Friday, December 27, 2019

Resolutions for 2020

Friends: My check allowance (twice a month) is going from about $250 per check to about $100 per check. My expenses are about the same regardless of how much "allowance" I receive. My first check, which comes on or very near the first of each month, still contains a $60 smart phone contract, leaving me about $40 for myself. My second check, which comes (for some strange and unknown reason) on the second Wednesday of each month, has a credit card payment of $50, leaving me $50 for myself. This means that I'll be going from about $390 of spendable cash each month to about $90 per month. Basically, this means I'll have to cut out most (if not all) of Kickstarter. It will have to be something so absolutely fabulous that I feel like I =must= pledge. One example of the "must pledge" category recently was the "Divinity Original Sin Board Game" by Larian Studios and Lynnvander Studios. I have spent (wasted?) countless hours with Larian's computer games, starting with the original "Divine Divinity". I got into this at the highest level I could afford. They may put up a late pledge, but right now they are recovering from the shock of the amount of their success. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-sin-the-board-game?ref=user_menu Another good example is Troll Lord's "Starship Warden" project. I know James M. Ward and really like his work. I can't wait to put PCs in the generation ship and see what happens. Their pledge drive is still going on: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/676918054/the-starship-warden My final example is Imperial Publishing's "Red Outpost" board game. The setting was so original I could not resist. Heck, to be honest, I hope to use material from this in an RPG. I may write it myself! Their pledge drive is also still going on: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sleevekings/red-outpost-the-2-4-player-communist-utopia-board-game I highly suspect these may be some of my final pledgings for Kickstarter. My Mileage May Vary. The same is true for eBay. I have a =lot= of items on my "want list", but I'm going to have to pick and choose the very best in my new budget range. My wife is helping me with this by setting up 'camp' on eBay and selling off some of my old stuff (mostly gaming books) and I get to keep ten percent of what she makes, because the household budget is also very tight. If you want to see what we have on eBay right now, check below. My wife is also selling some art and art prints there. https://www.ebay.com/sch/nitelvr/ However, if you follow this blog at all, expect to see a =lot= more from me in 2020. I'll be increasing my reviews of games and gaming items quite a lot, and I'll also be posting other insights here. Hope to see a lot more people reading this in 2020. Keep on Trekkin! Bruce