Motivation can fill an idea graveyard....

For me, Motivation has always been the killer. To start something only to never fully complete it. I have had countless ideas over the years, always with the aspiration of becoming a published author. In this day and age though, you need the passion to drive you and while I don't do this in the hopes of becoming a rich and famous author, I have a passion for writing, and the dour water of motivation has put out my fire numerous times.

I have had amazing and tremendous support also from my wife, Krystal, who is a continual source of inspiration and motivation to keep bettering my writing. Krystal is my soul mate and kindred spirit in writing. I am hoping that by my motivation, it will lead to her further prose, as her imagination and depth of character put me to shame. I am forever going over my work and in my mind thinking "how would Krystal put it?" I hope that this end product will make her proud.

From a chance encounter with an awesome individual at the local gaming store, Oliver R Shead, and discovering that he not only had the passion but also the will and drive to push forward with his idea of the Infected game, to the point of running a successful Kickstarter (no small feat in and of itself) to have a full color hardbound core rule book published impressed me no end.

To be in the store where the author of the actual book was on sale for me was like meeting a real life celebrity! Due to that encounter it has inspired me to resurrect an idea spawned sixteen years ago, when I myself was running a second hand game store. With no customers (and no passing traffic), I had countless hours while open to fill. So I filled them with writing. This was done on MS Word, on the Shops computer no less (Shh! Don't tell the boss! :) That was me, by the way). After weeks of writing, I had produced a fully functioning tabletop RPG. Back then I called it Battleforce 2020 (fun fact, possibly as I was inspired by the great Cyberpunk 2020 RPG system, and for me, back in the year 2000, 20 years away seemed to be the far flung future. Now though, 2020 is only 3 years away, so I renamed it Battleforce Chronicles (having a year on a game now I feel dates it, so this will be relevant, now and in ten years time!) Originally it was set on Earth, however, most are so to be different and unique, what happens when the Earth we knew goes the way of Krypton? (tm) That's not to say, all our player characters are going to be Superman (tm), but I decided a fresh new Galaxy was called for.

Since that first meeting with Oliver, the Motivation has been high, and after our second meeting, I have taken on board some suggestions of his and already have an artist looking into doing up my first galactic map for the setting to place all the planets, moons and give the setting a real feeling of 'presence".

I must thank Oliver for this, and put the word out there, that even after sixteen years, I still have the original hard copy of what I wrote (no files anymore unfortunately), but it is a testament that I kept it so long and never threw it away I even have a picture I drew through MS PAINT of a Rifle, which I remember took me A LONG time! I will scan and upload that picture in a future blog for nostalgia sake.. So now it is the time, I am now 15 thousand words into a new manuscript, and thanks to social media and the world of the internet (something that wasn't really around in the year 2000), now is the time for Battleforce to shine.

I hope that, by seeing my story of inspiration and motivation thanks to Oliver will go on and inspire or motivate others that were like me. I am here to help anyway I can, please feel free to drop me a line if you need help with anything, even if its a few kind words of encouragement can go a long way.

I look forward to sharing the experience with you, and hope at the end, you enjoy the setting as much as I have in creating it.

Also, if you have not yet checked out the awesome game "Infected!" by Oliver R Shead, you must! I have added a link to that page on this website too.

If it wasn't for Krystal and Oliver, I wouldn't be typing this.

Until then, say no to Motivation killers and keep that graveyard empty!

Kind regards,

Mark HAMILTON

Lead Designer - Battleforce Chronicles

1st December, 2016