Taking a Break Tonight.

The past few weeks have been busy. April is just a really busy month. During this month, I have moved furniture, worked more than I care to with my regular 9-5 (overtime), attended various gathering with family and friends (aka social obligations), ran a few sessions of C&C (players demanded it), and finally did some work on Victorious and a bunch more on issue one of the Ballista.

This past week alone has had me staying way too late in getting issue 1 done and to my satisfaction. Last night i spent more time working on the Ballista than my actual paying job earlier that day. In short tonight I am taking a break and goin to bed early.

I figured it was a good opportunity to blog a bit too as I have made a couple of decisions. First off, the Ballista is going to be a quarterly periodical. Working on this has been great and realtively stress free but still time consuming. Mind you, part of that also has to do with the size of the project. In the early stages of the project 4-6 weeks ago, the projected page count was about 20 pages. As of right now, it's grown to over 30. More content means more time but It is only days away from completion.

At over 30 pages, it might get a bit of a price bump but if it does, it'll probably be just 50 cents making the new total $2.00 instead of $1.50 but this isn't set in stone yet. I'll discuss this first with John (BHP) and see what he thinks.

The biggest snag is the time it would take to get the POD setup for it once we submit the PDF. This brings me to a few questions. Do we wait to release both togther which means the customer can possibly get a deal on both at the same time or just release the PDF version ASAP and release the POD option once it becomes available? Will people care about the dead tree version for this sort of product?

I know I want a print copy but that's just me.

Anyway, that's it for now. I have a lot of stuff to do before this week is done and none of it has to do with the Ballista. This means even more stuff is going to be juggled. ;)

M

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Updates

Great progress is being made with the Ballista and the article which had given me a few issues last week is really flowing and coming together nicely. This article, which I won't reveal what it entails yet is what I hope others will perceive as the gem of the first issue. It still has to be fine tuned (in other words, edited) and put into layout. The layout will be quick enough with only a few tables to challenge me. :)

I have also come to realize that my recent $80 acquisition of a used netbook a real boon to the work I have been doing with Arcana Creations. It gives me a chance to do some editing and writing during my lunch hours. I have quickly come to realize how much more productive I have become as a result of this. Not because I have some extra time to work but because I find myself already in a groove to continue working despite a departure of the nature of the work when compared to my day job.

The April issue of the Ballista continues to be on track for a release sometime this month but there is a bit of a catch. I know some may be looking to get a physical copy but the process using the RPGNow POD service may mean that people wanting a deadtree copy may have to wait a little more (to the tune of a couple of weeks). I think I have an idea for those who want an electronic copy and a physical copy while ensuring fans don't pay for the material twice but I will have to check on that. It's not like we're breaking the back though but I appreciate what loyalty the fans are willing to provide and try to reciprocate whenever possible.

I'll try to get a few more answers toward the end of the week.

As to narrowing the release of issue one to a particular day, I am not quite ready to do so but will once the Ballista is ready for a final proofing. At that time, I will also post the table of contents of the first issue and article summaries.

M


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Pieces Continue to Fall in Place

Well, another section has been completed for the Ballista.  It's not something I wrote but a piece by John Adams.  It is a short but nice forward he agreed to do for the first issue of the Ballista.  I have to say, reading that made me feel good about the work I've been putting into it.  I'm trying to finish off a couple of key things but things are starting to finally wrap up on various bits of it. What's kind of cool is I'm also starting to accumulate some material for the second issue (which, if things continue well enough would be the June issue).

M

Hitting the Wall

Sometimes you work on resolving a few issues with some gaming design and mechanics. Working on a great piece for the Ballista but hit a small stumbling block in terms of the design. I start working the problem and then I fall into the trap of some circular logic. After a couple of hours of getting nowhere fast, I figure I need to get back to the Basics of what i was trying to accomplish and also put it aside fo a day or two and try and come back with a fresh perspective. Time ti switch gears and do a bit of work on a few other things that need finishing in the meantime.

;)

M

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