It has been almost two weeks
since I last posted. Work has been
pretty hectic with extra hours and extra days recently but it always picks up
during the winter in the bus industry. I
am just thankful that I have one of the “easier” jobs instead of the back
breaking labor that others are doing all day.
We are on holiday leave until Jan 6th so I plan on getting
back to regular posting. In an effort to
do some catching up, here are some snapshot thoughts on various subjects.
Posts & Traffic
My last post was the 300th
post to this blog and there have been almost 45,000 page views since the
start. I know some of the traffic is the
result of random search results but there are others that could be considered
faithful readers and I appreciate it.
Thank you all for stopping by and also for commenting when the mood
hits. Even if we disagree, I enjoy
reading the other viewpoints and experiences.
A Look Back
Starting this blog was a random
thing for me. I have always enjoyed
writing but it isn’t always easy for me.
Once I get started it seems like words flow pretty easy but getting
started is definitely the hardest part for me.
It often feels like I drag the words out while they are holding on
kicking and screaming the whole way. If
I can keep up the writing it is much easier but if I go weeks on end then it
becomes difficult again. I would assume
that – like any skill – you have to exercise it to keep it up to snuff.
The Way Ahead
I began blogging with real no
plan in place. I just started posting
about Adventures in Fantasy and went off in other directions for the content of
other posts. While random ideas and
concepts served me well for some time, there is something to be said for having
a plan with a goal in sight. I am going
to try to get back on track with committed posts planned out – not sure of the
frequency – to eliminate the mostly random nature of my blog posts.
Adventures in Fantasy
I started this blog by examining
Arneson’s Adventures in Fantasy game. I
got sidetracked and I still owe any interested readers the final post or two
for this game. I stated the same thing
earlier this year and have yet to fulfill that goal. I am
making a commitment to complete that series of posts before the end of January
2014. I also have other resources for this game that I would like to make
available – reference sheets and a character sheet, specifically. I have even
tossed around the idea of making a game in reaction to Adventures in Fantasy
similar to the way that Tunnels & Trolls was written largely as a reaction
to D&D.
Perilous Journeys & SteamCraft
I am a fan of both of these games
from Perilous Journeys Publishing. I
converse with the author on a pretty regular basis. I am hammering out some fan support for both
of these games and will post them on my blog in the coming months.
The OSR
I am a fan of the movement and I
definitely appreciate their efforts. The
professionally published games I have really been drawn to lately are Dungeon
Crawl Classics RPG and Swords & Wizardry Complete; I plan on putting up
some resources for both of these systems in the coming months. Those two games really show both ends of the
clone spectrum as far as I am concerned – one is closer to “by the book” and
the other is closer to “by the spirit” – and I will probably hold off on
purchasing any more of these types of games unless something really knocks me
off my feet.
That does not mean I am not
interested in other clone games. I
really need to take a closer look at Raven Crowking’s work and I would be
really interested in seeing a full blown game by Venger Satanis after seeing
some of his other work and through conversations we have had. I am also currently working on a Toldara
sourcebook for the Back to the Dungeon RPG by Eldrad Wolfsbane. For the most part, however, I believe there
are probably enough of the core retro-clone systems available at this
point. I hope the movement starts
spawning more supplementary material, more speculative material, and more
neo-clone material.
D&D Next
I saw earlier that D&D Next
will be released in 2014. I will
definitely do the cheapest buy in possible to check out the final design. I am interested but I am also a little
standoffish about the final product. I
am not confident in their “one system to unite all D&D fans” goal and I am
pretty skeptical about how this will work in application. It will be interesting to see how it plays
out next year. I am sure that it will
sell like crazy initially and will most likely knock Pathfinder off the top
spot for a short while. Let’s see what
happens after the hype dies down…
Other Games
Now, more than ever, I am curious
about breaking out and playing other games.
I want to see how USR handles in actual play. I am also interested in breaking out my copy
of RIFTS and giving it another go. After
reading the game reports from Venger Satanis I am really interested in picking
up the Vampire:the Masquerade 20th Anniversary edition because I
missed the original wave of popularity and I have become increasingly
interested in the game over the years.
Unfortunately, most of my gaming experience these days is purely
academic. It is rather difficult at
times to coordinate schedules to get people together and my wife works on the
weekends at night so online gaming can be a real challenge with two young
children at home; my 7 year old is autistic and that can be demanding at
times. Please, don’t forget about me
when sending the Google+ Hangout game invitations because one of these days I
am going to make it!
Board Games
I do not have a tremendous amount
of experience with board gaming; I enjoy RISK and Axis & Allies. Even though I have relatively little
experience with board gaming, I do have some concepts for board games that I am
working on with other bloggers. Progress
is going to be slow and there is a high probability that neither will ever get
completed. As much as the idea intrigues
me, I am falling short on expanding ideas.
I have learned that when it comes to board games I can come up with
concepts and ideas for the game but when it comes down to the nuts and bolts
design there is something not clicking.
The End
That should just about cover it
for now. I am curious to see what the
next year brings to the blogosphere. I
enjoy reading your posts and I hope to continue to produce more “good” than
“bad” posts. I know not every post is
going to be gold and that is fine with me.
It is beneficial to get the clutter out of my head so I can move on to
writing the next post. I have put you
through enough of my rambling and now it is time to post this so I can catch up
on some of blog reading…
I thought sure this was going to be a post saying you're done blogging! I'm glad that's not true. I'd never thought much about Steampunk games till your numerous posts about them. But are you sure they don't plan on releasing D&D Next in 2114 instead of 2014? I'm sure they want to playtest it another 100 years at least, it's been nearly that already hasn't it? I don't think I'll notice it if it does appear. There's just too many interesting games coming out from indie game writers; I especially like the free rules-lite games.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yeah, the frequency of posts may fluctuate but I'm here for the long haul. You are correct - way too many interesting games coming out from others - to get too caught up in the D&D Next thing. I will look, of course, but there are far too many options available today to just settle. There's a ton of neat little games that would be a blast to play and read. I follow the Hackenslash RPG development group on Google+ and the author is doing some neat stuff with a 2D6 fantasy game. That's just one example.
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