Thursday, August 27, 2026

Prompt #27 for #RPGaDay2026

Hunger

I could talk about hunger in my game, such as making sure my players have food and drink to prevent starvation and dehydration, but I'm not sure if I will actually develop that fully.  It really isn't a high priority on my list of things to do, let alone I'm not sure if it would be worth it.  There's games I've played before where simple life sustenance got really annoying really fast.  I would be out there, running around gathering materials or beating up baddies, just to get a notification that my character was starving or dying of thirst, thus breaking my immersion.  

On the flip side, I do feel like in order to really get into a world, things that relate to hunger and thirst are kind of needed.  That extra milestone that really hammers home the thought process of actually being there, in that world.  A group of players could be tiptoeing past a Warmth-Seeker or even a Rotbringer, when someone's stomach growls and triggers the awareness of the wyrm.  Wouldn't that be a fun event?  Right now, I have food items in one of my vendor's wares.  Since my game operates on expeditions, the players go out on an adventure, return to the central hub, sell their wares, buy things, fix items, then next expedition.  I don't plan on these expeditions to take in-game weeks to complete, but definitely a few days.  

I'm not quite sure how I'm going to handle this mechanic.  I could have a bit more lore-driven situations where the players sit down, have a meal while planning out their expedition while also getting to know each other.  There is also the possibility that they just auto-consume when a day passes and the game just factors that in.  I guess when I get to that point in my game dev journey for this world, I'll have a better idea of how to combat hunger.  There's always a chance to feed a wyrm.

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Wednesday, August 26, 2026

Prompt #26 for #RPGaDay2026

Regret

I have a poster of Darth Vader in my room that I never fully opened.  It is titled Regrets that I got from Gamestop with those store rewards before I left USA.  Every day, I see it when I walk in here, ready to do my work one way or another.  It sits on a shelf, next to my Spawn figures, still in the plastic wrap from the mail.  That was ten years ago and I don't plan on ever opening it.

What does this have to do with my game?  It reminds me to not have regrets in life.  I've been through a lot, including a car accident that almost took my life.  That was a wake-up call that life is too short, even more so if you live it with regrets.  No one can make the game I see except me.  If I don't start it, no one will.  This year alone has been full of fun, exciting times for me and this game.  I've got a solid foundation on my local FoundryVTT,  making modules and testing things out.  The five playtesters that have been helping me test things out and providing feedback have been fantastic.  My creativity with my weekly creatures has keep flowing, although last week was a bit weird and this week might follow suit (I've got a major real life thing going on right now which is eating into my time creating those creatures, but after this week that should be back to normal).  Heck, even this month's Blaugust and the #RPGaDay2026 has gotten me motivated to talk about it daily, even when the word prompt was hard.

If I don't make my game, it would be a shame if the world didn't experience it, and that would be a regret.

 

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Tuesday, August 25, 2026

Prompt #25 for #RPGaDay2026

Familiarity

I think the word for today's entry is fairly easy to discuss.  Obviously I'm familiar with my game world, but I'm pretty sure most people will be to a point.  Since it is based off of the world in the past, the divergent aspect of that world would strike familiar tones with people — generic buildings, roadways, structures, vehicles, just overall settings.  It isn't set in a "traditional fantasy" setting like the infamous "you all met in a tavern".  My playtesters all met each other informally while they were responding to a bounty board, in which the target NPC was actually trapped inside a mall (a real one, from my hometown — obscure enough that you've probably never heard of it, but it's got a familiarity to me that I like leaning on), too scared to leave due to the Porcelain Seer that was doing it's thing (if you want the full writeup, it's got its own entry — https://www.patreon.com/ches_ge/posts/week-22-monster-159885442).  Next expedition is going to be a little bit similar.  I don't expect my players to be familiar with one another, but I do hope they instill a sense of familiarity amongst themselves as the game progresses.  

As I continue down this rabbit hole of mine, I really hope that I can bring forth some really cool things that other people can become familiar with, even if it is trying to kill them.

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Monday, August 24, 2026

Prompt #24 for #RPGaDay2026

Distance

I can say my game is a bit of a distance from our reality.  True, the solid base of it is based off of the real world that we all live in, but in the lore there was an incident that happened which essentially changed the world from what we have now.  There's things that exist that we don't have now, either from the past or the future.  That's one measurement of distance, but not the only one I want to talk about.

When I had originally created this game idea, I was told that I couldn't base it off of real places; that cities were copyrighted.  That didn't stop me from working on the idea.  I wanted to work on something that I could associate a distance with.  Turns out, those people were wrong.  Obviously there's some parts of a city that you can't just blatantly recreate, like sculptures or trademarked logos or even the city name, but overall if I wanted to recreate a city I was familiar with, I can.  In doing so, it gives me a point of reference for events and layouts of things that are encountered in the various expeditions.  I mean, the reality of our world right now and the fictional world of my game would change all of those things.  I want to know the distance to provide my players with on how far they need to run away from the nasty creature that is hunting them.  

Take a real stretch of a road I know, such as Prospect Avenue.  I know where one of the bookstores were, the path it took from that place to the mall.  That distance is about 1 kilometer, so more than enough for them to look at utilizing the various buildings that are along the way provide escape options or maybe even a better advantage to fight.  Now my players have a better idea of what they are working with when I can provide them solid descriptions of what they see in the vicinity.

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Sunday, August 23, 2026

Prompt #23 for #RPGaDay2026

Fortune

I know I'm not the only one who wishes for fame and fortune of some type, although I'd rather not have the fame that goes down in history as a bad idea.  The only type of fame I want is to be recognized as the creator of my game.  That's it.  You know, like someone mentions a game or an idea or a comic or literally anything, and a name is tied to it.  That kind of fame is what I want.  If I get it, cool, if not, also cool.  What I don't want is the sense of obscurity.  I'm putting my world out there, little by little, in hopes that it resonates with others.  It doesn't have to cater to the masses, just has to find those like me.  

As for the fortune aspect, as well as the word for today's prompt, that is a bit more of a weird take.   I'm fortunate to have the support from my community in my pursuit of game dev.  I'm also fortunate to have an understanding and supportive husband.  I know I'm not going to make it big with my game, so that kind of fortune isn't happening, and I'm okay with that.

There's a popular saying that "fortune favors the brave," and I feel like that resonates with me the most.  I'm willing to take risks and share my game world before it's even remotely completed.  There have been so many word prompts this month that had me dive into my very being, and I'm honestly not deterred by any of it.  I know there's a lot to my game and I have a long way to go.  A final saying that goes along with the word for today: the fortunes of war.  This is essentially saying that there will be unpredictable events during a war.  The war might be myself, but I know it's worth fighting for. 

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