Hey gang.

I was pleasantly surprised by the response to this week’s comics, and figured I’d ramble a bit.

I’ve known since the beginning that I wanted Clockworks to be a mix of action, humor, drama, mystery, etc etc.  I wasn’t sure how well I’d pull it off or how exactly things would play out, but I had a pretty good idea of the range of tones and scenes I wanted to include.

Even though I knew what was going to happen, I don’t think I really planned on having a comic that was made up entirely of telegrams, or another strip that had a sketchy, bloody flashback of a guy we’ve never seen before and never will again.  (Well, he gets a mention in Tuesday’s comic, and the black heartturtle may show up again )  I think that the comic has gone in some directions that are pretty interesting and hopefully a bit surprising.  And we’re still early.  The comic is only about 1/8th or so along, and there are many more twists and diversions ahead.

I’m a bit curious to hear from you guys.  When you read the first strips, what did you expect the series would be like?  In what ways has the comic surprised you, or heck, in what ways has the comic not met your expectations?  Feel free to comment away.

I figured I’d ramble a bit about the music that gets played when I’m making the comic and when I’m running Clockworks: the Home Game.  I listen to a LOT of music.  Pretty much all day while doing anything I like to have music playing.  Gaming and making the comic are no exceptions.

The Home Game:

I use a background soundtrack.  Thanks to the magic of iTunes I’ve actually gone fairly nuts.  The folder of Clockworks playlists in my iTunes has 6 days worth of music, split up in to over twenty playlists including: Clockworks, Clockworks Action, Clockworks Clorencia, Clockworks Creepy, Clockworks Free Islands, Clockworks Irone, Clockworks Mellow, Clockworks Monsters, Clockworks Rookery, Clockworks Sacred, Clockworks Stealth, Clockworks Tsuankotal, Clockworks Upper Clorencia, Clockworks Villages, Clockworks World Map, Clockworks Ending.

What can I say? I went a little overboard.

Every session begins with the theme song.  I’m actually a big fan of doing this, and even for games that have less excessive music selections, I always try to have a theme song.  It’s a nice auditory cue to your players that “Chatting about Warcrack and whatever new movies came out this week and how much beer you drank last night” time is over, and it’s time to get down to pretending to be an elf.  Clockworks’ theme song is Will You Follow Me? by Rob Dougan.  It sounds a lot like this:

As for the rest of the in game music, I’m not going to list all of the artists or albums for obvious reasons, but here’s a basic rundown:

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