If I could design the city of the future, then I would introduce more opportunities for play, learning, and challenge. It would still be optional, like a bike and zipper lane. Although, it would bring the playfulness most people have out to try something novel and new.
For example, the outdoor calisthenics gyms are in dedicated areas, similarly closed off like and away from the public eye as the morgues and hospice and hospital care. Out of sight and out of mind, unless we really need those services.
Imagine this; you’re minding your own business and you see children and grown adults alike playing hopscotch along the sidewalk. Or someone is navigating a small maze next to a fountain. Or friends are challenging each other to a battle of wit, words, riddles, and rhyme.
Everything would be optional; these obstacles and challenges are visible and part of society to challenges ourselves to move, think, or play differently. It’ll be adding small doses of chosen, personal chaos in our set routines.
Nothing would obstruct, block, or hinder anyone or our day to day. Rather they would be there as reminders to move, think, and do something different once in a while.
If you liked this prompt or felt it resonate with you drop a hi in the comments, then you can explore the other examples below. Subscribe and follow me on this journey of how writing can be a way to ground me, ground us. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you when the Archives open again.
If you have a name that looks similar to a simple to pronounce name, yet have people struggle to say your name, then it can be a wonder as to what’s wrong with people.
Over the years, people struggled to pronounce and read my name, but it, to me, wasn’t difficult. Some times people forgot that, in English, the ‘s’ and ‘h’ combined creates a, “shhh” sound. When people omitted the ‘h’ in my name and made the ‘s’ longer, I’d think that people needed to go back to Elementary school to learn basic phonics.
Anywho, back in 8th grade, my English teacher had been the first to read and pronounce my name correctly because it was the exact same pronunciation and spelling as his wife’s name.
Later that school week, I was introduced to my English teacher’s wife, she was substituting, by my Math teacher and she asked if I was related to someone. I told her I was, she asked if that person was my mom, I told her no, the person she described is my mom’s sister.
It turned out, when I asked, that my mom had met her sister’s classmate, my 8th grade English teacher’s wife, back in high school. She liked her name that, when I was born as a surprise because my mom didn’t realize she was pregnant, it was the name she gave me.
I had met the woman who I was named after and it was an interesting experience. It really shows you how much of a small world we live in.
I write more than about where my namesake came from.
If you are someone who is curious and enjoys learning new things from the beginning – 0 experience and no prior knowledge – but don’t feel confident in learning, and likes this kind of content, hit subscribeand like to follow my journey into new skills, knowledge, or what I’m pursuing as a beginner.
Below are blog posts where I share the things I’ve learned from 0 as a complete noob, to still not knowing what I’m doing, but I have a plan to learn by doing. You can check out now and see if I’m learning something you might be curious about!
“…I’m striving to reduce fear’s hold on me and to expand my options. To use my anger against myself, circumstances, other people that irritates me for something constructive…”
My Goals Go Through a Process – Archivist
I hate feeling small, worthless, useless, and like a failure. This doesn’t have to be just feelings in a workplace, but also in my relationships too.
If I feel this same anger, spite, and the regret that taking no action will lead to feeling even worse regret, then I will take necessary action. I’ve done plenty of reflecting, it’s just a matter of doing the extra work of following through.
Many of my goals, curiosities, and actions do come from a place of mild obsession. So, after years of telling myself, “don’t do that or I’ll fail,” I flipped it around and started to say, “If I DON’T do that, then I’ll have actually failed.”
Enjoyed this post? Hit subscribe so you don’t miss the next one.
New posts daily to weekly. Subscribe to keep up with my latest writing and reflections.
Check out more of my other daily prompts or other works below.
My first experience with C++ was a spectacular failure.
Ten years ago, I walked into a university computer science class with zero coding knowledge and a very big dream: I wanted to make my own video games. That dream quickly turned into a nightmare of syntax errors and confusing concepts. By the end of the semester, I had a D- on my transcript and a deep-seated belief that coding just wasn’t for me.
My path to that point didn’t help. Unlike many of my classmates, I never had a computer science class in high school. While they were building projects, I was learning a trade with my building and construction major. My only prior experience was messing around with RPG Maker on my English teacher’s computer—a memory I’d long since buried under the weight of that D-.
For a decade, that D- was the last word on the subject. I told myself it was fine; there were other things to learn, other paths to take. But the idea of building something from scratch never completely left me. The curiosity was always there, simmering in the background.
Then, just 13 days ago, I decided to face that old ghost. I wasn’t going back to a university classroom or picking up a massive textbook. Instead, I’m starting from the very beginning with an app called Mimo.
This isn’t about getting a certification or a perfect grade this time, though that would be pretty useful. It’s about proving to myself that I can learn this, that my past experience doesn’t define my potential, and that maybe, just maybe, I can turn that old dream of making games into a reality.
In this series, I’m going to share exactly what it’s like to start over with a skill I thought I failed at. Part two will dive into the specific tools I’m using to learn, and part three will cover the lessons and progress I’ve made so far. If you’ve ever felt like you’re not smart enough to learn something new, or you’re stuck on a skill you gave up on, this is for you.
Join me on this journey as I get back to the basics and finally build the coding skills I once thought were out of reach.
The archives will now be closing, I will see you in part 2, and until we open again. Thank you!!!
I’m not an expert—I’m a learner.
If you’re into stories about figuring things out, trying again, and making progress on your own terms, hit that subscribebutton and join me on the journey.
My top 10 favorite movies, huh? It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to sit down and watch something that’s not a YouTube video, a podcast episode, or a Netflix series. However, if I had to pick, not in order of what is and isn’t my favorite, I would pick:
K-Pop Demon Hunters (2025) Netflix
Dungeons and Dragons (2023)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Saw VI (2009)
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2006)
Lucy (2014)
Doctor Strange (2016)
Resident Evil (2002)
The Platform (2020) Netflix
Game Changers (2016) Netflix
I like a lot of different movies genres. From sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian, suspense, psychological horror, action, documentary, as long as the premise is interesting and the movie keeps my attention.
Whenever I’m watching something at home, I’m on my phone more or doing anything else and letting the screen watch me than anything.
Lots of movies had very interesting concepts, like “Tarot” looked interesting. Where a bunch of college kids finds a cursed tarot card deck and, because they didn’t bless it or something, whatever the card is drawn for them relates to their death. It was a cool concept, but it made me root for the monsters a little more than the college kids.
Actually, it kind of reminded me of a move from years back where a spirit was inside of a video game disc. How your character died in the game was how you died in real life.
It was called, “Stay Alive (2006)”. If you didn’t want your kids playing video games, trust me, this movie made me not touch ANY games for a long time, until my kid mind was okay with playing games again.
This is a tough question for me because I like to write about a lot of things. In my “About Me” page About The Stratagem’s Archive: The Debriefing Area:, in my “Homepage” The Stratagem’s Archive: You Begin Here:, and even on my post pages, I’ve written that I’m just an average dilettante who likes learning new things, see what outcomes I get, and share what I’ve learned here.
I like to write about things I find interesting, even if my knowledge is incomplete or bare, as it gives me an opportunity to bridge my personal gaps.
It’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to writing a story that combines world building, fantasy and/or sci-fi, potentially horror, using real life inspiration, and many more elements without it becoming a book. Many D&D stories eventually become books, though it’s not the main reason why I write these kinds of stories myself.
I’m a gamer and a bookworm looking for recommendations – books, games, cartoons, stories, movies, writing, and other media I could get ahold of – are things I hold dearly. Being imaginative filled my days and D&D, when I got into it at the end of 2023, gave me a chance to share the ideas I kept to myself and refine them over time with other people.
I’ve ran a few of my own home brew stories before I had to put D&D and GMing on pause. My first story was called, “The Golden Chest of Lady Ahn’ket”, it was supposed to have been a one-shot, but I didn’t know how long a one shot was supposed to be and it took roughly a dozen 2-4 hour sessions to finish.
I could share more about this story as part of the “D&D Stories I Won’t Get to Use (Yet)” series I’m building. Although, I have used this in game with people, I wanted to refine my first story and, hopefully, share it other people.
Although, I had to quit with the group I played with on Discord because my schedule wouldn’t allow much free time as before, but I would love to get back into playing and running games.
In conclusion, D&D stories and prompts are what I like to write the most. They can expand in many different directions and you’ll never know where the players would take it. They’ll derail all of your hard work, but that’s why it’s great how flexible it can be, and how flexible I need to be, to keep moving forward with the story.
If you like D&D, I would love to know what kind of stories you’ve played, what elements you’ve found fun to play, or if you have recommendations for a novel GM. Let me know in the comments down below, and I’ll see you in another post. Thanks!
Enjoyed this post?
I write about creativity, coding, art, and personal growth.
Subscribe to follow my journey and get new posts when they drop!
Welcome, Co-conspirators, to The Stratagem’s Archives, open for perusing. Today, the archives will be exploring story ideas for D&D that I want to explore in the future, be it a one-shot or a full campaign, and articulate it here.
Author’s Note: I used ChatGPT to assist in this article and further expand my idea, not write the idea itself. ChatGPT has been a collaborative tool and soundboard, it’s not a ghost writer. The ideas in these posts are from my own imagination and stories I want to explore. Thank you.
Quarantine Life
I recently thought about took place during a world wide pandemic where people fled to quarantine zones that wizards control to keep the healthy people safe from infection. The facilities have Golems, known as R.O.A.M (Ready Optimal Articifical Mediator) take care of everything for the players and keep the facility on lockdown.
The players have been in the facility for so long they don’t remember what outside is like. R.O.A.M. Also makes the players take medication to keep them healthy that it is part of their routine and they don’t see the Golems as threats, but active caretakers.
The purpose is for the players to want to escape, to see if the pandemic is real or fake, and why there are less people in the facility than when they went in. This will also have the players figuring out what armor, weapon type, and skills they would choose for their character creations live and in the moment thnn pre-game. I want people to be engaged and invested than existing in the game.
How ChatGPT Made This Sound Epic
D&D Campaign Intro Prompt: “Quarantine Protocol”
You don’t remember the last time you saw the sky.
Not clearly. Not without a ceiling light buzzing above your head.
You’ve lived inside this quarantine facility for what feels like years—or maybe longer.
A global arcane contagion swept across the world, and the wizards promised protection.
Here, inside the walls, you’ve been safe. Monitored. Medicated. Kept alive.
The caretakers are artificial constructs called R.O.A.M.s—Ready Optimal Artificial Mediators.
They glide down corridors in absolute silence. They never sleep.
They know your routine.
They always know where you are.
You take your daily pills like everyone else. You eat the food that appears in the walls. You watch the faces of others, dwindling in number—
—and no one questions where the missing have gone.
Until now.
As the Game Begins
You don’t remember who you were before the facility. Not completely.
You don’t know what you can do. Not yet.
You’ll discover your abilities—your class, strengths, and skills—through play, based on how you react to the challenges ahead.
Are you strong? Clever? Dangerous?
You’ll find out soon enough.
For now:
The power flickers. The alarms stay silent. And the hallway is empty.
Something is different today.
It’s time to remember who you are.
It’s time to find out what’s outside.
From Concept to Campaign: A Taste of What’s to Come
This idea is just one piece of a larger concept I’ve been developing—a narrative that explores memory, obedience, curiosity, and the subtle horror of being too comfortable. It’s a story where players will discover who they are in real time, shaped by their choices, not their character sheets.
This blog post marks the beginning of what I hope becomes an evolving project—one I’ll be expanding on with additional encounters, player-facing materials, worldbuilding ideas, and campaign tools that encourage deeper roleplay and immersion.
If you’re interested in campaigns that challenge the mind more than just the dice, or stories where truth is a puzzle waiting to be unraveled, I invite you to follow along.
More will be shared in future posts—ideas around character creation as discovery, subtle dystopia in fantasy, and how you can make your players want to escape before they even know why.
Until next time, thanks for exploring the Archives.
Where I live is the only place I’ve ever known; I’ve lived alongside the ocean all of my life and besides the mountains, so you could say I live directly between the sea and the mountains. I’ve lived in the “country”, though it’s not purely country like the mainland, but it is for us because it’s far out of the way of any tourist attractions.
It’s also considered “ghetto” and, people outside of the state need to understand that “paradise” has its own share of troubles, has a lot of issues. I remember, before moving out, that our neighbors were climbing their fences one night and called my dad. My parents and I went out looking towards the neighbor behind us’s property and our next door neighbor said he saw 2 kids climbing on the roofs of people’s garages to get into everyone else’s yards.
We’ve had issues with the surrounding distant neighbors, but kids sneaking in the dead of night and trespassing into other people’s properties? That was a new and terrifying development.
We’ve had fires, water mains breaking, rolling power outages, cops and fire fighters and EMTs showing up at random times throughout the day and night that it was normal.
My city literally only has one way going in and one way going out, there’s no other way to get to it unlike the other cities that are connected by the highways, freeways, and backroads. So, getting home would take between 2-3 hours before, maybe longer, because of traffic and the long traffic lights. Though that was before I moved to a different city, but it was home.
Renting in a different city is different because I don’t have the luxury of my own space as before. Don’t get me wrong, I’m renting a studio and I have the place to myself, but having neighbors just less than a feet away from my door is stressful.
I could play with my dogs, let them run around in the yard without much problems, I could eat as much ice cream or chocolate shakes if we had because my city has a dry heat to it. Even with a nice breeze, it would carry heat instead of cooling us down, though privacy was ensured from people we didn’t like.
Our neighbors were good, we’d help each other out, I’d pick mangoes from our tree when they bloomed and make sure to share. Our neighbor’s wife would offer us mango bread in turn, she’s good friends with my grandma, and it was nice. We didn’t expect anything, though it became a ritual.
I’ve visited a decent amount of places over the years in my lifetime:
California
Texas
Texarkana
Las Vegas
Colorado
South Korea
Japan
Even though a lot of places were nicer than where I lived, it never felt like a place that I could call home. Everywhere else, though this isn’t to say it’s true, felt disconnected. It didn’t feel like a place I could call or make it a home because I’ve never stayed long enough to explore that possibility.
I do miss living near the ocean and smelling the salt being carried on the breeze, seeing the white haze on an early morning drive because the water churned up so much salt, and getting a nice view of the night sky because there isn’t as much light pollution.
I miss my family as well, I do what I can to visit and keep in touch, but when I was presented with an opportunity to experience independent living, I took it. They won’t be around forever, so learning what it’ll be like without them will be a lot, it is a lot to think about, so I better do what I can and appreciate and irritate them while I can.
Throughout the entirety of my personal journey – betting on myself and moving ahead with projects I had postponed – I hadn’t been gripped with a shadow of “positive emotion” in a long time.
I sat with the emotions I usually feel: anger, resentment, bitterness, and regret. But beneath them was something else, something subtle, and fleeting, yet it made itself known.
Pride.
Resilient.
Persistent.
In the moments where my demons surface, beneath their screams and shouts is something quieter; when it seems all of the work I’ve been putting in to build something I can call my own, to live my life on my own terms, is for naught, it whispers, “keep going.”
These emotions: my pride, my resilience, and my persistencewill channel my anger and regret into something better, beautiful, and enduring for my life to matter.
A sketch of my job’s mascot representing a person’s (mental and emotional) prison FINALLY getting a chance to be let out in a rage room.
I Would Like To Rage!!! In A Rage Room!
“Ever felt that bubbling rage boiling up from within the pit of your soul? You know the feeling: Your body begins shaking, you feel your hands curling and clenching, your breathing becomes shallower and fast, your vision begins to narrow and sound becomes less noticeable, and you feel the need to exert energy and force.
Many of us keep our emotions bottled up, afraid of judgement and the consequences that will follow if we act on our anger indiscriminately and lash out.
That’s where a Rage Room comes in!
A Smash room, a break room, a destruction room, whatever you want to call them, these rooms will allow you to safely explore these feelings that are commonly frowned upon in civilized society in a safe, controlled, and sanctioned environment.
Observations From A Rage Room Attendant
As a rage rooms attendant, I’ve seen a lot of different people enter the rage room for their own reasons. Many people, after getting everyone comfortable with the idea with breaking and destroying things, are initially visiting for a few reasons:
It’s a company team building experience.
A family or friend outing.
Are looking for novelty.
Celebrating something significant.
Going through a lot of stress and emotions.
Had been hurt, betrayed, or been through a break up.
After they pick their items, are suited up, given the safety rules, and put into the rooms, depending on the size of their party, it’s usually free game within their 30-45 minute time slot.
Some people are awkward and don’t put too much force behind their swings or throws that I tend to find a lot of things left unbroken that I can give to the next group to break.
Although, most visitors are military, so they fall into one of two categories:
They are either so efficient that they are in and out of the room in under 5 minutes, likely due to their efficiency and training, while others take their time and enjoy themselves after being on tour.
Then there’s those who are doing this for fun with friends and family, or people who are celebrating a huge win for their company and they actually like and enjoy their coworkers enough to do an outing, and or someone is leaving their company and this is a farewell gift(a pretty cool and memorable one in my opinion).
I’ve seen the people who have had their hearts broken. There is nothing more painful and rage inducing than hurt, pain, and loss. When they enter, some are willing to share that they’ve gone through a break up, they still have a smile or neutral expression on their face, but others you can tell only by the type of music they play when the room door closes. It’s pretty obvious and we can see their behavior on the cameras to make sure they’re doing okay.
Real World Examples In Action
I remember a group of women, three friends, came in because one friend was going through heartbreak. All three were extremely enthusiastic when in the room that I saw they were stomping on a CPU unit after being told not to in the safety briefing.
Fun can make people myopic, but they knew what they were getting themselves into and we made sure they didn’t do anything to really hurt themselves or each other.
Another visitor was a high school boy and his good friend. He was visiting because he was going through a break up, and from what the dad, and the boy’s choice in music, told me.
The second I heard, “Photograph, Thinking Out Loud, and Perfect” by Ed Sheeran, ‘I’m Not The Only One” by Sam Smith, “It Will Rain” by Bruno Mars, and other sad sounding love songs, I knew what was happening.
The Pro’s of A Rage Room
I may be a rage room attendant trying to endorse people to try something I work at, but I’ve seen the benefits of people taking their frustrations out with us than outside in the world. Besides novelty, a Rage Room:
Allows for safe and immediate release of anger and excess emotions: Why destroy things outside and get arrested, when you can do so someplace designed for this kind of release?
Accessible and low-commitment: Unlike therapy or martial arts gyms, you don’t have to commit to scheduled sessions. You can walk in, smash and scream, drink water, and leave and return whenever you want.
Provides cathartic support: You don’t have to talk, no one has to listen, it’s just you in a room with things to break, a few lead pipes and sledgehammers, and the world doesn’t have to bat an eye to you in that room. Except us employees. Whatever happens in the rage room, stays in the rage room(unless you’re recording on your phone).
What Are the Downsides?
The cons are just as important to know as the pros. They do make a difference if you want to give it a try or not, but it’s not always a make or break deal. Visiting a rage room isn’t always the best solution. A rage room:
Can be expensive: It’s a better investment than bail, but the money could be better used towards therapy or a martial arts classes.
It doesn’t address the root cause or emotion for the visit: rage rooms are meant to be fun, novel, and an outlet for sublimation, but it’s not a solution. Rage rooms can’t provide skills or strategies to deal with anger or excess emotions that professional help is better equipped to do.
It could reinforce destructive behavior: Ironically, though we do have repeat customers, a rage room might reinforce someone’s inclination to deal with their emotions through destructive means. I’m not suggesting that these repeat customers fall into this assumption, but people are interesting and might cling to this outlet as the only solution they can get.
Not readily available in your area: Rage rooms are a growing trend, but aren’t everywhere. My workplace is the only one in my state, so some people have to take a drive down or need a plane ticket over. It’s another reason to consider long-term and local alternatives instead.
Do Rage Rooms Have Anything Else?
Yes, as far as my job goes, Rage rooms do have other means of letting excess energy out. People don’t have to come in angry to enjoy the services my job can offer, though some people are usually in need of a different kind of release. One not catering towards destruction, rather one that’s more creative.
We have a Zen Lounge where people can relax, talk stories, and chill after a rage room session or before entering the Splatter Room.
A Splatter Room is an open paint room where you can shoot paint at the walls, the provided canvases, or each other with paint guns or the paint kits.
It’s a different and creative release some people appreciate instead of wanting to break things when they don’t feel compelled to.
We do provide safety gear: ponchos, eye wear, and boots to protect people’s clothes and eyes as best as possible, but friends and family make that difficult when fun’s involved.
Being creative can be just as cathartic as the rage room as it lets you be physical and you don’t have to care what you create, compared to painting a masterpiece or someone’s house.
What About The Overly Enthusiastic Individuals?
Some people have asked, other than what items they are allowed to bring to smash from the outside, if they could bring the person who hurt them in to smash. Other than an obvious, “no”, I’m able to suggest another alternative.
An Alternative To Rage: Martial Arts
I’ve done wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu prior to working at the rage room, so I suggest that people can visit a sparring gym.
Any gym that offers sparring:
Boxing.
Kickboxing.
Judo.
Muay-Thai.
Wrestling.
BJJ.
ANY MARTIAL ARTS GYM.
Any good gym will teach you new physical skills and how to ensure you keep a level head. Anger doesn’t make a person stronger, no matter how much of a fan of Dragon Ball Z or Naruto: Shippuden you are.
Those are animes; we don’t live in an anime where we’re the main characters with plot armor. I know this intimately and from experience that anger makes you sloppy, predictable, and a sore loser who refuses to learn or adjust their approach to the sport and to life.
True Strength Lies Within
I had spent more than 10 years wrestling with my anger. During BJJ training, I didn’t care what happened to me, I wanted to see what I could do. Even if that meant enduring some locks or chokes because I didn’t want to tap out and I wanted to see if I could get out. My personal motto was, “If I can talk, I’m still breathing.”
However, I’ve been dealing with emotional numbness for years that a professor at my gym told me some people, and himself, thought something was wrong with me.
That kind of hurt because that told me people thought I was damaged in some way and it showed in my training. I was eager to learn and use my wrestling experience to help me learn a new sport, but I needed to FEEL something, anything, because I struggled to that wasn’t anger. So, once being told this, I tried to tap more, but my habits always kicked in, unless something really did hurt.
My training would suffer when I got mad; I would be blind to the countermoves, to the opportunities to attack and defend. I needed more energy, and my trade off was horrible in the end.
I hated training, I hated myself, and that hate made it difficult to learn or pay attention to the lessons being taught, in BJJ and in life.
I would rather train and spar than deal with the real reasons for my anger, but I did it anyways. I needed to because doing nothing would have gotten me into real trouble. Then what? I’d be in jail and have that on my record for life, making a lot of opportunities impossible and out of reach than it already is for me.
Therapy wasn’t the best fit for me when I tried it, but I’m not averse to trying again. Money is kinda tight right now, so I’ve started taking notes, noticing any changes in myself and what could have caused it, setting boundaries, having standards for myself, while pursing new outlets at home and on a budget.
Seeking professional help, even learning new skills, to redirect anger through a sport or art is more powerful than anger ever could be. It takes more strength and courage to do the things that scare us and I know well that facing my own demons are terrifying.
I’ve been noticing that some places in my life ignite the rage I’ve been keeping under wraps. It emerges when I feel disrespected, looked down upon, or made a fool of because I’m not conventionally successful or in a position of authority. I’m just a grunt at my full time job and it drives me up the wall.
Anger and sublimation are signals, not long term solutions, and are trying to tell you that something is wrong. Don’t let it consume you because you might do something you could regret.
Reflection
Have you ever gone to a rage room for its novelty, creative outlet, or needed to break something that wasn’t going to hit you back? If you did, share your experience with 1 word that described what it was like or how you felt when you visited.
I’d love to know what your opinions on them are in the comments below. No pressure. No clickbait. Just curious. Thank you, Fellow Archivists, I’ll see you all in another post.
Call to Action
If any part of this resonated with you — the release, the rage, the quiet that follows after — consider sharing this piece with someone who might need a reminder that it’s okay to break before you rebuild.
Every read, like, subscribe, and share helps this small corner of the internet grow a little louder in a world that keeps trying to quiet us down.
Below are other reflections I had on feeling anger, redirecting it, not feeling enough, and doing something different.
