Ok, the fact that you made it this far means you are actually interested in what I am planning for 2017. After all the looking back I’ve done in the last couple of weeks, it’s time to look forward, and try to figure out what I’m going to try to accomplish in the coming year.
Prototype and Playtest a Game/Mod
This year, I want to be a bit more ambitious with my game design project. This goal isn’t just about doing a print-and-play game (though I do plan to finish Dune), it’s about getting a prototype of a game (even if it’s in the early stages) on the table for playtesting.
Specifically, I want to have enough of a rules outline and some low-fidelity components that it’s worth playing with someone else as a systems test for a completely new game. This isn’t going to be flashy, but it should help get some of the ideas out of my head.
Alternately, I have three game mods I want to playtest, (1) Eclipse: Ships of the Line, (2) Egregore and the Cult of Orgoth (for WARMACHINE), or (3) Chrononauts: Reverse Causation. My alternate goal is to playtest two game mods – either one of these three, or something completely different.
Play Through a Campaign
I have a lot of board games that involve a campaign mode – Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, Arkham Horror (both the board game and LCG), Kingdom Death: Monster, Myth, and Fireteam Zero – just to name some of the more prominent ones on my shelf. For most of them, I haven’t come close to finishing a campaign yet. My goal is to start and finish a campaign in 2017.
This is going to be somewhat difficult if I have to rely on other people, so I’m removing that requirement. This means that I may play through a campaign completely by myself, or others may come and go as they please. I may try something to record or blog about the experience, but I’m not sure yet – I’ll have to see how it goes.
Assembly Backlog
As has become something of a theme, I have a bunch of models from 2016 that I want to assemble in 2017. First and foremost in this list is the Kingdom Death: Monster characters and monsters. I’m not promising to build all the armor sets out this year, but I do want to get at least the named characters, nemeses, and monsters done.
Next, and almost as high priority, are my Tau. I also want to have these fully painted in their colors by the end of the year so that I can have a second fully-painted army. As an aside, I am also setting a goal to have more walkers on the table for this year’s Thanksgiving Apocalypse than I had last year (13 is the number to beat). We’ll see how it pans out, but I’m hoping for two more dreadnoughts and a defiler.
After that, I’ve got some Kurak Alliance buildup to assemble and more Aquans to paint. Along with this, I’m also going to try to get my Terquai painted.
Then, I’ve got just a few Warmachine models to finish assembling from this year. I want to finish my Ghordson Earthbreaker, and assemble my three new Khador warjack kits.
Finally, I have a bunch of Mercs models to put together. My goal is to get the USCR and one other Mercs team together. There are a lot more I could put together, but I’ll be taking this one a bit slower.
Read Some Numerical Analysis Content
This year, I want to ease myself back into doing more numerical analysis. I have a handful of books on numerical optimization and nonlinear systems, so I want to either read through one or at least read enough to get me back in to the topic. I may also try to dive into a paper on the subject if the opportunity presents itself.
War Game List/Card Game Deck Posting Tool
To help make posting about my ongoing games, I’d like to have some tool that helps me create snazzy HTML/graphics for my war game lists and matches, or my card game decks (like Netrunner or Lord of the Rings). I’ve had an idea in my head for this for a long time, but I’ve never really gotten around to actually implementing something – I’d like to give this a shot in 2017.
Doctor/Dentist
Last, but not least, I want to make an appointment with my doctor and with a dentist for a yearly checkup/cleaning. I’ve always struggled with this as I never feel like I need to go to the doctor or dentist, so even a yearly checkup is a struggle to fit into my schedule. As part of this goal, I also want to make sure that I schedule my next checkup as well, if that’s possible.