Every week, Recall Knowledge recaps the Know Direction content of the past week, a preview of the Know Direction content of the week to come, and the director of operations, Ryan Costello, thoughts on the state of the network.
*yawn*
Morning.
Sorry, I was up till 1:30am editing Adventurous. This capped off a busier than usual week of Network work for me, which culminated with this episode in more ways than one.
If you’ve listened to the episode, we have a new sponsor on the network: Beadle & Grimm’s Complete Character Chronicle. We had Beadle and Grimm themselves, Matthew Lillard and Bill Rehor on the last episode of Know Direction, which lead to the Beadle & Grimm’s T-Shirt Giveaway contest we’re running, and that lead to this advertising opportunity.
To be honest, last week nearly burnt me out. Sensing my stress increasing, I did something about it. I considered saying “short editorial this week” and leave it at that, but I prefer transparency. Hopefully laying out how I managed it can provide some tips for you all in similar situations.
I have a big freelance project that’s taking up my free time. It’s exciting, but it’s a lot. Together, Tina and I worked out how this affects our family time. However, last week Tina needed to work late a few nights. I was in charge of the girls, which is fine by me. It meant I couldn’t write, or respond to e-mails about the ad, but family time is a fine trade-off. Likewise, I could have called it a night before Tina got home, but I would rather push it a little and spend some time with her watching a The Expanse. What I lost in sleep I gain in time spent with my best friend. It was still truncated time, though, and added to the micromanagement feel of my free time that was at the heart of the stress. So I tried to get in front of it.
First, I told the other Network board member. The board is a small selection of Know Direction staff that helps run the daily happenings, plan long term projects, and bounce ideas off each other. I let them know that I was feeling overwhelmed and to reach out to me if they see me missing responsibilities. That’s a huge deal for me: nothing would have the opposite than intended affect on my stress than saying it’s OK, or making excuses for me.
Next, I tried to see what I could take off my plate. That started with missing out on a chance to play video games with Perram as a Geek Together. Which is unfortunate, because as much as Perram and I talk and do stuff together, we rarely just hang out.
Unfortunately, the other items that would have been easiest to take off my plate had to stay there. And taking other items off my plate would have taken as much effort as dealing with them. So I tackled them one at a time. It meant most of my family time this weekend was house cleaning, and my freelance work did not advance as much as I’d have liked, but I edited and posted the latest Patron’s Private Sanctum, Adventurous is out on schedule, ad and all, the guests for the next Bend The Knee have their prompt and due date, and this week’s Know Direction is all set.
Speaking of Know Direction content, here’s a recap of what you might have missed last week from the Know Direction Network:
Recap of November 9th to November 13th
What happened last week on knowdirectionpodcast.com and twitch.tv/knowdirection?
Monday, November 9th
Podcast
Adventurous 047 – More Spiders
Wait… There was an Adventurous week? I didn’t need to get one out today?
Wow. I just… wow. Well, enjoy two Adventurous episodes in a row. I’m going to get a latte.
Article
Recall Knowledge – November 2nd to November 13th
I talked about the origin of the Beadle & Grimm’s T-Shirt Giveaway.
CONTEST – Beadle & Grimm’s T-Shirt Giveaway
The Beadle & Grimm’s T-Shirt Giveaway I was just talking about.
Tuesday, November 10th
Podcast
This lively class feature had a different tone than those that came before. Loren is a fan of the champion in theory, but strongly dislikes the alignment restrictions. A lot of the discussion revolved around the alignments, and Loren’s position “where’s my neutral champion?”
Article
Fox’s Cunning – Miniatures Streaming Cameras
By Dustin Knight
Dustin compares the different digital cameras he has and how they measure up for photographing miniatures.
Wednesday, November 11th
Podcast
Jeremy Corff is in the rare club of freelancers who have worked for Paizo as both an author and an illustrator. A highlight of the episode was how visuals influence his writing and rules influence his art.
Article
Guidance: Engagement with My Teenaged Wasteland
By Alex Augunas
Alex makes an interesting case for how the setting of your campaign is as important as the plot early on. Afterall, why are the PCs fighting if the status isn’t worth fighting for?
Thursday, November 12th
Podcast
Valiant Episode 4: In Which They Clean Up The Mine
There’s a construct between our heroes and their loot. A construct named Langley.
One feature of a Valiant episode that I appreciate are the Luis asides. In this episode, he talks a bit about how he is plotting out this campaign, in large and small chunks.
Article
Investing In: Character Building
by Rob Pontious
Rob talks about his most recent session 0. It reminded me of how my long running groups organically came up with the idea that years later would get the name session 0. I don’t know if it was in the gamer zeitgeist, if it came from an outside influence, or if there’s one specific source that can be credited for the idea, but I appreciate that session 0s exist and have become mainstream.
Friday, November 13th
Article
Monstrous Physique — Little Mac (PF2E)
By Luis Loza
I want to see the campaign where a party of PCs based on Soda Popinski, Mr Dream, Glass Joe, and King Hippo have a boss fight with Little Mac.
Preview of November 16th to November 21st
This week is Block 2 of our 2-block schedule.
Monday, November 16th
Podcast
Article
Recall Knowledge (available now)
Tuesday, November 17th
Podcast
Digital Divination with John and Ron
Article
Burst of Insight by Andrew Marlowe
Wednesday, November 18th
Twitch
Know Direction 237 Live – Converting Adventures to Pathfinder 2e
Rick Sandidge and Ross Scoggin of Find The Path join Ryan and Perram to talk about updating Pathfinder 1e adventures to Pathfinder 2e rules. Plus, there will be unboxings!
Article
Phantasmal Killer by Crystal Frasier
Thursday, November 19th
Podcast
Know Direction 237 – Converting Adventures to Pathfinder 2e
Article
Something Creates by Andrew Sturtevant
Friday, November 20th
Podcast
Article
Bend The Knee by Loren Sieg
Saturday, November 21st
Game Design Unboxed 002
Now you know,
Ryan Costello