Adventure Writing Advice

My advice:

Don't come up with an adventure. Yep, this goes counter to a lot of other advice you'll find everywhere else.

What you want is for each player to make up a life goal for their PC, like 'Find my sister' or 'Build a grand cathedral' or 'Kill the man who sold me out and left me to die'

Then make up various forces in the area. Try to avoid 'if you don't stop them, the world will end' stuff.

Have a range - some forces might want to destroy a city. Others might just want to steal apples from an orchard. Write up three or so, ranging in size.

Then write up clues that would show these things are happening. Eg, creatures are stealing parts for a powerful arcane bomb in the night. Write up clues that could be found in a number of places - whether the players stay in a bar, delive underground or climb a mountain, try and write clues that could happen in as many of these places as possible - preferably all of them (though that can be hard).

Then write up how, if not interfeared with, these plans will happen over time.

Now do one or two more, per player, in regards to their own goals.

Finally, two things: accept that none of this material might get used!! The PC's might go and do something else. Let go of the idea everything you write will get used - don't fall in love with a piece of material and think 'this is gunna be so great when they do it' - because they might not do it. It's ok, setting wise it might be possible for it to happen another time. But if it's not possible anymore (it involves the king and the king died), just accept its gone. Sometimes its meant to happen, other times not.

And do not fear a split party!

(Sub note: Once again I wrote this somewhere else first )

Link : 'Back to Square One: toward a post-intentional future'

Could concerns, feelings and qualia be like money - in the respect that money can become deflated - even worthless and has no traction in whatever markets are around it?

That's exactly what you've been thinking about! ;)

http://scientiasalon.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/back-to-square-one-toward-a-post-intentional-future/

Open Mindedness

Once again indulging my habit of replying to others, then thinking "Hey, shouldn't that be on my blog?".

I just can't write the real good stuff* without a live conversation. Without a live virus.

Anyway, I wrote it on a blog by someone called Eric Kaplan - I think he writes fan fiction or something ;) Clearly just looking for a break into the big time! ;)

Anyway, the topic is open mindedness...because otherwise I'd have to edit the title of this post. And here is the reply I gave:

Thing is, I’m not sure many people are open minded about the ‘meta’ of open mindedness – ie, when they think they are being open minded, they are perhaps in some way actually closed minded.

In fact it makes sense that the more close minded you are, the less you would be open minded to the idea that you are close minded. In a Dunning-Kruger effect where the less competent you are, the less competent you are at identifying how incompetent you are. Here, the more close minded you are, the less open you are to the idea you’re incredibly close minded!

Being so very blind to the point where you are sure you see everything (check out Aton’s syndrome)
Who thinks, when they feel they are being open minded, that possibly, just possibly, just a thin chance maybe, they are being incredibly tiny minded idiots?

No one, because it takes a pinch of self lothing to do that. A pinch of salt over the shoulder. Somehow, in regular culture, open mindedness always involves realisations which are flattering to oneself.

* (by my own evaluation, anyway)

Looking at 'Clicka Lettuce Seed'

Clicka Lettuce Seed

I think I got lucky somehow. Or maybe the idle games market isn't saturated. Some other platformer games I've watched haven't gotten nearly as many plays in the time they were up.

2981 plays so far. So that's a few pluggings of the 'grow your own food' idea. Most of those were in the first two days. I only posted about it on the Stencyl forum, have been saving other options simply to get a better guage of effects. If I advertised on all the places I could think of, I wouldn't know which was contributing what.

Had a few bugs to fix - it's hard to catch them once you're used to the game. Probably should have had some way to test each hour quickly - without a way to go through the whole cycle of the game, you can't run a six hour playtest over and over.

So, I'm left wondering if I make a game with more action in it, will I get less plays? The next game is kind of a blend - part action (navigating the mazes of a natural landscape), part idle (gardening, again, of course!). In fact you can play the game as you choose, action or idle or a mutually beneficial mix of both. And a story in it!

It's a more ambitious project, having a features budget of around 25. Of course the budgets always get blown out, but I'm at feature 15 so far.

Clicka Lettuce Seed

X-Force, issue 007

Just wanted to say this issue is cray cray. It's got some really hard questions all packed in next to each other like kids on a back seat. Cable clones look forward to one day of life and then have to pop themselves or die in agony (presumably) and that's just the start. Privacy vs 'nothing to hide, nothing to fear' issues as well? Man, pile on the issues!

It's the sort of crazy thing that, while I acknowledge as hard to come up with and even harder to consistantly do, is what comics are damn good at and need to keep doing the thing they are good at.

Its an issue with issues. Which is what it should be. I'd recommend getting this one just to be baffled.

Also a neat cover of Domino on the front!