What creative projects have you been working on?

I started back up with modifying an older '80s board game Dungeon! to be Zelda oriented. I will be modifying some rules and such, but I have a nice start so far. I also just had some chipboard, tape, and glue (and unrelated, a new ring) delivered, so I'll be able to start prototyping out a board for play.

This will be my first DIY board game since elementary school when we got to make our own lol

I'll likely post some stuff about it on my website in the coming weeks.

I finished the track is was working on, for once I'm quite happy with the result. I've been enjoying making music again recently but I don't know if I'll manage to keep at it, maybe I'll try to do something with only keyboard or guitar next.

I'll be participating in a workshop on SuperCollider this Friday (followed by a show), so hopefully I have something cool to show for it.

Doing a few things in-between, mostly worldbuilding. Still focusing on the Frontiers RPG system.

Researching the aspects of human-being yields interesting insights from time to time. I suspect this is something the developers of Disco Elysium, ZAUM Studio, did as well, because our integrations of reality with the fiction of an RPG system keep yielding similar results. For example, rather than relay strength to muscles, as it's done traditionally, Disco Elysium's Physical Instrument uses musculoskeletal system – as does the actual human body. Visuospatial function is correctly given significance within one's mental complex, although there's some evidence to keeping visual perception and spacial function merged (it also helps the case that all papers suggesting separation of mechanisms are dated a few years earlier).

The latter has been giving me some grief lately.

It seems that the default assumption of perception being a separate function of one's body and mind – an assumption almost universally employed by RPG systems – is false, and, even though the human brain integrates the experiences into a coherent image, what ultimately deserves the player's attention is the senses themselves. It appears that each sense may be safely merged with their appropriate domains – for example, tactile sensations may be tackled within the domain of the locomotor (musculoskeletal) system, interoception (one's insight into the state and workings of their internal organs) – spread between the domains of physical conditioning and hormonal/stress response system etc.

The grief part arises when I consider audial perception. It's the only sense important enough to have its own domain that doesn't seem to have enough weight to be included. Even when one considers how much people orient themselves around using sound in the daily life, and the fact that musicality is an important personal and social trait, and that my personal experience dictates that a lot can be achieved with attention to acoustics... I still can't find it in me to give it the significance within the RPG system that it deserves.

The goal of the system is to represent human cognitive and visceral architecture closely-enough that it could be used to orient the player in a grounded experience in a fashion similar to how I experience it. It helps that I have a very good beacon – Disco Elysium – in terms of the narrative, incomplete and focused though it may be. Audiality is an important aspect of human life, for both survival and culture. It feels like, though it's possible to appreciate its importance, players would ultimately discard it, given how lacking audiality is in obvious benefits. Visual Space – the visuospacial function – aids sight and ballistics, it allows for modelling of engineering projects visually, and at very high levels allows one to reconstruct scenes through its visible outcomes. Audiality – the character trait – aids hearing, music production and reception, dancing, timing, rhythm, and... that's about it.

In its current form, Audiality would fit well into D&D, where bard and their Performance skill is a viable way to play the game. Here, it feels more like a supplement to an otherwise-already-developed character. Yes, the world where Frontiers takes place is dangerous one, and it's important to look out for danger using as many sensory channels as possible. Yes, being a signer or a musician is a meaningful way to play the game, given that in a distressed world, people are likely to pay for a bit of beauty and art. Yes, there's a handful of auxiliary benefits to being able to hear and feel the rhythm well. Is it enough? Is it enough compared to other traits?

I made a breakthrough a few days ago with drawing, which happens less and less often as I get older. Being an old nerd, I drew the characters from our RPG group and for once I kept it loose and fluid. It paid off nicely and now I am stuck drawing them in different ways and shapes.

I also started teaching people at a course in my local library how to use GIMP, first class was today, 15 people of varying skillsets, ages and everything and it was actually pretty fun. Exhausting but fun and I have this odd plan of doing video courses and pamphlets and releasing them for the class afterwards so they can have some reference material.