The calendar year is coming to an end. As such, it’s a good time to look back on the site, digital presence, and look forward to what may come.
Two Years Running
In the two years of this domain being a tabletop RPG-focused blog, I’ve only missed a scant few Mondays in the weekly schedule. Some weeks have been harder than others and many times I’ve built a buffer of columns only to blow through them a short time later. Overall, I’m proud of the work I’ve put out and hope you have enjoyed reading.
Non-Starters
There were two column types that didn’t quite come together the way I had hoped.
I had wanted to create an occasional Starfinder themed webcomic using Lego minifigs and props. While I had put a few scripts together, I didn’t really have a solid plan, thinking I could “wing it” for a few comics. When I adopted a dog early in the year, all plans went out the door as I re-arranged my office to accommodate for my new pet. This meant the “studio” I had put together was taken down and trying to reconstruct it on a partial basis was too time-consuming. Now that the dog has settled in, I’m contemplating getting back to the comic, but if I do, I want to make sure I’ll have the time and patience to make it regular before I begin.
My Chicago group attempted to play digitally shortly after my move to Portland. We had discussed playing a low-powered superhero game using Fate Core and were building the fictional city of Bearport. After a year and a half, though, schedules were too awry and it became clear that the concept of a supers game was more interesting than actually creating characters and playing a supers game. I still have a final section of Bearport I want to detail out for completionist sake, but the #SuperZeroes topic may be on indefinite hold. Happily, after conversations, the group decided to resume my Unholy Preyer campaign and characters were created in short order. With our first session of the new season under our belts, my GMing for the group should resume it’s monthly (or mostly monthly) status.
New Campaigns and Session Summaries
In addition to the Unholy Preyer campaign, I’ve made plans with my FLGS to run a Call of Cthulhu: Down Darker Trails game. The first session will kick off in February, with the idea of playing on the first Saturday of every month following. The campaign is intended as a series of one-shots set in 1969 Virginia City, Montana, with the possibility of growth into a regular campaign titled “Bag of Nails.” I’ll post more on the setting in early January as an option for any Down Darker Trails Keepers. And, for both campaigns, I’ll be writing session summaries which may act as adventure seeds for groups.
Characters vs Nature
I still have a number of Characters vs Nature columns conceived for 2019, but believe the subject will be largely retired by the end of that year. While there are always ways nature can have an effect on the characters within a game, I feel like I’ve come to the end of what I want to say.
System Specifics and In Nomine
I had tried to keep 2017 largely system agnostic in my columns, only allowing myself one system-based post a month. I did away with that personal constraint in 2018 and the freedom it allowed me provided ways to write full-fledged adventures, monsters, and a return to In Nomine–my favorite setting even after all these years. While I still have a few more In Nomine posts in me, I’ll be looking more at Fate and Call of Cthulhu articles for the future. That said, if I have an idea for any system, I’ll no longer neglect it or push it off.
War of the Dark Crystal
I had long wanted to take the world of Thra and see it realized as a tabletop RPG. With the announcement for the upcoming Netflix The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance series, that was the last push I needed to begin a Fate Core write-up for War of the Dark Crystal. While the core rules are done, I plan on writing a few more supplements and an adventure or two in the future. The write-up of the setting took quite a bit of time and planning and should I decide to take another property and convert it, I don’t know that I would do it so unofficially or for free. But I’m exceedingly pleased with what I have done and am curious if anyone else has used my setting write-up in their own tabletop game.
Social Media
In January, I created a separate Twitter account, @AttercapNet [now offline] specifically for my site and tabletop RPG news. My personal twitter account often includes my politics and other things that may not agree with all tabletop players. While you can always visit at 9am CT every Monday to see my latest column, if you follow my Twitter and/or Facebook Page you can stay notified of any non-Monday posts I make. Or, if RSS feeds are more your thing, I’ve also set up my RSS feed which has also been linked within Indie RPG Planet.
I’ve spent less time on my personal Twitter account the last portion of the year as I began to explore the federated universe of Mastodon social. Now, when I get the urge to view social media, I head over to tabletop.social where I post, respond, and re-toot as Attercap.
2019 will be a busy year for the site and I hope you, the reader, enjoy what I put out into the world. Happy New Year!
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