World of the Fifth Sun progress 2014 to 1018

Summer of 2014

Everything really began in 2014 when during the summer I came across NaNoWriMo. Sometime around the mid or late summer I decided to try writing a novel during November. I remember checking out several books and taking notes on how to write novels.

I created Song and Fire, a short novel set in a world that I called the Ea, the World of the Fifth Sun.

2015

For a more complete look at 2015 summary, see my 2016 year end review of 2015 post.

I remember revising Song and Fire during January of 2015. While this first novel only sold a few copies, it spurred me to return to tabletop RPGs after 20 years. This book's mythology is that Ea is on the third planet on the fifth sun or 'sol' in a series of worlds, each proceeding world having been destroyed in a war of gods. I can actually easily move this story into an Aioskoru human region if I wanted to.

I began World of the Fifth Sun blog on March 13, 2015.

Exploring into RPG engine source documents

I created several documents which would inspire generator and engine products this year in 2018. 

Much of my Character Generator and flaws was initially created in the Stories vs RPGs series and resulting book.

July of 2015 my nephew in my family was tragically killed by a drunk driver.

I began my Rolemaster beta testing experience around this time as well.

In October, I began creating Aioskoru.

October 28 I began trying to build Aioskoru using online random content generators and learning to expand map techniques. 

November I wrote my 2nd novel, a collection of short stories for the World of the Fifth Sun which resulted in two of the short stories being released Worn and Lanic. Although only those two stories were ever published in one small volume, I still have the remaining stories unedited in my collection. I might be able to do something in the future with this old unreleased content.

I ended the year with more map creation techniques which resulted in techniques used in Quick free maps series and book in 2016.

2016

For a more complete look at 2015 summary, see my 2016 year end review of 2016 post.

2016 began by finishing my map making techniques. 

I then switched to fantasy constructed languages. 

Dice, card, and probability brought me to ABS12 creation series. This was actually my 3rd RPG game attempt after a WotFS Fudge and FAE versions which are actually inspirations for One-Roll Fudge RPG, which were never published anywhere. While A Basic System 12 (ABS12) V1.08 may not be great in it's entirety, pieces of that game are great and are actual pieces such as the Plot Generator and Fact Generator. 

In mid 2016 summer, I began selling products on DriveThru and RPGNow. First, maps were my topic. It quickly switched to Aioskoru and the Solo Game Engine and Fact Generator (which are pieces of ABS12).

In late that year, I began creating Fairy language, which is a test into the possible content of books such as Elvish Language. I've had words written for Elvish since earlier this 2016 year but have changed much of it in it's current form. It is based, however, on the same words. Fairy would be published first since I knew that I owned the rights to this invented language.

5e x 5 was really the emphasis at the end of this year 2016.

Comparing open gaming systems during this year also fueled my more recent Parallel Open Gaming Systems products.

2017

2017 began by finishing 5e x 5 products for a few months. Later, Character Gen (based on Stories vs RPGs) vs, Description Gen (item focus), and Motivation Gen  (based on Stories vs RPGs) were released. 

In the blog, I began with finishing my Fairy Language which I would release a year later in PDF.

My Aioskoru Myth Making series created early 2017 has yet to be published anywhere except on my blog.

The Star Frontiers blog series helped inspire me to complete 5e x 5 Future Characters later during the year. 

In the middle of the year 2017, my MERP Collectors Edition series helped to quench my RMX anger.

Next post

Tomorrow, I might look at some goals that I wrote at the beginning of 2017 and see if there is any inspiration there.

Looking back at 2018 WotFS blog

My blog was rather quiet during the beginning of the 2018 year. Most of my actual effort this year was releasing new content. It began with 5ex5 Future Characters at the beginning of the year. After that, I turned to one of my long-term goals of expanding the solo gaming series which I began long ago breaking off pieces of the ABS12 system.

Prior to 2018

What had began with the ABS12 solo game engine in 2016, and led to the release of Character Gen, Description Gen, and Motivation Gen in 2017, really expanding in 2018.

Products released

Chronologically plot, theme, mood, emotion, outdoor, indoor, animal, knowledge, sound, body language, flash rpg, human, dream, dialogue, career, foe, communication, behavior, relationships, twists, flaws, scene actions, transitions, 3 conflicts, reaction scenes, social & mental traits, and emotional reactions were tools released during this year culminating in the two mechanisms books and the setting all-in-one. I feel good about this years batch of products. Some are more successful than others.

Flash RPG Blog series

With this blog, I didn't return to writing until Flash RPG was released. I began with 5 examples of using Flash RPG in late May to early June leading up to Flash Fiction Appreciation Day.

Character Mechanisms Blog Series

In October, I created a series using the tools of Character Mechanisms. Dakota was the resulting character created during this period of 9 posts.

November Writing Month

During the month of November, I completed a project to writing a game system and setting. One-Roll Fudge RPG and an unreleased Aioskoru setting was created during this month. This setting information hopefully will provide inspiration and direction in the future. It certainly felt fulfilling to write some fiction after a few years of rules and list creation, which are satisfying in a different way.

MeWe establishment instead of G+

I've established a small presence on MeWe for social media.

December Story Mechanisms Blog Series

During the month of December, I began and haven't finished yet a story generating series using Story Mechanisms. This series I plan to continue into January of 2019.

Blood in Space Blog Series

I wanted to get some hands on experience with other Fudge systems. This series I plan on continuing into 2019.

A comparative look at MERP vs RM Express vs HARP

I sort of continued a MERP series that I started a few years ago with this possible new series. I don't know how much more I can sustain this series. It is ranked lower on my priority since these products are rather old and low priority. I did learn a lot about myself already from this initial comparison.

Next post

I want to go back to my annual reviews that I have done in the past and see how this blog has progressed so far. Doing so might help me figure out a new direction for 2019.

Story Mechanisms: creating a story profile instructions (part 7)

Click on image to enlarge

Story sheet after this session which includes this 2nd Conflict

This is the sheet of what has been created so far.

https://www.rpgnow.com/product/257257/Story-Mechanisms

Expanding the story part 3

So far in this series I've made a basic story structure sheet, began constructing a story by selecting the basic story elements, decided to star the main character Dakota, created an argument opening scene between Dakota and Rowan, wrote an inciting event, and created a first conflict from that inciting event.

Next, I'll roll for a second conflict.

Second Conflict

Why: flashback to original cause of conflict

What I will do with this writing challenge is maybe begin with Dakota going to try finding Rowan and then begin to question what happened. I will then do a flashback I will test to find out if Dakota finds out what actually happened to help explain why and maybe help for the final conflict.

Roll for difficulty challenge of second conflict.

Moderate, Inconvenient

This probably should use soul for social ability and investigate skill.

Roll for resolution for soul & investigate = (fair (0)+ fair (0)) + roll (6) =  A die roll of 6 automatically succeeds. Despite the challenge you succeeded with great effort and luck.




Several people knew Rowan a little bit.

Despite being mostly reclusive, Rowan did speak with a few.

Rowan would speak about the great historical Expansion-age as a great elvish time in history, almost a golden age. Most interesting to Rowan, was the ancient magical arts. Rowan tried to learn everything in books and at the site about magical use, historical battles involving magic, and even the dark arts.

Dakota, through great effort and a little luck was able to track down the last known home of Rowan.

Dakota walked towards the home that Rowan had been living in recently.

Several families lived in this part of the village.

Asking around, many didn't know Rowan's name, and was known however when being described.

Finally, Dakota found the last known home.

It was empty—not even a single piece of furniture.

Asking around brought no answer at first. Dakota however, persisted deep past nightfall. When Dakota was about to leave and go home,  one person finally nodded yes. One person described a few days ago, that same day that Dakota had hit Rowan, as the last day seen there.

Rowan had come home kicking at rocks, hitting the wall, and slammed the door shut.

The following day, Rowan packed up a handcart filled with belongings and left the home, heading towards the northern gate.



Next posts So far, the story has resolved the first and second conflict. The next post will go into the final conflict.

Story Mechanisms: creating a story profile instructions (part 6)

Click on image to enlarge

This is the sheet of what has been created so far.

https://www.rpgnow.com/product/257257/Story-Mechanisms

Expanding the story part 2

So far in this series I've made a basic story structure sheet, began constructing a story by selecting the basic story elements, decided to star the main character Dakota, and in last post created an argument opening scene between Dakota and Rowan.

Next, I'll roll for an inciting event. 

Inciting Event

Something important destroyed

Now I need to brainstorm. First, I'll write some of the prior keywords.

physical-based story
Dakota's social acknowledgment and self-actualizing from ugliness motivation
stop or destroy either the foe or the foes' giant ooze creatures
trying to attack an elvish village
archaeological dig, elvish ancient ruins, Expansions-age
character might be considered ugly
magical candelabra
stinky glob of ooze
"I'll kill you," Dakota heard Rowan say.

My main question is "what is the important thing destroyed."

Maybe it can relate to the archaeological dig. Maybe it can involve the ooze. Maybe it can involve the village.

I know! A archaeological golden statue is found.




Dakota scraped away dirt revealing gold.

Soon more frantic, Dakota quickly removed dirt until face to foot, a mysterious beautiful lady stood regal and powerfully looking at Dakota.

News quickly spread throughout the camp of the discovery.

Later that day, most of the elegant statue had carefully been uncovered from layers of dirt.

Dakota had even skipped eating.

What began as screams across the dig site soon amplified.

Looking towards the screams, a large bright blob slowly was moving this way.

Quickly standing, everyone moved away from the entombed room and moved outside.

The yellow ooze moved to the gold statue and surrounded it.

A sizzling sound and gray steam came from the blob and statue.

Dakota watched as the ultimate beautiful priceless find dissolved into molten blob.

The discovery was now gone.






Okay, now that sets the story up with a foe and a danger that Dakota must now be involved with.

First Conflict

What is needed to fight this foe?


The first conflict will be to try finding something to fight this ooze foe.

Difficulty Challenge: 1, easy; annoying.

Although the final conflict is going to be a physical one, this first conflict makes more sense being an investigation type conflict. I'll use my One-Roll RPG skill and stats mixed with my Flash RPG (RFRPG) and Three Conflict Chain RPG (3CC) rules.

I'll set up the challenge at the end of the inciting event.



Dakota needs stats.

I'm wording these using One-Roll Fudge RPG (ORF) terminology and stats, since I've recently made that game.

Mind: Good
Body: fair
Soul: Fair

Skill: Academics-archaeology: good (+1); fight-martial arts: fair (0); investigate: fair (0)

Roll for resolution for mind & investigate = (good (+1)+ fair (0)) + roll (2) = great (ORF) or +2 over the difficulty challenge for 3CC results Rolling over the difficulty by 2 means victory, with a twist. Although you succeeded roll for a twist to see what has changed.

Because of Dakota's fair

Twist

Rolling for twist result.

Twist in location.


Now time to write something out. The twist of location I'll fit into a different scene. Rowan will not be living nor staying at the same frequent location.

First a reaction scene





Dakota looked at pile of molten metal and gold. Dakota felt a sinking feeling—most of the excitement now turned to dread and hopelessness.

This was supposed to by my career-making discovery!

"Why did the blob eat the statue," one younger assistant asked.

Why indeed? "I don't know," Dakota simply said.

Dakota's mind filled with painful images, the glugging, slurping, and glurping sounds amplified.

And then the horrific event ended.

Dakota looked towards the ooze moving away from the area. Rowan stood and smiled—almost in glee—holding the candelabra up and nodding this way.

I need to find something to resist acid, Dakota thought. Or destroy it! Or stop —that person...

Dakota watched Rowan walk following the ooze off into the distance.




So, already Dakota should know who did it, what was used, and what caused ooze attack.
Dakota already solved how to fight the foe. And the character will now become an active participant in future conflict events. Rowan, however as a result of the twist, will not be easy to find.


Next posts
So far, the story has resolved the first conflict sort of by solving the first question quickly. The next post will go into the next conflict.

Story Mechanisms: creating a story profile instructions (part 5)

https://www.rpgnow.com/product/257257/Story-Mechanisms

Expanding the story

So far in this series I've made a basic story structure sheet and last time I began constructing a story by selecting a fantasy genre and the basic story elements, one of which I decided to star the main character Dakota that I created in October for Character Mechanisms.

Created last time

Based on the rolled results the story is a physical-based story where the main character must destroy either the foe or the foes' giant ooze creatures that are trying to attack an elvish village because of some social affection issue. The hero must stop or destroy the ooze in order to save the village.

Maybe Dakota at some point in the past interacted with each other, Dakota did something that created this desire to attack the village with the giant ooze. In all likelihood, The foe maybe was attracted to Dakota and wanted to pursue a relationship. Maybe this character might be considered ugly, which clashes with Dakota's social acknowledgment and self-actualizing from ugliness motivation.

Story Challenge

Using Story Mechanisms has challenged me with a story that I don't think that I would have ever created on my own. That is one great I think. It forces me to expand my writing ability. I do like how the story has a motive, the affection of the foe.

Story Themes and Conflicts

Themes

Three themes naturally can be assigned to this story which I find just looking over one of my charts for ideas. The affections is listed on my Theme Generator as affections vs feelings. For looks, I have vanity vs modesty. There is also love vs hate which fits a revenge motive.

Three Conflict Chain RPG

Opening

Although I know the main conflict, I want to look into the story for further conflicts and details. First is the beginning of the story.

A dialogue can help to establish the main character and the setting.

Argument between relationship.

Okay, so I will begin the story with an argument between two characters. I'll pull out one of my Character Mechanisms tool, the Dialogue Engine to do this.

I first look at the hostile/anger mood and topic chart.

Threat.
I'm/We’re going to...

In this argument, there is going to be a threat.

What type of character would be interesting to argue with Dakota—a skeptical charismatic character? 

I'll name the foe another gender neutral name, Rowan.

Probably a guardian type character that is trying to hold onto some type of ideal is the exact opposite of a skeptical character. Instead of questioning things, the guardian tries to preserve and return back to the past when things seemed to be better. Also, I can make this character more blunt and less charismatic. Appearance wise, maybe I can do something with elf ears. Maybe one elf ear is smaller than the other elf ear. And maybe his nose is bigger than normal. These two traits plus the blunt guardian personality might make this foe into a less attractive character.

Guardian

I/We should/have to… I (don't)
like...

I'm going to maybe use the archaeology of Dakota maybe as a common thread.

Both Rowan and Dakota are archaeologists excavating ancient elvish ruins when they come across something that causes an argument maybe it is something that leads to the giant ooze conflict. It could be an ancient powerful object.

I'll use Description Generator for some keywords.

11, 3 U shaped

This reminds me of a candelabra.

I'll try to throw some notes down for an argument scene over a candelabra at an elvish archaeological site. I'll just see where the writing takes these two characters.




Opening

"It's just a broken down brass lamp," Dakota said in a low quiet voice to Rowan.

Rowan eyebrows became tense and his uneven ugly ears turned red. "This is a magical candelabra, it's not junk." he said holding the bent and mangled crappy waste-of-time object in his hand. A small stinky glob of ooze pulsed where a candle should sit. "We have to preserve and study this Expansion-age power. It could be powerful. The ancients Expansions-age elves had greater knowledge and understanding than we even know today," Rowan said, looking at the object as if it were a lover.

"Huh? It's worthless and hideous," Dakota simply said.

Dakota turned to look towards the still-to-be excavated room. "Maybe there is a exquisite golden object somewhere in here."

A hand suddenly grabbed around from behind on the shirt collar.

Dakota smashed with a backfist, the fist hitting the ear of Rowan. Dakota heard Rowan hit the ground, but Dakota began to walk away.

Rowan then was breathing harder and harder, the air rushing in and out, echoing through the dig site chambers. His bulbous nose sniffled.

"I'll kill you," Dakota heard Rowan say. And then louder ,"I'll kill you!"

"Take your crappy thing and get away from me," Dakota said, deciding to stay away from Rowan for good.


I didn't know what this argument would look like until I wrote the words. It's good enough for now. I think I have written and developed the story enough for this post.

The next post

With that opening, the next posts I will try to figure out how the story can escalate.

Story Mechanisms: creating a story profile instructions (part 4)

Now for a Story Mechanisms instruction creation, testing, and example creation.

https://www.rpgnow.com/product/257257/Story-Mechanisms

Using the Story Plot Diagram

Here is the basic story structure constructed sheet.

Click on image to enlarge

This shows the basic structure of a story flow and information found in the Story Mechanisms book.

It shows the story beginning, middle, and end.

The slope is the rising tension up to the final conflict, the climax.

1. Flash RPG is the first book in the series. Flash RPG (FRPG) game adds the several fundamental story elements on to this diagram sheet: Genre, Setting, Foe, Conflict, Character, Result, and Lasting Effects are the main elements along with supporting elements. Since Story Mechanisms includes Plot and Foe Generators, I will use two d12 rolls and consult those charts instead of the d6 FRPG results.

Genre - The only information that will not be rolled is genre. Since I'm currently working with fantasy, I will pick the genre of the story as fantasy, otherwise that would have been my first roll.

Setting - City or area. This story will take place in a city, village, or town within the fantasy world of Aioskoru.

5, 10 Conflict - Destroy. This story will take place in the setting and involve need to destroy something.

7, 7 Foe - Seeker Person. In this story a person seeking something will be the cause of the danger.

Attribute - Body. The attribute to test will be a physical task.

2. Motivation Generator -  I need to roll the Motivation of the seeker person foe.

3, 2 the Foe Motivation is social, affection.

Based on these results the story is a physical based story where the main character must destroy either the foe or something related to the foe in order to help the city or area.

I use the Description Generator to see if it helps me to identify a possible item.

[Description Gen 4, 2 bouncing; 3, 3 enlarged]

These two words remind me of giant ooze blob creatures.

So the foe has giant ooze creatures and is trying to attack an Elvish village because of some social affection issue. The hero must stop or destroy the ooze in order to save the village.

For the main character, I will use Dakota, which I created using the Character Mechanisms.

In this next section I copy and pasted everything from those 9 posts about this character. For more details on how this character was created, see that series of posts which begin in October of this year (2018).

Dakota Character sheet.

This character can be used now, with high amount of detail, with a name, race, and maybe gender. Additional details can be added to this, if the character becomes more important.

Click to enlarge image of Dakota character profile.

Description

Hazel eyes

Fit looking character:  hourglass shaped.

Dark auburn, long, and straight hair.

Porcelain skin.
Large chest or breasts (DD/E cup)

Skeptic - They seek the truth. They are tempted to be elsewhere and self-sufficient, not asking for help. They fixated on vengeance and they objectify abstract concepts into concrete actions. They desire self-protection. They fear being controlled, harmed, or violated. Debate and lust are their common expressions. When not challenging others, they desire to be innocent.

Charismatic - has high charisma and presence. He/she is outgoing and expressive.

Guard - police, cop, deputy, security, sentinel, army, patrol, sentry, watchman, warder, warden, keeper, fighter

Temperance - temperance might represent self-control, restraint, or moderation. Or it might represent justice, humanity, or concern for others.

Lust - lust might be the self-absorbed desire for something. Lust might be wanting or needing something even something mysterious or unknown.

Motivation

social type motive, acknowledgment

self-actualization, ugliness

Mood

guilty type, blamed

Body Language

this character expresses guilt with a flushed or red face and changes the topic.

A Cinderella type story if it is a female. The guard type encounter, lusty vice, and curvaceous auburn headed description however differ from Cinderella.

Skeptic Behavior

Like: Think, Discuss 

Avoid: Feel 

Common Goal: Question, data, reason 

First behavior: Oppose 

Second behavior: Question 

Pressured: Seeker 

Relaxed: Caregiver

Speaking Voice

This character speaks in a quiet vocal tone most of the time. Okay, an opposing skeptic that speaks quiet.

resonance comes from chest

speaks in complex sentences

Either the character is educated or hangs around educated people and has picked up complex sentence dialogue.

Common Words

Oppose: "I don't believe...."

Question: "Why should/would I/we (have)…."

Relaxed Caregiver: "You, He, She, They should(n't) have...."

Initial Skeptic state

analyze function; to examine details or entirety = stimulus response; questions and answers.

Character Knowledge

social science, sociology

Sociology is the scientific study of society, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and culture of everyday life.

This character knows something about social relationships, culture, and interaction. Certainly this character is biased towards the character's motivation which was this.

This character's motive has already been generated: social, acknowledgment; self-actualize, ugliness. All through a charismatic-skeptical personality perspective. A life with a guilty past.

Character Career

history, geography, and anthropology, archaeologist

Archaeologist a specialist in archaeology, the scientific study of prehistoric peoples and their cultures by analysis of their artifacts, inscriptions, monuments, etc. 

Relationships

This character knows a designer, probably a clothing or armor designer. This relationship fits in nicely with the character's social, acknowledgment & self-actualize, ugliness motives.

Character Dream

I think the dream is that the character's mother is trying to reach the family cat in the road to save it from the oncoming structure, a vehicle. A swish sounds out, however, something is preventing her from reaching the cat even though there is plenty of time. The mother is nearly escaping, but can't quite break free from a dark tentacle-like force.

Story and Main Character

If I connect the Dakota to the foe of the story, maybe Dakota at some point in the past interacted with each other, Dakota did something that created this desire to attack the village with the giant ooze. In all likelihood, The foe maybe was attracted to Dakota and wanted to pursue a relationship. Maybe this character might be considered ugly, which clashes with Dakota's social acknowledgment and self-actualizing from ugliness motivation.

Maybe Dakota actually did something with this foe which results in a guilty conscience.

This will end first creation of the Story Mechanisms example section.