Category Archives: Creativity

Something New for a Hundred Days

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test_pattern_01Despite outward appearances to the contrary, the last few years really haven’t been all that great.

For a while, I’ve been more than a bit lost. Just kind of drifting about, coasting on momentum built up in years past but, really, just running on fumes. It is, in a word, unpleasant.

In a few more words: I’m not at all where I wanted to be in my life right now. In fact, due to this relatively recent lack of direction, I’m farther from where I want to be than I’ve ever been. Not much that I’ve tried has changed that at all… even less has changed it for the better. (At least in the arenas that matter most to me.)

In an effort to get out of this stagnating rut, it’s time to really get out of my comfort zone and try something else.

Those of you who know me are likely aware that my “comfort zone” is pretty wide-ranging at this point. I have dipped into many different arenas over the years. I consort with a wide variety of “freaks and weirdos” as well as more mainstream people. I can more or less fly through most social interactions with no real problem. The things I don’t do, I don’t do because they’re downright unhealthy or obviously detrimental to getting back on track to being the person I want to be. (So, no, I’m not interested in reenacting The Lost Weekend… or any part of The Hangover. And we’re definitely not talking about anything like Natural Born Killers or Falling Down.)

“But, Kier,” you may ask, “what the heck does that leave?”

Not much that I can afford, that’s for sure. (An around-the-world trip would be awesome, but that’s just not going to happen… yet…)

Part of an abandoned business plan involved something that I never really wanted to do, but would have been integral to the success of that venture. I’m dusting off that part, though certainly not the plan it was attached to. Doing this will put me right where I don’t much care to be, in a way I really don’t much care for in general.

Starting next week, and continuing for roughly the next hundred days after that, I’m going to dive head first into the world of vlogging.

That’s pretty much the extent of the plan right now. (Mainly because I know full well that if I try to plan more, I’ll just spend the next 100 days planning and not doing.)

This is where I’m going to enlist your help.

Over the next few days, I’m going to float a few ideas and ask for your feedback and suggestions. Then, when this all starts, I’m going to want need a wee bit of support in a few different ways.

I’m not expecting what I create to be fantastic right off the top (that quest for instant perfection is one of the things I’m trying to overcome). Over the course of 100 entries, though, it will (hopefully) get better. So, maybe we can celebrate that progress together. Or maybe we’ll just share in the horror of an impressive social media train wreck.

At the absolute least, it’ll be something different.

At the most, well… at the most, maybe something I throw at the wall will stick and get me back on track.

More to come…

Plotting and Scheming in an RPG

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Pile of DiceI’ve been running various role playing game on and off since around 1992. Not quite as long as some other people I know, but more frequently than others.

During that time, I mostly ran games using the Palladium system (they make RIFTs, Nightbane, and Phase World) with a few forays into the Call of Cthulhu system and, recently, the White Wolf Storyteller system. I’ve played in games using a few other systems. My experience is pretty well-rounded, I think, and I know what I like as a player and as a GM.

What I like is a rich world that my characters (or my players) can really dig into. When I have a character in a world that’s poorly defined, I’m hard-pressed to know what’s possible. (The exception being if the character doesn’t know anything about the world, either… in which case, it’s just all out fun.) Without a solid frame of reference, I can’t help the GM move the story along and I have difficulty answering the big question of “Why bother?” for the character(s) that are supposed to be caught up in it.

That’s why, even as a player, I like to get my hands on at least the core source book for the setting and read all the “flavor” stuff I can.

But how about you?

I accept the fact that I may be a little bit of an odd duck when it comes to this. I know I’ve maybe overloaded my players with background info (which barely got looked at) before.

Thing is, I’m about to kick off a new game. It’s going to be set in a world completely of my own creation… and I want the players to feel free to help add to that world.

But I don’t want to spoil the fun of discovery.

Here’s the opinion-seeking question: When it comes to role playing games, is it better to have the players know only the bare minimum about the world they’re exploring (only slightly more than their characters, perhaps), or is it better to let them know all sorts of things (including stuff that their characters would have no way of knowing)?

As a creator, I’m kind of torn on the subject.