Ah, the First of May.

This is going to be pretty short because I need to get rolling on my BRP Design Challenge submission. I’m still working on the first one and I don’t know if there’s going to be a second one at this point. I’ve got to get a lot of what’s in my head down onto the keyboard before I’m finished.

Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this article are strictly my opinion. If you disagree or have a different opinion, that’s okay. I’m not an expert on everything. I’m not always right. I’m just writing from my experience as I know it. Your mileage may vary.

First piece of business.

Please consider a donation to my Ko-Fi.

The renewal for my website/blog comes due on the 25th of this month. I know there are a lot of great causes out there in the world and people who need help. Today, I happen to be one of them. (Nervous chuckle.) Seriously, if you can spare a couple of dollars, please go to my Ko-Fi page and donate. I’d appreciate it so very much. My Ko-Fi is HERE if you’re interested in helping out.

My blog here is one of the only things giving me any sort of real purpose and keeping me sane. I have a wife, four kids, and three cats. Blogging daily ensures I stick to some sort of routine. It gives me purpose. It lets me vent. All in all it’s just a positive force all around. However, my wife is a teacher in a state where educators are treated horribly by our government. Money can be a bit of an issue around here at times.

I’m also contemplating a GoFundMe for the site and a new laptop. I’m currently running on a very old Microsoft Surface Pro. Affinity Publisher, a website upgrade, and a newer laptop are high on my priority list. I’m also trying to figure out what I could do for patrons over on Patreon. Please email me if you have any ideas. I’m looking at about $1,600.00 in expenses, give or take.

All donations will go to a beneficent cause. Once I start making money on publishing my game content and get a few things squared away, I’ll be able to start hiring artists, possibly an editor, and I might even be able to start working in color. We’re a ways off of that right now, though.

Second, there’s this “YouTube” thing.

Photo by freestocks.org on Pexels.com

You may have heard of it. It’s this video platform where people put their creations online that’s probably going to be replacing Tik Tok here in the USA soon. It’s a thing, I guess. (*Okay, I’m kidding around. I watch a LOT of YouTube everyday and when I’m sleeping.)

Then there’s the somewhat sore subject of my channel. I was really gonna do it last year. Then all four kids had stuff going at the same time every night. And then summer break happened. Do you know how hard it is to shoot a video with five family members in the house and a neighbor who mows his lawn every day?

Not to mention my natural stage fright. Which is funny because I’ll do damn near anything on stage with a live audience. I’ve had years of theatre. At one point I wanted to own my own stage and theatre company. Then the real world happened. But I still have TTRPGs.

I dunno why but hearing my own voice and seeing myself on camera kinda freaks me out. Which makes my silver play button go farther and farther away. So, I’ll be overcoming my fear of the camera, even if you get audio only for a while.

Trying to find privacy to shoot a video in a family of six is not as easy as it sounds.

There’s also this matter of a certain clown who seemingly made it his life’s purpose to make videos mocking other TTRPG channels. [REDACTED] is such a bitter little turd that he’s attacked me twice- both times for commenting on someone else’s video. I don’t have any desire to give that [🦆CENSORED🦆] the satisfaction of ripping apart one of my videos.

I have a couple of things I’m going to attempt to do trying to ease into making videos. There may be a gap called June through August, depending on how and when I can steal a few moments to make content. I hope everyone likes water, ducks, and geese as I do narration over some B Reel at the lake. I go there when I meditate. I figure Driving & Dragons does it. Maybe I’ll become Duckies & Dragons or something.

Last, before I go…

We’ve been given the green light by Chaosium to talk about our BRP Design Challenge entries all we want on both social media, blogs, and YouTube. In fact, I have it on good authority that it’s being encouraged. I’m stoked for this because I’ve been holding back saying anything for fear it would screw with the judging. Turns out they’re not worried about it. (*LOL Those guys have no idea what they’ve unleashed. I won’t be able to shut up now.)

My first entry is titled Steamship Nautica. It’s about a massive floating battle fortress that gets teleported to an untouched, unexplored world of high fantasy and adventure. It’s all the things I love about a TTRPG combined with elements everyone loves about TTRPGs. (*subtle differences.)

I’ll be talking about Nautica, her crew, the game modes (*one is something new I’m cooking up,) monsters, encounters, characters, magic, and all sorts of other shenanigans. The world Nautica left behind is only being touched on briefly at the beginning, so there’s an entire book of lore to follow up the initial book.

Oh, I’m throwing out the Zine idea for this as I’m probably going to need all 128 full letter sized pages for the book. I’m excited for people to try out all of the cool weapons, fantastic vehicles, new spells, and bizarre encounters. Jump into a world where anything could happen and lots of things will.

Thank you for being here today with me. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy.