Originally, my online persona of Brody was inspired by the police chief in Jaws who warned “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
I was so much younger then. So energetic. All-night roleplaying marathons? All I needed was a two-liter of Mountain Dew and a bag of Doritos to get me through the weekend.
And, over time, our little group of literary adventurers grew until we really did need a bigger boat.
That’s an era in the rear view mirror these days, though. We don’t actually have much of a who list left to break on any given night. Nowadays, I feel less like I relate to the resourceful police chief and more like I’m akin to the affable curator who gets lost in his own museum.
On June 28, OtherSpace turns 20. It’s old enough to vote. Old enough to go to war. Not quite old enough to drink. It’s still living under my roof. And it’s not entirely sure what it plans to do with the rest of its life.
Our Slack site is a good way to touch base and stay in contact with old pals. It’s shinier, more accessible than the old-school MUSH. But, like the old-school MUSH, it’s only ever as active as its most visible contributors. And now, with kids and a full-time gig outside OtherSpace, I’m one of the least active contributors anymore. I used to pride myself on the ability to keep the adventure plates spinning on multiple worlds – pirates rampaging among the stars, a crisis on Sivad, menacing military leaders on Mars. Not so much now.
A lot happened on OtherSpace in the past two decades. I feel like we’ve got more stories to tell. However, the next evolutionary phase may take a cue from the 1999 “Sanctuary” story arc. Rather than offering so many options for worlds/channels in Slack, perhaps it’s time to narrow everything down to a single ship again – a rather large one, probably – with a crew made up of the friends who join the saga.
I’ll muse more about this in the coming days as the anniversary approaches.