Month: February 2018

Preparing for Launch: Velotha’s Flock

Tomorrow I’m going to be publishing the Early Bird Edition of velotha’s flock over on DriveThruRPG (though whether it gets approved tomorrow is anyone’s guess.

It’s not my largest project ever (I estimate about 9000 words; LibreOffice doesn’t calculate the text in sidebars when I do it the way I do), but it’s got a lot of passion and a fair amount of sweat and tears (no blood, however; trying to do away with dangerous keyboarding habits) poured into it.

It’s also my first “finished” game to be released under the Loreshaper Games logo, so there’s that going for it. Yay, Loreshaper Games.

In case anyone’s interested, here are the things that I put into the final day of work (AKA what I was working on today and will be finishing tomorrow).

Continue reading “Preparing for Launch: Velotha’s Flock”

Becoming a Better Writer

In the past year or so, I’ve redoubled my efforts to become a better writer of fiction. While I’m pretty comfortable with some of my writing (too comfortable, in many ways), I’ve never felt good as a storyteller, judging my work for being too cliched, too amateurish, or too poorly developed.

So I’ve taken a few steps to improve that, and I feel confident that I’ve gotten my skills to a point where they’re passable, at least to start doing more serious writing work. Here are a few of the milestones I’ve hit that I feel have really made that happen:

Continue reading “Becoming a Better Writer”

Why Free?

One of the things that I’ve had occasional conversations about is why Loreshaper Games is going for a hyper-open copyright licensing scheme for our products.

There are really a few reasons, but it boils down to this: in a market where DRM is stifling and ineffective, you’re almost as well off choosing to make things free, and encouraging the homebrew culture that brings.

Continue reading “Why Free?”

Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rule for Life, Rule 6: Set Your House in Perfect Order Before You Criticize the World

For those of us just joining me, I’ve been reading Jordan B. Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (Amazon Affiliate link). Rule 6 is probably the most interesting to me so far, which is something that I’ve had to say several times as I go through the book: it focuses on topics especially relevant given recent events.

As I’ve said a couple times before, this isn’t a review. I’m just using this post as a way to reflect on what I’ve read and commit it to memory (though readers are more than welcome to use it to pique their interest in the book or compare it to their own findings). A full review should be coming once I finish the book.

Continue reading “Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rule for Life, Rule 6: Set Your House in Perfect Order Before You Criticize the World”

Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life, Rule 5: Do Not Let Your Children Do Anything That Makes You Dislike Them

For those of us just joining me, I’ve been reading the (somewhat) controversial Jordan B. Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (Amazon Affiliate link). The fifth chapter is as interesting as the previous chapters, and really caused me to have a bit of a paradigm shift in my interactions with children.

If you just want to hear what I have to say about the book in general, I’ll probably write a review of the book once I’m done.

Continue reading “Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life, Rule 5: Do Not Let Your Children Do Anything That Makes You Dislike Them”

Improv GM’ing Dos and Don’ts: Improv is not Unprepared

When I GM a game, I’m an improv guy. I can’t do it all the time, and I can’t do it with every game, but when I run a game, I tend not to do a whole lot of work ahead of sessions on specific sessions. Recently I’ve been running pretty hard on the improv stuff, and encouraging some other people to take up a similar style, but I think that I need to point out that there are a few caveats to consider that I don’t know I’ve fully explored elsewhere.

Continue reading “Improv GM’ing Dos and Don’ts: Improv is not Unprepared”

Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life, Rule 4: Compare Yourself to Who You Were Yesterday

For those of us just joining me, I’ve been reading the (somewhat) controversial Jordan B. Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (Amazon Affiliate link). The fourth chapter is probably the most personally relevant to me of the chapters so far, as it deals with some of the things I have been finding to be an issue in my own life (as anyone who had been painfully excited to see what became of most of my old projects has ever known).

If you just want to hear what I have to say about the book in general, I’ll probably write a review of the book once I’m done.

Continue reading “Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life, Rule 4: Compare Yourself to Who You Were Yesterday”

Velotha’s Flock: Making a Character

One of the things that we often forget to do when we design games is to really put some of the mechanics through a practical run, and sometimes we design it without really giving voice to why we do things and stuff gets thrown in and kept even after its intended purpose is done.

With velotha’s flock, I wanted to do a quick overview of what makes a character unique and interesting with a character system that may, on its surface, seem to lead toward similar characters.

Continue reading “Velotha’s Flock: Making a Character”

Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life Chapter 3: Make Friends With People Who Want the Best For You

For those of us just joining me, I’ve been reading the (somewhat) controversial Jordan B. Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (Amazon Affiliate link). The third chapter contains a lot of stuff that is much more personal in Peterson’s life, and I think is probably stronger for it. While there are still grand allusions to history and literature, the personal element is strong in this chapter and really draws in the reader.

If you just want to hear what I have to say about the book in general, I’ll probably write a review of the book once I’m done. I’m actually as much interested in his Maps of Meaning, since I love anything about archetypes, but I’m a little stingy to spend $50 on a book.

Continue reading “Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life Chapter 3: Make Friends With People Who Want the Best For You”