Re-learning to GM

I have't GM'd a regular game in years. I used to be pretty decent, though I'd never say great. Over the years, my style and game quality have declined. It's time to get back to the basics.

The plan for now is to start with a small shanty-esque town outside a larger city. The scene begins with the players having been kicked out of the larger city for one reason or another (perhaps to be determined by the players themselves), leaving us with a smaller city area for them to role-play in. In the shanty-town there will be one developed NPC who offers the PC's a job in a simple dungeon, either simply for pay or in exchange for the means of getting back into the city. The means, of course, may or may not involve additional work/adventures to come to fruition.

The Reflection in the Jewel

Maybe I'm behind the times, perhaps you've already seen this. But if not, it's fascinating! Grab your D&D 3.5 player's manual (I know you've got one. If not, head to your local gaming store and check it out there) . . . anyway, grab your manual, turn it upside down and look at the yellow jewel in the (now) top left corner (it'll be the bottom right corner if held right-way up).

Designer's Block: Solution 1

Yesterday I wrote briefly about Designer's Block and wondered at whether it could be resolved with some of the same solutions available when dealing with Writer's Block. The answer is a resounding Yes. I tried unfiltered writing, that is, I just jotted down every option that came to mind without trying to figure out how each one would work, and then when I finished/ran out of time went back later to add mechanics to what I'd written and it worked beautifully. I had 9 deities to assign clerical powers for and now have only 3 to do, after less than an hour of brainstorming.

I don't think I'm going to meet my arbitrary Year's End deadline for having Renaissance ready for Beta testing, but it won't be long after.

Also, the title of this post is "...Solution 1". I may or may not post additional solutions as I come across them so be on the look out for those. And, naturally, if you have any solutions of your own for Designer's Block, please share them in the comments below!

Designer's Block

There are things I'm good at designing and thinking about, and things I'm not. Some of these things are consistent while others fluctuate. I can almost always come up with a new way to do a magic system. Actually sitting down and building spell lists though, that's when I get bogged down. Right now progress on Renaissance has crawled to a stop because the remaining tasks are either time intensive (reading the whole of the book, building an index, etc.) and I don't have time for that, or because I have designer's block. It's just what it sounds like. It's like writer's block, only for designing. I need to create lists of Divine Powers (clerical spells, basically) for about 8 or 9 deities still and I'm just stuck. Perhaps some of the tricks for resolving writer's block will work here too.

Testing Materials

I am perhaps jumping the gun on this article a bit, since it depends slightly on a concept I haven't discussed yet. The concept is that all game systems are capable of being converted into any other system. That being said, I wanted to talk briefly about a great source of testing materials for the designer with limited time: Published adventures.

Miscellanea Creep

I thought I was making great progress towards finishing by the end of the year but the "read throughs" of my notes are taking longer than anticipated, lots of stuff to add because of them. Plus, I keep adding things to the list that I had put aside when writing. Formatting stuff, mostly, like making a concise list of character Backgrounds, a concise list of Races and one for Spells. Supernatural Attributes etc. are essentially done but I need to build a few Supernatural Powers as examples.

Secession: Comments and Gaming

In case you weren't aware, there's been a lot of talk about secession from every state in the United States this last week or so. Except it hasn't been the States, officially, just citizens of the states. I wanted to take a moment to comment on that and also look at the inspiration this can offer for GM's because, after all, everything in life is relatable to role-playing and vice versa.