Like last week, some of the answers to the #AprilTTRPGMaker questions worked as blog posts of their own, but some were too brief. But combining the shorter ones together works.

8. Describe your routine.

I skipped this one because I found it too depressing.

9. Describe your process.

I don't know if I have a "process". One thing that was clarified for me a few months ago when I did @paulczege's VennRPG thing, was that when I'm trying to make an RPG off of pure internal inspiration, the way a stereotypical "real artist" does it, I get bogged down and it goes nowhere. Like with the Czege Principle, I need something external to be bouncing off of or reacting against -- some bad or wrong idea I can engage in intellectual combat with, or at the very least playfully engage with. Feeling that sense of wrong that needs to be righted or work that needs to be done is usually what I need to actually get things to crystallize enough for me that I can get them down into a testable form in a game draft.

10. Favorite game to relax with.

I don't think I play games for the purpose of relaxing. I don't find RPGs relaxing games to play -- even if there wasn't some anxiety involved they'd still be active and mentally-engaged activities, I tend to be in an amped-up state of tension when I'm playing them or after I'm done, not a state of relaxation. Computer games might be more likely to relax me, but I don't have a "favorite" one that I can return to over and over again. When I found Slay the Spire earlier this year it was good for my emotional state, but it couldn't last forever once I had explored most of the approaches (especially since things like the "daily challenge" style play tend to cause me more frustration than relaxation). In general I'd like to be in a situation where I could relax more and/or play more games, but I don't think that's in the cards right now.

(image from the Slay the Spire wiki)

11. What's yer brand?

I posted about that in this post

(image from MemoryAlpha)

12. How do you get your work out there?

I posted about that in this post

13. Biggest influences?

This post has my response to that question.

(Pentium 4 die photo originally from Intel)

14. What are yer Dreams & Plans

This is another question that kind of depresses me. My dream is to be able to find something to do that I find emotionally tolerable that can make me enough money to live on. That even this low bar seems difficult to surmount is pretty rough. I like thinking about and working on RPG stuff, so if I could make money doing that it would be great. I'm not sure I can get there from where I am, or at least not fast enough.

I don't know if I have any plans that don't have "and here a miracle occurs" in them. If I could convince people to playtest my games Rusty from Disuse or Last Year's Magic I might be able to get them into the kind of shape they'd need to be to post on DriveThru, which would hopefully result in at least a trickle of money. Also, I've been doing my best to make Steemit work as a platform for RPG creators, but the price of Steem/Steem-backed-dollars not being great and the small number of people who have been willing/able to get accounts and try the experiment make that seem like a real long shot (at least in the near term). In an ideal world I wouldn't be in such a rush to get money, but my expenses are demanding that I think in a much more short-term way than is my natural tendency.

The list of questions for #AprilTTRPGMaker

(From Kira Magrann's twitter)