Projection of Projects

I wonder at what point I should just change my release schedule to “Fridays”.  Probably never, as I like having Friday as a catch-up day.  Any later and I’m into the weekend and then WHO KNOWS where my schedule goes.

I suppose another reason why I haven’t been as hardcore to posting anything lately is that I simply haven’t been working on much of anything of late.  The holidays, while a lot of fun, really take up a lot of time.  It’s a natural pause for a breath of fresh air in the middle of the worst of the seasons.  It’s also a time to set your signs on where the coming year is going, and what you have to look forward to.

Hey, that’s what I could do; a 2014 Projection!

Q1: January – March, 2014

Much of this month will be split between wealth accumulation (annual bonus from work and tax returns) and spending of said funds for some fantastic adventures later in the year.  It will also be spent on a frelling boat. 

Right now, I’m setting up a party for Sterling Hershey’s Beyond the Rim adventure for Edge of the Empire.  My stepson bought it for me with the ulterior motive that I run a game for him to play in.  Four other players have been located, and characters are set.  It’s looking like it should be a good time.  We just have to figure out when it starts, as my stepson might be running in track-meets for the next several weeks (alternate on the relay team).

In February, I’m on vacation.  Folks are taking us on a cruise with them, hopefully.  Dad had an operation recently and there’s a question on whether or not he’ll be recovered in time to join us.  I’m hoping he will be, because it wouldn’t be the same without him on the boat. 

February marks the annual anniversary for Star Trek Online.  I’ve been playing that a lot recently, enough features and new content were added to make things interesting again.  Not sure how long I’ll be playing it, but I hope it will be entertaining while I’m there.

I'm also getting a  little bit of a bug to finally dive into STO's community created content generator; the Foundry.  Much like you could in City of Heroes, players can create their own Star Trek adventures and post them up for folks to experience.  A lot of it is reportedly crap.  Some of it is genius.  I'll be happy if I can write something that falls in the middle.  I need to play at least ten different Foundry missions (my own limit, not the game's) before I get an idea of what works, and what doesn't.  Then it's on to poking at the interface.  We'll see if that pans out while I have all this other crap I want to get done this year.

March is GamerNation Con in the DFW area of Texas!  …and I will not be going.  Because that weekend is also about the time for my 1^st anniversary of being married to the hottest chick I know.  I’m not missing my first anniversary for a gaming convection.  Third or seventh, maybe.  But not the first.  I wish the guys at D20 Radio nothing but success for their convention, and look forward to hopefully attending in the future (assuming they hold another one). 

I'm not sure if I'm marching in the South Boston St. Pats parade this year.  That weekend is the same weekend I was likely to be celebrating my anniversary with my wife (and the same weekend as GamerNationCon).  We'll have to see.

Sometime in this quarter is the start of the Marik Civil War (Season 3).   It's a fun Mechwarrior Online combat league where your unit's performance in best-of-five combats determines how the Civil War is going on a large map.  With the current absence of Community Warfare in MWO, this is a nice indicator of what it could feel like if the Devs get their acts in gear and get us Community Warfare sometime before 2015.  I'm the Tournament Liaison for the 1st Skye Jaegers of the Skye Rangers Brigade.  Basically I'm there to handle communication between us and our opponent for that round of combat, arranging when we are to meet up, and trying to help synch the drop (no private matchmaker yet, have to time it and hope the game matches the two teams up).

By the way, if anyone out there is looking for a tournament team for Mechwarrior Online, come look us up.  We're not the Steel Jaguar Regiment, but we don't do too bad either (good enough to be in the top-tier team bracket, but SJR and a couple other teams have a better Win/Loss ratio against us)

Quarter 2: April – June 2014

And so shall begin my last year as someone “in their thirties”.  I’d like to start it with some sort of party.  Not sure I’ll get the chance, but we’ll have to see.  I’m certainly planning on ending my last year in the thirties with a bang, hopefully drinking it up with my Rebel Legion and 501^st Legion cohorts out in Anaheim at next year’s Star Wars Celebration.

With any luck, I'll also get to start doing "All Wings Report In" podcasts with Erich again this month.  Filling both shoes is hard, and sucks.  I got burnt out doing ALL-STOP because of the work that was needed before and after each episode.

Somewhere in here, Age Of Rebellion should get released.  Not sure when yet, but assuming there are no weird production delays, it should be in April or May, instead of July like Edge of the Empire was.  I'm really looking forward to this book.  By far, my favorite era of Star Wars is the Rebellion Era.  It's the one I grew up in.  I just feel like all the stories in that era are told, even though I know that's not the case.  It'll be interesting to see if there's any more stories in there for me to find with this book, or if later this year FFG plans to have something tie in with the Star Wars REBELS cartoon.

In May, my brother gets married.  I'm the best man.  Not much to say here at this time, but it's of import so I'd better include it.

Quarter 3: July - September 2014

I'm looking forward to this quarter like no one's business.  This year I'm going to GenCon.  Funds have been set aside, plans for room and board have been made.  Super Secret Plans have been put into motion.  I have no clue what to expect.  I have no clue what I'm going to do, or play.  I know a couple events I need to hit, a few folks I want to meet, but beyond that GenCon 2014 is an open canvas of possibilities.  I will buy a damn copy of the Force and Destiny Beta if I have to ambush Sam Stewart and Andy Fisher with Legion back up.  I will game with GM Chris and GM Dave from the Order 66 podcast, and hopefully a lot more folks from Gamer Nation.  It had better be glorious, if only because I demand it.  I'm going to meet my goal of "GenCon before 40, or when I'm 40".  Celebration Anaheim kills me going when I'm 40, so this is it.

My big question will be "will I have enough money to really enjoy it".  We shall see.

In September, I will hopefully...HOPEFULLY...get my creative cohort back.  My good buddy Alex and his family are supposed to be coming back to New England this September, which will allow me to formally kick off my Another Longshot multi-group campaign.  Fingers crossed, buddy.

Quarter 4: October - December 2014

October brings the Woburn Halloween parade, and is the target goal for my father.  He wants to be ready to troop that parade, and in parade shape for it.  His Old Ben outfit needs to be in similar shape as well.  Good enough for the Legion, his current outfit is getting pretty worn out, and there was an unfortunate incident with his cloak that caused it to shrink from a great cloak to something slightly bigger than a hooded bathrobe.  We'll need to work on this throughout the year to get Ben ready for JoeBi-Wan to troop in.

This whole quarter has a lot of good events.  Woburn, Rhode Island Comic Con, Manchester Christmas Parade; gotta be ready.

And of course Thanksgiving, Christmas and we do it all again in a year.

So in all, it should be a good year.  Looking forward to a lot of it, and I hope to be able to bring you all along for the ride.