Hello all…
I started looking over the website and things have moved along quite a bit, but mostly behind the scenes. As such, I make a few quick tweaks, but I need to do a pretty big overhaul sooner or later.
I keep saying the TTRPG is nearing public release of some sort (likely an early access/alpha version). This is not wrong, but I need to get it to a point where I’m happy with releasing it into the wild.
The game feels good with my own internal play testing so far. A few balance tweaks are definitely needed. However, I have made a few major changes, and it’ll take me some time to edit the book… again.
I’ve been taking a little time off from all of my projects. I was starting to hit some burnout… again. But I’m getting back to it and will hopefully find a comfortable stopping point with this current round of refinements.
One neat update is on the solo end of things. I’ve been working on a (maybe) unconventional oracle for solo play. Instead of pages and pages of noun/verb tables. I’ve got a more compact interrogative oracle which will describe responses to who, what, where, why, and how. It’s kinda cool, but I’m still running it through its paces to fix any weird or non-sensical outcomes.
The mission generator is lagging a bit behind. I have a decent concept, but it’s not as solid as I’d like. That’s probably the next goal after I finish the new edits.
What of the novels?
I’ve been refining what I want to happen in the second, when I find the time/motivation. The first novel is going to need a fairly major rewrite based on changes to the setting itself, and me being a bit better at writing after all this, I hope.
I’m going to address the elephant in the room: AI.
Yes, I use AI for a variety of things. Images being the most up front and obvious.
I have some images on this website that are older and kinda terrible. Most of those are going to be replaced by newer ones that I’ve spent a lot of time tweaking and editing by hand. Which includes all the generative images in the TTRPG itself.
Aside from spending a lot of time getting generative images as close as I can to what’s been floating around in my head for decades, I’ve heavily curated everything I’ve used, spent long hours in Pixelmator fixing errors, adding content, and bringing them up to something I’m happy with. Some things I’m not 100% on, such as the Lacir and Kyserian designs, they are… close enough, with context.
I realize this is a hot button issue right now and I will offer a version of the TTRPG without any generative AI content. There will still be a myriad of charts, maps, diagrams, and images I have made myself. But the rest will be removed.
The TTRPG is, was, and always will be free. I was never going to hire outside talent for this project.
The novel(s) will have some monetary value attached, as I can’t self publish them anywhere without charging something. But I already dropped the AI cover art I was messing with a couple years ago for my own designs, so it’s already AI-free.
Editing / brainstorming:
I use ProWritingAid for editing and grammar. I do not use its sparks at all or generative corrections directly. This goes for the TTRPG and more importantly, the novels. These are my creations, characters, and worlds. They came from my head and are expressed through my hands and my voice, not AI.
I have had a lot of back and forth with ChatGPT during development of the TTRPG. I use it as a tool to look for inconsistencies, loopholes, potential issues, and running simulations of dice outcomes. I DO NOT let it design the game for me.
99.9% of its attempts to help with actual content are tripe anyway.
Bottom line.
I realize some people will dismiss my explanations and call everything I do tainted or slop. So be it, I guess.
If I really wanted to crank this out quickly, it would have been done 4 years ago (or 31 for that matter). If I was doing it as a sloppy cash grab, I’d ask for money.
If anything looks familiar or unoriginal, I do wear my inspirations on my sleeve. If you ask me what inspired something, I’ll tell you. The setting is a mix of everything I thought was cool from the 1980s through today, with all the parts I disliked scrubbed.
I’m doing this for myself more than anyone else. I’ll play my game by myself. I’ve already read my novel, for editing purposes, more times than is probably healthy. I’ve got a couple hundred thousand hand written words in my Obsidian setting database that didn’t exist a few years ago. I’m proud of all of this, and I’m too old and grumpy to need anyone else’s approval.
I definitely wrote too much on this topic already. Part of me wants to just delete this whole bit, but I guess I’d have to deal with it eventually. I hate actual slop and low-effort content as much as the next person. That was true before generative AI, and it’s still true now.