Thursday, June 20, 2019

Let the Madness Commence

While I have no doubt there are some who just love to hear all about my personal stresses, I will forbear regaling you with tales of woe, save that I have been up since 5am in order to babysit a friend of my child (who lacked daycare this morning) and have only just now got my children down to sleep (it's a bit after 11:30pm). True, I did get a 90 minute siesta in around 3pm, but I've otherwise been "on the clock" the entire day...a day that started with something slightly less than a tremendous hangover (trivia night with the family at the local pub last night and I had one-too-many IPAs).

Even so, I still managed to finish the entire text of the new book, including the table of contents. Yes, I still have the headers to do (always a pain in the ass for these game books), and it has no illustrations (save for a few placeholders), but it's complete and done and I dig it. It's a nice bit of campaign setting for B/X, the first I'll actually be publishing, though I've got work on maybe four or six in Ye Old Hard Drive. I'll write more about the thing in the (hopefully) near future, but as of this evening I'm filled with at least a small sense of satisfaction.

Also a slight sense of trepidation. I've more-or-less decided to take a stab at doing my own illustrating for this thing though, frankly, the idea is pretty batshit insane. Still, I'll try doing a couple sketches and see how they turn out (need to set up the scanner my wife brought back from Paraguay in December)...if it's too shitty I'll start soliciting from artists I've got on my contact list. I toyed with the idea of some kind of "black album," but illustrating is a nice challenge. Besides my children like to color too, and it is summer vacation...had them both painting Blood Bowl miniatures last week (yes, the five year old as well); maybe I'll put them to work.

Or maybe not. I do have some money left in the kitty after all...enough for a small art budget anyway. We'll see, we'll see...this type of thing requires a very specific type of artwork and (if it's coming from professionals), I'm going to want to be a little choosey.

But first things first: got to finish those damn headers. And I've got to get up early tomorrow to get the car to the shop by 9am (we've got a road trip to Montana next week). And I've got to get some type of sleep, even a few hours. Man, I am beat.

Till later.

4 comments:

  1. I've been out of the loop due to moving; what setting are you talking about?

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    1. It’s not a fictional world, so much as a situational scenario to modify your (B/X) game world.

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  2. JB, I was thinking about your Latin American campaign idea, and your "moral questions" in regards to it. It reminds me of a campaign idea I had in Spain during the Inquisition. Have you thought about the idea of "transporting" your fantasy world characters to the dawn of Colonial Latin America. Don't tell the players where they are. Let them explore the geography, the cultures, they people. And then just before they decide to turn into murdering hobos, send in the conquistadors! Let them deal with the explorers. Throw a couple of Jesuits in there, and all of the sudden you may have another Inquisition or Witch Hunt as the Spaniards try to figure out if an elf is a child of Satan, or just a new strange savage. That was the premise of my Spanish Inquisition campaign... players trying to escape Spain before the Cardinals armed with "such diverse elements as fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, and nice red uniforms - oh damn!" tie them to the rack, or worse.

    Just an idea....

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    1. Thanks, um...”Unknown.” That’s not a bad idea.

      I’m going to return to the whole Latin America campaign discussion in the very near future. Just needed to get this book finished.

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