Hello! This is episode 1 of a new blog idea I’ve had. Long story short, I start a lot of projects, and may of them go nowhere. But my wheels spin on those and it’s hard for people to see my thoughts. And I do like people being able to see me being clever. So, as an accountability journal, Imma gonna blog! And you can find this on my website, on Deviantart, or on my Patreon. Maybe other places? Idk, we’ll see how much traction these get. Please comment if I have a project that you’re interested in. That helps me keep it alive.
Spelljammer
First, the project I made the most headway on. My Spelljammer rebuild is “done.” Published is a better name for it, as I’ve already made some additions. This ruleset was needed for my Tuesday game, and I finally got it out for players to interact with. Now I need to make an interesting race using these rules, and have that ready for Tuesday, in case my players are ready to rumble. I posted the file on MagpieArcanum.com, my newish RPG blog that I was super excited about a year ago. (We’ll see what I can do to reawaken that.)
Project: Welcome to Gotham aka the Batman Campaign
If you’re hearing of this for the first time, I’ll try to have more details up for next week. Basically, a “What if the players were Batman?” superhero campaign. No real traction this week, except that I realized in connection to the next Project point, the Gotham campaign is going to be for at most 4 players. 2 or 3 is probably best. Which tells me a lot about the groups I can run this for.
Batman has been on the backburner while I focus on Spelljammer. I’m afraid that I’ll have to keep things going slow while I gear up for Free RPG Day. My next big task is to build me a map of Gotham City, and I have no idea of how I want to do that.
Upcoming RPG Game
Back in January, I offered to a person I see at the gamestore to run a game for her 4 kids. I’ve run for them before and they’re kinda cool. But then they were busy with school and the idea wasn’t touched again, until this week. I need to decide if this is still a game I want to run (I think it is?) and all of the details about that. Which means a survey, in my mind. They’d have a bit too many players for my Batman game, so I need to look at my bag of tricks and see what resonates. (It’d be very convenient if they’re inspired by a spelljamming ship-focused pointcrawl game. Just sayin’)
TG Sagas
My thoughts on Sagas are still complicated. I had an idea for a sphinx character, who transforms people with riddles, but then I couldn’t think of any riddles that made my heart sing. If you saw my animatic of Rachael’s Vlog, that was for this project. Enough changed with the group that I lost my momentum for that character’s story (losing a recording I never saved didn’t help either.)
The Balloon Factory
I’ve been talking with Geminim a lot the last couple weeks, and we’ve been tossing around ideas for a comic-focused group that I’ve taken to calling The Balloon Factory. We have no idea as to what this will end up being. Do comics need a meta-game to help with motivation? Do we know people who are interested in comics that aren’t Transformation Fiction focused? Is it possible for me to write a guideline on AI usage that won’t make a bunch of people hate us? Who is the target audience?
There’s a lot of questions that we’re still figuring out. And maybe I’ll test run a few thoughts under this group name.
Other Comics
Hey, for this update, let me go through some comic projects that i’ve been in various states of not working on…
- SLOG: On Hiatus. Not sure what my blocker is on that game. I have had thoughts today about an MTG format called Cube, and that could help? I might also just be in the weird space between game and story, and the weird space between a story with a solo protagonist and how it changes when they meet people. I think I have a sketch of a new page somewhere?
- Racheal Redd, Pixie Ranger: My pause here comes a bit from story uncertainty, and a bit from realizing how cringy my parasocial relationship with some people has been. I probably also need to watch more Star Trek to get my muse flowing.
- Rachael in Pokemon: I had some thoughts about the opening of the new chapter recently, but I haven’t had a good writing session.
- A Little Geeky Underneath: I don’t know the point behind the LitRPG elements. I like the characters, regret some of the story bits, and I’m less sure on the art. I want to return at some point, but what do I have to say?
- Change is Good: I read a book recently that sort of reminds me of a plot I was doing with CIG. Not sure if anyone ever saw those pages, but there might be something there?
- Transformation Card Game: I’ve been making a TF card game off and on, designed to be used in comics and stories. I should do a story that uses it, at some point.
Other Games
- Transformation Card Game: I ran a playtest a few weeks ago, and I have a lot of design notes. The players didn’t have a feel for what I was trying for. Maybe a comic could help? idk. But I think its a good game and will be better when I mix in To Change as a resolution mechanic.
- Pendragon x Cultivation: The honor system from Pendragon lights up similar parts of my brain that reading cultivation stories do.
- e20 Monster Conversion: They like tripled the number of monsters available in the new SRD. I intend to update my document but haven’t felt the fire. It’s on my radar though (especially since I’m pretty sure I can post a Kofi link without guilt)
Other Thoughts
- OSP did a big dive into a rewatch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 1, the first 6 movies, and it was inspiring, and really amazing to listen to. I might need to do a watch party some time…
- I’ve realized that it’s been a while since I’ve found a new webcomic. However, I find a new webnovel once a week. Not sure what to conclude from that.
- I went through my spending habits recently and know how much I spend on fast food. They are not happy numbers. I need to get better at this…
- My gamestore job is still my dream job, even with how annoying TCGs are. I just finished a 30-minute discussion about crazy alternate Magic formats, and I wouldn’t trade this for the world.
Skraz
I think that’s it for me this week. I have some exciting things floating around my head. If only I can catch them and let them carry me oh so far.
Have a good week!
Matt