Category: Star Wars RPG

12/27 Getting Back on Schedule

While I told my players that we would not be resuming the campaigns until the 7th of January, that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t be getting back into the campaigns then.

With Christmas now behind us, and facing a sheer mountain of follow-up work (parcel returns and the beginning of tax season), I’ve packed my tablet and notepads to work with me.

It’s time to finish out the plot details of the upcoming sessions and send the schedule reminders. The Main Group sessions have priority, but I’ll be lining up the Solo and Small-Party sessions as well.

I’ve been wanting to get back into this part of my storytelling, and it’s a haven during the Heavy Season. Hopefully, the story will be good enough to get everyone else’s attention.

Time to write! Take care out there, Readers.

-JB Swift

11/18 Friday’s Story Progress!

It was a half-day today!

Just goes to show that the guy with 12 years of painfully-earned experience might know more than the supervisor who failed up into their position after less than 3 years without ever learning how the job is done.

But hey, if they don’t want to listen, I can plan around it. I knew this was coming and scheduled our final weekday errands for this afternoon, which should be rather minimal.

After that, I can write! I’ve done a lot of work on the Adventure already (every adventure and arc has at least the story prompts based off the recordings), so hopefully I can whittle away at the story during the next two months.

The players keep telling me to take the half-season break as a rest period from all the writing. This is how I rest, people!

I’m telling myself to not do any edits on the already-written 6 pages from a couple months ago, at least until the draft is finished. It’ll get done.

But first, I have to see about rounding up a cat from outside so she’ll be boarded and not freeze to death because of her own idiotic stubbornness.

Stay safe out there, readers!

-JB Swift

11/13 Sunday’s Special Request Session

An interesting challenge was brought to my attention via our newest player, Jeremy.

Readers, meet Jeremy. Jeremy, meet your new fan base.

Basically, I was going to write a Star Wars story in a Highlander-style, mapping out consequences in the modern-day Main Arc from the choices made in this prequel Side Arc.

With the character concept given by my player, and he being a brand-new player, I’ve found myself truly in my element: teaching tabletop gaming. If I can help a player understand what they’re capable of, and get them comfortable with describing what they want to do, I consider that a victory.

The new player has proven himself to be smart in both important aspects for gaming: he asked questions and explained his strategies. He was introduced to “consequential campaigns” rather quickly, having defenestrated someone in broad daylight.

Everyone does it at least once in their first campaign.

I’ll be making my notes and mapping out how his decisions will affect the Main Arc campaign (he’s starting at 5BBY, while the Main Arc is almost at 2ABY), and I can already see several points just from his first session that will have strong influences on the “future”. It’s turning out to be a lot of fun to write.

Stay safe out there, readers!

11/12 Saturday’s Final Session of the Year

The Main Arc sessions have ended for the year! We won’t be back until January 7.

Since the Heavy Season has hit its stride, I’ve taken a page from how the CW handled a season for their shows: the party finished their current adventure and are at the half-way point of Arc 3.

To the players: I will be working on a half-season finale-esque short for y’all, so you’ll have something to help keep where we are in your memory. Great session!

I’ve also discovered a new obsession with detailing my maps, but now I have to look into poster-sized graph paper to get the kind of details I’ll be wanting.

I’ll be using the interim to work on the dramatizations (Arc 1, Adventure 2 is going to answer questions, but also hurt) in between moments that work leaves me alone and if I have enough energy left in me to reach the keyboard.

With that, I’ll be getting to work on my story-writing.

Stay safe out there, readers!

-JB Swift

11/10 Been Down with the Sickness

And now the song is stuck in our heads. I’m not sorry.

I apologize for not posting for the past week, but I had come down with a double whammy of illnesses.

Sarah caught the flu on Saturday night, and my son Ben caught strep throat on Sunday. My caretaker brain kicked in and I looked after them on both days, only to find myself in a very strange lucid dream at 3AM on Sunday night.

I find it amusing that, even in a fever dream, I’m still focused on ‘progressive’ issues, as the setting was a world overcome by climate change and in a constant state of sweltering heat, and the narration was all about what could’ve been done to prevent it. I eventually woke up and checked myself, noting the 103-degree fever, which didn’t go down for nearly a full day.

That Monday morning, I checked in with my doctor (pediatrician and family member) and made a mental note that I had not seen an actual look of concern on his face in a very long time, but he looked worried when I came in. I caught both illnesses and my immune system was working overtime to keep me alive. I was put off work until this Saturday, given some very strong medications, and told to eat as much as possible. Also, a steroid shot, and there’s only one place someone with my BMI can take a steroid shot.

I couldn’t sit down for most of that day.

I’ve recovered enough since then to be considered ‘my old self’, which is to say a surly and cranky old man when I can’t have coffee. Lots and lots of green tea, though. This means I haven’t done any writing at all the past few days, unfortunately. Not even anything plot-relevant.

But as this post should indicate, I’m on the mend! I hope.

I owe a player a Side-Arc session, which I hope I can do an impromptu hosting tomorrow afternoon, and the Main Arc session is this Saturday. I also have a special request for a Sunday session, and that is looking to prove very interesting.

There’s a lot of writing to catch up on, and I’m afraid I have a strict time limit before the last of my evening round of medications kicks in and knocks me out.

Stay safe out there, readers!

-JB Swift

11/3 Forced Half-Day and the kids’ brushing out of hair (plus, a Weather Photo!)

Today was my regular non-scheduled day, but as I had a doctor’s appointment for my son around noon, management could only work me for a half-day.

Cue the childish behavior of pulling a face and saying neener-neener at the adults.

I managed to get some time set aside to work on the plot for the upcoming session, but I’ll have to take my tablet and notebook with me to work tomorrow and get to work on the list I’ve jotted down. I’m hoping to get a Side-Arc session (I’d really prefer two but I keep having to be responsible and go to work) set up, as well as finalizing a new Archetype for the newest player. Those are fairly simple to write up, but they can be tedious.

Han went in for her Kung Fu test today and passed! Her ability to kick my ass continues to develop and I couldn’t be prouder. Ben went to the test and has determined that he wants to study Kung Fu next year, but for now he’s going to copy my training in the carport.

No pictures of Han’s test for the site, as she said she didn’t want them posted because she didn’t like her hair today. I can respect that.

But that didn’t stop the two from brushing out their old man’s hair into a cloud of poof.

fwoomp

Han did go over my options for the weather photo today, though, so here’s the one she liked the most.

All things considered; I was ready to be waterlogged.

All in all, it’s been a full day, and it’s not over until I prep my meals for tomorrow. Time to wreak havoc upon the kitchen!

Stay safe out there, readers.

-JB Swift

10/30 Sunday’s Chores, Site Clean-Up, and Preparations

Ah, Sunday. The day when I get to sleep in until 7AM before the children dash in and leap over the bed to deliver flying piledrivers into my sides. And they wonder why I’m always in pain.

But it’s also the day when I sit down here for a couple of hours in the morning and figure out what’s gone wrong with my Posts again. I might as well launch the second site for my Union Local so they stop being automatically set to “Drafts”, but then again, I like being able to go over them and fix the inevitable grammatical errors.

There will also be the Legion of chores that I wasn’t able to finish throughout the week, and the prep work for the week ahead. I’ll be reaching out to my Side-Arc players and scheduling their Sessions for the week ahead, as well as plotting out the year’s Final Session.

Saturday’s Session was spectacular! The Field Group has split into three different teams and having to switch between all three and keep the story going was exhilarating and exhausting. It felt like a genuine Star Wars movie (I was also playing John William’s music very softly in the background). If only I could add sound effects during the session.

There was a moment where the Wilhelm Scream would’ve been perfect. But alas, I don’t have the budget to make my RPG games seem like they came from Lucasfilm.

At the moment, though, I need to get to my housework and furiously edit my writings.

Stay safe out there, readers! Happy Sunday.

-JB Swift

10/29 Saturday’s Game Night!

It’s Saturday! Not only that, but it’s a Game Night!

The players had split into three groups to handle the adventure I’ve written up for them. While the old wisdom says to never split up, having them go in three different directions adds a new challenge to them as well as myself. Can they all move independently of each other and have their decisions affect each other simultaneously? Can I keep up with that and keep the story coherent and entertaining for those players not involved with the current point of view?

I’m excited and terrified at the prospect!

Stay safe out there, readers! Wish the players luck!

-JB Swift

10/27 Thursday’s Game Note Prep Night

With the family off to bed and the house quiet, I’ve stepped into my note-prepping time, what I call “DM Writing” on the Session Calendar.

And I’ve become obsessed with getting these maps fully detailed.

I need bigger graph paper.

Granted, I’ve put a lot of expectations upon myself to give the players as much as possible, but the players do exceedingly well when given this much information. If that’s what they need, then that’s what I will provide.

Stay safe out there, readers! Send large graph paper!

-JB Swift

10/24 Monday Shenanigans and Mardek’s Side-Arc!

Pre-note: You might have noticed that I use the word ‘shenanigans’ in my posts often. If so, you’ve probably wondered why that is. It’s no secret or attempt to sound wordy; it’s one of my favorite words, and fun to write. Try it a few times and you’ll see what I mean.

So begins another week at the day job! It’s only Monday, and I’ve managed to annoy every supervisor in the office by simply doing my job properly! In under 2 hours, even. A new record.

Well, one day they’ll accept that I’ll keep doing my job properly instead of just rushing through the day. Until then, I’m considered an annoying twat by management.

In other news, Mardek’s Side-Arc is finally finished! Truth to tell, it had been finished for a day, but the Pages kept having formatting issues when I added this story to the timeline. But it’s fixed now!

https://swiftscorner.wordpress.com/buying-time/

Stay safe out there, reader! Happy reading!

-JB Swift