As you might have noticed when I posted my daily schedule earlier this week, Wednesday is actually scheduled to be a mid-week break from the daily task of working on draft manuscripts for me to work on something a bit different. I’ve got a few ideas for video games that I’d like to try my hand at making and a whole bunch of tutorials to support me in that, so I’d like to spend some time exploring that as a possibility. I’ve mentioned before on there that I’ve got a few tabletop RPG projects that I’d really like to try to get off the ground, and there’s a few other odds and ends that I’m planning on spending my time exploring.
I’m especially keen on trying my hand at screenwriting. My sister is an up-and-coming actress and I’ve been told that the local indie film industry is a bit script-starved, so it’d be silly of me not to make the most of both of these facts and try to get something written and filmed. Who knows, maybe I’ll fall in love with screenwriting and write a whole bunch of things? It’s a very different skillset to my normal writing, so it’ll be an interesting challenge and learning experience at the very least.
Today, though, I’m spending my time on Blackened Hearts, the pirate LARP that I’ve been working on. It occurs to me that some of you might not know what a a LARP is, so… a LARP (Live Action RolePlay) is a kind of roleplaying game where, instead of sitting around a table like you do while playing something like Dungeons & Dragons, players physically act out the scenarios, typically using costumes and props. Blackened Hearts is specifically a parlour-style LARP, designed to be accessible, require little preparation, only last for a few hours, and be played indoors with a relatively restricted amount of space (usually 1-3 rooms). If you’ve ever played one of those Murder Mystery Dinners, it’s like that but better. Basically, everyone gets their own character with a personality and motivations, there’s a scenario that you’re placed in, and you act as your character would and try to accomplish their goals. There’s a lot of social interaction, deception and intrigue.
The other week, I posted up the descriptions for the character roles in the game, and since then I’ve been slowly but surely making my way through the actual information folios for each role and such. It’s a lot of work… fifteen different characters, each needing their own complicated network of plots, relationships, and goals, each needing to be interesting and fun to play as. It’s a very different kind of writing challenge, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it all works out. I’ve got a clear vision in my head of what I’m making, so hopefully it’ll live up to that goal.
The draft version needs to be finalised by June this year, as that’s why I’m planning on giving it a bit of a beta test. The plan is to put it through it’s paces, fix any problems that are identified during the test run, then polish it up, and package it up as a freebie/pay-what-you-want download here on my site and through DriveThruRPG.
Speaking of other projects… Strowlers.
Zombie Orpheus Entertainment (ZOE for short) are a great crew that I’ve been following and supporting for quite some time now. I was led to them by Dead Gentlemen Productions, who I fell in love with after watching The Gamers: Dorkness Rising back in 2008. I’ve backed four of ZOE’s previous Kickstarter campaigns, and I’m pretty excited about Strowlers, their latest project. It’s a magical modern setting that, to quote their Kickstarter: “… tells the story of the dreamers, outcasts, artists, and activists who exist on the magical fringes of society.” This sort of thing is right up my alley, so I’m definitely going to be supporting the project.
One thing that caught me by surprise is that the Strowlers IP is going to be released under a flexible license, meaning that basically anyone will be able to make and distribute their own works based in the Strowlerverse. There’s some extra hoops to jump through if you want something you make to be ‘official canon’, but in general it feels like their aiming for something along the lines of H.P. Lovecraft’s Mythos, where he encouraged other writers to use elements from the mythology he was building in their own works, resulting in a large body of interrelated works that are pretty popular even today. It’s a clever idea, given how popular ‘cinematic universes’ like Marvel’s are these days. I’ve always been a sucker for tie-in stories and crossovers and all that good stuff, so Strowlers seems like something I’m going to really get into.
Of course, that makes me wonder if it might be worthwhile having a bit of a poke at their shared universe. I’ve been planning on using some of my spare time this year writing a script or two for a short film and leveraging my sister’s network of film academy contacts to try to get some stuff actually shot, and it could be very cool to get in on the Strowlersverse early. No firm decision yet, of course — I’ll be waiting to actually see the first Strowlers films and read over the World Bible. Still, it’s a cool idea and something I’m definitely going to keep in mind while going forward.
Everyone should totally check out the Strowlers Kickstarter and support it if it’s something you’re interested in.
