November Progress Report
This being the first progress report, I've got a lot to report. The Intro Kit is finally finished, and made its debut at the International Camarilla Conclave the weekend before Halloween. John Hackett's art turned out great, and Lisa Van Every (a.k.a. "Ice Princess") did some amazing last-minute work on the layout. I'm hoping to get the intro kit available in PDF format so anyone can print out a copy, but we need to wait for Lisa's Mac to get fixed. The hard-drive got "lost", probably due to the fact that some idiot sold her a PowerMac with only 16MB of memory, and she does hard-core layout work. Anyway, look for the Adobe Acrobat version of the Intro Kit in a few weeks.In other news, the main book is coming along fine. The rules are a continual struggle to keep them simple, yet also be conscious of the inevitable rules-lawyers. It also doesn't help that I'm trying to write them solid enough to run globally-networked games, which means they have to be very solid. Well, the "what is a role-playing game?" section is done, along with the first few sections about the gaming universe. In fact, a lot of it is done; my present task is to get it polished for a final playtest or two before I start the final text in December.
My main source of stress is the money involved. Although a few thousand dollars is small change to the big game companies, it's a lot more when it's coming out of your own paychecks. I got this great new job with much better pay, but my lifestyle is more frugal than ever! Not that I have a right to bitch. After all, publishing your own game is sort of a "luxury item" thing.
I'm hoping to crank out about fifty t-shirts to raise some dosh. They'll be black (of course), with the cover-art for the game on the front. In a rather bizarre stroke of luck, I got my hands on an original piece of art from Dave Allsop, a Magic: The Gathering artist and creator of SLA Industries. I used to sort of work with Dave, and he says I can use the piece for not too much money. I still don't have anything in writing, though, so I'm a little worried about that... Anyway, the piece is amazing, and will make a great t-shirt.
Man, do I ramble. I'm trying to figure out a way to justify getting a Palm Pilot Pro, but it's $200 and I can't think of a desperately compelling reason why I need one. Any ideas? Anyone out there had their life changed by their Palm Pilot? Any gamers with Palm Pilots that love em? Give me a good reason to buy one!
Just on a personal side-note, are Seattle drivers the worst §&*ing drivers in the country? I love sitting at an intersection and watching the people keep coming through the intersection, piling up all the way across, so that when I have the green light, there's a &*§mned bus totally blocking my path. This city gets buttloads of rain, but everytime it sprinkles, everyone jams on the brakes. If you live in Seattle, learn to drive in the *§&ing rain!