Wednesday, September 14, 2011

UPDATE-DEEP DELVE, FORSAKEN SOULS And New PDF Ezine

Yes, the blog sits here like a faithful dog, waiting by the door, waiting for me to come back. Blogs...mans second best friend. :)

Thought I would just give a brief update. I haven't forgotten about this place, I've just been trying to make up for a crappy first 6 months to the year.

Anyway, FORSAKEN SOULS slowly makes its way through a third draft. I realized I have some really good stuff in there but my presentation was poor and needed to be re-worked.

It got to the point of being gibberish so I took a break from it and have nearly completed an introductory rpg, DEEP DELVE, that took me out of my comfort zone and into a more open concept behind design methods. It has been a good learning experience.

Meant to expose non-players to the concepts of role-playing without scaring them off with pages of math and phrases that are alien to them, the mechanics are simple but if a new player leaves and can sit down at another game table and have at least a basic understanding of language and general concepts in role-playing then I will feel like I have done my job.

And realizing that maybe I'm not cut out to be a full time designer I am shifting over to a format that I am much more comfortable with-the ezine. With pdf publishing allowing me to do things I have never had the chance to do with older formats I look forward to being able to cover what is turning out to be a very vibrant scene that is growing so fast that it's becoming tough to keep up with.

So CLASSIC REALMS OF ADVENTURE (which is also the name of the blog that will be the zines home base along with other projects like DEEP DELVE) will start off with an open ended publishing schedule (eventually settling into a weekly format) with a page count ranging between 32 and 128 pages (the wide range allows for a lot of wiggle room-I see the base model being a 64 page weekly but don't want to back myself into a corner).

It will cover news, previews, new releases and contain game content as well, along with 'guides' to various parts of the hobby like the emergence of 'Weird' and 'Swords & Spaceships' or what I call 'The John Carter Template'. Since blogs play a key role in this community I will be highlighting not only great posts but series that may span multiple posts or blogs and taking a lesson from Rob MacDougall I will go Paleo-Blogging, highlighting older posts from the more established blogs that might have been overlooked by new readers.

I just know that I miss the weekly update from The Underdark Gazette and want to do something that not only is of use to me but can hopefully provide others with a portable one stop mobile medium that can be carried around and read easily where ever you go.

So, please email me if I miss something or if you have a new release or news in general to include. I look forward to an overflowing inbox :)

Ok, next cup of coffee and back to it.

Till next time...