May is short story appreciation Month.

 May is short story appreciation Month. 

I just recently finished a short story gameplay involving 22 sessions during the past half-year over a my subreddit—the second solo adventure gameplay using my Coin Solo RPG System.

I'm not sure what to do for this month: write, read, appreciate, review, publish, or revise?

Last year, I posted last year's short story on this day. This year I just refer to check it out on over at my Solo_RPG_Tools subreddit for those 18+ years old.

The art of fantasy world creation: Interpretation

Why aren't the top fiction writers novels written by computer software AI?

Writing and developing fictional stories or adventures is a human endeavor that requires expressing human experiences and interpretation by other humans.

Writing and telling stories is an art.

When I make tools, I make them for humans, not for computers. Even my NPC AI pieces require interpretation.

Interpretation is the one main thing that computers cannot fabricate very well.

Interpretation is explaining or telling the meaning of something else. It is elucidating and appreciating something in light of individual belief or judgment. Interpretation is apprehending and representing by art, illustrations, or sounds.

Humans experience many things in life. Common experiences form a basis of common language. Different experiences form a basis of variations. Because of fiction writing involves both common language and personal language, the interpretation of fiction words involves both common translation and, probably more important, variations translating into subjective meaning.

In short, top fiction writers use universal language and experience to create easily interpreted, but interpreted meaning individually into a unique story world by the reader, observer, or participant.

For example, lets look at Stephen King's horror novel "It".

"It", the novel, was very popular when I was in high school. This was long before the TV series or movies.

Although popular because of common universal language and expressions, every instance of the interpretation of "It" the novel before any movie, TV series, or graphic novel was entirely subjective and resulted in each individual reader's interpretation of King's words. Every instance in each person had a very unique subjective version of "Pennywise the Dancing Clown." The first novel did not have any pictures, sounds, nor music to create the fictional world, so everyone interpreted the words written in each person's own manner.

Why do I focus on interpretation rather than objective details?

Because with interpretation of meaning, the fictional world opens up to limitless interpretations of details and their meaning. If I were to focus on trying to create objective minutely detailed data, then doing so would be extremely finite.

Learning about Poetry (part 7): "Dream Flows" poem and comparison of Poetry to Myths or Fables

While the urge to do something with "go" rhyming words, I want to take several of my freewriting sentence words and create something simple by altering it. I also want to do something by making some phrases little more descriptive.

This will be my first entirely original rhyming poem.

Dream Flows

©2020 by Ken Wickham

All rights reserved.

This urgent hope could go. 

Where do peaceful dreams flow. 

You're not my mortal foe. 

In the moment will never know. 

So, I add this new simple 4 line rhyming poem to that one that I created through imitation several posts ago. Here is that first imitation poem for comparison.

Plague Across the Land

©2020 by Ken Wickham based on Emily Dickenson's "Hope is a thing with feathers"

All rights reserved.

I've seen across the entire land,

All victims of the plague,

In a world looking strange and vague,

No, I don't want to beg.

I now have 2 poems written: "Dream Flows" and "Plague Across the Land".

Poetry writing it is fairly strange and unfamiliar. In 2nd grade, I remember doing a few poems for classroom activity, but those are now long forgotten to time.

Writing these poems are as unfamiliar to me as creating those 2 myths and 1 fable back in 2017 in the mythology series. It does give me a greater sense of breadth with writing styles although my skill level with poetry is only beginning.

Poetry is the art of sharing experience. In these two brief and little poems, it does feel like "Dream Flows" and "Plague Across the Land" do share some sort of experience. The mythology was more of a fictional creating experience than when I created "Blood and Water - Begin", "From them all become", and "Bird takes Snake to the Moons". Very little of me are included in those myths and fable. Instead of including any emotion or evaluations, my myths were more logically constructed.

Learning about Poetry (part 4): Muse #3 Reading (Imitating)

In the last post, I researched different poems that contained words from my random rhyme set. In this post I will try to mimic a portion of a famous American poem by Emily Dickenson.

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

By Emily Dickenson compiled around 1861.

To me, it looks like the rhyme scheme is the following for the entire poem.
Each letter represents a possible rhyme ending. I've highlighted in different colors the pairs that I think might rhyme.

A, B, C, B
D, E, D, E
F, G, G, G

So, taking some of the 9 words and focusing on only one portion of the ED poem, I'll try write something similar—yet different.

#264 egg, leg, beg, peg, vague, plague, keg, bootleg, nutmeg

I've heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

Plague Across the Land

©2020 by Ken Wickham based on Emily Dickenson's "Hope is a thing with feathers"
All rights reserved.

I've seen across the entire land,

All victims of the plague,

In a world looking strange and vague,

No, I don't want to beg.

Summertime Writing: Combine and Adapt Ideas In Stories

In the last innovation post, I tried to use the substitution method for story innovation. In this post, I'd like to try the next SCAMPER methods of innovation and creativity. I will do the second and third of the seven parts of the SCAMPER method in this post—Combine and Adapt.

New ideas created on this page are ©2019 by Ken Wickham

1. State the original idea, problem, or question (source).

For this case, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Synopsis found at Wikipedia. I cut together pieces of the larger synopsis.

tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a hideous, sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment...the Creature tall, about 8 feet (2.4 m) in height and proportionally large. Despite Victor's selecting its features as beautiful, upon animation the creature is instead hideous, with watery white eyes and yellow skin that barely conceals the muscles and blood vessels underneath. Repulsed by his work, Victor flees when it awakens. While wandering the streets, he meets his childhood friend, Henry Clerval, and takes Henry back to his apartment, fearful of Henry's reaction if he sees the monster. However, the Creature has escaped.

Intelligent and articulate, the Creature relates his first days of life, living alone in the wilderness and finding that people were afraid of and hated him due to his appearance, which led him to fear and hide from them. While living in an abandoned structure connected to a cottage, he grew fond of the poor family living there, and discreetly collected firewood for them. Secretly living among the family for months, the Creature learned to speak by listening to them and he taught himself to read after discovering a lost satchel of books in the woods. When he saw his reflection in a pool, he realized his physical appearance was hideous, and it terrified him as it terrifies normal humans. Nevertheless, he approached the family in hopes of becoming their friend. Initially he was able to befriend the blind father figure of the family, but the rest of them were frightened and they all fled their home, resulting in the Creature leaving, disappointed. He traveled to Victor's family estate using details from Victor's journal, murdered William, and framed Justine.

The Creature demands that Victor create a female companion like himself. He argues that as a living being, he has a right to happiness. The Creature promises that he and his mate will vanish into the South American wilderness, never to reappear, if Victor grants his request. Should Victor refuse his request, The Creature also threatens to kill Victor's remaining friends and loved ones and not stop until he completely ruins him.

Fearing for his family, Victor reluctantly agrees. The Creature says he will watch over Victor's progress. 

2. SCAMPER

Substitute is about replacing parts of the story. Characters, description, setting, plots, or conflicts may be replaced with alternatives.

Combine is about merging two or more ideas, processes, or products into one.

Adapt is adjusting, changing, and tweaking to make more suited for the current situation.

Modify, minimize, or maximize

Put to another use

Eliminate or elaborate

Reverse

Combine

The method that I will try is to trying to combine a few popular classic story elements into the Frankenstein story. I'll pick three classic popular stories, at least in the US.

To Kill a Mockingbird

A minority is wrongly accused of a crime committed by a prejudice and lazy low life character that only has the benefit of being a member of the majority. The wife of this character dreams of having an affair with the accused character prior to the accused "crime".

Maybe the best way to combine these stories is to use the De Lacey family, the family that adopts the creature and are living in exile from the government for treason, in a similar way that Mayella and her father, Bob Ewell are used in the story. Or I can use the creature in the same way as Boo Radley, the reclusive person next door that is friendly with Scout and Dill and eventually saves them from Bob Ewell.

Victory Frankenstein could either be more like Aticus, the lawyer that defends Tom Robinson, the accuse, or like Tom Robinson himself.

The Grapes of Wrath

Since Tom Joad eventually kills the person that kills his friend Jim Casy in a union violent clash, the creature might work well as Tom, recently released from prison and now a fugitive breaking parole, the main character in the book. Victor Frankenstein might work as Jim Casy, his friend from the town that they left due to bank foreclosure and journeyed to California in search of work. After a flood, they might seek higher ground and find in a barn a boy and starving (blind) father, the De Lacey family

Aladdin
Maybe Victor could play the role of Aladdin, an impoverished youth that is recruited by the creature to recover a wonderful oil lamp from a booby-trapped magic cave. The creature could play the role of the sorcerer from the book. A genie appears after rubbing a magic lamp. With the power of the genie, Victor becomes powerful and marries a high society princess.

The creature that recruited Aladdin might steal the lamp after which Victory must try to get back the magic lamp.

Analysis of combine technique

The Grapes of Wrath would be the most difficult to combine stories. However, To Kill a Mockingbird and Aladdin I felt had much more usable content that might be able to combine with Frankenstein.

Adapt

Adapting is brainstorming with the purpose of trying to adjust, tweak, or change a product into something more appropriate for the current situation.

The most obvious way to adapt Frankenstein, writing in the early 1800s, would be to adapt it to the modern time period. Weird science sort of adapted Frankenstein to the 80s.

How could Frankenstein be adapted to 2019.

Let me brainstorm.

Instead of alchemy, Dr. Victor Frankenstein might use modern DNA splicing and create a creature using different DNA from different people—or even mixed with different species, a hybrid.

The creature escapes and lives with the De Lacey family which might be an off-the-grid or doomsday preppers. The creature learns from these survivalists and learns to speak English. The creature then eventually contacts Victor and threatens to kill his family if he doesn't create a partner for him.

Analysis of Adapt

Adapting might be more fun if mixed with some of the other techniques. I don't like doing a straight adaptation of Frankenstein.

Day off to set up, reflect, plan, and evaluate.

Today I took time to try to set things up instead of writing.

A lot of time was spent researching decisions making, creativity techniques, and strategies to help with future writing.

Since this month so far I haven't released any new stuff created this month, I did release prior products and created new mixes and bundles.

It began with the release of 5e x 5 Fantasy Weapons & Armor II

https://www.rpgnow.com/product/201146/5e-x-5-Fantasy-Weapons--Armor-II
This is a book I made that served as a prize for 5ex5 Ezine #1 contributions. It has 100 total items including Asian weapons (ex katana, nunchaku), armor, some new clothing, and tools from PRD primarily that weren't in the original 5e x 5 Equipment & Treasures. I actually forgot about it until I was looking through my catalogue of stuff.

Premium 3 in one Flash RPG, Three Conflict RPG, and Deep Dive Engine

I think these three go well together and compliment each other.
https://www.rpgnow.com/product/257894/Premium-Flash-RPG-Three-Conflict-RPG--Deep-Dive-Engine-allinone

RPG Tools 6 bundle

https://www.rpgnow.com/product/258400/RPG-Tools-6-BUNDLE
Includes Character Flaw Generator, Deep Dive Engine, Scene Action Generator, Three Conflict Chain RPG, and Transition Scene Generator tools.

Elvish and Fairy Language bundle

I've been working with these languages a few years now. More languages are in my notes.
https://www.rpgnow.com/product/258581/Aioskoru-Elvish--Fairy-Languages-BUNDLE

Setting All-in-one

This was made to prepare for another possible book and to make the bundle more attractive.

https://www.rpgnow.com/product/258938/Setting-AllInOne

Parallel Open Gaming Systems Bundle

This is the three available open system books that focus on skill names, weapon damage, and armor values.
https://www.rpgnow.com/product/258981/Parallel-Open-Gaming-Systems--Skills--Fighting-Gear-BUNDLE

5e x 5 Deluxe Core bundle

This creates a 5 core + 1 more fantasy weapons with the monster art version of the Monster book. With Modern sometime early next year, hopefully this will do for the time being. I did mention that 2 new races for Modern of 8 new races, two will be from future (human & grey). I actually finished one race first draft today, worked on another, and mostly finished a third wont name yet. 5e x 5 people received an email naming two of the three. So that is about four and a half complete races or near complete.
https://www.rpgnow.com/product/259037/5e-x-5-Deluxe-Fantasy-Core--BUNDLE

Back to writing tomorrow. I'm past halfway and nearly on target for the first draft.

2nd week of writing

Progress so far

More typing, mapping, and drawing

Like a dam in the river, the free flowing spontaneous action swerves and turns, thoughts become words. The unknown becomes a challenge.

And here is my score so far.

That is the story of this last week.

When I started this writing, I only had vague plans and ideas about the initial setting, in an elf trading city in the southern elf lands. I picked one place on the map and created a trading city. I knew what type of game structure I wanted to create and also that I would try using Fudge RPG system. I wanted to have it be a character origin type story. Everything else would be created using mostly discovery writing-technique since I had no NPCs, no established settings, and no history created.

I posted this at the NaGa Demon event Fudge RPG on MeWe page late last night, for more details.

*****************************************************************************

Assessing my progress so far with the bulk of the story of the game. I've covered the one major city, most of one major town, finished one small village, and starting the minor town, did one small cave, random encounters for the area, have written 4 major clues about the story, added one helpful tool hidden. I've started two or three side story arcs I'm not sure where they are going yet.

62 pages currently of 22,000 words total.

Out of 94 current sections outlined, 66 are to the 1st draft state, 17 are in the writing stage, and 11 are still in outline state. I'm guessing I will add at least 70 to 100 more sections at least.

About day 8, I noticed my speed slowing down as I approached the middle area not planned during my preparation. I've been grunting through the unknown, figuring that everything can be refined later. Just get something on paper first.

That's my update.

Halfway through the month is soon.

Character Mechanisms - creating character profile instructions (part 7)

This is part of a series of posts to create a character using Character Mechanisms using the Character Profile sheet.

From the last post, I created body language and character behavior character profile information. I'll focus on the dialogue first, skip the combined action for now, and do the communicator. I hope to return to the combined action later.

√Group A Important

Group B Reliant

√Character Behavior Engine

Character Dialogue Engine

Skip -Character combined action engine

Character Communicator

1. Character Dialogue Generator

How does my character's speak at first meeting?

It's time to generate vocal qualities to help imagine how the character speaks.

Already having the character personality, I begin with the volume of speaking.

1

1 Quiet

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

I'll roll for two more qualities randomly.

2	6
6	6

2, 6 resonance comes from chest
6, 6 speaks in complex sentences

So, having a chest resonance but speaks quietly may mean that the overall range might be low as well. Certainly, either the character is educated or hangs around educated people and has picked up complex sentence dialogue.

With vocal qualities, now for the beginning general mood for any character interaction. I don't have any main character interaction, so there will be no modifier for this instance, just random dice.

2

3

2, friendly conversation mood
3, opening scene or conflict, See FRPG conflict or Plot Generator = Speak about the opening scene or conflict/plot.

So, whatever opening scene or plot that the main characters are doing, this unnamed quiet-speaking, chesty-toned, dark auburn long haired, hourglass shaped, charismatic & skeptical character will have something to say about it — most likely opposing or questioning either the main character(s) goal, a popular view, or an proposed action though civilly initially.

This character's motive has already been generated: social, acknowledgment; self-actualize, ugliness. After which one comment was "Very shallow."

Some common words are jotted down to help get into this character. I put two down for skeptic personality and one for relaxed state when the character becomes caregiver, such as very friendly situations. If of course the character becomes stress, striver words could be added, but for now this is sufficient.

Oppose	I don’t believe…
Question	Why should/would I/we (have)...?
Relaxed Caregiver	You/He/She/They should(n’t) have…

Next for some character communicator information.

2. Character Communicator

How (what function) will this character oppose, doubt, or question the main characters?

11

initial skeptic state, 11, analyze function; to examine details or entirety = stimulus response; questions and answers.

Click on image to enlarge

Having skipped the combined action engine, next post will move on to group C with Knowledge Generator and Career Generator.

A small note. I hope to write something for NaNoWriMo/NaGa demon/SGAM18/ if possible. So if I don't finish this series by that time then the final posts may be delayed until after writing a new project. This is why I initially set the deadline for the end of the month of October.

FRPG6 Dialogue Engine example

This example is from the Dialogue Engine now available for sale as well as in a Dialogue Engine bundle which contains all of the needed tables.

https://www.rpgnow.com/product/249512/FRPG6-Dialogue-Engine

Example of Using the Dialogue Engine

In this example, I’ll use indented smaller text to show the game mechanics behind this short dialogue game situation.

The detective is approaching an old homeless man on the street in a Seattle attempting to find out if he has seen a suspect in the recent stabbing in the area. The homeless man will not trust the detective, at least initially

Old man

Personality = rolled 2D6 = 7 = guardian [from Character Generator]

Guardian - They seek perfection and to protect culture, society, and whatever they do.

However, if experiencing great stress, a Guardian becomes more of a Lone Wolf.

Lone Wolf - They seek to be original and unique.

The old man will be a minor character in terms of

importance.

vocal level = rolled 1D6 = 1 quiet ; rolled 1 = range, rolled 3 = middle range ; rolled 3 = texture, rolled 3 = twangy texture ; rolled 5 = word imagery, rolled 1 = cold, abstract word imagery.

The old man with a guardian personality speaks quietly, with a middle-range twangy voice, and uses

cold and abstract word imagery.

‘Excuse me sir. Have you seen this man,’ you ask, showing the old homeless man the picture on your

smartphone.

Hesitant, distrust; rolls a 1 = Pause often and cautious. Speaks little and guarded

The old man moved back from the picture, as if the image was dangerous or grotesque.

Quietly he spoke. ‘What ... did he do?” he asked in a twangy southern accent voice.

What is the old man’s motivation? Motivation rolls 3D6 = 12 defense mechanism, rolls a 13 = restoring a past wrong (from Motivation Generator]

The old man is speaking little, guarded, slowly, and cautiously because in the past he said something

that came back to haunt him.

The lone wolf in him caused by the increased past trauma is telling him to ‘Leave me alone’.

‘He may have done something very bad,” you say trying to read the old man’s face.

The old man will remember that experience feeling guilt at first and then hurt. Guilt roll 10 = sweating; Hurt roll 16, uneven steps, weak stumble, collapse.

The old man began to sweat. He seemed to brace himself on his old possession filled shopping cart.

‘I don’t like it ... when good people ... get blamed ... for bad things.’

I used the ‘I don’t like’ as suggested as guardian common words spoken.

What primary reason do you play roleplaying games?

Imagination is what brought me back to roleplaying games.

Decade of virtual worlds

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs ) brought me a decade of limited images constructed by others. After a decade of socializing online and meeting others, from Everquest up until Lord of the Rings Online, computer role-playing games occupied part of my hobby time. Something was lacking. Something that I had before MMORPGs. To me, that was using my imagination.

All that I had from the computer gaming was pre-made settings and features.

Everything was handed to me.

Missing

What I was missing most was using my imagination.

Creativity first emerged in the urge to write a story. I hadn't written anything since putting down my rule and setting books decades earlier. I wanted to tell my own story, not participate in a limited story. The story I wanted is boundless, open, and free - not restricted by borders, pixels, reset times, and quest lines.

I had to write new ideas.

Writing

Two stories I wrote for national novel month.

Not long after the first novel and having written 200 pages of a new world, I wanted then to expand my long neglected imagination.

RPGs

I searched for my old system. MERP is gone.

I found newer, unknown to me, systems: Fudge, Fate, 5e, PF, among hundreds - maybe thousands.

Despite different rules that focused on different parts of gaming, my imagination remains a common thread throughout all of the games.

Imagination.

I posed this question in Lone Wolf Roleplaying which is a great community of gamers that focus on solo roleplaying.

Although there is a poll with numbers showing at this time some number from the poll and that many of the people list imagination as well, I assume that users have multiple reasons for playing the games. The comments show multiple reasons, although my questionnaire only allows one answer.

My other reasons for playing RPGs.
If I put my reasons in order, a second it would be setting (playing in interesting settings), and third would be action (exploring new and exciting types of action), followed by rules (trying interesting focused rules).

Through this past year, I've been using solo roleplaying techniques in my story writing. My first two novel month writings were done using built structures primarily Dramatica mixed with snowflake method of novel creation. The past year I've mixed in my rekindled interest in roleplaying games and found solo roleplaying games. They are a friendly community, unlike other communities I have encountered which are protective.

What primary reason do you play roleplaying games?

This informal question wasn't to find a right or wrong answer. In fact, I tried to mention that there is no correct answer since the reasons for playing are depend on the individual. It's just to create a discussion and see how why others say that they play roleplaying games. The other blogs had things like to improve memory, to use your imagination, for creative problem solving, for high action combat, and for socializing, for fun, fan of setting, the rules, or coerced into playing, etc.

Given only 5 choices and knowing that this is a solo gaming community, I chose five somewhat summary descriptions: action, imagination, challenge, setting, and rules. I didn't think this would cover everything, but there is also room to comment and add missing reasons.

The other choices and suggestions

I may in the future write about about the other reasons for playing roleplaying games.