Wasting Time

So I've started typing up the game design notes on my Champions stripdown. And here's the thing: the more I adapt the parts I'm simplifying, the more the parts that are still left virtually untouched from Champions stand out. And there aren't many of those left. And I'm thinking maybe I should really file the numbers off of those as well, make everything more or less my own.

The thing is, it's a total waste of time at this point, working on this project. I'm not running anything anytime soon, and I've got other projects I need to work on. I've got another examiner.com story to post today, and a short story to write up for tomorrow night, and oh yeah, a job I need to be hunting. I shouldn't be wasting my time writing up notes for a game system I may never finish and am even less likely to make any money from, in a few years' time.

But as I intend to do other things, this thing pushes itself into my mind. I don't know how long it'll last. The usual lifespan for this type of minor obsession is three months. I spend all my waking moments concentrating on one thing for about three months, and then it burns out of my system. Not always; I finished Death Wave in less than one month, and I managed to hold on for about six on Hero Go Home, the webcomic

I've even considered starting another blog, exclusively about designing the game, so I can get as deep in the weeds about damage dice and skill resolution as I want without clogging up this blog. I'm not as bad as those guys over at The Forge, who have come up with an entire vocabulary to discuss deep theory about RPG's (warning about the link--it's Safe For Work, but most of the articles are seriously dry), but let me get started and I can go on a while.