April: Slow and Steady is A-Okay
I don’t know about you, but April has whizzed past in a disconcerting blur for me. I was rather worried that I wouldn’t have anything to put in this months newsletter, but when I looked back, I realised I had been busy being creative and slowly making things as usual.
I know a lot of people really love spring after the dark winter months, but I think I my favourite seasons are definitely autumn and winter. I much prefer to cozy up in a warm jumper with a cat and a mug of tea, than deal with changeable weather, wasps, general sweatiness, and an abundance of plant growth that will soon signal hay fever season. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy spring. I love seeing the new leaves and buds popping their heads out after a season of snow, but spring just doesn’t always love me back.
Why am I rambling on about this you might very fairly ask? Well, I think it can be easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of social media and the day to day busyness of life, and feel like you can’t keep up. And I’ve felt a bit like that this month. Especially as someone who considers themselves ‘creative’, it’s easy to tie my self esteem to my productivity, or even my public productivity. Have I shared enough this month? So and So released a new game, why haven’t I finished mine yet?
However, when we step back, there might be rhythms to the day, week, month, and year which mean that our productivity fluctuates. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy making art even what you are making is only for you. Especially if what you are making is only for you!
So here are some of the things I got up to and thoroughly enjoyed doing, even though they might not all be perfectly finished yet!
Adventures
I’m still chipping away at the art and layout of my Mausritter adventure, Mycelium. Also, my wonderful partner read through it and offered some additional edits, so the text is now fully finalised. I’m really loving how it is starting to come together!
The Eco Mofos Android Factory ruin is also chugging along and the jam deadline was extended so there is not too much of a rush (you could even take part yourself!) I’m still writing up the first draft but it’s getting there. As usual, I got a lot done while I was at the hairdressers. I really like keeping my drafts on google docs so that when I have to wait for long appointments, or I can’t sleep in the middle of the night, I can write a few additional lines on my phone.
Random DMs
I mentioned last month that I’m playing in an extremely funny and chaotic game of Random DMs with D8 Dungeons where, at the end of each game, we roll to find out who is DMing next. All the previous episodes go up on youtube, so if you need a laugh, i’d suggest checking it out.
Touch the Ocean: Glitter Hearts
I’m also going to be running a game of my own soon on Girls Run These Worlds! Indulging in my love of H20: Just Add Water, I am running a Glitter Hearts game where our magical heroes are magical mermaids!!!
It is going to be running on Mondays May 8-Jun 12 7:00 PM-10:00 PM (GMT+1)
Out fantastic cast has been picked, and are busy making their characters, and it’s not too long now until we start. I hope you can tune in, or catch up with it later on youtube!
Mini Zines
While I was feeling a tad burnt out and uncreative, I binge watched a load of ‘day in the life’ artists vlogs on youtube, and a couple of the artists I watched were making little foldable A6 zines. I remembered how cute Molomoot’s goblin zine turned out a while back, and decided that I’d have a go myself, just to do something a bit silly and fun.
First I made ‘A short guide to Magical Creatures, Vol 1, Domestic Breeds.’ If you haven’t seen on twitter, I have been drawing a character named Piffin the Griffin for a little while.
He is an urban griffin, and is therefore part cat and part pigeon. I’ve built up some lore in my head about the sort of pets witches and wizards living in cities would keep. The result is a little menagerie of characters who all go to the same magical doggy day care. They include Piffin the Griffin, Mimi the Shetland Pegasus, and Simon the pug (he isn’t magical but it’s the closest day care his dad could find on short notice!)
Then I discovered I could import a zine template into procreate and draw my zines digitally! So I wrote up a little adventure I ran at the start of a campaign, all about rescuing a lost cat. I rather like the idea of making a set of ‘pocket adventures’ so maybe I’ll make some more in the future.
How, when, and if I will release these is still undecided, although I may bring a small stash along with me to UKGE. I’ve decided I need a tiny trench coat to fill with tiny zines that I can proffer at various points throughout the weekend. I’m going to be helping out a bit on the Soul Muppet stand, and some other things I’ll share more about next month, so if you want to say hi and potentially get a copy, you’ll have to find me there!
What do you think? Would you give making mini zines a go?
Cool stuff I spotted
Finally, let’s turn some of that worried comparison against others into something productive. I only really get a bit jealous if someone is making cool stuff - especially if I worry I can’t measure up - so let’s channel that into sharing some things I thought looked really interesting in the TTRPG scene this month!
Inspireisles Actual Play
The lovely Yvris of Button Kin Games is GMing an actual play of Inspireisles over on Girls Run These Worlds. The cast is fab, the graphics are cute, the story is great! You can catch up with the story so far on youtube!
Crescent B/X
Crescent B/X by Ema Acosta sports her usual beautiful artwork with a lightweight system cribbed from NSR but with “a story-gamey focus that encourages worldbuilding-over-rules.” Um, yes please! Also the character sheets are bookmarks! I’m excited to have a go at this and see how it runs!
Liminal Horror
This might not be a surprise to some of you but Liminal Horror by Goblin Archives is awesome! My partner ran an extremely creepy adventure for my friends and I, and we were so scared we had to play it over two days so we could do the scariest part in daylight. It’s very quick to learn and the fallout from stress really leans into the escalating dread present in good horror. I definitely want to play more of this!
Until next time!
I hope you have a fun and creativity-filled month!
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