From the Ruins of the Labs

Oh how I’ve tricked the villagers beyond my dilapidated walls. No horrors have crept out of my laboratories for some time, and the peasants have been lulled into a false sense of security. But I’m still lurking… deep beneath the ruins above.

The Rumors of My Death…

Not that I really think anyone cares, but I’m still lurking around the blogosphere and various social networks. I’m still very much immersed with all things roleplaying, but have not had much to say and not a lot of time to say it anyways. IRL, my career in software development has snowballed and I find I no longer have the time I used to devote to writing for Mad Brew Labs.

The Night’s Watch

Something else taking up time is a new podcast I’m co-hosting for Bald Move: The Night’s Watch. My co-host, A.Ron Hubbard, and I are covering Game of Thrones television series, HBO’s adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire. Tomorrow, our coverage of the season 1 finale will go live at baldmove.com and on iTunes. If you want to find out more, check out the blog feed, fan us on Facebook, tweet at us @BaldMove, or circle us on Google+.

A New Outlook on Gaming

Of course the lack of time is just part of the equation. I also find myself in new territory as far as gaming is concerned. I no longer search for satisfaction in published systems (though still have fun playing them); instead find myself more interested in my own rules. I’m not creating new mind-blowing concepts, I’m just making familiar mechanics work the way I want them to and find I gain a great deal of fulfillment in doing so.

Late last year, I failed a 24 hour RPG challenge, but that initial concept is now in use at my table. I’ve often thought about writing about the process, but feel it would mostly fall on deaf ears. Maybe once I get the document edited to my liking, I’ll publish it here and explain some of the design choices I made.

Future Contributions

As I settle into a new work schedule, I hope to begin integrating time to return to writing and creating stuff for this hobby, so don’t delete me from your feeds just yet. I’m re-writing my free Pathfinder RPG online character creator, VentureCaptain.com from the ground up, but this time I’m building it with accounts in mind and as a subdomain of a much larger site: GamingKeep.com.  GK will roll up all the RPG-related web apps I’ve worked on using an integrated account system.

So if you liked my Savaged Tools (a Savage Worlds dice roller, initiative draw, and logging tool), you’re going to see some similar (and expanded) functionality for PFRPG too. It’s all pie in the sky, and honestly, could end up in the geek project graveyard, but I’m working on the infrastructure now. I even plan on putting tools for my own RPG on GamingKeep, so as long as my interest in my homebrew continues, so will work on this site. I won’t even deign to put a timeline on the project, but I hope to have the site updated within six months (it is only me, and I have a new day job, after all).

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