Damn 80%!

It's amazing how much I've changed from 20 years ago, heck even 10 years ago. When it came to school or college, I was never much of a perfectionist when it came to getting good marks. If I passed, I was happy. I think that had more to do with what I was studying at the time. High school was, well, high school. The Microcomputer Management program, at MacEwan, wasn't my calling. And neither was the programming course at NAIT. It was challenging, yes, but it left me cold. I needed more. I needed a chance to write. To thrive. To create. The classes I'm taking now are allowing me to do that. Therefore, when I only get a mark of 80% on an assignment it really bugs me. I don't want marks below 90%. 90+ is exceling. Below that is second best for me now. It's amazing how much I've changed.

Magazine Writing: Letter Assignment

This is my second assignment for my Magazine Writing night class. My mark wasn't as good for this one as for the first one. The assignment was a query letter for an article pitch for KQ Quarterly...
________________________________

Wolfgang Baur
Kobold Quarterly
P.O. Box 2811
Kirkland, WA 98083

Mr. Baur,

Inspiration is a funny thing. It can strike when you least expect it. Gaming has been my life for so long that I've often misplaced campaign ideas in my own mind. Take, for example, one faithful day more than eight years ago when I was going through several containers of old floppy disks and rediscovered an old roleplaying world that was my first Dungeons and Dragons setting when I was a teenager.

The Islands of Malecade, as it was called then, was little more than a collection of maps, character ideas, and short lived campaigns. It had little cohesion overall and grew to become a huge setting (and mess) that I renamed Warped World. I had little choice but to shelf it and move on to create a new world (Kulan), yet Malecade remained in the back of my mind, fondly, even with all its faults. Therefore, inspiration bloomed upon its rediscovery and the world once again became alive – reborn as Time of Ages.

This rebirth took the core driving force of the campaign, an artifact called The Heart of the World (a magical bridge-divinity of time and space), and used it to create a unique back story for the world and its three primary races – the tigé, the trooda, and the teres. These three races would become the Children of the World – linked together by their devotion to the Heart of the World and the trials they would face in the Ages to come.

I propose a 3,000 word feature article that describes in detail the Children of the World and their combined history. The article would focus on each race's society and religion as well as each race's view on temporal magic and steamcraft technology. The article will provide racial traits for each race as well as new feats and class options designed specifically for the Children of the World.

I can also include a short overview of the campaign world, if requested, which has both steampunk and clockwork facets to its design. The universe that Time of Ages is set in can be best described as steampunk-in-space. However, such additions could be separate feature articles.

If you wish to view some of my game design work then I suggest you visit my roleplaying wiki, Walk the Road (http://walktheroad.wikispaces.com/). The site has a section for Time of Ages, which details part of the campaign's structure as well as Campaign Cartographer map for the world. You can also find a short list of my roleplaying game credits at the Pen & Paper RPG Database (http://www.pen-paper.net/).

Thank you for considering my query.

Regards,
Robert Blezard
rblezard@telusplanet.net