Scribbles and Horrors

Long overdo for the Scribbles and Horrors blog is a detailed writeup of Redux timekeeping. Unfortunately, this will continue to wait until I can find time to write it correctly. For this post though you should know that I divide play up into 3-month seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.

Beginning October 2025 I ran three seasons of Redux weekly. It was great fun and I learned a lot, but by the end I was becoming overwhelmed with a towering backlog of prep and recordkeeping. Ultimately, I simply could not keep up with the homework I had assigned myself to run the show. The biggest worries Records Requests, Session Reports, and NPC Correspondence, but also there were many little systems and stocking which I kept not getting around to. I found it very hard to focus on the campaign at all except when I was literally at the table playing it. For these reasons I made the (good, correct) choice of taking Summer 1026 off (corresponding to summer 2026), and I have some new thoughts about how I want the referee-solitary aspects of Redux to work.

Preparation work takes a long time. I can draw maps fairly quickly, but filling the spaces with things is a bit, creatively, like cultivating mold in the refrigerator. In spurts and startles whole levels will be filled bursting, while others stay empty for a long time. The best approach, for me, is to let dungeons key themselves at their own pace.

What emphatically does not work for me is attempting to key a dungeon the week or night before a session is supposed to go down into it. Frankly I prefer going in entirely blind, making things up at the table itself. I am simply not very good at doing homework.

In effect, the work I set out for myself in Redux operates on two different timescales: the week-to-week playing with my friends going on dungeon adventures, and the month-by-month creeping development of place.

So I’m trying something new: I’m splitting up my refereeing job into two parts. During an active Redux expeditioning season I will run a series of scheduled sessions, writing sessions reports and keeping up with note-keeping. However, I will do my best to keep Redux “in the box” whenever a session isn’t actually taking place. I won’t do any kind of preparing other than what I already have; I won’t add treasure, I won’t write up NPCs, I won’t tinker with systems and sub-systems. I’m just going to show up to the session, open the box, play, close the box. All my D&D energy will be focused on play and session reports as documentation of play.

During inactive expeditioning seasons, where no sessions are scheduled, I can return to prep again. I can fulfill records requests, revise my rules, draw and write, etc.

The strict bifurcation may very well end up being an entirely foolish idea, I can see a few potential problems with it. But, I will try it. See how it goes.