Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Immortal Festival

For me, the year 2021 has been about finishing things. Music projects, writing projects: "just get it done" has been the mantra. Rather than fighting for an unattainable perfectionism, it's been liberating to put a cap on a project and move on to the next one. It's way more satisfying to be done enough with something than to keep hemming and hawing, fussing and fine-tuning until all potential passion has been siphoned out of my brain and the thing ultimately never leaves my notebook or hard drive or what have you. You know: the way I've operated forever.

A fun side-effect has been really quick jaunts in a new creative direction, inspired by the creativity of the indie TTRPG space. We're not going to call this "OSR" territory, but, you know, similar philosophy. Example: IMMORTAL FESTIVAL is a very brief adventure of sorts. It's a mini-game that takes place over 24 hours in the fantasy game world of your choosing. Hell, I think it would be a blast of a detour in the laborious and painstakingly realistic sci-fi or historical reenactment game, but I have a bigger tolerance for genre bashing than some. The title came from a random title generator (fun) and the pitch was basically, "What if immortality was mundane?" That's it! If everyone had access to the same wild preternatural powers, who would really care?

Well, the deities who bestowed those powers would kind of care. And maybe there should be a little restriction to make it a special limited-time gift. There, the stakes are raised, and the playing field is still level. But let's assume most people would lose their shit and abandon all pretense of responsibility the instant they could fly or whatever, so who is going to do all the normally mundane things that keep a civilization rolling? This concept was very funny to me: you've got your duty or honor-bound adventurers who are suddenly no more able or gifted than anyone else, but instead of being able to have fun with their boost, they'll be the only ones capable of like going to the DMV or baking a bunch of cookies.

The rest came together over a couple evenings brainstorming powers, domains, and divine trials. And then...? It was kind of done. I like the idea of writing longer-form adventures, but this one turned into what it needed to be, and was one of the simplest layout jobs I've had in my short time playing at TTRPG design. Having the freedom to just get it done helps me arrive at the point where I know what the thing is. IMMORTAL FESTIVAL wasn't ever going to be a big adventure, and it didn't need to be written or explained to death in-text. It was going to be a little weird thing from go, and now it's done and I can try something new.


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