So here I sit, wondering at what topics to address on this blog. The concept of Moebius Adventures is very much alive, and yet I have not released anything since the Core Rules book came out a couple of years ago. Since then, I’ve attempted to revive the efforts of writing and publishing, revising and editing… but it’s never left the starting blocks.
Now I’m left without a current gaming group (had to leave the D&D group I was playing with due to time/travel/scheduling issues) and without a current writing project beyond the RPG review site I started – Game Knight Reviews.
I’m looking for some inspiration to get me going again – a raison d’etre to stay more than marginally involved in gaming. And without a group, that’s tough to do. So I’m guessing that’s going to be my first goal. Getting some folks together or joining something down here in Colorado Springs.
Since I recently reviewed Johnn Four’s book – Filling the empty chair – I think I’m going to start using some of the concepts from Four’s book and see what I come up with for a weekly or bi-weekly group.
But I’m interested in what other folks have done when they’ve hit this kind of a dead spot… What have you done to rekindle the ideas and creative juices when things have gone dry? Let me know in the comments – I’d love to hear your answers!
Related articles
- Book Review: Filling the empty chair by Johnn Four (RoleplayingTips.com) (gameknightreviews.com)
- RPG Book Review: Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots To Inspire Game Masters (blogcritics.org)
- Review: Filling the Empty Chair – A Guide to Finding Players (gnomestew.com)
- RPGs – An Art? A Game? No, a Sport (mxyzplk.wordpress.com)
Tags: Arts, Colorado, Colorado Springs, creativity, Dungeons & Dragons, gamemaster, Games, group, Role-playing game, Roleplaying, RPG
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“I’m not sure whether a set of systemless world supplements would be useful enough on their own. ”
That’s worth exploring a little further. What would make them useful to you? Do they require coupling with crunch for them to be useful for you? What aspect(s) about world creation do you love doing most?
Johnn´s last [type] ..Issue 504 Heists and Haunted Houses-
Well, a setting without a way to connect it to PCs is useless IMHO. There would have to be some sort of short-hand notation for class/skill requirements, monster/NPC descriptions, available actions/reactions/damage/etc…
But ultimately the “build it and they will come” philosophy doesn’t work for real estate, computer programs, or websites – so I doubt that it would work for GMs.
Most GMs I know are looking for easy-to-integrate supplements that can be dropped into their worlds/systems/campaigns easily – which would mean customizing for a particular system at the very least.
What I love about world creation is the backgrounds – cool places, cool events, cool important NPCs. A world lives and breathes behind the PCs – but without the PCs it’s like a set on stage waiting for a play and the players to arrive…
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“Most GMs I know are looking for easy-to-integrate supplements that can be dropped into their worlds/systems/campaigns easily – which would mean customizing for a particular system….What I love about world creation is the backgrounds”
How could you work it so a world is portable to multiple game systems or editions? What would that look like for GMs of various systems? How could that work from a development standpoint?
What I am getting at is the best products solve problems gamers currently have. We gamers do not need yet another game world.
Not unless there’s something special about it.For example, I believe gaming within the same world for a long time is ideal. You develop an incredible amount of detail and flavour with your group as the years go by.
But a problem is game worlds expire as new editions of system come out or I switch to a new system (D&D to GURPS, for example).
However, independent of system, there are many world details useful to GMs of any system or edition (within the same genre).
That gives you, perhaps, three types of info:
Universal
System specific (i.e. D&Disms vs. GURPS-isms)
System version specific (i.e. D&D 3.5 vs. 4)Can you scheme up a way to create a game world that does not expire easily? One that you can migrate easily between systems and/or editions?
You could call it “Edition Proof” or something like that.
And you are right – if you build it, they will not just come. That’s what marketing is for.
But before the promotion, you should develop something that solves a problem. Often, solving a problem you have is the best start, because others likely face the same issue.
An Edition Proof Game World, perhaps delivered via a blog like DungeonADay.com, might be the answer. It might not. Problems that are not easy to solve are likely to make you more friends (and customers) though.
My main point is not pitching you the idea of an edition proof game world, but the process. Figure out where your passion for gaming lies. Marry that with a solution to some tricky problem. Then execute and bring your solution to the market.
Johnn´s last [type] ..Issue 504 Heists and Haunted Houses
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If you could do anything (RPG related) and it could not fail, what would you do?
Johnn´s last [type] ..Issue 504 Heists and Haunted Houses-
@Johnn – Pie in the sky-wise, I would love to flesh out and share the three worlds we created for Moebius. There’s a lot of crunch there for GMs and players to explore. My issue in all three cases is the system. The Moebius system doesn’t work well (and I’m really not a system guy, as I’ve come to realize over the last couple of years) and I’m not sure whether a set of systemless world supplements would be useful enough on their own.
Beyond that, I’ve really been enjoying writing the reviews but that’s the critical side of me critiquing other people’s work and doesn’t involve the creative side. So I know I need to get something going there as well.
And at the very least I need to find a group to join and play with and/or GM.
Those are my three sticking points. Well, that and time. Working a full-time job and raising a family (as many people know) takes a ton of time and energy.
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- Book Review: Filling the empty chair by Johnn Four (RoleplayingTips.com)
- Looking for a Gaming Group… [Cross-post]
- RPG Review: Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots To Inspire Game Masters
- DVD Review: The Dungeon Masters
- New Review on GKR: 650 City Encounter Seeds & Plots
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