It's not procrastination. It's a side quest.
Well, in my quest to learn more about creating TTRPGs something miraculous has happened. I've started actually playing TTRPGs!
I mentioned in my last blost that I had played Daggerheart for the first time and the GM of that game inspired me.
Well, since then my basement has been put back together finally from the flooding we had back in August, and we've brought out our table that was down there that we use for gaming.
Meanwhile, my kids are getting into DnD, so they were excited to have a space in our house we can use specifically to game. It's kind of like Mike's basement in Stranger Things, but with significantly less wood paneling and slightly fewer Ego Waffle boxes.
I convinced the kids to give Land of Eem a try because I had wanted to play it, and they had so much fun we now have a standing appointment of playing TTRPGs every Friday night. I one hundred percent owe their enjoyment of it to the GM of my Daggerheart game, because he actually provided a good template for me on how to run a game, and I feel like I did a better job running it than the last time I GM'd (which was my first time ever, so I'm okay with that one not being great).
We're going to alternate between Dungeons and Dragons and Land of Eem for now to keep them interested, and depending on how the campaigns go I may throw in an adventure or two of Daggerheart to play more of that.
This also means I've been voluntold by my kids that I'm the forever GM so they can play. Normally, I'd complain that I want to play too, but this is forcing me to have exposure to the inner workings of TTRPGs, which will only benefit my journey into actually writing one.
This is an exciting time. And, as I'm playing I'm making notes to myself of what I like and don't like about the systems I'm playing with. And the more GM prep work I do, the more I'll be able to actually put together a solid sandbox for my players to play in.
This is one situation where seeing shiny things actually enhances the main objective. The more I play, the more I understand. The more I understand, the better I can make my game.
I now realize that I was pushing myself too hard to do something I was wholly unprepared for. And instead of giving up I'm putting in the work to learn. See kids, don't ignore side quests. They enhance the story!