New Years Resolutions
If you've missed the past few weeks, for the month of December, I'm reflecting on my first year in the TTRPG industry. Today's focus is the upcoming new year, and what I hope to accomplish in my second year.
Goal #1: Bigger Products
My first goal is that I want to actually finish one of those bigger projects that I keep starting on. I'm not talking a whole system, necessarily, but I'd like to actually complete an adventure or my Guide to Goblins type thing. Something at least 10 pages that would not just be Pay-What-You-Want, instead of simple solitary Vaesen or NPC collections.
I have one or two things in the works, which I'm not going to talk about until I finish a draft, to avoid sapping all my motivation.
I'm also hoping to join a collaborative team for a project. I haven't signed on to anything as of the time of writing this post, and this is a goal that is not wholly under my control since it would rely on someone having a project that I can join on. However, I think that being part of a team, with a deadline, would certainly make more finish something bigger. Plus, that sort of collaborative work--writing a piece of something bigger--sounded really fun when I talked with Eren Ahn about their work on a Pathfinder supplement.
Goal #2: Keep Up the Weekly Blog
My second goal is maintaining the current set up, as far as the blog goes... hopefully without a summer lull like there was last year. That means new articles every Monday, and it means continuing my ongoing sorts of articles: reviews, history articles, and interviews being the bulk.
Overall, I've really enjoyed the weekly writing task that the blog has given me, and keeping up a weekly pace keeps the creative juices flowing. I feel far more engaged, writing weekly, than I did during the lull. Keeping up momentum is really key.
Goal #3: Freelance More
While the bulk of my writing work is probably always going to be here, I do want to see if I can also write for other publications. I did that once, writing about Frostpunk 2 for Into the Spine. But while I keep meaning to try my hand at more freelance writing stuff, I also keep struggling to have the motivation to actually pitch an article anywhere.
So, New Years goal: do that. I want to try to pitch something, somewhere, to a publication that is at least vaguely games-relevant, at least once per month. That doesn't necessarily mean getting published once a month (I'm not trying to do this full time or even really as a job, so the financial side of infrequent publication isn't a concern), but just sending out at least one pitch, somewhere, every month will be a good habit to get into if I want to do more freelance writing.
Goal #4: No Weird Summer Break
Part of why I started Veritas Tabletop was because I'm a teacher, and unfortunately the curriculum that I teach is necessarily limited in scope (you can insert a rant about state standards and standardized testing here). The history articles that I write here are things that simply don't fit into what I get to teach, but which I'm excited to share.
So the vibes are completely different over summer break. I'm not teaching, so my motivation to write about history doesn't have the same "oh I wish I was teaching about X" impetus. But, I don't want to drop off the face of the earth the same way that I did this past summer.
I don't have as grand a travel plan this summer, so I will be more around to write. But I do want to keep up the momentum and motivation even as my context changes during the summer months.
Goal #5: Play More Games
My last campaign ended June 6th. That's like, half a year ago. And my asynchronous, letter-writing, politics game (very loosely based on Quill for rules) ended back in September! My intention was the travel I had booked in July, followed by a series of one-shots and mini-campaigns, experimenting with different systems, and either fleshing out stories in my homebrew world (where all my campaigns are set) that might not need a whole campaign to tell or running things in a new setting (ex: running Vaesen in the default setting for Vaesen).
I made it through two systems: Cast Away and Dread. A big part of that is logistics: it is harder to get a group together when we don't have a consistent block of time reserved for a campaign. But mostly, it was motivation. I have not put in the work to actually make more one-shots and mini-campaigns actually go from "concept" and "expression of interest" from players to "planned" and "actually happening".
And I want that! I do want my experimentation, my different systems and settings and scales, that I had intended for the past few months. So again, a bit like my freelancing goal, is that I want to try and actually get a game going more regularly. I want to be more intentional about following through on those planned one-shots and mini-campaigns and making them happen in the first few months of 2025.
Conclusion
And that's that! Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed my little digression for the month as I reflected and made goals and "wrapped up" my first year. What are your goals for your TTRPGs in 2025?
The blog will return to our normal content next Monday, January 6th.
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