The February Roundup

February has gone by in a blur. It’s been a month of victory and defeat. For me, February has felt like a “busy” month. I’m a fan of busy—but busy by choice not circumstance. February has been busy by circumstance.

Citadel on the Wilderlands

Final word count scores on the doors for Citadel on the Wilderlands:

• Solonor Isle: 51,527
• Monastery of Ineffable Evil: 14,816
• Grand Total: 66,343 (huzzah!)

In total, I put on just over 22,000 words in February. That’s great, but it came at a cost. This was an interesting and fun design sprint, but inevitably other things suffered. I’m a couple of thousand words behind in several other projects, and I have some development still to do for two small releases this month.

This means that for March, I’ve decided to revert to 500 words a day. I’ll be focusing on Solonor Isle, but if the mood takes me I might dabble in the Monastery. The horror of mapping the above-ground ruins and so on loom large in my mind.

Out and In

My out-and-about pocket notebook is almost full; like I’ve got two pages left. The start of a new month is an excellent time to retire my old notebook and start a new one!

Like I needed an excuse. (But I’ll take it.)

The Blackwing Clutch notebooks are lovely. Unsurprisingly, they take graphite marvellously and are a joy to write, scribble and plot in. That said, I’m sure the white cover won’t be unblemished by the time the notebook retires. White is a harsh and unforgiving colour. Perhaps I should get a sticker!

Starfinder

I ran the adventure in the Starfinder Beginner’s boxed set a couple of weeks ago. I wasn’t running the adventure for members of my normal group (with one exception) and we had fun. I’m pretty sure we weren’t following the rules with 100% accuracy, but no one seemed to really care.

Another key part of the session was discovering that virtually anything sounds better when you add the word “space” to it. For example:

• Hamster
• Space Hamster
• Giant Dragon
• Giant Robot Space Dragon (okay, I cheated a bit on this one)

And, of course,

• Everything is Better with Tentacles
• Everything is Better with Space Tentacles

The upshot is that I might start running a second weekly game. We play Masks of Nyarlathotep on Wednesday nights and I might start a casual Starfinder game on Thursday nights. My only slight concern is making sure I’m prepped for both sessions. It’s something to think about as I am not a fan of half-arsing it.

Greenlights

The Wife put me onto Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey I bravely purchaed the audiobook and I’m very much enjoying listening to it. I highly recommend it. The book’s blurb gives you a good idea of what you’ll be getting for your money:

From the Academy Award®-winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.

It's fun and thought-provoking. Well worth a read or listen.