The Project Transition Hydra

    I don't know if any of you can relate to this, but I have a recurring problem when I'm switching from one project to another: the simple question of "what do I do next?" turns into this massive, hydra-like monster that becomes almost impossible to answer.  Case in point: I finished the Lone Wolf / Twine project a while ago, like 2 weeks ago (as I write this).  I looked at that project and I was happy.  I did not end with a fully-functional set of code, but I did learn a lot and I covered all the critical points I wanted to cover.  Happy.  My original thought was to keep refining and improving my work until I'd have this toolkit, or set of copy-and-paste bits, that someone else could use to maybe improve their own Twine story.  That was a good goal, I thought.
    Thing is, as I neared the end of the project I started to wonder.  I really respect Joe Dever for creating the Lone Wolf books and universe - I'm sad that he passed away, and that leaves me in an awkward place: since he's gone I can't really ask him for permission to use his work.  Which I feel bad about, while I did have my "pirate" side when I was younger I've found that age has mellowed me a bit.  I really want to work on projects that I can legitimately work on, that have no legal issues with my tinkering.  So pouring more effort into developing the code I was working on seemed like a waste if I couldn't control the rights to it.
    Well, easy answer, I'll just design my own system.  I'll take what I have that is not specific to the Lone Wolf setting, and then add some stuff of my own to create my own rules.  That sounded easy, but as I started to plan and organize the idea I came to a sad truth; I'm not ready to write my own rules.  From a mechanical standpoint Lone Wolf is not that complicated.  In fact, the idea of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" book is not that complicated.  And yet, the devil is in the details.  While making a story is not that hard, making a framework of your own rules that other people can use to make their own stories is a little more complicated.  And I just couldn't come up with a good set of mechanics I wanted to use.  Mind you, I had no problem coming up with mechanics - the problem was that hydra: it starts with one head, then it grows to two, and before you know it you're rolling 30d6 per round for all it's bite attacks.  I came up with too many rules, too many ideas.
    Along with that, while I was playing with Twine-SugarCube I hit some real bizarre formatting problems.  Things just were not looking like I wanted them to. I also discovered that SugarCube's widgets are great, but some of the rules I was thinking of needed to be in more pure JavaScript.  So, suddenly Twine-SugarCube seemed like a bad fit for what I wanted to do (I'll post something about the formatting in a few days, it was a trip).
    The confluence of problems threw me back on my heels.  I had to sit down and do some serious cogitating about what I really wanted to do, both for my next project and some other project ideas I've had for down the road.  Which led to some soul-searching and a whole, whole lot of reading and research.  And now, I've come to a couple of decisions:

• First, I'm not ready to design my own rules.  I really like working with HTML, CSS and JavaScript (all of which Twine is built on).  I like learning more about the programming/ coding side than I do about making a new game from scratch.  So for now I want to keep building off of something existing, so I don't have to wear both a "game designer" and "project coder" hat.  To that end I've settled on my next project using the Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition Open Game License System Reference Document.  D&D 5th is a pretty good "rule-light" system that has room to grow and modify the base game.  Fate is really hard to program, being so story-driven.  Pathfinder is too detailed, too much programming needed.  And the other OGL systems out there I do not know very well.  So while D&D 5th is not my idea of the perfect system, it's legal for me to play with it, and it's closer than the other options I see.
• Second, while I really like Twine, I'm going to actually create my own 'program' ('web app'?).  I have several ideas for future projects, ones that I know are beyond my current capabilities but that I think I can grow into as a coder.  They all revolve around the HTML-CSS-JavaScript trinity, and while Twine is great for what it does; I'm not sure it'll fit well with what I want to do in the future.  So I'm going to build something from the ground up for myself.  Is this re-inventing the wheel (programmer sin #1)?  Yeah, it kind of is.  But I want the experience, so I'm going to do it anyways.  Now, it's possible to use all those things in Twine (they are what Twine is made of after all), so I'm not necessarily going to make something that could not be integrated into Twine somewhere down the road.
• Third, I want something that's professional.  I've been scouring the Web the last few days looking for open-sourced fonts, icons, graphics, music, tiles, and everything I can find to produce a sharp, professional, good-looking game/ story/ experience.  If I'm going to drive myself crazy trying to make something that's likely beyond my skills - I at least want it to be a good-looking mess :)

    Currently, I'm calling this the "Open2 Engine" in the dark corners of my mind.  It's going to be a role-playing game that could be played in a browser of on the table-top.  It's going to have a core set of rules and setting I'll develop, but other people will be able to expand on and create their own rules and details.  It's going to be a real monster of a project if I can do even half of the things I want to do.  It may be beyond me, more detail than I can handle.  Maybe, but I don't think so.  I've been reading a ton of programming books, with concepts that are pretty complicated.  A few months ago I wouldn't have understood half of them.  Now, I think I'm finally able to read between the lines and see why things work and how to tweak them.  This is going to be a huge challenge, but I like it - you only get better by pushing yourself to do more that you think you're capable of.
    In the process of coming to this new goal, I've created and thrown out a whole lot of material.  Therefore- I have nothing to post.  So I'm going to be off any kind of schedule for the next week or two until I can sort out what little I have worth keeping and where to go from here.  I have a couple of posts in mind that will go up this week, and hope to get on schedule (Mon random musings on a topic, Wed random stuff, and Fri update on the project) by the week after next at the latest.  I've almost got my feet under me, so things should hit a rhythm soon.

     Anyways, it should be an interesting ride :)