In The Garden Living an RPG Life

Oooo! Less than 30 days till NaNoWriMo begins and I can start writing for real.  I’ve got lots of notes and ideas for the last of the five novels in this set.  The first one is The Tailor’s Tale, the one that started it all.  I’ve already told some of the story behind the story, though, so I’ll spare us the retelling.

I had a revelation this morning.  Not just another idea, but the kind of revelation that I feel with my whole body, a feeling of living the idea rather than just having it wriggling about inside my skull.

I was thinking about some of the ideas I had for Spoonflower fabric and Etsy.  With Spoonflower working on a marketplace, I need to rethink what I want to use Etsy for.  This is where the RPG meets Real Life.  I’ve been talking about role playing a little mystically, invoking the world of magic that is usually associated with gaming while trying to keep it on this side of fantasy.  There’s more to my idea of what a role-playing game can be, though.

It’s no coincidence that the world I built is made from the fabric trade. It’s a medium I have a lot of lust for.  I can practically hear and feel the rustle of embroidered silks and velvets when watching The Tudors for example.  The weight of the swirling cape in the opening credits is very nearly fabric-pron.  You wouldn’t know this about me if we met however.  All I talk about is the magic-leaning stuff.  I am, on a day to day basis, an advocate of empowerment, a fool for personal transformation, a getting-to-good type geek.  In another life, I used to tell myself (too keep myself sane), I would probably be a shaman.  Now, though, with the chasm of retirement looming before me, I’m thinking that I should consider myself a shaman with a fabric shop!

The RPG part?  Well, I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ no business, to misquote another nurse/nanny type.  For me the format of the role-playing game is perfect for organizing what I know and what I need to find out, while keeping the whole process on the higher side of fun.  NPC’s are in place as the creators of Ravelry, Etsy and Spoonflower, for example.  My Adventuring party?  So far there is only one other person, I think.  We’re friends and kind of on the same path.  Whether we are on the same Adventure…?  I don’t know yet.  Only the encounters and the traveling through the landscape will tell.

The first part of my journey will be finishing the novel. Part of finishing the novel, I discovered, is finding out more about money and economics.  The other part, a continuing part, is taking the magic part seriously.  I have always taken it seriously as a study. I’ve just not practiced it in any formal way, with any kind of focus.  Now it’s time to turn information into knowledge and knowledge into skill.

Talking to Gretchen about all of this, we came to the conclusion that this is one way to change a life, to become someone different.  With that in mind, and since documentation is also part of the RPG, I’ll be keeping track of my process.  One reason is that it’s fun.  Another, more important reason, is that some of what I am planning to do is inspired by questions from many non-RPG places.  Some of the questions are those Gretchen and I have asked each other and together of systems we’ve both investigated.

My plan is to show how I move from the system, through the questions, and into some kind of tool to be used in my Game.  The name of my game?  I guess it’s Retirement.  Retirement, the Game.   Ok… Maybe that’s just the working title.  I have an idea that there is another title waiting to be revealed, but that’s another post.

Meanwhile, consider this the first of the pre-NaNoWriMo posts.