Well, somehow, a month has gone by and I don't really have anything to show for it, game design-wise. I wish I had more to show for it, but all I've really got are lots of odds and ends. I stopped working on one project, started working on another, put that one down for a little while, then started on yet another.. Then put that one down and revisited an older project after my friends expressed interest and offered input on the ideas I was laying out. I am particularly invigorated by the feedback from my friends in particular because they are my playtest group and they are the people I want to make games for and then run those games for.
I wouldn't quite say they are my inspiration or anything sappy like that, although they are an astoundingly potent resource for bouncing ideas around with. Something about explaining my ideas to them just makes me think so much more clearly and makes the end goal of a completed game seem so much more feasible. Fortunately, I'm looking forward to more discussions like those in the future for a couple reasons. Firstly, we finished our first ever Fantasy Craft campaign after a year and a half and we are currently between games, giving me a good excuse to get some of my projects playable and ready for playtest. Secondly, they've been wanting me to finish a game for a while now and that's just even more reason to get off my ass and finish something.
As an aside, that Fantasy Craft game was amazing in so many ways. I learned a whole lot and really refined my GMing skills quite a bit. I feel like I got a good handle on how to properly control and condition the sort of behavior out of my players through a careful system of rewards and acknowledgments. I'd describe it as learning how to say "yes" to everything.. But that's a post for another time.
Also, at some point I may record a series of videos retelling the story of our Fantasy Craft sessions and the things that happened. Partly to preserve the memories and partly because it was just a really fantastic campaign all around.
Anyways, rewinding a bit to where I was talking about shelving and revisiting projects then shelving and starting again. It's part of my creative process and I can attest to it allowing me to refine and perfect ideas that would have been piss poor otherwise. However, there is another component that is less positive and good for the creative juices. You see, when I sit down to write something, I feel like I have all the mechanics and ideas and everything lined up, but then I get hung up on how to best arrange them or present them or explain them. All my gears get jammed up as I try to figure out the most professional way to outline these ideas.
The problem, as I understand it, is that I am not a technical writer. I fucking hate writing those "what is a roleplaying game?" sections as much as players hate reading them. In the process of trying to create something that could resemble a book, the idea of making a book just gives me a big nasty writer's block. So, in order to combat this, I've been trying some different techniques to get through this block, so I can more forward.
The first technique I've dubbed my 'Vulgar Draft', mostly because it's full of a lot of fucking swearing. I write most comfortably and my ideas flow most easily when I'm doing so conversationally, despite me being an antisocial misanthrope. It's one of those things that just activates the right parts of my brain in concert to give me the ability to properly convey ideas. In these vulgar drafts, I just try to write conversationally and that usually entails throwing a lot of swearing and cussing,
The second technique is a lot like the first, but tends to get a lot more done. It's writing straight from stream of consciousness. Just throwing it all out there and continuing to go until there's nothing left to type, or at least until inspiration dries up. The most important aspect of this technique is that you aren't supposed to stop, not to correct an error or change a sentence or to add punctuation. You just keep going and continuing until you can't go any more. This technique is also a little harder for me because it requires a certain kind of mood or condition to really get started.
In either case, I've going to be putting myself to work and attempting to get a roughly playable version of something out for the few of you to see. I may even advertise on other sites so people can purposely find this site, instead of just google image searching things and finding my Gunlance or my logo.
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