What is this blog about?
Date: 18.12.2020
The short answer is: Consolidation of creative output. I create a lot, too much in parallel, certainly, but rarely put it out somewhere. This is that.
The long answer: I am committed to various long-term projects, and have been involved with them for a long time now. Many of those are even making regular progress, though not all. As is the trouble with these personal projects; it can be easy to get stuck on something and never really get past that point because it's easy to forget about the project and associated issue through work on another project, especially if it offers an expectation of more immediate gratification. Basically, this is yet another project where I will certainly be posting occasional results of creative work done, but also reflections on processes and points at which hurdles have come up for a particular project. Hopefully, this will help me see what outcomes I am actually achieving and which issues I am avoiding by working on other low-hanging fruit.
Psycho tricks aside, there are many projects and I will list them out, more for myself than for you, dear reader because I would like to visualize what I am really working on in some capacity at this moment. Please note that I am not committing to finishing most of these because part of doing the reflection part of this is evaluating which projects to prioritize, which to reduce in scope, and, perhaps most importantly, which to discontinue to facilitate the advancement of the more important ones.
I have tried to categorize the projects a bit because I want to differentiate writing, world building, and running of tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs). Obviously, a lot of the projects link up in some way, especially world building.
I run a bunch of regular and irregular pen and paper games, most in DnD 5e in my DnD campaign world ‘Yearna’. Of course, beyond this, there have been many one-shots using systems such as Mausritter, Vikings & Valkyries, Eldritch (beta), and even spontaneously made-up systems.
The Legion (DnD 5e)
The original campaign set in the Yearna, for which it was built. It follows the exploits of a small group of legion specialists who are increasingly relieved from active duty to execute more sensitive missions and objectives. Sessions take place about twice per year.
Shattered Coast (DnD 5e)
Online run campaign with regular sessions every two weeks. Makes use of Princes of the Apocalypse (DnDBeyond) plot points and enemies.
Hopstone (DnD 5e)
A regular (weekly) campaign played with work friends based out of a castle ruin undergoing major refurbishment. Uses plot points from Mines of Phandelver (DnDBeyond) and Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus (DnDBeyond). Originally in-person in the office, but due to corona it's been online for close to nine months.
Odyssey Academia (DnD 5e)
A very loosely run game with my girlfriend and neighbors, and the only game which is played in-person during corona. It follows a small group of adventurers united by their search for a mythic academy, from which they each hope to find answers to their most pressing questions.
Adventurers’ Guild (DnD 5e)
Game with a large group of players in a setup that ideally just requires a handful of them at a time, with mostly unrelated mission-like adventures (effectively discontinued).
The Children of Heinrichsheim
A Call of Cthulhu Campaign in fictional German town "Heinrichsheim", in which the players are a group of teens trying to discover the supernatural secrets of their hometown (hiatus).
Heaven nor Hell
Shadow of the Demon Lord Campaign (World: 'Lenos') is played in sporadic online sessions and is centered around a minor noble family, of which a couple of players are members.
Pretty Planet
A Traveller game investigating a terraforming project that had gone dark. Limited arc campaign with 10-12 sessions, played monthly (approaching conclusion).
Yearna
A world designed to facilitate DnD 5e as broadly as possible (solo, sandbox, simulation).
Heinrichsheim
A small, fictional German town somewhere in North Rhine-Westphalia (semi-collab, cosmic horror).
Lenos
A world designed to facilitate Shadow of the Demon Lord campaigns, and a more in-depth world building collaboration experiment.
Jord
An entirely original world to write stories and play adventures in. The physical world, as experienced by its native inhabitants, is overlaid with a Dream world, which from which creatures sometimes cross over. There will be an article detailing the premise.
Unnamed Runic Language
An ancient, runic language, primarily for use on the Jord. It prompted me to look into Korean because the way the runic letters are combined to syllables turned out to be a similar concept to Korean Hangul.
I have intense interest in game design and I can’t help but to tinker with ideas in the TTRPG and video game space.
Jordkin Engine
A TTRPG system for playing games on the Jord. Mechanically it features dice instead of modifiers and it places a focus on the players building a family or clan, in which they have ownership over multiple characters.
Cardaia Engine
A card-based, rules-lite TTRPG game, originally intended for the Jord setting, but will probably be more generic, if continued (on hold).
Video Games
I recently participated in my first game jam, and I am hungry for more short-term challenges like these.
I’ve always enjoyed writing as a creative medium, and I am currently writing a novella playing out on the Jord (see World building) in a region called Himlonde. There are at least three different working titles, so I will do you the favor not to list them out.
I used to mainly write flash fiction, and I intend to do so more again, to explore genres, concepts, and characters without a long-term commitment.
Most recently there is, of course, blogging! Let’s see together how that pans out.
There is always stuff you can’t categorize easily (or want to keep intentionally vague to put forward that the appearance that the little bullet point on the page is an apt representation of the amount of effort and scale needed to actually accomplish the point in any satisfactory way).
Learning Korean, especially reading and writing.
Developing sketching and drawing skills.
Trying digital music creation.
Frankly, these are way too many projects!
That's why I wanted to write them down once. And I don't expect, or plan to, complete them all. What I do expect is that one or two will be completed and that the list will just keep getting longer, with the hiatus status being added to projects going nowhere, some even being cancelled completely (unthinkable, I know)! But that's OK. It's not exactly a new concept that a certain kind of creative takes on too many projects and rarely brings them to fruition, and maybe that's an unfair or unrealistic expectation from the get-go. Especially personal projects, which others aren't counting on and serve primarily to let the creator explore ideas and indulge in mental experiments. Even the ideas or skills developed in scrapped projects stick around to influence and enrich future ideas and undertakings.
What worries me is that the above stuff is all in-progress... the "planned" stuff is pretty much absent, and there's a bit there as well.
Nevertheless, I think I've made my point, especially as to why I may have a need to occasionally output something concrete and shareable. I have considered various formats, including videos and blogs, but I find writing is my medium of the highest comfort and will offer the lowest hurdles to producing articles for the void and a few friends. I may revisit the idea of a podcast, but most certainly in a collaborative format, if at all.
In conclusion, I hope you feel that reading this glorified list was somehow worth your time. The articles I intend to put out will probably fall more into a style that could provoke productive thought on some topic. Hopefully, some of them will outright help you out, or inspire you to create something of your own. If nothing else: I hope you enjoy your reading on my little nerd blog here.
Andreas