Time to get to work

So I’ve been working on this “big box” expansion to Gloomhaven for a long time. I remember writing a post in November 2016 about spending a National Novel Writing month working on the story for it. That was quite a while ago.

I’ve also pined year after year that I wasn’t getting enough time to work on it. Conventions, business-related things – something always seems to get in the way. I’m no longer toiling away in a vacuum. There are lots of external forces to contend with.

But also, in a way, it’s a lot of excuses. Making Gloomhaven was difficult and tedious, and it led to a lot of long days and nights. When I think about it, I just don’t necessarily want to go back there.

And sometimes it’s hard to find the motivation to go back. Sure, some people are done with the campaign, but I’d say the vast majority are not. Plus I am making new content all the time. Do people really even need an expansion? Nobody’s knocking down my door, begging me to tell them what happens next like I’m George R. R. Martin.

A lot of the motivation for making Gloomhaven originally was financial, but that’s not really an issue any more either. Instead, I’ve been running a play testing group for over a year now, working through the expansion campaign, hoping that will bring motivation to get stuff done, but it really only forces me to do whatever minimal thing I need to do to run the next session. It’s really not a lot. There is so much more to do.

So, look, I’ve been dilly-dallying for too long on this. It’s time to get to work. Now that Price is on board, I am already starting to reclaim some time to work on creative endeavors for the company, and that will only increase in the coming months. Plus, it doesn’t have to be like last time. I don’t have to kill myself working, but I can still work at a much faster pace than I have been. Much, much faster. After two years, there’s, well, as I said, not a lot to show for the time.

Well, okay, maybe that’s selling myself short a bit. A large majority of the character classes have been prototyped, along with all of the new monsters, but the content’s not there, and there is still so, so much writing to get done. And my point is, now is the time to start working on them in earnest.

It also doesn’t have to be like before because I have so many more resources than I did originally. I don’t have to do so much myself, and I have Price, who can act as a project manager to make sure things are organized and well-coordinated between all the creative minds working on it.

And speaking of creative minds, I’m also looking into hiring a fiction writer to help with all that story text. Not only will it take a considerable load off of me, but hiring a professional will also vastly improve writing, bringing the Gloomhaven system closer to its true potential, which I am very excited about.

So all the pieces are finally falling into place to get this giant project finished, and so I am committing to you here that I am going to start working seriously on this expansion. It’s still too early to give a specific timeline, but it will be my top priority. Hopefully writing this will give me the motivation I need to see it through.