Brain Overload

Lately, I have had a lot of things going on and occasionally, that’s made me feel a bit like my brain is going to just melt out of my ears. When I’m trying to keep track of multiple projects, deadlines, general life stuff, and the terrible decision of what to eat for dinner every single night, it’s super easy to get overwhelmed.

When I get overwhelmed, I mostly just shut down and can no longer decide on what to even work on. The pile of options is too big to even consider and so I make no choice and work on nothing.

It’s not exactly a brilliant strategy.

It’s the paradox of choice. The idea that when there are too many options, deciding becomes much harder and leads to disappointment.

So how do I handle this overwhelm?

Anyone who has read my blog posts before knows that I am all about lists. I’ve built into my life a once-a-week brain dump where I take 30 minutes to an hour and write out every single little thing that is on my mind as a task. Then I assign those tasks a category and a date it’s due. Here’s what it looks like:

Currently, I use a program called Ticktick and I love it. I’ve been using it for several years now, but in the past, I’ve also done bullet journaling.

The main thing has been finding a method that clicks with how I think. I think in lists and tasks. For others, this might not be helpful, so experiment around to find what’s best for you.

For me, taking that time to set out my tasks means that I’m only making that decision once, not every single day with every single task, every time a task pops up. It condenses the choosing to a specific time, which makes it all a lot less overwhelming for me.

The Importance of Support Networks

Writing is often a lonely task. Creation usually happens with just you and the keyboard (or paper or paint or however you create) and no one else there to walk that path with you. It can be isolating and difficult to explain to friends and family.

It’s because of this solitary nature of creating that building a support network is so vitally important. Having friends who understand the struggles or who can offer advice is so helpful whether you’re just starting out or an established professional.

But building this network can take time, however, there are some ways to find support no matter what level of creating you’re at.

1. Join Local Activities

Check with your local libraries or bookstores to see if there are writing groups that meet up. Search online for your city + writing and see if anything comes up. There are often small groups looking for new members and ready to welcome you in.

1. Social Media

Yes, the chaotic force of the world, social media, can be used for good for building a network of support. There are countless Facebook groups for writers, artists, and designers, others share tips, successes, and mistakes with each other. Discord also can help you find a smaller community but can be a little harder to get access to (and honestly there are only so many hours in a day for social media use!). Twitter has hundreds of hashtags of people doing similar work who can understand and answer questions.

1. Conventions

Just like last week’s post talked about conventions and building a network, they are also great places to find support! If there are available workshops at the conventions that you’re attending, then get to know the other people there. Share email addresses, social media, websites, or whatever you like! These are your people, so say hello!

Making the Most of Conventions

Conventions are a great way to create a network and meet other creatives. This is true whether you’re going to an online convention or an in-person one.

But how do you make these connections? Here are a few little tips that I’ve used over the years.

1. Be there to learn! Conventions are an amazing chance to learn about creating, writing, and the genres we love. They are an incredible opportunity to find new markets, learn about new options for your work, meet new publishers or learn about upcoming technology. Be there to learn about all of this and embrace the chance. Conventions are a collection of people there to celebrate something they love! Lean into that and remember that there is always something to learn. That means attending panels, visiting booths, and asking questions. Most importantly, it means listening.

2. Demand nothing. When you are meeting someone, don’t start out demanding something from them. Learn names, be polite, and don’t just start out by demanding ‘You need to read my novel!’ Take the time to get to know people. You’re building relationships here, not just a transaction.

3. Follow up! After the convention, send out emails and reach out on social! Build the connection and follow up. It’s easy to get lost in the convention's shuffle, but when the show is over, don’t forget to reach back out and establish communication. The relationship might start at the convention, but it will grow outside of that.

What happens now in my game?

My current Dungeons and Dragons game tends to happen once a week and every week I end up asking myself: 'Great! What happens in this week's game???'

This certainly is more of an issue in games that are following a larger plot than in a 'monster of the week' campaign but both of them require you to think ahead and find new adventures time after time and that can be a challenge... especially when you have players going in directions you didn't plan!

So how do you figure out the answer to this question?

1. What do your players want/What are they good at?

My players tend towards roleplaying more than combat so generally the encounters we have are social. My group is also made up of all caster classes so there are few physical challenges to overcome because that creates a frustrating (though sometimes funny) situation for everyone involved. When I'm really stuck, I create a poll for my players and ask what they want to do next: a dungeon, big fight, city visit or festival. Honestly, there's no shame in asking for guidance from your players.

2. What hasn't happened in a while?

Variety really makes TTRPGs shine so I try to keep my sessions a bit different from each other. After so many 'trapped in a dark dungeon' sessions in a row, it can start to feel a bit tedious for me and my players. So I try to mix things up from dungeon exploration to city encounters to shopping episode to big siege fight at a tower. Changing things up every week also helps prepping feel like less of a chore for me. At the end of the day, you've got to remember that you as the game master are playing this as well, so make it fun for you too!

3. Utilize resources.

There are a ton of resources in official resources for games and on sites like DMsGuild and DrivethruRPG. Go looking through them and see the amazingness available to you. There are some incredible one-shots that fit into a lot of types of games and do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. These types of resources have been a life saver for me and I still use a lot of them when I am really struggling. I love that these options exist and knowing and embracing that has really leveled-up my game mastering style.

Those are some ways to find new options for your games to keep them feeling fresh and new week after week. BUT, don't forget it's important to take breaks too and not burn yourself out by trying to keep going when that creative well is dry.

Making NPCs Stand Out with Voice

We're here again with some more tips on running your tabletop roleplaying game! This time I want to talk about dialogue and voice!

If you're anything like me, you dream of being able to do really great and unique voices for every character in your game... and if you're like me, you have maybe 4 different voices you default to in your games. So how do you deal with this and make it clear who is talking in your games?

1. State it outright.

There is no shame in straight out telling your players: "The dwarf woman says to you "Help!'" There is no confusion here about who is talking to who. It can maybe feel a little cheat-y but it's a clear direct means of sharing information and making things totally unambiguous.

There is no shame in clear communication.

2. Different word choice.

One thing that can make your characters stand out for one another is their diction and the words they use. The elf professor of evocation probably will have a different way of explaining things than the goblin bartender. The way they talk, the words they use and the speed they share them in all make a big difference in keeping personalities clear too.

This is my favorite way of having characters stand out from each other and the one I tend to use the most.

3. Gestures and nervous habits.

During a lot of conversations, people are doing things while they're talking. What do your NPCs do while they're chatting with the players? Does the tavern waitress play with her hair or fiddle with the quill she's using to take the orders? The movements and habits of a character can really bring them to life and make them feel more relatable as well.

These are just three ways to make your NPCs stand out a bit more and feel different even if they all use the same one voice you can manage. There's no shame in not being a nerdy-ass voice actor :) .

NPCs with Teeth

Continuing on with our February theme of tabletop game tips, let's move on to one of my favorite things: non-player characters! I adore adding in NPCs and my poor players have so many NPCs they run into all the time. So what makes for a good interaction in a game?

1. Goals of Their Own

The NPCs have their own goals, plans and ideas. They have their own idea of what needs to happen and how to make it happen. This mainly applies to NPCs with bigger roles. Every single shop keep doesn't need a backstory and motivation that really plays a big role.

However, if there is a noble giving the adventurers a quest, there's probably some reason behind it and some 'proper' way of it being handled. They have their own issues to worry about and reasons for interacting with the players. That shapes how they speak to and behave towards the players.

2. Flaws/Interesting details

There's always the running joke in DnD that players will want to talk to Boblin the Goblin and not the mysterious hooded wizard in the corner. Why? I mean a friendly goblin with a fun name is way more interesting! An NPC should have something that helps make them stand out. Now, that could be their name, their appearance, their way of speaking or some other fun trait.

Maybe the noble that hires the party regularly always wears a beautiful purple pendant and speaks with a faint stutter. It makes that NPC feel more real and also stand out against the background of the rest of the fantasy world. I also find it helps to have NPCs with names that start with different letters or sounds... something I neglected in my current campaign with Faylie and Raeleigh (recurring NPCs) regularly get mixed up because their names are too similar. Whoops!

3. Opinions on the players' characters

NPCs should not be impartial or indifferent to the characters interacting with the game. Whether they're good or bad, the characters have made an impression. In ttrpg, the characters impact the world and that includes the NPCs so have them react to what's happened, what the characters have done. If you've never had a group of NPCs form a fan club for the players then I suggest going that route because that creates a whole lot of fun for everyone involved!

Honestly, I could write about NPCs for a ton of posts but I'm going to keep it to a minimum for the start of all this. Stay tuned through the rest of the month for more ttrpg tips!

MORTAL COMBAT: DnD Combat Tips

The month has gotten away from me! I swear that just a moment ago it was early January and now here we are almost to the middle of February!

This month I wanted to talk about some general tips for running a tabletop roleplaying game like Dungeons and Dragons!

To start off, I'm jumping straight into the thing I struggle with the most: combat! Yeah, I have a hard time running fights in a lot of my games. I tend towards improv conversations with non-player characters rather than a long, drawn out fight. It's something that I am working on so here are some tips that have helped me start leveling up my combat!

1. Use the environment

Not every fight needs to or should take place in an open field. Fights could break out anywhere in a chaotic fantasy world where giant, hungry demons roam freely. Use the environment to create extra challenges for your players. One of my favorite encounters including a forest of free-floating trees. Because the trees constantly moved around, the scene shifted and line of sight, hiding spots and more changed. The players had to stay on their toes to keep ahead of the trees or risk getting knocked off their fight.

2. Use more than numbers!

This is one I try really hard to work on.. consider these options when describing a hit:

"Does an 18 hit?" your player asks.

"No," you answer. "You need a 20."

versus

"Does an 18 hit?" your player asks.

"Your great sword grazes against the ghost knight's chainmail but isn't able to find a vulnerable spot," you answer.

They're both giving the same information: the hit doesn't land, but one feels bit more cinematic and exciting than the other. Describing the fight in terms of action sequences versus just a clashing of numbers makes the fight feel more real and urgent. On the other hand, it can also make fights run longer so be aware of that downside as well.

3. Adjust

This is one I have really leaned into and may or may not work for your game. My current group is made up of all casters, most of them are very squishy with low hit points. I have absolutely almost one-shot the group because of a good damage roll... that I then tweaked. Yes, I'm talking about fudging the dice rolls.

For me, games are all about fun and my table isn't about the 'constant looming threat of character death', it's something we've agreed on already. So, adjusting the damage to not splatter the wizard in one hit makes sense.

It also means that if the wizard nails the big boss with a fireball, well maybe that enemy has a few extra hit points now.

This one is a fast and loose rule for certain and really takes a lot of knowing your group. If the group is tired and obviously not feeling combat, people have a few less hit points and the fight ends quicker... otherwise, maybe the fight goes a little longer.

I know this can be a controversial take cause, let's face it, fudging dice rolls is a slippery slop but with a group that trusts one another, I think it can help combat feel more exciting, engaging and cinematic!

So that's where I am in working on ttrpg combat! What are your tips for helping combat run smoother?

Energy Management

What a year January has been, huh?

As the year kicks off, I am being hit over the head with a reminder that dang can I blow through my energy way too quickly.

My day job tends to start quickly and be really intense at the start of the year. That means I come home and my brain is a bit like scrambled eggs. It's hard for me to think or create after work.

My energy is consumed with everything I do during the day so that means if I want to get much of anything creative done, anything that requires my brain firing at full capacity then I have to get it done before I head into work.

Thankfully, I'm a pretty solid morning person already so it works for me. Knowing when you naturally have more energy is really important to figuring out those times you can best work.

I know some writers who are, like me, morning people, and I know a lot of writers who are total night owls. They create once everyone else has gone to bed and sleep in as long as possible in the morning. There isn't a one size fits all strategy that guarantees success for you.

On the up side, that means no one can tell you what to do; on the down side that means no one can tell you what to do. It's a pro and a con because choosing your own style can be freeing and amazing but it also involves trial and error over time.

How do you figure out when your energy is at its peak?

Track it.

I know, kind of boring but that's the only way to know. Try tracking your energy for two weeks, two average weeks of your life. Don't do this while you're on vacation or holiday, see what it looks like it during your daily routine.

Rate your energy from a 1-10 every hour. If you're like me, it's high in the morning and then around 2-3 in the afternoon I nose dive into needing a nap land.

See what your energy levels tell you about when you'd be best creating things. Maybe you are super alert at 1 in the afternoon. Is there any way you could take a late lunch at your work and spend some time writing then? Look for ways to fit what your life looks like into what you want to do.

Willpower and Cantrips

Routines and Schedules

One of the most helpful and boring things that I have found keeps me writing is my schedules and routines. Last year threw a lot of that off for a variety of reasons. I started a new job in January and that meant a whole new routine to deal with as well as a new commute and a lot of learning.

Then well... March happened and everything changed again.

This is why my focus for 2021 is on rebuilding routine and structure into my life as much as I can. When some things are automatic, it frees up brain space. We've all had those days where you get home from a long day at work where you had to make a million decisions. You flop onto the couch, can't decide what to make for dinner so you order a pizza and watch movies. Suddenly it's 10:00 and time for bed. Your willpower is depleted and trying to force yourself to do more, doesn't really work at that point. You've exhausted that energy.

For my Dungeons and Dragons fans out there, it's like spell slots. You have enough energy to cast a certain number of spells before you need a rest. Schedules and routines act a bit like cantrips: they don't take a spell slot to cast.

One thing I have built into the routines of my life is that Monday is laundry day. It's become basically automatic at this point. I know that anything that needs to be washed will be dealt with on a Monday so I don't have to allot any amount of worry to 'when am I going to get all these clothes washed?' It frees a tiny amount of brain space from that thought. There's no decision to be made, it's already been made by past me.

By building in these little decisions already being decided, you can free a lot of brain space. Set up a similar breakfast every day, wear a 'work uniform' even if you don't have to, have a set time for eating or going to bed or writing. When these routines become automatic, those things get done with less resistance and less willpower drain.

Consider that schedules are really just a gift that past you is giving to future you, isn't that thoughtful of them?