Monday's, I'm just glad

I'm just glad that Mondays are the second day of my workweek. What if I had to face this as the first day of the week?

I started the explanations of how the Storm Worlds are connected with the GGP-012 podcast. This one covers the random storm portals. You can locate everything through this link. I am really surprised at how many downloads there have been of these game podcasts. Way more than we have DS players. The regular Mark's Mysteries story podcasts have a much bigger download audience. I know people are going to want all this stuff written, but honestly, I'm a storyteller and Sue is a creative artist.

When I do a podcast there is no script at all. I record it once, Sue and I listen to it, talk, then I go back and re-record. No written version, ever. I work from the previous spoken version and my memories of talking to Sue. I have also tried talking to Mocha, but I just don't understand her comments. Maybe I'll try the cat...

Easter Morning

I had planned on re-speaking the new GGP podcast this morning, but I just got up too late to fit it in. We have a trip to Sue's mom's place this afternoon.

So, I'm going to start this holiday with some web work, and setting up a Custom Card order I just got. Sue got me the text for three more TOK pages and I want to work on the SVC and MM sites some. I'm not even exactly sure where I want to start.

I have already covered the e-mail/Etsy/Fur Affinity/ routine, so I'm ready to go.

I have started working on the Astral Travel/World

As everyone knows, I am a lot better at talking than I am at writing, so I have started working on a new GGP podcast to talk about Astral Travel, the Astral World and other aspects of the Astral RPG background.

I am working on this because it has direct relevance to the existing Dragon Storm world and to the future worlds. I am thinking that people who check out the new rules are going to want to know how all of this connects together. The physical connection is through the Astral World. I will combine the podcasts with a short written version. I should be able to create a webpage with a link to each of the related podcasts and a short written overview of each podcast.

I did the first rough podcast this morning, played it for Sue, got her feedback and the next step will be to re-record it in an expanded and smoother version. Oddly enough, I'm looking forward to doing this.

I appreciate the feedback I got on my previous commentary, and I want to continue that as well.

Now I need to put in some time on web work. I have several new pieces of artwork that Sue has completed that I need to create pages for. The old, post it, add ads, and get the print advertising out there. More Content, more directions. I know it is work, but on some level I like doing this crap.

Sue has completed a new Dog Art piece, a Great Dane this time. It is up on Etsy and now I'll show it off here:

Time travels onward and, sometimes forward

I have played Susan's Role-Playing system now since 1994. It has been a long road from those days when the rules were scribbled on the sides of common playing cards. Her mind cut through to the core of role-playing, the mechanics, in a way which has to be admired.


Dragon Storm has been a lot of fun to watch grow and expand from those simple beginnings. Yet, I want something more. I want a kind of variety that only a multiverse can provide. Quietly, in the privacy of the Clanhold, we have been working on a Core system to be the focal point of the future worlds that Susan has envisioned. If you go all the way back to her Gatekeeper comics you can see that her world had portals to yet more worlds. We are preparing to start walking through those doors and take a look at them.


To make this successful we are going to need a much larger circle of aficionados who follow and enjoy the comics, podcasts, artwork and games that we would like to pursue. To do this Sue and I will need to spend the vast majority of our time doing the creative work for others to digest and enjoy.


This leaves a huge gap in our system. The growth and proliferation of our works is going to need volunteer enthusiasts who want to grow and spread the community.


I do not yet see how this is to be done. Right now, as I write this my mind is starting to fill with random thoughts, ideas and concepts. I think I need to just list a few of them and then begin to pick up each and look them over in future postings.


Creation of an Enthusiasts community. We need to find a way to draw in more youthful people. Our current enthusiasts are, well, aging along with us, we need more and new blood.


Finding the devotees who will bring in new people. The traditional RPG market is a shrinking resource. We need the bloggers, podcasters and web content people are the core to expansion to a wider audience.


Laying out the concepts and ideas behind the Storm Worlds games in way way that makes it more than just a set of rules to people.


Expanding to new, but associated, entertainment areas, like comics and podcasting.


Using the podcasting to spread the ideas behind the mechanisms and create an entry into the community. To allow our current people "feel" these worlds we create.


Using comics to entertain and widen the community we are reaching. To allow people to "See" these new worlds.


To create an enthusiastic audience that wants to support us by buying from Cafepress, Etsy and more. Who will use our ad links to go out and buy, because they want to support us.


To find ways to both help, and get help from, our current loyalists at the Guild, DS Annex and Storm Warning sites. What do they need from us and how can they help us achieve a larger community?


How can we bring diverse people closer together, and make them more of a part of the community. People like Tim, Ann, Lee, Russ, Dave, Debbie and Elizabeth. Plus a pile of people who I should be listing here, but my mind has gone blank. These folks support us, even though they do not see eye to eye on a lot of things. They are in the boat with us. How do we just get along and make a bigger boat?


Find a way to get our current people to read and comment on our blogs. We have a very limited number of people who are inputing ideas on the blogs. Some of these are not even willing to tell who they are. They post as "anonymous" and we can't get a real feeling for whom they represent. The vast majority of our people are letting just a few voices dominate. How do we get the other 99% to speak up?


I am not even sure where I should start. I am going to need some of my couple hundred readers to put in some direction here. So, until I here from you I will just have to start talking and see what you want to discuss.


And I think I'll take the time to head out and start a Friend Feed account to see what is happening over there.


Which "Social Networking" communities are you mortals using? I would like to know.

My mind is in Turmoil

I am not posting much right now. I am getting our taxes done and that is stressing me a little, like everyone else.

What I am doing is keeping up with Blog comments, Etsy, Fur Affinity, etc. and then spending the remaining time with piles of papers.

I just found an old set of Holy Shaman notes. New cards for Elethay and, or, Temple Speakers.

Anyway, on to the taxes. I should be able to finish them up today.

Preparations for Home Con Visit

The preparations for the Home Con appearance on saturday has brought progress to a halt. I have several articles tumbling around in my mind wanting to get written, but I am spending my time packing, inventorying and getting set for the trip. Sunday I will be spending that work day unpacking, sorting and putting away the con supplies. Late Sunday night I will be Manufacturing the Monday shipments.

While I enjoy seeing people and doing these shows they do cost a lot of creative time. Thus I am faced with a quandary. If we travel and sell, we create less. If we do not go the creative work has a reduced value. The trick is to try to balance these. Somehow to get my full 60 hour work week in and spend 3 full days dealing with the trip. That amounts to doing four 15 hour days before the go-be-return three day trip. One of the tiring aspects is that saturday is our day off. Therefore we will have no day off for meditation and companionship this week. I do get an amazing recharge from having a day to share with Sue, and I will miss that very much this week.

The faster I go, the Less I seem to get done.

It actually seems that as I dig out more of our DS stuff it reveals more that needs to be written to make it go.

I have gotten a good start on translating our elemental concepts into something that other people can use. It should appear in Alpha form on the Madness blog by the end of the week. Since I put the Fire Elemental on the Elethay Prayer PDF I figure I need to start the explanations.

I am kind of surprised by the lack of DS response to the Elethay Prayers. It provided a slew of e-mails from AD&D players wanting the AD&D translation, but not a peep from the DS world. I have no idea what that means, and I'm not going to think on it much.

Now I am off to tend to my mother this afternoon. I need to call her and she if she is up to a new adventure.

Why is there Anti-Intellectualism?

Last night Sue and I were talking about why economists and planners keep using, and endorsing, failed methods. Why would one stick to a policy, or method, that was shown to be a failure? Why would you spend all of your resources in a destructive campaign rather than a constructive discussion? I proposed that the problem was two fold. First, they were not experienced with the real world and simply never received the data (they live in a fantasy land), and second, that they were unable to overcome there irrational faith in the obviously failed policy.

Then Sue found this extremely interesting article you should read:

Why is there Anti-Intellectualism?

While reading this work I began to see where some of the resistance to the open design of Dragon Storm comes from. Sue created a flexible creativity driven RPG system. Some people understood this at a fundamental level and played the game happily. Other people started looking for, and even imposing, strict rules. Those rules generally came directly from earlier rpg systems. They moved to take the creative element out of DS and put it back in the box. That attitude has always confounded and confused me.

That makes me wonder about future game designs. Do we try to restrict them to be more palatable to a larger audience, or do we continue to argue for individual creativity? Not an easy decision. Obviously from a commercial point of view there is just one answer, but what about from a cultural point of view? Which is more important to the society? Which is most important to us?

Now I will get off of my soap box and wait for a response.

I am Cranky

I suppose I should say I'm cranky and angry. Being a growling bear here in the clanhold. In the past I would have gotten my hands on a half dozen donuts and a bag of chips and used those drugs to wrench myself out of the bad mood. Now I am being eating "healthy" so I can't.

I am really tied down with work that has to be done and I am not managing to free up the time to do what I want to do. Podcasting, writing and game design are all getting side tracked as I plug my way through the paperwork, coding, printing, shipping and web updating. Very frustrating.

I really want to create new content for the three games we have sketched out, Dragon Storm itself and DS/fantasy podcast stories.

Now I need to stop this fun work of complaining and get to editing material and answering e-mails.

Life is never normal

I have been busy working on a lot of projects, so I have neglected my blog posting, sorry about that.

Right now my "extra" time is being used to pamper Sue. I will be getting back to regular updates, really I will.