The 2017-2018 Sekrit Solstice Sci-Fi Fantasy Story Swap
- Thread starter CobraMisfit
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I am floundering around.
There was this great idea one day and I. Didn't. Write. It. Down. Then is slipped away into the ether and was lost to me forever.
So I'm trailing this other idea, but it doesn't feel close enough to the prompt, which makes me feel like it's a fail.
I wanted to have a draft done by end of January, but I'm not sure that's feasible now, so yeah. *Eyes calendar to try to find some writing time amid kid activities.*
There was this great idea one day and I. Didn't. Write. It. Down. Then is slipped away into the ether and was lost to me forever.
So I'm trailing this other idea, but it doesn't feel close enough to the prompt, which makes me feel like it's a fail.
I wanted to have a draft done by end of January, but I'm not sure that's feasible now, so yeah. *Eyes calendar to try to find some writing time amid kid activities.*
Yes, yes I do. I need an idea that doesn't suck huge, sticky, lint-covered lollipops.
<sigh> I've got some cool characters doing some cool stuff... and nary a PLOT in sight. Yeah, it's the way I always work, but it doesn't make it feel any better.
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Could you send a few to
Which, I gotta say, is a little refreshing since last year's endeavor crested 20k and I still feel I left half the story out.
*(Sorry, giftee, if you like huge stories.
)
Yes that is our...function. Our sanity is on a slippery slope.
Looking forward to figuring out all your plot arcs when the course of this challenge has ended.
A plot.
That doesn't hit a negative asymptote within the first scene.
Aaaaargh!
*throws spaghetti against walls*
You're not alone. I'm in the same bind. I've got a cool setting, three characters, and a REDACTED, but all they do is sit around eating lunch.
(Sorry, giftee, if you like huge stories.
Huge stories are AWESOME.
If the story elves have any anti-procrastination, I'd like a crate, please.
I have an idea. It has a beginning, it has an end... it has no middle.
And I'm going to lose a few days due to a medical procedure needing to happen.
If anyone wants me, I'll be sitting over in the corner, breathing into a paper bag.
I have an idea. It has a beginning, it has an end... it has no middle.
And I'm going to lose a few days due to a medical procedure needing to happen.If anyone wants me, I'll be sitting over in the corner, breathing into a paper bag.
I think my story's going ok? the rough draft is about 2/3 done (it's going to be fairly short) but there'll be a lot fo editing
I've been having a problem in that I'm not procrastinating, but I'm still having trouble making progress. Like, I sit down, I have the document open, fingers on keys, and...nothing. This seems to happen every time I got a part of my stories where my ideas for what happen next are vague, and I always work past it eventually, but those days of little to no progress in order to work through them are frustrating nonetheless.
If anyone's characters are sitting around having lunch and doing nothing of interest, consider crashing a spaceship/flying chariot into the middle of their soirée. The vehicle can be filled with plot chickens.
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(Ah, mobile still doing that thing where it auto deletes posts when you try to edit out a typo ...)
I wish I did. I'm starting up in Adventurer's League (was actually supposed to start last night, but snow happened) at the local game shop, and it took months for there to be an opening for spouse-face and I. But if you can somehow manage to be in central NC on Wednesday evenings, I'll butter up the DM until they let you sit.
Although if anyone knows any Roll20 (or etc) games with room for a level one scrub sparkle paladin and her dopey librarian wizard friend, I'll learn to like voice chat.
Then prepare to be disappointed!
I could maybe stretch it out to or a little past 5k if I spend pages on the minutiae of [interstellar go go dancing]. Maybe.
I wish I did. I'm starting up in Adventurer's League (was actually supposed to start last night, but snow happened) at the local game shop, and it took months for there to be an opening for spouse-face and I. But if you can somehow manage to be in central NC on Wednesday evenings, I'll butter up the DM until they let you sit.
Although if anyone knows any Roll20 (or etc) games with room for a level one scrub sparkle paladin and her dopey librarian wizard friend, I'll learn to like voice chat.
Then prepare to be disappointed!
I could maybe stretch it out to or a little past 5k if I spend pages on the minutiae of [interstellar go go dancing]. Maybe.
If only someone could have foreseen that interstellar go go dancing would lead to a major crash into a small earth-based (probably) bistro. Those ruined plot chicken sandwiches, the spilled plot hassenpfeffer (made with plot bunnies). Oh the horror! The Tragedy! The...wait let me take a few notes this is good stuff.
This isn't Sekret related, but if we're gonna talk gaming, I'd just like to point out how obsessed I am with the old Empire of the Petal Throne setting right now. And I don't even have a crew to game with! (Which is weird, considering how uber-trendy arcane PnP continues to be in Echo Park these days.)
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You flee in terror as weird, chiming language fills the Underworld.
Holy crap! This is the first conversation in my life I've had about Tekumel. Have rep! Thinking about it, and this will prove another major distraction, I wonder if 2018 is the year I sit down and write my weird horror science fantasy culturally non-European rpg setting.
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Mind you, I haven't played EPT since 1980, but once you've met the Ssu, you never forget them. I used to have one of the original games and the EPT novels, but I can chalk those up with many other things my ex-wife got rid of for me. *le sigh* M.A.R. Barker was another linguistic genius like Tolkien, where he created all of the languages and then built a world around them.
TSR bought the rights to the game and then immediately shelved it for "further development" for years, basically trying to kill it off.
(apologies if hogging thread and will gladly migrate)
Barker is perhaps one of the most interesting people ever. I bought some of the more recent stuff he wrote, and, um, I'm a little less convinced he just made the setting up than I used to be. Not as excellent a novelist as Tolkien, but he sure had some other strengths. I have the Guardians of Order EPT book, one of the prized possessions in my collection of rare and collectable RPG books (that's not me being sarcastic, I have a bit of a valuable collection and they're all getting buried with me). Along with Exalted, EPT is one of the very few games on my bucket list.
Barker is perhaps one of the most interesting people ever. I bought some of the more recent stuff he wrote, and, um, I'm a little less convinced he just made the setting up than I used to be. Not as excellent a novelist as Tolkien, but he sure had some other strengths. I have the Guardians of Order EPT book, one of the prized possessions in my collection of rare and collectable RPG books (that's not me being sarcastic, I have a bit of a valuable collection and they're all getting buried with me). Along with Exalted, EPT is one of the very few games on my bucket list.
I'm running a 5e one-shot this weekend with a bunch of fiance's friends who haven't played D&D before. 
I'm an amateur DM running a game of even more amateur players. I'm doomed
+1
I'm an amateur DM running a game of even more amateur players. I'm doomed+1
I'm running a 5e one-shot this weekend with a bunch of fiance's friends who haven't played D&D before.
These can be the funnest games to run. Being the writer I'm often the one that gets the role of the DM.
Remind them the game is cooperative story telling so not to negate other people's part in the story.
A few rules I use for newbies (and don't tell them these):
1) If what they want to do, which I guarantee you will be off the wall, is sufficiently awesome and won't ruin the campaign, let them have it. It will make them remember how fun it is and get them addicted.
2) The most experienced player attracts the most monsters.
3) Try not to be too vague with monster descriptions, unless dealing with something so rare there's no way a seasoned adventurer would know what it is.
4) It's supposed to be fun, if a PC is making it not fun for everyone... ... ... KILL THEM!
(their character not the player... ... ...then again... ... maybe the player) 
5) Be prepared to throw your campaign idea out the window. They may not be used to the campaign tropes and try to befriend the bad guys because they don't know any better. Don't let them roll to do this, someone will crit and then your story is over.
I think I saw a think on Twitter the other day: a dude said he had been DMing a game for his (young) daughters to try out role playing games. They were supposed to go hunt a pack of wolves that was threatening the town. Instead they decided to feed them and wound up with a pack of friendly wolf allies.