I spent a few hours this evening reviewing what condition First Contact (2e version of the Menagerie) is in based on where the 2e Campaign Guide ended up, and things look promising. Most of the rules that were already written during the development period are still sound, and now it's just a case or rearranging them into a cohesive form.
The design decision from the last six months are going to have lasting effects on how we approach future products. This means breaking the rules down to be easier to handle, and removing extra "levers" that only add complexity without any meaningful increase in fun value.
For example, the Orders of Life that I had planned for First Contact are being folded back in as traits, and the trait system itself is going to eliminate a lot of the "trap" options that we've discovered over the years. I'm also eliminating the concept of having multiple levels of a trait, so everything will have one flat effect. The net effect is that we can better control the outcomes and provide a bit wider range of traits than before.
