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The work never ends
Jun. 4th, 2020 02:02 pmI’ve been busy writing and recording podcasts this week. There’s another episode of Bela Lugosi’s Shed in the can after a slightly longer than usual interregnum caused by sudden onset despair. Thankfully that seems to have passed and I’ve made use of the blast of energy that often succeeds such moments of awfulness by recording another episode of my Fighting Fantasy podcast. That one is great fun apart from the laborious hours needed to edit the recording to make me sound like less of a cunt.
I’ve also nearly finished the first draft of an experimental short-form RPG about early Christians seeking martyrdom during the persecution of Diocletian at the end of the third century. I just really like the idea of an RPG where the aim of the game is to die. It’s got a nice collaborative approach to storytelling and I think it might be the only roleplaying game every written were you can gain a significant in game advantage by writing a tract refuting the heresy of Docetism.
Because inspiration always comes in burst I’ve also got another RPG slowly percolating to the surface inside my head. This one is called 13% Human and is about cyborg soldiers trying to hang onto their humanity as more and more of their body is replaced by mechanical upgrades. The aim is to try and do a game about war which doesn’t really have a combat system, or at least deals with the mechanics of combat in a very abstract, depersonalised way. I really like the idea of doing a series of these little games designed for small groups or one on one play where the mechanics are carefully tailored to dealing with one specific scenario with a very strong overarching theme.
Much as I’m determined to finish the two novel length projects I currently have on deck I realise more and more that what I really love creating are the small scale things. It’s the same with music, I really enjoy placing stringent limits on how I go about creating music and finding what I can create within that small space. I love writing sonnets too, although most of those will never be released into the wild. I firmly believe that everyone should try their hand at writing poetry and almost no one should share the results of their labours.
I’ve also nearly finished the first draft of an experimental short-form RPG about early Christians seeking martyrdom during the persecution of Diocletian at the end of the third century. I just really like the idea of an RPG where the aim of the game is to die. It’s got a nice collaborative approach to storytelling and I think it might be the only roleplaying game every written were you can gain a significant in game advantage by writing a tract refuting the heresy of Docetism.
Because inspiration always comes in burst I’ve also got another RPG slowly percolating to the surface inside my head. This one is called 13% Human and is about cyborg soldiers trying to hang onto their humanity as more and more of their body is replaced by mechanical upgrades. The aim is to try and do a game about war which doesn’t really have a combat system, or at least deals with the mechanics of combat in a very abstract, depersonalised way. I really like the idea of doing a series of these little games designed for small groups or one on one play where the mechanics are carefully tailored to dealing with one specific scenario with a very strong overarching theme.
Much as I’m determined to finish the two novel length projects I currently have on deck I realise more and more that what I really love creating are the small scale things. It’s the same with music, I really enjoy placing stringent limits on how I go about creating music and finding what I can create within that small space. I love writing sonnets too, although most of those will never be released into the wild. I firmly believe that everyone should try their hand at writing poetry and almost no one should share the results of their labours.
