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[guest author] Making the introductions

Hey, I’m one of the “we” and not so secret anymore!

I’m pleased as punch to be part of the lame mage development crew. I’ve had it easy, playtesting and having fun, maybe doing a little proofing and spell checking here and there, but now I’m working on my own projects and all I can say is, this stuff is hard! It’s hard to come up with mechanics or components that work for your genre or vision without turning it into a different game. It’s hard to remember what your vision is once you dig in and forget to come up for air. It’s hard to keep motivated and to remember what it is that even got you excited about the whole thing in the first place.

I’ve found that keeping a short bulleted list of what I think the game should be and what an ideal scene looks like helps. I expect that things will change, possibly completely, but I find that state where the ideas are just a crazy jumble of game mechanics, scene ideas and slightly different genres extremely overwhelming and not useful.

I’m working on a couple of ideas that I’ll write about soon, but maybe after a little more time in the oven. Unless, of course, I really need an outlet for that existential pain.

Skyla aka Ping

For Ars Ludi readers, Skyla was the name of one of my West Marches characters, arrested and exiled, but still my favorite.

    Guest Author: Ping | January 6th, 2008 | | leave a comment