Feats of the Week 5
WROTE
- Adding lore to Keeperoflore.com and/or the blog. Trying to figure out the best way to present everything.
- Working on The Demon Plague Verses: Chapter 9 (the final chapter!)
HEARD
- Apex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Volume II (Expanded Edition)
- Candle for the Dead - Ineffable
- Candle for the Dead - The Splendor of the Throne
- Candle for the Dead - The Promise Was the Chain
- Fief - III
- Hillsfar - Raiders on the Moons
- Hole Dweller - With Dreams of Hereafter
- Raison d'être - Alchymeia
- Thangorodrim - Gil-Estel
- White Rune - The Spell of Eternal Fire
VENTURED
- Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
BEHELD
- Elric of Melnibone, by Michael Moorcock
- The Exorcist’s House, by Nick Roberts
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
- Medea (Dark Horse Comics)
- Mr. Lovenstein Presents: Feelings
PONDERED
We played our Savage Worlds game this week. The two players were adventuring in Sothlin Province. They got to the very end of a storyline. They were literally one door away from facing the antagonists. Unfortunately, they activated a lethal poison dart trap and their characters died. They made a critical mistake of approaching the door together and they were both poisoned. They had no one to help and they just slipped away as the poison did its work.
I don’t take character killing lightly. But I also don’t protect them when they make mistakes. Earlier, they activated a trapped door that exploded. One of them was grievously wounded. But the other was outside of the blast and healed their friend.
This lethal trap works story-wise. The bad guys knew that they were coming. They set various other traps and minions to stop the heroes. They weren’t necessarily lethal. But this last trap was a boss level trap before the boss fight at the end of an adventure.
Sometimes the bad guys win. The players need to fear death. Otherwise, what’s the point in playing a game where there is no chance of losing and nothing is at stake?
Fortunately, they don’t take it too hard when they die. The one player had big plans for his character. She will never get to do them. He will save his plans for a future character, or maybe an NPC in his own games. They eagerly look forward to their new characters and what their futures might hold.
SORCERIES
Working on a Crenels piece. Writing music can be weird. I wrote a few melodies and listened to what I recorded. It was about 2 minutes long. I realized that I wrote the entire piece, but had it all squished up. If I give each little part its own room to breathe and exist, it becomes a much grander piece of music.
Another weird thing about writing music comes from taking breaks, intentional or not. August and September were really busy for me. I know that one must make time to do the things they want to do. But sometimes you are just so busy that it can't be done.
I need to compose music daily in order to keep the muscle strong. I do take weekends off, though not by choice. I lose the muscle power to write good music when I have an extended break from composing. When I finally get back into the studio, I have to start over from scratch. I need to strengthen the music muscle again. I have to write a bunch of bad songs to get them out. Once the garbage is gone and I am strong again, I can compose good music.
Creativity is weird. Dragging incorporeal words and sounds from the ether into reality is a bizarre experience when you stop to think about it.