Recursive Writing and Going Out of Bounds

I’m happy to announce, with the encouragement of Michael Wolf of Stargazer’s World, Reality Blurs is now part of the RPG Blog Alliance.  The website is a nice aggregate and you can visit there to get a snippet of what we’ve got going on along with a nice sampling of a lot of really great blogs. I’m absolutely honored to be in such great company, and want to thank Michael for making it dangerously easy to get set up with them.

Today’s post is called recursive writing as this is the first post which will run through the RPGBA and I talk about what goes on each day, so here we go creating a bit of a loop with mirrors and mirrors and so on. ..

I’d like to welcome new eyeballs to the site and apprise you that I talk a lot about design and writing with the mention of what’s in the works and what’s coming out, but mainly I like to dissect what works for me and what doesn’t. Sometimes, I’ll ramble, like today, other times I’ll be precisely on point. In general, I like to work with a theme of some sort, and write the number of words to deliver the message. If you want to find out about me, poke around the site, comment on this thread, or look up the company on the internet. We’ve been around a good, long while, but I’ve kept my head down working, back in November, I decided to start posting with an avid regularity, and here we are today.

So, with that excessively lengthy prologue, let’s get to today’s topic, and that is Scrivener for Windows. Yesterday, you may recall, I talked about using the right tool for the job, and today I decided to practice what I preach. I’ve been using (and raving) about SuperNotecard for a number of years and it’s still a great program–I do tons of my writing in it, but ever since I’ve had Scrivener in my eyeline, I’ve wanted it. I’ve played with the beta a bit, but was hesitant about committing my hard work to something which could eat the data. Now, I’m fairly convinced it’s good to go–the software is going live in July for a mere $40 and it looks to be worth it. However, I noticed my resistance today while porting over my template from SNC to WinScriv (yes, this is what I’ll be calling it from now on–I don’t have time to say Scrivener for Windows) and I drew an interesting parallel in my mind.

Moving over to something I KNOW will be better is just like a gamer refusing/resisting to change RPG systems. This hit me like a ton of bricks. I love new systems and play a lot, though I’m most strongly (and rightly) associated with Savage Worlds, I dig all kinds of games and systems, FATE, FIASCO, and on and on and on, but I’m a designer. I’m supposed to experience new things, though I know most designers have even more reason to stay in their space than the players. Certainly, there is the cost barrier to purchasing a new game, but that barrier has dropped radically over the years. Secondly, and more importantly, there is the learning curve which requires people to master the system and this bleeds over to available time and coolness. All of these factors create a big soup making it more difficult for a lot of gamers (more those of the old school camp) to want to dip their toe into something new. Games are trending a bit towards the lighter side of the equation, but people still want to master the games and know the subtle nuances of the rules. That w0n’t be going away any time soon, but I think we’re hitting a watershed moment [1. If we haven’t already.] (in large parts to tablets and the ever greater proliferation of tablets and digital media) where people will be more willing and ready to try new systems.

The fracturing of D&D, the rise of Savage Worlds and FATE and true gems like FIASCO give us new hope for tomorrow.

What games/game systems do you see riding the tidal shift of the industry? Make with the comments!

Until next time, I bid you, dear reader, adieu!