By The Stars — Punch It! — Week Twenty-Nine

In the realm of concrete words-on-a-page progress, I’ve got only a handful of scribbled notes to report. I spent a decent bit of the weekend fretting, cying, bellyaching, and tearing my hair out over this latest creative drought. Just yesterday morning I was ready to hang the whole thing up again.

Then I thought, to hell with all that! It’s wasted energy I could be using for a dozen better things, particularly in shoving By The Stars into playtesting. So that’s what I’m going to do.

I’ve got no rules draft. I’ve got no scenario. I’ve got no characters. I’ve got no regular players lined up and committed. But there is one thing I do got: my spine. I’m not sure how I found it, and I’m not sure how long I’m gonna be able to hold onto it, but I’d better use it while I got it.

Therefore, I’ve just sent a bunch of local (and not-so-local) folks the following e-mail (if you didn’t get one and want one, I apologize for the oversight, let me know and I’ll put you on the list):

Hey, All!
As you may know, I’ve been working on designing a space fantasy game called By The Stars. For close to a year I’ve been struggling with it, often spinning my wheels fruitlessly. To get this game done, I need to revamp my methods. To that end, I’m going to be holding open playtesting of By The Stars. I’d appreciate if you could come and help me out.
We’ll be playing at my house. I’ll hold the playtests every other Sunday afternoon, starting at 1:00 pm. We’ll play with whomever shows up–there’s no pressure to make it to every single session. We’ll play for a few hours, discuss what works about the game, what doesn’t work, and what can be improved. We’ll finish up with ordering dinner from a local restaurant, and possibly a board game or two. The first time you show up for a session, I’ll buy you dinner as a way of saying “Thank you!”
Although I want to start this RIGHT NOW, I have previous commitments. The first session will be Sunday, March 25. We’ll skip April 8 because it’s Easter and continue on April 22.

That gives me a bit over two weeks to come up with something actually playtestable. I can do that. I swear by the stars that I will!