Fourth Wall Break #8 - One Month Later

Looking Back at The Resolutions

It has been exactly a month since my last Fourth Wall Break. In that time I have fairly completely changed how I post and blog and added in some new mechanics. Tried out one new system and am planning to try more. I figured I touch back in to see how my new year's resolutions were doing.

To refresh, here were some of the resolutions that were actionable:

1. Formal Move Towards { Worlds → Campaigns → Arcs } Format
2. Focusing on One Arc at a Time
3. Post Once (and Early), Edit at Least Twice
4. Trying Out "New" Game Systems
5. Trying Out "New" Game Worlds
6. (Re)Trying Out "New" Oracles
7. Things to Not Sweat...
8. Make More Art, Design More Stuff, Focus on Game Motifs, Etc
9. Build Up a List of Graphical Resources

Looking at that list now, four+ weeks later, most of them are coming along just fine. #1 (Formal Move Towards...) was pretty easy. That one was less about doing things differently and doing things more formally. 

#2 (Focus on One Arc) was a bit harder at first but once I got into the momentum it was nice. It helped a lot for me to get really into the vibe. It matches kind of how I like to play anyhow. I'm sure it will run into some tricky bits in the future when I stall out in the middle of an arc and have to push through without having a fall back. Still, doing so allowed me to finish Eustace & Hitomi and The Case of the Rambler's Inn and The Bloody Hands REBIRTH: The Stone Crack'd. Both went on long enough that had I kept them to once-a-week, both would still be on-going and that slow down would have impacted a good bit of their story. 

#3 (Post Early, Edit Often) is kind of a mid-level success. I keep around a week of posts stock piled - as of right now there are four posts in the second The GLOW arc including two sessions and a couple of mechanical, meta-posts. The editing I am working on but sometimes when I get done it is hard to give myself the space. I would say overall I am doing better. Just not perfect. My ultimate goal which might be unobtainable would be to push out to a full two weeks in advance just to have plenty of a buffer. 

#4 (New Systems) and #6 (New Oracles) are still in the too-early to tell stage. I have brought back Gamemaster Apprentice Decks and am enjoying those. I did launch the new GLOW arc in Outgunned and am enjoying that. That being said, there really hasn't been enough time to truly get into the muck of it. Somewhat similar, #5 (New Worlds) just hasn't had time to happen yet. I still don't know when or how it will happen.

#7 (Things to Not Sweat) I have been pretty good about. I've been pretty happy with how things are turning out and fully embracing my own style. Stories are a bit queerer. Weirder. The kind of action sequences and dialogues I like are rampant. I am less likely to add much in the way of apology anywhere.

#8 (More New Art) is working pretty well. E+H had a new style of splash art for me representing old newspaper photos tied into the game world. The other E+H, the GLOW one, has an odd new style meant to represent how Eustace sees Soulburn. Both were pretty distinct. I've added a few maps and other notes while continuing to use some Dean Spencer Art. I'd say #8 is about as successful as I could have hoped.

#9 (Links to Resources) has semi-stalled out. I did make a page with some of my most frequent solo resources but never got so far as to sort through a list of graphical resources. Likewise, I was going to have a few posts about how I make some of my art - either splash art or dungeon art - and never did. I should probably rectify that.

Saying Goodbye (Temporarily) to The Bloody Hands

Earlier tonight, the final post of "The Stone Crack'd" went live. What's more, it represents something a break - the first since this blog started - where I will actively not be thinking about what to do next with Arden, Jalmar, and Natalia (originally Prenty). A kind of gimmicky "just play with a few bullet points and three dice" campaign, The Bloody Hand was the original reason for this blog. Conceived as a sort of episodic, low-sense campaign with glimpses of a season working towards fighting an ever present villain, it has gone on to be very much so about the main characters and rarely about the main villain. The final arc did include the Hand and their weird otherworldly allies but they were overall pretty minor. 

Most of my campaigns have a concept of a future possible but sometimes it is interesting to let them go and say, "Maybe we'll meet again." For now, I am going to finally move The Bloody Hands into the Finished and Past category and will bring it out when it is time. 

I feel pretty comfortable with saying "They lived their life and continued to fight" at this moment.

Still No Bleak + Pearl, Part 2

It has been over a month since the last Bleak + Pearl post. Technically, the new side-team is still chilling in a dungeon waiting for me to look back at them. Poor things. 

Overall, it was just a weird time to try and play a game where I reset the characters and took it all the way back to the beginning. I played out the first hour of a second session and it was just not hitting. Even if it doesn't have long-winded dialogues or action sequences, I'm a bit past the point where my old bullet point notes work for me. The characters needed to handle a couple of situations and it just felt perfunctory. Like if I was trying to code a video game with a couple of options instead of building up Doug-type play.

I think I will try going in and play it slower, more like I normally play, and find a balance to some of the OSR/NSR turn tracking and such. More fiddly than the previous B+P sessions. Less wordy. A compromise.

Sometimes Ups Outnumber the Downs...

A quick hit of a few other things. 

• I have the second virus of 2025. One per month isn't that bad. This one is "better" but it leaves me feeling very weak and woozy. I don't normally nap very much but after taking the day off work I slept for 3 hours and my body wanted more. Ironically, the last time I got sick - with Covid - was while playing Eustace and Hitomi. Now I am getting hit again while playing The GLOW version. Those two are cursed, I tell you.
• An Office Depot near me was shutting down. I hope the workers are ok. On the more positive - at least selfishly - note, this gave me a chance to pick up pencils, pens, plastic trays, paper, graph paper, drafting paper and other stuff that will be very helpful in solo play. 
• On a more negative side of things, Google continues to be weird about indexing this blog. It has most of the pages scanned but hasn't really updated. I am mixed emotions. The more people who lay eyes on the blog, the more potential stress it brings. Still, I like to post a few things that I consider helpful for solo players in general, reviews, etc. Having the search engine refuse to index it does hurt that aspect. Ah, well.
• In the middle: I started taking Ozempic. I have always been a BIG DUDE. Post-college I got bigger and bigger. For a while, I was pretty active so the morbid obesity tended to come with good muscles and the ability to walk miles per day. Post-accident, post-long-bed-rest that is no more. I am just 400lbs of man who no longer walks 3-4 miles a day and no longer carries lots of books and boxes around. I do have an indoor bike and work out around 150 minutes a week with fairly aerobic zeal but it is not enough. So I am cutting my food intake in half, keeping up the exercise. Stuff already feels better. Which is to stay that I feel nauseated and my stomach cramps much of the time. 
• In the pretty bad: the world is quickly swinging a more hostile place for my queer folk and specifically my trans partner and their trans friends (and it was already a hostile place). I have no good solution but just keep in mind that more and more of my posts will be even more queer and trans to give myself a mental break.

On to the next month, Space Pilgrims.