I’ve got a lot of my mind right now, not least of which being tomorrow. More on that in this post. What I think is really important right now is keeping what momentum I’ve got going and make sure I’ve got things lined up for this Spring.

My Four Candidates

I’ve got four I’m considering: Artorius, Frame Ops, The Man from Ceres, and Remnants. Each has some merit and enough things set in stone that I could theoretically start on them right now. I’m learning that it’s better to tackle these very carefully, though. Lydia’s Golden Treasury and Fleeing Victory are difficult enough as it is. The former is going to be wrapping up by early April, so I’ll need to slot something else in.

None of these are any closer to being primed than the others, so it really just comes down to preference. I’ll give a brief overview of each as an official introduction for the blog.

Artorius

Adversity, thy name is Artorius.

Some years ago I was involved in an RP that had a lot of interesting characters and while the main thrust of things was finished, I really wanted to see the aftermath of all that development. These character came out of a war as completely different people. Unfortunately there was no follow up, as almost everyone was worn out after several years of following the same characters around. Some folks were dragged over the finish line.

Artorius is an adaptation of some character arcs into a new setting and couched in a different kind of war.

Note: That logo up there is a placeholder from Aeon’s prototyping days that I updated for the site.

Frame Ops

Frame Ops was just shy of being someone else’s idea. Despite the way things are set up, it’s not inspired by team sport shows like Gundam Build Fighters, though the atmosphere is definitely the same. When I was prototyping the Aeon setting, I was designing scenarios for others to play that would help me iron out problems I would have missed otherwise. I got the suggestion of making a scenario that was more casual, so I gave it a shot and came up with Frame Ops. We didn’t finish the scenario, but that turned out to be a blessing, because …

Now I can make a book out of it!

When setting up Frame Ops, I was more interested in figuring out what life should, or at least could look like living far away from the Earth, but with the kind of comfortable infrastructure that makes cities reasonably comfortable places to live. The gaming aspect was needed to make things more casual. Otherwise, we would have wound up with something more akin to Star Trek: DS9. I wouldn’t have minded that, and there may even still be room for a spinoff way down the line, but what Frame Ops needed was in the name, giant robots fighting it out.

The Man from Ceres

The Man from Ceres was envisioned as a kind of space western, but the space part would be boldened and italicized for good measure. The main character’s glory days are supposedly behind him and he’s supposedly happy about that, but with a ridiculously well connected nemesis constantly gunning for him, a son whose future he’s struggling to protect, and old wounds both physical and emotional opening back up at the worst times, the Man from Ceres’ journey’s far from over.

There’s also a dog. Dogs in space are always interesting.

Remnants

Like Artorius, Remnants has its origins in an old RP I was a part of, though that one I started myself. Unlike Artorius, the Remnants setting is a spiritual successor to the one I made for that old RP. Its individual stories will be mainly character driven, but the idea itself was inspired by the world and not the characters. Since Remnants falls under the Zion umbrella, the world’s similarities to ours should be downright amusing, especially for anyone interested in world history or technology. Or even culture. Remnants has a lot to say about a lot of things, actually.

Remnants is the one that’s been churning up too many details in the back of my head while I try to focus on things like Lydia’s Golden Treasury and Fleeing Victory. Thankfully that’s slowing down enough that I can organize my thoughts again.

Closing

I don’t have any hard leanings right now, but Remnants has the advantage of ideas flowing more easily. I know better than to trust that to carry me through the whole project, though. It’s better to wait until April is closer to see what’s really looking better. I just wanted to get my thoughts out there and out of my head, so with that done, goodnight.