Refilling the Well

Hey Stranger,

Pull up a chair. Sit awhile and maybe kick your shoes off. It's been a long stretch, your fingers are covered in nicks and glue, and maybe you could use a change of pace. Being engrossed by hobbies with lots of lore or interest points can be fun, and when you're in the thick of it you're probably having a blast learning about X crusade or Y rebellion or Z's campaign to the frozen city of N. 

There's a lot of imaginative material that goes into the games we love, but maybe after eating a codex or four it begins to feel like too much of the same flavor. All of their inspiration has to come from somewhere though, right?  Looking at the inspiration our games draw from, it's clear that games draw their fluff from somewhere outside themselves (unless they've got a black library to back them up,) so perhaps we too should look elsewhere when Refilling the Well.

The expression Refilling the Well is used to describe the practices one does to refuel when creatively drained or artist blocked, and it looks different for a lot of people. A trick one of my professors taught me was Puttering, where you procrastinate working with a chore that switches gears entirely. I usually switch to the dishes, or back to my illustration work when the bits aren't coming together the right way, but there's also listening to tunes, reading books or watching movies as the Grimdark Filmclub has done a great job of reminding us.

Here are a few things I've drawn from in this past month.

Christina Scholz's essay Sympathy for the Shoggoth 

Scholz's essay follows the evolution of the "indescribable horror" as popularized by Lovecraft, as it appears in different genre to different effect. The essay hones in on legitimizing of the themes and techniques of pulp predecessors, where they perspective can be shifted from xenophobic to empathized, and developing an understanding of otherness and relatability as is witnessed in the speculative fiction of China Mieville. 

Creepy Classic Dragons by Johnathan Wojcik

The image of the dragon we think of today is usually a majestic and venerable thing, but that's a fairly recent development as in days of old, European dragons were much more varied and verminous. Reminiscent of a Lore episode, it provides an interesting take how dragons are depicted across centuries of Western art, and how they've been cultural scapegoats for ailments and disharmony. While I wish this article explored outside of Europe, as many cultures across the globe have their own dragons, this is a great place to start if you're looking to investigate the meanings and metaphors behind such iconic creatures.

Jillian Weise's essay Common Cyborg

When we think of cyborgs we often think of the far flung future, but for many people alive today, they live those future lives already and they aren't nearly as chic or sleek as we originally thought, especially since opting into cyborgdom isn't a choice. While we've imagined utility and empowerment, those come at prices non-cyborg folk don't always consider. Accessibility, inclusion,  independence and financial stability are just some of the hurdles cyborgs face when trying to pass or function as a non-aug human. This article recontextualizes many of the misconceptions we've read or seen in science fiction, and examines the hypocrisy of the future we've been promised, built on the backs of the invisible cyborgs of today.

William T. Cox's Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods

19th century lumberjacks of the North Americas maintained an oral tradition of spinning yarns and spouting nonsense, and to our good fortune William T. Cox endeavored to make a bestiary to hold some of the wilder critters who made their narrative debuts in logging camps. This little tome has a vibe akin to some of the older Dnd modules, and usually provides anecdotal descriptions of the behaviors and abilities, more like a qualitative monster manual. This site actually contains several similar books to round out your comprehension of the "Dreaded Hodag" or the "Funeral Mountain Terrashot," so if you've a taste for the weird and the rustic why not chew on this for a bit?

Hopefully these have provided you with some sparks for your fire, or water for your well as it were. Since we've talked a bit about visibility, I feel like now's a great time to mention that this month has seen a boom in accessibility representation for roleplayers with releases for both wheelchair rules and wheelchair minis. Both are super cool and much needed, and hopefully setting a trend for continuing steps towards inclusivity in our hobby realms.

Thanks for stopping in! What sort of things do you do to refill your well? 

Put your recommendations in the comments so we can share the wealth!