A couple of years ago I talked about sick days and how my work-life balance sucks as a result. You can read up on that here:
Last month, right around the time Onyx Path Con started, I developed a nasty cough. Now, we might be moving into too much medical information, but I’ve always had a bit of a cough for years, particularly after I eat. But this was something new and much worse — a proper, chesty cough. So I waited a week, it didn’t get any better, I talked to a doctor, he asked me to submit some of my expectorant for testing, and then he’d let me know what medication to take.
That was over a week ago. Feel free to insert whatever “the NHS is awful” stuff here you like (I’m still pretty happy that these non-appointments don’t actually cost me hundreds of dollars each), but it does mean that I’ve spent weeks balancing my work.
Of course, what that really amounts to is adjusting what work I can reasonably do. For example, my podcast partners have been really nice about letting me off the hook for recordings or adjusting times, because having to ride my mute button for a couple of hours isn’t a load of fun. I’ve also shuffled my workload to prioritize work that doesn’t require as much creative thought but was still necessary. Now that work’s more or less done, and I’m back to having to allocate my creative energies, as well as being present in work meetings (by which I mean more than just logging in and babbling, but actually focusing and contributing in a meaningful way).
This is a bit different from the usual “take a couple days off to recover and get back to it.” I did do that, to be fair (or at least a reasonable approximation of it), but this is more of a small thing that makes everything a bit harder, rather than something debilitating. Which makes it even trickier for a self-employed freelancer to handle.
(Of course, my frustrations with the NHS are forefront in my mind as I go to the voting booth on July 4th and sort out which political party I’m going to vote for.)
That said, I’m really glad I have a private office now. I can’t imagine going into a coworking space with a cough like this, and it would have been a nightmare if my family were all still crammed into a flat. At least this way I have a private place I can go and leave my family relatively at peace.
Anyway, I should call the surgery and follow up, so let’s get to the news!
News
As I mentioned last month, I was at Onyx Path Con, which is a virtual convention held via Twitch, Discord, and StartPlaying. I was exclusively on panels this year, but I was also on a lot of them. Some are making their way to YouTube, so here’s a bunch of links for you!
Realms of Pugmire panel. Probably the one most readers here would be interested in. I talked about the second edition, and some upcoming new products, including announcing the next book, Expansion of the Realms!
They Came From panel. Mostly a nice retrospective on the various They Came From…! games I’ve worked on.
Bodhana Group panel. I mostly acted as moderator to talk with Jack and Rich about the Bodhana Group and the amazing work they do.
Branch Riders panel. A look at Bodhana’s first RPG, Branch Riders, which I did some consulting work on.
Opening Ceremonies. A lot of the Onyx Path crew goofing around, teasing the announcements we were going to make, and generally getting people hyped about the show (even though it was very late for me).
Also at the show, we announced a new game: Curseborne. It’s a modern day horror game, very much in the vein (pun intended) of games like World of Darkness and Chronicles of Darkness. I was a co-writer and the developer on the Curseborne Ashcan, although it was very much a group effort and really all I did was pull documents together and get everything in order. Still, if you are a fan of my horror work and want to get an early taste of the game, the ashcan is a great way to do that and I highly recommend checking it out!
My Media
As part of working on Curseborne I’ve been poking at horror media again. Perhaps surprisingly I’m not a huge fan of horror. I don’t watch many horror films, and even horror novels I only pick up if the concept is sufficiently intriguing. But I have been craving some audio horror, because I think horror is a genre that audio works particularly well for, and I’ve stumbled across The Magnus Archives.
I recognize I’m eight years late to this, but the fact that it’s finished was actually appealing to me. For those (like me) who don’t know, it’s a 200 episode podcast broken down into five 40-episode seasons. The protagonist/narrator is Jonathan Sims, an archivist for a secret (and possibly underfunded) group that tracks the supernatural. He’s inherited the job from the previous archivist who left said archives in a shambles, so he’s forced to transcribe a mishmash of statements onto cassette tapes because digital audio doesn’t work in the archive for some reason.
I’ve only just started listening, so at the moment it’s a neat framing device for a series of half-hour creepy horror stories, which is exactly what I wanted. However, I am reliably informed that the stories start to interweave with each other and the Archive itself becomes more than just a framing device. Further, apparently the whole 200-episode run was planned out more or less from the start, so there’s a lot more structure than most other podcasts that just keep making episodes until they run out of steam. I admit that part intrigues me, and I’m excited to see how it all ties together!
Anyhow, I think it’s time I give my doctor another call. See you next month!