November 18, 2018

Like Ray Stevens, I Have Returned

The Brainfart Chronicles

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Updates & Random Thoughts

• The newsletter has kind of slipped through the cracks lately, sometimes legitimately (conventions and convention prep, having to work on Saturdays, etc.), sometimes not so much (generally hating life, Netflix binges). I'm going to try to get back on track of sending this out every few weeks, depending on what's going on. 
• "Getting back on track" is something I need to do in general. I've gotten really bad about procrastinating and wasting time instead of getting my ass to work. I'm thinking about trying to track my time again. I've done it a few times in the past, and it seems like having to face the amount of time I'm wasting forces me to waste less time. 
• We did Archon, where we celebrated our 20th anniversary, released American Artifacts: The Complete Collection (which I really need to put up for sale soon), and drank bourbon. It was a good time. 
• At Archon, we discussed the plan for releasing Cinemechanix. Since most gamers are more interested in settings than systems, we'd previously decided to release M-Force before the system guide as sort of a preview in hopes of gaining some traction. At Archon we discussed that releasing more than one "powered by Cinemechanix" game before the system book might be a good idea. Since we know we want to do a Cinemechanix version of Hobomancer AND it's our most popular game, we ultimately decided to do Hobomancer before M-Force. A couple of weeks ago some guys who want to do a gaming podcast asked if I'd be willing to run Hobomancer for them, so I've started working on converting Hobomancer to the current version of Cinemechanix (which currently doesn't exist as a coherent rules document due to recent changes). Patreon supporters at the $3+ tier have access to the doc, so if you're interested give me money. 
• For my quarterly Patron exclusive game on Patreon, I made up kind of a worker placement game called Twitbook Wars. I'll release it to the general public in 6 months. 
• Speaking of the Patreon mini-games, I recently noticed that not only was I not at the level that I needed to buy art for them, I wasn't even at the level for writing them (I am apparently not good at Patreon). Since I've actually enjoyed the ones I've done, I added a new milestone for 2 games a year. That way I can still do them but have a little more time. 
• I recently finished What The Hell Did I Just Read, the third book in the John Dies at the End series by David Wong. Like the second book, it's not as good as John Dies at the End, but it's still fun. 
• I also read Betsy Phillips new chapbook, Jesus Crawdad Death, which collects 3 short stories that are exactly my kind of weird. The first is about a woman who finds out the man she's been dating is married and decides to get her revenge by rasslin' him, with Jesus as her tag team partner; The second tells the story of a woman who saves her brother-in-law (who is a creek) from developers by birthing a mess of rare crawdads; and the third is about Death's interactions with St. Francis, William Faulkner, and William Gay (I'm not familiar with his work, but now I feel like I need to be). 
• Just started High Rise by J.G. Ballard. I'm only a couple of chapters in, but I saw the Netflix movie version with Loki a year or two ago and I've read enough Ballard short stories to trust that it's going to be fun. 
• The new season of Daredevil was ok, but the Marvel shows are starting to feel more like an obligation than an exciting way to spend my time. 
• It's worth watching the first episode of the new season of House of Cards purely for the joy with which they write off Kevin Spacey's character. The rest of the season is more of the same (which is good), but I thought the ending could have been stronger. 
• I'm about halfway though The Haunting of Hill House. It took a couple of episodes to hook me, but once it gets going it's excellent. The most recent episode I've watched (the "origin story" of The Bent Neck Lady, for those who have seen it) ends with one of the best reveals I've seen in a while. 

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Word of the Week

Brainfart Press will eventually release a dictionary of words nobody particularly needs to know, tentatively titled (with apologies to Ambrose Bierce) "The Dumbass Dictionary." Here's one of those words:
 

The Jersey Devil
A cryptid said to roam the Pine Barrens area of New Jersey. It has a thin, kangaroo-like body, bat wings, the head of a goat, a forked tail, cloven hooves, and little-bitty Tyrannosaurus arms ending in tiny clawed hands.

 

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©2024, Steve Johnson