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April Update
2 years ago
I've been relatively slow at writing over the last two months since the release of "Wavebound Crusade". Currently about 13K words into a new LitRPG book but am otherwise unsure what to work on. I also did a few short stories sitting in an awkward Patreon backlog, and I have a new story commission to try. Did this one short story about a dark fantasy where people have had their souls devoured so that their loyalty to some strange cause is now their #1 defining identity.
One project has been several attempts to play an RPG as a single player, with note-taking along with the cards/dice. (That's how "Wavebound" began.) One such attempt took me through two books of the Pathfinder "Iron Gods" campaign and derailed its plot in a fun way. Being able to evade some of the obvious "kill everything in the way and move on" gameplay is fun. I did several games in original settings and am a bit stumped there. One is now about 4000 words of actual story text with hardly any rules notation. One is interesting but a mess of odd plot threads. The experience is fun but I keep thinking "I should be writing, or at least playing this in a way that's clearly easy to convert to a story".
I got to run two sessions of the RPG "Godbound" recently and enjoyed that. Having a martial-focused character in that game means that even an evil sorcerer isn't much of a threat, which forces adventure design that isn't about careful tactical map movement. I've been pushed to to GMing or playing these things exclusively online, since my local gamer community basically wants to play only D&D and never explore anything else. Online play can also be annoying given things like, "We're using a dice-rolling bot that literally displays some kind of political message every time you roll dice" -- I'll likely be told I can't play if I don't show my allegiance by using it.
What else to say... There's an audio edition of "The Rising World Company" now.
One project has been several attempts to play an RPG as a single player, with note-taking along with the cards/dice. (That's how "Wavebound" began.) One such attempt took me through two books of the Pathfinder "Iron Gods" campaign and derailed its plot in a fun way. Being able to evade some of the obvious "kill everything in the way and move on" gameplay is fun. I did several games in original settings and am a bit stumped there. One is now about 4000 words of actual story text with hardly any rules notation. One is interesting but a mess of odd plot threads. The experience is fun but I keep thinking "I should be writing, or at least playing this in a way that's clearly easy to convert to a story".
I got to run two sessions of the RPG "Godbound" recently and enjoyed that. Having a martial-focused character in that game means that even an evil sorcerer isn't much of a threat, which forces adventure design that isn't about careful tactical map movement. I've been pushed to to GMing or playing these things exclusively online, since my local gamer community basically wants to play only D&D and never explore anything else. Online play can also be annoying given things like, "We're using a dice-rolling bot that literally displays some kind of political message every time you roll dice" -- I'll likely be told I can't play if I don't show my allegiance by using it.
What else to say... There's an audio edition of "The Rising World Company" now.
I think that a journalling RPG is meant to be a single player TTRPG experience. Is that where you're getting them?
I've heard good things about a game called "Thousand Year Old Vampire" that's designed for solo play, but the subject matter doesn't interest me.
Have you looked into any of the stuff on itch.io? I've never tried a journaling game so I don't really know much about them.
I also liked "ALONE", a single-player system which is made by the same guy as these idea cards I like: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/produc.....e-Fantasy-Deck , though as the cards' supplemental PDFs explain, you can use the cards by themselves as a serviceable "system".
Probably going to try an adaptation of the Pathfinder "Hell's Rebels" campaign to Worlds Without Number, since I own books 1-3 of the campaign. Should be different from my experience with "Iron Gods", in which used the higher powered rules of "Godbound".
So I am trying to limit my spending on organizations like that, not that I can avoid it completely. Haven't been to a new movie since around 2019 for instance.
I recently joined Mastodon and there's been issues about that there, too. The thing is, Mastodon has a feature for "Content Warnings" where you can mark the subject matter so folks who don't want to see it don't have to. But others, they've been raising a huge stink over being expected to hide their important pet causes... Even that turns into politics!
There's also a lot of black-and-white moralizing these days, "If you're not with us, you're against us." and that sort of thing. You can't just say "I don't want to deal with this right now, I'm exhausted." or some folks will turn on you...
Itch.io is kinda one of a kind, but it's also a small business run by a handful of people with their own views and politics. Even when I do agree with stuff, I don't think anybody should have it shoved in their face on their relax time.
I'm pretty solid in my own politics but a lot of folks seem to be getting extreme and expecting extreme in kind, so anyone who is different isn't just disagreeing, they are litterally trying to kill you as you speak. It's a pretty scary way to look at the world. ^.^;;
There's also plenty of folks who don't believe anyone can change, as if we were all born with these ideas.
I do think it's something you shouldn't just have on blast in public, though. If nobody is currently dying in your immediate area, you have time to be polite. Not for the sake of tradition or manners, but because you might like the same in kind, and because most people won't listen to you otherwise, even if you're right. ^.^;;
I might support some of the causes you mentioned bothering you, but at the same time, I don't know if the people doing those charities are actually helping anybody with the money they raise. A lot of folks are out there trying to fleece ideologists, and as an ideologist I really need to be careful. I wish other ideologists were more careful! XD