September plans

So it’s officially autumn, my favourite time of year. And, probably not coincidentially, the most Gothic one. It’s cold and dark enough to feel properly melancholic, but not so much that you have to bundle up. Let’s face it, it’s all but impossible to feel like a tragic antihero while wearing ear muffs!

I have various plans for the month of September, some of which I will definitely get done (because they amount to just pressing Publish on something I’ve already written), others which are more what you’d call aspirational. For the former, I can promise:

• First up, the Dragonbane readthrough continues with The Dead Forest, the first installment of the much-beloved The Path of Glory campaign. Expect the usual combination of pastoral whimsy, shocking lethality, and me bitching about overpowered NPCs.
• The Paranoia readthrough heads into orbit in Clones in Space, as the game abandons even the pretense of being semi-hard post-apocalyptic science fiction (or at least a parody thereof) and embraces pure schlock (and the parody thereof). There will be bug-eyed aliens. With monocles.
• The Torg readthrough charges on with the Relics of Power campaign as we enter its second part, The Possibility Chalice. There’ll be more ancient temples, more killer robots, and a visit to the damp but enchanted lands of England.
• The Vampire: the Masquerade readthrough sadly hits its first sour note in The Player’s Guide. Fair warning – I will complain, I will whine, I will piss and I will moan, because seriously, guys, this thing is awful. Still, it is the one that introduces the four Independent clans, so there’s at least some smidgen of interest.
• Since discovering that Twilight Sword is actually quite good, I’ve come to consider the stunning possibility that not everything published in later years need, in fact, be garbage. Testing that theory, I’ve lined up a few semi-modern games to sample, starting with Mörk Borg. Prepare for some Heavy Metal insanity as we try to parse the game’s idiosyncratic presentation and see if there’s something playable underneath it. If nothing else, it lets me stall having to read more of Daggerheart.
• The Deadlands readthrough seems to be well-received so far, and this month we hit some red meat with The Quick & the Dead. This is the general setting book for the game, going over the alternate-history America and detailing a number of mysteries, plots, and nasty creepy-crawlies that the players can get involved in.

Those are the certainties. I will also attempt, but can’t actually swear to, the following:

• The work on the Monstrous Mishaps quickstart Story shall continue. Not only that, but since I missed one update last month (I had a work conference that interferred with my creativity), I will try to make three this month. They will include a visit to the law firm of Connive, DeSieve, Bamm-Boozle & Harris; the efforts to restore the players’ raft while the Haunting afflicting it actively resists such efforts; and a nightly raid from the players’ rivals trying to mess up said raft.
• I will be making preparations for running a play-by-post of Shadowdark, and will try positing my efforts here. I’m very fond of the game, but this will be my first time running it – and of course, its entire philosophy of play is kind of brutal and goes against my every soft-hearted instinct. We’ll see what I can come up with.
• As the World of Warcraft: the Roleplaying Game campaign I’m GMing on Sundays will hopefully continue, I will also be doing game prep there. I’ll try to bring you up to speed on the campaign so far and then offer my thoughts and ideas on encounters and scenarios.

I will also be doing some work that won’t be visible here for a while, since if I get it done it just goes into the pipeline to be published later. For the record, though, I plan to read and write up posts for: The Great Maze for Deadlands, The Heart of Darkness for Dragonbane, The Cyberpapacy for Torg, Hunters Hunted and Clanbook Brujah (first edition) for Vampire: the Masquerade, The Way of the Wolf for Werewolf: the Apocalypse, and the first edition core for Shadowrun. And 20 more pages of (aaaarrgggghhhh) Daggerheart, which will include the section on (gaaaaaahhh) safety tools, so I’ll be ranting mightily about that. All in all, I’m setting myself a hectic schedule and I’m not sure I can pull it off, but, well, might as well aim high and see how far I can get, I figure.

So that’s what’s coming, what might possibly be coming, and what’s probably coming but not for a while. Stay tuned!