Stop that Muse!
There are those days… when we really just don’t have the energy… when real life just seems so overwhelming, how can we ever enjoy ourselves when the rest of the party is counting on us? How do we survive when our muse escapes us?
I have been suffering a distinct lack of motivation, and I firmly blame the absence of my muse. I haven’t gotten fully into the 4-years-in-the-future campaign. And I haven’t been particularly moved to create an inspiring post to share with you all. So here’s how I’m trying to win back my muse:
1. Reading inspirational literature. Not sunshine & light inspirational. D&D inspirational. I’ve recently discovered R.A. Salvatore’s Forgotten Realms novels… I know, about 20 years after the rest of the population. But nevertheless, they have helped me remember all the awesomeness of D&D, and inspire me to get out there and roll some dice.
2. Reading other blogs. While I’m not a DM myself, I read a lot of the DM blogs… Dungeon Mastering dot com, Treasure Tables, Chatty DM, and many, many, many others. And they inspire me by reminding me that the game isn’t just about me, it’s about everyone else, including the DM.
So, what else can you recommend for finding my muse?
I’m not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, but visual art can spark ideas for me (partly because I’m so bad at it). Sometimes I might also take the plotline of a familiar novel or film and imagine what it would look like through the lens of a D&D game. At the very least, this helps me steal ideas more effectively from other media – the farther from “fantasy” the better.
Movies…I have a stock set of movies ; different movies for different games, that help to remind me what the game is about.
For my Iron Heroes, or most Fantasy, go back and watch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, 300, and Gladiator. For me watching the clash of swords and battles usually gets my imagination fired up.
Watching LoTR reminds me of the bond of the Adventuring Party, one of the cornerstones of any D&D game.
Then watch The Gamers, to remember why being at the table is so much fun.
I had a fascinating Gtalk discussion with Math Yesterday. After 4 sessions of the new campaign, he still feels his character is an empty shell of stats (an Extremely deadly empty shell of stats mind you).
So we started brainstorming about my game world’s history (Math’s been playing with me for 20 years) and elves in particular.
I pointed toward the recent destructions of the Elven Homelands, the continued presence of the demons who were responsible of the destruction, the apparent apathy of humans toward the elven plight and the presence of an outerworldly threat ever worse than the demons…
Bam, Math chose to play his character as a militant & religious elf fed up with humanity’s Stupor and willing to kick some serious butt (Politically and physically) to protect his vulnerable race…
All this through back and forth between DM and player. It even got to a point where Math started answering my Gtalk comment in character! So I gave him 10% of leveling up XPs for his RPing efforts… even out of game.
So I suggest you di the same with your DM or co-player…
As for Muse for writing a post, when all else fails, visit an old game and tell us about it.