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A Wilder World, Again.
Oct. 5th, 2014 10:23 pmI started this post last night before I went to bed, but somehow didn't finish it.
On Saturday, someone got me thinking about A Wilder World, and I realized three things.
1. I haven't looked at it at all since January, and barely since last October.
2. It's actually closer to being done than Adventure Song is. Not only is it a more complete game, but the problems of managing a large scale project in Google Drive means it will take more work than it should to get AS in order.
3. My reasons for dropping it/backburnering it had more to do with jitters/anxiety than anything else.
There were some problems, and some things I needed to figure out a new approach for, and taking the time to work on a different project was helpful there, as was just taking some time off and looking at AWW with fresh eyes.
For instance, one of the last changes I made to the system was an attempt to simplify the ace/exceptional roll mechanic. But what I came up with was that you roll a die, and if it's lower than or equal to your attribute, you roll another die and add it, and keep doing so until you get a total number higher than your attribute. In terms of range of numbers, that's indistinguishable from "roll one die and add your attribute". It just takes more die rolling and addition to get to the same point.
Looking at it now, I understand the exact thought process that got me there, the steps I took simplifying from where I was before to something that seemed like a simpler version that was still more interesting than "roll die and add number". But I also have enough distance from the process to look at where I ended up.
So that's one lingering problem identified, if not fixed.
The other major issue is that Character Qualities--the equivalent of character classes, the main building blocks--were too complicated and unwieldy, given that even starting characters had three of them (one folk quality, two others). The point of giving all of them so many specific abilities was that I wanted each one to be completely distinct, to give a different feeling Well, working on Adventure Song has given me some real clarity on how to define distinct character types with a greater economy of special abilities.
In the past couple weeks of working on Adventure Song, I've felt it was shifting to be more like A Wilder World than I'd ever intended at the beginning. Now that I'm looking at A Wilder World again, I feel like I should maybe be coming back from the other side: taking what I learned working on Adventure Song and putting it into A Wilder World.
It might seem weird and wishy-washy to be shifting gears so soon after having laid out a plan to bring Adventure Song to testing, but AWW is honestly the project that excites me more (and that attracted the most excitement from others, which isn't a small thing). It's not only closer to the finish line, it generates its own momentum.
On Saturday, someone got me thinking about A Wilder World, and I realized three things.
1. I haven't looked at it at all since January, and barely since last October.
2. It's actually closer to being done than Adventure Song is. Not only is it a more complete game, but the problems of managing a large scale project in Google Drive means it will take more work than it should to get AS in order.
3. My reasons for dropping it/backburnering it had more to do with jitters/anxiety than anything else.
There were some problems, and some things I needed to figure out a new approach for, and taking the time to work on a different project was helpful there, as was just taking some time off and looking at AWW with fresh eyes.
For instance, one of the last changes I made to the system was an attempt to simplify the ace/exceptional roll mechanic. But what I came up with was that you roll a die, and if it's lower than or equal to your attribute, you roll another die and add it, and keep doing so until you get a total number higher than your attribute. In terms of range of numbers, that's indistinguishable from "roll one die and add your attribute". It just takes more die rolling and addition to get to the same point.
Looking at it now, I understand the exact thought process that got me there, the steps I took simplifying from where I was before to something that seemed like a simpler version that was still more interesting than "roll die and add number". But I also have enough distance from the process to look at where I ended up.
So that's one lingering problem identified, if not fixed.
The other major issue is that Character Qualities--the equivalent of character classes, the main building blocks--were too complicated and unwieldy, given that even starting characters had three of them (one folk quality, two others). The point of giving all of them so many specific abilities was that I wanted each one to be completely distinct, to give a different feeling Well, working on Adventure Song has given me some real clarity on how to define distinct character types with a greater economy of special abilities.
In the past couple weeks of working on Adventure Song, I've felt it was shifting to be more like A Wilder World than I'd ever intended at the beginning. Now that I'm looking at A Wilder World again, I feel like I should maybe be coming back from the other side: taking what I learned working on Adventure Song and putting it into A Wilder World.
It might seem weird and wishy-washy to be shifting gears so soon after having laid out a plan to bring Adventure Song to testing, but AWW is honestly the project that excites me more (and that attracted the most excitement from others, which isn't a small thing). It's not only closer to the finish line, it generates its own momentum.