When I originally concocted the name New Big Dragon, it was just after Chinese New Year in the year 2000, the beginning of a Year of the Dragon. New Big Dragon was conceived originally as more of a branding company, but with a general eye on any and all forms of media, so we (myself and my original biz partner) wanted something that sounded more like a movie production company than ad agency. I just thought it sounded cool, and I was "influenced" by the name of a fairly well-known Chinese restaurant in Dallas named New Big Wong. Obviously, the operators at the phone company thought it sounded like a restaurant too, as we would occasionally get calls for persons wishing to make a delivery order.
Traditional Chinese belief states that businesses begun in a Year of the Dragon are more inclined to succeed, particularly if they are named after the Dragon as well. Furthermore, they are said to be additionally lucky in succeeding dragon years (the next one begins in 23 days.) As business goes, the name has had its good years and bad years, and its active years and dormant years. Now I use the name for most of my personal media endeavors, mostly including video/documentary work, short films, the typography book I'm authoring, and the gaming endeavors.
While the origins of the name came from the Chinese traditions and influences (and not the gaming origins one might expect 'round these parts), that doesn't change the fact that I'm a native-born Cajun, a transplant to Texas, a Catholic, and a citizen of the U.S. of A. and, therefore, am undeniably tied to the Gregorian calendar. And since most of my self-improvement resolutions are generally tied to Lent, I prefer to use New Year's as a time for goal-setting-centric resolutions. So with that in mind, I present to you my New Big Dragon Games goal-centric resolutions for the Year of Our Lord 2012...
1) Publish 1 "substantial" item ever 2 months.
I'm thinking (at the least) manuals here, not one-off single-page charts and the like (I'm averaging 1 of those a week right now.) These do not have to be "started new in 2012" items and, in some cases, may date back a dozen or more years to their inception/origin. Also, that's an "average" per the calendar year. As of this post, my planned releases (in most likely order) are:
• the d30 DM Companion
• the Dungeon Crawl Workbook
• Module SK1: The Mysterious Mist of Foxpond
• Starmasters Book I: Characters and Combat (Beta Edition)
• a Oe "lookalike" edition of a particular public domain work (decided, but TBA)
• the d30 DM Companion: Wilderness Edition
2) Add a "New Monster of the Week" feature
I feel like I keep a pretty good schedule of posts, so I'm not looking to increase my number of posts particularly, just add another "focused" feature that has some anthology potential. I've been pretty good about my Illustration of the Week and weekly d30 feature, and have posted a few new monsters. I'd just like to step it up; I feel like increased pressure from these kinds of things keeps me creatively challenged and leads me to interesting concepts I wouldn't find otherwise.
3) Get to know a few of you in person!
Between the Skyped Starmasters playtests, the physical distance between many of us, and my rare-to-nonexistent presence at any kind of cons/meetups, this may seem the hardest goal of the bunch. But I'm planning on at least attending this year's North Texas RPG Con. So maybe that will change.
May all of you, no matter where you are or which calendar you follow, have a blessed new year, and thanks for reading!
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