Carter's Cartopia - Looking Ahead

I am not one to make New Year's Resolutions nor do I feel inclined to look back on the previous RPG'ing year in any comprehensive, reflective, or list-generating way.  Yet I do find myself in a looking-ahead mode as the New Year of 2010 rolls toward its fourth week, and especially now that my Labyrinth Lord campaign has actually begun, I feel I can share a few words about where I think this blog may be heading.

For one, I will continue to post about the Arandish Campaign sessions.  Now that the game is underway, those campaign updates may indeed become the main focus of the blog insofar as the Lands of Ara are concerned.  There are, of course, a few more region blurbs (Blint, Gannar, Delzar) to get written, and eventually I will probably tackle those danged elementalists, but there may not be a huge outpouring of new Lands of Ara stuff except as it emerges / gets invented during the course of the Arandish Campaign.

Indeed, one of the main things I have realized about myself as I "look ahead" into 2010 is that as far as RPG'ing is concerned, I am first and foremost interested in playing the game.  All the generation of content I do, all the Lands of Ara world-building, all the blogging, is simply to make my life easier during game play.  While I hope others find this blog edifying and its content useful, the main thing is that I am using the shit out of it as my Arandish Campaign 2010 unfolds.

Which is a fancy way of admitting that I am both selfish and somewhat lazy.  Sure, I am sharing this stuff with you and I truly enjoy posting to this blog, but I do regard it as a cybernetic servant of my campaign.

Okay, okay, that's not the whole story.  I must say it is truly a pleasure reading other peoples' blogs and participating in the OSR blogging community in general.  It may be true that I would not have started blogging if I didn't think it would serve my needs at the gaming table, but I feel quite lucky to have entered this particular virtual community at the time I have.  It is such a great time to be an old-school gamer and an OSR blogger: the products on the market are top-notch, the creators and artists share their work and creative processes over the blogosphere, and all of us have a great forum in which to share our experiences and insights as we play our individual campaigns and design our individual stuff.  A vibrant and inspirational community indeed, and I am thankful for its existence and support.

Beyond documenting the exploits of my Arandish Campaign adventurers and staying in touch with my fellow virtual Grognards, what else might be in the works for Carter's Cartopia?  Well. . .

You may be aware that Brave Halfling's Swords and Wizardry White Box has already sold out its first two print runs.  I am one of the fortunate few who got in on the first round of pre-orders and should be getting that wonderful product in the mail in the not-too-distant future (pleeeze??!).  Once I get that S&W White Box in my hot little hands, I (tentatively) plan to concoct a whole new campaign setting around it.  I do not yet have a name for the setting, but it will be LOOSELY based upon -- or maybe I should just say it will be inspired by -- the world of Barsoom from Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars books, which I am currently re-reading for the first time since eighth grade.  I love these books and I think I want to take PCs into a world that is at least somewhat reminiscent of it.  This Barsoom-ish S&W campaign setting I am imagining will be much more stripped-down (class-wise) and less Tolkien-esque than the Lands of Ara, obviously more of a science-fantasy setting that includes firearms, airships, vast dry sea beds, abandoned ancient cities, somewhat limited magic options. . . . I don't know the full scope or flavor of it yet, but this is what's been brewing in my mind as I loaf around here watching "T.J. Hooker" on recent evenings.  It may also be that -- I may be so lucky if -- the publication of James Raggi's LotFP: Weird Fantasy Role-Playing will be well-timed vis-a-vis my plans to conduct a campaign in a science-fantasy-inspired setting.  (Late in 2010 maybe?  Pleeeze????!!)

In any case, I will be sure to post developments on this and other RPG'ing fronts to this blog throughout 2010 and into the future.  Thanks for tuning in!