The things keeping me up at night right now are an eccentric mix. I get that. But be that as it may, I'm finding myself consumed with this weird mix that I just can't seem to put down.
I recently picked up posting to YouTube as a hobby. I don't live and breathe and obsess over it but, I have been spending more time than I'd care to admit thinking about how to make better videos and how to provide value to folks interested in Bannerlord - and other games.
This has led me down a few knowledge paths that I didn't think I'd be venturing down in my late thirties, nearly forties. Yet, here I am, learning DaVinci Resolve, figuring out what OBS settings ACTUALLY do, and learning way, way too much about growing a successful YouTube channel (something, again, that I'm not really interested in)! I just want a place to store some gameplay and commentary. I don't foresee YouTube ever making me as much or being as good of a community as Hive is.
The views I get certainly aren't going to pave my way to YouTube fortune, but given that I've only been actually doing it for like... 6 months, I'm pretty okay with the slow growth of my incredibly niche Bannerlord-focused channel. (We aren't going to count the Skyrim playthrough that I started and abandoned, but if I did then it's been about a year).
I've also been absolutely DEVOURING the Hell Divers series of books by Nicholas Sansbury Smith, which are a ton of fun.
Special units called Hell Divers drop into the radiation and mutant-infested wasteland to scavenge supplies to keep them in the air. It reads a lot like an extraction-based loot shooter videogame. If you've played something like Warzone 2.0's DMZ game type, it's a lot like that. Get in, grab what you need, and take off as fast as you can. It's a thrilling adventure series, and I'm excited to continue to unravel the mystery of why the world went nuclear, after solving the energy crisis and curing all kinds of ailments including cancer.
I've so far crushed out three of the books and am - as you see - 34% done the fourth. I started this series mid December, and it's been really hard to put down. Smith writes some very compelling characters, and though it's not my usual fare, I'm really enjoying it. It's got me thinking about how to kitbash together two of my favourite Solo TTRPG games to make a loot-n-scoot solo tabletop game that is a thinly veiled nod to Hell Divers.
I'm pretty sure that between the rules for Marching Order, and the rules for Dead Space... I could cobble together my own unique hybrid that's using bits of both for a really fun game; if a little rules-heavy.
Which actually bridges to my next obsession. Solo tabletops. I've been playing a lot of Dead Belt, Marching Order, and Delve of course - they've been in a rotation pretty regularly since last summer. I've also recently picked up Starforged! It's a super fun-looking sci-fi solo game that is somewhat more narrative-focused than the others. I've yet to actually create a character for it, but I'm going to give it a shot as soon as I can. Since it can be played co-op, I may rope my wife into a game. She's almost always down to play tabletop roleplaying, so I'm sure it'll be an easy sell.
When I do actually sit down to play this, I'm sure I'll be whipping up a post for it. I love featuring this style of games and getting the word out about them to my fellow gamers and creatives.
Which actually reminds me; all of the games I've mentioned so far (Starforged, Marching Order, Dead Space) all have their own fairly accessible licences. Meaning, if you get the urge to create and sell content for any of them, it's actually pretty easy to do so. Starforged (and the parent game Ironsworn) are covered by a Creative Commons license, Marching Order rules are completely free for personal or commercial use, Dead Space (and all of the Drake's games) are pretty open as well. I have plans to create a Marching Order adventure, and can proudly say that I've even actually started.
Having plans is one thing, but actually starting? Well, that makes it real. I had been holding off on my plans to create an expansion until I could easily get art for the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style quests that the game is built around, but with the tablet my wife gifted me for Christmas/birthday, it's easier than ever to draw a dungeon and get it onto the PC.
As a sneak-peak for what I'm working on... this is the First Floor of my upcoming adventure:
Since #Dungeon23 is popping off amongst the tabletop cartography nerd circles on Instagram, Twitter, etc... I've been using the idea as inspiration for this adventure. Dungeon23 is a challenge designed around making a MegaDungeon over the course of the year. One room a day, one level per month, it should leave you with a sprawling 365-room mega-dungeon if you go by the rules as proposed.
I'm, of course, not doing that. It would be a full-time endeavour to plot out a dungeon level per month and actually keep up with a dungeon room per day. It doesn't sound like much, but a lot of time and effort actually goes into each room and each level - assuming you're not just splashing random shapes onto a canvas. Which, if you are - by all means, you do you, boo.
All of that is to say - I've got a lot of projects on the go right now. A lot that is occupying brain-space and keeping me up at night... in a good way! I'm excited for this year, and I'm loving the prospect of diving into these various new and expanded branches of my hobbies.
I've spent a long time just consuming content. Most of my life I've only ever considered my niche interests to be non-profit hobbies... but through Hive I was introduced to two very important and life-changing ideas.
First, I can put stuff out into the world, and folks will also be interested in the random super nerdy stuff I'm putting out. That's powerfully encouraging.
Second, Hive has introduced me - or, more aptly: has chucked me full-body - into the world of personal finance. I'm more aware of my financial journey than ever before in my nearly four decades on this planet, and it's good.
Through the combination of these two factors, I've realized that I can monetize my hobbies. I can create things and put them into the world, and maybe even make... y'know... five dollars or something, haha!
Does it mean I will have to keep track of income and expenses and treat my hobby output as a business? Sure! But is that a bad thing? Heck no. I already have been keeping track of my crypto gains for taxes, so this isn't a huge difference really. And, who knows? If I actually manage to get a few paid things out that folks enjoy, perhaps I'll go ahead and bite the bullet to actually set up a company here in Canada. Give myself that bit of protection that a company offers. I guess we'll see. That's a longer-term goal that is nebulous at the moment. The immediate future is full of just creating and putting things out into the world... and I'm really enjoying it.
So, for those few of you who have been following and supporting me on this journey - thank you. There are several here that, honestly, were it not for your stalwart support... I probably wouldn't be looking at 2023 with such optimism and enthusiasm. I appreciate you all more than you know.
And, with that said... it's time to get back to the grind!
