2014 Writing Wrap-up

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Ian

So, 2014 is right about to end (and already has, in some parts of the world). It’s been a hell of a year. Some good, a lot of bad. (At least from my perspective on societal events.) For this post, though, I’m going to focus on what I accomplished writing-wise this year. And it’s going to be a little short, since I have to run out the door any second here.

342,083 words. That’s how many I wrote this year, just short of my goal of 356,000. This is only my fiction writing, and doesn’t include blog posts, or any writing I did for Nautilus or other projects. I’m pretty happy with that number! Within it I wrote a bunch of short stories, several half-finished pieces, a bunch of random noodling, finished up a novel (The Shivering Deeps), and started another one (my currently untitled NaNoWriMo project).  I submitted stories to at least two places this year, and have a definite success (as in, papers signed) on one of them. I’ll share those details once the project is a little closer to release. It’s also the first time I’ve been paid for my writing, which is super-exciting.

Going forward in 2015, I want to finish more stories. So many of them sit at draft zero forever, and I really want to get them polished up to build my editing skills and get a better flow going, production-wise. I also want to submit to more places. I really enjoyed submitting to the couple of anthologies I did this year, and I’d like to expand from anthologies to magazines (internet and print), too. I’m also hoping to finish up editing The Shivering Deeps this year (hopefully earlier rather than later), and also to finish writing and editing/revising this year’s NaNoWriMo before the next one rolls around. I’ll be shooting for 356,000 words again, too, although I’m hoping I can push myself to write more than 1000 words a day this year. We’ll see how it goes.

I hope everyone has a good 2015.  And to my writer friends: let’s kick this year’s ass. Let’s write, edit, beta read, revise, submit, query, sell, and all those wonderful things. I hope we can all make our goals for our writing happen this year, and if we get lucky, maybe even exceed a few of them. 🙂

Happy New Year everyone.

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Metatopia 2014 Schedule

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Ian

Hi everyone!

So Metatopia is starting tomorrow, and I’m going to be there!  I’ll be running Nautilus through its paces, hopefully getting it crash tested so I know where to fix it. (I’m expecting a better result than a Ford Pinto’s, but a good bit worse than a Volvo. But we’ll see! As long as it doesn’t burst into flames as the doors jam, trapping the passengers inside, I’ll be happy.)

On the off chance anyone actually wants to seek me out, I’ll have my phone and be checking it periodically, so if you poke me on Twitter I should get it. Or e-mail. Or just yell my name really loud and I’ll come running with a very confused look on my face. Oh, and fair warning: while I love sharing food with people I have the most weirdly restrictive diet ever, to the point that I’m actually packing my own food with me. So perhaps getting coffee or a drink would be better if we’re to share sustenance while talking.

Friday
9-10 Computer Hacking in Games Panel
10-11 Genius Loci: Your Setting is the Character Panel
11-1 Noir World Playtest run by John Adamus (I’m so excited for this! John seems like the raddest of dudes, and Noir World definitely sounds fun.)
1-2 Open. Lunch time!
2-4 Nautilus Playtest (Hey, that’s me!)
4-5 Sweet freedom! I’ll be grabbing dinner here.
5-6 So You’re Making Your First Game! Panel
6-8 Dreamfall Playtest presented by Laura Simpson/Sweet Potato Press (I have no idea what’s up with this game except what’s in the program description. But I love me some dream-based game worlds, and am excited to see how the mechanics end up going.)
8-9 Running a Small Business in the Gaming Industry Panel
9-11 I’m open! I would greatly appreciate getting coffee with someone at this point, because I will be so exhausted. Or I may go to the bar for a bit.
11-12 Print on Demand 101 Panel

Saturday
9-10 Designing for Disability Access Panel
10-11 Open. Don’t know what I’ll do to fill the time. Come say hi! We can get coffee/tea.
11-12 Turning Legacy on its Head Panel
12-1 Being Persistent When Your Game Doesn’t Playtest Well Panel
1-2 Open. Will probably be getting lunch.
2-4 Nautilus “Hi” Playtest. Also known as “Ian has a heart attack but keeps GMing anyway, the playtest.”
4-5 The New Rules Fantasy Project Focus Group run by Quinn Murphy (Eff to the yeah! (I might be fanboying a bit over Mr. Murphy here.)  Going to be reading up on the blog posts on the way there.)
5-6 Open. Might be cramming dinner in here.
6-7 Coming Up in the Indies Panel
7-8 Open. No idea what to do. Bar, maybe?
8-9 Why Do You Hate Your Readers and Players? Panel
9-10 Open. Definitely bar.
10-11 Ten Things You Can Do to Make Your Rulebook Awesome Panel
11-12 Building Communities Before Your Game Comes Out Panel

Sunday
11-12 Fate of the Galaxy run by Mark Richardson (Mark is awesome and nice and supportive on Twitter, and I’m super-sad I can’t make his Headspace playtests. On the other hand, this ALSO sounds awesome, and I can make it! Yay!)
12-1 Open. Lunch time.
1-2 Queerness: Addressing and Including Sexuality and Gender Identity in Your Game Design Panel
2-4 The Writing Workshop Game Jam (This sounds like a fun way to end the convention, so I’m totally there. It’ll be nice to get some creative work not focused on Nautilus for a little bit. Variety keeps the juices flowing, right?)
4 onwards: I’ll be open during this time, and would totally be open to saying hi/bye to people, getting food, whatever. Or crashing, playing a pick-up game of something, whatevs! I don’t leave until Monday, so I’ll definitely have the time free assuming I don’t immediately fall asleep after walking out of the game jam.

And that’s it! I’m excited to see you all there, and now I must go sleep for four whole hours before waking up to grab my flight.

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Go Read: Ryan Macklin’s Post “On Max Tempkin and the Cowardice of Our Community”

Posted on July 12, 2014 by Ian

Ryan Macklin said some important things over on his Google+ today, in regards to Max Tempkin’s rape accusation (and Tempkin’s response), as well as cowardice in the games community about speaking out against injustices.  It’s well worth a read, and you can check out the whole thing here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+RyanMacklin/posts/21LDUmHhE1Q?cfem=1

This line really stuck with me:

If you believe that someone is wrong, that someone need to be called out, and you do nothing, that is cowardice. Be better than that, and you will help others be better than that as well.

Let’s all try to be the best we can be, everyone.

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Ian Reads World of Darkness: Chapter 5: Merits

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Ian

Today for Ian Read Worlds of Darkness, we talk about Chapter 5: Merits!  Does a Stunt by any other name smell just as sweet?  We’ll find out!

Hey everyone!  Sorry this post is so late.  I spent a lot of time trying come up with what to say about this chapter, wasn’t coming up with much, and then work and needing to find an apartment for June/July hit me full on in the face.  So without further ado…

I still don’t have much to say about Chapter 5.  It’s about Merits!  Which just feel like Feats, or the Stunts from the Dresden Files RPG and Fate Core.  Granted, they have a different name, but functionally it’s the same, and that makes it feel like there’s not much to discuss without getting into the nitty gritty of individual Merits: overall they just feel like little bits of extra skill that could maybe go a long way towards defining your character, and that don’t break new ground mechanically in the same way a lot of Storyteller does when compared to, say, D20. Continue reading →

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Ian Reads World of Darkness: Chapter 4: Advantages

Posted on April 25, 2014 by Ian

Today on Ian Reads World of Darkness, we delve into the Advantages chapter.  And I get a little angry at how mental conditions and issues are used in the game design.

Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. This week we’re talking about the Advantages chapter. It’s about, uh, “Advantages,” which are “aspects of your character that set him apart from his peers, for good or ill.” Given the definition of an advantage indicating it being universally positive, I’m pretty sure WoD thinks that word means something it doesn’t. But oh well! Onward we go. Continue reading →

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Ian Reads World of Darkness: Chapter 3: Skills

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Ian

Hey everyone, sorry for the delay in getting to chapter three. I’ve had the outline together for a couple weeks, but I’ve been overloaded lately and couldn’t find the time and energy to get this written up.  Things are looking clearer now, though, and posts should be more regular from here on out.

Ah, skills chapters.  Essential to almost every RPG design.  Almost always long and tedious.  They’re one of those very necessary bits of writing that, while essential to playing the game, are often skipped over by new players.  This is probably because they usually read like textbooks, and go into a lot of nitty-gritty about each skill.  Which is fantastic if your character focuses on that skill, but makes it rather difficult to get an overview. Continue reading →

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Ian Reads World of Darkness: Chapter 2: Attributes

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Ian

Hey everybody, this week I’m talking about the Attributes chapter of World of Darkness.  There’s Strength!  There’s Wits!  There’s…not that many fiddly bits!  I hope you enjoy the second entry in Ian Reads World of Darkness.

So this chapter is all about Attributes.  (I know, you’re all in shock.)  The Attribute chapter shows up in a lot of RPGs, and tends to be short and, often, very, very boring.  This one is one of those!  (Protip: it’s the far more positive one to be.) Continue reading →

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Ian Reads World of Darkness: Chapter 1: The Secret History

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Ian

So today I cover both the Prologue story and Chapter 1: The Secret History in the World of Darkness core rulebook.  I hope you enjoy it!

Prologue

The prologue is a very good piece of storytelling.  The story of someone getting drawn deeper and deeper into the world most people ignore is a good one, and the story as a whole does a good job of setting the tone for the book.  I feel like this story also makes for a good example of the sort of adventures World of Darkness can do when used alone, separate from any of the supernatural creature game lines (Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, etc.).  The story of a mortal trying to deal with the darkness all around them, and only partially succeeding.

Chapter 1: The Secret History

A lot of first chapters in RPG books often feel a little shaky to me.  They’re often used to give information about the world of the game, but that information sometimes isn’t presented in a compelling fashion.  You can end up with what feels like the introduction to a textbook, an interesting world laid flat.  While this might make for a good quick reference, it can also be a snooze fest.

Not so with World of Darkness. Continue reading →

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Ian Reads World of Darkness Delayed!

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Ian

Hey all, due to a combination of medical stuff and extra work this week, the first article of Ian Reads WoD is being delayed a week.  Check back here next Friday (March 21st) for the start of the series proper.  Sorry for any inconvenience, and I look forward to seeing you all here next week.

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Ian Reads World of Darkness: An Introduction

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Ian

Hey everyone!  So there’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while: finally get a chance to actually read the World of Darkness books.  And to make it so I’m accountable for reading them, I’ve decided to start a series, where I talk about each book chapter by chapter as I go.  I’m not sure how many books I’ll end up covering, or how fast I’ll be able to get through them, but I figure it could be a fun way for me to read the books and provide people with a more granular view than they usually get.  This isn’t going to be a critical review of the books, just my impressions as I go through them.  (There may end up being moments of critique or comparison, but that’s not my main focus here.)

This has been harder than you might think, given that a lot of the books are out of print and Onyx Path Publishing’s print on demand offerings, while extensive, still have some weird gaps (like not being able to get a print copy of Werewolf: The Forsaken).  However, I got lucky.  I’d never been able to find the core New World of Darkness book before.  However, Seattle, it turns out, has an extensive number of stores that carry used RPG books, from Gary’s Games to pretty much every Half Price Books in the area.  I was able to finally find the core book at the Half Price Books in the University District, and while I missed out on getting a copy of Werewolf there, I was later able to grab Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Forsaken, and Mage: The Awakening from the used games shelves at Gary’s.

So I now have a lot of reading material in the hopper, though after the core book I make no guarantees as to what order I’ll be reading them in. Right now my tentative plan after reading through the core book is to read Werewolf, as it’s the one I’m the most excited about.  After that I’m not sure which’ll be next.  Vampire is super-iconic, but what I’ve read about Mage sounds absolutely fascinating.

You might be curious as to why I’m going with the New World of Darkness. Honestly, it’s because I’d heard on 2 GMs 1 Mic that the mechanics were more cohesive and tended to be more fun in play.  The idea of a unified base system also appealed to me, as well as the option out of the box to play the poor mortals being driven crazy by the whole experience.  The tone of the newer books also seemed more appealing, but I’ll plead guilty to not knowing a ton about the differences between the two lore-wise.

The tentative schedule right now is for a new chapter post every Friday.  This might vary based on my available time, though, and how long each chapter ends up being.  I currently have a buffer as far as chapters read, but given that I don’t have the posts for those chapters written yet, it may well be a meaningless bit of padding.  We’ll see!

So there you have it.  I hope it’s going to be as interesting and fun for you as it is for me.  See you next week (hopefully)!

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