Skip to main content

Preparing for NaNoWriMo 2018

Last year I did NaNoWriMo. I really wanted to challenge myself to finish a story. I did it; I managed 50K words in a story called 'Dungeon School' where students learned how to handle themselves as real adventurers for their future careers, in the spirit of Dungeons & Dragons.

I liked a lot of things about the story but it was still very formulaic. It reminded me of Harry Potter with a little bit of high school love interest anime as well.

I plan to do NaNoWriMo again this year. Currently I'm kicking around an idea about a magic portal bringing D&D style fantasy people into the modern day. Deal with identity and escape, probably have some fun conflict between how the world works and how we resolve problems in fantasy games. We'll see if I stick with it. I'm even considering putting it here, on the blog.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dragon's Pool

Here's a pitch for a new game setting for D&D I'm working on. First, I recommend you read Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa. I'm enjoying it a lot; it's a fantasy Japan with a lot of great characters and fun over-the-top fantasy. The Dragon's Pool is an Asian-inspired setting that focuses on the mystical and magical. Long-term goals are to zoom out and see the lands of China, Korea, Mongolia and southeast Asia (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia). Short-term, Dragon's Pool will focus on a mythic Japan and the sea that surrounds it. Some of the homebrew topics I'm dealing with are the yokai (monster) races of Kitsune and Tanuki and a lot of mapping D&D Classes and Archetypes to Asian tropes. You can follow along for more and also check out the World Anvil page at https://www.worldanvil.com/w/dragons-pool-hans

Playing Cypher - Transparent Difficulties

I've realized lately that I'm doing something very different from the play examples in Cypher System books. I've been telling my players the difficulty levels of everything before they roll. I think this is because the majority of my games have been one-shots, demos and short arcs at home. But I like it! There's been little consistent growth in play, so it's been natural for me to make things really transparent for players. Here's what I mean: A player attempts a task. They describe it, saying what they want to do. I tell them the difficulty number (i.e. 5) and what they have to roll to beat it (15). We use Skills and Assets to modify the difficulty. They get the opportunity to apply Effort. Then we roll. That's how I've been running the game. I notice that the Play Examples in the book and most games I've seen keep difficulties secret. I think this is a natural thing in role-playing games but I don't know if I like the practice. It seems to...

Big Bad Con - about me

As a longer version of my Twitter (@HansCTweets) #BigBadCon2019 intro: Hi, I’m Hans! I use he/him pronouns.    I like to make, hack, run and play games. I do want to talk to you about games.   OK with photos and physical contact but please ask!   Very easily distracted and hyperfocused.   I drink coffee constantly but no alcohol. I’m here to meet people, play games, be excited and pick up cool stuff!    Won’t get to the Con until 6 on Thursday, maybe as late as 8 Friday, but all day Sat and Sun!   I will be volunteering as a Ranger greeting on Saturday 2-5pm and hosting Games on Demand Sunday 8am-12noon.   Big Bad Con is going to be my first con in a while. I'm looking for new opportunities and to connect with new friends. I've done a lot of streaming and online games lately and would really love to expand upon that. I've also started many RPG projects and would love to get more incentive to see th...