PTFO's next campaign will be... Proper Villains!

Duskwall, here we come.

The news is in the headline: Proper Villains is the Condorcet¹ winner of the Pilot Season 2024 poll. The next campaign will take us to Duskwall where we will follow the exploits of the Jessek family.

The Bluecoats are out in force tonight. // Source: Midjourney

My plan is to play through enough sessions of Proper Villains to get us to a satisfying season break, which, in the case of PTFO: Stonetop, took us about 7 months. Then, we’ll do another pilot for the Summer season, which could be more Stonetop, more Proper Villains, or a whole new thing!

The results, in detail

This poll was by a very large margin the most-voted poll in PTFO history — the previous high water mark was when Anwen, during her duel with Owain, was faced with the decision to offer him exile or to fight him to the death. For that decision, 23 readers made the choice to offer mercy.

For this choice, a whopping 53 readers offered their input on what world and story PTFO should explore next. Thank you so much to all those who read the pilots and voted, your time and attention are hugely appreciated, and they help make PTFO what it is — a story where none of us truly know how things will end.

Here are the detailed results of the poll, from CIVS:

This is what real democracy looks like // Source: CIVS

You can see how each pilot stacked up to its competitors by comparing column and row — 28 people preferred Proper Villains to the next highest-ranked option, which was more PTFO: Stonetop. That Devil, Sam Crow and Heartsworn were our dark horses, though they still stacked up pretty well, all things considered.

Proper Villains Premiere Date: January 28th

I’m going to ease back into the weekly fiction output and target 1/28 for Proper Villains’ premiere. It is possible I will come in ahead of schedule and publish on 1/21, but I wanted to have a little wiggle room in case the next two weeks are busier than expected at work and home. I can’t wait to roam the mean streets of Duskwall with you folks — have a great January, and I’ll see you in your inboxes soon!

1. The candidate that defeats all other candidates in head-to-head comparisons of their rankings, named after French philosopher and mathematician Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis of Condorcet.