Space demons! and other universal interlopers

At the edge of the solar system, impossibly, They are here, pouring through a hole in reality...

Humans rally their forces and wonder: can we beat them? Is this the end? And importantly, why are they here???

1. Counter-humans from an inverse-universe determined to conquer our space.
2. Insectoid menace plundering precious resources: humans!
3. Blurred-edge fractal-flowers, AIs that want to be the only consciousness.
4. Conceptual bubble-beings; they feed off maths and want more equations to devour.
5. Swarm of nano-constructors; absorbing comet ice and space dust, and looking at that hot glowing ball of gas in the distance with hunger.
6. Spike-ships colonised by ant-people parasite-pilots are searching for something good to drink: humans!
7. Matriarchal anti-entropic space-pirates looking for a new star to turn into pure computronium.
8. Macro-scale germ-hive searching for the ultimate infectees: whales! (or, if whales extinct: humans!)
9. Cat-headed demons of the negaverse; searching for a great big saucer of milk.
10. Aesthovores, art-eating twelve-legged spiders from dream-space; attracted by Earth culture and looking to farm artists from the closest source: humans!

Whoever They are, humans can't win. We can probably hide and survive in the ruins though...

(From notes for an old Into The Oort supplement idea I had. The canon Oort setting had no aliens, just leftover tech from older human communities, but commenters seemed interested in space demons and Other Menaces. The table also probably owes a debt to To The Stars, the shared game universe that I, David McGrogan, Patrick Stuart and others played games in years ago.)

2016: The Year I Start Self-Publishing

2015, another year, another promise to blog and create more unfulfilled - or was it? I didn't blog as much as 2014, but I played more games than the previous year though, and one game in particular - playing a new game/setting by noisms in August - inspired me to make Oddpool.

It was around this time that I started thinking about making a zine. I had an idea in particular, which was wanting to explore the motivations of RPG creators. The original inspiration was the TV show Inside The Actor's Studio; I love the depth that the host James Lipton goes into, the way he unpicks the why of his guests. I wanted to see why people make games, what they get from them, what they like about them - and as someone who wants to make games too, perhaps learn something along the way.

So in 2016 I'll publish my zine, A Random Encounter, where each issue is a single interview with an RPG creator. I've recorded the interviews for the first two issues, and issue 1 is coming together now. I've commissioned a cover from a terrific artist for the issue, and am looking around for someone to work on issue 2.

Issue 1 will be out by the end of February, and I'm aiming to be bi-monthly-ish. The first issue's interviewee will be announced soon. And I'm going to start thinking and prepping for issues 3 and 4 next month too.

Oh! And in 2016 I hope to have Into The Oort out in some form or other. I need to make it more of a priority in the next few months, pulling a playtest package together is the first order of business.

Who knows, maybe I'll find time to blog a little more too...