Friday 22 January 2016

2016: The Year I Start Self-Publishing

2015, another year, another promise to blog and create more unfulfilled - or was it? I didn't blog as much as 2014, but I played more games than the previous year though, and one game in particular - playing a new game/setting by noisms in August - inspired me to make Oddpool.

It was around this time that I started thinking about making a zine. I had an idea in particular, which was wanting to explore the motivations of RPG creators. The original inspiration was the TV show Inside The Actor's Studio; I love the depth that the host James Lipton goes into, the way he unpicks the why of his guests. I wanted to see why people make games, what they get from them, what they like about them - and as someone who wants to make games too, perhaps learn something along the way.

So in 2016 I'll publish my zine, A Random Encounter, where each issue is a single interview with an RPG creator. I've recorded the interviews for the first two issues, and issue 1 is coming together now. I've commissioned a cover from a terrific artist for the issue, and am looking around for someone to work on issue 2.

Issue 1 will be out by the end of February, and I'm aiming to be bi-monthly-ish. The first issue's interviewee will be announced soon. And I'm going to start thinking and prepping for issues 3 and 4 next month too.

Oh! And in 2016 I hope to have Into The Oort out in some form or other. I need to make it more of a priority in the next few months, pulling a playtest package together is the first order of business.

Who knows, maybe I'll find time to blog a little more too...