Wednesday, December 23, 2015

2015 Year in Review

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2015 is almost over and its time to look back over this year and forward to the next. It has been a fun year writing for the site and I think the current schedule works for me. With my Actual Plays behind me (at least the ones with transcriptions), I'm hoping to put more work into some more elaborate projects.

Blog Year in Review

Here are some of the highlights (at least I see them) from my writing this past year:
  • Rosebriar: I enjoyed detailing my fictional Changeling: the Lost setting and I'm hoping this year to compile the articles into a single pdf.
  • Sample Sanctums: this series on modern-day wizard hideouts was well received and I think I will do something similar in the future.
  • GenCon 2015: the convention was a blast but also likely my last for some time. This year I'll be at DunDraCon and perhaps another Bay Area convention.
  • Reviews: I did many game reviews this year and I hope to add more this year. Next up will be some classic games (Amber Diceless) and some new (Fate) with a few others I hope to try this year.
  • 50 Shades of Vampire: I noticed that updating old bloodlines got more attention than average so I'm sure I'll revisit this. The well isn't dry yet but I am going to let it sit for a bit.
  • The Climbers: While I didn't reach my goal of 20 sessions, I think the campaign was a success and I learned a lot about where I need to improve. I need a little breather before I run another Apocalypse World powered game but I think that system is going to be one of my gotos.
  • Double Feature Horror Reviews: I didn't see much buzz from this and each article took a bit of time. On the other hand I enjoyed expanding my horror movie watching. I'll probably do this again but on a smaller scale and with more of a common theme. Maybe mummy movies.

Games for Next Year

So what is up for next year? This year I managed to try most of the games I wanted with the exceptions of Kingdom and Hillfolk (though I might be able to fix the latter gap at DunDraCon). The question now is what systems do I want to delve deeper into.

My exposure to GUMSHOE thus far suggests that I could easily hack it to do most of the stories I want (it's just short of Fate in that way). But there is not much new intrinsic to the system once you get past the mystery solving component (which I already used incorporated into a previous World of Darkness game).

Fate, for its part, breaks immersion too much for me to be my regular game. I have definite game ideas where it would work best but as a system of choice it is lacking.

So my main systems will be World of Darkness (flexible and with a wealth of game ideas) and the various Apocalypse World games (low prep and fast play). I also plan to split those systems between my local (horror adverse) and remote groups. So once my online group completes destroying the vampire conspiracy in Night's Black Agents sometime early next summer, we'll move to some combination of Beast, Mage, or Demon.

Locally I'm considering possibly a cyberpunk (the Sprawl) or urban fantasy (Urban Shadows, low on the horror angle) games. The one complication is that my local players are expecting their own little one next year and that may limit our gaming heavily. I might end up having to recruit new players, thus changing the entire set up.

Gaming with Baby

Or as it will soon be: Gaming with Toddler.

Things are working out here. I've carved out 1.5 hours between the end of work and when my son gets picked up from daycare for myself plus up to 2 hours after his bedtime. That should hopefully give me plenty of time for my projects and writing.

Writing Plans

This is part about the blog and part about some new horizons.

For the blog I don't expect much to change. There will be no more dialog filled Actual Plays (unless I find a good software answer for transcription) but synopsis-style blogs with notes for rule usage and game master decisions will continue. I plan to keep a similar schedule to this years: every Monday (following a given theme for some months) and Friday, alternating between campaign recaps and whatever random ideas I have (mostly reviews, game mastering theory and random thoughts).

As for new stuff, I'd like to work on my own fiction writing. It's been many many years since I wrote purely for fiction purposes and not as part of prep for a game or for a blog. But I know I can produce much more material than I currently do for the blog. I've been looking at freelance writing. I'd like to dedicate that free time to material that might someday be published, whatever that might mean.

Related to that subject, one project I hope to complete soon is to compile some of my larger series of articles into pdfs for easy distribution. Specifically I have a couple of World of Darkness adventures and my Changeling setting. Expect one of more of them some time in the first half of the year.

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