"The only way to begin is by beginning." - Sam Reich
Let the record show that this is not the first time I have attempted to put my thoughts down for my later review. I have journals scattered across the house, word documents buried deep within my various hard drives, and more than one hastily typed note lost to time in the cloud. Hopefully the fact that this is semi-public, costing me literal dollars, and "easily accessible" , means I will update this more consistently.
I make no promises on that front, and you can't quote me on that! However, that does bring us to the first goal of these design diaries. Title card!
Documenting "The Process"
It would be extremly naive and more than a little narcissistic of me to think that I could improve by simple repitition. Self-reflection is the cornerstone of improvement! I hope that by documenting the acrual thought process behind some of my designs, that I can identify what works and what doesn't. It also will help me identify what ideas were actually good ones, even if I tossed them out. Relying on my memory for these things at this point in my life is a tad foolish. I'm not getting any younger, and even if this entire site goes up in flames...at least I tired!
After it's all been written out, including all the stumbles that I can remember, then I can iterate on it! Now the people using my designs (player, employer, stranger etc.) might be able to gleam some insight as to my decision making process. That nicely brings us to the next goal.
Iterate! Iterate! Iterate!
Once the process is written down, we can improve it! Take the design, tweak something, then deploy it again. Whether this be playtesting the product, deploying it myself, or otherwise using it the key part of it all is collecting feedback. Now, some things will be fine as is, but I can still iterate on the design to bring them more 'in-line' with standard practices. An inefficient solution might work for rapid prototyping, but for production it needs a higher level of polish.
Speaking of production, not everything here is destined to end up in some product somewhere. A lot of the ideas I note down are for me and mine. This is a personal project afterall. If something does do particularly well, or enough of a similar idea can be collated then...
Put it out there!
Whether this be hosting a script somewhere for others to use, publishing a short adventure to DMsGuild or otherwise making it publicly available. The end result of this process, should be more published things. They may not be good things. But hopefully, over time, they get better.
So, as the top of this article says...let's begin!