April Update: "Remándola en dulce de leche"
Yeah, I decided to go with an Argentinian phrase this time. I think it describes the whole situation quite well
Remándola en dulce de leche
Argentinian phrase, roughly translated to “rowing in dulce de leche“
When you are trying really hard to achieve something, but you are hardly moving a step, as if you were trying to walk in quicksand.
Do you think there is a similar phrase to this one in English? If so, let me know, because I really like it, and can’t use it while speaking in English:
This month has been harsh. My savings fully came to an end and I became obligated to seek a stable job. My folks had to help me monetarily to pay the bills, which is incredibly frustrating. So even though I have been looking for those kinds of positions in the TTRPG industry, I had to start looking for other choices as well. This meant probably going back to coding, which is something that fried my brain and made me not want to go back to that for an entire year. I like programming; I just have a very hard time working in a programming space, and I believe it may be a small case of ADHD that doesn’t allow me to fully focus on the work.
Next month, I’ll be traveling to meet my long distance relationship partner for the first time, which is something to look forward to, and a goal 💙. If you have been following my stuff closely, you will notice I have been doing small games with one same person over these past few months. If I want to continue afloat creating stuff and being able to see her, I will need the money. So I will get some kind of job… somehow (hopefully something I enjoy). Someday I might be able to live just from this. It seems that day is far ahead still.
What does this mean for my projects and freelance work?
I’ll have to cut some ends. Reduce the amount of time I dedicate to what I love doing and push back some milestones (I had to push back the release of Goth Borg, which was really frustrating). Still, these things have been helping me push on for a bit longer without having to burn all my savings so I am not planning on stopping. Until I receive a confirmation I landed a job (some are taking WAY TOO LONG to give an answer), I will keep dedicating as much time as I want to this. Yeah, the world seems to be collapsing, but I will persist “remándola en dulce de leche”. If you want to offer some financial help, you can always do that via KoFi and Patreon (I am looking to get back to creating regular content there as well):
In any case, there are some other things to look forward to as well despite all the negatives!
Magnolia: City of Marvels
If you are into medieval fantasy, art, punk, gang wars, and the politics behind mafias, then I’ve got just the perfect product for you, coming from a team of marvelous creators!
This setting will give you everything you need to run a very different kind of campaign from what you are used to, in D&D5e or your setting of choice. That is right! We are intentionally making it system-neutral so that you can run whichever genre or system you want within the plethora of choices you will find available.
The product is made from the ground up to excellently work as a GM’s fountain of ideas for campaigns, adventures, and one-shots, with every page providing new story hooks!
Coming soon~
My Discord Server
The TGR Games server keeps growing, becoming a place for people to try out games, playtest, and be notified of my StartPlaying games. It’s made to be a chill space, in which you can select what you want to be notified of and join the games being posted. It’s also the only place to try out the Rush & Punch! game I have been working on, which keeps receiving very good feedback from the playtesters.
What I Watched
Gravity Falls. A bit late to the party maybe. Everyone has told me this “kids cartoon“ had plenty of great stuff and I have been loving all the winks for more mature audiences. The whole conspiracy behind the real story and the development of all characters within these episodic chapters is what really has me hooked though. I believe there are many storytelling details we GMs should steal from these sorts of shows.
Supernatural. Similar to Gravity Falls in all ways. Great episodic content with plenty of stuff to get inspiration from, character development, and something lurking in the shadows. I know I’ve set up a HUGE goal by starting to watch this, but with my partner, we created the Thursday Supernatural Nights, so we will get to finish the 15 seasons eventually. I’ll keep having a lot of fun until I get there.
Ron’s Goes Wrong. Why did this movie receive so little promoting? It’s one of the best new animated films I’ve seen. Strong story, while some elements may have been seen in some other flicks like Big Hero 6. Still I really loved this movie and the message it provides marking a great battle against technology.
Civil War. A24 does it again with their first high-budget film. This movie goes HARSH. When people see the possibility of a Third World War and Civil War happening, we get this and get reminded of how terrible this could all be. Yeah, it is harsh, but it doesn’t pick sides by having the protagonists be war journalists, who only care about showing the hard truth. That was a brilliant decision.
Videos and Articles
📝 [-] Cypher Character Creator: I have been delving into the Cypher system quite a bit this month. I am loving it tbh. The way all rules help create a more cinematic and narrative experience is quite good. It does have all the things that systems that look to be able to run any setting have, but still, there is a lot to love. If you want to try out creating a character, they have just created a character creator: LINK
▶️ [16 mins] Disco Elysium and Tabletop RPGs: I can’t stop seeing everywhere amazing things about this Disco Elysium game that came out quite a bit ago already. I have the ultimate version of this game. I really should get to play it: LINK
📝 [6 mins] Random GM Tip: What Are You Looking For?: Players often lose a lot of time because they are not sure exactly what they can do among the endless possibilities. Sometimes you just gotta ask the question straight: LINK
📝[11 mins] How Super Mario Bros. Wonder's devs narrowed down 2000 ideas for its effects: A great example of how to be an incredible project manager. Nintendo is great at this, and it is one of the primary reasons most of their games have such great results. I’ll definitely take some ideas from this article: LINK
▶️ [11 mins] The Power of asking "Why?": As a creative in the space, you often just work without putting much thought into it. You need the money. However, to truly enjoy a project, sometimes you just have to ask yourself why. This is a great way to make yourself want to stop procrastinating: LINK
▶️ [11 mins] If AAA is No Longer Profitable... Make Smaller Games: The constant layoffs keep ruining the game's working space. Let’s put a bit of thought into how to make it work for everyone: LINK
Kaos’ Lair
I tried to take him out for a walk for the first time. He got terrified of the buses. He then fell asleep looking at me when we came back out of all the stress. I guess someone is suited to JUST being a home cat.
