Off Topic: October 2020

 Howdy, everyone! I'm sorry I don't have a real article for you today but I thought I should put something on. So, I guess I'm going to ramble on about gaming, this year, this blog, and whatever else I think about.

Let's start with this year. 2020 has been a hell of a year. Every month feels like a year in and of itself. Some of us aren't working, some of us are working from home, and some of us (like myself) are working as normal, just waiting to catch The Plague and die. A bit of a hyperbole but not much.
The one good thing about all of this is that many people, like myself, have been able to turn back to solo hobby stuff. While I haven't been doing too much painting, I have been getting things put together and priming everything. And, you know, buying more stuff. I do this because I have some extra income and I want these companies to survive this year. I want to support local shops, too, but it's not easy with everything going on around here. If you can, I suggest you do what you can in a safe way. Look out for yourself.

Hearing that this show was cancelled is peak 2020 for me

If you're wondering why I'm doing this post, instead of my usual articles, it's because of my process. When I get ready to do a review, I tend to spend a week or so looking over the book or game I want to review. If I haven't played it, I tend to make characters, run some simple combat and etc, to get a feel for it. If I'm talking about a source book or something similar, I try to read it all the way through a few times and take notes. I'll use it to make a character or whatever, just to see how it works out. As such, you can imagine how much time this takes, before I even sit down to write the article. In fact, writing things out is probably the easiest part for me, taking only a few hours (at most) to finish a first draft. Of course, not all articles come easily and I have quite a few that are half done at most. Sometimes, the muse strikes and I can crank out 3-4 articles in a night and sometimes I have to push myself to get stuff done. Lately, things have been pretty stressful and I just don't have time or the mind to sit down and type things up. Since I take this blog seriously, I don't want to give you half-assed or incomplete articles. As you might have noticed, I refer to my entries here as "articles" not entries or posts because I've always looked at this blog as something like a magazine. While I am by no means a professional, and offer opinions on things, I do want to take this seriously. That's also why I rarely post things like this. And I don't monetize this blog as it's a labor of love. There's also some things that could cause me problems if I tried to make money (of course, if you do like my content, you can just buy my ebook.)

Sadly, this whole thing has killed my ability to play miniature games. I have a friend who's able to stay safe and can come over (you probably saw that battle report), especially since I have a ton of fans and an AC hooked up, so I was able to filter the air. I may have another guy that I can play with but it'll depend on some other factors.
Thankfully, some of the new games I've discovered allow for solo play, so I'm able to get something in. When I'm not working on a ton of other minis... I'm starting to catch up on what I have and cut down buying more. I won't lie to myself, saying that "I won't buy anymore until I finish these" because that's just not going to happen.
The last part of miniature games I want to talk about is about Warhammer 40,000. I was planning on getting back into this game (for some stupid reason) until they launched 9th edition. I'm sorry but I can't keep getting into something that has to update every few years. As much as I would love to play the game again, I'm probably going to pass for now. However, I am interested in Kill Team. I would play that and am looking into it for something in the future. I'm waiting to see what happens with it, if they'll update it to 9th or not. Or just completely drop it, as they've been known to do in the past.
if you're wondering, doing battle reports are quite time intensive as I have to make lists, set everything up, stop to take pictures, and try to take notes during the game. Writing one up can take a lot of time, too.

When it comes to RPGs, I really like playing them in person. I've played once or twice online (using Discord) but it really doesn't work as well for me. But it looks like I'm going have to make some changes if I want to get my fix now...
As such, I'm going to be running a one shot of Rifts for Halloween that I may do a Gaming Story about, depending on how it goes.
I really do like playing and running RPGs but they are quite possibly the hardest things to do. Unlike miniature games, they take longer to get into, longer to play, and requires more people. They are my preferred method of gaming. I love the experience of playing a game with a bunch of other people, the dynamics, the crazy things that happen, the jokes, and all that good stuff are why I play games. While I enjoy card games and miniature games, I do so for different reasons.
Hopefully, I'll be able to get a regular game going, somehow, some way, and I'll share it with you if I'm up for it.

Now, let's talk about what all I'm looking to do in the future. I won't promise you that this will all happen, because that's a fool's game, but I do want do these things.
First up, I want to finish my re-cap of the Ferner Five adventures. I had a lot of fun running that group and many of the players hold it up as the best game they've ever been involved it. Plus, I just love Deadlands.
Next, I'm hoping to finish my series about Silent Hill. I also need to finish that project, too. While it's probably the lowest preforming series of articles here, I write them for me. I enjoy doing it and it's my blog, so I'm going to keep at it.
I want to do some more In Depth articles as well. I really like talking about games in detail and this provides me with the chance to do so, since I've tried to rein in my reviews' length. There's also a bunch of stuff I like to discuss when it comes games, not just the books and mechanics, but things like where to find inspiration, what kinds of games you can run, and so on. I really like to pull out all the stops for these ones but they take so long, I don't have any others finished.
I'm also looking to but together more reviews and talk about settings and source books for games. However, I have a tough time figuring out which ones to do. While I usually pick the stuff that I want to talk about, I do admit that I pay attention to the games that get the most views (since no one ever leaves comments) when I sit down to work on these. As such, they tend to suffer from writer's block and lack of inspiration for me. Also, do you know how many source books I own? It's a lot.

With all of that said, if you want me to write a review of something I own (or can legally get for free), let me know. If you there's something you think I've missed, feel free to scream at me. I hate to do the "engagement request" thing but I'm not asking because I want to worship at the altar of the All Might Algorithm, but because I like to know if people are enjoying what I do. It's as simple as that. Not even to boost my ego but I like know that my effort has helped someone else.

For next week, I'm going to try and do a real article. Stay tuned to find out.