Working on a thing

I have / had a few new spells and critters to actually post but then I misplaced the scribbler I wrote them in.  Am working on that.  *facepalming*


That said, since Xmas I've also put together a beta outline for and am roughing out a few of the parts of a fantastical-Egypt setting.  (Yes, this again.) 

Right now I'm trying to decide whether I should keep my chosen city names as they are (the actual place names) or change them so this is more "fantasy not-Egypt" instead of "fantasy Egypt"; this is the kind of thing that I fret over endlessly, blah.  I'm also trying to decide how much to put in this thing in general -- too much detail is probably bad, not enough will make it short and pointless -- and also trying not to have the vapours over writing more than a few critters / oh gawd what about art / I am horrible at formatting / etc etc. 

Basically the biggest hurdle is that I panic and abandon the project again.  I'm good at that, unfortunately.

Musing of Posting

I've been contemplating a wee little setting writeup for the Red Box as of late, a village or town or two and a few minidungeons with some broad-brush wider setting hints, and those contemplations have been spawning a few creations.  So I'm working on clawing past the posting paralysis for a little.

(no, seriously, it's taken me nigh onto three weeks just to brass up and get this far.)

I'm not making any promises of daily (aiie) or continuing regular postings, but hopefully I'll get a bit more added at least ;3  Just the gribbly bits, I won't bog the blog down in setting material meanderings.

Onward --

The Merry Ides of March: A Plan, I May Has One

Or, How the hamster hopes to kick into gear again --

When I started up this blog, I hadn't counted on the sheer amount of material I was about to produce and toss up on it -- it was a grand time, but I couldn't maintain it forever and I only hurt myself by trying, especially after a few events (the most significant of which has nothing to do with gaming) put me in a place where I just wasn't writing my best. 2010 kept up that feeling of burnout compounded with other unpleasantness and the motivation just wasn't there.

But that's enough of that --

I had intended for 2011 to start off better, but crazed holidays, dental surgery and a phenomenally bad extended flu (I don't remember almost half of January ~!) kind of squashed that flat. Until now.

Starting with the beginning of March, I'm going to try to start posting at least semi-regularly again. I can't guarantee the output of my first year, the length of some of those posts or even always the same kind of material; but I'll be giving it a shot to at least be posting something that might see some use ;3

The Blogging From A to Z April Challenge (as passed along by Chris from the Vaults of Nagoh over here) also looks rather intriguing, I have to say ~

Let's give this a shot, shall we?

Egypt Gazetteer thoughts: on clerics.

Well, it looks like I'm actually devoting some brainpower to trying to make this work. Naturally, almost immediately I find myself having Deep Thoughts -- in this case about the four classes and what I plan to do with them.

The cleric is being, to put it kindly, a pain in the arse.

You see, the concept of a "cleric" or "priest" as it exists in the modern Western world (and in many other modern places for that matter) is of an individual who feels a higher calling, called to serve a higher power, preach the word, etc. etc, and this carries over into D&D with the benefits of getting nifty spells and the ability to smite (or control) the undead. Which is cool; I love me some crusaderish types with a warhammer or the pious healer types. It's all good.

But for the vast, vast majority of pharonic history in Egypt, it wasn't like that. Ye hells, there wasn't even an established priestly "social class" until the New Kingdom -- serving at a temple was something the middle class and the nobility did as a job, as a duty. They had seasonal shift-work at the temples, even. And when the concept of an "official" priesthood developed in the New Kingdom it was still more of a job than what we often define as "priest": one could be granted a priesthood as a sinecure, much like any other title, and men could pass on their positions to their sons. Certainly a lowly we'eb could work his way up the priestly ranks, but it was often more like looking for a promotion.

Priestly duties are also different from what the Western world is used to. The Egyptian priest maintains the rituals of the temple and performs the offerings to the god's statue in return for the benefices of the god in question to be given to the people -- a business transaction of sorts -- and because the rituals maintain the order of the universe so that the gods can do their thing. (The offerings to the deity were then distributed to the temple staff as part of their wages!) Very much an "I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine" sort of thing. This is why, when shrines and temples fell into disrepair such as during the Amarna interlude, the gods were said to not answer; humanity wasn't holding up its end of the bargain.

All of this isn't to say that there wasn't faith in Egypt -- there certainly was. In many ways, though, it was a very D&D-ish way of faith, with it's "I'll do x if you do y" (leaving aside how even the faithful will cheerfully threaten the gods when using magical incantations -- which the sun god gave to humanity as its perogative).

So, should there even be a "cleric class"? Or should it be subsumed into the other classes as something any given character may do as a profession? Much of the mechanical abilities assigned to the class fit just as well with an Egyptian "wizard" if not moreso. On the other hand, tweaking a few things to add a bit more flavour and keep the fourth class probably wouldn't break the metaphorical bank even if it might feel a little redundant to me as I write it.

Deep thoughts, blaergh ...

Historical settings: What elements?

When in the market for a historical setting -- for any rpg, really, though since I'm writing for Classic D&D on this blog one can take that as a starting-point -- what do you look for?

More to the point, what sort of information and details do you expect to find, and want to find, in a historical setting? New critters, magic, class tweaks or descriptions of how classes fit in? An overview of the history and culture in question? Location descriptions? New fiddly systems ...?

How much historical accuracy is too much, or too little? Should the "fantastic" elements fit the culture, the general theme, or does it matter?

I'd love to hear your opinions ~!

Red Box thoughts

You know you've been trundling along with something too long when you entertain thoughts of how you would like to rewrite it, if you could.

Recently I've been mulling over the idea of what I would put in a "Red Box" of levels 1-3 D&D. What critters, what sort of items; would I add or remove classes, or make alterations to the classes in the Mentzer box (my preferred Red Box) ... Could I condense an itty bitty gazetteer of sorts, give a starting-point for an adventure or two?

This, predictably, soon attracted the question of "Could I make this self-contained?". Hyper-low-level gaming is hardly everyone's cup of tea, but we've gotten a goodly fair bit of mileage from it. A self-contained Red Box may require other adjustments in and of itself; something else to ponder over.


If nothing else, it's turning into an entertaining mental exercise. I may post further ramblings on the subject.

Project cancellation and reconsideration.

After spending the last two months in a never-ending spiral of not getting things written (though what could only be described as sheer fear and writer's paralysis) for the elemental project, then not getting proper posts done on the blog (out of guilt for not working on the project), then provoking further paralysis through not making proper posts and not breaking through the wall to get work done, I have concluded that I will have to fold the project.

(I can't even fathom what to do with the blog material to collect it into a publishable form, and the idea frankly makes my head spin; how can I possibly manage to write and assemble what I had in mind? *flailing forever*)

There are a few other factors that have led to this, but by and large the blame falls squarely on myself.

I do have some material, mostly critters and a few items, in postable or almost-postable format. I have no trouble doing so if people would like to see them rather than my sitting on them in the hopes I get the brass to find my muse again.

Perhaps I may be better off leaning towards short pdfs or booklets (if I have the brass at all), until I stop panicking. There is the Egypt idea; that would be, at least, a familiar and comfortable subject. Though I still have no idea what to actually do with the material once produced ...


Please understand that I feel massive guilt at having to call this off (at least for the time being), but I have gotten quite utterly nowhere in the last month and am about to chew my hand off with other massive guilt at having not finished the bloody thing by now and therefore kept people waiting. And my ability to blog has also suffered.

I do offer my greatest of apologies, and if anyone wants to ask questions or suchsort feel free.

Shoutout: Three Headed Monster Games

Three Headed Monster Games is a newly-minted collaboration dedicated to helping fledgling game writers, designers and ...

Ahh, ye hells. They speak better for themselves than I ever could. :3

Go, look, read -- this is just what the doctor ordered!