Blood and Spectacles: Random- 2020 is Dead, Long Live 2021!

2020 is dead. Long live 2021!

Last year was a year, and this year will be another year. Time keeps slipping into the future. I have yet to find someone where it goes backwards or even stagnates for. Time waits for no man. Insert your other cliche's into the mix here as needed to get the point across.

Like previous years I plan to create a few goals for the year. These are not binding, but it keeps me from going off the rails and spending like crazy on the new shiny. It also keeps me from jumping from project to project without finishing stuff first. Like I say, to be a Game Designer, you need to have games for people to play!

Like most years, I am breaking this down into the following categories:

Purchases- Things I spend my money on
Painting and Modeling- Things I paint and build to play games with
Playing Games- The name says it all. The games I will play and report on
Rules Writing- New projects and games I am working on
Miscellany- Other things related to Blood and Spectacles but not the other 4 categories.

So, with no further ado, let's dive into what 2021 will hopefully bring......

Purchases

My goal is always to have a self-sufficient Hobby experience. As I have said many times, you can make more money recycling cans than being a game designer, so I am not looking to make a living. I have a corporate job for that! However, with your help I CAN expand with projects that motivate you and inspire you in my own gaming systems!

Creating games requires more than just writing rules. You need to playtest games, market games, and put pretty pictures into your publications. These purchases help with that process! When you make a purchase from Blood and Spectacles, you are helping to support this work. For that, I thank you! Thank you! I will keep trying to produce good products for you to have fun with and play!

So, here is what I would like to Purchase this year.....

Victrix Vikings for my Fury of the Northman Project
DreamPod 9 With the Lightning Mechs for Glittering Void
Tumbling Dice Korean War Aircraft for White Star/Red Star
Oathsworn Starter Bundles A and B for Burrows and Badgers
Stay caught up with the Osprey Wargaming Series
Pick-up Stargrave when it comes out

That's about it for the purchases in 2021. 4 to support projects I am working on, and 2 keep me up to date with trends in the wargaming industry.

White Star/Red Star using my (in)famous paper templates

Painting and Modeling

One of the reasons my Purchase list is limited, is because I know I can only paint about 100-150 models in a year. No need to buy more than I can paint! Plus, going into this year, I have a full size Republican Roman army to paint, so there goes most of my painting time this year!

Victrix Republican Roman army for Wars of the Republic
Paint the new miniatures I purchase

That's it! I will be painting about 60 to 100 Romans so there goes most of my bandwidth for the year! Therefore, my goals in this area are very limited. You will be able to keep track of the miniatures I paint in 2021 with my painting tracker on the right hand side of the blog.

Gaming

The last two years I have been able to get between 12-18 games in a year. Therefore, I need to keep that in perspective for this year. I am not going to be setting the world on fire with the number of games I get to play. However, that doesn't mean I won't get a bit creative!

Play 4-6 games of Ancients of any system- Heirs of Empire, Men of Bronze, The Games: Blood and Spectacles, or Wars of the Republic will all be acceptable!
Play 1-2 games for Operation: Hemlock
Play 2-4 games of my WIP games- This includes Castles in the Sky for Osprey
Get 1 new Non-Blood and Spectacles game on the table

That is only 8-13 games for all of next year. So, about 1 a month! Again I am being conservative with my gaming. You will be able to keep track of the games I play in 2021 with my game tracker on the right hand side of the blog.

Rules Writing

I may not be the best or most popular game designer in the world, but I am a very productive one! I pretty consistently am moving new content to you, the gamer! I endeavor to continue this trend!

Complete Castles in the Sky for Osprey
Update The Games: Blood and Spectacles with new photos, art, and resources
Try to get a new work published in a Magazine, Osprey, or through another channel
Move a WIP game to the Wargame Vault
Add a new game to the WIP section

I have several games in various states of WIP from Modern Naval, to Dexterity Games, to Historical, to Gunpowder Fantasy, Modern Horror, and beyond. The hard part is prioritizing and completing works in a timely manner. There are so many concepts, it can be hard to get all the concepts into reality!

Miscellany

These are random elements that apply to running Blood and Spectacles Publishing that I want to continue to accomplish. Sometimes they are administrative, marketing, or other details that I do not want to lose site of.

Get a new Blog post up every two weeks, if not every week
Update the Painting and Gaming tracker for 2021
Tie my Social Media, Website, Blog, and Messageboard together for a more unified marketing message
Try to increase my network with other Game Designers
Update my Products on my Website

Basically, keep working on finding ways to improve my "Side Hustle".

Final Thoughts

In some ways, my goals are less ambitious than last year. However, in other ways they are more ambitious. There is much more focus and rigor around completing projects that tie into the growth and development of Blood and Spectacles Publishing as opposed to just MY hobby side of things. The Purchases are to align around ongoing projects, the painting to support releases, the gaming to market and play-test products, and the Rules Writing to continue to expand my stable of games for you the player.

2020 was a good year for Blood and Spectacles Publishing! Here is to 2021 and growing and expanding even further!