2024 game resolutions

 

I usually don't do New Year resolutions anymore. But I decided to at least do some for the gaming aspect of my life. After all I had a pretty good year last year and I think I can grow on that some more. So here we go in no particular order of importance.

1. Keep my Cyberpunk 2020 campaign going until the players want something different. Going to try and avoid burnout and keep it fresh. Not sure how long that will happen but we will see.

2. Continue playtesting for [redacted] until they don't want me anymore. Because playtesting is fun and I enjoy companies who listen to actual constructive criticism. 

3. Make some time to get a few games of Battletech in. Hopefully with one of my good friends who really enjoys the game and bought me the starter kit.

4. One. Just one. New product to release on DrivethruRPG under Truly Rural Productions. I stopped working on anything new after I got hit with Covid and ended up on a vent. That brain fog was real and it felt like my mind was just not capable of handling things anymore. However this last year has been a big change for that as I feel more like myself now. My job and gaming regularly once again really helped that along.

5. Continue to try and work with the local gaming community more like I used to. Build up the MARS Discord server I sat up and start interacting with more folks. But also avoiding those who are nothing but negative most of the time and drain anything positive. 

6. Keep posting on my blog. Try and get myself out into the online community a bit more. Like I used to be many years back. 

Now I would love to add 'play more games' onto that list. But I just don't have the time. If I could handle online gaming it may be a possibility but my hearing is not so good and listening to several folks trying to talk at the same time is not something I can handle very well. However if I can acquire a quality set of headphones and a microphone then I may try it again at some point.

CYBERPUNK RED NETRUN Tutorial Crash Course for Netrunners

Dominion Tank Police

Been busy with holiday stuff so I haven't wrote anything new for the blog. So here's the original Dominion Tank Police anime over on Youtube. Have fun. 

First Shadow Scar Q&A with Cody Pondsmith

Cyberpunk Red Netrunning Deck Review

CYBERPUNK RED Ammunition Crash Course Tutorial

I'll be running a lot of Cyberpunk RED starting after Christmas. So I'm crash coursing on videos to get my mind in the right place. 

More GURPS book in POD

Over on DrivethruRPG it appears that Steve Jackson Games is leaning heavily into the print on demand market a bit more with their GURPS products. Over this last week we've seen six titles put up rather quickly. 

They covered most of the tech bases in classic GURPS with Ultra-Tech, High-Tech and Low-Tech. Plus they also managed to get Compendium 2 up as well. 

For Fourth Edition they put up the Psionics Powers book.

Then for something other than GURPS they put up the core rulebook for the angels vs demons game In Nomine. 

 It's been known that SJG has been stepping away from it's TTRPG lines and support a bit more every year. Especially since Munchkin and their other physical games are the bread and butter for that company now. So the moving everything over to POD eventually makes a lot of sense. 

Hasbro/Wizards doing stupid shit... again

 

Once again Hasbro/WotC is doing stupid shit that people are getting a bit angry over. Although this time it's affecting peoples lives directly. Hasbro seems to be so fucking stupid that they thought the really high sales of 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic would continue on as the new bar to measure sales by. Even after 2022 told them otherwise. So now they are laying people off right at Christmas because (gasp and shock) sales are down. 

Yet all the mother fuckers at the top are still making 5+ million a year. Remember when Nintendo had the WiiU bomb? Yeah it was pretty rough. But the company didn't go through cutting people. Instead the people at the top gave up their bonuses and some of them gave up their pay just so everyone could keep working. But the greed here in the states is WAY to huge for that. 

But I'm hoping that a few more folks see just how shitty Hasbro/WotC is based on how they treat their employees. I mean if they treat the people who make the products they sell like garbage then just imagine of how they think of consumers. We've already seen that, they think of people as little walking wallets to pick from. They are a shit company.

More folks need to finally more away from their crap. Move out of that warm snuggly DnD blanket, creep away from the MtG crack dealers. Move on to other games out there on the market. We saw it happen earlier this year when they stuck their whole damn leg in their mouths with the OGL debacle. Now this. More people need to look around at other options. Maybe to a company that actually treats their customers well. 

Veterinarian Bill out of nowhere

 

Well our house panther Teddy has gotten sick. Had a urinary blockage but we got him to the vet before any real damage had been done. However they are keeping him over night to make sure he will be okay. It appears he is having trouble processing certain types of cat food (we recently switched him to a new brand because of allergy reasons) and will have to go on another different food that will likely cost even more.

Covering the veterinarian bill right now is more than what we have. They will accept payments but it's still an expense that we were nowhere near prepared for. So I'm asking if anyone has anything to spare, even if it's a dollar or two, it would be greatly appreciated. 

My paypal is dekaranger1@gmail.com or you can hit up my Ko-Fi page. Or if you are going to be purchasing anything off of DrivethruRPG soon you can click through this link and I'll get a small kickback from your order. 

Thanks ahead of time.  

UPDATE: They are keeping Teddy for another night just to make sure he is urinating properly. Really hope he is doing okay there at the vets office. Beau, our other cat, has now noticed that his buddy is absolutely not here. He's been a lot more vocal then usual and is asking for attention and affection a lot. 

We are hoping a bit on the side that we get a call before the office closes today saying we can pick him up but we know it's not likely. 

UPDATE UPDATE: It's Thursday and they're wanting to keep Teddy until he urinates again and said we should be able to pick him up by this afternoon. But I work this afternoon and really can't afford to take off and we don't have many options on people to my wife over to pick him up (we have one vehicle). So we're going to see how it goes. I really hope he doesn't have to stay another night but he may have to. 

Closing out this year in gaming

 

Looking back at this year in my personal gaming life. It's been a pretty good one that really ramped up in the end.

Started off the year playing in a Cyberpunk 2020 campaign where I had a rockerboy who was the front man for the "Ass Martians". All the other band members were players as well. That campaign was so much fun. 

Also got to play in both Alien and Fallout games. Alien surprised me by now good the system was and how well the stress mechanic helped control the mood of the game. Fallout was a bit hard for me to get into because I have almost zero knowledge of the video games. But it turned out to be quite fun as well. Simple system, crazy things to fight, two thumbs up.

Then I stepped back for a few weeks and took a break. That's when I decided to pick up the GM reigns once again and started my own Cyberpunk 2020 game using the "Land of the Free" boxed campaign from R.Tal. Put together a new group for it and we've been having a blast.

But that got sort of put on the backburner as I made the list to run playtest material for a company I really love. So my group and I have all put in NDA's and have started on that. Looks like we'll be doing even more for them in January. 

Was also gifted the Battletech beginners box by a good friend. So I'm trying to find some time to work that into my schedule as well. Was a fan of the game way back when it first came out and the current version looks so much better than it did back then.

After working at a game shop for nearly two years now I've started stepping back into the community in an attempt to wrangle folks together. Like I used to do many years long ago. So time to 'dig where you stand' once again. Although I will have to look for somebody else to stand next to me since the person who did that back then passed away in 2022. Norm you are still missed old buddy.

What are my hopeful plans for next year? Well I'll do a 'gaming resolutions' post closer to New Years Eve for that. But I must say that I'm so much more positive this year than I have been in a long time. 

Attacked by Lanasa Again

It's a good thing Don has kept receipts on everything Lanasa has done and said, plus he can afford an attorney. So many others cannot. This should be a warning to everyone to be careful who you get involved with in the gaming industry. 

Fallout - Teaser Trailer | Prime Video