A Writing Project -- perhaps a bad idea

I'm trying to push the envelope in my writing.

I write a fair amount of non-fiction. https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/4537706.Steven_F_Lott. This is a comfortable spot for me.

I've got some self-published titles:

I've been trying to write fiction, but it's really hard. There isn't a simple unit test or acceptance test strategy for a work of fiction. I've got a stack of novels that I don't know what to do with.

I have one idea, though.

TTRPG Roots

As part of my fiction exploration, I've scampered into the rat-holes filled with TTRPG rules. And mechanics. See

This is an interesting place to be, but it doesn't seem to have a novel hidden away in some trash-filled recess. It started out sanely enough. After all, if one aspires to write a fantasy novel that's not an AO3, there needs to be a fair amount of world-building.

This was fun. I didn't start an empty dark universe and utter the mystical "let there be fantasy world" command and then separate the fantasy world from mundane reality. I didn't raise lands from the shadowy deep with the aid of Scrivener. None of that.

Instead, I took some TTRPG ideas that have their seeds going back to Original D&D, ca. 1976. (See https://waynesbooks.games/2020/10/31/original-dd-where-it-all-started-the-1975-white-box-in-photos/).

My original ideas have evolved a lot over the past 50 or so years. Mostly, because of explanations to skeptical players. Their reactions forced me fine-tune things to create what feels like a coherent framework that permits some supernatural magic.

Fantasy Wargaming -- The Book

Once upon a time, I had a library that included [Galloway82].

"A guide to fantasy wargaming with complete playing rules and sections on: Monsters & magic beings; Cultures, myth and religion; Character generation; Role playing; Spells; Warrior tables; Motivations, index and more. Book club edition, 1982, 300pp. Compiled and edited by Bruce Galloway."
[Galloway82]Galloway, Bruce. Fantasy Wargaming, 1982. https://archive.org/details/fantasy-wargaming-1982/

I extracted a shortened version of some of the rules from this book, and my regular TTRPG group used them for a campaign that worked out very nicely. (These use polyhedral dice with an emphasis on D100 for a lot of skill-based outcomes.)

I've since parted with the book, but have a directory full of notes. These were mostly written using More3, and later converted to ClarisWorks. A few things were converted to OmniOutliner, but not all.

The Hero System

My most workable ideas got rearranged when I switched to using the Hero (4ed) system. This was educational. It became clear to me the separation of essential plot points from game mechanics was absolutely essential.

The story elements can't be tied to nuanced micro-parsing of the text of the rules. For example, the Original D&D rules forbade clerics from using edged weapons.

Why? Good question. Why can't clerics swing swords?

  • "The rules say so." Really unsatisfying. A great way to irritate players.
  • "Otherwise, they'd be too powerful." Weak. And it appeals to the internal logic of the OD&D rules, not the world or campaign.
  • "Metal wrecks magic." Better. But. Has a logical hole: clerics can wear metal armor.
  • "Edged weapons wreck magic." Okay... But. Why? Could it be the shape? Pointy things leak off some kind of magical essence, the same way that a pointy part of a boat can create a coronal discharge (Saint Elmo's Fire.) Take this a little further, and we can decree that rings don't have charges, but rods and wands do. And. That cool quiver of magical arrows will have a half-life.

These last examples of swords, rings, and rods are outside any base rules. They're world-building. OD&D has little to no formal provision for this. It's just new rules, added by the GM.

The Hero System, on the other hand, has rules for "frameworks" as a way to formalize campaign-specific rules. They offer some extra character points for clerical skills in exchange for taking on the no-swords limitation. This handy mechanic for the Hero system elegantly sidesteps the why no swords? question.

I like this multi-faceted approach:

  • Campaign metaphysics that adjusts powers of cutty things and provides a potential plot point or encounter. This provides background to the characters.
  • Optionally, some game mechanics (e.g. a Framework in the Hero system) that reinforces the metaphysical mumbo-jumbo that influences the characters.

Big Hiatus

Glossing over boring details of having limited RPG time from '95 to '15. I played a little D&D 5e around '15 or '16.

Fiction Writing

Fiction is hard.

It is, however, a handy tie-in to a game.

What I need, then, is a TTRPG Campaign Setting. Then, I can write books in that setting. And I can sell them in pieces and parts: books or TTRPG rules or both.

See, for example, the OpenD6 Fantasy Locations book. (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/20450/d6-fantasy-locations, or https://ogc.rpglibrary.org/index.php?title=File:D6_Fantasy_Locations_v1.1_weg51020OGL.pdf).

The content of OpenD6 Fantasy Locations is carefully structured to read like snippets pulled from a fantasy trilogy. I think I can do that kind of thing, too.

It's certainly absorbing work. I can't stop myself from diving into the next bit of detail.

I've got a drafty world book and the start of a campaign book. I've managed to revivify old notes out of their ClarisWorks ossuary and into proper ReStructured Text.

My original notes, however, were to myself. There were gaps into which the unaware would tumble. I need to revisit the entire narrative structure with the focus on providing details to another GM who needs to inform their players of their characters' entanglements and options for thriving (or perhaps merely surviving.)

Keep your weather-eye open for updates.