New Years and New Goals

I've spent the last month juggling a lot of projects between a lot of social or personal obligations (including needing to make time for an emergency root canal). I think it's safe to say I've been getting better at it if nothing else. there were times in my past where I just would have collapsed beneath all the expectations. I have high school teacher that would shit themselves if they saw me now.

And while I'm not a big believer in new years resolutions, but a new year is an opportunity to reorganize your priorities. And boy do I have some planned for this patreon.

OVERARCHING GOALS
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Attract More Patrons
This is something you all could help me with! Tell people not only about my content, but why you like it! Or stuff you're looking forward to! Earnest enthusiasm is the best kinda marketing a smaller designer like me could ask for. But right now in a post elon-twitter world, I've been struggling to establish myself on other platforms: Tumblr, FA, cohost. I do have a set goal in mind that if I hit here in patreon, I would be obligated to make another Exceptionals expansion that would take it from being explicitly an x-men game to be a generalized supers game, without sacrificing it's core theming and ideas. I definitely have some ideas.

But more patreons means more stability and opportunities. I can upgrade my office software, afford things in emergencies (like root canals), outsource art, afford to buy dinner during an all-night session, go to cons and network.

Expand What I Make
I want to be able to offer more and different things for y'all. Games will always be the priority, but I've been getting opportunities with different kinds of writing. I want to be able to offer different types of writing. Essays, articles, prose and short story. This month I was invited to a historical fiction anthology and all I could think about is how nice it would be just to occasionally do that sort of thing for y'all. A lot of my other goals could probably fall into this.

Projects Specific Goals for the Next 12 Months
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Protect the Sacred
Protect the Sacred has it's own specific goal list as it's it's own giant project, but the overarching goal is pretty simple: Finish the 4th draft of notes and enter testing and production.

Brave_Heart
Figure out how to make the two disparate parts of this idea work together and start notes.

Your Furry SO (new)
Learn how to structure a solo journaling game.

Exile from the Land of Giant Turtles (new)
This is the short story I did for the anthology. It's supposed to be this magical realism retelling of a big of oral history from my people. Which makes sense in concept given how much magical realism owes to indigenous storytelling. But no matter what I do with it I can't seem to find myself proud of the piece. I finished it, but I think the goal here is to be able to not be embarrassed.

Game Design For That Friend Who Hates Board Games (New):
An essay about game designing around the things that hang up new players. Just need to find the time to write it.

UNNAMED SWORD AND SORCERY Project (New):
This is is the year I finally organize the notes for a proper novel. I've attempted a few times before but they've always been confiscated. Teachers, cops, nurses, ect. But I think I'm finally in a safe enough space I can try one last time. I'm more comfortable in Urban fantasy, and always will be, but part of me has always wanted to write something more in the style of a traditional fantasy. Well, traditional for me, meaning old jrpgs.

Protect The Sacred Goals
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I want to make a system more mechanically involved than Exceptionals and flex on other narrative games
Check on this one. I think I have this one pretty figured out. It's just about at the stage of making it all feel good.

I want to build off of and refine the tag system of Exceptionals
I want to make this feel better and find new ways to encourage creative uses of the tags you use. I think I have a couple systems that help, but we'll see in testing.

I want Character Creation to feel better
I know people come away from Exceptionals loving their character, but I want them to feel less tired too. I want to make that process to feel less like a marathon and feed them new creative prompts.

I want to deconstruct the dungeon but preserve the fun
I really want to dig into how we treat dungeons in games. Namely that these are spaces that are often sacred, cultural or living spaces of a figure, often othered and coded and decidedly non-christian or white and a player comes in killing, looting, and trashing anything not nailed down with little regard of what these spaces mean outside of what resources they could provide. It's an obstacle to the consolidation of power or a self-rightous cause and often rewarded by the core mechanics of the game. EXP, Money, Powerful Weapons, trophies.  

Dungeons are fun because they are these big thematic spaces with a sense of purpose and identity. And it can be fun to be in these spaces. To see these giant set pieces and fights. Find traps and puzzles. Be tested in a way. And that fun can still be had.

I just want to try to encourage people to approach one of these things with empathy and a consciousness to their actions. I think I have some things in mind.

I want the stories you tell to matter
In a game about culture and your connections to it, the stories you tell, whether you're sharing something from your culture, or talking about what you do at the table to matter. It's a game you play at the table and have been trying to find ways to give it mechanical weight. I have a title and exp system I'm really excited to share that cares very much about this. I want to reward continuity and have you tell epics of your own.

Kitchen Sink Supernatural World
I want to make a supernatural world that is open to and welcome to cultures all over the world. This includes a right to a non-christian secularity, a rejection of the idea of the "universal myth" and "Heroes journey", also the idea that supernatural =/= evil or harmful. I'm also going to have to dismantle the idea of "all stories are based in some element of truth" and how, given how messy human culture is,h ow to navigate things that have been used to harm folks through real life issues like antisemitism and racism. If you want to reclaim something, what does that actually entail?

No White Saviors
Pushing back against the colonialism of pulp means pushing back against the idea of being a savior who swoops in to solve everything without any stakes or real connections to the cultures affected. You are a resource, not an authority. You are not a cop or soldier but mediators and enablers. how ethical is "it belongs in a museum?"

I have more goals but this is the long and short of it all