First Monday of May: Concerning Canon & Confidence
As you may have noted by my absence of dialogue yesterday, my daily run has run its course. I sustained DBloC for six straight months and it was indeed an endurance race, at least at first. After the first few months, I developed my voice and the direction I wanted to take this column. Part of this was being more open, but not entirely open. I jokingly called another fella’s pseudo-informational tweet today semi-transparent, and I suppose I am to some degree.
While I don’t mind talking about some things quite openly [1. As you can easily judge for yourself by looking at my posts on design and organization.] other things need to simmer awhile longer. I am running a business and if I mistakenly told you about something a year off when in the face of pending releases, that’d be silly unless I’m talking about those future/past/present things to make a particular point. There are other reasons. Some things just aren’t ready to talk about yet. Some things, invariably, never even see the light of day (or won’t ever see the light of day due to various other pressing concerns, turns of direction, and so on which will cause us to revise our course).
For example, I mentioned on the podcast interview with Ron & Veronica some plans for FATE, plans I still hope to implement, but there are other things before I get to it. I’m refining my ideas about FATE, and I have refocused some of my energies on RunePunk, and I cannot give equal justice to all things. Like anybody else, I’m entitled to change my mind and do what’s best, both for myself as a creator and, equally importantly, for the company. In the past, I let my passion often dictate direction with disregard to the ramifications of what might be the best thing for the company at the time (at least short term), but I’ve talked about such matters before.
Today, I got the layout work complete for the next Iron Dynasty Guidebook. Woo-hoo! One more pass through by the crew, and it’ll be good to go later this week. After taking care of that matter, I moved on to working on RunePunk and I feel I’ve got my voice back on it. Can we talk privately for a moment, you and I? I was thrilled by the outpouring of comments on FB and personal emails I received by folks delighted to see more attention given to RunePunk. Why just the other day, we released the second Jobbers Tale by Dave Olson. I was also a bit nervous about returning to work on RunePunk. My writing’s not gotten rusty, but I really wondered if I could step back into the shoes of me when I was a bright-eyed innocent in the industry, full of ideas and passion, yet liking the refinement and finesse I now have. The word canon weighed on my mind as well.
It’s interesting to contrast this gravity with the recent Iron Dynasty work. The main difference is there was not a big span of time between ID support and the core book. My rhythm and voice for that is locked. I did lots of studying on RunePunk. You see, just was with the other product lines, RunePunk has a distinct, if not the most distinctive voice to it. Writing adventures is not so bad, you don’t really muddle about with canon, but when I work on the guidebooks, canon is in full-effect. I’m shaping particulars. I’m casting light into shadows, but I’m doing it in such a manner that the light is refracted a bit and, if anything, more shadows are created. It is important for me to give the GM a lot to play with, but not paint him into a corner. I’m happy to report I’m doing that. GreyMesa has truly come to life in the no-nonsense style you’ve come to expect from my writing. Tight, descriptive narrative dripping with plot hooks, full of passion and fancy and all sorts of other nonsense [2. I use nonsense in its best meaning ever.].
It was kinda weird not writing a RWR yesterday, but it’s kinda weird to be fully immersed back into ScatterPoint. You’re gonna love this stuff.
Until next time, I bid you, dear reader, adieu!
