Normally I start these off musing about something that’s either outside of work or tangential to it, because my life is more than just the work I produce. But honestly I’m struggling to think of much, because my life is consumed by Curious Cats of Mau right now.
In case you missed it, Onyx Path launched a crowdfunding campaign for Curious Cats of Mau a little over two weeks ago. It funded in just under 48 hours (hooray!) and we’re well on our way to going through stretch goals. That means it’s a success, and we will be making a print run of books to put into stores to sell. It’s a success.
However, there’s a lot of work that goes into these behind the scenes. I’m lucky that I have a team of people at Onyx Path to help me out (particularly our crowdfunding concierge, James Bell), but because this is something I have an emotional and financial investment in, I’m also working a lot behind the scenes. I’ve been pulling in favors from all around to get on podcasts, organize actual plays, and hype up the campaign on social media and Discords I’m a part of. Plus, leading up to it, I was handling behind-the-scenes stuff like approving the art and crowdfunding page, brainstorming stretch goals, and handling the other Pugmire projects that are in various stages of production.
Weirdly, this has been busier than the last campaign. The Realms of Pugmire campaign was happening during my move to the UK, so honestly my life fell into two buckets: I was either doing something to progress the move, or I was doing something to progress the campaign. Everything was on fire, so I could only focus on what was immediately in front of me. It was stressful, chaotic, and more than a little exhausting, but it was also clear. This time around, I’m contributing and keeping an eye on it while I’m also juggling my usual workload of things. I may be doing about as much or more than I did in the last campaign, but it’s in the midst of a lot of other projects (many of which I can’t talk about right now). So if I seem a bit distracted and busier than usual, now you know why!
Anyhow, if you’re interested in playing cats in Pugmire, now is a great time to get on board the Curious Cats train!
News
Curious Cats of Mau is exciting and all, but I’ve been up to other things as well!
First off is that I will once again be running games at UK Games Expo! I’ll be running four sessions: two of Realms of Pugmire and two of Curious Cats of Mau. Tickets have just gone live as of the time I’m posting this newsletter, and last year nearly all my games were full, so get your paws on these before they run out!
Speaking of games with me, last year I ran an online game of Trinity Continuum as part of a charity stream to raise money for Make-A-Wish. I ended up running a heist game, and the players had a lot of fun with it! The game is now up on YouTube, if you want to check it out.
Finally, Theatre of the Mind Players have been running a session of my Vampire: The Masquerade adventure, Auld Sanguine, using it as the kickoff for their chronicle RED MKE.
My Media
Because of all the work on the crowdfunding campaign, I’ve been struggling to keep my attention on any one thing for too long. That means I’ve been bouncing through a lot of media (remind me to talk about my current dives into Crusader Kings III or Final Fantasy 7 Remake), and it was a bit of a challenge figuring out what I wanted to talk about. But really, there’s one thing that’s been on my mind this whole time, and it’s 2000AD.
For those that don’t know, 2000AD is a weekly anthology comic that’s been going nonstop for close to fifty years. The most iconic character from the magazine is Judge Dredd, and it’s one of my favorite comics. 2000AD has a great digital subscription that isn’t tied to any DRM service, so you can just pay for a month or a year and download issues every Wednesday. And the current Judge Dredd storyline got me to restart my subscription.
It’s called “A Better World,” and it’s technically not over with. It’s running from Prog (what the comic calls its issues) 2363 to 2372. It’s the payoff to a few years of other stories, where an accountant discovered that reallocating money from the Judges to social services has a real and significant effect on crime statistics. Yes, it’s a “defund the police” storyline, and it’s really good.
What I love about Judge Dredd (and what weirdly some people don’t seem to get) is that it’s always been a satire of American policing methods. More interestingly, it’s an ongoing comic that plays out in real time (so Dredd is around 70 years old now) and it hasn’t ever rebooted or reversed back to a status quo. Many stories have lasting consequences: This current one stems from a big event called Chaos Day from a few years ago, who itself plays off threads from previous epics going all the way back to stories from the 1980s.
So this isn’t just a bit of political posturing that ends up meaning nothing. The comic will be fundamentally changed after this. And honestly, there are very few franchises that have this kind of staying power combined with a perpetual forward momentum and a baked-in satirical intent (and often a very biting one, too). And the issue I just read this week shows that the writers are playing for keeps.
The company that owns 2000AD, Rebellion, is really good about putting out collections of big storylines, so odds are you’ll see this in stores soon, so I highly recommend picking it up if only to read this. But really there’s something special about getting a steady drip of comic greatness every week in your inbox (or physical mailbox), so if you like this kind of stuff, it’s worth considering a subscription.
Anyhow, back to more crowdfunding stuff. See you next time!