Many moons ago, I started up a Substack thingy. It was a new and exciting way for me to get my little blog posts straight into your eager inboxes, and for me to delude myself into thinking you're reading them.
It was fun! I wrote about game design, what I'd been playing, and got all nostalgic about my dim and distant childhood, talking about toys and games, movies and TV series, that had a huge impact on me.
Well, Substack turned out to be a less-than-wholesome place to have your say, and a lot of creators I've followed on there have ditched their Substacks and migrated over to Patreon.
That's what I'm hoping to do. To return to the regular writing of the old Substack – it got me writing, kept me being creative, and kept me in touch with the world. And, just like the Substack, it's totally free. Just subscribe (at the Free level) and you'll get all of the blog posts as they arrive.
If you prefer, you can just keep reading on the old autocratik.com blog, but if you sign up to the Patreon you'll get notified when I actually get my act together and write something.
I'm just getting started, so we'll see about adding cool extras on there later, but for now, it's just great to have you on board.
Blogposts and Newsletters
Ah, the weekend. A strange time for me, as that creative urge still bubbles under the surface, but due to various restrictions I'm unable to do what I'd actually like to create. Instead, I stare into space, watch TV, and wonder what I'm doing with my life, and before you know it, it's Monday again and back to work.
However, I've started a Patreon-thingy, so that's a great excuse to write something. Almost like a newsletter combined with a blogpost, about what I've been pondering.
Stranger Things Rewatch and Splitting the Party
As many people have been doing recently, with the final season of Stranger Things looming next week, we've marathoned a rewatch of the previous four seasons to remind ourselves what happened. I worked out that the amount of times I've watched this series is proportional to the season number. Season 1 I've watched five times, season 2 four times, and so on. It's just great. Ticks all of the boxes of my sort of entertainment. Eighties nostalgia, kids on bikes playing D&D and saving the world, psychic powers, shady government agencies. I mean, what's not to love?
This time, I was struck by how well crafted the split narrative is done. In each season, but especially in the last two, they have such a wide range of characters all doing different things, but simultaneously, to work together to defeat the big bad. The narrative hops from one to the other at perfect moments to keep the tension high, and to ensure everyone has their moment.
For example, in the final episodes of Season 4, you have the characters split into various groups:
Hopper, Joyce, and Murray are in Russia, battling the demogorgon and various demodogs in the Russian prison camp which will weaken the big bad.
Eleven, Mike, Jonathan, Will (and, I guess, Argyle) are working to get Eleven back to Hawkins, determine they can't get back in time, and craft a way to aid Eleven to project herself through the void and help Max.
Max, Lucas, and Erica are in the Creel house, hoping to lure 'Number 1' to attack Max.
Steve, Nancy, and Robin are in the Creel house in the Upside-Down hoping to attack Vecna while he's distracted attacking Max.
Eddie and Dustin are in the Upside-Down distracting Vecna's demobats to allow Steve, Nancy, and Robin safe passage into the Creel house.
So you have five groups, often miles apart, all working to the same purpose. It's a veritable masterclass in writing multiple plotlines and ensuring a huge cast of characters all have their part. Especially brilliant how they cross two of those groups over for the climatic fight, as Max teams up with Eleven in the weird dreamscapes to face Vecna - while the rest of their group has little to do (except let Mike have a dramatic speech to give Eleven strength), their group's time is taken by Max and Eleven as a team.
It got me thinking about how this is very doable in your tabletop game, hopping from one player to the next, splitting the party, but ensuring that they are all working together to the same end, and making sure no one gets bored.
I know it's supposed to make you want to play D&D, but I'm sorry, my rewatch of Stranger Things just made me miss the old Tales from the Loop game we played. I haven't looked into the new D&D Starter Set, but I don't think it covers the teens running around Hawkins, focusing more on Eddie's D&D game.
The Meet of Dragons (aka, Dragonmeet)
Next week is Dragonmeet! At the Excel Centre in London, this is quite a move away from the Novotel Hotel. A LOT bigger, more stands, more people, and early report say that it's going to be pretty packed. It's exciting stuff, and hopefully (if we can negotiate the rail replacement service - typical) we should be there and wandering around aimlessly, looking bewildered and confused as always.
If you see me, stop me and say hi, though it may take me a second to register who you are. I'm terrible at faces/names.
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I'm sure there was more I wanted to say, but I've forgotten. Next week, I'm sure I'll have more to share about how Dragonmeet goes.
Until then, stay multiclassy!
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