It was a dark and stormy night; I was at my computer writing away furiously. Suddenly, I looked up and realized my quest! And so begins my third and final installment of this introduction. What follows is my life as a role-playing game which will be the motif of Ideholic Impressions. I will start by answering some questions. Since there is currently no one to ask questions, I took it upon myself to ask them. Below is the list of questions concerning my journey, tucked neatly into FAQ form.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What is your quest?
In every RPG there is a lofty quest that the hero or heroine must complete. My own quest is to become an RPG writer either in pen and paper games or a lead writer for a game developer.
What are my starting statistics and abilities?
Some of the nuts and bolts of any RPG are character statistics or stats and character abilities. Before one can know the stats and abilities, one must first know what class that character is. My class is writer and my subclass–which can be thought of as a secondary class or an off-shoot of the first–is linguist. These are the only two professions I have ever had any level of passion for and the ones that I will pursue for the course of my natural life. Additionally, there is a third class which is my tertiary class: Artist. It has mostly been a hobby for me. Even so, I have gained some valuable skills through this pastime.
My stats would then be four things: professionalism, creativity, technical, and knowledge. Every writer needs professionalism such as good proofreading skills and polished writing skills. Any writer could use some creativity, but a fictional writer definitely needs this. Creativity is my highest stat and professionalism my lowest. A writer also needs technical knowledge and skill of all manner of things from forms of writing to knowing how to use a word processor. Lastly any decent writer needs basic knowledge, and a creative writer needs extensive knowledge of most anything under the sun. Anything that I would ever be interested in writing about or using to make Idehol that much more believable.
Abilities are the natural extension of most character stats. Some are dependent on them and others simply stem from them. There are many abilities that I have already learned, and some I am close to mastering. What follows is a list of some of them: program mastery (such as learning to use Microsoft word), typing speed, research, reading comprehension, reading speed, critical thinking, phonetics, and astronomy. Of course there are many others I have learned and many more that I will need to. A detailed list may be found on the Status Page.
All stats and some abilities sometimes come with levels of mastery. For any such abilities, one will find the level of mastery next to it on the Status Page as well.
The eight levels of mastery are: poor, fair, below average, average, above average, superb, and master.
What items and equipment do you have?
An adventurer cannot begin a quest unprepared. I will need all manner of items and equipment to complete my task. My equipment is what I will mainly be using and anything else I need is in the item list below. My starting equipment is rather rudimentary and the items I currently have available are few in number. Nevertheless, as my journey continues I am sure to find a great variety of items and more powerful equipment.
Starting Equipment
Weapon: Capless EXP 1.0 Ball Point Pen -1
Primary Equipment: Scratch Sheet of Paper
Secondary Equipment: Outdated Computer of Age -1
Accessory #1: Instant Coffee
Accessory #2: Worn-In T-Shirt of Comfort
Book #1: A Practical Introduction to Phonetics (J.C. Catford)
Book #2: The Atoms of Language (Mark C. Baker)
Book #3: The Eye of the World (Robert Jordan)
The pen is mightier that the sword, so it is a pen I shall wield! And the only real equipment a writer needs after that is something to write on. My computer is the backup. My accessories are just random things to help me, like caffeine and comfort. Lastly, a writer is always reading, reading, and reading. Consequently, I am never far from my current reading material.
Items in RPG are generally classified into groups. In this case the items fall into the following types: consumables, battle items, other, key items, read books, reference, and unread books. Consumables are just that, gone in a flash. I only list the special foods this writer needs to survive on a quest. Battle items are special consumables that can only be used during random battles (see the questions below). Other items are just things I need or are helpful. Key items are special and usually have no purpose other than sentimentality. The read books are only ones that have really inspired me; whereas, the reference books are something I will never read through. The unread, for the most part are books I own but have not been able to get around to. The list would be much longer if I put down the others that I want to read but can’t afford.
Consumables
Pepsi
Tuna Sandwiches
Battle Items
Red Bull
5 Hour Energy
Gummy Worms
Other
Worn-out Grey Blanket of Fuzziness
Current Drawing Pad
Red Folder of Durability
Sturdy Bookshelf
Cheep Filing Cabinet
Key Items
Various Used Notebooks
Scrapbook of Doodles
Seldom Used Journals
Read Books
Robert Jordan
New Spring
The Eye of the World
The Great Hunt
The Dragon Reborn
The Shadows Rising
The Fires of Heaven
The Lord of Chaos
Crown of Swords
Path of Daggers
Winter’s Heart
Crossroads of Twilight
C.S. Lewis
The Magician’s Nephew
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Horse and His Boy
The Silver Chair
The Last Battle
Anne McCaffery
The White Dragon
The Harper Hall Trilogy
First Fall
The Masterharper of Pern
Guy Gavriel Kay
The Fionavar Tapestry
J.R.R Tolkien
The Silmarillion
The Hobbit
The Fellowship of the Rings
The Two Towers
The Return of the King
Mercedes Lackey and Joshepha Sherman
Castle of Deception
Terry Brooks
First King of Shannarah
Raymond E. Feist
Magician: Apprentice
Magician: Master
Silverthorn
A Shadow at Sethanon
Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts
Daughter of the Empire
Servant of the Empire
Mistress of the Empire
J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Rand Miller
Myst: The Book of Atrus
Myst: The Book of Ti’ana
Myst: The Book of D’ni
Gordon R. Dickson
The Dragon and the George
Lois Lowry
The Giver
Homer
The Illiad
The Odyssey
Reference
Earl Mindell
Earl Mindell’s New Herb Bible
Marc McCutcheon
Descriptionary, 2nd ED: A Thematic Dictionary
Barbara Ann Kipfer
The Order of Things: How Everything in the World is Organized into Hierarchies, Structures, and Pecking Orders
Unread Books
Lancelot Hogben
The Loom of Language: An Approach to the Mastery of Many Languages
What is your starting level?
A young writer would start at level one on his or her journey, but I already have been seasoned a bit. The early grades of school were just my training. My real experience began in college, so it’s safe to say I ‘gained a level’ for each of the six years I was there. It has been some years since I graduated and my studies and experience has not been near as consistent as it was. Yet, with all I have been through and all that I have found, I have obtained at least one more level. All in all I am about level 7, but this is more of an approximation than anything.
How much experience do you need until you level up?
A level is a passive thing, the result of a certain number of accumulated experiences. I have no way of knowing when I will ‘level up.’ But upon reaching a certain point I will simply know and report it. My current level can be found on the status screen.
What random encounters will you face?
I have been faced with many of these already. Some will come back to haunt me and some will not go away, while others are gone for good. These random encounters are simply problems that life throws at you in oh so many ways. Life really is a lot like an RPG. Furthermore, these problems that are hindering enough to be called random encounters can be anything from a personal issue to something from the outside like my daughter’s occasional outbursts or dinner. Whatever they are, I’ll face many of them nearly everyday and they will either wear me out or make me stronger. Additionaly, a list of these can be found in the Bestiary.
What kind of bosses will you deal with?
Similar to random encounters, bosses are major issues in my life. These are the things that make me or break me. There are just as many major problems in the past as there are in the present and future. Each one will require a different approach and sometimes I may see one coming and other times I won’t. A major problem or boss of the past is my relationship with my family and one in the present is a stable job. The latter is one of those problems I believe all writers face for we all understand that writing full time is something that is very hard to do or achieve (at least to make a decent living from). A list of these can also be found in the Bestiary.
What abilities will you need to learn?
I will need to learn many things, much less than those that I want to learn. What follows is condensed list (a detailed one can be found on the status screen): various ologies, further studies in linguistics, faster typing speed, better proofreading and grammar skills, further reading, more program mastery (writing software, editing software, indexing software, technical software), indexing, technical writing, researching (beyond the internet), and further world building and conlanging arts.
Will there be side quests?
Oh, yes! I am one to ramble about this or that and it may have little to do with what I was talking about before. Something similar is bound to happen here. Rather than naming a category potpourri or uncategorized, I will call it ’side quests.’
Is there going to be a bestiary (log of random encounters) and a status page (a way to track your progress and goals)?
Yes, this way, readers that are curious can easily track my progress on the Status Page or read about my past encounters logged in the Bestiary.
