I picked up a new, soft bound A5 notebook today from Muji. Needed to grab a few thin B5 journals for class notes, and I figured a little treat would be nice as a reward for making the trek out- plus a teal gel pen, since I don't use teal and brown ink enough to justify buying individual fountain pen inks for those colours, even if they are very pretty. Figured I might use it for playing a solo TTRPG, as it's been awhile since my last active campaign, and there's so many awesome indie games out there that could be played individually, or adapted to a small scale group.
To that effect, I scooped up a copy of Thousand Year Vampire recently, and flicked through its pages. Something that I do a lot of the time when I have a spare moment is to scroll through indie TTRPGs and lyric games, to try to see what games might be a good modular fit for integrating into a larger scale campaign as one off events. That one seems rather sad, but like it'd be a lot of fun to chip away at on my own to get a feel for how it plays out.
A good friend of mine- and fantastic writing partner, is on a work trip abroad, so our timezones are temporarily out of sync. I'm a little glum about it- I miss her, even though I know she'll be back sooner rather than later. It's always nice to hear from her- it brightens my day. She promised to say hello to any of the little street pigeons or other birds she encounters on her travels for me, though, so I'm pleased about that.
I've been having a lot of difficulty in actually finishing projects as of late. Lots of listless half started Twines and half baked ideas loitering in my head. Things have been going a lot better on several fronts- I think it's just a natural lull in the creative process, where sometimes I need to take a step back and refresh the pool of inspiration and sources to draw from, but focus on not stressing out over production. More anxiety inhibits the process further. Just... Some things take time. A bit like gardening, I suppose- though I don't keep any indoor plants in my bedroom for reasons he's aware of.
I do have a pretty interface set up in Twine, waiting for a shorter story. And two notebooks- one for my longstanding WIP, (Morganatic) and a new one, hesitantly titled Clement for the time being. Kind of wanted to do a priest horror story, on the longer side. We'll see how that pans out. There is something really special about committing to the act of dedicating a notebook- carving out a space, that feels more permanent, than just typing, for projects. Feels like a stronger vow to see them through.
Was thinking that some of the extra B5 journals (they're 30 pages) might make for some nice planning / drafting notebooks for smaller scale projects. I have enough fountain pen ink to last me ages- two bottles of pink, two bottles of blue, as many purples as I want to mix up in between, something like ~200mL of ink total. I go through ink fairly rapidly and keep multiple pens inked at a time, but it's slow sipping, since I use EF nibs. A hell of my own devising, really, but it does make the writing process so much more gentle on my wrists.
Anyways, I figure I might try actually playing a solo TTRPG sometime soon. It'd be good for me, to dedicate that kind of time and space to a mindful hobby, just for myself. And there's something really appealing about having a physical artifact of play in your hands to cherish. (Also want to talk to the girls about restarting up a new campaign, since it's been a bit since our last one sort of petered out.)