This comes as something of a sad announcement for me. I've decided to scrap the 'for print' design specification for Scattershot. Being a 'serious' or 'professional' game designer has been something of a conceit with myself for some time now and in all honesty, my lifestyle can no longer support it.

A long time ago a teacher once told me I had so much going for me, I could do anything. Note; anything, not everything. It is time I choose what will be the central focus of my life (carreer-wise) for the next decade or so. I have many talent/skill areas, Computer Programming, Philosophic Thinking, Story Creation, Pen/Ink Drawing, Humor/Satire (I don't think there's anything funny about 'serious' game design), and Gamemastering (not necessarily in that order). Notice owning a business is not one of them.

I tend to tell people who insist I should take my humor on the stage that I am not any good in front of a crowd, but I'm great at making a handful of people laugh. That's always been my humility. Well, game design has sorta been a conceit towards creating a setting where I can dazzle a handful with my story creations (especially using my favorite, improvisation). I realize now that I have not been willing to be arrogant enough that I could actually succeed with my stories. I have had many focuses in my life, but in reality, what I do is change subjects whenever I get 'close' to committing. Well it's time I make a real commitment.

I've finally taken stock (and polled my family) of what I would really want to do with my life, if I were successful. Guess what lost? I've decided to devote my principal energies to producing an independant comic book (not a sell it to a publisher nor 'dump it on the market' product either). So instead of spending all those 'spare moments,' in the car, walking around, just before falling asleep, thinking about Scattershot's presentation; I'm gonna be thinking of my other passion Costumentality: The World Behind the Seams (a real-person superhero comic that takes a lot of the taken-for-granted aspects of the big names down a peg or two, with subtly and class¹).

What does this mean for Scattershot and my presence on the Forge? Well, first off, I'm going to stop trying to impress you people. No more long hours trying to craft the perfect presentation for an idea, before posting it. You're gonna get the stuff rough-cut and you're gonna like it! I'll still be here, probably as much as ever, but you won't see hardly any 'finished product' style pieces from me anymore; what your going to get is more of the design in-progress stuff and I'm going to be looking for more constructive input on how I should put or say things.

Scattershot, herself, is now due for a major redesign. No more licensed product ideas, now it's going to be fully web-accessible; and it's all going to be free. I'm going to have to break the whole thing down into downloadable chunks and I'm not sure how to do that yet, but I hope you'all can help. (As soon as I sort out the 'they never gave me a password when they sold my registrar out' hassle and get scattershotgames.com fully over onto Cedant, maybe we can get something started.)

I know that this won't derive huge amounts of sympathy, but I just wanted you to know the product of a great deal of soul-searching I've been doing lately. Wish me luck and I'll see you soon.

Fang Langford

¹ One of my favorite jokes from the first issue:

Elaine: "I hope he isn't hurt!"

Rissa: "We're only on the second story; one time he fell off the Praetorian.²"

Elaine: "The Praetorian² isn't that tall."

Rissa: "He was flying at the time."

² The Praetorian is our mark for Superman, wait 'til you see all the 'power corrupts' issues we address.

Best of luck with your choices. =)

Joe.

Fang,

I'll post this publically rather than a private message as I'm sure there are others like me out there . . .

I've been a major lurker in the Scattershot discussions, mostly because (to me) there was just enough detail that participating fully would involve a fair amount of work, but not quite enough to be sure of exactly what we would be talking about. But I've found it all very valuable.

As far as I can tell, your decision makes sense to you. That it also makes sense to me means (and SHOULD mean) little, but for what it's worth, I can and do sympathize with how difficult such choices can be.

I'll only add - what we abandon now is not neccessarily abandoned forever. You have to be comfortable with the thought that it way well be gone forever, but . . . well, that's it. Best of luck, and I look forward to whatever we do see of Scattershot.

Gordon

Hey,

As I've said to many folks in the past, all I care about is whether a playable version of a game is available in some form.

It sounds to me as if your previous plans or images (self-image?) were beyond reasonable expectations, which can only be a personal decision (and thus respected as such). Therefore, your conclusion is not only appreciated by me, but welcomed. It means we get a playable version of Scattershot, which is all I've wanted, all along.

Best,
Ron