A new blog?

I'm considering starting a new blog. That's not to say this one will be abandoned, I owe it to my two loyal readers to keep the home-fires burning at the castle! But I am considering running a blog in addition to this one. Those who do read my posts here are probably wondering why I'd bother, given I update this one only a couple of times a month. So let me run through some of my thinking, and, if you have the time I'd value any additional thoughts in the comments!

The new blog would be specifically about writing. It would cover the things I have been working on, thoughts about the process, struggles I am having and resources I find or have found useful. Who knows, I might even post the occasional story or excerpt. My thought at this stage is that I would aim to update it every week, and posts may be short or long, but they would be specific to that topic.

Top of the list of reasons I am considering this is because the subject of the blog would be specific, whereas here they would be mixed in among a range of other subjects, primarily games and gaming. The other key reason is inspirational: I must be doing something in order to write about it. Having to write a post a week will hopefully give me a reason to keep pushing forward with the projects I am working on, and will serve as a way of charting my progress, even if only for myself.

I know from the statistic page that my posts on writing tend to get less attention than posts on games and gaming, so breaking that aspect out both helps me to concentrate my thinking on that subject in one place, and people who would like to read content related to that can more easily do so.

But then again, maybe I won't. Writing a blog post is a neat way for me to trick myself into believing I have written something, and while words are on a page, none of them are pushing a project forward. A part of me thinks the exercise would be little more than procrastination. I'm see-sawing between the yes and the no. If you are still reading this, and have an opinion on the matter, I'd appreciate reading it!

Looking Back at 2016...

My last post was a little past the  middle of November, and given the gap I must apologise, gentle reader (note that 'reader' is singular), but it has been a busy time.

Aside from the general business of the festive season, with family to visit, drinks to imbibe and food to relish, we have also been busy moving castles. Moving castles is not the most streamlined of processes, it is messy, tiring, and a lot of wandering around wondering which box contains the thing you want in any particular moment. Even having been in the new castle now for around a month, much of our lives are still hidden in some box or tub, probably under some other box or tub.

So the first post of 2017, in the true spirit of the Roman goddess Janus after whom this month is named, I shall be looking back at 2016. 'How quaint' I hear you murmur, 'nobody does reflections on the previous year in January' I hear you stutter, almost spilling your muscat down the front of your velvet monogrammed pajamas.

While you may think it true, careful examination of the interwebs will clearly show that this time of year typically sees bloggers, vloggers, podcasters, geeklist makers and people of all stripes create lists of those things that were best about 2016, and what they are looking forward to in 2017. Who am I to buck a trend?

In all honesty 2016 was an ugly, drawn out, painful and generally turgid affair. If it was a Beast, even Belle would have been urging Gaston to put the bastard down. But it is done, and while 2017 promises (on a global level at least) to be worse, it is here, and so has to be faced with whatever sense of optimism you can muster or whatever banal aphorisms will help you through.

But, I am not here to moan relentlessly from the comfort of my first world life about how tough it all is, I'm here for the gaming! Well, mostly.

At the start of 2016 I wrote a post covering some of my hobby goals for coming year... well, the end times have come and it is time for a reckoning.

The first of my goals was to play at least 100 different games over the course of 2016, which, surprisingly, is something I managed quite comfortably. I ended 2016 having played 115 different games. For those interested the geeklist I used to to keep track of them is here.

Some of my favourites from the year include Battlelore, which was nice to get back to the table again, and Shadows over Camelot, which is also an older game, but a thoroughly excellent one. The best 'new-to-me- game I played in 2016 was probably Codenames, which was a lot of fun, and something I am looking to playing more of in 2017.

In terms of miniature games, and aside from Spartan games such as Dystopian Wars (which I have worked on), I would have to say I was most excited to play Heavy Gear Blitz and Mordheim. Both games were new to me, and while Mordheim is an old game, it is truly a wonderful game. Heavy Gear is something I am hoping to get to the table more this coming year. The minis are great, and I am really enjoying it.

The Scions of Erasmus... my Mordheim warband...

A Hunter Squad for Heavy Gear Blitz...

My next goal was to reduce the number of unplayed games in my collection. This is a goal at which I failed, I'm afraid. I ended 2016 with several more games unplayed than I began it. Hopefully I will have better luck in this department in 2017!

I'm looking at you Sekigahara!

My next goal was to spend more time playing games with my family. I would say this goal has been achieved, I still want to make sure I take the time to play more with my wife and kids in 2017, but the grounding in 2016 was a starting place.

Song of Blades and Heroes with my son...

I had the goal of playing more RPGs in 2016, something I did not manage to do I'm afraid. I really hope that 2017 picks up in this regard... we have a maiden voyage planned for the coming week with the upcoming Star Trek game by Modiphius, so hopefully this is something we can build up!

I had a painting goal of getting a Squadron a month painted, and surprisingly I think I came close. Between my Covenant models, my Mordheim Warband and some Heavy Gears, I am pleased with how much I managed to get done...

Lots done by my own low standard... fingers crossed that I manage more in 2017!

My blogging goal was to write at least two blog posts a month. I think (if I've added correctly) that I managed some 36 posts over 2016, some months I was quiet, some silent, but overall I am happy with my blogging output. My posting is too haphazard in both regularity and subject matter to ever accrue many views, but writing is my goal, not building up my views stat!

My podcasting goal, of recording and posting something at least once a month, turned out to be impossible. With the Element 270 podcast winding up due to scheduling difficulties, and On Minis Games struggling this last month or so due to the move, I just haven't had the time and opportunity. Here's hoping that 2017 sees On Minis Games get going properly!

Lastly, I had a goal to read at least a book a month. Without a doubt the stand out book I read in 2016 was The Martian, by Andy Weir. It is an absolutely wonderful, totally engaging and brilliantly executed book, and I'd thoroughly recommend it to anyone. If I was to include the books I had read to my class, this goal would be a shoe in, but considering only books I read for my own pleasure, I fall short of the mark. Again, I hope to make amends in 2017!

And that about sums up the obligatory reflection on 2016. at some point I'll get around to formulating goals for 2017, so until then...

Tempus Fugit

Sitting here staring at the blank screen, thinking about all the blog posts I had planned to write by now I realise it's been more than a month since I last posted something, a month and a half in fact.

I had certainly intended to write more, reviews of games I had played, games I was looking at, the book I am reading. I had the topics for half a dozen posts, but life got busy, as life does, and time flies.

In the last month and a half things have certainly been busy, professionally and personally. My mother passed away, and while I won't write about it now, if I ever do, I should add that she was a singular woman who instilled in me a passion for reading, for games, for information, for curiosity and creativity, the last two perhaps the most important. It is in the arrogance of young adulthood that you convince yourself you are a self-made person, and for me at least, it was the loss of my mother that reminded me how truly formative our parents are.

The Castle has also been wracked by plague, with child and adult alike hacking at their lungs with unabating coughs and fevers running rampant.

Work has kept my hands from idleness, as a teacher and as a writer. For the latter I have had chapters for the Infinity Role Playing Game's Core Rule Book (by Modiphius) to write and review (so far I've worked on the Concillium, O-12 and PanOceania chapters), characters and adversaries to stat out and describe, short biographies to create and more. I have also been proofing the upcoming Achtung! Cthulhu Skirmish Game (also by Modiphius and based on the Legions game from Spartan), and have been working with Spartan Games on upcoming things. All of this has been immense fun, but left me short on time for blogging, painting, playing and reading.

Writing of reading, I am, at the moment, working my way slowly through Ancillary Justice, by Ann Lecke. A Hugo and Nebula Award winning book, I am only a little way through. I have to be honest and say that it has only partially grabbed me, though unfolding events are drawing me closer. Part of a trilogy of books, I am looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds.

Gaming wise, I have played a few games here and there, some of which I'll cover below. The most enjoyable of the games I have played in the last couple of months are:

Playing the first mission in HeroQuest with my son, who had a blast. A simple but highly enjoyable dungeon romp that goes to show nostalgia isn't always the reason games of yesteryear seem so good.

Playing through a thoroughly disastrous campaign of Dux Britanniarum, in which my Saxon Lord has done little but prove his ineptitude and the poor judgement of his men in selecting him as leader. This game is absolutely brilliant, as much for what happens outside the game table as for what happens on it.

I've also been thoroughly enjoying Infinity the miniatures game, by Corvus Belli (upon which the RPG is based). This game is a lot of fun, and full of little storied moments.

The best new game I've played has been Morels, a funny little set-collection game about gathering fungi. An odd theme, but a rather enjoyable two-player game that moves quicker than you think it might.

The best of my older games that has hit the table, and one I haven't played in some time, was Shadows Over Camelot. Shadows is a co-operative game where the players, as knights of the Round Table must attempt to win various quests to both stave off disaster and gain enough 'white swords' to claim victory against the forces of evil. There may also be a traitor, of course, and in this game there was, and he won with a brutal twist just as things seemed like they may turn for the better at the end.


What's upcoming?

Well, I am planning on getting a group together, in some form or another, to play some Fate. I've never played this RPG before, but I like the look of it a lot and it should be good fun.

I also have some 15mm Chariots I have put together for a game called Fastvs Fvrivs, by Ganesha Games, and I'm very much looking forward to getting them on the table!



Well, that's enough, probably far too much. I am hoping to come back to some of these games and things and write about them in a touch more detail, but for now this will suffice.

Reanimation...

There are few tales of joy to be found through plots that skirt the reanimation of something long departed. It has been nearly two years since my last post here at Castle by Moonlight, and while the moon is imperceptibly different, the castle, and it's shuffling inhabitant is not.

Since leaving the virtual ink to dry and crack in the bleak lands of abandonment I have been busy over at the Element 270 podcast and blog and more recently writing for Spartan Games. But despite these happy opportunities I have long harbored the desire to brush the cobwebs from the castle embrasures, relight the odd candle and unpack the virtual inkpot...

When I started Castle by Moonlight it was to be a largely board game focused blog with occasional miscellany thrown in for good measure. However, in the intervening years the author has changed, and likely too the content of his outpourings...

I still have an abiding love for board games (though I could no longer name an Essen release or tell you what was hot on BGG right now), but I have also rediscovered my passion for other forms of gaming I had long given up; both miniature games and roleplaying. I also want to write about more miscellany, whether Tesla cars, NASA missions, historical infatuations, good books, good authors, good podcasts or good people. The question is: is Castle by Moonlight the place for that? Or should another place be founded to write about these things?

For any old readers who may have this pop up in an RSS feed long gathering dust, would it matter so much if the Castle was animated again but wearing a face both familiar and different? I don't really expect a reply, but am canvassing my own thoughts against future action... I think  it will be here, but perhaps in another place...

Resources...

December was meant to be a bumper month for Castle by Moonlight, I was quickly off the starting blocks with a couple of posts, with the full intentions of continuing the run, and then life intervened.  It was a wonderful end to 2012, plenty of family, friends and food - all the things that characterise a good time.

With the possibilities of a big blogging December now well and truly passed, I’ll start out on a project I’ve been meaning to begin for some time.  Many blogs have a blog roll, a set of links to those blogs they like, their friends, things that interest them and so forth.  A couple of episodes ago on a podcast called Boardgames to Go, Mark and Jeff were discussing board game blogs, one of the discussion points made me stop and think.  Jeff, of the GameGuyThinks blog mentioned the idea of adding a ‘resources’ page to his blog - a place where various miscellany of interest could be placed for permanent reference, something potentially useful to perusers of his blog.  It was a great idea, and something I’d love to do - a write-up of the blogs, podcasts, game stores, publishers and additional things I like or find interesting.  If I appreciate a podcast or blog, the service of a particular favourite store, or the games of a publisher or two, I’d like to be able to show that appreciation in some small way, and a link with a little more than a single line of underlined blue text seems an appropriate way of doing things for a blog.

This is likely to be an ongoing project, I want to be able to have a short write-up and link for a variety of things, for blogs I read and enjoy, for podcasts I like listening to, for publishers, miniatures manufacturers, game stores and so on I have good experiences with.  I plan it to be something like an extended blog-roll, and perhaps the readers of this blog might occasionally find something of interest there too.  We shall see...

Cheers,

Giles.

Oh - and a Happy New Years to all - though significantly lacking in Mayan apocalypses, 2013 still looks to be another wonderful year!

Boardgames to Go: podcasting about blogging...

I listened recently to the latest episode of the Boardgames to Go podcast, with Mark Johnson and Jeff Myers (of Gameguy Thinks), which was all about board game blogs.  Obviously this is a topic that I have some interest in, and it was a great and thought provoking discussion.

From a purely egotistical point of view I was thrilled to hear my own little blog mentioned (thanks guys), but throughout the episode Mark and Jeff had some interesting discussion points that resonated with me.

The most important, and perhaps the most philosophical point of discussion was, for me, about why we read the blogs we read.  There are plenty of websites and blogs around the internet covering all manner of topics.  I have, over the years, meandered from blog to blog reading this and that, following a link here, or a reference there.  The blogs that have stuck, the ones I go back to and make sure I keep up with, the ones I’ve added to my RSS reader, are ones that match very closely to the type of blog that Mark and Jeff talk about liking themselves - are the blogs that have a voice.

Many sites and blogs around the web, and I’m talking specifically about board game blogs here, are somewhat dispassionate, somewhat objective, seeking to provide ‘proper’ reviews or news.  Personally I tend to find these blogs the least interesting, and it has little to do with the content, but far more to do with the connection I have as a reader with the voice behind the words I’m reading.  More and more I am less interested in the minutia of news, or the specifics of the rules.  I understand why they are written this way, I wrote the Z-Man Newsletter for three years and needed to use that style of voice myself, but I find them less interesting.

More and more I am finding myself following the blogs of those who write with a voice, who write passionately, humorously, and most importantly: personally.  Similarly I also find myself reading reviews of games online and skipping from the introduction to the conclusion - missing the rules run-through, the ‘bits’ commentary, the art critique in favour of reading the opinions, the likes and dislikes, the subjective and personal over the objective and informational.

It’s not that I don’t like or appreciate the other stuff - I do.  But I read the blogs I do because I like the voices of the people behind them.  I’m more happy to read an anecdote or observation than I am a dyed-in-the-wool review.  I suppose this is because I read blogs because I enjoy them, not because I want to find out x, y or z.


Mark and Jeff also exhorted their listeners to get out and comment more.  As a blogger (if I can call myself that), I always love to read comments on my posts.  Given this, why is it I so rarely comment on the many posts I read on other blogs?  A part of it is that I tend to read on an RSS reader on my iPad (‘Pulp’ for those interested), so adding a comment to a post isn’t a simple click and type.  But nonetheless, I thought the idea that I should comment more was a good one - something I should endeavor to do in the future.

Lastly, I found the discussion on ‘pages’ really interesting, Jeff mentioned wanting to add a ‘resources’ page to his blog - a place to list those blogs, podcasts, websites and other things that he values that is easily accessible and all together.  I’ve been meaning to post about the podcasts I listen to for some time now, and have been wondering how best to add such a thing to my blog.  A page for these things seems a great idea, and would allow me to have sections for podcasts, blogs, publishers and so forth.  Perhaps others will find it interesting, more importantly, perhaps others will find media (whether blogs or podcasts) that they will also enjoy.


In any case, it was a great episode about a topic I find interesting - well worth checking out!

Cheers,
Giles.