Alright, here’s the problem
It’s now been a full month since i posted some new content on this site. Considering that i used to have like 2 articles per week for a while and had it as my goal to settle on one per week, i feel like this is a good opportunity to take a step back and rethink some things. Now, the time that i am spending on designing and putting together the Unofficial Return to Innsmouth set certainly plays a part in why there’s not much happening here lately, but I’d be lying if I were to just claim that’s all there is to it.
See, i have this half-written page on the Dogs of War scenario prepared… and no actual desire to finish it right now. I opened it like seven or eight times over the last couple weeks, looked at it, went “Uuuugh.” and closed it. And i want to make clear that this is not a Scarlet Keys thing. I made it through full coverage for Edge of the Earth after all and that box was just mediocre through and through. Scarlet Keys is a lot better and more interesting than Edge.
So, what’s going on then
When i started Ancient Evils, it was as a way for me to dig into the innards of the game. To see how it works, what design choices were made and to learn from it. Simply out of interest. And that’s still the case, as far as my primary intention goes. The issue i find now is this: Most of what i am actually spending time on here is not working towards my intention. It’s just bookkeeping. Busywork. Listing stuff. Which is fine as long as i get something from it, but lately i didn’t really. And i am going to cut away some of what i find uninteresting from now on.
Details
Let’s take the Scarlet Keys content as an example. I do like the card-by-card pages for the encounter sets (example). I frequently find myself noticing stuff while writing those up and they are easy to do and actually fun. So those stay. The other side of the coin are the scenario pages, though (example). When i expanded them from a card-by-card format to a more expansive format, i clearly overdid it and i need to reel that back. Waaaay back. Anything that is just chronicling how the scenario goes instead of analyzing it is too much. Those pages aren’t supposed to be walkthroughs either and especially for TSK i found that i have been writing a lot about the larger campaign context instead of the scenario itself as well. While that’s not bad content at all, it’s not really what i want from those pages. Maybe those pages even need to go completely and merge into the Deep Dive.
Speaking of the “Best-Laid Plans” Deep Dive, that one i like quite a bit and I’d want to keep it for sure. I could even see that one growing a bit if i let the scenario pages die. Oh, and don’t you worry, the XP overview is going nowhere. I am well aware that it’s one of the most opened pages on Ancient Evils.
But wait, there’s more
There’s one other thing that keeps me from updating my site currently: I find that the design and development of the Unofficial Return to Innsmouth is just much more interesting to me than just chronicling Scarlet Keys. Considering that people have been asking about a possible Return to Dream-Eaters and that i have some other ideas as well, that could mean that i will need to have an even more closer look at what one person can realistically do without burning out.
I also found some other side-projects like the Buying Guide, the reviews for every single player card and the two single-card deep dives way more interesting to do than what i set out to do originally on Ancient Evils. And i certainly have some more ideas on what to do in that direction as well.
So… uuuuh… bottom line? Tl;dr?
I guess all of the rambling above can be summed up by saying that i am going to realign some things on the site. I don’t know how exactly yet, but something has to be done because i have too much going on right now. I pretty much know that the next campaign box is not going to get such a time-intensive treatment as Edge and Keys have gotten. Speaking of Keys… i am not sure if i am going to finish it the same way i started it. I kinda want to because having incomplete things sucks… but i also kinda just don’t want to because i don’t feel like it. Will you ever see that Dogs of War page? I give that a solid 50/50. Chances are, i will move onto more parts for the Deep Dive next instead and see if i can’t put a cap on that whole Scarlet Keys business somewhat in the near future. I actually have a half-written article for that lying around as well… and it doesn’t even make we groan when i look at it. And as for next campaign, we’ll see. I’ll come up with something that still provides the info but without costing me sleepless hours and weekends on end. And then i can finally decide on what new and exciting stuff i can spend those hours and weekends on.
Cheers o/
I kind of miss how you used to do the scenarios before Edge of the Earth with the greater focus on the encounter deck. I feel like some scenario specific cards get lost when you try to cover the entire scenario. There might be less cards to write about for each scenario since the new release model, but that might be a plus if you want to reduce the amount of work?
Anyhow, I hope you find a format that works for you. I’ll look foward to reading it 🙂
Yeah, maybe that’s even the solution here. Go back to the old style of scenario review that just zooms in on the encounter deck and ignores everything else. We’ll see, it’s certainly an option.
Do whatever you feel you need to. This blog appears to be a passion project for you, so if the current style of scenario analysis hurts that passion, feel free to change it. My personal recommendation would be to lean into your individual card analyses (both player in the Deep Dives and encounter in the Encounter Deck analyses), as those appear to be your strong point. Again, though, do what you feel you need to. This isn’t a transactional relationship; if you feel the need to switch things up, or even take a hiatus for a while, that’s fine. We’re here because we love what you’ve done, not because we’re waiting to collect on what you’re going to do.