-ing. From that point forward there was no other system for us. We played it like mad - and the rules changed. More complaints. I issued the next big update.

WEGS 2K was released in February 2000. This book was given to my players in a three ring binder (in anticipation of rules updates). Page count was 53 pages and an additional 20 pages of Skills and Spells.

The same cycle occurred. We played like mad and ended up with a ton of new rules, cool skills and began using spoints! A year later came the release of the WEGS Millennium Edition (March 2001). It was comparable in size to 2K. It was simply stapled in the upper left corner and had a heavy cover stock. A really classy publication.

The final re-haul of the rules didn't come for another four years. This release was a big one.

I knew this was the one I was going to print with.

The long-awaited WEGS Copper was released to my gaming group in August of 2005. This was the version that was ready to be launched upon the world of sword-n-sorcery gaming. We began demoing the game that fall at local gaming conventions and clubs. From the feedback of the folks who joined us for our games, the game was great fun. Complete strangers were playing WEGS and enjoying it! That is an endless source of satisfaction for me.

Within all this excitement, I set my sights at getting the game ready for self publishing. I was going to be an indie game designer. WEGS would make it's official debut at GenCon 2006!

But, in the end, Copper did not go to print...

To be continued...