My Actifit Report Card: March 6 2022

More physically active today, still feeling good. Not a lot of writing, but I finished the first volume of Kotkin’s biography of Stalin.

Writing-wise, I’ve started in on some of the last setting stuff for Kenoma before I call it good for the initial release. That involves going through and giving character examples for each of the factions as well as finishing up some of the previously untouched sections. These characters aren’t mechanically fleshed out, but they’re NPCs who might be used in stories.

Then I just need to finish character creation options (I’m not aiming for the full final list, just a couple playable examples for each faction), do more gear, and some template threats and I think we’re good to go. That’s easier said than done, if you’ve seen the rate of progress I’ve been making, but that’s still something I think should be doable.

Cybrine Dreams has been more troublesome, because it’s probably the game that I most need to worry about as far as deadlines (since I’m hoping to submit it to a game jam that finishes in March). The difficulty is that I’ve had a hard time getting back into it, so I think my first thing I’m going to do tomorrow is to re-read what I have and maybe do some editing on the setting section, then get into doing all the rules. I’m hoping to finish the character options and make all the gear for them by the end of the week. Then I’ll add a few more examples.

Cybrine Dreams is meant to be a GM-expanded thing, but part of the thing is that like Dark Souls there are algorithmic ways to modify weapons and armor (for instance, in-universe sanctification turns Blasphemy-based technology into Faith-based technology but keeps it from being used to flourish), so a bunch of the content will be able to be easily modified to fit different roles and the examples are just to give a feeling for what exists in the universe.

Part of that means that I need to provide sufficient instructions for the GM about how to tweak and alter things, but I’m going to have to get most of that done anyway to make the full catalog of gear and items work.

One thing that’s interesting is that Cybrine Dreams probably has the most levers for gear in a game design context of any game that I’ve made. It’s not as modular as Hammercalled with its billions of pieces of custom gear, but it’s got more places for interesting things because the ability to score a critical success, the raw output, the modifier, the suit, and the types of critical success are all determined by gear.

One thing that I think has been going on with my writing is that I’ve just depleted my inspiration without filling it back up. I’ve been doing a lot of podcast plus video-game downtime as my leisure time, but I haven’t been getting out for walks, listening to music, or reading as much as I should over the last week and a half or so.

Those batteries don’t discharge on a daily basis, they discharge over time, so a little bit of poor behavior is easy to ignore until you wind up in a spot where you’re in enough trouble that it’ll take you down and you don’t even really think about it.

Of course, some of that was the all-out burn I did on Consoles & Controllers, but the thing about trying to do this game self-employment thing is that I need to be pushing for full work weeks worth of productivity at all times, and then doing the podcast setup and other stuff I did last week (like new logos) was just enough to put me over.

Fortunately, I’m feeling well enough that I think I can try to re-establish my routines and my walk again. I’ve got athletic supports that are uncomfortable but better than re-injuring anything and I think they should be enough to get me through going back to my old level of physical activity.

And with that I’m going to get to bed, because I think one of the issues is that I’ve been pushing my bedtime back more and more.

This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io

Walking