Planning, prep, motivation and you?

Umbran

Umbran

Mod Squad
Staff member
Supporter
payn said:
I have a lot of irons in the fire. I have no problem getting started, its finishing before i'm off to something else. Also, more insidiously, this seems to have infected everything in my life. Work, cleaning the house, exercise, reading, writing, gaming, etc.. ITs like ive lost a balance and cant right the ship.
Click to expand...

This sounds a lot like one of the more common experiences resulting from the pandemic.

Some partial solutions for you may sit in time management techniques. I, and probably several others, can show you a few of those, I expect.

But, for many that's treating a symptom, not the root problem - the pandemic, overall, in its many facets, counts as trauma, and for many, what you are speaking of is a set of common trauma responses. The best way I know of to handle that is to speak with a therapist.
 

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Lanefan

Lanefan

Victoria Rules
payn said:
I have a lot of irons in the fire. I have no problem getting started, its finishing before i'm off to something else.
Click to expand...
That sounds extremely familiar, says he looking around at a pile of half-finished projects.

Edit to add: and I can't even blame the pandemic; I've been like this since forever.
:)
 

B

bloodtide

Legend
A big part of content creation is you really need to get into the zone. When you get in the zone you can generate a ton of content in a short time. Of course, you just need to find the zone that works for you.

For me, I find the early morning works great. Getting up on a weekend at 5am, cup of coffee and a sunrise out on the deck, birds chirp...and no other sounds or interruptions. Even just an hour and I can get a lot done.

Another rick is to fill up dead time. During the day you will often find yourself with dead time. Where you can't really do anything but wait. Waiting in line. Waiting for something to open. Whatever. Well grab your phone and type something up.

Driving also works. There are plenty of talk to text things out there, and you can make such content as you drive.

For personal RPG the big motivator is the shared impact. I take a half hour and make some elven insults on a little PDF. Hand it out to my players to use in the game. And they do. Even better is it how amazing it is to have a player build on that. The little PDF inspires them just enough to add to it or make their own. Then you get something back in many ways.
 

Ralif Redhammer

Ralif Redhammer

Legend
For me, when I can block off 30-60 minutes of time, put on some music to inspire me, and do adventure/campaign prep, I'm a happy person. Frequently it'll be Dungeon Synth, but could be symphonic metal or 70s music like Hawkwind, Tangerine Dream, or Rainbow if I'm working on DCC or something like the Blade Runner or Cyberpunk 2077 soundtracks if I'm working on Cyberpunk Red.

I find it's good for game prep, but also peace of mind to disconnect from the rest of the world and engage in something creative with music playing.
 

Z

zakael19

Adventurer
I find my brain does a lot of “what ifing” when I go for a long walk or a run, and I come back hoping I can write everything down before it’s gone.

For campaign type stuff, I don’t worry about increments much. I’ll take some time to write out (on paper!) some “cool ideas and people” following the 7-3-1 technique whenever they occur to me. That gives me things to say when the group does stuff. Beyond that, I’ll toss together a handful of potential battle maps & encounter rosters to have handy in case they’re needed.

Basically modular thematic design informed by the current party goals & objectives.

I’ve got a short canned list of homebrew I drop into a discord channel, most of which is now baked into 5.24 baseline anyway.
 

DragonLancer

DragonLancer

Adventurer
I should have included this in my previous post but got distracted

I'm a more visual person. It's film and TV that get's the imagination and inspiration going. My DVD shelf has the Peter Jackson Middle Earth trilogies, all the Ray Harryhausen movies, the Mythica films in a box set, Outlander, The Great Wall...etc. From that I can get better imagery that I can translate in game.

Books and literary materials don't carry over into my imagination as well. Which is probably why I struggled with the old 2nd edition D&D novels.
 

payn

payn

I don't believe in the no-win scenario
zakael19 said:
I find my brain does a lot of “what ifing” when I go for a long walk or a run, and I come back hoping I can write everything down before it’s gone.

For campaign type stuff, I don’t worry about increments much. I’ll take some time to write out (on paper!) some “cool ideas and people” following the 7-3-1 technique whenever they occur to me. That gives me things to say when the group does stuff. Beyond that, I’ll toss together a handful of potential battle maps & encounter rosters to have handy in case they’re needed.

Basically modular thematic design informed by the current party goals & objectives.

I’ve got a short canned list of homebrew I drop into a discord channel, most of which is now baked into 5.24 baseline anyway.
Click to expand...
I walk a lot in the winter, and bike a ton the rest of the year. So, this is a good idea. Thanks for the link 7-3-1 sounds interesting and ideal for some of my prep.
 

payn

payn

I don't believe in the no-win scenario
DragonLancer said:
I should have included this in my previous post but got distracted

I'm a more visual person. It's film and TV that get's the imagination and inspiration going. My DVD shelf has the Peter Jackson Middle Earth trilogies, all the Ray Harryhausen movies, the Mythica films in a box set, Outlander, The Great Wall...etc. From that I can get better imagery that I can translate in game.

Books and literary materials don't carry over into my imagination as well. Which is probably why I struggled with the old 2nd edition D&D novels.
Click to expand...
Me too. So many films/shows give me great ideas and really get me motivated to bring them to life. Though, getting started isnt my problem, its taking it to the finish line that im trying to work on. How do you carry the idea to execution?
 

DragonLancer

DragonLancer

Adventurer
payn said:
How do you carry the idea to execution?
Click to expand...
I tend to start at the end with the Big Bad. Who, where and why. Then I sort of work backwards before working out how the characters are drawn into it. I often take inspiration from how Paizo's adventure paths are done.
 


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