When Reality Meets the Blur

I posted this on Facebook, and other places, but I felt it really belongs best here.

 

There’s been something on my chest for quite a long time, and as a private person, it’s difficult enough to share with friends, let alone the whole of the internet. But today I have.

It’s in response to folks questioning me about some particular products, but the underlying question is what’s really going on with my company, Reality Blurs.

Here, finally, I shed some light into the dark corners.

If you want to comment, please go to the original forum thread here.

Until next time, I bid you, dear reader, adieu.

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Good morning.

It’s early and this is likely a bit all over the place. I’m going to ramble a bit and reveal some stuff that is deeply private and difficult to speak about. It’s raw. It’s unedited. Apologies in advance. In real worlds as well as imaginary, not everything is goodness and light.

The run of Realms of Cthulhu has sold through. That’s great. It was created and written prior to SW Deluxe. While easily working with it, we intend to revise it and bring new materials into it to boot. And, yes, it’s in addition to the plot point campaign, Echo of Dead Leaves. It’s a large undertaking, and certainly not one we’re taking lightly. Nor or we rushing it out the door. That being said, it’s the right time to start taking about the second edition. Getting another print run of material which would best be updated isn’t practical from a financial standpoint.

Savage Worlds is a great system, we love working with it and playing it. I’ll come back to this in a moment.

It’s time to get personal for a few. My father has been seriously ill for quite some time, and required a great deal of my personal time and energy. From dressing his wounds, attending to his hygiene, dressing him, and taking over the handling of his private and business affairs. This all fell upon me, and I realized at the time productivity would take a hit, and the release schedule would go more than a little bit sideways. I continued to write and work when I could, but some aspects of the business had to be throttled down. Trying to maintain more than a passing presence on the internet was a challenge. And conventions? Out of the question. This was a massive energy drain and a set of stressors I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Seeing a vital, vibrant man fading before your eyes is tragic and difficult, so you’re going to do everything you can. He was hospitalized. He nearly died from an emergency procedure. Then staff was overmedicating him, and I had to fight tooth and nail to keep them from sending him the rest of the way down the drain. The work had to wait. I made my peace with that. He’s doing worlds better now. His color is the best it’s been in years. The longterm care facility has been working with me to provide the care he needs, and the hopes are he’ll be out before too long. I can write more books. I can rebuild any damages the reputation may take. But you only get one father, and if I couldn’t do everything I could to fight for him, I would forever live in the shadow of regret. Has it been a nightmare? Yes. Procedures have been put in place, contingency plans, to keep the wheels turning should anything arise in the future. They should’ve been there all along, but no one really plans (nor likes to think) about these sort of things.

Are you entitled to your negativity and disappointment? Certainly. I’ll take the hit for it. As a small company, I’m the driving force behind everything we do. I do the bulk of the writing, layout, and art direction. I have some great folks who edit, and some great folks who write other materials, but the chief work for our horror stuff falls upon me.

Agents of Oblivion for SW has been reordered and shall be in stock shortly. Realms of Cthulhu shall be back in stock eventually. I could counter and say all these things are never really out of print in a digital age when they are readily available for purchase and download, but that’d be a bit snarky. (See? I still have a sense of humor.) The reason for the gap in AoO products is we had some other folks working on AoO materials, but things didn’t work out for various reasons (chiefly, my focus, as mentioned above, was elsewhere). We had high hopes for the growth of Agents then, and we do now. (And, yes, this arose when I was neck-deep in tremulus, and all the stuff with my father was swirling about me. Now everyone knows it’s been going on for a long time. I kept it quiet, and carried on.)

The new iteration of Agents of Oblivion is exciting to me for multiple reasons. It allows for extended campaign play as well as no prep play, whereas tremulus was designed primarily for one-offs. We’ll be commissioning new artwork for this edition, with plans to release a revised edition of Agents of Oblivion for Savage Worlds as well down the line. (This explains why we’ve been doing short runs of late.)

Sure, I get the ADD thing. I have a lot of ideas, and not nearly enough time in the day to get to them all, and have to make some tough choices. Every decision is difficult. If we work on X, we can’t work on Y. Works such as Ravaged Earth and Karthador are done under contract with individuals whose work we respect and admire. Working with them does take time, as I edit and contribute, but that’s the reason it looks like, on the surface, we are putting priorities of some things over another. Ultimately, we have to go where passion meets profit. If that sounds a bit mercenary, it may be, but we all have to eat, and I have the new burden of additional (medical) expenses looming in the distance.

I’m wanting to simplify things, and there will be some changes on the horizon. Some folks like change, others don’t. Such is life. I do know one simple announcement won’t turn sentiment. It’s putting words into action.

Best,

Sean

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