I’m finally trying to continue my game. I guess, my goal for march is to organize my files and variables, then make a plan for chapter 7.
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I suppose, also, that successfully running a longer form campaign (longer form: more than 4 sessions of play?) to completion could be used as a possible predictor of CSG project completion.
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In my (admittedly limited) tabletop experiences, even “short” or “one-of” campaigns require a lot of the needed skills to complete development projects.
The ultimate experience that would cross-over would be designing a table-top game. I know several people in this community have done that, but the vast majority have not.
I guess what fascinates me is how the rule-sets used in the different table-top games translate into IF game mechanics, AND how story-telling done in these campaigns influences the actual writing by the authors.
Me stealing my sister’s dungeon master rule books to look at all the pretty pictures didn’t help me, unfortunately.
I imagine serious players who deep dive into the rule-sets might get some of the same benefits that DM/Gm’s do, when they make their campaigns.
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My best friend had been our DM since elementary school. I was “that one who always kills the merchant because… reasons”. Once he based the campaign around that.
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Unfortunately, I have pretty much been too exhausted and stressed to write anything at all, so far this year.
One a more positive note, I’ve been distracting myself by learning new skills (and brushing up on my lackluster german), so I do feel somewhat accomplished.
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GM (Game Master) Someone who runs a table top role playing game. DM (Dungeon Master) someone who runs a game of Dungeons and Dragons.
I would recommend trying different types of systems. DnD and Pathfinder are so close to the same rules that you might miss out of possible mechanics that could be converted. If the goal is to implement mechanics that might translate well for story telling I recommend trying out different story telling systems and different systems in general. DnD/Pathfinder/D20, FATE/FUDGE, Powered by Apocalypse, Exalted, Vampire the Masquerade, Hero System, Legend of the Five Rings, and Star Trek just to name a few that approach mechanics a little different.
If you want a unique alignment system that is different that the 3x3 grid most of the internet uses, I’d recommend looking up Hidden Kingdom. The Alignment systems acts as skill checks, much like how people do in various IF games here.
As for writing, I have been on vacation for the last three days and hope to get back into the swing of writing now. However my holiday was not very good on my sleeping schedule so that might affect things. With me working a second job now I fear I will not have the time to finish the current chapter I am on by months end. There is a lot of variation for Chapter 25, here is hoping I’ll make it faster than I fear. I would like to also work on overhauling all of my variables and some coding too.
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Several of the official CoG games are licensed and reviewed by the tabletop ip owners. The 7 Seas pirate game, the Pugmire game, and the 4 (?) Vampire, the Masquerade titles all use their respective tabletop systems.
The type of successful grafting I was thinking of as more applicable to Hosted Game authors are the types that take the spirit of the tabletop game and create something a bit more organic within the IF environment.
The karma systems in your WiP and @Schliemannsghost 's free Shadowrun hobby project are the two that we discussed earlier, but I see shades in many popular series and games in the Hosted library.
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I’ve actually been researching RPG systems ever since I realized how my stat sheets looked like they came from one. Plus I absolutely adore hex grid maps, wish I had a program I could use to create those. Still not sure where I’m going to go with this, but.
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If I get into full flow as I write, it tends to turn into hyperfocus. At the moment, my flow turned into hyperfocus regarding a certain branch in my WIP. I’m not certain whether I should be overjoyed, since there has been a lot of writing, or concerned, since I’ve got nine other branches that need my attention, and I feel rather neglectful even though I so look forward to writing them as well. It’s all very ambiguous to me.
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Unless there’s ten of you and you can actually work on all ten branches simultaneously, you shouldn’t feel neglectful. It’s not ike you’re going, “and after I finish this branch, I shan’t work on the others at all.”
One might even argue that it is best to tackle each branch fully before moving on, as then you have a firmer grasp of the mood and events of that branch without having to reread past happenings of it, leading to a more consistent tone and a smaller likelihood of referencing stuff from other branches. 
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I’ve been thinking of maybe starting my game with a flash-forward prologue (because a) I like the scene, and b) it could take some of the heat from the chargen, since why would you stop to think about your pronouns when your ship is under attack), but I also worry it wouldn’t then convey the setting correctly and thus give incorrect expectations…
And I’m probably overthinking this as usual.
Snippet time! Something along these lines
Despite all the warnings of your crewmates (who, to be fair, are mostly as strangers in this corner of the galaxy as you are), despite all the knowledge of the area in your HUD (most of which, admittedly, comes from Vega, and they’re only a single person), you find yourself face to face with the Lord Inquisitor of the Vargen empire.
Your captor, agitated as they are, launches into a fast-paced elaboration of whistles and clicks you can’t understand, and just as you’re about to say that if you’re going to be accused of something you should at least be told why, the Lord Inquisitor gives a short nod (and, if you can read Vargen body language at all, a flinch of the fins that looks highly annoyed).
“All right, I’ll bite,” they say, turning to you. “Which nest do you call from?”
“Uh,” you say.
“What are your hatching and shifting moonsigns?”
"I don’t - "
“Have you broken the Sacred Hunt?”
"What - "
“Have you disturbed the peace?”
"Not that I kn- "
They turn back to the guard captain. “I see no problem here.”
“Sir, it broke the pack rules!”
“But it is not of a pack, is it? You can hardly expect other things to adhere to the Pack Law, any more than you can judge a Phoenix from catching fire. It’s what they do.”
“Sir!”
The Lord Inquisitor twitches their feathers. “Have the city rules been broken?”
"No, but - "
“Has it hurt anyone?”
"People were annoyed - "
“Annoyed,” the Lord Inquisitor says flatly. “You want me to bring down the wrath of the Inquisition because your friends were annoyed.” They stare at them, in what could be called a stunned silence if not for the low humming somewhere deep in their chest, for a moment. "Well, congratulations. If I hear of you harassing civilians again - "
“Sir!”
“Dismissed, captain.” They turn to you. “Sorry about that. If you want to file a complaint, you can do that at the front desk.”
[start chargen here]
“I’ll have you know,” you say, keeping your voice as level as you can muster, “that I am not an it”.
“What? But you’re…” they blink. “Oh. Gendered pronouns. Apologies, it’s been a while since we’ve had one of your kind. I’ll put that in the file.”
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Unfortunately (or fortunately… probably the latter) there is only one of me, so; thank you for that insight - it would be better for me to have that mindset I believe. I tend to stress myself out now and then, overthinking this and that.
You certainly have a point there, also. I have been working in a quite scattered way because of said feeling of being neglectful combined with being a scatterbrain, but that would certainly be more structured - and heavens know I need more structure. So yeah. Thank you.
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No need, it’s what this thread is for. 
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Fun space opera. Would definitely prefer less on the nose dialogue from the inquisitor, or even a total lack of explanation entirely – case dismissed, leaving MC baffled. Not a big fan of literally solving the problem while explaining it, unless you really lean into that way more or make it a central theme of the work.
My impression so far is that the aliens are humans in costumes – the tone and register of their speech is mid-30s American millennial. That also might be what you’re going for.
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They are speaking English for the MC’s benefit, so that tracks. Probably learnt most of it from satellite TV.
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I know a lot of people who learned English from TV! They don’t talk like that, ha ha. If you’re justifying an element of your story, go for your intention as a writer rather than try to make it make sense in the story. I don’t include robot characters because my space civilisation religiously worships the process of creation of autonomous beings, I’m including a robot because I often feel a little bit like a robot myself in everyday life and want to write characters I relate to.
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But I do! (And I learnt most of my English from Internet and videogames. Guess that’s different from TV though.) 
Which frankly is my only intention as to why they speak like that. Tone is difficult on a foreign language, especially when your phrasing vocabulary is limited. (They are speaking English as a foreign language though. That much is intentional. How they learnt it is irrelevant. Actually, most of the characters are.)
(Also okay, now I want to see a space civilization who religiously worships robot-building.)
As far as the intention goes, the problem isn’t intended to be that you got arrested per se - the problem for you is that you don’t understand what you did wrong, and for Lord Inquisitor that it might cause a diplomatic incident (and also that the guards and half the Inquisition are knights templar as far as Pack Law goes, but). I do plan on delving deeper into that later in the story though.
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I announce that, today, I realised, out of nowhere, that my superhero project need as a pet: a cyborg beaver 
No reasons, just because.
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Are their super powers blocking off escape roads by gnawing down trees and powerlines, underwater sabotage, and distracting baddies by looking cute?
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If I was a superhero I would definitely have an aquatic mammal pet, that’s wonderful 
This week has been quite weird because awaiting feedback on various things. But the King of the Castle launch on Thursday went well (and was reviewed very positively in NME and Rock Paper Shotgun!) and it’s been very nice seeing positive comments. Aside from that I’ve been doing character development work in a much more structured way than I have on CoG projects before which has been really fun.
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