Origin Story

Alright, time to spill. This is a long one, but its the first one so its justified. TL;DR, I created this website and blog to share my cool stuff.

I recently quit my full-time job in video game development (and turned down several tantalizing offers at other studios) to co-found a new video game studio with some close friends. Starting a new, successful studio is a lofty goal, but one I feel is worth pursuing. It finally stopped snowing- yes, it snows in May in northern Wisconsin- and there are already seven new calves on the ground here at the farm. My work on the second revision to my fantasy TTRPG rulebook Ancient Kingdoms is nearly complete. All that remains is a couple lousy paragraphs about pyrocasters, updating the character sheet, and making some quick-reference sheets. Additionally, there's a new challenge hosted by DriveThruRPG and Roll20 called Pocket Quest 2023 to create a new sci-fi rule system in no more than twenty pages, which I plan on participating in.

Spring is in the air and with all these other events going on in my life it seemed the perfect time to create something new. That might seem odd. I've got so much else going on, why put more on my plate? I can't really explain it. I've always been a creative person and my greatest challenge has always been reigning in my creative interests long enough to finish something. I bounce from one project to another, never finishing anything. Once I feel I've figured out 80% of a project, I move on to the next because there isn't much challenge left or there's not much left to learn; its just busywork. This habit is frustrating. It feels like running a marathon to within sight of the finish line, then walking off the course to start another race.

I've gotten to the point in my life where I'm looking at all these marathons I've started- but not finished- and now I want to finish them. Its partially for closure and partially to prove to myself that I can finish something. I wonder if the reason I don't finish things is because I'm afraid to finish them? Once a project is done, it can be released- it should be released- and once released, its open to criticism. These precious, perfect, private projects can be torn properly apart by anonymous internet critics. Perhaps I fear that... I honestly don't know.

Here's a glimpse into the depths of how many back burner projects one can possible posses:

• 4+ new TTRPG systems.

• 6+ adventure modules for the above TTRPG systems.

• 20+ songs.

• 20+ books.

• 5+ video games.

• 5+ board games.

Not a single one is finished. Its embarrassingly impressive to have so many unfinished projects- mostly embarrassing. And the kicker is, if I'd completed some of these, I'd have even more projects. But now the creative debt of these unfinished projects nags at me and hinders my ability to focus on new projects.

One of the strongest motivations for me to make progress on a project is to meet the expectations of others. Wanting to meet my own expectations is a far less compelling motivator for some accursed reason. Regardless, I'm older than when I started accumulating this abominable list of projects, and with age comes discipline. I've become more selective about the projects I start, knowing each unfinished project will hang over me like a dark cloud. Furthermore, I've started drilling down and finishing some of the smaller projects as well as some of the larger ones that have been in the works for a long time. I've been taking my creative hobbies more seriously, hence, this website.

I've always wanted to create my own space where I can share my creations and foster a small community of like-minded individuals. I suppose the intent was always to eventually share my creations, but without deadlines projects have a way of creeping forward forever in the pursuit of perfection. But, as some of my favorite productivity quotes illustrate, pursuing perfection is not a worthy goal:

"Nothing would be done at all if a man waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault with it."

"You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great."

"Perfection is the enemy of progress."

So, what is this?

This is Ancient Rune, my new brand which I'll use across social media to unify and identify myself in this vast, otherwise-anonymous, creative space. My goal is to provide an organized outlet for my creative endeavors, particularly my TTRPG rulebooks and adventures, my GM tips, and my fiction novels. At the start, my main content will be blog posts on this site and Patreon, with videos on YouTube, and short updates on Twitter.

I'm not sure how often I will share stuff. I don't have a habit of sharing content yet, so its difficult to plot a trajectory into the future. One thing I don't want to do is spew out low-value trash just for the sake of following a post schedule. So I won't promise much for now, and we'll see how it goes.

All I can say for now is that my in-progress fantasy tabletop RPG called Ancient Kingdoms is nearly complete, and that will be much of the focus in the near future. Expect a post on that soon with more details.

Thanks for Reading,

Ross