Year Eight Begins Now

Before I forget, there is a Geek Gab episode today that focuses on the #BROSR's launch of #BROvenloft for October.

I'll spend time on this tommorrow, because it's already been eventful.

My plans for this year--with the usual caveats still applying--is to keep this blog focused around gaming, the Study around media, and Big Thinks around Empire.

I'm thinking about expanding my footprint to Substack and opening up at Patreon and Subscribestar, but without a tight topic focus a Substack will prove useless. Until I can figure that out, no Substack. Subscribestar (or Patreon, or Kofi, etc.) can be more general, and I may just do one of each as a glorified tip jar so folks so inclined can toss me some change.

With regard to gaming: having looked at RIFTS recently (and Palladium more generally) and Mekton Zeta through the True Campaign lens that the #BROSR champions, I'll revisit TORG soon and Classic Traveller after that. I'll break that up with some observations on BattleTech and related stuff like the three components of Robotech: Macross, Southern Cross, and MOSPEADA.

I will also make this observation now: it is to the benefit of all RPG hobbyists that the #BROSR be so strident about D&D in particular and RPGs generally. By making a clear and consistent definition of what makes a tabletop RPG, those that dislike the #BROSR position are forced to respond in kind and to produce products that conform to those definitions.

(I will note that there are some contenders out there already, which I would like to read and review.)

Over at the Study I'll start throwing up media reviews. That will push me to start working through the To Read/Watch Pile, and I'll mix that up with more promotional stuff to aid my friends and allies in getting their own stuff seen/read/heard.

That includes linking to podcasts, like David Stewart's New Pub Talk.

So expect that to show up on the regular over there from here forward.

Over at Empire, I expect that I'll be talking about the Ukraine War and its knock-on effects for a while yet as well as recommending whom I watch/read to keep up (and with what caveats) and I'll mix in Big Thinks about other stuff.

I also expect I'll post more than once a week for both blogs now.

Literary news will be at the Study. Gaming at the Retreat. Big Thinks at Empire.

The only other thing I want to reveal now is that a month or so ago I embarked on another project, one unrelated to anything else--not writing, not gaming, etc.--that will take about two years to complete if it all works more or less as I think it will (mostly due to bureaucratic backlogs in various government agencies). Beige Shiba and a few others are privy to the details, as they are more geopolitically aware than others, and due to the fact that this requires dealing with a lot of back-and-forth paperwork it's going to be a backburner project by its nature. I will speak no more about it in public at this time.