General

Seething Ginger: 2020 Plans and Goals

It’s customary, to take a look back, and plan ahead, at the start of a new year, and this year is in no way different from the past. I have some very clear plans about what I am going to do going forward that I’m excited, and also sorrowful, to chat about. Without any further ado.

2019 In review

At the start of 2019, I had just made 60 on my WoW Classic Private server, had played a couple of tournaments of Warmachine and was in the midst of Brawltimore Season 5, and had just finished painting a Frost Giantess, among a host of other hobbies and events I was taking part of. I had resolved, however, to tackle the writing of my campaign Source Book for 5th edition, the setting I’d been DMing for more than 25 years, and was really pushing to have it completed by the end of the year. Well, How did we make out?

2019 wasn’t a year of instant seismic changes, but it was a year where I dramatically, and slowly, shifted the focus of my hobby time. I still love all the hobbies I have, but I only have so much time, and much of it has become simply gobbled up. It isn’t like I have a million hours in a day, and I can’t – yet – simply be a hobbyist full time. Warmachine has, sadly, plummeted in my time investment over the course of 2019. I knew it would, honestly, as the plans to go to Lock and Load for a 7th time slowly crumbled and I was left with less and less enthusiasm for the new releases, the new games, and the SR setup. The game is still a great game, better than most, but it isn’t in a space where I want to plug a whole bunch of time into it. That time, both playing and thinking and contemplating, has now gone into D&D, the hobby that really started me down the fantasy and miniatures game path. Its taken me full circle, in a way, and I appreciate it.

In 2019, I started DMing again for the first time in a few years, as a friend was running our home game, and it catalyzed a lot of the desire to get the setting codified and into my hands in a very real way. This lead to spending a lot of time putting together, thinking of, testing and proofing, my setting details, much of which has made it both onto the website and into the book – which is currently just shy of 200 pages – over halfway to the expected size.

I also spent a lot more time listening to the best of metal music than I had in previous years. The list was larger and more diverse, but there was also a massive burnout. Many of these bands sound very similar, and writing the articles became very, very difficult. And, to make matters worse (better?) both Gloryhammer and Sabaton both released albums this year and I was able to see both in concert, which was glorious, but killed my desire to listen to many other metals, they were just to fun.

That is a bit of short shrift on 2019, but if you’re here, you were likely here in 2019, so you know what transpired. Lets talk about the future, and 2020.

2020 – Plans, and how to keep them Unfulfilled

This year, much like last, I’m going to try and stick to a predetermined schedule that grants me some leeway, but also allows me to write about topics I enjoy and find interesting.

I’ll be keeping my Warmachine schedule, though I don’t know what I’ll talk about. I’ll make sure there is something, and I’ll try to not be as gloomy as I have been.

I will not, however, be doing the Metal articles. there are only so many ways that I can say, over and over again, that the music is great and the vocals kinda suck, rating them with 3 Skeletal horns and saying that I don’t think they are bad, just not for me.

That does not, however, mean that I’ll be abandoning metal. Instead, I’ll be doing more “spur of the moment” posts, Sharing them on the Facebook page as I listen. I need to find a metal news outlet that I align with solidly so that I’ll have more luck being introduced to new bands I actually enjoy. More thrash, more power metal, less black metal.

I’ll also be adding WoW Classic Articles. I’ve had a bit of fun playing, and I’ve even been raiding, so it has been a different experience than it was in late 2005 when I joined up. Look for those irregularly, as both content is released and I get new stuff. I’ll also probably do those posts on FB/IG because I am an unabashed nerd.

The rest of the schedule is going to be devoted to getting D&D stuff done and ready for the book. This includes the character creation article – which will now be devoted to the NPCs of the world and trying to focus greater attention on finalizing information, not simply generate and collate what I have into existence. It’s not going to be easy, but I am going to put a lot of effort into it, which means that sometimes my articles will suffer – they won’t be as long or as intense as I would normally get, because I’ll put either a word or time limit on them so that, while I keep creating content, I can continue hammering out the book.

That means the Scheule will look like this

Tuesday Week 1 – Coldforged NPC’s
Thursday Week 1 – Coldforged Setting content

Tuesday Week 2 – Warmachine Content
Thursday Week 2 – Coldforged Setting Content

Tuesday Week 3 – Flexible, Likely Coldforged Content, sometimes WoW Classic
Thursday Week 3 – Coldforged Setting Content

Tuesday Week 4 – Extra Coldforged Content
Thursday Week 4 – Coldforged Setting Content

Tuesday Week 5 – Bonus Content – Anything I like! But possibly Campaign Diaries of the Monthly Game
Thursday Week 5 – Coldforged Setting Content

It is A lot of Coldforged Content, and I promise that this will not be an eternal thing – I will finish the book and move back to a more diverse schedule with Painting, MTG, D&D, Warmachine, WoW and other videogames. At this time, though, I am truly full speed ahead with this sourcebook, and it is going to take some intense dedication to complete. I wanted to do it in a year, and that was a bit conceited of me, trying to shove all this information and time into such a limited frame. Let’s try doing that again and shooting for 20 months of total work. I want this done and off to proofers/editors and such by August. That would make me very, very happy.

Until Next time,

Jonathon