A Walk in the Dark A look in to the mind of an RPG designer

Writer’s Block

I've been having a troubling couple of days as of late, but find it necessary to post *something* on here...

In the past two or three weeks:

• I just came off a rather exhausting 10 day vacation, during which we drove from Miami to New York City.
• As many of you know, I was hit with a somewhat scary "cease and desist" during that time for Fire From the Sky, so I have been somewhat disillusioned with game development. I was hoping to clarify what I can or cannot do, but many of you have pointed out that I shouldn't expect robust communication with Wizards of the Coast's legal team. So I haven't been doing module desgin because I don't want to be spending time on something that might never see the light of day.
• Next week I'll be in Indianapolis, and there is extensive preparation involved for that.
• My car seriously broke down last Sunday, to the tune of $1800 to repair. My mechanic - whom I will refer to as MacGyver - bypassed the A/C system so I can get it running for only $350, but you can imagine that driving around Miami without A/C is making me even more tired than I am normally.
• Lots of other things, mostly work-related.
• Because of all of the above, I haven't been sleeping particularly well.

Fire From the Sky: Contraband Edition

As a result, I've not only been at a loss for what to write, but I've been having a hard time getting myself to even think about it. I've been extremely tired and somewhat unwilling to do any design as of late, and it's rubbing off on everything I'm involved in. The three games that I'm actively DM-ing are suffering as a result... Running those campaigns in light of everything else that's going on in my life makes them feel like work and not enjoyment. And, as I've mentioned before on this very blog, work isn't very fun.

So, to try to get my mind off everything, I'm thinking forward to Indianapolis. I have created a special cover for Fire From the Sky (with the Gamma World logo removed, which was one of their points of contention) and will have it with me, and I intend to print several versions nicely bound. 

Whether I will run it or not is yet to be determined: I still have to build up the personal courage to do so, and want to experience some other people DM-ing at GenCon before I take that step. If it happens, it'll probably be either late Saturday or early Sunday. We'll see how it goes.

This blog will probably go dark while I'm away, but hopefully I'll be able to clear my mind and think of something to write about before then. I will definitely post my show schedule if I remember to do so, and look forward to seeing some of you there.

Stay tuned!