Origins approaches!
Yep. It's nearly that time of year again. Once again i'll be off to the wilds of Columbus, where they paint their office buildings with odd signs, and the radio is dominated by christian broadcasting and Soft Rock. No wonder the gaming scene there is so robust.
I hope to get in some Spirit of the Century while i'm there, but i am going primarily for their great big Cam larp.
I don't know how many of you also read the LJ, but in case you don't know. I've gotten at least a little involved in the Camarilla. I like it, and i've met some fairly decent thereby. I can also see how that thing could swallow up your life if you let it.
Pinky and I have written a book. It is not available as yet as it is all kinds of trademark infringey. I may be able to offer the book on a non-profit basis to the Cam players who might be interested.
In doing that project, I found myself keen to finish another that i'd meant to do for some time as well. The "1000 Things that a New Actor should Know" was actually, technically finished first. That one might actually make me a little money but nobody seems interested so far. It too is something of a charity project. Proceeds from it's sale go to keep your arrogant correspondent in beer and skittles.
I have thought from time to time that i might do a World Famous Crank Report book. I've even been told that if i were to do so, some people might buy it. Is that still the case? I've got a bit more leeway there in terms of trademark-age, simply because what i'm doing here is goddamn JOURNALISM, instead of making setting material for an existing setting.
If nothing else, i might at least condense the Larp materials down into something that i can give to fellow larpers. There are times in the various larps that i belong to, that i want to reach out and shake certain players and say, "Do you not know that i have been writing about this stuff for YEARS!"
Of course, now i'll be able to shake them and say, "Did you not know i actually wrote the BOOK on this? DUMBASS!"
And then i can hit them on the head with it. 800 pages. Hardcover.
In addition, I'm thinking about creating some one-shot larp content for the SAS games section of White Wolf games. I may put up a blog or three to deal with character creation for this project. Comments will be extremely welcome in this project. Even light heckling, will be welcomed by me as long as it's still constructive.
And who knows, Maybe i'll get off my ass and figure out how to use Cafe Press or Spreadshirt, and there will Templeton Institute Merch to be had. At this point, i feel nothing is outside the realm of the possible.
posted by Reverend Peter Sears @ 10:16 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
As might have been noted, I like reading your stuff.
I simply find that there is so little written about the aspects of the game that you tend to write about. Much of it might seem like common sense, but its stuff that one might overlook, and occasionally need to be reminded about. For example, one of your earliest articles is about the idea that player characters are supposed to get in trouble. Although I understood the idea of conflict generating story from a fiction book point of view, I'd never really thought about the implications in a RPG campaign. Assuming you could actually get any type of distribution, the gaming world at large could only benefit from reading it (you certainly couldn't make it any worse).
Several ideas:
1) Put everything you want to publish in one place. The Crank, as it exists now, is full of stuff that you probably don't want to print (like: 'I enjoyed Origins this time around').
2) Sort it into chapters and sections. To start each article could be a chapter gathered into one of two or three sections: perhaps "Role-Playing" and "Game Mastering" or maybe "General RPG," "Tabletop," and "LARP."
3) Decide if there are any submissions from others you might want to include, and stick them in somewhere. Although it may be tempting, it will be much easier (and less likely to get you sued) to just use your own material.
5) Edit the hell out of it. No offense, but capitalization and punctuation are not your strong points. Turn unrelated articles into a series or related coherent thoughts, moving smoothly from one subject to another. Combine related articles into just one chapter; split articles that address separate articles into separate chapters, etc.
6) Decide how your gathering of advice falls in to general RPG Theory. You may decide to modify some of what you said, or organize it into a different format. You may be inspired to write more about a subject you hadn't considered before, and round-out the book as a whole.
7) Find an editor. If your ego is strong enough to take the criticism (and comparison to Nazis), start a flame-war by posting it (or a link to it) on RPG.Net. After the smoke has cleared you might even get some good advice out of it.
One request though: while 800 pages hardcover makes for a mighty weapon to smite thy foes, I carry too many books around already. ;-) I'd like to consider this more like a scalpel: designed for subtle work; a quick slap-upside-the-head to get someone's attention. Probably something light and flimsy I can roll up into a cylinder and use to swat someone: "bad player!"
/giggle
Everett is Awesome.
In fact, it's a good thing that there is no law of Awesome Conservation, or loads of people would be hungry for Awesome in their own lives, and they would have none.
About Ideas:
1) this i had planned to do.
2) An excellent suggestion, although, i feel that many things i talk about in TT also work in Larp setting with adjustments and vice versa.
3) I sadly won't be able to use comments for just the reason you brought up. Allthough there are a couple of people whom i have referenced as part of articles. (The Tim Toner "Karma" story leaps to mind) and that material I will have to have.
4) I am well aware that my work needs a fine tooth comb for editing. I can only protest that my vision is so fiery and compelling that it far outstrips my meager ability to frame it.
4a) although i will say that i doubt that i lack the ability to completely meld the articles into one smooth whole. In all likelihood i will simply stick to the format that i've worked with for so long. I may have to create a chapter entitled "Shotgun advice" for all the small stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else.
5) Will take a look. It couldn't hurt. Although i'm not fond of Buzzwordy theory.
6) I am an actor. I am used to critique. and i ain't skeered. I do however have a few people who can do that sort of work in my life and thankfully they are kind.
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