My Creative Things 2022

So this is my annual look at what I've been creating. Taking stock as creativity is one of my things

Taking Stock of Things

I like to take stock of certain things at arbitrary times like once a year, monthly or quarterly.

Lots of people like the end of year but I've always found that to be an inconvenient time as its usually a busy period! Though later in Winter is usually good.

Taking stock counts as a review and a chance to stop and breath. And realise how much we might have done and some realisations on directions.

So here's my first ever Creative Stocktake (not that I expect anyone to be excited by this, or even reading it except me)

Posts on Dice Song

I've done 30+ posts on Dice Song since last year. It's still an evolving project and is currently my sounding board for ideas.

I'm happy with finding 3 themes in We Are All Creatives, Keep on Moving and Open to Abundance.

Some of my most notable posts (for me) were

Many Articles on Rand Roll

My hobby blog at Rand Roll is actually at the heart of my work and moved to a new platform in January. It's had over 50 Random Table articles and 30+ on other rpg random tools topics.

Some of the landmark ones include

A fascination of Dooms taking a look at bringing a concept from WFRP 2e into other games.
Using Gens by taking a 5 minute break which continued a series I'd like to do a lot more on
Generator Guides to Taverns and Inns which updated the generators guide format as a template to update older ones.
Rolling Solo - A Basic Start and Rolling Solo with the Green Cave Comrades got me started on Solo rpgs. Even though I decided not to continue publishing it on the blog it's lead into a renewed interest in my rpg hobby.

PDFs and Random Generators

My actual work is the creation of random table PDFs for roleplaying games. The last year saw my largest project yet with Collected Encounters - Random Tables which is 63 pages (A4 size) with writing and layout all done by me! There were a few smaller projects but I've been changing direction and trying to concentrate on fewer, larger projects.

My main creative outlet is random generators at Chaos Gen which saw me focusing on Sea themed tools and a number of other important new tools including Five Room Dungeon, Wilds Rumours and Plot Hooks (first of several) and Sci-fi One Shots.

I've also been creating an RPG of my own which my Devon group has been helping playtest. And playing Solo games of it to help with creative ideas.

Quarterly Work Retreats

I've started taking one retreat of 11 nights every quarter someone where quiet-ish, to focus on creative project. This idea came after looking after the house of one of my many aunts and being able to get lots done with no disturbances of other people.

So far I've been to the Cork countryside (first one last Oct), Totnes, Falmouth, Santarem (abandoned early due to heat) and now Zaragoza.

Life In Porto

But probably the biggest creative driver and change in life is moving to Porto.

This has driven

Learning and improving Portuguese
Keeping a sketch book which I've managed to use 3-5 times a week
Starting to paint in acrylic and now in water colours with the help of a Brazilian teacher.
Upping my game with salads and other foods
Creating a Porto Coffee Creatives
Exposure to new ideas and points of view from new friends groups
Creating a meetup called International Brunch
More books :)
Adapting to a new life in a large city (for me) in a foreign country...

Finishing Up

It's been quite a year

How are your creative things looking if you sit down to consider them?