Working with Friends

I'm very blessed to be surrounded by amazing people who are creative in ways I can only imagine.

Don’t get me wrong, I know I have ideas, and some fun ones too, but it's more that I have spontaneous bursts of creativity, and I struggle to follow through on those ideas and turn them into something tangible. It might be that it takes too much work or effort, it might be a matter of believing I don't have the time. Whatever it is, I put out ideas and I love doing just that, and I don't really expect of myself that I'll finish any of them.

Except with three ideas I had, not necessarily original, but, well, they are something, and now I'm working with three different sets of friends to turn them into something more. This is what I love; collaboration. It was a big part of the scene I was part of when Google+ was around, and I get to do it in small ways now on Facebook, Twitter, and Discord. Even Instagram occasionally when I post something and someone messages me, but its more rare there.

So anyway, here are three ideas, or collection of ideas or thoughts, and these are now no longer mine, but a collaborative effort:

THE GIGGLIES

There’s this artist named JR on Instagram and Reddit who shares these amazing pieces of dark, twisted art, like this piece based on the Teletubbies, and I immediately thought this was gameable. So I got to talking to my friend Hodag (who recently released THE HODAG RPG and you NEED to check it out), and he introduced me to his friend Cónor, who loved the concept and wants to make it into a thing.

ACROSS THE STARS

I’ve likely talked about Across the Stars years ago, when it was something else. But a few days ago my friend Matthew Adams published a 1-page game called Exploiters as part of the #MSPaintjam (or #MSPaintRPGjam, I’m not sure which) and I love it and the tone was perfect for it. So I got to talking to my friend Richard on Twitter about it and I pitched my old ATS concept and he’s considering helping me develop it into something more.

ROCKS OF SANTH

I wrote up a list of names today, and me friends David and Ted both jumped in and started to help me figure out what it all meant:

Hewer of the Rocks of Santh

Carvers of Eyes

Mandelbrot Columns

Slipstone Golem

Krathickack of the Nine Mouths

Feeder Worms

The No-Beast

Immediately a mine locale comes to mind, where the Hewer pulls out Rocks of Santh, served by and aided by the Carvers of Eyes. The Mandelbrot Columns are alien things, shifting things, mutating columns, maybe of flesh? Maybe of something else. And Slipstone golems are forged from the Rocks of Santh.

This much I know. The rest I have to figure out. Or we do, really.

Oh and the no-beast is a creature that slides through different dimensions. I think it’s lion-like in form, maybe two-headed. Or no-headed.

Let's see what comes next!