STARTING FROM SCRATCH

[steeldragons]

I don't know if this is the best forum for this topic...or if it is more appropriate for the "Geek Topics" or does belong in the "D&D" or even "Meta" threads...but I'm putting it here. Feel free to move it wherever it is best suited.

For the past couple of years I have been working, piece by piece at producing, not only "World of Orea" setting material, but also (with the advent of 5e) an entire "WoO RPG".

I had, done in Quark, layouts and everything (still changing getting tweaked and editted, but still), a PHB basically finished. A DMG that was 3/4 done. A monster manual and deities manuals that were, let's just say "started", loads of images scanned, several OSR games/free pdf's downloaded for reference and inspiration...just...LOTS and LOTS of creative work.

While on a trip to San Sebastian (northern Spain/Atlantic coast) and southwestern France's atlantic coast (generally, the spanish and french parts of "Basque Country"), on the final day, our car was broken into. Along with a bunch of other stuff and my partner's computer as well, my laptop and the satchel in which I carried it everywhere, were stolen.

Gone. All of it just...gone.

A case for Dropbox/other files sharing programs/backing up your on an outside source... I know. But eff-mee SO much fraggin' writing...that I'll be/have to write again.

But I am just..."gutted" to use the UK vernacular. So much time and effort. So much I liked..and stuff I wasn't even sure about. But I was getting there...and now...there's, basically, nothing.

I will be starting from complete and utter zip-zilch-nil-nada-nothing.

A grand opportunity for reexamination, I know. Really looking and thinking about what was there and its value/worth in keeping as opposed to looking at the same thing over and over and changing 1 thing one day and changing it back the next.

So...that's all I guess. Just feeling an internet-pity-party. It is an opportunity for "growth", I know.

But DAMN it SUUUCKS!...HARRRRD!
--SD

 

[gamerprinter]

Ouch, that does suck. I've had some loss through the corruption of a map file that after days of work the file became corrupted and I couldn't open it. That was only a loss of several hours, but I'd lost the will to redo the entire map again. That was demoralizing, but nothing like what's happened to you. I don't envy your situation... ouch.

Good luck in the redevelopment of your endeavors.

 

[FreeXenon]

Holy crap that sucks!
I am sorry for your loss.

 

[steeldragons]

Thanks for the sympathies.

Oh, and I'd forgotten/overlooked the "Starter Set's" Big Book of Spells & Powers...just 1-3rd level spells for Clerics, Druids, Mages and Illusionists...rituals, psychic powers, and more...

Suuure, I can rewrite all of that.

No problem.

Ugh. Kill me now.

 

[GMMichael]

I'm really, really sorry.

Two things I should mention:

1) The rulebook I've been writing is intermittently uploaded to the Cloud. Or, the ENworld forums. This keeps a second copy on a separate hard drive, leaves a copyright trail, and...

2) Allows anyone bored enough to help me edit the document, which is intended as a public-domain rulebook for anyone to use or expand upon as they see fit. Now, it is a core rulebook, so the rules are intentionally slim and abstract. But Steel, you're welcome to use any or all of the rules if it gets you back on your feet quicker.

 

[delericho]

For the past couple of years I have been working, piece by piece at producing, not only "World of Orea" setting material, but also (with the advent of 5e) an entire "WoO RPG".

I had, done in Quark, layouts and everything (still changing getting tweaked and editted, but still), a PHB basically finished. A DMG that was 3/4 done. A monster manual and deities manuals that were, let's just say "started", loads of images scanned, several OSR games/free pdf's downloaded for reference and inspiration...just...LOTS and LOTS of creative work.

While on a trip to San Sebastian (northern Spain/Atlantic coast) and southwestern France's atlantic coast (generally, the spanish and french parts of "Basque Country"), on the final day, our car was broken into. Along with a bunch of other stuff and my partner's computer as well, my laptop and the satchel in which I carried it everywhere, were stolen.

Gone. All of it just...gone.

Oh, jeez. That really, really sucks. I'm so sorry.

A case for Dropbox/other files sharing programs/backing up your on an outside source... I know.

I'm afraid so. I was really lucky - the last but one time my laptop died was two weeks after I had started doing regular backups; the last time it died was some time after Vista had decided not to do backups any longer, but the hard-drive survived. So both times I avoided losing anything important (just a few emails each time). But the thought of what might have been...

So, yeah, back up early, back up often, and keep multiple copies safe. Though I know that's not helpful.

But I am just..."gutted" to use the UK vernacular. So much time and effort. So much I liked..and stuff I wasn't even sure about. But I was getting there...and now...there's, basically, nothing.

I will be starting from complete and utter zip-zilch-nil-nada-nothing.

A grand opportunity for reexamination, I know. Really looking and thinking about what was there and its value/worth in keeping as opposed to looking at the same thing over and over and changing 1 thing one day and changing it back the next.

There is perhaps one crumb of comfort in all of this, and it is that doing it all for the second time should, hopefully, be considerably easier than doing it for the first time (since you've learned how), and it does also mean that if there was anything fundamental that you weren't really happy with you have a good opportunity to make that change.

Small comfort, though, I know. I'm sorry.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

You can almost understand why, in pre-modern times, thieves were dealt with so harshly.

I certainly can sympathise. When we moved into this house a couple of years ago, we were broken into three times in the first few months and one of the items taken was my laptop. And while I had done a good job of regular weekly or so back-ups, I had been working on some business stuff which was still very raw so I hadn't backed it up. And then it was gone.

I caught the bastard the third time and handed him over to the police but there was little they could do due to weird laws here (even though he admitted he was the thief his voluntary admission was not admissible because he did it without a lawyer, parent, or minister present).

Anyway, the police told me that if he broke in again to kill him and they will take care of the rest. This was explained to him and he has never been back.

 

[Herobizkit]

Sometimes, you need to go back in order to move forward.

I know it must kill to lose all of that hard work, but if this helps at all, your first draft is now ready to be edited.

I mean, think of it. All the stuff you added and added and added... would have been horrible to edit after the fact. Now, you can start clean, carve away all the stuff you may not have needed and just focus on the core of the game itself.

Maybe you saved yourself weeks of frustration?

Maybe?

... want a soda pop?

 

[Stormonu]

Ugh, A few years ago I lost my thumb drive with 20 years worth of adventures, Rpg ideas and whatnot. Thankful, I had just opened a dropbox account and was in the process of converting, so I lost over little, though what I did lose made me extremely depressed.

One thing I would recommend. When you restart on your World of Orea, I strongly suggest you write the world book with no game rules in it at all. I did that with my Amberos world book and it started to open up whole new vistas for me. i found myself opening up to new ideas and world stories because I wasn't boxing myself around having to keep it "in the rules". It also made eventually coming up with rules easier as I could compartmentalize them to another book that could be updated seperately. Rules for a game might change dramatically, but the world didn't have to.

 

[Halivar]

Herobizkit has great advice. The process of writing gave you time to ruminate and explore creatively, and you produced what likely would have made a rough draft. Now you're ready for your "real" first draft. I urge you in the strongest possible terms, use a cloud editor like Google Docs. What it lacks in layout and design, it more than makes up for in safety and data persistence. You can always do layout and design later.