Styles of thinking for design

[Umbran]

When considering character generation, or adventure design, or campaign design, some people are very good with "blue sky" thinking. These are folks who you can say, "Play whatever you want!" and they take off and create some cool, interesting, and imaginative stuff.

I am not one of those people.

If you give me a blue sky, the ability to choose anything I want, and I am usually struck by option paralysis - given too many things to choose from, all of them pretty good to my mind, I will find myself unable to choose, or create a compelling concept. Without a germ, or seed, I do not become particularly imaginative. Give me just a few parameters, though, and I take off like a rocket. I am sometimes amazed at how it operates.

Today, for example: I am attending a house-con in a couple of months, and the organizer has asked for game submissions, so folks can sign up for them. And for several days, when I have considered it, I have had not a single idea of what I want to run. I was, simply, not inspired. I know this about myself, so I went to the group's list, and asked what genres were still not represented in the offerings, intending to narrow my choices just a bit. One guy answered that I should run what I want, and players will come - not understanding my creative process, this was unhelpful. I got an answer of a few genres that weren't represented. But still, nothing gelled for me.

Then, I put an album on the stereo (Tom Petty's Hypnotic Eye if you are curious). And something in the music, a comment my wife made two weeks ago, and the discussion on the con's list just *pinged*, and there in my head is a solid concept, fully formed, of what system I'll use, what the general scenario will be, some notable rules changes I'll have to use to make it work, a few themes this will be exploring, blossoming out of my head. And it isn't really *any* of the things alone - it isn't one of the systems mentioned on the list, it isn't an exact representation of the song, and it isn't directly what my wife stated.

And thus, I create.

How about you? What's your creative process like?

 

[Manbearcat]

And thus, I create.

How about you? What's your creative process like?

My mental framework is very much akin to yours. I think a fair percentage of the population is honestly. I remember having a conversation with [MENTION=81511]Mercurious[/MENTION] perhaps a year and change ago, or so, about this about this exact topic? I don't recall what conclusions were drawn (if any).

People a lot of times think of this issue (and many others unfortunately...I guess that is just because there are so many more players than GMs) from the player side of TTRPGing. What is the right amount of options to nudge players tactically (while hewing to archetype) and constrain their mindset such that option paralysis doesn't set in....but at the same time is still conducive to "off menu" thinking. That sort of thing. However, I think one of the true geniuses of recent TTRPGing is on the GM side of things. Dungeon World is as D&D as D&D gets so GMs are still doing their thing. However, it does several things which minimize and focus the GM's mental overhead while running the game. The part of it that is relevant to your thread topic is the "Move Menu":

* Use a monster, danger, or location move
* Reveal an unwelcome truth
* Show signs of an approaching threat
* Deal damage
* Use up their resources
* Turn their move back on them
* Separate them
* Give an opportunity that fits a class’ abilities
* Show a downside to their class, race, or equipment
* Offer an opportunity, with or without cost
* Put someone in a spot
* Tell them the requirements or consequences and ask

I mean that is all stuff that we're aware of and stuff that we do when running games. However, my guess is that if GM's just had such a menu to constrain their thoughts while trying to "fill the PC's lives with adventure", they would improve their ability to improv and provide interesting, dynamic content for their players to engage with.