Greetings!

And welcome to the website of Jimmy Chattin, senior software engineer, science fiction writer, orator, and just about a little of everything else.

Interested in a C# programmer who’s worked for the likes of Microsoft and Aristocrat (#1 video slot maker)? Checkout LinkedIn.

Want to read some original stories and fan fiction (for practice, of course!)? Those posts are coming to this website.

Need something written or a voice that’s been described as “butter”? Reach out on the Contact page or my podcasts (start with #1).

Old posts can also be found at Make Better Games, where there’s mainly talk about goals and a few games.

Explore.  Take a look around.  We’ll talk in a bit.

Cast 02 – RPG Systems

Download for the road. (11m 38s)

To follow-up on last week’s cast, here I am discussing the finer points of what I’ve learned about tabletop role playing games, and what I mean to do about it:

  • Faster prep
  • Faster play
  • Faster narrative escalation

I talk about “clocks” at one point. These are those:

Image of narrative clocks from Kevin Whitaker.

 

Cast 01 – Better With Jimmy Chattin

Download for the road.

As promised, a podcast! We’re covering why I’m doing this podcast and the other goals I’ve set out to complete for the month of November.

Here’s Jenna Moreci on goal setting as mentioned in the cast.

Hit me up with your feedback and questions. I will touch base with you on what you bring to the table! Until then, I’m off to determine what to talk about next week…

Monthly Goals – November 2019

I’m itching to do more with tabletop (TT) RPGs. I also want to write. After some self-analysis for my career, getting myself out in the open more is also a prerequisite to my success.

With these things in mind, I present to you, my goals:

My Goals Due EOM:

  1. Podcast
    1. 15 minutes, every week. I’ve struggled with how to shoehorn myself into what to talk about. The solution seems to be to talk about these goals and what’s on my mind. What could be better than me talking about making things better?
  2. TTRPG
    1. More tabletop role playing games! Play a TTRPG, draft a complete TTRPG system, and give myself kudos for publishing my TTRPG notes and/or playtesting the TTRPG.
  3. Redirect Shallow Seas
    1. Shallow Seas takes direct inspiration from Star Wars. I’ve written two-thirds of a first draft, but it feels flat. November can be the time to rewrite what the world is, the plot, and where to take the story.
  4. 2019 Pics
    1. Do you know what I’ve been doing? Do I? Let me go through my gigabytes of photos and videos of this year, figure out what’s going on…
  5. BONUS – Write
    1. It’s NaNoWriMo! 2016 was a lot of fun when I participated. 2019 is not that year. Thinking that Saturday’s could be set aside for writing-jams so this huge collection of stories in my backlog don’t get stale 😉(Won’t hold myself to this extra goal – it should push me to accomplish more sooner, though!)

Let’s get to it 😁

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Phone lock screen base image from an unknown source

Goals Recap – October 2019

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Phone lock screen base images from Pinterest and IStock

In October, Tabletop RPGs (TTRPGs) were my life. Here’s why:

  1. Titles and Loglines
    1. Won? This is tough. I pick working titles based on my gut instinct as soon as I have a premise for a world or story which fits decently well. The loglines are rough since I tend to change the stories to great extent when outlining… I at least have something for what I set out to do. Are they any good?… Meh.🤷🏻‍♂️
  2. Truths
    1. Won? I have a brainstorm of the ‘Truths’ I’ve encountered consistently in life, but it’s unorganized and unedited for my own biases. More work is required before this can be useful to others 😑
  3. (Tabletop) Role Playing Games
    1. Won! 😎 … But at what cost? Information on how to make games, write games, prepare games, run games, play games, interact with players, and so much more is running around in my head and in my notes. I want to finish this gestating system I have created for faster-combat-focus-while-roleplayable TTRPGs, but haven’t determined if it’ll be my priority for any upcoming month.
  4. A Pull-up
    1. Won! I feel so good about this!!! Gah! I’m up to three pull-ups at a time now (context is previously doing 12-15 pull-ups seven months ago). Still not 100% with my shoulder, but this is a huge milestone. 💪🏻

Physicality – check. I did things – check. I studied – check. I secured my future – check (kinda). October was a good month. Can’t say it was a super-smashing success, though it certainly wasn’t a failure.

Look forward to what gets planned for November – ought to be a legit month ~

Monthly Goals – October 2019

As was committed last quarter, last month had stellar impact in what I wanted to have accomplished. Writing, money in housing, people, experiences, all of it worthwhile.

But I’ve been having a nagging… urge, to work more on tabletop RPG systems. The ideas have been stewing for a few months now, but even as I write this in September, I’m surrounded by notes on different play systems. In October, I’m going to leverage that drive, while not forgetting to write something too 😁

My Goals Due EOM:

  1. Titles and Loglines
    1. Taking a hint from Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat!, I’ll be fleshing out, at the bare minimum, the titles and loglines of my bucket full of back-burner stories. (This feels particularly liberating, no longer having to use “Working Title” anymore 🙂)
  2. Truths
    1. Putting together a collection of “Truths” (see capital ‘T’) is on my end-of-life to-do list. Having discussed some of these with intellectual persons, I already have my first pre-order for the collection once it’s put out (unknown to them, it’ll be put out for free [I’ve a short rant about why – Truth!]). In October, I’ll get at least this collection together concerning people, people interacting, the world, stories, religion, government, and an outlook on the future. (Daunting, no?)
  3. Role Playing Games
    1. I’ll continue my study of tabletop role playing games, but I’ll also put together the systems I think might work best for fast, intuitive, flexible gameplay 🎲 Anything to further this understanding will be taken up, including organizing a role play session, watching games be played, and going solo through my own systems.
  4. A Pull-up
    1. My arm still isn’t 100% from a shoulder injury experienced earlier in the year. Though able to do a few push-ups again, pull-ups are still a no-go.  I aim to fix that. 💪🏻

Join me in celebrating how good it is to get after some important bits! 😃

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Phone lock screen base images from Pinterest and IStock.

Goals Recap – September 2019

Read how I’ve decided to try out monthly goals.

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Phone lock screen source image from Chris Bourassa

A smashing success! Let’s get to it:

  1. Submit to Black Library
    1. Won. Twice. Besides a writing sample that was edited by some very strong friends of mine, one of them let me know of Cubicle 7’s (not “Crucible 7” 😑) call for writers. In about one-and-a-half to two hours, with 30 minutes to spare, I applied there, too! Despite it being months before knowing the results, it’s a heck of a win, this goal.
  2. Investigate other housing options
    1. Won? Didn’t find apartments at better prices and am cooling my heels looking at houses (expecting a raise that’ll benefit my loan pre-approvals). Regardless, I’ll keep an eye out for houses in Las Vegas because this is where I can see myself living for a good while 🙂
  3. Meet and hang out with other people
    1. Won! Friends I haven’t seen in ages, I got out to visit. More folks I’ve reached out to, some of whom I’ll be seeing in October and summer 2020. It feels good to be in a place materially, socially, and mentally to keep up with some pretty cool folks ~
  4. Fulfill end-of-life experience goals
    1. Won! Played in the waters of Venice Beach in Santa Monica, saw some important people, and tried sensory deprivation (cool, but maybe not all that 😜). This is a tough one to have done, because now I need to re-evaluate what to do with my life, even if it’s only three months ahead 😶

I like winning. Can I make a repeat of October’s goals? Guess those will have to be figured out first… Bear with me as I get my priorities straight 😁

Monthly Goals – September 2019 – A Tryout

Super successful previous quarter. However, as I was writing the post for the December quarter, a lot started happening really quickly. Into such an extent, I feel we’re going to try something new: Monthly goals.

Let’s talk about that.

My Goals Due EOM:

  1. Black Library Submission
    1. By the 21st of September, a Warhammer 40000 story of either “Betrayal from Within”, being “Against the Odds”, or a “Hunt for Glory” will be in Games Workshop’s inbox. Getting after it! 😎
  2. Housing Updates
    1. I’m looking at houses and/or cheaper apartments. Crossing my fingers something cool is found! In any case, I do like where I live already 😊
  3. Others
    1. I’ve been really good in August about meeting more people, friends old and new. This is merely a goal to keep that up for a month!
  4. End-of-Life Experiences
    1. Part of my ‘mortality’ list, AKA ‘what-if-I-die-in-three-months’ to-dos. (Morbid, aye? 💀) Already getting sensory deprivation under my belt, visiting LA to play at the beach soon, and visiting important people I haven’t seen in awhile after that.
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Phone lock screen source image from Chris Bourassa

All else is secondary. I’d thought to include starting a simple podcast, writing the things I’ve found as “Truth” in life so far, cleaning up my Blood Crown short story from last quarter, and ensuring I can do one pull-up (recovering shoulder injury). Priorities change, as can be expected 🤷🏻‍♂️

This’ll be an interesting challenge, to do in a month what might be expected to stretch over three. What are your sought for outcomes in September?