Why would I start a blog? It started as a quick "get rich" scheme set up to ride the tiny coat tails of Wizard of the Coast's re-release of Gary Gygax's Advanced Dungeon and Dragons rule books, using the blog as a PR tool to sell my hyper-cool, tantalizing, fantastically fun-packed role playing games. Modules in a mini zine format.
I'd write about my early D+D days, maybe name drop an old TSR module or two, in an effort to connect with the reader, and generate enough interest ( sympathy, luck etc), and sale a few adventures. The only thing stopping me? My desire to put all of this together. Realistically, I've put more work and time into building this blog than I do into the games. If only I'd stuck to my "I'm not going on-line" guns. Apparently, the Internet blogs (tumbler, webisodes and pod casts etc) are the new mediums for today's modern artists. "The Internet is great," they tell me. "It cuts out the middle men, and gives you a global stage". But I like middle men ( layout designers, production staff, pushy, yet charismatic salesmen, exacting proof-readers, researchers, computer literate geniuses, and a staff of copyright/corporate lawyers).
Believe me...I tried to contract this out to friends and family who were way more in tune with the Internet than I'd ever be...And who refused to type up my ramblings about the first time I fought a troll, a ghoul, or a rust monster. Or how big an impact the movies like Brazil, Akira, and Wings of Desire (and more) had on me; and were the end of 20th century cinema and the beginning of the automated sequel. Listening and supportive, they each bailed out of "The Project", saying " You'll get the hang of it in no time." A year later, I still don't know what I'm doing...
Making problems worst...WotC announced that they were pushing the release date back, which means the AD+D micro-vibe will probably be hitting it's mini peak over the summer or early fall. I don't have anything that interesting to talk about for that long. I've got, maybe 10 good articles in me (and those are already up). I, believing I was taking matters into my own hands, ended up getting lost, wandering around a digital wilderness. What can I say? It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here. If the place came with an electric eel infested moat and a few miles of quicksand that could kept out intruders, then maybe I'd consider it...Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to proof read, re-edit, raise money, figure out copyright laws, draw up maps, re-scan artwork, and layout my mini masterpiece right now. Eventually, it will be packaged and ready for distribution (and luke warm reviews, due to the poor showing of the "blog as PR" experiment). But first, I need to call up the R&D guy and make sure that these monster stat boxes are correct...(sound of cell phone dialing)..."Research and Development...This is John..."
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