Session 01: Goal, Objectives, and Guidelines

Hey there. Hello. Welcome to this log about creating “Tales from the Wilds” – a series of short stories set within the Imbue Role Playing Game. What you are reading is Session 01 of the project – which is not well defined as of now. I have an idea of what it should be but it’s not very well fleshed out. That’s what I plan on working on today.

Note that the name “Tales from the Wilds” is a working title and will most likely be changed in the future. That’s fine. It works for now. At this stage, the project is little more than an “idea” so you are reading the very first steps toward making it a reality. And these words that you are reading were not added afterward, this is all written as it is thought up. “Current Luke” has no idea how this project will turn out. You, on the other hand, (and “Future Luke” – well – I guess “Current Luke” to you) have the knowledge of what has come of this project. Actually, if you’re reading this then that means that it is somewhat finished or well underway (I think)? Why else would I share this?

At any rate, today I’ll be sort of working out the high level stuff for the project – defining the scope of this thing, its goals, and (hopefully) some deliverables. Enough with the introduction! Let’s get started!

So, where to begin?

The goal. Let’s start there.

What is the goal of the project? Well, that’s not so straight forward. I have an idea – which is to create short, first-person narratives by characters within (possible) adventures of Imbue – which could then be used to create a podcast. But all of that isn’t necessary, is it? The ultimate goal is to create a podcast. But that’s not exactly what we are working on here. We are working on the stories which will be used for the podcast. So the goal of this project then is to create short stories? No. Then what? Ah. The goal is to create scripts for a podcast. Bingo.

Goal: Create scripts for a podcast.

That’s awfully vague. We (who’s we?) need to now define the scope of the project. By defining what the project is and what the project isn’t, we will scope out the boundaries and perhaps some objectives for this bad boy.

I know this is going to be a series of short stories. I’d like them to be told from the first person point-of-view. They will be diverse as these stories would serve to highlight the different types of adventures one could have within Imbue.

Oh. Did you catch that? The phrase “…stories would serve to highlight the different types of adventures one could have within Imbue…” sounds important. That, my friends, is what I believe to be our first objective!

Objective 1: Highlight different types of adventures one could have within Imbue.

So what’s the difference between a goal and an objective? The goal is sort of the quick description of what you are creating – it’s the ultimate deliverable. Objectives define the must haves in order for the goal to be successful. If the goal of a project was to bake a cake, perhaps the objectives would be that the cake must be chocolate with fudge icing, must taste good, and must serve 8 people (damn it, now I want some cake!).

Okay, so we are making script for a podcast (goal) which will highlight different types of adventures one could have within Imbue (objective 1). See how the project is becoming less vague? Let’s move on.

Back to the scope. The episodes should be episodic (as opposed to serialized). So stories should not be contiguous (does that word make sense here?) – so each story shall feature a different protagonist. Though, it wouldn’t be bad if one or two stories featured the same character – if one or more became fun to write. I guess this is less of a “must have” and more of a “if needed”. Noted.

Episode length? Shoot for 20 – 30 minute episodes and if I need to double up – or if some episodes run long – it’s okay. I think 20 – 30 minutes is a good runtime for a podcast. This timeframe will give us a writing length goal, though, like the point above, this is more of a guideline and less of a hard-fast rule.

How many stories are needed? Hmm.. Let’s say it’s a weekly release for six months. That would be about 24 stories (give or take). Twenty Four sounds like a lot of writing. Maybe not. These are only 20 – 30 minutes long, after all.

Mature rating? For Imbue, the audience should be fairly wide. This doesn’t mean there can’t be “adult” themes or serious stories or anything but attitudes and dialog should keep the audience in mind. You can have a bad guy who “talks like a sailor” without actually doing the sailor talk – such things can be implied. On the other hand, I can always add a “listener discretion” warning. This is probably another nice-to-have list item instead of a must-have.

Woah. I almost forgot. This project is for Cryptiquest, LLC who has goals by which need to be abided: 1. Invent believable worlds of fiction; 2. Design for experience-first; 3. Think Inclusive and welcome diversity. Okay, there’s a lot to unpack here (is there?) or at least there are a few explanations required.

For the “Invent believable worlds of fiction” objective, the goal here is simply to try to create something that has never existed before while maintaining consistency to the laws and physics of the thing that is being created. That doesn’t sound as simple as I thought but striving for it is something important to me. To satisfy this Cryptiquest goal, this objective will need to be met: ensure the stories are not trite or inconsistent.

For the “Design for experience-first” objective, the goal will be to keep the reader/listener at the forefront. This more-or-less touches on tone and quality control. To satisfy this Cryptiquest goal, this objective will need to be met: ensure that the stories are not confusing or boring.

For the “Think inclusive and welcome diversity” objective, the goal is to actively attempt to not exclude a person or groups of people. To clarify, this doesn’t mean that every single identity requires representation when creating characters but by trying to remain conscious of the multitudes of identities in the world, Cryptiquest reduces the chance of creating an “identity vacuum” where readers may be inadvertently abandoned. To satisfy this Cryptiquest goal, this objective will need to be met: ensure that the stories are not all told from the same perspective of one or two identities (this probably needs to be better worded but I think it makes sense-ish for now).

Okay. So after going through that we have some new objectives:

Objective 2: Ensure the stories are not trite or inconsistent.
Objective 3: Ensure the stories are not confusing or boring.
Objective 4: Ensure the stories are not all told from the same one or two identities.

What else hasn’t been discussed yet? Oh right – some legal stuff. Stories must use all original content, must be considered property of Cryptiquest, and must feasibly take place in the Imbue setting. Those are “givens” but good to point out, none-the-less. This will round out a fifth objective:

Objective 5: Ensure the content of the stories: is all original content which takes place in the Imbue setting and remains the property of Cryptiquest, LLC.

There is probably more that I’m leaving out but I think that’s enough for now. I have a goal, objectives and a mishmash of guidelines. This is the final list of project items:

Goal: Create scripts for a podcast.

Objective 1: Highlight different types of adventures one could have within Imbue.
Objective 2: Ensure the stories are not trite or inconsistent.
Objective 3: Ensure the stories are not confusing or boring.
Objective 4: Ensure the stories are not all told from the same one or two identities.
Objective 5: Ensure the content of the stories: is all original content which takes place in the Imbue setting and remains the property of Cryptiquest, LLC.

Guideline 1: Stories should be told in first-person.
Guideline 2: Episodes should be episodic.
Guideline 3: Episodes should be about 20 – 30 minutes.
Guideline 4: There should be about 24 episodes.
Guideline 5: Episodes should target “general auidience” regarding “maturity” rating.

This is a great start! This list probably isn’t comprehensive but that’s okay. During the next session, I’ll try to mold this further, ever working our way to a checklist of deliverables.