Imagination Sourcebooks

 “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

— Albert Einstein

Early efforts at creating my own
roleplaying game material.

I recently culled a few roleplaying books from my collection to trade for credit with Noble Knight Games. Some were predictable titles I once desired but have since decided just didn’t interest me anymore for a variety of reasons: my attitudes toward genres changing, noting I’d not played them, or realizing I’d never really put them to use either as inspiration or at the game table. Better to trade them for other game items that engage me at this moment. Reflecting on what to release from my library reminded me how roleplaying games ultimately rely on our imaginations. Beyond a core rule book and perhaps a few remarkable sourcebooks for a game line, we could ostensibly run a lifetime of campaigns based off our own creativity within the scope of a familiar game world...devising in one form or another a kind of “imagination sourcebook” for our version of a particular game. And while it’s sometimes nice to have “official” source material or a scenario to guide us, ultimately what plays out at the game table relies on our own imaginations to bring the setting to life.

Design Choice: Rumors

 “Gossip is what no one claims to like, but everybody enjoys.”

– Joseph Conrad

I’m working in fits and starts developing my Mage-Blight Hills fantasy roleplaying game setting (system-neutral) and making various design decisions in both what I develop and how. I’ve decided, for a number of reasons, to write to the page, working within the layout to keep my writing on each setting element concise. It also helps me manage my own perception of how much I’ve completed. Compartmentalizing my work helps me focus. Nothing seems so discouraging as looking at the existing page count and realizing how far one has to go; but when I finish a one-, two-, or even four-page section on a particular location, person, or concept, I gain some small sense of accomplishment. It forces me to work to make sure every aspect of the setting I write about has the most important and useful information. This work/design choice caused me to re-think how I present and use an important element of many settings: rumors.

Favorite Things: Thrilling Locations

 “I don’t regard James Bond precisely as a hero, but at least he does get on and do his duty, in an extremely corny way.”

– Ian Fleming

I recently spent an evening watching You Only Live Twice in our makeshift basement home theater: big screen, stereo speakers, quality projector, and sustenance from our “Space Bar.” I used to enjoy all the James Bond films, but in my more discerning older age I prefer to occasionally indulge in a handful of personal favorites. Yes, the plots are convoluted, the characters clichéd, the action over-the-top; but these films embodied an exotic, exciting sense of juvenile adventure that appealed to me in my younger days when a cinematic roller coaster ride mattered more than deep plot and characters. (Alas, I no longer have an appetite for more modern Bond films and their far too convoluted plots and impossible CGI-crammed action sequences that make my head spin.) It reminded me of my occasional dabbling with the espionage genre in roleplaying games, starting with TSR’s Top Secret and further enhanced by Victory Games’ James Bond 007 Game...which I first discovered through one of the supplements that still inspires me today, Thrilling Locations.