I write to you do today from an armoured, underground bunker on the forty-seventh day of the robot uprising. The wounded are still streaming in from the battlefield but it looks like we will be saved.
No, a future leader has not come back in time to save us, nor have time travelling aliens arrived to restore humanity to it's place on the top of the world, but rather the robots have failed.
And I mean that literally; they have failed as in - failed to function as they are supposed to... RAM has glitched, hard drives have faltered and their true weakness - batteries - have been exposed for what they are - a digital Achilles heel which promises much and delivers not a volt!
Okay, I'll stop.
That is my attempt to put some levity into a frustrating week of digital failings and dying tech. My trusty workhorse of a laptop has, after solidly running three screens and being used for merely 65+ hours a week for four years, decided to pack it in.
I mean, I ask you, is that reasonable? Slinking off to silicon heaven after such an easy ride - pah, one is not impressed.
I've kept working via my son's desktop that is lightning fast but has singularly the worst keyboard I've ever had to use, and my wife's laptop that whilst older than mine hasn't had the abuse mine had and runs pretty well - just without any of my graphic images, historical files or fonts installed (and little room to install them.) Now, these are all very first world problems so I share merely as a heads up, and an explanation that it has slowed me down a little. I think I am up-to-date with emails but there might be a few strays I've overlooked. I will be checking.
Oh, and I also overlooked a deadline for the Detective Casebook game competition so was withdrawn for that prior to judging happening. Then the laptop had its digital heart attack (that's what it felt like) and I've not had a chance to really think what to do with that next. I might release it as a print-and-play game for a short while to get some feedback, which had been one of the thoughts behind the competition. I don't know, I'll circle back to that when the tech situation is sorted.
Currently:
Just over 24 hours left on The Oracle Issue 46
A week to go on Trouble on Helanga, which is the latest sci-fi solo play RPG adventure
That one keeps passing stretch goals which is very cool and when I've not been arguing with the tech I have been building out the content for the campaign.
Fulfilling
Vastral's Deck of Many Items - A collection of all new magic items on trump-sized cards. Contains 56 cards in total. This is in the hands of the card printer and my test deck will be sent to me shortly I understand.
Final Quest - Solo-play game where you survived a total party kill (your own party) and are now weaponless, friendless and stuck in a very bad place - can you make it out? This is all edited and in my hands. I need to amend the character sheet to accommodate the extra character classes that were added through Kickstarter stretch goals and write the back cover but otherwise, all done. Due out next month, we will be good for that if not a little early.
Issue 45 of The Oracle - We presented four very different frontier outposts; including NPCs, creatures and locations situated around them. Posted out last week so will be in the hands of some readers right now, whilst other copies will still be travelling.
The Arcane Index Vol 3 - Featuring 48 fantasy locations, that Kickstarter just ended. Ryan and I are working through the content at the moment.
Also of Note
Detective Casebook - A nine card game in the same style as our other Pocket Quest games. See above but I will also say that having reworked the game four times, it turned out really well.
Podcast - We have prices from the audio man now but I want to ensure we are talking about the right sort of content so this is on hold until next month or maybe June but we will see. Might be May. We are planning a Kickstarter so people can buy content slots. More will be forthcoming soon. (But it is definitely happening.)
Store Content - We are slowly accumulating content that hasn't been put on the store and we will be tackling this on Thursday if all goes well. There are multiple issues of The Oracle not listed, along with a variety of games. It is actually quite a large job to catch up but obviously is necessary. Hopefully the monthly update in May will see that all done.
Something Shiny
Let me end with a recommendation that isn't my own content - I've never played the Fallout computer games but I was talked into watching the new Netflix Fallout show by my youngest son and he was right, it is brilliant. If you don't mind a bit of gore, and love sci-fi, then give it a try.
Full disclosure, I wasn't convinced after the first episode, but boy does it get good! Some of the best writing I've had the pleasure of experiencing recently.
And if you do object to gore, (but like a good detective who-done-it) then I whole-heartedly recommend Magpie Murders. Available in the UK on ITV Extra.
Signing off from my borrowed laptop. See you via the new one next time.
Stephen