It’s been a hectic, amazing year.
For me, on the personal front, I remarried in March and in May became father to an adopted infant boy.
At work, I went from education reporter to news editor in the spring and by the end of summer became a hybrid news editor/crime reporter.
On the OtherSpace front, I started a new “isolated” style of story arc with Colchek, taking a handful of players aboard Comorro Station to an alien universe where they could be caught in the crossfire of a war for freedom.
For a few months, though, that storyline faltered because of the intense increase in the demands on my time by both fatherhood and journalism. It’s just been impossible to find reliable blocks of three or four hours a pop to run events on a consistent basis.
I’m sorry about that.
Luckily, most (if not all) the players involved in the Comorro arc have multiple characters who can stay active back in the home universe. So, when things are in a lull aboard Comorro, there’s still someone to play with back in the Ancient Expanse.
But I want (need) the arc to plunge onward and, thanks to some encouragement from the players involved, we’re managing the adventure using posts in the game forums. It’s like an experiment we tried on a broader scale in the past, employing play-by-post techniques, but it may prove a better fit for us when it comes to small-group adventures.
I can make time – a few minutes here and there – between feedings and reporting on gang violence to post about what the True Children are doing to make life interesting for our heroes.
I miss the immediate gratification of real-time literary riffing in scenes, but the forum posts are a better alternative than inert silence.
And while we explore what’s next in the evolving narrative, we’re also thinking about what’s next with the game itself.