Where does the time go?

I like noisms' "generalised lament" about the amount of time that he has to run/play games (and write about them as well) - obviously not the fact of the matter, but the situation resonates with me a lot. I wonder about how things are going to change when I become a dad in a few months time. Will I be able to play in a weekly game? (nevermind run one) At the moment I am barely able to run a LotFP campaign once a week; in principle I am taking part in noisms' excellent Pendragon of Mars campaign, but in reality I'm either away or busy. I've taken part in two sessions.

Ah well! I can sit here and weep for my lack of time or I can start to think, like noisms about the five games I would want to run or play:

• Chatting after games night yesterday I realised that I would love to play some more Cyberpunk; I really enjoyed the game that we played about eighteen months ago in alternate Soviet Cyberpool.
• Apocalypse World. I'd love to play it, I'd particularly love to run it (I was hoping to run it for my nephew and his friends this summer, but think I will be too short on time).
• I've read a lot about Monsterhearts in the last few months and it really intrigues me... I might have to pick it up soon...
• Avarice Industries is an RPG that I supported on Kickstarter. It's a bit Cyberpunk-y with the twist that the big corporations (one of which the players work for) have technology that creates anything. You can ride a dinosaur to work or have a bag with dimensional pockets. Big Problem: it was due in April 2012, and it's still (as of July 2013) not here. I've had bits and pieces of pdfs but nothing playable... AP stuff that was shared looks really interesting.
• Homebrew Dogs In The Vineyard in modern day setting with zombies. I bloody loved running Dogs, we played about five sessions and it was a joy to prepare for and play. While playing it I was struck with the idea of the Dogs being able to do what they do because they have the final say about what is right and wrong (by virtue of being Followers of the King of Life). I think this kind of theme could transfer well in a zombie game; people acting as they will because there are no courts or authorities to say otherwise. I act, therefore I'm right. Started making some notes about this some time ago and tagged them with "zombies".

It's Camp Nanowrimo month and so I'm spending time writing 31,000 words about games and game resources. So hopefully, like noisms, I will find my 30 minutes a day to connect with a hobby...

Writing Camp

I make notes of things all the time. Half-thoughts, stray notions and little "I wonder..." moments go in to journals, on to scraps of paper, and more often now get captured by Google Keep. I keep saying that I will make time to develop these further, but always find reasons/excuses not to.

So in July I am going to use the framework of Camp NaNoWriMo to make something of these ideas. I've set a goal of 31,000 words of material: 1,000 words per day. I'm not sure if I will be able to write that every day, but averaged across the month I hope to produce some (at least) half-polished pieces.

My aim at the moment is to create/polish:

• A series of useful/interesting random tables, encounters, creatures and items for old school style games.
• At least two nano-games that I have been sketching ideas for while I was on holiday recently; these have the working titles "Crash Land" and "Blood Bank Heist".
• "Die Hard in a Wizard's Tower" - taking it from the notes that I have at the moment to a scenario.

I might also ask people on G+ for challenges! My goal with all of this is to try and develop a writing habit again. I have that more or less when it comes to the professional writing that I do, but want to do more in RPG writing. Maybe this will help.

Stay tuned...