Gaming, like all of life, falls under the breath metaphor — sometimes we need to inhale, sometimes exhale, but always in the right cycles, the right proportions.

So play, and play things you enjoy playing. You don’t *have* to keep hammering on a design. Play BW, play others, and maybe something will ‘click’ and help the design, and maybe you and your friends will just have a set of smiles for a game well-played.

It never feels like there’s enough time to do both in proportion, but obviously it’s necessary. Thanks!

That is the problem when one is crafting a game as you play it. Even in 4e (which is just a really complicated miniatures wargame) you can’t help but stumble over the mechanics of game operation as it is the center of the new system. Once you achieve that nexus point where the rules have become intuitive and require no discussion (likely post design) then the sweet spot can be struck.

Until then, alternate and try to take weeks off so you don’t get burned out on the process of designing/gaming. It’s not as if someone has written a contract for you to complete a new game within a specific timeframe! That’s the benefit of piloting your own ship; no one to answer to but yourself and your crew.

I honestly thought, going into this endeavour, that it was true that I — or at least we — would be captains of our own ship answering to no one. It turns out, though, that implicit in selling is buying, and there’s now a body of people that I do feel I have to answer to — fans and customers. I’m not sure I really do, but it’s a pressure I feel and have to react to.

I think that part of the challenge may be that in becoming primarily a designer of something you love rather than primarily a consumer, you’ve fully engaged your critical and analytical faculties to identify and clarify techniques wherever you find them. You’re looking at brush strokes and pigments rather than the artwork.

I’ve found this to be a fairly common transition among creative friends. When I’m editing other people’s writing, I find it harder to sit back and enjoy the experience of reading for pleasure rather than for comprehension. What often works for me is to make an effort to engage the emotional triggers that draw me to stories, usually in a different medium that I lack the technical tools to analyze. I’ll look at evocative photographs or read some poetry or listen to a moving piece of music, for example. Anything that reminds me of what it’s like to feel deeply about art.

In your case, maybe taking in a play, or playing charades, or attending a museum or anything that sparks the love in your soul for the live expression of feelings, the extemporaneous exchanging of ideas, or the tangible creation of a sense of place and history might help your mind get back in that mode of rich play that you’re having a little trouble connecting to at the moment.
–Doug, aka Yorrick

I’m actually a lot to blame for Brad’s current doldrums since returning I’ve pretty much said ‘show me what you’ve been doing guys!’ And part of that is that I want to see what VSCA has been doing while I’ve been away… and they’ve been doing very cool things. The current state of Hollowpoint and Chimaera impress me.

I think that might be the niggling trouble for Brad, we’ve been mucking about with Deluge, Hollowpoint and Chimaera and all are at similar points in the design process. With Diaspora we didn’t realize we were designing a game until we were almost through much of the process. So realizing we made a good game and that people want more we’re playing about with other games earlier on in the process.

Now hopefully (since I’m leaving) the table can find a happy medium of gaming and designing.

You have to be kidding, Byron — we got more “just play” in with you around than ever before! Two great Deluge sessions, some Burning Wheel, and a lot of that Hollowpoint time was solid play.

We also got more design in. :D

In ” there’s now a body of people that I do feel I have to answer to — fans and customers” there are two ways of handling them:
1) Listen and adjust the design to meet their ‘needs’, with a critical eye to Unintended Consequences
2) Establish a reputation as a quality producer, and sell *that*

There are a number of designers (board, rpg, etc.) that I trust to produce something of quality, and that I will be interested in. If you try to work through (1), unless you have a tight and focused group, you will end up in “design by committee” land.

The design is only part of the fan pressure, Bob. Another part is the desire to see the book in brick and mortar stores, which takes a substantial change in our business model to effect usefully. That’s the kind of thing that makes us less hobby and more business and (as I am not interested in business) therefore less fun. The best thing to do might be to not pursue those interests, though they come from a place where I feel a keen ethical pressure.