Changes, Adjustments, and Learnings

This year is a year born from having survived a tumultuous year filled with numerous challenges.  But from dreaming of leaving a mark on the tabletop gaming industry, I begin 2017 with high hopes of new experiences, new friends, and more games.

There's a few upcoming Kickstarter projects that I'll be part of this year, with one touching on spies and rivalries, while the other explores the romantic side of dreams.  There are a bunch of supplemental projects as well, for people bound to demons, for high action and dramatic epic heroes, and for a few more fiction nods to tuck under my belt.  And there are the talks.

This year opened with me being invited to give a talk for the 2017 Global Game Jam, which I must admit was an unexpected moment of awesome.  A few more opportunities are coming into focus down the line and while I kinda shied away from a possible one set all the way at Cebu, I know more options are bound to show up in time.  Then there's a few more projects both independently, work-relatedly, and completely selflessly being developed in the pipeline for table top releases (a few card games, and a possible board game or two).  And my own projects for TAG Sessions plus the ever awesome dayjob.

I need to update my Patreon account though.  I realize now the previous layout of the tiers isn't engaging people the way I thought, and in hopes of properly thanking people for their support, I've decided to make some changes on what they entail. I'll probably engage the shift come February, depending on the feedback I get.

The biggest change though, this year, is us moving.  Rocky and I have decided to move to a location closer to our respective workplaces.  This means finding a way to reduce the usual two-hour travel time each way to and from work that we lose each day.  The move meant having to make some hard decisions, which includes me having to accept that I'll be giving up some stuff, and make some lifestyle changes, but in the end, reducing the four hours lost each day to traffic will be worth the sacrifices.  When we first moved together way back in May, 2009 to what became our home at Cubao, we named the place Sietch Creare.  It was a funny time, with me breaking a mirror within the first day, but in the end we realized we created a sanctuary where we could create. The term Sietch was borrowed from Rocky's favorite book series of all time, The Dune Chronicles by Frank Herbert. Creare is the Latin word for create.  This new Sietch we have moved to has yet to be officially named.  There's temptation to name it after the Latin word for game, but that kinda just conjures up traumatic visions for me.  I'm tempted to try "Igrat" which is the Russian word for "play" given the roots of the word sietch can also be traced to the Russian word "sech" which was a chief fortress refuge.  Then there's "Qiss" which is Arabic for story, since it can also be traced to "Seeq", which is one of the Arabic names of a desert town that was hard to access.

In the end, I think the name will come to us naturally and we will find what works best in time.  We had our first game session at the new place already, and it seemed appropriate the game would be Houses of the Blooded, with Flip and Carlo.  New beginnings.  New wagers.   Style.