I had forgotten how much of a different beast writing game text is compared to designing procedures and character sheets, and simply explaining things verbally.
Writing is so slow, at least for me. It gives me too much time to think. I’ll write a sentence, consider how it meshes with the tone of the section and the overall shape of the instructional text I’m writing. Is it too long? Could it be simpler, more straightforward? Does it move the idea forward after the last sentence? Does it setup the next sentence? Is this even the best way to present these ideas? Should I switch to a top-down / bottom-up / metaphorical / “just the facts” / evocative approach? Do I need to give the players more tools to spark to their imaginations? Do I need to back off and let them play the game their way, rather than mine?
It wasn’t so bad in the Hero Creation section, as I’ve verbally explained Hero Creation again and again during playtests. But I don’t really explain gameplay at the table as much as outline it and demonstrate it. Because of this, the writing of this “How To Play The Game” section is going even slower than usual. (This is also the reason why the GM portion of my games are always the hardest for me to design, because I never explain them, I just do them. If I take WGP back to Metatopia this year, I’ll be testing the ability to have a player be the villain player with no prior prep or experience.)
To break this impasse, this week I intend to speed-write the section I’m stuck on several different ways, knowing beforehand that most or all of that writing is going to get thrown out. If nothing else, surrounding the problem and attacking it from different angles will at least allow me to fail faster, and rule out ways not to explain the game.
Status
Finally finished the Villain Creation and Villain Plan section! It somehow metamorphosed into a thicket of oracles and sub-oracles right before my eyes!
Unexpected projects at work and illness of family members joined forces like a pair of supervillains to rob me of most of my writing time this week. I wrote a few paragraphs of the Phases summary, but didn’t make much headway. Luckily, my schedule included allowances for these sort of delays.
Goals for Next Week
Finish the summary of the Phases (Which now that I look at it, may end up longer than I anticipated) and the description of at least one Phase.