Biggest Fool Of Them All: Tackling Discworld's Timeline

 End of the Year Personal Projects Breakdown

This is obviously really for an audience of one - just a way to keep track of what I did - and didn't - accomplish this year for my endless projects.

The Bad:  Whatever I started with wanting to accomplish at the start of the year, inevitably I end up adding additional elements - or projects - before completing other ones.  That's always been a problem with me, unfortunately.  

Part of it is that with time, new material - and thus, new project materials - tend to come out, although that very fact does light a fire under my rear end.

Also, the intrusion of the real world has caused a lot of what I wanted to do to be delayed, but that is what it is

The Neutral:  I'm an avid gamer and reader and can burn through them relatively quickly (especially being a speed reader from an early age) but when they are the subject of my 'projects' they slow to a crawl, as I am constantly taking notes - the entire purpose of some of these projects.

The Good:  After years of starting and restarting the same projects over and over... I feel like this year that I have actually gotten somewhere, some finalized record, and that actually does feel good!

Now for the breakdown...

Writing Project:  Of the six parts of the story I want to tell, only one has been completed.  I wanted to at least finish transcribing endless written pages into the computer, but I did not finish even that.

However, I stumbled across a writing contest that seemed to be tailor fit for me to enter - Write Before Midnight, by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which is the first contest that I can recall that I've ever entered in my lifetime.  

The biggest challenge was stay under the 7000 word limit.   I dove in eagerly, with an idea in my head, following one of the characters in my stories that I hadn't focused on before - Ember Wells, the member of the group of friends that passed away before the start of my story, and appeared in one of the 'new' stories I had been working on that was a flashback.

My original concept of the character was that Ember, an embittered person tormented by end of the world, uncovered some of the conspiracy that threatened everyone and that her friends would have to confront, eventually relying of some of what she found; she had succumbed to depression leading to alcoholism echoing what William Gibson referred to the 'oldest game' - eventually leading to her death.  The idea was that in her final moments, she would find some sort of peace, triumphing over something trivial and symbolic, before she passed away.

But a funny thing happened on the way - halfway through the story, everything changed.  Before I knew it, Ember wasn't just doing research - she found access to other alternate worlds that were part of my overall mythology.  I managed to somehow get her through four of them and back home before the end and still be under the word count.  Along the way, Ember shifted to someone that had not, in fact, given in to the overwhelming weight of existence; instead, she got a fatal dose of radiation in her exploration of these other worlds (variations of apocalypses) but fought to the very end.

That, in of itself, has altered the path of my other stories.  I feel reinvigorated now to finish in the upcoming year (who knows maybe I might even win 1st or 2nd place, anything is possible!)

Appendix N Readthrough

This is something I had started and abandoned a number of years ago, and tried again with greater success, although not completed just yet.

"Appendix N" is shorthand for the appendix in Dungeons & Dragons' 1st edition Dungeon Master's Guide, where Gygax listed inspirational texts for the game. 

My own list was similar, but not identical.  I managed to complete Robert Howard's original Conan stories and all of Michael Moorcock's Elric stories, neither of which I had read before.  I added Discworld, which took up a good deal of time (and I still have two reference books from the end to catalog).  Andre Norton's Witch World series were completed through the 'classic' era, but I stalled out in the short story collection era.  Leiber's Newhon series has to be completed still, and I have the classic Cthulhu Mythos stories and the Lone Wolf game books to complete.

Where I left off was the Witcher series, which was a late addition to my list; I am currently at the start of Book 4 (and is paralleled with doing the Witcher games)

Marvel Comics

One of the big ones, that I've worked off and on for 25 years, often starting from scratch.

I stopped collecting comics about 3 years ago, but I have numerous long boxes full of Marvel.  The lion's share is X-Men titles, although 'historical' comics (showing the Marvel Universe at earlier periods of time) are also of interest.

I would do them in chunks, usually bookended by crossovers or special events, and at the end of the year, managed to make it through Operation: Zero Tolerance to "Period 7" - the comics between that event and "The Twelve / Ages of Apocalypse".

Part of the issue is that when my collection essentially starts (1991), there were five X-titles - Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, X-Factor, X-Force and Wolverine (technically Alpha Flight and Excalibur, but they were removed mostly from the other titles at the time that I didn't collect them).   By 1997, there were also Cable, Generation X, X-Man, X-Men Unlimited, Deadpool... and Excalibur was brought into the fold.  And Period 7 adds Maverick, Gambit, Warlock, Mutant X, Bishop, Alpha Flight (new series) and X-51!  The only saving grace is that this is the first period where titles end (Excalibur, X-Factor) and most of the 'new' titles introduced quickly end.

What am I indexing?  Character appearances, locations, the timeline (such as it is), the alternate universes, some miscellaneous notes, and trying to see the effects in the 'real world', i.e. what superhuman battles and events would be known to the general public.

Greyhawk / Planescape / D&D

Another project that I've worked on for decades that I started from scratch to make a 'final' version.  Not only to work on seeing comparing 1E/2E to 3.5E (spells, magic items, monsters) but finally going through Greyhawk - and Planescape - my two favorite D&D settings and cataloging them, working out locations, histories, important characters, and which monsters/magic items/spells could be found in them.  

Additionally, for the adventures with multiple versions through to 5E, to compare the adventures.  This includes the mostly-forgotten variants from 4E's Dungeon Magazine, and Goodman Games reexamining of Temple of Elemental Evil and Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

Star Trek 

Ever since the Star Trek Star Charts book came out, I have been wanting to create a gazetteer for the Alpha/Beta Quadrant, including the updates from the 2nd edition of the ST Galactic Cartography collection.  Now that the new shows essentially treat them as canon, that's even better.  I managed to get all the planets/systems from the shows and put their locations in, and I'm also overambitiously trying to include other sources, including the pre-Star Charts FASA and LUG Star Trek TTRPGs, which is where I left off.

Star Wars

One of the oldest of my projects, and one that I had essentially abandoned when Disney took over and the old Expanded Universe was pushed into the rubbish bin.  However, I still have interest (especially since the galactic map was kept 99% the same) and there's a bunch of old sourcebooks and novels that I never catalogued, plus the last iteration of the TTRPG.

Video Games

Probably the one that changed the most over the course of year.  I was attempting at some sort of 'final run' through some of my favorite games, but this shifted constantly over the course of the year.  I finally got around to playing the Sony Spider-Man games and their version of NYC, and left off 'mapping' the city with the DLC from the first game (having made to Spider-Man 2!).  At the end of the year, a special deal on the paid "Fallout First" subscription for a trial month has had me shift focus to playing the online Fallout 76.  They certainly have added a lot of content over the years, and starting from scratch has taken a while!  I'm currently beyond the initial storyline, into the 1st half of the "Brotherhood of Steel" quest chain.  

The Future

What does the new year bring?  I'm sure it will change as much as it has this year, but to start with...

1.  Well, firstly, TRYING TO FINISH MY STORY.  And for that, I need to focus on transcribing the hard-to-read handwritten pages into text.  Also, I would like to do a better job maintaining a database of story elements - characters, timelines, etc.

2.  Finish up Fallout 76.  I'm actually astonished how much I've been able to complete, and it actually feels doable.  After that, back to STALKER 2 to replay (with new material added and the promise of DLC) and then, the Witcher video game series... since I've only played the legendary Witcher 3 ONCE.  I'd also like to get back into playing adventure games, especially since playing "Old Skies".

3.  Marvel - The impossible dream!  I'd settle for just reaching the dreaded House of M / Decimation era, which I almost reached the last time I tried.  I feel better organized and equipped, and look forward to reading comics that I've only read once... or even not at all!

4.  D&D - Another 'impossible' project is well on its way, going through the classic 1E modules by individually listing what's in them rather than waiting to finish the broader categories.  Some of it is rather interesting (such as the original "Against the Giants" only mentions one World of Greyhawk location as an aside in the entire run!), and including modules that weren't originally included (such as I2: The Tomb of the Lizard King, which was the first 'generic' D&D module made)

So, here's to the new year!