[This Branch is Closed]

Hey everyone, Science here.

Yeah, it's been a while. Last time I posted was well over a year ago. I can assure you, I have tried to pick this story up time and time again. I wanted to continue my tale with John and the runic power system, and had a lot of cool plans in the background. Twists and turns, sadness and happiness, and of course plenty of smutty times to be had.

But as you can tell from the title of this Chapter, that has changed.

I'll be frank, this branch is closed. While I am not saying it is gone FOREVER, I don't know if I will ever return to it. When I started this branch way back in 2019, I was in a very different point in my life. I was still in college, learning who I was, and I had just started taking creative writing seriously. And I had the most tremendous honor of getting to write for this story! I wanted to put myself out there and prove that I could be a serious writer and make something substantial.

But my talents at the time were, to put it mildly, unrefined. My planning for stories was subpar and my handling of certain things not in the best light. Hell, one of the characters in this story was named after an ex-girlfriend who broke up with me as a way for me to process them leaving! Another character was named after a professor I hated! I was a different person then and have grown. This branch is not a good representation of what I can do, and picking it up would be quite difficult at this point.

Additionally, the ideas I did with this story have some problems. I was not writing a branch of "The Gamer", I was instead writing a fantasy series that was lightly seasoned with elements from "The Gamer." However, I did plan to incorporate more mechanics that would make John more like "The Gamer", but because I didn't establish those from the outset, I was really struggling to get them all to work. I basically procrastinated half of the things I needed to create for this story until I only had a few chapters left before they were extremely necessary. Over and over again did I try to write the story only to be met with frustration and anger and just burnout. It was starting to kill my love for writing, and so I put it on indefinite hiatus and walked away.

Since then, I have found new stories to write and new ways to expand my skills. I've gotten to write some silly things and not so silly things on Ao3, and found my love and passion again for the written craft. My co-author has done a lot when it comes to getting me back into the swing of things and helping me keep to a set schedule of writing. I can look at things I wrote a while ago and be more proud, and can be happy with what I write.

So, after some careful consideration, I have decided that, at least for now, the Runic Mage branch of The Gamer will come to a close. I will not be continuing this branch for the foreseeable future.

However, this isn't a permanent goodbye.

See, I still like "The Gamer." I like the concepts and I like the community. I like envisioning John Newman gaining powers through video game like mechanics and exploring the Abyss.

I also like writing still. In fact, I love it.

And so, around a month ago, I started work on something new. A new branch for the Gamer. It still needs some work before it launches, and of course needs some editing, but I think it will work a lot better than the Runic Branch. It will be published under a new username, so keep an eye out for an author named "JustABitOfWarpstone" publishing chapters here soon. And by soon I mean, hopefully, before the year is out.

But you don't want just some promises of what is to come. You don't want just to hear hints of what will be. You want a sample. A nice taste to wet the palate for a new Gamer branch.

This is unedited, and may be different in the final product. So do forgive any grammatical or spelling issues, but as a final goodbye, here is a little taste of what is to come.

Enjoy.

Oh shit, John really hit a nerve.

John could see Frank’s face getting redder, hear Frank’s teeth grinding and watched his veins pop as rage took over Frank’s every cell. There was a part of John that wondered if Frank would explode, sending chunks of gore and viscera all over through sheer anger. “OH YOU ARE FUCKING DEAD NEWMAN!” Frank yelled. John clenched his fists before taking a deep breath and steadying himself. He could feel his body slide into his proper stance all on its own. He could hear each heartbeat echo in his ears as his body prepared for the fight, smell the sweat of those around him intermingling with the grass of late summer, taste the air of late autumn as he put his fists up in front of his face.

"Counterpuncher" activated!

"Lock the Fuck In" activated!

John smiled. “Bring it.”