November Life Update – Cutting Back

Hello, I know it’s December now but this update is about things that happened last month. Besides, I might end up doing one more update before the end of the year.

It feels like I’ve delayed this update too much so there’s a fair amount of things I want to cover & try to recall.

Quick summary for those with little time:

• Been thinking about my dreams & if I can ethically justify them in the context of the world at large (something I’ll delve into on a separate post).

• I’ve had two sets of random guests stay over at my flat briefly. I’ll be talking about the first pair (the second largely kept to themselves).

• Cancelled my D&D campaign.

• I’ve taken a different approach to my game projects, & now I’ve found myself actually sticking to a project for once (yay!).

• I also finally got around to getting most of these questions up in front of my house.

A 1st D&D Campaign Handout

Ugh… finally got this done! This took me way too long to get done (my excuse is I got caught up in world building  😀 ).

I’m posting it here so those who are curious about it can see it, & also so I can free myself for other pursuits. Fair warning – it’s a long read (over six pages long, way too big to paste into a blog post).

To summarize the document, it covers:

• What to expect from me as a DM.
• What the setting is + some lore regarding what your character should know from the get go.
• Some house rules, mainly about leveling.
• What I’ll need from players.

If you feel up for it (& can open Word documents) here it is.

Farewell.

September Life Update – Game Time

Hello, I thought I’d end up writing about the uncertainty of my job as my contract ended yesterday, but now I have good news. For those who haven’t kept up with my work situation, or forgot, I’d advise reading July & August before reading the next part.

My boss has presented his case about the future & value of my team (& my own role) to his own boss &, from what I can tell, he has no problem with me going part-time. Now we’re just waiting for those above him to approve. This could take a while since apparently there’s a backlog of matters they must see to first.

In the meantime, he has given me a 3 month extension on a part-time basis. I haven’t received any actual paperwork for this yet, but it’s agreed between us that my standard days for the rest of this year starting next week are Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday; with days changing to suit the needs of the team as they arise.

So yep, it’s kinda official now – I’m no longer working full-time. Yeays!!

August Life Update – Not Quite Yet?

Hello, I actually wrote this out in a single afternoon.

This month I’ve become more weary of working full-time & was looking forward to a change in situation, but this last week has been kinda weird for me in an oddly ironic way.

My contract was set to end this coming week & it occurred to me that I hadn’t taken any leave since April. I’d asked about the leave I’d accumulated & was advised to simply sit on it for now. The policy is I’d be paid out for any annual leave I haven’t taken, but this wasn’t the case for sick leave. I’d been advised to simply use it since I hadn’t actually taken any sick days. My plan was to use it to make this current weekend extra long & go visit my parents + dogs in Te Anau again.

Well, this past week my body decided now was the time of the year to be sick.

July Life Update – Changes for the Better

Hello, I’m going to try & make this concise since there’s a lot I want to bring up.

A quick overview for those low on time:

• Work – my old boss returned & changes are happening + temp contract ending next month. I also made an offer with him; if he wants to keep me.

• D&D – need to actually put into action the campaign I’ve been planning all this time (yes I’m terrible  😛 ). May keep my word of posting about it next time.

• Health – taking action to cut down & change my diet. Going dairy-free & reducing sugar intake.

• Return to Game Dev – I made a simulation demo in Unity based on an old assignment & I have more assignments I’m planning on re-imagining.

April Update – D&D World Building

Hello, I’m still around.

I’ve taken this past week off from work so I’ve been able to just relax at home. It’s given me the chance to refresh things: change my bed, get new clothes, shave, etc. Though probably the main thing I’ve been doing over the past while is trying to create a D&D campaign setting.

I’ll just say right now that it’s a “homage” (er, blatant rip-off) of the fantasy I’ve grown up with & enjoyed. With standard D&D lore as the baseline, I’m taking elements primarily from Heroes of Might & Magic, Warhammer Fantasy, Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls, & more; with names, items, etc taken from Magic: The Gathering, Heretic & Hexen, Lords of Magic, Diablo, & other media. It’s essentially a kitchen sink full of high fantasy, which allows the players to be whatever they want to be (this is the one campaign where I’m taking this approach by the way, I plan on being more original/restrictive in future campaigns).

Is this copyright infringement? Probably, but I’m only doing this with my friends & it’s just for fun.

I am of course adding my own flavour to the setting, things like:

• No explicit “good & evil”, only perspectives, beliefs, & cultural values. That means creatures like goblins & orcs aren’t just pillaging & destroying “cause they’re evil”, it’s part of how they survive in the world. It also makes entities like angels & demons more interesting since these are meant to be the living essence of such moral forces.

• Deities are ambiguous & every faction has their own idea of what the gods are; no universal pantheon. Clerics & the like are functionally the same but their powers come more from faith in the domain & ideals themselves; they’re the ultimate examples of the “power of belief”.

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I started this thinking that I’d create the world in a simplistic manner; I won’t worry about things makings sense or there being consistent logic, this is fantasy for fantasy sake. Though as I’ve dug into this & added more & more, I realize just how much work I need to do.

Lessons From DMing

Hello, I wasn’t sure what to make my next post about until last night.

I had spent most of this week planning my next D&D practice session with my cousin, which didn’t go the way I thought it would. On top of that I got a gaming laptop yesterday (yes!) so I’ve been busy getting used to Windows 10, deleting bloatware, & hunting down all forms of privacy invasion I can. I guess you would call this a D&D session post mortem though there’s definitely lessons here to learn about game design in general.

The first session was more of a straightforward dungeon crawl, whilst last night’s session was simply about the player visiting a town for the night. With the first session I was using an existing adventure from a tabletop RPG whilst this was far more improvised. I did have a plan of how the session would go, but that was where I failed.

Decided to DM

Hello

I don’t have anything planned for this week so I’ll keep this short. This is partially because it’s the Easter weekend but more because I spontaneously said I’d be the Dungeon Master for my flat last weekend. Since then I’ve been brainstorming almost constantly about what the campaign would be & I had a practice session on Friday.

May Life Update

Hello, I’ve got some things I’d like to share.

Firstly, I’ve started seeing a work broker who’s already been sending job adverts my way. I had a workshop with them just yesterday where I got advice on how to better write a cover letter & CV, & also found out how unprepared I am for interviews.