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Problem #4: Finding Inspiration
152 Plays14 days ago
In this episode Kristian and Tracy talk about finding inspiration for your game, setting, adventures, characters and themes. More importantly though, where do you find inspiration for yourSELF? How do you get past the roadblocks and setbacks you encounter in the creative process and inspire yourself to keep trying and moving ahead? Finally, how do you pay that all forward and provide inspiration to others, both within and outside your game?
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Transcript
Introduction to Designing Problems RPG Podcast
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to the Designing Problems RPG podcast, where we explore RPG development and all the intentional and unintentional problems we create along the way. I'm Christian Serrano. And I'm Tracy Sizemore. We're your hosts for this amateur quackery.
Sources of Inspiration: Motivation and Context
00:00:19
Speaker
And this week, we're going to talk about problem number four, finding inspiration.
00:00:44
Speaker
Amateur quackery indeed. Yes. So we are talking about two different types of inspiration here, right? Yes. One is, where do you find your own inspiration, right? To keep you going, to keep you feeling like, okay, I know what I'm doing. I got this. I'm good at this. I'm an expert. I'm not an imposter. I'm not an imposter, right? But then the other is, where do you draw your inspiration for the creative context that you're creating, right?
00:01:13
Speaker
what
Podcast Format and Episode Topics
00:01:14
Speaker
are your sources in terms of um the ideas and the themes, and and you know we'll get into and to all of that. Not so much like this setting is X with serial numbers filed off, but you know what themes from this thing I like, am I trying to express here, right? Yes. so Tracy, which of those two do you want to start with? Let's start with the adventure settings, like what inspires you as a creator. Okay. Yeah.
00:01:42
Speaker
Also, I kind of want to mention like we have like a general plan for the trajectory of the podcast. Oh, yeah. So the idea here is we want to kind of move slowly from inspiration and getting started and overview into design, adventure design, character design, all that other all those other things as you as we move through.
00:02:10
Speaker
and then move into production, crowdfunding, art, all those kinds of things. So we do have a trajectory for our plan for the podcast.
Media Inspirations in RPGs
00:02:21
Speaker
That said, things might change, things might be shifted and moved into slots that are empty because we don't have a guest that we want or whatever. So that is the plan at this point. So if you're looking for production stuff, it is going to happen. It's just going to happen later.
00:02:37
Speaker
Right. And I don't recall if we already announced this, but we are shifting to weekly. Yes. We are shifting to weekly. So we get episodes because we have that many topics. We do. Like we worked it out. Yeah. I wanted to go weekly because I'm too excited. And poor Christian didn't want to go weekly because he's trying to like live a life. Right. And so we found a way to compromise and make this happen. We found a way. And this is likely going to be going on for more than just the few months that we originally yes thought it was going to be. We currently have enough enough topics to get us well into past the halfway mark of next year. Yes. yes so With that in mind, we got a lot to talk about. We do. Let's get started then.
00:03:25
Speaker
So yeah, so you're, so we're talking about, um, or you're leading off with, you know, the sort of the media that we consume that we'd like that we're like, Hey, I want to do this thing. Right. Yeah. Or I want to do something that borrows these kinds of themes from these different things. And, and, and I want to, I want to experience that, or I want others to experience that. Yeah.
Emotional Elements in RPG Design
00:03:46
Speaker
What, at what moments do you think,
00:03:50
Speaker
that sort of strikes where the i the inception of the thing that you want to create comes into play and you're like, man, I really want to but that would be really cool to play or that would be really cool to write that thing. Well, for me, I think it it comes when I'm I'm so in love with a thing and I'm not quite getting enough of it. And I want to find a way to inhabit it. Right. So if if, for example,
00:04:19
Speaker
I want, I like Star Wars, right? Let's just let's say for the for the for the sake of argument that I like Star Wars, of course I like Star Wars, but um if I'm inspired enough to say, well, I love these stories, now I want to create my own stories inside them, right? I want to inhabit these characters. I want to be a smuggler. I want to be a Jedi Knight or whatever.
00:04:44
Speaker
Then you've got inspiration. right Then you've got a a reason to want to create a game that emulates these kinds of things. right but yeah and and
Adapting RPG Systems to Settings
00:04:53
Speaker
Generally, when i'm when I'm looking to do that, I'm looking to to capture a specific kind of thing.
00:04:59
Speaker
right it it doesn't necessarily mean I'm looking to, unless I'm writing a one-shot that I'm doing at a con that is specifically Star Wars. I'm usually saying Star Wars is just an influence for this particular thing, or these particular things, or this type of vibe, or whatever I'm looking for. like I'm getting that from Star Wars. I'm getting it from other places too. right so These amalgams can happen by based on on what influences are influencing you.
00:05:27
Speaker
But for me, that that strikes when I feel like I want to inhabit this. I want to i want to bring it to a group of players and share that vision of what I love with them. right I think that's when it happens. It's not all the time and it's it's not for every property, right but it is one of those things I'm like, oh man, I would like to play a character in this world.
00:05:57
Speaker
in this world, yeah, exactly. I was just gonna say that phrasing. Or it's like, I like this, I wanna to do this, but this way. yeah or But with this change, right? yeah Because there's some of that too. Oh, absolutely. you know So what kind of what kind of things influence influence you? like um Is it for you, is the primary thing emotional? Or is it plot?
00:06:23
Speaker
Is it character? like What is it that that most like endears you to something and makes you want to play? yeah i think it's the um It's moments. Moments in a show, in a film, you know or in a video game, or
Personal Influence on RPG Settings
00:06:44
Speaker
whatever it might be, or in a book I've read. um Moments that I see that are either really cine you know cinematic,
00:06:54
Speaker
or dramatic but or or just as ah as a, wow, like you know that's a really unique experience that I will probably never have in my real life. yeah you know It could be because it's fantasy, it could be because it's science fiction, it could be whatever. um And i want to you know i want I want to experience that, right? Or I wanna... I know there are others who want to experience that as well, and I wanna design something to create that. So that's usually where it starts for me. And and in um you know a lot of the films that I grew up with are big influences. My dad really is the one who got me into like science fiction and fantasy, and he would take me to films, probably that he shouldn't have. The 80s were weird, man. The 80s were weird, because it's like there are rated movies, and then they would make toys for them. So it's kinda like, okay, there's
00:07:45
Speaker
Like dad waited um my dad waited a little while before he showed me Alien. Right? Yeah. yeah by that I saw Aliens in the theater yeah when I was like in, I don't know, elementary, middle school. I don't remember what year it came out.
00:07:59
Speaker
so um So there's that, right? And so there are those things that are that were exciting, or they were emotional, or they were like you know fascinating. and um And over the years, you know I think back to those those moments, those scenes,
00:08:17
Speaker
those encounters with a fondness that I'm like, Oh man, I would really want, I want to play that. It's kind of like when you were a kid and you were playing with your action figures or whatever, and you're trying to emulate those stories and it's like that, but now we can kind of, you know, codify it a little bit, right? With these rules and these, this model of, of gameplay.
00:08:38
Speaker
and And I think also systems, game systems lend themselves to that as well. yes So different systems evoke different feelings yeah and you want to experience you know that feel. And so for me, Savage Worlds in particular is cinematic you know in that way. And it can you know handle like the more um darker, grittier type of stories or the horror and and so on.
00:09:01
Speaker
Yeah, that's what makes it so amazing and
Integrating Emotion in Storytelling
00:09:04
Speaker
versatile. Exactly. But I agree with you. i think and And we'll get into this also because rules inform setting. Setting informs rules. Yes.
00:09:15
Speaker
and i i kind of you know i I don't agree with the premise that rules ah don't matter, meaning that um you could take any setting and bring it into a rule system and have it feel the same yeah no as if it was in another rule system. It doesn't mean that that rule system won't work for it. like Those two different rule systems won't work.
00:09:43
Speaker
but it does mean that it's a different experience. agreed And I think that's okay. I think that's that's part of the greatness of rule playing games and the different rule systems that are out there.
00:09:56
Speaker
Well, I think that's that's one of the phenomenal things about Savage Worlds is that you know it's people try to say it's a universal game and it's not. It's a core game that is intended to be altered based on the story you're trying to tell. Yes. And that's why settings in Savage Worlds have setting rules and they have you know their own subsystems or whatever it might be. Because you know I don't think Pinnacle is pretending to say Savage Worlds is, you know as is, is suitable for everything. It's like, yes, you should make those adjustments, you should make those changes. you know And and and you know fortunately in their rules, they they provide tools for that. Yes. And and they provide lots of examples of it. Yes, exactly. Between dead... There are official settings, right? Deadlands,
00:10:45
Speaker
Yep. Last parsec, all these things have specific setting rules that you can look at and say, oh, that's how they're doing that. Yeah. Great. Cool. Doesn't necessarily mean that they can't port those setting rules over to their own setting. Even if it's a fantasy rule, it could work in a sci-fi setting, right? I mean, I've done it, you know, if supers works great as like extremely powerful things, special abilities in other settings. Oh,
Overcoming Self-Doubt in Design
00:11:13
Speaker
yeah. know Yeah. It's super useful that way. Exactly. exactly And you know one of the cool things in Suede with the companions in particular is that in the back of the book, they have that whole like, here's some you know here here are different types of fantasy. Here are different types of sci-fi. And these are the setting rules you can employ
00:11:32
Speaker
to emulate that. And here are some example properties that fall into that sort of category. yes And that's a great way to look at, again, inspiration as a as a source for you know the creative work. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, that that especially when you're when you're looking at how do you how do you implement rules that compliment your setting. yeah um Being able to look at ah something, an example like that. yeah um but yeah so i mean I get inspiration from movies, books, music, um TV, video games, especially video games because
00:12:13
Speaker
um like what part of Part of the fun for me of writing these one shots that I'll never be able to publish like Horizon Zero Dawn or my Harry Potter adventure is to, as we talked about last week, I think with the iconic adventure, is for me to make my own particular iconic adventure for those properties, right? Just to put my stamp on what I love about those things. Yeah.
00:12:41
Speaker
And um that is outstanding practice for figuring out how setting rules and um narrative
Creative Breaks and Fresh Perspectives
00:12:51
Speaker
ah elements interact together right as you start to work on your own setting.
00:12:57
Speaker
You know, um, so yeah, I mean, I get like video games are great because it's like, okay, in this video game, you can heal like in horizon, you can heal somebody on the spot from zero to full in a matter of seconds. Right. You press that button and all that herbal medicine, just exactly all these all this that's just lying around, you know, I can hit a button and all of a sudden I'm healing. Right. Right. And that's that, that becomes a setting rule in Savage worlds. all of a sudden with Sagebrush, I can use the healing skill in one round. right right that's That evokes Horizon in a way. right There's other things that that evoke Horizon as well, like that make it feel like Horizon. and you know i think So those kinds of inspirations, those video games, those those books, those that even music to me,
00:13:52
Speaker
ah can can be an influence in that direction to help you integrate your setting in a way that marries the rules with the narrative, with your intent, and with the theme. And to your point too about putting your stamp on that story, that type of story for that, like you know you're saying Harry Potter. Yeah. A lot of these properties have you know different themes that we can pull from, but we don't necessarily use all of them. Yeah.
00:14:20
Speaker
Right? We use, we use pieces and pieces. It's what's important to you. It's what's important to you. Right. Exactly. What is the experience that you're looking for? I was on Savage Goose's channel not too long ago. We were doing a sort of impromptu, let's make an alien, Savage world's aliens, you know, game kind of thing. What would we do? You know? And, uh, but part of that conversation was, well, which alien movie, right? Alien or aliens? Because they're very different fields.
00:14:50
Speaker
Right. One's like military ones movie and one's in action. movie Right. Exactly. Exactly. So, so yeah, it's, it's all about what's important to you and and pulling those pieces to make your mark on the thing you're creating. And I think whether, whether we've, I've talked about this before in the past, but whatever, whatever you think or whether you realize it or not, if you're creating your own setting, you're creating your own adventures, especially setting your outlook on life, on the way the world works is going to be reflected in that setting. Right.
00:15:28
Speaker
that's That's what makes it so fascinating to look at other people's role-playing games. That's a good point. It doesn't necessarily translate one-to-one, but there is there there is something there, right? My outlook is absolutely represented in HAN cluster. Your outlook on Eberron is absolutely represented in Savage Eberron, whether you liked it or whether you meant it or not, right? right D. Vincent Baker on Outlook on Games and How the World Works is absolutely reflected in Apocalypse World, yeah right? And that's that's true of all these systems. And it's fascinating. And the the the the more you realize that and purposely sort of embrace it,
00:16:16
Speaker
the I think the more successful you'll end up being when you're trying to create a setting. If you're just trying to create kitchen sink, I want to create Star Wars, you know and and and you don't really have a thought process on what makes the world work that way in your head. um I think it's harder to make sort of a cohesive setting that people will engage with. I think, I think.
External Influences and Validation
00:16:43
Speaker
But whether you like it or not,
00:16:44
Speaker
your outlook is going to be reflected. That's, that's the way it is. And I don't know that that anybody really can do, let me cover all the bases kind of a thing. Even if they were trying to, I don't know that they'll necessarily succeed yeah because inherently we are going to have our favorite parts of that thing. Like you might want to do, right. You have to make decisions, right? And you know, you might like all of, so all of Star Wars, you might enjoy it, but you might really, really like the scoundrel stuff.
00:17:14
Speaker
Yes. and not And yeah, you'll write in the Jedi stuff. Yeah, the Jedi exist. They're fine. right But you really care about like the smuggler and the scoundrel and the you know fighting against the Empire from as the little guy. Exactly. Right. Or the opposite. You might be like, I want high superheroes. I want i want the superheroes of the Star Wars, which is the Jedi. Right?
00:17:38
Speaker
those are the stories I want to tell. And those are that's completely viable, right? And it could be that you could encapsulate both. But at some point, your your influence is goingnna is going to be shown there. It's going to be reflected. Yeah. Yeah. and And we've talked about this a little bit with, like I mentioned it regarding Explorer, where it's like, I like the whole like discovery, exploration. Man versus nature.
00:18:05
Speaker
man versus nature, I don't want to deal with just as a breath of fresh air, man versus man. Factions. Right. Factions, right. Yeah. like yeah and And as fascinating as those stories can be, and i and i i I do want to explore that in another setting at some point.
00:18:22
Speaker
that explorer is about exploration. That's what I want to focus on. Yeah. And I think that's, I think there's a lot of potential there. and And what's, what's, what's fascinating to me is like, what are you thinking as far as how a man versus nature role-playing game works?
00:18:41
Speaker
and can be can be in ah engaging, intriguing, and and keep you on your toes. Yeah. I'll let you know when I figure it out. I think it's there, but I'm i'm i'm fascinated to know yeah what that looks like. Yeah, me too.
00:18:59
Speaker
That's your vision, right? Yeah. That's your vision. Yeah. And it's it's hard, but only you and Jen can do it. Right. Right. Yeah. I hope we do it well. I think we will. We'll get there. I'm sure you will. I think that then
Clarity through Subtraction in Design
00:19:13
Speaker
brings us to our next piece of inspiration then, right? I think there's one more thing I wanted to mention is that influences are not like direct, right? Not not necessarily. For example,
00:19:27
Speaker
This always kind of gets people sometimes as well sometimes gets people right like one of them It wasn't an influence because it came along later But it absolutely would have been an influence on Hong cluster and that's Ted lasso Ted lasso has nothing to do with sci-fi it has nothing to do with with like going out into space and you know shooting up enemies and dealing with existential dread, it doesn't have anything to do with that. But its themes of optimism in the face of adversity is absolutely core to Hahn cluster. It would have been an influence if it if it had come along earlier. As it is, it's still an influence because it came along and I'm still writing it. right
00:20:14
Speaker
So, those things can influence theme. I think Gilmore Girls is a thematic influence on me. like It's one of those things. like There's no one-to-one like direct comparison here, and yet, it is an influence on me. you know So, you can have influences from anywhere.
00:20:33
Speaker
anywhere I think Han Cluster was one of the first, it's actually the first and only um A, sci-fi, B, Savage Worlds um setting that I felt like there was inherently an emotional component to it. e When I played Trinity's Mustang, tri must yeah there was a lot more having to do with social interaction, dialogue, and connecting with the people that you're interacting with. a and And I remember there were moments in that game I would get goosebumps, like I would feel choked up because of those interactions.
00:21:18
Speaker
And I could tell that that was something that you brought from something you loved and injected that into those stories. yeah And I was like that, it was so well executed. And I think that's, I hope this provides inspiration for you, Tracy, because it it is, it is, it was a really cool way where you put your voice into the, into the design. And I, and I think, I think it it hits, you know, it really hits with the players, you know,
00:21:44
Speaker
Yeah. Well, thank you very much. I i i try. whether whether will that The next trick, of course, and we'll talk about this later, is whether it will hit when I'm not at the table. Right. That's the real trick. Right. Yeah. cause Because youre cause then your question, is it me? that am i Am I delivering that live in the game or is it the the written content? yeah and that's You're right. Yeah. That's where play testing that's where That's the trick. Can you put Tracy's size more in a box? Yeah. But yeah, so now we can move on. Sorry. Oh, yeah. No, no I'm glad i'm glad you you included that because that was I do think that was important. So so segueing then to
00:22:25
Speaker
you know the moments where you're feeling discouraged, right? Whether or not you're trying to figure out whether you're you're hitting that, right? you're you're're You're getting your voice, your idea, your thing, your individuality into the setting, and you're expressing the themes that you pulled in a way that you're hoping they'll come across, yeah right?
00:22:45
Speaker
We have times where we're like, is this this playing? like Is this hitting? like am i Am I really hitting the mark on this? um I know I have had times where I've briefly stepped away from Explora and I'm like, I don't know that this is working.
00:23:03
Speaker
And then every now and then i'll you know I'll go back and I'll reread, Jen and I will both do this. We'll go back and reread some of the stuff and we're like, or we'll talk about it even. And then all of a sudden we're like, no, this is really good. you There's some, there's something here. These are great ideas. It's a sign curve. I'm telling you. It is, it is. and and And even in those moments, there's times where we're like, but are we trying to do too much? You know, do we need to dial it back? Do we need a pool? You know, is it, um,
00:23:31
Speaker
The idea, i've been we've been watching The Bear, and um there's one scene in particular where this jerk asshole chef who's like abusing the main character um about this thing he's trying to make, this dish, and he's just like know getting on him, and he's like, gets on this case about it, but then he writes on a piece of tape and puts it up, and it says, subtract.
00:23:59
Speaker
Right. And
Support Networks and Collaboration
00:24:00
Speaker
he's getting on his case because like there's too many elements, you know, what, do you want to put more sauces on that, you know, should we get some more sauces and see what else you can add to that? You know, he's getting on his case about it and he puts on this tape subtract. And so sometimes I think about that and I've, I've learned that in good design. One of the, one of the best things you can try to do is take away until you can't anymore. Right. And, and like really distill it down to what the essence is. And so sometimes Jen and I will worry, are we trying to do too much? You know, and so,
00:24:31
Speaker
where I would like to know how you, and maybe I'll, I'll share then after how I, um, how do we pull ourselves back from that? How do we, how do we go from like doubting everything we're doing, but then, you know, finding inspiration, whether it's from within from friends, from, you know, colleagues, whatever to feel again, like we're on the right track or to be willing to make the adjustments we need to make to get back on the right track.
00:24:59
Speaker
Yeah. i I mean, this happens so often. It happens to everybody. Yeah. And because you get so close to it and you're working on it so hard and and you're excited about it, you're doing your thing, and then all of a sudden, for whatever reason, you run into some kind of roadblock or some kind of problem and then you start to step back and you go, man, everything is terrible. Like you're looking at it as like ah like this vista of horror.
00:25:26
Speaker
You know it's like a spent your last two years working on or whatever. right And you're like, this is this makes no sense. This is terrible. And and at those times is...
00:25:39
Speaker
I try to come back, I try to pull myself back up from it, right? The first step is to go out and take a walk. Taking a walk makes a huge difference, right? Like I said in our- Put it down, step away. Yeah, one of our first episodes is writing is walking sometimes. Writing is staring at the wall sometimes. Writing is taking a shower sometimes. Sometimes, yeah, just not even thinking about it as writing, right?
00:26:06
Speaker
And sometimes like with with problems that you run into, Darrell and I have both experienced this. We'll say, all right, this is a problem. I don't know how to solve this. This is all terrible. I'm going to go take a walk. And the minute I step out of the door, I have an idea. yeah I continue my walk. I still do it. But just getting away from from the from the screen and from the keyboard or whatever somehow was enough. Sometimes it's not.
00:26:33
Speaker
Right? And then I rely on people. right So I rely on on people who both love me and who are smarter than me.
00:26:46
Speaker
And I'm looking for people to help me in terms of like, Darryl is somebody who's way smarter than me and loves me, right? So I can go to him and tell him about my problem. And he, because he's Darryl, will just machine gun like five different ideas at you and say, oh yeah, that's no problem. You just do this, do this, do this, do this, do this. Usually,
00:27:12
Speaker
9 out of 10 of those ideas are wrong. right like they're They're bad. um The 10th idea has a kernel of something. And I go, ah, and now I'm inspired again. Now
Reflecting on Success for Inspiration
00:27:24
Speaker
I'm like, oh, I can fix this. It may not be exactly how Daryl suggested, but I can fix it. You know, and that's somebody that's, ah that's kind of a rare thing. You got to look for that. You got to find somebody like that. Right. But there's also Boof and Boof doesn't necessarily, I mean, she'll will give suggestions, but she knows better than anybody. Sometimes all I need is somebody to say it to.
00:27:49
Speaker
Yes. And I don't know that if that happens for you too, but all I need to do is say it out loud to somebody who's alive. And I can sort of work through my problems that way. Poor Boof doesn't feel useful at all. Like she doesn't feel like she's doing anything, but she really actually really is. No, I have, I have absolutely, had i even at work, um, whether it's with design or development, um, in doing like websites of all things where I get stuck. I'm in my head. I spend days just like, Oh God, like, you know, how am I going to do this? This isn't working. Blah, bla blah, blah.
00:28:28
Speaker
And then I'll just start talking about it out loud to somebody. And that's when I learned, ah this is something I learned like years ago, and I just forget it every now and then, that I think better out loud. the Like I have to talk through my thoughts and whatnot. And so a lot of times that'll happen with me and Jen, where I'll just start like, you know, I'm questioning this, this is what I'm worried about, I'm feeling this, that it And then I'll start talking through possibilities and this and that branches. You know, I'm like branching with ideas. Sure. And then Jen is just sitting there like confused and bewildered and not sure what's going on. She's just like, I joke with them. Like, you're just like, Oh my God, is he going to shut up? Aren't you? And she's like, no, no, I'm listening. I'm like, okay. Um, but I do find that that helps me and maybe it's an ADHD thing. I don't know, but it helps me sort through those thoughts and those ideas or, or to more easily navigate
00:29:23
Speaker
to an end point, you know? that The danger I have had is where sometimes I'll get on a path like that and I end up deviating so far and going down this rabbit hole. Oh yes, yes, yes, yes. And it's like I'm i' almost on the edge of throwing out the baby with the bathwater kind of thing. yeah Like, oh no, I need to scrap it. What if I did this instead? And you know, we could do this, this, and this, and this. And then I'm like, yeah It's hard to tell. Sometimes it's like, okay, yeah, that's the that's the way to go. let's let's Let's question everything we've done. Let's challenge it. Let's challenge our assumptions. And then other times it's like, no, hold on. yeah you know Wait, yeah pump the brakes. you're going you're You're going off the edge here.
00:30:07
Speaker
But either way, I feel like in those situations, and I've had plenty of those, where I've gone down a deep, dark, horrible cave of horrors, only to come out where I started right and sit there and go, okay, now I know that's not the right direction now.
00:30:26
Speaker
Like I know that. and it And it even sometimes will validate the work you've done. Yes, exactly. This is the right thing. And sometimes you have to go through that cave of horrors to do that. Yes. And for me, that cave of horrors has lasted two weeks at a time.
00:30:44
Speaker
oh God yeah, I'm like I'm completely rewriting this complete this whole act. Oh, it's a complete mess. It's a disaster and Because I had some something happened where I'm like, ah, this is terrible What a stupid idea that was and I go through and I go through this, you know Don't let of horror. Yeah, and then I realize wow, this really really doesn't work and my original idea Does right?
00:31:11
Speaker
all I need to do is make this one little tiny stupid tweak. Yep. And that solves the whole thing. That's it. Yeah. And sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes, sometimes you're going to have somebody who can short circuit that for you, but sometimes the only way to validate and be sure yeah of that little tweak is to go through that two week block of awful and to rewrite everything. And then to go back to a previous save, you know,
00:31:40
Speaker
kids It sucks. You know, you know, it's the real kicker is when you're like, you know, spinning your wheels on something and then like you go to somebody like say Clint with your thing and he's like, Oh, why don't you just do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yep. And you're like mother. Yeah. Carol does that to me all the time.
00:31:57
Speaker
You're like, and then you really feel dumb and like, you don't know what you're doing and you know. Or he'll say, he'll say the tweak. He'll say the tweak, right? He'll be like, well, why don't you just make this little tweak? And I'm like, no, no, no, that's, that's not right. I have to go through this horror horror of
Value of Constructive Criticism
00:32:11
Speaker
mirrors. And then I come back out and I'm again, I'm Darryl is right about that. He's right. That was the way to do it. So time. Yeah.
00:32:20
Speaker
You know, people who are smarter than you, people who love you, and sometimes they're both. I mean, Booth is smarter than me. She makes plenty of of good suggestions. yeah um but And so does Darryl, but both of them, sometimes all I need is somebody to to listen to me because I can't do it by myself. If I try to do that in the shower, I'll sit there and I'll say, okay, I'm going to talk this out for myself. I'm talking this out. I don't have anybody to actually be on the hook for explaining it.
00:32:45
Speaker
right So then I'll stop talking, I'll start thinking, and it'll just go off in this myriad of different directions that don't you that aren't useful because I didn't finish my thought. yeah So I need that person in front of me. It sucks for them sometimes. No, because like you said, when you have somebody that you have to explain it to, you're doing it in a way that it has to be clear for comprehension, right?
00:33:08
Speaker
You realize as you're talking about it, you're like, wow, this is the dumbest thing ever. Oh my God. Yeah. But what we'll talk about, like that there's a component of that we'll talk about in a future episode with regards to like writing for clarity. Right. So we'll we'll get into that some point. Yes. yeah And then find people who can support you. Right. So if, if, if this is hard, we'll, we'll get into this a little bit later with the theme. We just need to make that the subtitle of our podcast is this is hard.
00:33:35
Speaker
This is hard. I think i think that's that's our new nail in it from from Savage Inner Leagues. This is hard. like but um But yeah, so it's it's building that group that both can give you useful ideas yeah and who love you enough to have empathy about where you're coming from and what your intent is, because that's just as important in feedback as getting feedback at all. yeah yeah um that That takes some time.
00:34:05
Speaker
And it's a good idea if you can find some people, if if you can, if you can are who have been there and done that. Yeah. I do want to say, I think you and I are both fortunate people that we have that because I don't know that, you know, not everybody has that necessarily. And so i've I um want to recognize that we're lucky to have that. I'm extremely lucky. I mean, I've got i've got of several people who are very good at different things. People who
Revisiting Past Work for Growth
00:34:35
Speaker
know you. know yeah People who know me, who who who care about what my intent is, right and can compartmentalize their opinions based on that intent. Super, super lucky. and Between Daryl and Shane, who is super generous, Simon, who's super generous with their with their thoughts about how to proceed on things without
00:35:00
Speaker
just wrecking my self-confidence. Because i think I think the brutal part of brutal criticism
00:35:09
Speaker
That has its place, but it's a very, very specific place. Well, that's the thing is if, if, you know, it's easy to go in like on say a forum or, you know, like a discord server or whatever and and throw something up and get feedback. Um, but those people, those individuals don't necessarily know you as well as the people in your life. Right. And, um, and it might be some of the stuff they say, a lot of it, all of it could be valid.
00:35:40
Speaker
yeah But sometimes it's about how it's said, not what's said also. And I think I'm a big fan of, of, uh, expanding who you share stuff with yeah as you go, as you go. You start with your, you start with your start with your core. You start and you move past that to the people who you respect and people who also care about you.
00:36:03
Speaker
And then you expand slowly as your thing gets better and better and better to those people who don't know you, the people who maybe not even be into what you're trying to do. But then you have much more confidence in your thing. Well, I was going to say, then you have when when you have the people who don't know you that well, giving you you know that brutal feedback.
00:36:22
Speaker
because they don't necessarily know you and your intent. And you still have that core that is supporting you in terms of like, no, no, like what you're doing is solid, yeah you know? So like they they understand the intent and it's like, okay, you know, God, that was heavy. All right, so I think we've got a handle on maintaining our inspiration, right? And whether, you know, we've gone from the initial spark, the ideas, the themes, to maintaining that spark, right? And having that support network and and the confidence and the trials and the tribulations that all go with that. And then, but now we gotta kind of show that inspiration
00:37:10
Speaker
to others, right to the to the people who are going to be reading and consuming our our stuff. ye your your job is to inspire Your job is to inspire them. right That GM who's like, oh, am I doing this right? Am I like what am i am i thinking about this right? Am my player is going to have fun with this? a I think one of the easiest ways to do that, and I've seen this in several products,
00:37:37
Speaker
um is honestly give a list of of your sources of inspiration, like from from media, right? Things that they can point to and look at. and then better owner understand, oh, that's what the author is trying to emulate. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And it could be, like I said, it could be thematic inspiration. It could be yeah direct inspiration. It could be genre inspiration, character inspiration, like whatever. Yeah. I find that variety super interesting because again, as part of
00:38:11
Speaker
as the setting tells you about the setting designer, so do the inspirations. Right. And I'm not going to pretend this is original, by the way, because this was Appendix N. Right. That's what that was. It was all the things that they read. Fritz Leiber, you know, Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, all those things, all those authors um that inspired D and&D. Yeah.
00:38:41
Speaker
And that's to show what's the feeling, what are the different themes you can explore with this game. And we've seen, yeah, like I said, we've seen this in other products, Pine Box, we were talking about this earlier, Pine Box Mill School has that. And I know everyone has that, you know, a list of films, movies to watch, movies to inspire. I wanna do that, I wanna do that with Explorer as well, because I think there's something there too.
00:39:08
Speaker
saying this is what we're going for. And if you're struggling with trying to figure out how to how to feel about this, watch watch play, read these things. yep Are there any other things regarding inspiring GMs that you can think of? One little teaser I have, because we're going to save this to the to the near the near the the after the production part of the podcast, which is finding inspiration in your previous products. Ah, yes.
00:39:36
Speaker
Because I find it, I find it, if I'm in a lull, if I'm in a slump, sometimes I'll go look at something I wrote before. yeah Something that I've
Join the Community: Discord Invitation
00:39:47
Speaker
gotten published before, like a Torg adventure or a ah you know one of the things I wrote for Pinnacle or a particularly awesome thing that I really liked that I contributed to Holler or something like that, that I happened to remember that I contributed. right And I read it and I go, wow.
00:40:06
Speaker
Yeah. Two years ago, Tracy really was really good at this. Like she knew she was doing, this is really good. I wonder if I can do that now. Yeah. You know? Yeah. We're going to, we're going to talk about that more, but I, I, I personally find it not only inspirational and, and it makes me feel good and it makes me feel accomplished, but it also,
00:40:31
Speaker
um is a positive influence on me. It it lets me enjoy my own stuff. A lot of people have trouble with that, but they look at their old stuff and they hate it. They hate it. I'm not that person. I look at my old stuff, most of my old stuff that I've released, that I've put out there, and I enjoy it.
00:40:49
Speaker
Well, here's the thing too, with with with game design, you can look at your stuff, your old stuff and hate it, but now you know why you hate it, and now you know how to improve it, which makes you feel even better. That's true too. Right? You've grown yeah you know as as ah as a developer or designer, and and I think there's something to that as well.
00:41:04
Speaker
yeah um Yeah. And it's not just, Oh, that, that thing I did back then was so great. It's, and I've also gotten a lot better yeah since then. Right. And, and I think there's something to that. I mean, how there's things, I even look at old blog posts that I wrote, um, where it was either something that I look back at and I'm like, Oh, that was really cool. Like I, I, yeah, I had a good thing there or.
00:41:30
Speaker
it's something that was validated because I saw it in like a peg product later on. yeah I was like, Oh, that was a good idea. You know, like that's, that was, that's something that, that I've, I've found on occasion. Like that's, that's validating. So yeah.
00:41:46
Speaker
All right then. Cool. Well, thank you for listening to the Designing Problems podcast. We want this to be more than a podcast. We want it to be a community. So if you'd like to engage directly with us, share your creative triumphs, your roadblocks, or simply interact with a cool group of supportive people, we have our own Discord server. Please come by, join the discussion and share some