One Year Later

It’s been exactly one year since I launched Reclaim the Wild to the public. I figured this would be a good time to reflect on the past year.

So, forgive me while I indulge in reflecting on the good things that’ve happened in the past year for Reclaim the Wild. You can find my recap of the past year below!

The PDfs of the rulebooks have been downloaded tens of thousands of times, and that doesn’t include when friends send the PDFs to one another privately. That’s a lot of people showing interest in the game! Not only that, it’s been featured on websites, videos, and charity streams.

Back when the system launched, I set a goal for myself: a new article, with new content or helpful advice, every two weeks. By my count, we’ve also published 10 GM Advice articles and 21 Homebrew Additions, which more than meets that self-imposed goal.

(Going forward, we might be serving up fewer articles per-month. I’d like to spend more of my dwindling free time on the system proper! And now that I’ve reached my self-imposed goal – and gotten some of the most pressing homebrew ideas out of my head and out to the public! – I don’t think there’s as much pressure to keep up that twice-a-month pace. …Though if we end up publishing that many articles this year, I won’t complain.)

The system faced its greatest challenge in August, when we learned that our methods of procuring artwork for the books were unacceptable. We apologized for our actions, removed the non-permissioned art from both the rulebooks and the website, and committed ourselves to procuring art the right way. We’ve also beefed up the attribution of art in the rulebooks, providing both page numbers in the Artist Credits, and providing an attribution directly adjacent to each image.

Between that, and my real life getting busier, system development slowed down significantly in the back half of the year. Fortunately, new developer Milly (and the whole Discord mod team!) was there to keep track of new feedback, answer questions, and be a positive influence on the community. With their help, we organized my haphazard notes for future development, and made it more easily accessible to the mod team. We also “bus-proofed” the system – so even if I disappear from the face of the internet, the website, Discord chat, and the PDFs can all continue in my absence.

Speaking of the community, we’ve seen a fair few people creating new content for the system. People making new races, spells, items, and even whole-new systems, like ships for Wind Waker- and Phantom Hourglass-style games. We’ve seen people working to translate the system into French, Spanish, and Korean, too, hoping to bring the game to their own communities.

But most important of all these things, is the players. We’ve heard stories of people talking about the system at car dealerships, building birthday parties around it, and switching their usual monthly or weekly campaigns to Reclaim. Seeing people excited about the system, running it for their friends and family, and then letting us know they had a good time – that’s what it’s really all about.

So: Thanks to everyone – players, community members, mods, visitors, and everyone else – for making 2019 a year to remember for Reclaim the Wild. For 2020, may your sessions happen when they’re scheduled, may your players be just the right amount of crazy, and may your Zelda adventures be fun and numerous. (And hey, maybe we’ll hear more about that Breath of the Wild sequel? One can hope!)