Hey all, hope you’re doing good.  So what’s up with the Sanctum?

Well first, you’ll notice the badge there in the sidebar – the Sanctum was declared one of the 101 most useful sites for writers by Writer’s Digest!  Glad to know the site’s so helpful – and be sure to check out the other resources in the latest issue!

Next up, generators.  Though I’ve got a few ideas (because they never stop) I want to take a hard look at the idea of a Plot Twist generator this summer.  However my issue right now is what form it should take.  Genre based?  Abstract?  Wild?  Bounded?  What kind of options?  Or in short . . . suggestions welcome.

I may do a poll once I get some kind of idea in mind.

I got back from Fanime, which of course was awesome.  I did some career speaking there and hope to do more events next year.

Way With Worlds will indeed be wrapping up soon – then I start editing it into a book.  That probably means I’ll get a few more column ideas, but there probably won’t be anything regular.

I may start doing other creative posts here, let’s see where my mojo takes me . . .

 
http://www.fanime.com/

Well it’s finished, the Magic Power Generator!  I got inspired my the more “yell and use” magic of anime and video games, and this is an idea I’ve kicked around since the Magic Guild Generator and analyzed some of the Fairy Tail universe.

Beyond making appropriately magical-sounding powers, I also got to try out some new ways to organize data so it makes alliterated, artistic-sounding powers – like ‘Negative Nightmare Negation Necromancy’ or ‘Raiser Runecraft.’  It was pretty educational, and I figured out a few techniques to organize and sort data more efficiently and in ways to let me get it more poetic.  I’m sure those lessons will be used in the future.

Here’s some regular ones:

• Ifrit Trance
• Gas Negation Invocation
• Forgotten Diamond Benediction
• Legendary Wind Magic
• Telekinesis Liberator Jinx
• Secret Yeti Jailer Magic
• Litch Spiritualism
• Hydra Executioner Magic
• Inescapable Undead Glamour
• Evil Wind Potions

And some ‘artistic’ ones:

• Earthquake Exorcism
• Obliteration Occultism
• Earth Executioner Exorcism
• Nightmare Negator Necromancy
• Hurricane Hermeticism
• Assistance Abjuration
• Ancestral Acid Alteration
• Purple Poltergeist Prayer
• Negative Nereid Necromancy
• Press Prayer

Beyond that writing Way With Worlds as I count down to finishing what I wanted to cover – and debating what else to write here when that’s done.  If there’s anything you’d like to see me cover, let me know – I love to write so am always open to hear what directions help people!

Finally my friend Ewen has created this book of random tables that I’m sure any Sanctumite will want to see.  And, yes, he’s encouraging me to do my own . . .

Oh and yes, considering the Plot Twist generator now.  Might be fun to do over the summer . . .
Respectfully,

– Steven Savage
http://www.musehack.com/
http://www.informotron.com/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

Hello everyone, hope you’re doing well.  So here’s what’s going on!

The Magical Power Generator.  The basic data is organized and sorted – and this took a little extra time because I am including options to create artistic alliteration (like a magical power called “Baleful Banshee Bewitchment.”).  Next is to get the data into one of my data sets and break out the forms it can appear in.  No proposed timeline.

The generator is simple, but fun because I’m working on researching words and ways to get things to sound interesting – which makes you ask questions about what words “sound” right together.  It’s not always about simple data patterns.

Anyway, you’ll see the results . . .

Way With Worlds.  As I’ve been getting feedback and getting new ideas, obviously this has gone beyond “just rewrite.”  Still I think it’ll probably end this summer.  At that point there’s one more big rewrite which I’m going to do before it’s in book form – I want to incorporate everything I learned while writing it.

Other Writing.  Look to see a new column here in May or June.  A friend will be running an exceptional column about media here – not providing much detail for now because we’re working plans out.  If you’re interested in doing anything here, let me know!

An App?  I’ve had a lot of people ask if I plan to or could do a Seventh Sanctum App.  That’s been on the list to look at, but not high priority.  However, if anyone has an experience converting PHP to Android and iOS let me know your experience.

So how are you doing out there?

Respectfully,

– Steven Savage
http://www.musehack.com/
http://www.informotron.com/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

And my first generator in awhile is up – the Undead Generator!  I wanted something to jumpstart me a bit, and then I saw a review for the game Cave Evil, which has an amazing “death metal” design and plenty of undead.  That made me think about the various undead in other games and their unique natures compared to garden-variety monsters.  I got inspired to make an undead generator and make monsters a bit more metal . . . and disgusting and rotting.

So you can get monsters like:

• Consuming Ripper of The Sands
• Doomed Slayer
• Dread Shambler
• Enchantment Wraith
• Exhumed Warrior
• Festering Grinder of the East
• Ghoul of Hell
• Hellish Festering Lasher
• Interred Homonculus of The Ocean
• Resurrector of the West
• Rogue Phantom of The Sky
• Rotting Atrocity
• Vampire Atrocity of Stone
• Wind Poltergeist
• Wraith Rock Rakshasa

I consider this a first release – it probably needs a bit of tweaking from feedback (some of the elaborate names seem overly elaborate).  Overall I’m quite pleased, because it’s “on” quite a bit – and when it’s on, it’s really on (Hellish Festering Lasher is an extremely ‘metal’ monster name.)

What was interesting with this generator is that it was reminiscent of others I’ve done.  “Themed” generators often have a mix of words that fit the theme and that are general.  Thus you could have a Rotten Shambler (suggesting undeadness) but a Rock Shambler has no “undeadness” – but a “Rock Ghast” does sound udead.  So getting this to work was a case of mixing words that suggest undeadness and general words to suggest creatures and beings.

OK folks, go to it, and let me know what you think!

Respectfully,

– Steven Savage
http://www.musehack.com/
http://www.informotron.com/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

And hello to everyone!  What’s up at the sanctum?

As mentioned since the Magic Power Generator keeps getting bloody interrupted, I wanted to do a jumpstarter or two (and honestly, I want to finish that one).  My latest is an Undead Generator inspired by Cave Evil.  I wanted something to make various horrific creations in the usual undead vein, which often seem to have reasonably specific patterns. Here’s a few of the results:

• Wraith of Rot
• Bloated Coffin Warrior
• Rotten Dragon of The Depths
• Wraith Flayer
• Blasphemous Crypt Render
• Eternal Crypt Dragon
• Icy Bone Mage
• Monstrous Ghost Wyvern
• Zombie of Tombs
• Stone Ghoul of the North

I hope to have this one done relatively soon – the structure is there, I just have to tweak probabilities and flesh out the database.
Respectfully,

– Steven Savage
http://www.musehack.com/
http://www.informotron.com/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

Hello gang, and yes, once again I vanished – and you’ll notice Way With Worlds was late.

The simple factor is things got crazy. I’m working on a job change, but also my stepfather passed away. Throw in the craziness on airlines flying too/from the funeral and daylight savings time, and I’m more than a bit wiped out.

Fortunately the funeral went well. My Stepdad was the kind of guy people always had a good story about, so just discussing him made everything a remembrance.

I’m hoping for some peace and quiet shortly. Oh, after the wedding I am going to. Yet, its not done yet.

So not giving up on the Magic Power Generator yet, nor the Plot Twist one. However I will probably do another “booster” to get my mind going – and I have a most interesting one inspired by both an RPG and a board game to try so stay tuned . . .

Way With Worlds is also going to keep exploring designing Races (where, yes, I often mean species). I’ve got a lot more to say on that from last time, and that should get interesting.

I hope everyone else is doing well.

 
Respectfully,

– Steven Savage
http://www.musehack.com/
http://www.informotron.com/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

Been awhile everyone!

First of all, sorry for the lack of updates.  Basically work has hammered me pretty hard – as in really hard.  I haven’t even done too much socializing beyond some convention speaking and a few meals with friends and dates.  It’s been pretty crazy.

Haven’t done much here beyond doing Way With Worlds due to being busy.  I still want to do the Magic Power Generator, but may do a few more “recreational” generators just to get the mojo going.

Thats one thing I’ve noticed – little fun generators act to sort of get me into the state that helps me do other generators.  Maybe I need to keep a list of them to use when I need a little boost.

So hang in there (I am) and I hope to get things settled so I have more time for cool stuff!

Respectfully,

– Steven Savage
http://www.musehack.com/
http://www.informotron.com/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

And the new year is here!  I hope everyone is doing well.  Busy as always and back to work on Monday.

So beyond the Magic Power Generator which got delayed because of sudden inspiration (hey, I get some good stuff that way), I’m considering one or two more “minor” generators but want to get back to the idea of a Plot Twist Generator.  Warning on that – I’m probably going to need some suggestions because I’m not sure where to start.

I think there’s an odd division among generators.  Most are things that are easy to do because I “get” them – because they have enough of a focus I can analyze their subject matter.  Things like the Writing Prompt Generator don’t lend themselves easily to breakdown or analysis because there’s a far, far more personal level to them – they have to speak to the user in a far different way.  I can find patterns in, say, magical items or technobabble as they have comparatively tight linguistic bounds, so it’s easy to find what’ll trigger the imagination.  A writing prompt or a plot twist has more complex patterns, less bounds, and there’s a certain quality of “connectedness” I’m still figuring out.

It’s a daunting task, but it is one of my goals for the new year.  I’ve also got a few more ideas, but don’t plan to try anything new-new until at least Q2.

How’s your new year?
Respectfully,

– Steven Savage
http://www.musehack.com/
http://www.informotron.com/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/.

He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

Merry Christmas Everyone!  And for Christmas let me give everyone the Fantasy Metal Generator!

This interrupted the Magical Power Generator and was inspired by the Rougelike game Dungeonmans, which beyond being a fantastic comedy/adventure/roguelike/persistent world game, also has some dynamite (and funny) sounding items and components that made me think “hey, fantasy often has strange metals.”  So in turn, I made a generator for them.  Here’s some samples:

• Demons’ Timemetal
• Dream Glittermercury
• Dream Mithril
• Evil Shadowiron
• Fatal Dream Mithril
• Flaming Bronze
• Ghostly Ice Copper
• Glitterhammer Adamant Of The Past
• Meteoric Orichalcum
• Night Platinum
• Night Windhell Orichalcum
• Phantasmal Windgold Of Arch-angels
• Rottin
• Sand Bronze Of Wizards
• Sapphireshadow Adamant
• Secret Orichalcum
• True Adamant Of The Dawn
• Unknowable Rockiron Of The Rivers
• Wordsilver Of The Swamps
• Zephyrlead

This puts me in mind of a game of fantasy weapon making where the minerals you mine are procedurally generatred.  So you make weapons and equipment out of randomized minerals with different properties, and if there’s one you like you can keep trying to mine it or get ahold of it.
– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

Yeah, another delay – holidays, illness, work craziness.  I am so glad I’ve got vacation time coming up.

So first up, more detail on the Magical Power Generator idea.

Basically I noticed in things like anime (especially Fairy Tail which inspired another generator a year ago – which is how long this idea was sitting in my head) and video games there’s magic that’s sort of a “superpower” – not a ton of chants and material components but more blast-and go.  You also see this to an extent in video games.  It’s a “set” of abilities as it were with names as simple as “Dance Magic” or as complex as “Lightning God Slayer Magic.”

Needless to say, that started giving me ideas.

So what about a generator that makes these “types” or “sets” of powers, but also tosses in some good expansion.  Sure you may have “Air Magic” but why not “Wind Bewitchment?”  Why not have “Celestial Beast Snare Sorcery” along with “Animal Magic?”

On that level, why not make options that allow for some poetic alliteration?  You could have “Water Wizardry” out to “Dark Demonic Decimation Diabolism?”

So as you can guess this simple idea is fun (in fact I have most of the data),  though getting the poetic alliteration is a wee bit challenging – but is teaching me some new stuff.  Let’s hope I have enough sane time to do this!

Now with that being said . . .

The new year’s coming up and last year left me with enough ideas I don’t think I need to do a new poll (or “yes, I know, plot twist generator.”).  However I do want to consider it.

Things I HOPE to do are:

• More Tumblr feeds.
• Automate the Twitter random idea feed.
• Consider a Patreon to ditch ads and give me more layout options.
• Try to do some events/teamups/more contributors to the codex and others.

Oh and use that portable dev environment I have yet to use.

This was a pretty insane year.

Finally at Muse Hack I did two columns on the question “is there a gap in hiring in IT” – if you work in IT you’ve heard the claim it’s hard to hire people.  In part one I examined the basic numbers and what they tell us, but then dived deeper into specifics and reached some surprising conclusions.  Short form, there’s probably a gap for senior people, it’s concealed due to certain factors – and we’re making it worse.  If you work in IT check it out . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.