I have a journaling practice. It helps me to think through what is going on in my life, what I am doing, what I could do better, what is going well.

I have made it a regular practice to write journal entries under the heading, “What do I want?”

I do several variations on the exercise. One version is to write an entry on the topic every day for a week. I try answering it from different angles and to different degrees of detail.

It can be useful to distill the journal entries down to single sentence or even single word answers. I find it provides a sort of mantra; a clear mental framework for what I’m doing at a given moment.

One variation of the exercise is to ask, “What do I want as a…?” This helps me to sort out feelings and thoughts. It helps me to prioritize. I can do more of what I want and less of what I don’t want.

What do I want as a player?

Interesting situations that I find emotionally engaging and mentally challenging.

A positive social experience that creates, maintains, or strengthens the relationship between the people I am playing with.

What do I want as a game master?

To have produced a thought provoking, emotionally charged experience for the players.

A positive social experience that creates, maintains, or strengthens the relationship between the people I am playing with.

What do I want as a designer?

To have produced a game or scenario that creates an excited anticipation in the game master who reads my work.

To have produced a game or scenario that helps the game master reliably produce a thought provoking emotional experience for their players. Achieve the experience anticipated by the game master.

A positive social interaction between game masters who use my ideas, games, and scenarios that creates, maintains, and strengthens relationships among those who participate in the classic adventure gaming hobby.