How Do You Recharge?

Well, despite my 'full' schedule, I have to take a break now and then just like anybody. However, taking a bit of time away from whatever projects (or the job) doesn't necessarily 'fuel up the tanks' so to speak. When I'm not simply exhausted after a day's work or don't have my weekend entirely booked with other commitments, I try to pursue simple things. Sometimes it's just to take my mind off of things and other times it's with the hope to 'inspire' me. If I'm lucky, I manage to get both done.

One great way to take a break for someone like me is just to play a few games. These can sometimes be a boardgame amongst friends (usually 'eurogames' and other light strategy games or simply computer and video games. If I'm really lucky, I get to play in a good old pen-and-paper type RPG. Unfortunately, these for me are actually few and I'm currently playing in Supers-RPG a couple of times a month. Of course, I could always run my own game (once more) which is a rarity these days. However, I don't necessarily consider running a preparing a game exactly a break from the sort of projects I do with Arcana Creations -- sometimes it just feels like an extension of it. Playing is always a different matter. I do run stuff and it will be stuff that I am developing for publication and it's always nice to see player reaction to something we have just released or about to publish.

I think in a lot of cases, the key is play.

For me, playing a good deal of StarCraft II when it came out got me really charged up about Sci-Fi. Recently, I've been playing an RPG on the X-Box which is very 'Classical Greece' and it's gotten me thinking of actually running a mini-campaign in the Golden Age of Ancient Greece. Of course, reading great books and movies are also a great way to recharge but I feel that the time spent with those is proportional to the amount one will 'get back'.

Of course, the other way to keep you going is to work on different projects. Right now, I'm working on a couple of projects dealing with the Superhero genre. This is not my principal preferred genre but both are different enough (and one of the two is a short term project to help out). This certainly helps. Of course, if inspiration happens to strike with something else, by all means get some of that out of your system! It might have a great way to motivate you on your original projects and make you feel good about all the work that you are doing.

M

Which Way the Wind Blows?

I've realized that it's been quite some time since the last update... a month in fact.

I noticed in part by the number of books I have read since my last update.  :)

In all seriousness, things are progressing albeit slowly.  I initially hoped to have the Victorious Quickstart out by the end of July but life threw me a few curves.  Nothing bad... just been unusually busy.  At this stage, as opposed to giving a hard date, I will say that it's coming soon and the same goes with the main rule book for the game.  Despite the busy schedule, I am also helping ' Zenith Comics' with their first RPG product which is geared towards the Super Hero RPG genre.  Thankfully it is a smaller role that the typical work I do for some of the Arcana Creations projects I have done in the past and it's not taking too much time away from Victorious!

As far as recent projects are concerned, a week ago I was pleased to see a review on the Grognardia blog for our release, 'A Trick on the Tain'.  If you are interested in reading the review, it can be found HERE.  My thanks to James on his great review of the product!

All this said, I feel Arcana Creations is at a bit of a crossroads as far as its future is concerned.

I love to game.  I love reading about it, being involved with it, and discussing and designed material for it.  It was the primary reason for the work and effort I have put in to Arcana Creations as I strive to create a product that I would be interested in buying as a consumer of gaming material.  I think, with the few releases that I have realized for one of my games of choice, I have done a good job doing so.  Each release has been better than the last and I was more than happy to put in the investment (both time and money) to turn some of these ideas into physical reality.  Right now, Victorious is the 'big' project but I've got something planned which is a bit bigger.  I've also noticed and have experienced the volatility of the market and despite the strong sales of our very first release, the sales of the other releases which have followed have not measured up well it and are in general decline.

It could be simple economics... interest in the type of material we have produced thus far... or even the system Arcana Creations chose to support.  Whatever the reason, I have no choice but to take notice and adapt.  Victorious is continuing and will not be affected by this.  On the other hand, the 20-24 saddle-stitched material we have been producing are being relegated to the back-burner as our focus and format shifts.

As we advance further along with Victorious, a clearer picture of what's to come from Arcana Creations will be provided but nothing beyond Victorious is written in stone.

Thanks for your patience and keep them dice rolling!

M