In 2020, I will be doing more of my streaming and other game content creation independently. This includes playing computer and tabletop games online as well as publishing games and adventures and similar materials in a more accessible, usable fashion.
Whenever I start something like this, I find the natural project planning model helpful. I stay focused on what matters most to me and figure out what “success” looks like for the project in question before figuring out what’s next.
For this, I thought it might be helpful to share some parts from my planning document. Since I have an existing blog (obviously), Twitch channel, and Discord server, I’ll start by building off of those.
Purpose and Principles
I want to share my games with friends, including tabletop games as well as computer games.
- My social media, including streaming, is not an income source. Revenues will be donated to charity in a transparent way.
- Any spaces I administer must be safe spaces for people of all races, ethnicities, genders, and orientations. Mistakes made in good faith by anyone, including me, must be rectified rather than simply ignored.
- Where appropriate, consult with trusted friends about complex issues before making decisions.
- No group games consist of all white people or all men. Individual sessions of a campaign might, due to cancellations, but these should not occur on a regular basis. This principle will likely be refined, but represents a goal of non-homogeneity.
- My Discord server is not a public access server open to all viewers, but instead is used to organize games with players and friends.
Outcomes
- Maintain Twitch affiliate status throughout 2020. (Partner status is not a goal.)
- The majority but not all of my tabletop RPGs happen on stream.
- Most games genres are science fiction or horror. Tolkienesque fantasy is rare or non-existent.
- My blog publishes longer form content at least once a week. This content generally relates to the games I am running or creating.
- Some of this content is polished and released at Itch.io.
- All written content is released under a Creative Commons license.
More will be coming soon, particularly as I look for folks to play Trophy, Mothership, and Forged in the Dark games with me. I’m queuing up more independent or small publisher computer games in addition to my existing EVE Online streaming.
Variant Roles
The leadership at VR has made the difficult decision to shut down the channel and community as those individuals move on to other life priorities. That’s one of the major drivers here, but of course not the only one. I spent some time consulting with my “creative advisors” (my teenage kids) and they encouraged me to play more games, stream some of them, and keep doing the creative work that makes me happy and gives me an outlet.
With that in mind, I’m looking for more friends (especially people who aren’t white dudes like me). This is already a major factor in my offline life, but for various reasons my online life largely consists of other white folks. I don’t have all the answers and my phrasing here isn’t the best, but I really want to make sure that my online friend group resembles my offline friend group. Since many of those folks aren’t interested in online gaming of the sorts I am, this means stretching myself more.
All good things must end, sometimes sooner than we’d like. VR will always represent a very special time in my life of tremendous personal growth. Now it’s time for me to take that growth and build on it.
Technoskald's Forge 