On Gaming: The Mystery

The fact I can get it right away with a lot more fun and addicting and I don't think that it was not immediately available to all of them in my head.

That last sentence was brought to you by clicking the autofill button on my iPad a bunch of times. Strangely, it kinda makes sense? But not really.

So, Smug Puggerinos, how are you guys doing? I hope the holidays went well for you. I've been busy freelancing and writing, and will have some awesome news to share with you soon. Until then, I've been busy finishing up my work on the Infinity Tabletop RPG, which will be available soon. There was an awesome team in place for this one, and I know you'll like it.

Meanwhile my chief minions Cokie and Flot have been doing their best to interfere with writing. Flot has been having more stomach issues as of late, and has been spending a lot of time in my lap keeping my hands from typing on the keyboard. Cokie is having tooth problems, but is still the lovable puggle that steals pumpkin pie from my sister Tina.

The purpose of my post today is to talk about building mysteries in role playing games. We've all seen mystery programs on television or read about them in books; there is something strange going on, and the investigators must solve the mystery in order to resolve the conflict that is taking place. It sounds simple enough; put in a murdered waiter at a dinner party and watch the players play Who Did It?

But is it really that simple? Truth be told, it can be a monumentally difficult task to build a mystery in your game. Unless you are running a game where Lord Treachorio Stabbington is gleefully steeping his fingers to the side as you discover the murdered waiter, you may run into many hiccups along the way.

1. The Lack of Evidence

One of the main driving forces behind a mystery is the pursuit of evidence. Players will want to find clues that can lead them on the right path, otherwise they walk around like Chief Wiggum going "DID YOU DO IT?" The evidence is more than just a smoking gun, or a confession left by the killer. It is the transitory piece that moves the investigation along.

A lack of evidence can leave the players in a quandary, especially if that evidence does not provide enough information on the case at hand. For example:

The players find a scrap of blue velvet in the murder victim's hand. No one at the party is wearing velvet, and there is no evidence of this piece of cloth being in the restaurant. The players analyze the cloth, but cannot find anything special about it.

This can stymie the players attempts at continuing the investigation, because the cloth has told them nothing. It was in the waiter's hand, but they are unable to uncover anything special about it. They know it's a piece of the puzzle, but in this case it's not just difficulty in finding where to place the piece in the puzzle, but if it's even to the right puzzle.

Evidence needs to have significance other than "Lord Treachorio likes the color blue." It must have something to it where it can come into play during the scene. Perhaps the piece of blue velvet has some strange chemical splashed on it, or perhaps the players learn from one of the witnesses that they saw blue velvet curtains at a nearby house.

The same goes for finding character witnesses as well. If the players know that the Man In The Green Hat was seen leaving shortly before the waiter dies, they need to be able to find the Man. The NPC needs to be able to react to the players questions with enough detail to fill them in on the mystery, and it cannot be just "Ah ha, you have found me. The killer is Steve over in the corner."

Remember that evidence will be the thing that helps move the story along and helps the players build their case.

2. Too Much Evidence

We've seen how a lack of evidence can hinder the investigation, but there is another threat that can stop an investigation cold in its tracks: An abundance of uselss evidence.

While players will often try to drift towards finding the Smoking Gun, they will also look for information in every place that comes to their mind. There comes the risk of filling a scene with too much information that can derail the investigation. For example:

The Waiter is a card carrying member of the Elk Lodge, and five dinner guests in attendance are members of the Lodge. The players, assuming that the Elk Lodge and the guests are somehow involved, will then begin a detailed investigation on each guest as well as going to the nearby Elk Lodge. They will invest so much time looking into the Elk Lodge, in fact, that they miss the clue that the waiter was killed for gambling debts unrelated to the Lodge. This has not only cost the players time, but frustrated them as they have not been able to solve the crime.

If evidence is included in the scene, it must be involved somehow in the mystery. It is OK for evidence to lead the players along the wrong path in the short term, as this can be used by the players to eliminate NPCs as suspects. "It turns out that despite his business card being in the waiters wallet, Niles is innocent. He and the waiter were lovers."

It is important to keep in mind that evidence can also tell the players multiple things as the story progresses. If the scrap of blue velvet not only came from a nearby house but is revealed to have small traces of cocaine on it, it can tell the players that they are looking for a house where narcotics are kept at.

3. The Story Must Be Malleable

As any seasoned GM, DM, Storyteller, or whatever title your game runner chooses can attest, no adventure ever fully survives contact with the players. I have had players who have defeated a long skyscraper dungeon crawl with the phrase "Wait, we can fly. Lets just go to the top."

Dang players.

But more importantly, when it comes to a mystery, the story must adapt as the players work to solve it. A player who has his character built around solving cyber crimes may decide to investigate the waiter's cell phone, which may contain sensitive information that could completely cripple the mystery and lead the players from Start to Finish right away.

That means that you need to be prepared with how to handle this. It can be disappointing to have players see through the cunning charade and solve the mystery in five minutes, but remember that the players build their characters to do useful things. Even a Bard will want to use their Bardic Knowledge to their best advantage, and its important to figure out how to deal with the mystery as circumstances change.

Maybe the phone is not the waiters, and now the waiter is lying there with a burner phone whose owner is a mystery. Or perhaps the messages on the phone are with an unknown number, and the players learn that the waiter tried to skip out on paying his gambling debts to an unknown person and had been receiving threats for weeks.

The same goes for if players follow false leads. If the players assume that they must find the souce of all blue velvet curtains in Manhattan, the GM must figure out a way to bring them back into the plot without having an NPC show up and say "No, go that other way." Nudging the players rather than pushing them can help put them on the right path, but having a strictly aligned story that the players must follow in order to solve the mystery can be boring, and can cause many players to feel that they do not need to try as hard to uncover the mystery.

4. Remember That The Mystery Should Be Fun

Mysteries should be enticing to the players, and be something that they genuinely want to solve. It may be disheartening to hear the players say "Let's let the police handle it" but if the players are not wanting to find out why the waiter was killed, railroading them back into the mystery will only put strain on the group. The same goes with having a long, drawn out investigation. If the pay off to the mystery is "The waiter died because he poked a rabid badger with a spoon" then the players will feel like they spent their time poorly.

Make the mystery somehow impact the players. Perhaps they liked the waiter, or the waiter was a friend of theirs. Maybe one of the players is implicated in the waiter's death, or the waiter's death is part of a much larger mystery. The mystery should seem like a priority that they want to engage in, but not a crippling priority where a police officer with a glowing neon sign that says "SOLVE MYSTERY NOW" follows them at each turn.

And keep in mind the sensitivity of your players. Some mysteries can turn dark, and some players love it when they do. But do not have the murdered waiter lead to a dark and heavy mystery involving rape and mutilation if the players feel uncomfortable with it. Nothing is worse than telling someone that they need to uncover the truth behind a mystery and that they need to feel icky and gross for doing it.

I hope all of this has helped in some way! And remember, even if the mystery is solved in five minutes, it does not mean that you did a bad job. It just means your players are pretty skilled at solving mysteries, and may be greatly anticipating the next one you throw at them.

Con News:

As of right now, I am looking at Midwinter, Indiana Comic Con, Inconjunction, and Gen Con for next year. If anyone has any conventions to recommend to me, I'd love to hear about it! My email is JKMyth at gmail dot c0m.

Yes, I'm That Kind Of Gamer

Hello, puggerinos. As all of you know, I play a lot of tabletop RPGs. If you don't know what one is, it's where we sit around the table, rolling strange polyhedrons in an attempt to summon Stan.

But I figured you already knew that.

I am hear to admit that I am that shameful form of gamer. My gaming group knows that if certain things come up in a game, they can count on me dropping everything to sate my hunger for it. We could be pursuing a turtle dragon that has kidnapped the local princess and is now flying off to his castle in the distance, but I will literally focus my energies elsewhere if certain things happen. These triggers may include...

• An ancient mural on the wall depicts the rise and fall of a forgotten civilization, including a calamity which ended it abruptly centuries ago.
• A long sword of strange design and made of unknown materials hidden away in a horde of common artifacts.
• A tribe of lizardfolk that fight to the death to defend their totem, a giant carved skull that appears to be blocking a hole into the Earth. The lizardfolk plead for us not to release the evils within.
• A derelict starship from an alien race that has phased into a nearby mountain, and whose audio logs are scattered about.

That's right. I'm the kind of gamer that must know more about the world he is playing in, from the minutae of what gnolls eat for breakfast to the famous plays storm giants perform in their keeps on top of mountains.

I don't know why. Maybe I read too much growing up, or maybe I've been spoiled by deeply detailed settings like Glorantha or Forgotten Realms. I just know that if there is a chance to learn more about a setting, I usually leap for it. Just as throwing a handful of sand in the air can cause a vampire to stop and count them, I will want to learn more about the religion of the warlocks who serve Lord Muckity Muck.

(That's right. You didn't know the old myth about vampires, did you? Aren't you curious what else there could be about vampires that you do not know? Do yourself a favor and Google the Eastern European legend about vampires and see where the legend differs!)

Maybe it's a little bit of snobbery to say that I just can't stand bland settings when I play. Maybe I have played too many RPGs over the years but if we sit down to play a fantasy setting and there are Orcs raiding a Human caravan with names like Blork, Blabba, and Blideboo I'm finding my interest waning. I want my world to have more detail than playing a Warcraft 2 game. All tabletop games are played partially on the board but mostly in the mind, and nothing disrupts my mental images more abruptly and harshly than "It's an orc. He's got a sword. He swings at you."

The same applies to games I run. At my last con game of Wu Xing the players learned little details that they later told me helped them adjust to the setting. Whether they were sipping Akaba, a sweet rum produced by the islanders on Ankh, or when they watched from a distance as the Uga Clan diciples performed their Haka as they tried to drown the Will of Iron ninja they had been sent to find, they liked how they could feel more of the setting.

Obviously, this can get out of hand quickly. Players sit down to play, not to have me extol the virtues of the Uga to them. A player might be interested in why the G'wai in System Crash choose their names, but they do not want to know the recipe for Hedgehog Goulash, especially if it just distracts from the setting. 

Peppering your setting with even the littlest details can make it more vibrant and alive in the same way that adding small amounts of certain spices to a meal make it more flavorful. Give a recurring villain a strange accent, have a pickpocketed wallet contain a grocery list for strange items, or introduce random dialogue that people on the street may say if the players are trying to gather intel. For more extreme examples, consider a dwarven funeral procession in the street, a crazed old man saying he is from the lost Tanuki clan, or even a notebook from America's lost sister colony of Columbiana declaring they are rebelling alongside them in the Americas Revolution can make players more interested in the setting and want to seek out these mysteries. 

I know some people would say that you need to play a game system that supports this kind of roleplaying, and I absolutely agree that there are many games that help in this regard. Numenera is the first that comes to mind. In Numenera, you are exploring Earth in the Ninth age, an age where previous civilizations have come and gone and there are relics from the past scattered across the planet. The purpose of the game is to explore, and the system lends itself well to that kind of mentality.

Remember that just like spices, moderation is the key. But challenge yourself to make your world larger and unique. Players can get in on this as well when they make their characters. Perhaps your character always wears a special braided knot on his scabbard for luck, or maybe you come from a dwarf colony that lives out on the sea in a massive iron sailing ship. Perhaps you are a visitor from a strange land, or perhaps you worship a different deity from others. Just as with the GMs, don't go overboard because you want to make the world bigger, not introduce Gundams into a fantasy setting.

The first step to fixing a problem is to admit you have a problem, and that's where I"m going to lie and say I don't have a problem. If you run a game from me, I will want to know more about your world. Do not take that as an insult; if I have a vested interest in something, I tend to obsess over it, and if you make a world that draws me in I will be the happiest gamer around.

Now, in other news...

Pulsars is chugging along. We are going to start our Kickstarter in over a month, and I am waiting on some last confirmations before we go live. Ryan Schoon and Ben Woerner have been extremely helpful in this, along with my fellows in the IGDN. I have some anxiety over running a KS, but I've been fortunate to have some of the best tutelage when it comes to running Kickstarters and I hope the gamign community will like what they see.

I've been pondering doing a podcast of The Smug Pug Games that would talk about game development and minis, while probably incorporating pop culture as well. Is that something you guys would be interested in hearing? Let me know at JKMyth at Gmail dot com! 

Obligatory Gen Con Post 2015!

Hello everyone! Has it really been since April? Apparently I ran out of cool things to say over the summer. But I do have cool things to talk about now!

Gen Con is tomorrow! Well, early Gen Con is tomorrow. It's time for that big gaming convention in Indy. I will be there like always, either at the Third Eye Games booth (2017) or wandering around the con. Here's a list of my schedule, though I do have many meetings planned throughout the con that are not listed on it.

Wednesday

• 3PM Third Eye Games Booth Set UP
• 6PM IGDN Social at Loughmiller's Pub

Thursday

• 10AM Being a Booth Howler with Eloy
• 4-8 Pulsars Mk. 1!
• 8-Midnight Pulsars Mk. 2!

Friday

• Safeguarding the Realm Eternal of Third Eyegia, the Booth located at 2017!
• 2-6 Wu Xing
• I will be attending the Pre-Ennies meet and greet, but after that I will be free to chat with people about Pulsars and other work.

Saturday

• 10AM Wu Xing
• 2PM Catching the Costume Parade (if possible)
• 6PM Dinner with fellow Freelancers
• 8PM Second Dinner with other Freelancers
• 10PM DUELING ELOY FOR CONTROL OF THE COMPAN-I mean, hanging out with people!

Sunday

• Networking day, where I may even get to see this thing called the "Exhibition Hall" but in reality will be handling meetings.

If you want to get in touch with me, shoot me an email at JKMyth at Gmail (dot) com! Or hit me up over on Twitter at JKMyth.

I will be around on Sunday and Monday as well, for interested parties.

Of Mice and Weredragons. Or Mostly Weredragons.

Hi, my name is John, and I like dragons.

But if you knew me for any length of time you knew that already.

Well, that and the fact I love pugs, Green Lantern, Transformers, and eating chips in batches of 4, but that's neither here nor there.

I'm writing about the fact I like dragons because I'm incredibly excited for a friend Marissa's Kickstarter that she's running. It's called Epyllion. You and your friends play as clutch mates descending from several noble houses of dragons. It's powered by the Apocalypse World engine and it has some amazing people working on it, including John Wick.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1921129910/epyllion-a-dragon-epic-rpg?ref=nav_search

When Marissa started talking about Epyllion it reminded me of some of the daydreams I used to have when I was a kid. Thanks to shows like Mighty Max and Gargoyles I was obsessed with dragons. I used to draw them in a folder I kept in my desk, and I used to pretend that in the creek bed next to our school there was an entrance that led to hidden caves where a colony of weredragons lived.

Sure, they were a child's indulgence. They mirrored everything in my environment that I thought was cool. They were mysterious. They were powerful. They were superheroes. And, during a lonely time in my life, they were friends.

So in the spirit of Marissa's really awesome game (seriously, IT LOOKS SO AWESOME YOU GUYS CHECK IT OUT) let me introduce you to Dragonfire and his friends, as well as his old rogue's gallery.

(Please pardon the names. They were created when I was 8, and were really bad.)

The hero, AKA who I imagined myself as, is Dragonfire. One day while exploring the creeks near the school I saw something shining in a nearby tunnel. When I went to investigate it I was bitten by a mysterious creature which caused me to transform into a weredragon. I was taken in by a nearby colony who taught me how to control my powers and told me how I was descended from an ancient bloodline of noble dragons whose task was to keep the Dragon Titans imprisoned beneath the caves that made up the colony.

That was hard to write, not because it was so difficult, but because how corny it seems now. Still, it was so cool to me.

Physically Dragonfire was very much like one of Disney's gargoyles. He had wings, ditigigrade feet, and a head like a T-Rex. I sometimes went to battle wielding the Sword of The Ancients, a golden long sword with a winged hilt guard. I could breathe fire and regenerate.

There were tons of other dragons and weredragons who lived in the caves, but I'll focus on the important ones:

-Dragonknight, another character with a silly name, who was a weredragon but had a more humanoid face. He could project unbreakable rings of psionic force around his opponents. Noble and kind, he gave his life to service.

-Razorwing, a drake who had was born without wings and had collapsible metallic ones that could fire razor blades at his opponents. Could only glide, but was the daredevil of the group.

-Cookie the cook, an Asian style dragon with long whiskers and who could cook anything. Strangely whenever I think of him he looked like a muppet.

-Cassie, an Amazonian dragon who wielded a short sword and shield. A member of a nearby Drake clan, she earned the emnity of her people to help my clan out.

-Battle Dragon, who was me but only after a convuluted storyline that mirrored the Thor/Thunderstrike storyline from Marvel comics. Essentially it was me but with brown scales and blue armor and wielding a battle axe alongside Dragonfire.

-Talon, a burrowing reptile who could create weapons in his hands and who spun across the ground like a buzzsaw.

But no heroes are complete without their rogue's gallery.

-The Dark Dragon, the villain who was later revealed to have been the one who bit Dragonfire and made him into a hero. He looked like Dragonfire save for black scales, a triceratops head, and black plate mail. Not completely evil, he would sometimes aid Dragonfire if it worked in his favor.

-Zexyss The Doom Dragon, an ancient cthonic deity who tried to free the Dragon Titans who lived beneath the caves.

-Pythanos, a snake monster inspired from nightmares I had. A creature of living snakes who tried to kill me in my human form. Wanted to wipe out all humans and dragons from the planet through use of his serpent men, who could assume the form of family and loved ones before turning into giant snakes.

-Orgg, who wasn't a villain so much a race of triceratops-like creatures that lived deep underground and occasionally escaped to the surface. Dragonfire once saved the Children's Museum from a rampaging Orgg.

-Maxim the (insert cheesy last name), a Xanatos analog who tried to hunt down Dragonfire to steal the secrets to his shapeshifting.

There were all kinds of adventures. Meeting the Space Dragons, preventing Zexyss from escaping from beneath Clearwater Farm and destroying the Earth, being welcomed into the ranks of the Avengers AND the Justice League, It was pure escapism but those adventures were amazing. I could bore you guys pretty quickly.

As an adult I'm able to understand where all of these things came from. Sure, wishing to be a superhero with all the powers of a dragon were probably a young mind yearning for the power and respect he didn't get, but I'd like to think there was more going on there. It was where I dreamed. It was where I saw things in my environment and wanted to interact with them on my terms.

Looking back, I can see multiple things to change about it to make it a much more interesting story. Perhaps some day I will return to that world and see how the story has evolved. It would make one yell of a YA comic.

First thing I'd change? THE NAMES! I was a kid in the 80s and 90s, and back then TV shows named things like that. I remember in Double Dragon when they kept naming new bad guys they found by where they were. "My god, it's the Shadow Lord! The Shadow Boss' leader! He leads the Shadow Clan, with his buddies Big Shadow, Shooty Shadow, Double Shadow, Shadow Gumbo, Shadow Kebob, Shadow Sautee, and more!"

....OK that last part may have blended in Forrest Gump, but you get the point.

I'm excited to get my hands on Epyllion and making my own adventures with some friends. You guys should check it out.

The Religious Freedom Bill Is The Most Anti-Conservative Bill To Date

Bad news for my conservative friends; the Religious Freedom Bill is set to be signed into law in Indiana. You have my sincerest condolences, as not only will this bill legalize discrimination against GLBT and Atheists, but it will be particularly devastating towards conservatism.

What? You heard me.

The Republican Party in the United States has held two key cornerstones for the past century and that has been fiscal conservatism and family values, and the bill acts against both interests.

It's not a financially sound investment to pass legislature that is guaranteed to be repealed. The Religious Freedom Bill actively approves discrimination against citizens of the United States, a trend which has proven to be vastly unpopular among the people who are discriminated against. They will fight tooth and nail to have the bill repealed, and the Supreme Court will lean towards repealing it. It's not a maybe at this point. It's not an uncertainty. This is not the era of McCarthyism, of Victorian era values, of the firebrand preaching of the Great Revival; this is the modern era, and one where those held under can make their voices heard just as loudly as others.

People will fight against the bill. Lawyers on both sides will argue in courts. Millions of dollars will be spent and in the end it will be repealed. That's money wasted. Money that could be spent towards other issues the Republican party is dedicated to.

As for the other issue, the Religious Freedom Bill is going to work pretty heavily against having Religious Freedom.

At this point in history you have unparalleled religious freedom and in America you have incredibly sway in politics and pop culture. If I walk into a bar and said "Can someone tell me who Jesus Christ is?" I will have many people able to tell me who he was and why he is important to them. There will be no worshippers of Ra the Sun God demanding I be cast into a pit for not worshipping their God and I will not run the risk of having to defend myself against the worshippers of Tzecatlipoca who would add me to the lists of sacrifices to keep the Sun rising and this age continuing.

Having unparalleled religious freedom doesn't mean you do not have to face consequences for your actions. Right now you are asking for the right to refuse service to people whose beliefs you do not agree with or support. You are taking a stand together and saying "Gays, we're not a fan" and telling them their money is not good in your stores.

How do you think this makes you look?

You look exclusionary. You look like you don't want to be around other people. You look divisive. Above all else, you look petty. (If you flinch from reading this and feel anger rising up inside of you, imagine if you were gay and someone said you can't shop in their store.)

You may be reading this and thinking "No, this bill will support my faith and protect my rights to be religious." The bill certainly seems like it would. It protects your right to deny service to someone whose sexual orientation, faith, or politics would go against your religion.

This also applies to YOU. No, really. This means the following things:

• If I do not agree with Christians in my store, I can deny you service. It is my religious belief not to allow you in my store.
• I can deny you life saving medications at my pharmacy if I do not support those who choose to be Republican.
• I can offer great discounts to those who share my faith and beliefs and live in my small town but if you disagree with me then I can force you to have to drive to a different town for the same services.
• I can be known for repairing cars for cheap and offering great deals on services, but if you are not Atheist, I can force you to have to go to another mechanic who offers you costlier repairs and services that you cannot afford.
• You may be desperate to feed your family and need to go to a local Aldi or Kroger to buy food in bulk to feed them but if you're Christian, I can ask you to set your items down and get out of my store because of your "puritanical ways."

Sound stupid? Sound like it wouldn't happen?

It's happening now. We have a councilman who is refusing service to State Legislators. We have several businesses being posted on Facebook when it is revealed they will not support GLBT clients. There are legislators coming out and saying that if the bill passes then they want restaurants to post signs in their windows stating that if they will ban people because of their orientations or beliefs then they need to post a sign stating they will do so, which some consider unfair because "it'll hurt my business."

Being petty and discriminatory to people only makes the other side feel the need to do the same back. AND WHO WOULD BLAME THEM? There's only so long you can say "I don't like you, I don't want you here" before eventually you reach the point of "Well, I don't like you either." 

This isn't a case of people becoming less religious or the world becoming more and more sinful. We've just reached an age as a society where doing dickish things isn't being celebrated but being called out for what it is; being dickish.

If you truly love your faith and feel that its warm embrace, then that's amazing. No, it really is. I've seen faith do some remarkable things, and I've known people turn their lives around because of it. I've also experienced the darker side of that, and have felt like I should have removed myself from existence because of that. 

Do good things in the name of your faith but for everyone, not just people you like. Be like Jesus. The world needs more people like that.

On a closing note, I want to point out that while I do not maintain a physical store front I would be happy to sell my wares to anyone. I would sell them to straights, gays, lesbians, cisgendered, transgendered, Christians, atheists, abled, disabled, Klingon, Borg, Brony, Furry, Republican, Democrat, Canadian, Evil Parallel Universe Canadians With Goatees And Razor Sharp Maple Leaves, Chilled out couch potatoes, and irate and antsy rabble rousers. You're all cool.

But no Zombies. Fuck those guys.

The Wendig Yeary Wrap Up

Chuck Wendig over at terribleminds.net posted a little questionnaire about how 2014 has shaped up. I decided to steal it from him, as I do not fear him or his warmongering googe, and thought I'd share it over here.

Here that, Chuck? I fear neither you nor your goose. Consider you both cooked!

1) Favorite novel of the year?

2) Favorite non-fiction book of the year?

3) Favorite short story of the year?

4) Favorite movie of the year?

5) Favorite TV show of the year?

6) Favorite song of the year?

7) Favorite album?

8) Favorite video game?

9) Favorite app?

10) Favorite [something else] of the year?

1. My favorite novel of the year, besides The Last Ringbearer, would have to be rereading the Song of Ice and Fire series with my Mom. She really got into the series after watching the TV show and it was awesome to read through it again and see her insights into the series. Even though I prefer House Mormont, we'd both make great Starks.
2. My favorite non-fiction book  was the Guns of August, which was a look into World War I. I now know where the Guns of August Society get their name from in KODT!
3. The story about the Cygnarans in the Warmachine book Vengeance. It was really well done, and I enjoyed reading te stries in there.
4. Guardians of the Galaxy, hands down! It was amazing on so many levels and I laugh when thinking about my favorite scenes. It was well worth the wait, though I'm sad we have to wait until 2017 for the sequel.
5. I didn't get to watch a ton of TV this year but I'd have to say it's a toss up between House of Cards and Agents of Shield. House of Cards brought the drama, and Agents of Shield finally picked up steam and delivered what I was hoping for in the show.
6. My favorite song of the year has to be Capital Cities - Safe and Sound. It always makes me feel more optimistic when I hear it.
7. I didn't buy that many albums this year, but the Guardians of the Galaxy - Awesome Mix 1 has to be my favorite.
8. I don't buy that many video games, and while it had a ton of problems that I talked about in another post, I really love Destiny. I loved the co-op game play and I have had many great times doing the weekly missions with Bryan, Dereke, John, and Rico.
9. My favorite app has been the Google Drive app as it lets me work from the hookah cafe and access the files I need. I also get to work cooperatively with others on projects thanks to it.
10. Starting up my own company and putting serious groundwork into a game that I hope to have ready for Kickstarter next year. It is so amazing and fun to work on and I hope that translates into the game itself.

How about you guys?

Literary Fiction vs. Genre Fiction

"We don't focus on genre fiction here, we focus on real fiction."

I was told that in a creative writing class in 2005 while I was attending Purdue University. I was enrolled in their Liberal Arts program getting a double major in History and Writing. Writing had been a hobby of mine while growing up, as whenever I was grounded from watching TV my Mom insisted I find something else to do and writing stories about such thrilling, three dimensional characters as Dragonfire the weredragon who breathes fire and Manta Man, an underwater batman.

....yes, those are the actual names. I assure you, the Lava Lord, Silver Dragon, and Laserman weren't that much better.

When I was in high school and I fell in love with Werewolf: the Apocalypse I started writing down the adventures I wrote for my players and short stories about my LARP characters. I loved writing, but when it came time to graduate from High School I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. It took taking a fiction course at Marian College before I became convinced I wanted to write for a living. I knew what writing I liked doing, I knew what types of genres I loved to write stories for, so now I just had to take the next step and commit to it.

The problem was, it was very hard to find any professors that would take anything but literary fiction. Literary fiction, at least as far as I understand it, is telling stories set in the modern world. There are no fantastic elements to them, and they do not evoke themes of horror, science fiction, or fantasy. It wasn't just that the professors wanted to focus on literary fiction during the course but in many cases they were very hostile to the very mention of it.

The reactions I received ran along the lines of...

• "Genre fiction is the lowest form of fiction."
• "Genre fiction is not real fiction."
• "With a few exceptions, the majority of genre work is crap."
• "You will never improve if you write stories like that."

Of the many courses I attended at Purdue, only one allowed for even the slightest bits of fantastical elements to them. The others had us write about emotions and themes, but we had to structure the stories around very generic locations. We had to rewrite stories and give them a modern twist. We had to write about conversations between people, such as about the loss of a loved one or going through a break up.  All helpful exercises, but when it came time to write longer stories there were several professors who would refuse any story that contained elements that did not conform to their narrow view of literary fiction.

That's why this video hit a cord with me.

http://fantasy-faction.com/2014/patrick-rothfuss-responds-to-creative-writing-teachers-fantasy-doesnt-count-jibe

I understand that professors need to set strict guidelines for a course. I mean, you have to have guidelines for which to grade people, right? But to just reject it out of hand because it does not conform with your views of what real writing is doesn't help someone grow as a writer.

While it is true that a lot of genre fiction is full of narratives such as Lord Stoutheart, the Purest Paladin Who Is A Hit With All The Ladies and Duke Bumpuncher, Scifi Scoundrel of Saturn, you will find other characters who are not only as memorable as Huck Finn but are just as deep. Juan Rico from the novel Starship Troopers is one such figure. Every time I reread that book I take away something new, and seeing the brutal, authoritarian world that he lives in through his eyes changes each time.

Now before I go, I have a few friends to share with you guys. The first are my friends over at Nerd's Domain, who review RPGs and other gaming items and record podcasts of their Cthulhu campaigns. Go check out the adventures of the Quietts and Scott Troiano as they explore through the Mask of Nyarlothotep!

http://nerdsdom.com/

My friend Sarah Roarke has a kickstarter up for her webcomic! She's so close to her goal and her comic is pretty awesome. You can find it over at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/237621404/after-daylight-vampire-comedy-volume-1

And finally, check out our new Facebook page! I waffled on creating one for a while because I didn't want to overwhelm people with updates from Smug Pug Games but it seemed like a great way to reach the wider masses that are Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/SmugPugGames

Now if you excuse me, I shall go fall over dead now from this stupid cold. I cannot wait for someone to reveal that I'm secretly a Skrull and I can move beyond these stupid illnesses.

Ooh, Skrull-Space Knight-Green Lantern.

..........SAY WHAT I'M ALLOWED TO DREAM WIDELY!