bruceb

Quiet week. We're just beginning the discussion about what to use as a test campaign setting, and that'll take a while to make sure everyone likes what they're dealing with. Research continues apace. I hope to have some interesting stuff to share for general discussion this week; we'll see if it happens.
 

Unfortunately, this was a lost week. My usual health problems hit a high-pollen spring and together they teamed up, not to fight crime, but to fight me. I am not yet back on track, which means next Tuesday's report will be dull too.

I was busy with a migraine yesterday, but am mending some now.

Things to do:

Play.
This remains more haphazard than I'd like, but we are getting some adventuring in, when we are it's good, and I'm continuing to learn things about SotC in action.

Research.
Continues apace, and this week was biographies, which included a lot of interesting fodder for adventure and character seeds.

Looking ahead:

Stabilizing play, continuing to play, more of the same, pretty much.

It's a day late, but I ain't in the least regretful; had a wonderful visit with Mom at last, after health problems cost us the chance to visit at Christmas or Valentine's. Much as I like this project, I like Mom more. :) But now, to business!

Things to do:

Play.
It was a disrupted sort of week, and not just because of my own busyness. Looks like we're back on track now, though, and for me it's largely clearly sailing for a couple of months.

Research.
This I continued doing, and had a good time showing Mom some of my sundry research sources to boot. Now that I've finally gotten a new library card to replace the one that went inactive in my long slump, I've got a stack of holds piling up to complement what I've been reading and buying online.

Looking ahead:

Pretty much "more of the same". I'm feeling the urge to do a little rules tinkering, but I'd like all my players to get some more time under the existing rules first. I'll start seriously presenting ideas after next week's sessions, I think.

I'm continuing to firm up the kinds of questions that the general mechanics need to address. I've said this about past projects, but it's been a while and not all of you cared about them anyway, so: part of my methodology is to frame an outline as a series of questions, and then see what the answers suggest about specific organization. Something always takes more space than I estimate, and something else takes less. It's very much a matter of mosaic building with irregular tiles.

Feeling good about all this.

Things to do:

Play.
Continuing. I went ahead with reorganizing two groups into three, and it's definitely paying off for me in reduced stress and therefore in more playtime of (I hope) better quality for my players. Reminder to self: Next time I organize only play, start by assuming a group of no more than 2-3. And yes, jcfiala did get the first of what I hope will be many real sessions.

Research.
Continuing, and I'm starting to get a clearer sense of the sorts of questions I want to answer in the social change mechanics—practicalities like "when should local aspects take precedence over larger-scale ones, when vice versa, and how to change the precedence?" and "what exactly's involved in inspiring insight in others, individually and collectively?" and genre-appropriate consequences.

Looking ahead:
Steady as it goes.

Things to do:

Play.
Continuing. I'm having fun. Adjusting group size and composition is taking some time, but enh, it does that. I have to keep learning where my boundaries for energy and alertness are now. I would like to note here that jcfiala is a prince among gamers for his tremendous patience and good will, and whoo boy do I owe him some first-rate action.

Research.
Chugging along. Nothing very dramatic to report right now, but then I have a cold. Expect more snippets of commentary of the sort I posted this week.

Looking ahead:

Coda.

Things to do:

Play.
Going well. I think I need to adjust my group size down some to accommodate the limitations of my brane and IRC, and the dice bot hates us, but apart from that, I'd say things are off to a great start. When the framework is in place, Spirit of the Century really is a tremendous blast to run and play, and I am happy to be here doing this.

Research.
Also going well. Barbara Ehrenreich is giving me some ideas for social use of community aspects, and Eric Rauchway is suggesting the skeleton of a system for conflicting visions of sanity and tolerable behavior.

Looking ahead:

More of the same. :)

Things to do:

Start playing.
In progress: both test groups have gone through character creation, and had a blast, and as I watch, fleshed-out character writeups are coming in. (I'll be sharing them in separate posts.) First actual play session of the Tuesday group is tonight (the 17th); everyone seems to be looking forward to it.

Right now it looks like the Tuesday group will be dealing with super-science of the wartime era, crazy German warmongering revanchists, and scheming Soviets wanting the good stuff for themselves, while the Sunday group will be taking on the Mob (and other criminals, and their partners in respectable society) and menaces from beneath the surface, including Atlanteans gone bad.

Research.
In progress. I have a couple of notes for a short section on trap-laden terminology to look out for, particularly in older sources—in particular on "everybody was excited about" and "nobody could talk of anything but" sorts of usages. I'm also continuing to experiment with personal database/information assistant/darned if I know what to call it software, and finding some amazingly useful things. Separate post about that coming up sometime soon.

I am considering a separate weekly post about things I've read, listened to, and seen that interested me, with commenting enabled. I'm still considering because it would take more policing than I necessarily want to perform. Thinking it over.

Looking ahead:

I'm now into a groove that will, I hope, continue through the rest of this month and all of the next. There's nothing really new on the schedule until approximately May-June, with the arrival of summer and me doing things like setting up the air conditioners and making the other schedule shifts that warmer weather will require. Last year, warmer weather sabotaged a promising recovery on another project because I wasn't properly prepared; this time I have the seasonal changes incorporated along with other stuff to track.

Playing and researching will be the major topics for the next six weeks or so. Be prepared for some repetition.

I'd like to note here that I'm enjoying the discipline of the schedule I'm on, very definitely including these weekly reports. It runs counter to a lot of "oh, bright people can do anything" nonsense I picked up over the decades, and that's most welcome. In the specific is the work accomplished, yeah yeah.

Things To Do:

Schedule play time, and start playing.
In progress: Life happened, and the Sunday team couldn't get rolling. We'll see whether the Tuesday team does this week, or whether both launch next week. This is a touch slower than I'd like, but that's the way things go

Research.
In progress: Kindle for iPhone is proving a great blessing. I also need to get out to the library, preferably this week.

This was a somewhat slower-than-expected week, but then it was a week with greater-than-expected disturbances in my physical environment. I've done pretty well coping with things without major disruptions.

Looking Ahead:

I'm going to be focusing on the rules and advice for characters (and others) changing the world around them first. No idea right now when I'll have anything for discussing—you'll hear about it when there's stuff to talk about, pretty much.

Despite delays in play, I'm comfortable with my position right now in my overall schedule. As I said at the outset, I tried to plan for complications of the sort I've had in the past, so that they wouldn't so easily derail things. So far, they aren't.

Things Done:

Settle into a routine for exercise and research.
Done. The hard initial days of regular exercise are now behind me, and I'm just about done checking for old dead links. I've got a spinoff question that will go in its own post.

Things To Do:

Assemble playtest teams.
Done.

Schedule play time, and start playing.
In progress: I expect to have the rosters set in the next few days, and either to have run a first session this weekend or to do so next week.

Once play gets underway, there'll be tales to tell from that but not a lot else very exciting, so nearly as I can foresee, through the rest of March and April. However, I will try to have something interesting to share each week.