Bloody Blankets, Barghests and Babies

Been writing a lot lately.  This is a good thing.  Like before, it doesn't always come easy, but I'm muscling through and as always, it feels good.  Great actually.

Okay, not always...but most of the time at least.

Lexicon has been an exciting experiment.  We're taking it slow, but we've got six people writing and that's no small thing.  We've only written our "A" entries so far, but "B" is due tonight and already entries have come in.  Again, no small thing.

I'm working out my entry on "Blood Blankets"...pretty sure what they are, but the narrative keeps turning right on me when I need it to turn left.  Frustrating.

Writing a screenplay for a trailer.  Seems absurd, but it helps and is a somewhat necessary part of the process, especially so early in what we are attempting to do.  I'll probably post more once there is more to be posted.

Got my second "Deadlands" game coming up this weekend.  It was only supposed to be a one shot, but I got really into being "descriptive" and let it run too long.  The players are definitely into it, so I find that inspiring.  Adding a "new" player this weekend.  "New" to the game, but returning in reality.  Be good to have him back.  He gets to be a "school marm".  Says he's up for the challenge.  We'll see...
They'll probably all die anyway...maybe.  Kinda like the life they've brought to the characters, so I might not kill them.  Again, we'll see.

Getting more and more baby stuff as the weeks go by.  Running out of room for the stuff already.
But, yeah.  Baby.

The is a blog about creation, no?

Laters.

Lexicon

There have been a lot of ideas floating around in my head lately.  They've all been trying to get out at the same time, which has given my a real headache.

It takes me way too much time to get ideas down on paper.  I often tend to let them sit and fester.  Painting takes too long, writing takes too long, editing takes too long.  It all just takes too long.

I feel flustered and unfulfilled.

I feel overwhelmed and underprepared for everything.  It isn't just a lack of confidence on my part, though I'm sure that's a part of it.

It just feels like it needs to be better prioritized.  It feels like it all needs to take less time or flow out of me more smoothly.  That's a disgusting image.

Words, images, ideas...all stuck and fighting to be released.

And now I've added the idea of Lexicon...

Too much stuff.  I need to focus.  I can actually feel it in my head.  The lack of focus and the need to...just do it.

Thanks, Nike.

Deadlands

It's October.  The leaves have all changed their colors and are littering the streets.  The air has grown chilly, the clouds have gone gray.

Halloween is almost here.

Every so often I like to run a game centered around a horror theme.
It's a one shot.  People are going to die.

This year it's going to be a "Deadlands" game.  I've come up, for the most part, with the story.  I've pregenerated the characters and now I'm working on their identities.  For me, drawing the characters is as vital and important to character creation as rolling the dice and writing up a history is.  It helps me keep them in my head and it gives them a bit more personality.

Some characters concepts just speak to what they should look like.  Sometimes they develop more characteristics from the sketches that I create for them.  The more I draw, the more they seem to breath.

It's world building on a smaller scale.  It's like cartography for people.

People who will probably die horrible deaths in the Weird West.

The One Ring

Roleplaying games.

They give me an outlet for my imagination.

Some games certainly more than others.

Recently I was asked to participate in a "The One Ring' Campaign.

"The One Ring" is an RPG that takes place in Middle Earth some five years after the events of Tolkien's "The Hobbit".

Of the races that are available to play, at least initially, I took a Woodman of the Wilderlands.  I named him Ingvilmar (after much debating and writing and rewriting).  I had very little to go on, besides what I had read in the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings.  So I sat down at my computer, started up Photoshop and grabbed my Wacom.

This is what resulted...

I will state for the record that this is not a finished piece.  I will also admit that it will probably not progress much further than this.

It was a good exercise and has me working on other things.  It did feel good to pick up a pencil (or Wacom Stylus) again.

It's only been a year...

Writing a blog is a task for me.
Keeping up on writing is a chore.
I set this blog up last year as I was starting to get the Play The Game Podcast rolling.
I set this up and never looked back.
A year later, the show is still going, albeit in bits and spurts, and we've decided to add an audio component to enhance (and possibly to fill in for) the video show.

But I'm finding myself creatively unfulfilled.  So I'm looking for direction, focus and, ultimately, fulfillment.