Hey all…
It’s June. And it’s June 11th. Which is a bit later in the month than I like to do these update things. Which also suggests how things might be going.
Let me get this out of the way first. And get it done with quickly. I am continuing to recover from the chaos of the past year of my life. Those of you who care already know what-all I’m talking about. Those of you don’t can just skip to the next session. I’m going through a rather tumultuous period right now. I was up for a while and had a frenzy of getting back on schedule and then decided that meant everything was going well and I could push extra hard on some other things. And then I took a bit of a downturn. Which is perfectly normally. Both physical and mental health recoveries are roller coaster rides. While they generally, hopefully, trend upward, there’s a lot of highs and lows, and even after things seem to have stabilized, there’s always setbacks. And I’ve taken some positive steps this months to continue my recovering. It’s personal. Just know that I continue to take active steps to improve and that I am going through a normal and healthy recovery process. Despite the setbacks.
Thank you all for the continued support and encouragement. And especially thank you to the super secret team of folks I’ve dubbed The Angry Games Board who continue to help me with accountability and encouragement. And thank you to the players in my various campaigns for your patience as I continue to struggle.
While I’ve managed to keep my articles coming on a weekly basis instead of flinging out a whole bunch at the end of the month, I still have little schedule disturbances due to the aforementioned instability above. This week is another. This week’s Feature won’t be ready until Friday. There’s a couple of reasons. One of which I’ll get to below. Others are personal.
I haven’t quite decided which order to release what. These two things are definitely coming…
True Campaign Managery: Clubhouse Rules (Esp. Scheduling, Attendance, and Lateness)
True Scenario Designery: The Four Fundamentals of Game Design/Designing with a Purpose
The third Feature this month will be a one off. And I’m weighing two options, which means, if you work fast, you can have some input on which one comes out this month and which one comes out next month or possibly gets forgotten forever.
True Open Worlds: Why trying to emulate open-world games in tabletop roleplaying games is a stupid-ass thing to do.
Sportsmanship: Being afraid to offer gameplay advice, being offended by people’s gameplay advice, teamwork, courtesy, and other basic-ass stuff your players should have learned by playing dodgeball in elementary school but didn’t and now they’re fighting while you’re trying to run a game.
Got an opinion? Let me know. But comment quick. Because I’ll be making a choice in the next 24 to 48 hours.
The Angry Hacks series has become a serious thorn in my side. Less because of the design work and more because of the presentation and publication issues. I’ve talked a bit about my vision for the series before so I won’t rehash it here. Suffice to say I want to put out publication-quality downloadable content, not just articles. And, while the writing, editing, and proofing has been more demanding, it’s the graphical design and layout issues that are becoming a massive hang up.
And so, I’ve made the decision to outsource half the stress. Last week, I approached a graphic designer to help me iron out that side of the project. That should break the block and it also puts a firm deadline on things for me. Basically, we’re working with a six-week lead time. That means the first Angry Hack will not arrive this month, but that it will be done before the end of July.
And once that hurdle is cleared, future Hacks can follow on a regular basis, either every other month or every month depending on the size of the Hack.
And I realize with One D&D’s release date fast approaching, I’m gonna have to figure out how that changes the whole Hack thing. And whether Wizards of the Coast will sue me over it.
I will be hosting this month’s Mostly Monthly Live Chat on Wednesday, June 19 at 7:30 PM EDT. If you’re a supporter and want to propose topics or ask questions for the chat, there is a thread in The Angry Discord. Check the #live-chat-text-channel if you don’t see it.
Last month, I started working more actively on Slapdash once again. I’ve been more active in #club-slapdash in The Angry Discord and I even updated the Club Slapdash Design Blog. One time. I have more updates forthcoming, but, as I noted above, my schedule still isn’t quite as stable as I wish it was. I do know the the next two Design Blog topics, if you want them…
Resolving Tasks… and how that’s different from resolving actions or resolving skills.
The Awesome Slapdash Open-Ended Approach to Afflictions, Conditions, Blessings, Curses, and Other Long Term Status Changes
My goal is to publish them on Friday, June 21 and Friday, June 28 respectively.