Relaxed Schedule – Adventure Rules Update 2.2

Hey there, adventurers!

A few days ago I said the blog was going to be taking a break. I also said that when I returned, I would be announcing stuff and some changes would be coming to the blog. The time has come for that announcement.

So here it is. I’m not gonna mince words. I am not going to be as active on this website as I have been for the past month or so. I’m always honest with you guys about why stuff like this happens, and this is no exception. The reason the site is going to be slowing down is twofold.

Fold #1 is that I am currently on the market for a new job. I haven’t been fired or anything – I just need a change in my life. My current place of employment has been good to me in some ways, but the work I’m doing there is monotonous. I come home feeling physically drained but mentally numbed by boredom. It’s been great for a time, but that time has passed and now I really need to change things up. Because I have no idea how a new job might affect the blog, I want to go ahead and start getting you adjusted to a relaxed schedule. When I do manage to get hired somewhere else and I find out exactly what my new schedule is going to be like, there may be some changes again.

Fold #2 is that my priorities are shifting. If you’ve been around for awhile, then you probably know that I started Adventure Rules as a sort of exercise for myself. I wasn’t used to pushing myself to write on a regular basis, and the blog has been a method of forcing myself to commit to writing. Well I’ve been doing that for awhile now, and along with this desire for a career change has come a desire to focus on my long-term goal of being a published author. When I picture the future with my wife and kids, I’m always writing. That’s the life I see for myself. And the time has come for me to start legitimately working towards that life.
Here’s the thing. You don’t become a published author until you write some stuff. And while I do have a couple of novels on deck, I need to buckle down and do some serious work if I plan to enjoy success in the long term. I can’t do that if I’m constantly concerned about having blog posts every single day, plus extra posts on social media, these huge long-term fanfiction projects…I think you get the idea.
I want to succeed as a novelist, which means I need to be writing novels. But when I’m already burnt out at the end of the day from writing four or five blog posts, that’s hard to accomplish. So the time has come for me to put the majority of my energy towards the form of writing that I really want to make a career from.

Here’s what all of this means in exact terms. Adventure Rules is going to be reduced to a five day a week schedule. Saturday and Sunday will no longer be days that I post. The time will still be 9:00 AM EST (when the WordPress scheduling function actually works right), so on Monday through Friday you can still visit the site around that time and have new content to enjoy. Special events like Tabletop Tuesday and Fanfic Friday will still be around for the time being. HOWEVER, I’m going ahead and saying right now that Fanfic Friday is on a timer. Once I finish with The Outrealms, that’s gonna be it. In the meantime I’ll think of something new to do on Fridays.

As far as the social media sites go, any attempt to distinguish them or offer extra content is suspended indefinitely. Their main purpose now will be focused on getting attention from folks who may not have a WordPress account. Some of you reading this probably only know about Adventure Rules because of a social media site, and I don’t want to lose the opportunity to reach more adventurers like you. So the Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr pages will still be around, just not as active. Kind of like the main blog.

Now I’m sure that for some of you this might be somewhat of a disappointment or “bad news,” and I do apologize for that. But I need to focus my energy on my priorities. That means that if I want to be a successful novelist ten years down the line, I need to be focusing on that goal right now. So the blog will be less of a priority for me, but I do still want to keep it around. I enjoy writing about games and I’ve enjoyed connecting with other bloggers with similar interest – reading your stories and fanfics, discussing opinions of games with you, learning about your writing methods and hobbies – all of those things are a big part of what makes the blogging community worthwhile.

There may be one or two of you who read this and think “cool! I like this guy, I can’t wait to read his original work!” If that’s you, then there’s a lot to be excited about. Here’s a little bit about my upcoming project.

If you’re an avid reader of Tabletop Tuesday, then you know that my first ever tabletop RPG was the superhero game Mutants and Masterminds. My first writing project is going to be focused around the superhero world I created for that campaign. The setting is a sort of alternate history where the world’s first superheroes begin to appear just after World War I. As prohibition hits and the iconic Roaring Twenties hit their full swing, heroes and villains have become relatively common and the nation has no idea what to do with them.

My first works are going to be focused around some of the young heroes who pop up during this key time in history. I’m planning a series of novellas, each one focused on a different superhero that my players created for this setting. Once those are done, you can expect some Avengers/Justice League style crossovers with truly epic stakes. The really cool thing is that I’ll be self-publishing these works to make them quick and accessible. Whenever one is released, I’ll be posting about it here on the blog so you can find and read it for yourself.

There’s a lot of change coming, adventurers, and I understand that change is pretty easy to view as a negative thing. But change is necessary, and often it leads to really great opportunities and experiences. Adventure Rules is not going away – I’m still gonna be here writing about Fire Emblem and Zelda and Dungeon World and all the other games I so enjoy. And if you’re interested in potentially reading some of my original work, then you’ll definitely want to stick around because there’s a lot to look forward to on that front.

As always, I want to thank you all for your patience and support. Adventurers taking the time to read my work and encourage me is part of what has given me the confidence to take my legit writing career more seriously. I hope you’ll continue to enjoy the blog on its reduced schedule, and I hope that before long you all will be the first readers of my first published novellas!