When I created Iron Wolf Games, I have to admit that I didn’t have an entirely clear vision of where I was going with it. I had some concrete plans about creating content and making some money to supplement my part-time job until I found a full-time job or sold a book or something more lucrative. I also had a few discussions with friends of mine about creating a website where people could post their own campaign modules and share them with each other, rate them, etc., perhaps with a subscriber fee for the highest quality content. Over time, I began working toward the goal of publishing a book, ebooks, that sort of thing, but nothing that would qualify as a vision.
Since then, as most of you will have seen, the economy has suffered, jobs are scarce, and layoffs frequently strike the same place twice. After three years of searching in futility for a better job, I lost even the one I had. My own employer was pushed out of his lease by a bigger company with more money to throw around, and without a location, there’s no business. I have an Associate’s degree, training in web design, and have managed two small businesses, but my employment history is peppered with contract work and seasonal jobs. I don’t have a chance.
I can write. I can draw. I can teach. I can write music. I can code in HTML, PHP, a few others. I can administer and manage and organize. In short, I’m a one-wolf band when it comes to operating a small website. But if nobody will pay me to do it, what’s the point anyway? That’s what I told myself, for three years.
This October, my eyes were opened. Perhaps many of you heard about Occupy Wall Street a little earlier than I did, but when I clicked my first twittered link about it, it was already in full swing. I read articles about protestors being arrested. I read articles about corrupt politics and lobbying. I read articles from banks and news media and people who just didn’t understand what all the fuss was about.
But I got it. I heard people voicing the same grievances I’ve had during these last three years of under-employment. I don’t have health insurance. I can’t get a job even though I’m over-qualified. The K-12 school system in my state is a parody of real education. I’m drowning in student debt because I thought gaining a degree meant I could find work. The housing crisis ruined my business. I live in a one-bedroom, basement apartment with my husband and four young children. I can’t buy food for them. The safety net that keeps my utilities on is being threatened by spending cuts made during a time when trillions of dollars – enough to pay off the student loans of every American – were spent to bail out banks that have been defrauding their investors. I know – I spoke with lenders as a regular part of my pre-crisis employment. I knew all about the ARMs and the stated-income loans and I thank my lucky stars that I got out of that before we invested in any of those horrible mortgage-backed securities.
But enough ranting. After I got angry, I got busy. I spread the word, I did my research, I wrote impassioned articles on obscure blogs (…oh, wait). Once I knew I wasn’t alone, I had confidence to air my own complaints, and I did that for a while, too. (You may have been wondering where I’ve been for the past two months; there’s your answer).
Right now we’re kind of watching the dust clear. Though many of the encampments have been removed, and thousands of protestors arrested, we can see the conversation changing. The people who needed to hear our message have, and now the ball is pretty much in their court. Public statements are being made, investigations begun, and other little signs are visible that people aren’t afraid of big money any more, and change may be around the corner.
That doesn’t help anyone right now. It’s promising, but the gears of politics and economy take years to turn. In the meanwhile, we still have people unemployed, uninsured, and in serious need of a resume boost to stay competitive.
That’s what my new vision is about. I recently received second place in a fiction writing contest, and I was honestly more grateful for the plug on my resume than I was for the gift certificate I won (and I was pretty darn grateful for that. Christmas is back on! Yeah!). Add that to a comment a good friend made about wanting another flash fiction contest to enter, and everything fell together for me.
I have a website. I am an editor. I can design the infrastructure. I can market and promote skillfully on the internet. What I don’t have yet is content. You out there who write and draw, you can help create content. I can’t pay you – you deserve it, but that’s going to have to be a more long-term goal – but I can give you something. I can host art and writing contests, I can critique and edit your work, and I can provide a forum for you to get noticed and awards for you to win and catch the eye of that prospective employer. Or that major publishing company. Or whatever it is that advances your goals in life.
It will take a lot of time and effort, but that’s what a vision is, really. A goal for the future, an ideal to work toward. At first the contests are likely to be poorly attended and award little esteem, but I’m willing to stick it out if you are. Cash prizes and publication of your best entries in a periodical is not outside the boundaries of my ambition.
In this time of financial strain, what we all need is to support each other. I can’t hire anyone, I wish I could. But I can do something. I can write, and I can organize. I can teach, I can improve, I can facilitate, and I can empower. It only costs me a couple hours’ work a day that nobody’s going to miss, and some web hosting fees I was paying anyway. What have I got to lose?
Tags: Occupy, writing, writing contests
In the heat of battle, it’s nice to know who’s in charge of what. To avoid confusion and conflict between the players during a single-ship combat, they may want to assign certain roles or stations to each of the characters at the beginning of combat. These roles are guidelines based on the Distant Horizons rules set still in development, but can be adapted for almost any game system.
Though the PHB claims that chapter 3 of the DMG provides rules for hunger, thirst, and other Endurance checks, there is no mention of any of them in the chapter.
I’ve made a lot of mention of environmental hazards and hazard ratings in the last few posts, and I thought today I’d make some time to explain them in greater detail. If any of you have viewed my lens on building a star system (which is in serious need of a re-write – working on it), you may already know what these are, but for the rest of you, here’s a better look.
So the other day I was looking over the blog and decided that I needed to do something about the serious lack of nice images – especially as I prepare some of the PDFs I’m planning to release in the near future. Not being a particularly patient artist (and not having one on staff), I suited myself up with the very best space gear $8 would buy and set out looking for some interesting science fiction themed venues in 
Here are the basic armors for Distant Horizons, my science fiction mod of D&D 4th edition. They’re fairly self-explanatory, if you’re familiar with the standard D&D armor rules. Science fiction armor enhancements are called Augmentations, and use the same pricing scale that magic armor uses in the Player’s Handbook. You may wish to borrow some types of 4th edition enchantments as Augmentations, but be sure that the bonuses given are in concert with the look and feel of your science fiction setting. Some sample Augmentations are given later in this post.
