The Creativity Aspiration of Elthos RPG

“Creativity; the use of imagination or original ideas to create something.”

On the Benefits of Creativity

Many people don’t believe they are Creative, but my own view is that everyone has Creativity in their genes as human beings. But many people, especially in times of stress and uncertainty, turn off their creativity and shut down. I feel this is a critical mistake people make with themselves, and in fact they should do the opposite. Exercising your creativity is enormously beneficial in many ways.

People don’t often consider that creativity has a wide array of benefits. The health benefits include: Mood Elevation, Alleviates Anxiety, Boosts Brian Function, Prevents Disease, and Increases Immune Health. (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320947.php#1)
Additional benefits of creativity include, instilling a sense of personal freedom, self-awareness and expression, faith and confidence in our instincts, stress relief, and problem solving. Creativity also enhances our ability to communicate and our sociability. There are so many benefits to Creativity, it’s difficult to understand why some people refuse to allow themselves that pleasure.

What causes people to decide they are not creative?

This is something that has always puzzled me. Creativity seems like a very natural thing. You see children exercising a great deal of creativity in the games they play, and how they think. Whether they are playing games with toys, or drawing, or just running around hiding behind furniture, there’s a lot going on in their little brains. A lot of imagination. Here comes the dragon! I’ve just crash landed my spaceship on a desert world! The Orcs have just come around the bend! It’s all imagination, and it’s great stuff. They are having an enormous amount of fun in their minds.

But somewhere along the line, people decide that they aren’t creative, and they stop using their spontaneous imagination. No more dragons. No more space ships. No more Orcs. And by the time you ask them, “So, do you do art?” the stock answer is, “Oh no way. I can’t do art.”

But really, what happened to them? I will tell you. They lost confidence in themselves. Their faith in their own creative imagination was somehow broken. Somewhere along the line, perhaps someone said something like, “Oh that drawing is awful”. Ridicule, often in the forgotten past, is often the culprit. Crushed by the criticism, they stopped trying to create. “Oh I can’t do art”. They’ve turned off their creative engine. It’s not a good thing.

What dampens creativity?

Some people, fortunately, remain creative all the way into their adult lives. But the modern world is full of stress. We are all in a rush. We are constantly trying to get everything done within ever tighter time slots. The technologies that promised us liberation, instead have given us prying eyes, time consuming flaws, and all kinds of expectations from others that we can do miracles, when the fact is, we’re still just ordinary human beings. Many times the Great Technological Liberation fails us. This situation creates a good deal of stress on us. And stress makes people feel rushed and vulnerable. And this feeling tires people out and tends to sap people of their Creative Inspiration. Consequently, Creativity takes a hit. This isn't a good thing, either.

How does Elthos RPG aspire to help people spark their Creativity?

I conceived of the Elthos RPG and the Mythos Machine to help people explore their own Creative minds. It is a role playing game framework, and web application that assists RPG World Creators in creating new Worlds and managing their Games, and sharing those Creative endeavors with others. World building is one of the most Creative activities you can do. Depending on how deep you want to go with it, World Building can incorporate a wide array of disciplines, such as history, biology, sociology, archaeology, physics, game theory, and many more. And Role Playing Games add on top of that a large number of wonderful Creative activities as well. It is story telling supreme where every player participates in the Creative process. Improvisational Theater, Strategy, Game Play... It is a wonderful social activity that brings friends together to create and play Characters in imaginary Worlds of the Gamemaster's invention. It is one of the most fun and entertaining things you can do with your time. I want to help people find their Creative Spark, and grow that flame within themselves. That’s my ultimate goal for the Elthos RPG and Mythos Machine. The degree to which Elthos is able to help people do this, is the degree to which the project will be successful. That is my aspiration.

Elthos RPG - Aspire to Inspire