A to Z Reflections

Once again, I managed to complete the A to Z Challenge! I know there is a section of the blogging community that doesn't really care for the challenge, and I get it. Depending on the theme, it can be really, really, repetitive and dull, which is why I try to make my challenge as much about creating something that might actually see some use at a table, rather than just... editorials or navel gazing. Back in 2012 it was magic items and spells. 2013 was monsters. This year I wrote up a sector's worth of star systems to explore.

I got a later start on the project than I'd planned, mostly because Strange New Worlds wasn't my initial theme. Originally, back in February, I'd planned on writing up some NPCs, and had settled on a traveling carnival/circus. And while I still think it's a great idea, trying to shoehorn it into the A to Z Challenge just didn't feel right. So I went looking for something else, rather listlessly truth be told. For a while I seriously considered skipping it this year, but my name was already on the list.

I ended up rewatching some Star Trek in March, just a couple of episodes of DS9, but it was enough to plant the seed, and thus the theme for this year's challenge sprouted.

Like I said last week, I'd wanted to get a map of the sector ready for the challenge, but I didn't want it to be a crappy hand drawn map. I've spent some time playing with GIMP, and I think I should be able to do at least a sector map, if not individual system maps for the PDF, which I want to get out by the end of the month.

Unlike last year, I did manage to visit a number of blogs participating in the challenge, and found a few I'll be adding to my RSS feed. I also had a fair number of new visitors, but I'm not sure it was as many as in previous years. I did gain some new followers though!

That wraps up the A to Z Challenge for this year. Look for the PDF in a couple of weeks.