Parties and seeing friends and remembering the year – check!
Podcasting? Hopefully. I’ve really borked Audacity – by the time you read this post, I’ll have decided on my own what to do 😑
Step Back the Modules
I had such aspirations to write three full games in the month of December… Oh well. Instead, you’ll see three mini-tabletop role playing games. A page for setting, a page for mechanics and characters, a page for phases of play, and a few pages for items and NPCs.
De-escalate Shallow Seas
“Great vague-booking, Jimmy! What the heck does that mean??”
It means I’m down-scaling 40,000 words to write to 10,000. (40K would be about 80 hours of writing over three weeks at my 500 words / hr.) I’m also nixing the idea of a first draft – We’ll start at the beginning, but correctly this time.
I had a long rant for you about how tools and what we set out to do shouldn’t consume nor command us… how goals aren’t our tyrants – we’re our own masters yadda yadda ya…
It sounded better spoken. Maybe you’ll hear it someday if Audacity recovers 😁 Or I’m short on post ideas 😅
Whatever the case, take care! I’ll aim to get something cast-worthy your way soon ~
November was absolutely a stellar month. Though I failed at getting all my 2019 media posted online, my knowledge of RPG game design and moderating of tabletop games is ready to be exercised.
And let’s not forget the podcasting. Writing, recording, editing, and distributing a cast every week has not only been fun – it has seen the most interaction with an audience I’ve ever had for a regular publication (I’m ignoring interaction on my published games and modifications). For such a positive endeavor, one should keep it up, no?
So where does that leave us?
Well, December is not only the last month of the year, but the last one of the decade. That means a lot will be happening – parties, food, friends… you know the drill.
With that and how fulfilling November was, lets end this decade with a blast ~
My Goals Due EOM:
Podcast
If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. If it’s working, don’t stop. Of course I will aim to improve quality, but for most folks, quantity and regularity is valued over quality. (And I need to put this mic to further use!)
TTRPG Modules
I made a rule system in November. Now it’s time to apply it: Three modules at least will be created using the rules, all of it ready for play.
I’ll leverage two derived IPs and one unique: Star Wars, Mobile Suit Gundam, and my universe of Shallow Seas as a one-shot demonstration of the rules. (Maybe the Halo IP too, as it has an example of recharging health!)
Shallow Seas Draft 1
I’ve a solid outline, I’ve a solid character theme, I’ve added context to the fictional world, and I’ve written 40,000 words already. Can I finish a first draft of this book? Dang straight.
Celebrate EOY
How better to celebrate the turn of the calendar than with friends? I’ll go meet a few of them abroad while partying with a number who’ll come to Las Vegas.
To keep those who I won’t see appraised of what’s going on, I’ll also craft my end-of-year letter, a useful review of the last 365 while reminding me of the Good and the people who made the time alive worth it and worth looking towards more.
How does that sound? To me, pretty good. December is going to be playful, purposeful, and productive. It’s exciting to think about what I get to share with you to cap off the decade as we go into 2020. I’m ready. What are you going to do?
Phone lock screen base image from an unknown source
My November has been full of study, just the way I like it. Think we’ll need to redirect to creating more, studying less for December, though that’s another post 😉 Despite there being a week left, it’s Thanksgiving, so let’s get on with it:
Podcast
Won. A podcast every week talking about these goals has been absolutely fun. So much so, I think we can continue this into December 😁 Checkout cast 01 here.
TTRPG
Winning. Editing the system right now, though it still requires some example modules (or full games) that leverage these rules and will be distributed after this post.
Overall, the greatest contributions of this goal are:
The 4M Stats: Mind (mental ability), Muscle (physical ability), Machine (tool use), Maybe (optional stat for a narrative)
Character squad mechanics
Advancement through gear
Game Master and Player prep shortcuts
Redirect Shallow Seas
Won! I used the Ring Theory / Ring Structure to re-outline my Shallow Seas universe. This wasn’t difficult after some study, though deciding on the Dragon (the big-bad thing the Heroes slay) required some serious thought.
2019 Pics
Failed. Having only made it to March / April of all of my 2019 content, I merely did not get to posting every day, multiple times a day. Sigh.
Oh! And there was a fifth extra goal: Extra writing. This kinda happened, though it wasn’t writing fiction: It was writing scripts for podcasts, taking notes on how to make and direct tabletop role-playing games, and filling in RPG modules and rule systems.
So that was November. Fun. Now, we’re onto figuring out December’s role for my goals. Have a fantastic Thanksgiving, and a fine start into the last month of the decade! 😃
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:
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…
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:
Podcast
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?
TTRPG
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.
Redirect Shallow Seas
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.
2019 Pics
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…
BONUS – Write
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 😁
Phone lock screen base image from an unknown source
In October, Tabletop RPGs (TTRPGs) were my life. Here’s why:
Titles and Loglines
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.🤷🏻♂️
Truths
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 😑
(Tabletop) Role Playing Games
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.
A Pull-up
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 ~
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:
Titles and Loglines
Taking a hint from Blake Snyder’sSave 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 🙂)
Truths
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?)
Role Playing Games
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.
A Pull-up
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! 😃
Jimmy Chattin 