Just added another video in the Thoughts and Questions series, and thinking about some other ideas to work on. Probably gonna shift some of my development focus to z10 for a while, I potentially have several players interested and hope to begin a full-blown campaign in the near future.
One of the next projects I plan to work on is a segment in which I review or simply talk about various media and games, that I've experienced or played, as well as check out new things and discuss them. There's a lot I'm working on right now, and I hope to soon be sharing it
A good Thursday to you all,
Alturiigo
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Character Design and Development
First I'd like to start out by saying that the context for development is as a creator, not from the context of story-writing or the audience. That being said, I'll jump in
Maybe it's a passion of mine, maybe it's just something I love; either way, character creation is my jelly. I believe I discovered it most through role-playing games, some of the first ones I got into being Icewind Dale and its expansion and sequel. Though even in these games the character's personalities and histories weren't really all that existent, except for through dialogue and how you perceived them to be. Even this early on I began to imagine my characters in some grander fiction beyond the game. That's not to say I wrote or even dreamt(gonna do it anyways spell-check) up stories for these characters, just that somehow, they had some place in the grand canon of my imagination.
Probably after sophomore year or so I began to get into TableTop, primarily AD&D 3rd Edition, and subsequently v3.5. Creating characters for these games forced me to realize them on my own, and really design what I thought of the character to be. It often starts with the simplest of backstories, and as you experience the world through the character, you start making these connections about how they might feel. Bringing it back to topic, this is when I feel I did the most growth in my love of character creation. As I played more I also began to take on the role of DM or GM, guiding the game, story, and characters through the session.
Here is where that love I developed was able to really take off, because I had all of this creative need in creating campaigns. Looking back, it was a ShadowRun campaign I designed that made me really think about game design. I created a rich environment and cast for the players to interact with and structured the play. Now, I was getting somewhere(and fortunately for you that's a segue to the home stretch).
After falling out of TableTop play for a while, I decided to get back into it, found some players, and began creating a system for a zombie apocalypse system. It was a short-lived campaign, but it was fun. A few months later I had another opportunity to GM, so I transposed my d10 Zombie Apocalypse core system to a sci-fi setting. Thus d10: Visceroth Cluster was born, and four years later I'm still working on it. In those years, the characters I laid out, some as early as the very beginning, have only become more cemented as characters in my mind, earning their own place in my Imagination Canon.
Do you have your own little worlds and characters in your imagination? ... do- do you have an imagination?...
Maybe it's a passion of mine, maybe it's just something I love; either way, character creation is my jelly. I believe I discovered it most through role-playing games, some of the first ones I got into being Icewind Dale and its expansion and sequel. Though even in these games the character's personalities and histories weren't really all that existent, except for through dialogue and how you perceived them to be. Even this early on I began to imagine my characters in some grander fiction beyond the game. That's not to say I wrote or even dreamt(gonna do it anyways spell-check) up stories for these characters, just that somehow, they had some place in the grand canon of my imagination.
Probably after sophomore year or so I began to get into TableTop, primarily AD&D 3rd Edition, and subsequently v3.5. Creating characters for these games forced me to realize them on my own, and really design what I thought of the character to be. It often starts with the simplest of backstories, and as you experience the world through the character, you start making these connections about how they might feel. Bringing it back to topic, this is when I feel I did the most growth in my love of character creation. As I played more I also began to take on the role of DM or GM, guiding the game, story, and characters through the session.
Here is where that love I developed was able to really take off, because I had all of this creative need in creating campaigns. Looking back, it was a ShadowRun campaign I designed that made me really think about game design. I created a rich environment and cast for the players to interact with and structured the play. Now, I was getting somewhere(and fortunately for you that's a segue to the home stretch).
After falling out of TableTop play for a while, I decided to get back into it, found some players, and began creating a system for a zombie apocalypse system. It was a short-lived campaign, but it was fun. A few months later I had another opportunity to GM, so I transposed my d10 Zombie Apocalypse core system to a sci-fi setting. Thus d10: Visceroth Cluster was born, and four years later I'm still working on it. In those years, the characters I laid out, some as early as the very beginning, have only become more cemented as characters in my mind, earning their own place in my Imagination Canon.
Do you have your own little worlds and characters in your imagination? ... do- do you have an imagination?...
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Where am I going with this?
It's something I ask myself quite frequently, even just throughout a normal day. What do I hope to accomplish? Most of the time I settle with my own perspective that in the end, my goal is often insignificant or only of self-worth. Lately over the years I've tried to become less hesitant to share things that I believe no one wants to hear, not because I believe I have unique incredible thoughts, but rather... wait where am I going with this?...
There's some saying like, "The secret's in the telling", and to be honest I don't really read into it super far to see what it makes me think. But through my personal context and filters, it gives me an impression that to some degrees as social creatures, there's a nature to sharing our thoughts and feelings that I consider to be a part of human mindset(a bit of a generalization but I'm not coming from the context of "fact and professional opinion"). Did I do a poor job of explaining myself? Honest question.
Maybe I can say it better, like: While having a thought is amazing of its own merit, its existence is also in that of its shared experience.
Also, I'm working on a second Thoughts and Questions video for ma YouTube channel so I hope to post that in the next couple days(gotta fix the sound... ugh).
Also for tonight's drink is the Iced Spiced Cider... or we'll see if I can make that work anyways
Enjoy Your Wednesdays Everypony!!!(spell check, stop hatin')
-Alturiigo
There's some saying like, "The secret's in the telling", and to be honest I don't really read into it super far to see what it makes me think. But through my personal context and filters, it gives me an impression that to some degrees as social creatures, there's a nature to sharing our thoughts and feelings that I consider to be a part of human mindset(a bit of a generalization but I'm not coming from the context of "fact and professional opinion"). Did I do a poor job of explaining myself? Honest question.
Maybe I can say it better, like: While having a thought is amazing of its own merit, its existence is also in that of its shared experience.
Also, I'm working on a second Thoughts and Questions video for ma YouTube channel so I hope to post that in the next couple days(gotta fix the sound... ugh).
Also for tonight's drink is the Iced Spiced Cider... or we'll see if I can make that work anyways
Enjoy Your Wednesdays Everypony!!!(spell check, stop hatin')
-Alturiigo
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Oh Hey There!
I've become more and more interested with this social experiment we call the internets, and have decided I'd like to be more interactive with it. So once again I'm trying to see if I have to interest and commitment to being an active part of the communities within said experiment.
But anyhoo I've decided to vlog potentially as well, just kinda share my thoughts. Also just noticed that spell check didn't give me flak for "kinda". So as I was saying, vlog, YouTube, check it out. Or don't. Link provided below, find your own Navi... poor joke but whatevs
Thoughts and Questions: A Start
But anyhoo I've decided to vlog potentially as well, just kinda share my thoughts. Also just noticed that spell check didn't give me flak for "kinda". So as I was saying, vlog, YouTube, check it out. Or don't. Link provided below, find your own Navi... poor joke but whatevsThoughts and Questions: A Start
A Shift In View
If you knew me personally, you'd probably know that I have pretty mixed feelings about the Internet and things like YouTube and Facebook. My major beef is with Facebook I suppose, it's mostly the mounds of garbage that YouTube also has to carry on sheer principle that causes some dislike. My view about the Internet(it's been more hate than love) has been shifting lately towards a more positive shade.
So what's been causing this? A few things, which in many ways is just more so me finally finding personal interest and investment in what is out there, but I'd like to discuss what I'm seeing and how it's changing the way I see the Internet.
YouTube Subscriptions. Simple enough, and they've been around assumedly(don't care spell check) as long as the site itself. But what I've recently come to realize as I've discovered vloggers that interest me, is that YouTube is doing a great job of networking interests, an example of which is Geek and Sundry. Albeit I'm a "geek" or whatever, but it's the concept of a channel covering a general interest group *and* helping to support that community become further strengthened. Subscriptions also help support and help provide statistics for people creating and sharing in the community, and I suppose maybe I should specify that it's primarily the effects of subscriptions that makes me appreciate them.
LEARNING! Being up at four or five in the morning, boredom is a common enemy and our mind wanders. Something that is an interesting occurrence and not limited to myself, is somehow ending up reading or watching something that's educational, discussing various aspects or science, math, art, literature, what-have-you. I mean holy hay, at four in the morning last night I was watching a YouTube video about the sound and how that ear processes things and... just... it was AWESOME. And I learned.
Community. For me, this isn't just an incredibly overconnected concept of complete social sharing of every facet of our lives and a sense of commercialization of the everyday life(just my general feelings), but rather a cohesive sense of a common interest or mindset, that is (almost always) self-aware and well, I'm not sure how far into defining community I care to go. The intent of my use in the context is to show how it brings groups of people together and helps their interests reach new places and realizations, and hell yeah I'm biased, but I think the Brony Community is a good example. There are many creative minds in the Brony community, such as artists, animators, musicians, writers, analysts, and they are all working with and playing off of each other. The openness of sharing of this creative content seems to have fostered even more content to be created(circular!), and I believe that's one of the many factors that's helped cause the community to grow as it has. The thing is, it's not just self-satisfying, the Brony Community has also helped people within and outside of its community, with fundraisers and other types of events to help support people, or as they are more likely to say, "to help spread love, tolerance, and friendship".
But I digress, since this isn't about how I love MLP:FiM. It's about how I'm starting to allow myself to hate the internet less, because I'm starting to see some of the potential it has become more realized. It's not to say I never saw the potential for the internet to do "good", and it's still going to be a while before some of the best things it will bring will be truly realized by society. I'm starting to see promise though, and maybe some of the subtle shifts I'm seeing occur are actually signs of a cultural revolution in which people are finally starting to support each other, and can maybe one day learn... love and tolerance.
-Alturiigo
So what's been causing this? A few things, which in many ways is just more so me finally finding personal interest and investment in what is out there, but I'd like to discuss what I'm seeing and how it's changing the way I see the Internet.
YouTube Subscriptions. Simple enough, and they've been around assumedly(don't care spell check) as long as the site itself. But what I've recently come to realize as I've discovered vloggers that interest me, is that YouTube is doing a great job of networking interests, an example of which is Geek and Sundry. Albeit I'm a "geek" or whatever, but it's the concept of a channel covering a general interest group *and* helping to support that community become further strengthened. Subscriptions also help support and help provide statistics for people creating and sharing in the community, and I suppose maybe I should specify that it's primarily the effects of subscriptions that makes me appreciate them.
LEARNING! Being up at four or five in the morning, boredom is a common enemy and our mind wanders. Something that is an interesting occurrence and not limited to myself, is somehow ending up reading or watching something that's educational, discussing various aspects or science, math, art, literature, what-have-you. I mean holy hay, at four in the morning last night I was watching a YouTube video about the sound and how that ear processes things and... just... it was AWESOME. And I learned.
Community. For me, this isn't just an incredibly overconnected concept of complete social sharing of every facet of our lives and a sense of commercialization of the everyday life(just my general feelings), but rather a cohesive sense of a common interest or mindset, that is (almost always) self-aware and well, I'm not sure how far into defining community I care to go. The intent of my use in the context is to show how it brings groups of people together and helps their interests reach new places and realizations, and hell yeah I'm biased, but I think the Brony Community is a good example. There are many creative minds in the Brony community, such as artists, animators, musicians, writers, analysts, and they are all working with and playing off of each other. The openness of sharing of this creative content seems to have fostered even more content to be created(circular!), and I believe that's one of the many factors that's helped cause the community to grow as it has. The thing is, it's not just self-satisfying, the Brony Community has also helped people within and outside of its community, with fundraisers and other types of events to help support people, or as they are more likely to say, "to help spread love, tolerance, and friendship".
But I digress, since this isn't about how I love MLP:FiM. It's about how I'm starting to allow myself to hate the internet less, because I'm starting to see some of the potential it has become more realized. It's not to say I never saw the potential for the internet to do "good", and it's still going to be a while before some of the best things it will bring will be truly realized by society. I'm starting to see promise though, and maybe some of the subtle shifts I'm seeing occur are actually signs of a cultural revolution in which people are finally starting to support each other, and can maybe one day learn... love and tolerance.
-Alturiigo
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Thoughts on Crafting Systems in Games
Crafting systems are great tools to help integrate and immerse players into a world or setting, and reward them for taking the time to explore, collect and develop these crafts. While personally I tend to enjoy this, there are times that it can detract from the experience as well.
While being a useful tool in creating depth, a crafting system that is critical to fundamental gameplay can often slow down the experience and cause player to have to "farm" for items(pretty sure I'm using that correctly). This, tends to aggravate me, as I would rather just be enjoying the story and my character than hunting down multitudes of the same opponent and hoping for a drop. I enjoyed the game Dark Cloud for PS2, and wanted to enjoy the sequel just as much. It even has a neat steam-punk feel to the game and I thought it was neat. But the game required laborious farming to operate the story-critical and over-zealous Georama system.
Just some thoughts on crafting in games. Also, d10(and z10 for that matter) include-have the capacity for, a crafting system based on schematics and a list of more generic materials and some rarer materials, and also requires various tools and equipment based on the level of skill required.
While being a useful tool in creating depth, a crafting system that is critical to fundamental gameplay can often slow down the experience and cause player to have to "farm" for items(pretty sure I'm using that correctly). This, tends to aggravate me, as I would rather just be enjoying the story and my character than hunting down multitudes of the same opponent and hoping for a drop. I enjoyed the game Dark Cloud for PS2, and wanted to enjoy the sequel just as much. It even has a neat steam-punk feel to the game and I thought it was neat. But the game required laborious farming to operate the story-critical and over-zealous Georama system.
Just some thoughts on crafting in games. Also, d10(and z10 for that matter) include-have the capacity for, a crafting system based on schematics and a list of more generic materials and some rarer materials, and also requires various tools and equipment based on the level of skill required.
Persistent Characters
I would like to begin by putting this into the context of the "head canon" of my imagination.
It's not hard for me to look back and say that this concept came strongly from the large number of RPG's I play, creating characters for a multitude of games. It's common to have a unique play style, in a way a personality created by the medium of video games through the direct relationship to the character via the controller(or keyboard or mouse). This personality became Sadie, and after playing various AMAZING rpg's with this character, Sadie, she grew into a more realized character concept. Lynn Moruul was also born of this method, a straight-forward assassin who lets her actions speak, though rarely are they heard. Even their "Aesthetic Persona"(thank you for a great term Digibrony) began to develop, allowing the characters to transcend genres and mediums more easily.
But as I review my more recent work, I find myself looking even further back. Certain characters and ideas have floated around in my imagination for upwards of 15+ years, still finding their way in as side characters or inspiration. Maybe it's my mild pack-rat tendencies, maybe I don't want to let go of my old ideas because I want to believe they might be good, whatever it is, I enjoy that my imagination has a world of its own even on a very broad scale.
It's not hard for me to look back and say that this concept came strongly from the large number of RPG's I play, creating characters for a multitude of games. It's common to have a unique play style, in a way a personality created by the medium of video games through the direct relationship to the character via the controller(or keyboard or mouse). This personality became Sadie, and after playing various AMAZING rpg's with this character, Sadie, she grew into a more realized character concept. Lynn Moruul was also born of this method, a straight-forward assassin who lets her actions speak, though rarely are they heard. Even their "Aesthetic Persona"(thank you for a great term Digibrony) began to develop, allowing the characters to transcend genres and mediums more easily.
But as I review my more recent work, I find myself looking even further back. Certain characters and ideas have floated around in my imagination for upwards of 15+ years, still finding their way in as side characters or inspiration. Maybe it's my mild pack-rat tendencies, maybe I don't want to let go of my old ideas because I want to believe they might be good, whatever it is, I enjoy that my imagination has a world of its own even on a very broad scale.
Friday, May 24, 2013
Oh, and Hello
Maybe some form of an introduction or explanation is in order. Ehem.
When not using my real name(such as in forums or online games or other instances when it's not normal or considered wise) I go by Alturiigo, which actually did not come from me trying to find a funny or different way to spell the words Alter and Ego. It came from a couple characters I designed, of which Altur came first, his character personality and certain design elements borrowed from a scrapped story idea. I liked Altur's sort of distant, somber personality, and really wanted to realize the character he should become. As I began to work on Echoes, and playing with the ideas of characters who had spirits bound or paired with them in some fashion, the character Iigo was born. Altur and Iigo were bound to each other... blah blah there's a whole story. I digress though. After the birth of the pairing, it seemed a great pen-name, as well as relevant to myself, even if for the most part that's not known.
Point of why I'm typing all this is because I often have tons of thoughts firing, and keeping the ideas bottled and also not talking about these creative passions of mine stifles my ability to create within them. When I was running a game with my d10 System I was able to produce copious amounts of work on the system and the setting, my muse was with me and I was continuously inspired as I used the system.
On a side note, I'm a Brony, a bartender(I love mixing drinks and generally the nature of bartending), I'm a geek, and while I wouldn't say I'm a writer or an artist, I love creating stories and characters and settings and creatures and backstories and histories and... you get the idea.
When not using my real name(such as in forums or online games or other instances when it's not normal or considered wise) I go by Alturiigo, which actually did not come from me trying to find a funny or different way to spell the words Alter and Ego. It came from a couple characters I designed, of which Altur came first, his character personality and certain design elements borrowed from a scrapped story idea. I liked Altur's sort of distant, somber personality, and really wanted to realize the character he should become. As I began to work on Echoes, and playing with the ideas of characters who had spirits bound or paired with them in some fashion, the character Iigo was born. Altur and Iigo were bound to each other... blah blah there's a whole story. I digress though. After the birth of the pairing, it seemed a great pen-name, as well as relevant to myself, even if for the most part that's not known.
Point of why I'm typing all this is because I often have tons of thoughts firing, and keeping the ideas bottled and also not talking about these creative passions of mine stifles my ability to create within them. When I was running a game with my d10 System I was able to produce copious amounts of work on the system and the setting, my muse was with me and I was continuously inspired as I used the system.
On a side note, I'm a Brony, a bartender(I love mixing drinks and generally the nature of bartending), I'm a geek, and while I wouldn't say I'm a writer or an artist, I love creating stories and characters and settings and creatures and backstories and histories and... you get the idea.
Ugh...
Writer's block or maybe more specifically creativity blocks are something I find myself dealing with frequently, and it's possibly due to the fact that the projects I dream up are much larger than my attention will usually hold. I've been working on a tabletop system using only the ten-sided dice, and three(is it four?) years later I still feel like I have the most daunting work ahead of me. Then there's Echoes, are story spanning three stages in a characters life set against the setting of a world where there's a spirit world tied to our own.
The d10 System is fun in that I can create short stories that have a place in the setting and help explore it deeper, but in another light that distracts me to a level I suppose. Another fun-interesting-whatever note is that the d10 System that I've spent so much time developing for the Visceroth Cluster sci-fi setting began as a modern-day zombie tabletop, that I ran with a few players. More recently I've been revisiting those origins and playing around with the gameplay design, as well as looking further into the NPC's and their development. And the zombie concepts while not original, added a depth to how I could use them, and I feel like it added new potential for stress and horror in the roleplaying experience.
Every time I see any of my Echoes drawings(which is frequently), I remember how much I enjoyed those characters and the general experiences I saw them going through over the course of the stories. They were fun to imagine, and some of my favorite doodles are of characters from the series. One of the major problems I'm having is deciding the medium I'd even think that it would feel best in, as well as what is feasible for me to accomplish. Echoes is in some ways my own "anime fanfic" if you will, though not specifically of any one. Something that I've enjoyed in the various animes I've watched is that very commonly they represent a journey(whether an actually trip or a personal discovery), and shows the character's progression as they realize who they are and what their role is to play. That's not to say I'm some amazing writer who can pull that off. Just that I like that type of story. Also I enjoy it's capacity as a story-telling medium, and it's a frame of reference that my brain feels comfortable developing in.
There are various other characters and doodles I've worked on, including doodles of myself and friends in a cartoon style I began using... about junior year in high school. So... a while ago. Anyhoo... that's about all for now
The d10 System is fun in that I can create short stories that have a place in the setting and help explore it deeper, but in another light that distracts me to a level I suppose. Another fun-interesting-whatever note is that the d10 System that I've spent so much time developing for the Visceroth Cluster sci-fi setting began as a modern-day zombie tabletop, that I ran with a few players. More recently I've been revisiting those origins and playing around with the gameplay design, as well as looking further into the NPC's and their development. And the zombie concepts while not original, added a depth to how I could use them, and I feel like it added new potential for stress and horror in the roleplaying experience.
Every time I see any of my Echoes drawings(which is frequently), I remember how much I enjoyed those characters and the general experiences I saw them going through over the course of the stories. They were fun to imagine, and some of my favorite doodles are of characters from the series. One of the major problems I'm having is deciding the medium I'd even think that it would feel best in, as well as what is feasible for me to accomplish. Echoes is in some ways my own "anime fanfic" if you will, though not specifically of any one. Something that I've enjoyed in the various animes I've watched is that very commonly they represent a journey(whether an actually trip or a personal discovery), and shows the character's progression as they realize who they are and what their role is to play. That's not to say I'm some amazing writer who can pull that off. Just that I like that type of story. Also I enjoy it's capacity as a story-telling medium, and it's a frame of reference that my brain feels comfortable developing in.
There are various other characters and doodles I've worked on, including doodles of myself and friends in a cartoon style I began using... about junior year in high school. So... a while ago. Anyhoo... that's about all for now
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