World of the Fifth Sun progress 2014 to 2019

The 2014 through 2018 information is copy past from last year's two summary posts. 2019 year review is newly types summarizing this years progress both in blog and writing projects.

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.

2018

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.

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

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.

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

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.

2019

During November and December, I created the Grammar Fuel series. The blog has several posts supporting and using these new tools and tables.

October saw the release of the fourth book in the mechanisms series, Environmental Mechanisms. Environmental Mechanisms is the result of one year of RPG tool development focusing on setting generating tools. While some of the tools are from 2018, all of the terrain tools found in the Minimalist Descriptive series were created in 2019. Setting tools became the main focus of 2019.

A few products were expanded upon and released in a 2nd edition in 2019. The solo game engine, fact generator, description generator, and the very fun to make d100 Gamemaster Surrogate-100 Shades of Nay...and Yea were released in 2019.

Orcish Language, the third Aioskoru Language, was released in 2019.

Combat tools such as the minimalist martial arts, minimalist combat, and the critical charts were released in 2019.

During the summer, this blog focused on writing qualities, innovation, and grammar.

Early summer, June, focused on flash fiction using Flash RPG.

5e x 5 saw two modern book releases—Modern Backgrounds and Modern Races.

So, 2019 was about parts of speech, setting/terrain, combat, and 2nd editions primarily

Winter Creative Writing: Plot

Winter Creative Writing: Plot

By Ken Wickham

Winter Creative Writing: Plot by Ken Wickham © 2019
All rights reserved.

This blog post or parts may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise for any other person—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Random Adventure Seed Generation

Following the steps found in the Minimalist Adventure Seed Engine

1. Conflict: Plot Generator 6,2 necessity - something is needed
2. Enemy: Foe Generator 2, 7 mammal - a vicious mammal is the antagonist or cause for what is needed
3. Theme: Theme Generator 12, 3 dueness vs undueness - the condition of being planned or expected at a certain time —timing—is the theme for this plot
4. Motivation: Motivation Generator 10, 7 experience (personality) - a personality that desires experience is the motivation for the plot
5. Mood: Mood-Emotion Generator 3, 12 dejected (sadness) - depressed, sad, dispirited

Emotional Reaction Engine: Sadness = withdrawal or slow down + loss [need to heal]

Random Plot Interpretation

A vicious mammal yesterday attacked and killed a villager. A surviving witness that experienced the attack described a ravenous hulking beast. The victim was a  prominent villager. A tremendous feeling of loss envelops the community. The village is withdrawn to the safety of their homes, terrified at the loss of life from a prominent villager. A bounty reward is placed on the beast, and it will be given to whomever hunts and takes down the beast. Hopefully, this will be accomplished before it strikes another villager. Time is of the essence.

Using Grammar Fuel without dice

Since the four current books have so many words on the tables, one easy way to use them when using dice is not feasible, is just picking a number between 1 and 1000. Unless you have a great memory or pick the same numbers, you will likely pick a random word. Since it is alphabetical, you will know that words starting with A are low digit numbers and words closer to Z are high digit numbers.

Pick a number between 1 and 1000

Besides those issues, just picking a number off the top of your head may be a quick and easy way of generating random words. So, if your in a public space such as on transit, in a library, in a restaurant, or anywhere you need to be quiet, you can play the game of creating content based on the ability to pick your own random number – rather than on rolling dice or using a separate app.

Here is an example:

a. For a verb, I'll pick 648. Looking up on the PDF, 648 is the verb "produce".

Off the top of my head, the verb produce means to create or make something, literally or figuratively.

b. For a noun, I'll reverse that number and pick 846. Looking at the book, 846 is the noun "stand".

Off the top of my head, the noun stand is something standing or erected. Or a stand could mean the state of standing up or facing something directly.

a + b = produce a stand or produce the stand

To me, this literally means to make something for something to go on top. More figuratively, it might mean to organize an opposition against something else.

c. For an adjective, I'll pick a new number of 321. Looking at the book, 321 is the adjective "fervent".

Off the top of my head, the adjective fervent describes a state or condition of intense emotion or energy–almost zealous.

c + b = fervent stand

While the first thought is a more abstract intense emotional facing something direct. My second thought is something standing and waiting for something unknown or dangerous to come.

c without b = fervent separate from stand

When I think of this, I think of something on top of a stand. Fervent could describe something else in the scene.

d. For an adverb, I'll reverse that last number to 123. Looking at the book, 123 is the adverb "careless".

Off the top of my head, the adverb careless describes verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs that are done without caution or care. No deliberate thought is given towards the action.

d + a = produce careless

This might mean to create or make something quickly and without caution–not deliberately. No thought may be given to potential pitfalls.

d without a = carless about some action separate from producing something

To me, the producing is more important or prioritized more than whatever the subject is careless about. Maybe by focusing on the act of producing results in the subject being careless about another important action or responsibilities..

a + b + c + d = fervent stand produce careless

When I think of these words, I imagine one great intense and emotional stand against something else, however, done without enough caution. Maybe emotions have clouded logic and judgment in this scene.

Typically, fervent stands against something might result in uncharacteristic or illogical actions, especially if done without caution. The word careless might indicate that bad results or damaging results are forthcoming.

Analysis of using the books without dice

I really like that the large volume of words makes picking numbers off the top of my head fairly easy and more practical than a smaller list of words. In fact, for creating content on-the-go, this likely may be my preferred method.

Random scene using Grammar Fuel

This is a repost from my Mewe posted 3 days ago.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/296477/RPG-Tools-10-Grammar-Fuel-BUNDLE

Activity using the latest 4-pack of RPG Tools.

Fun quick post activity. Make a brief scene with 4 random words. I'm using Verb, Adjective, Noun, and Adverb Fuel.

verb roll 996 = yawn
adjective roll 904 = terrified
noun roll 081 = boat
adverb roll 427 = in the least

Sleepy at Sea

The boat climbed the immense dark blue–almost black–wave. A passenger, terrified, grasped his bright orange life preservers and held onto anything solidly fixed in place. In a corner, one sailor yawned barely moving in the least amount from his deep slumber.

By Ken Wickham, © 2019, All rights reserved.

Comparing Scene Action Generator and Verb Fuel

Scene Action Generator

Verb Fuel

This post will introduce and compare the Scene Action Generator tool and Verb Fuel resource. In the next post I'd like to play around with both the tool and the resource just for fun.

I use the word generator and tool for the Scene Action Generator because, to me, the categorization and groupings brings additional use and function that the alphabetized resource does not. The alphabetized resource is a fuel in the sense that is a just an uncategorized pool of words ready to add further meaning.

Pages

• Scene Action Generator is 2 pages, without any graphical cover, title page, nor table of contents.
• Verb Fuel is 12 pages with a cover, title page, and table of contents.

So, Verb Fuel leaving out the cover to table of contents, content wise, is 8 pages or four times more pages than the two pages of Scene Action Generator.

Content found in the table 

• Scene Action Generator has 6 broad categorized action types and in total has 144 rolled results–some of which have more than one keywords to pick from. An attempt was made to group somewhat similar words, especially for less drama-action–especially if they mean somewhat similar dynamics to scene action flow. Counting up all of the verbs on the table, there is just over 280 verbs categorized and grouped on the table
• Verb Fuel has 1,000 alphabetized rolled results. Each result has one verb or a contraction that contains a verb.

Example from the books

This is the example from Scene Action Generator.

• For example, a 1d12 roll resulting in 5 means a ‘social’ action type. Another 1d12 roll resulting in a 12 would indicate a either an ‘involve’ or ‘engage’ action. This might means that something is happening that involves or is engaged by more than one person. People or something else is joining in on the conflict in the scene.

This is the example from Verb Fuel.

• Example of using the Verb Fuel random verb table: The player rolls for a verb, rolling 0, 7, and 4 or = 074. Looking up 74 on the verb chart is the word “begin”. What does “begin” mean? That depends on what actually is beginning. Or maybe tense is important, maybe the action is not in the present tense. Maybe something began in the past. Or maybe something will begin in the future.

Sources

Scene Action Generator & Verb Fuel have the same origin actually. Verb Fuel radically changed in October to a more inspiring source.

• If I remember correctly, Scene Action Generator began as a concept by looking over lists of verbs for my fantasy languages. I wished for a very large list of verbs to helped build scenes randomly. Then after releasing the Plot Generator keywords, the list expanded and changed a bit until it went dormant for months. After resurrecting the project in October of 2018, I tried to think up the most popular adventure tasks. Categories of the verbs gradually emerged–which meant moving around words. And finally, story tasks verbs were collected until 144 results were filled.
• Verb Fuel actually began with the same initial idea to build a very large list of verbs to help build scenes randomly. Further than Scene Action Generator, the first hope was to build a list to 500 verbs. I can't remember when, but I came across a community content licensed source of words. Experimenting with that source, I began to figure out that what I wanted was more ownership of the resulting list. In October 15th of 2019, sick of community content source possibly limiting what I could do with the end result of the list, I came across a 1000 word public domain source of American English words. It was however unclassified and lacked parts of speech. However, fueled knowing that I could own the rights to the final product, unlike the community content source, I started from the beginning. I put parts of speech selectively onto this 900 words gleaned from the public domain source document using three dictionaries.
  
  When finished, about 400 verbs emerged. This initial list is too abstract academic, business, religious, and US government related. It lacked common everyday verbs that is more useful for stories. I started to add more common verbs. The 400 verb list quickly became 617. I did a quick draft to see if I could make a product late in October. The final list wasn't fully satisfying to me. I let it set for a week and then tried again, finding a few more sources of great verbs. After reaching 1000, I let it set a few days. Going back through the list, I replaced some verbs with better verbs.

Notes from The Fiction Writer's Guide to Dialogue by John Hough, Jr.

These notes are from The Fiction Writer's Guide to Dialogue by John Hough, Jr.

Here are nine points taken from the first two chapters of The Fiction Writer's Guide to Dialogue. The book has much more to be said about these topics–when to use them and when not to use them properly.

talking verbs
said
asked, answered
continued, interupted

modifying said
adverb (loudly, quietly)

italics of what was said
"help me" = emphasis, loudly, or shrill

use ! sparingly
"Yes!"

brevity & brisk dialogue
1-3 sentences compact, every word has meaning
by 6 sentences, the other character becomes a listener, and drama shifts to the speech

limit stating the obvious
like when is saying "It's a beautiful day." not obvious? When things are horrific and not beautiful like in the middle of a battle in war.

omit most greetings and salutations
most do not reveal character nor move the story along

only repeat what was said to drive a point home

limit ah, um, and hmm

Blog to maybe start up blog again for a bit

For me, I can either make work on tools or write my blog. So my blog tends to only be active during the parts of the year where I'm not trying to write much elsewhere: the middle of winter and the middle of summer primarily. Those parts of the year I try to shift, learn, or evaluate material.

I'll see what happens this year. 

Grammar Exercise (Balarila): Nouns (Pangngalan)

For English Grammar, I'll use a public domain source material from 1898 called Primary English Grammar.

INSTRUCTIONS

In the following Exercise, state the class to which each noun belongs. Example : Robert is a proper noun because it is a particular name.

EXERCISE I.
Robert, cow, swarm, length, Sarah, road, blanket, horse, Joseph, city, emperor, stove, sweetness, river, Washington, depth, gate, crowd, town, James, pig, Susan, company, lake, Samuel, coat, Annie, desk, weight, grass, mother, smoothness, Jessie, stool, money, William, strength.

Write twenty common nouns, ten proper nouns, five collective nouns, and five abstract nouns not
found in above exercise.

Tagubilin

Sa sumusunod na Ehersisyo, sabihin ang klase kung saan nabibilang ang bawat pangngalan. Halimbawa: Ang patanging pangngalan si Robert sapagkat siya'y isang partikular o tiyak na pangalan. PAGSASANAY I.
a. Robert, baka, kawan, haba, Sarah, kalsada, daan, kumot, kabayo, Joseph, lungsod, emperor, kalan, kamote, ilog, Washington, lalim, pintuan, karamihan ng tao, bayan, James, baboy, Susan, kumpanya, lawa, Samuel, diyaket, Annie, desk, timbang, damo, ina, kinis, Jessie, upuan, pera, William, lakas.

b. Sumulat ng dalawampung pambalanang pangngalan, sampung patanging pangngalan, sampung lansak na pangngalan, at sampung basal na pangngalan hindi matatagpuan sa pagsasanay sa itaas.

ANSWERS I.

a. Common nouns are cow, road, blanket, horse, city, emperor, stove,  river,  gate, town,  pig,  lake,  coat,  desk, weight, grass, mother, company, stool, money.

Proper nouns are Robert, Sarah, Joseph, Washington, James, Susan, Samuel, Annie, Jessie, William.

Collective nouns are swarm, crowd.

Abstract nouns are length, sweetness, depth, company, smoothness,  strength.

b. Twenty common nouns are dragon, wizard, knight, sword, staff, castle, spaceship, orc, elf, dwarf, treasure, wand, spellbook, armor, platemail, chainmail, computer, gun, tank, and helmet.
Ten proper nouns are Frodo, Harry, Treebeard, Gandalf, Sauron, Mirkwood, Captain Kirk, Spock, Rivendell, and Hogwarts.

MGA SAGOT I. a. Ang mga pambalanang pangngalan ay baka, kalsada, daan, kumot, kabayo, lungsod, emperor, kalan, kamote, ilog, lalim, pintuan, bayan, baboy, kumpanya, lawa, diyaket, desk, damo, ina,  upuan, pera. Ang mga patanging pangngalan ay si Robert, si Joseph, si Sarah, Washington, si James, si Samuel, si Susan, si Annie, si Jessie, at si William. Ang mga lansak na pangngalan ay kawan, karamihan ng tao. Ang mga basal na pangngalan ay haba, timbang, kinis, lakas. b. Dalawampung pambalanang pangngalan ay karagatan (dagat), kagubatan, bundok, desyerto, ilang, mangkukulam, salamangkero, pantas, bruho, kabalyero, tutubi, diwata, engkanto, ada, duwende, engkantada, trol, ispada, tabak, at panangga. Sampung patanging pangngalan ay Bulakan, si Jose, si Maria, si Maricel, si Maritess, si Erlinda, si Marino, si Mark, Olangapo, at si Liza Sampung lansak na pangngalan ay langkay, umpukan, kuyog, kaharian, pulutong, hukbo, kulumpol, kolonya, lehiyon, at bigkis. Sampung basal na pangngalan ay agwat, layo, init, lamig, tamis, bait, taas, tangkad, ligaya, at katotohanan.

Looking back at the exercise

Okay, here was the exercise for the prior review. I tried to add some fantasy or science-fiction into some of the answers.