Articles from June 2009
Posted by Ravyn on June 30, 2009
One complaint people often have about bad writers is that they claim their characters are good at doing a certain thing or have a certain interest, but there’s next to no evidence in the text that it’s actually true. Characters who love books don’t seem to be any more literate [...]
Categories: Character image, Characterization, Characters in the world, Description, Dialogue, Exposition, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Technique |
Tags: original posts | 
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Posted by Ravyn on June 29, 2009
So, let’s talk about public opinion and politics. (And thanks to @TheGamerDome on Twitter, without whose interest I would never have gotten around to putting this in article format.)
I’ve been thinking about this one for a while; one of the hazards I’ve found in being on Twitter is the people [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, GM Advice, The Real World |
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Posted by Ravyn on June 28, 2009
Greetings! This is a public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood Generic Villain, particularly for the sneaks and manipulators all over the multiverse.
We’re all used to having an edge over our protagonistic opposition: dishonesty. We’re the ones who change the deal at the last second, or cheerfully inform them [...]
Categories: Generic Villain |
Tags: original posts | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on June 27, 2009
Earlier this week, I talked about arranging surprises for the GM. I’d had occasion to practice; this week, I got to arrange one such surprise in my primary game. Imagine, if you will, having to make an escape from a world that isn’t exactly your own, right under the nose [...]
Categories: Impractical Applications |
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Posted by Ravyn on June 26, 2009
I got a lot more of a response than I expected from my riff on people with hostile or abrasive character concepts, so I think it’s important to clarify; a little conflict isn’t too bad a thing. It’s just how the conflict’s played out that can make a lot of [...]
Categories: Character archetypes, Character dynamics, Characterization, For Roleplayers, Player Advice |
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Posted by Ravyn on June 25, 2009
Into every gaming group, a jerk tends to fall. I don’t necessarily mean the players, though it’s been hard to avoid those too. But I’m hard put to it to think of even one game I’ve been in that has not at some point had a PC (not necessarily a [...]
Categories: Character archetypes, Character dynamics, Characterization, For Roleplayers, Player Advice |
Tags: original posts | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on June 24, 2009
Surprises mean many things to many GMs. For some, it’s a way to see the unbridled creativity of the players, or an extra layer in the running competition between the two. For others, usually the more methodical planners, a surprise is just another wrench in the gears, and as [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, Player Advice |
Tags: original posts | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on June 23, 2009
People who have hung around me long enough are probably aware that I’m not fond of binaries. I like my game-morality gray, consider my view of gender to be more complex than just masculine vs. feminine, and my usual stance in the inevitable religion-science debates is “This is not [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, The Real World |
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Posted by Ravyn on June 22, 2009
Many characters are in some way products of their circumstances. Sometimes it was a long-running thing, being brought a certain way by their families or their culture, or adapting to an aspect of their surroundings. Other times it was one or more incidents—sometimes traumatic, sometimes not—that pushed them in [...]
Categories: Backstory, Character development, Characterization, Characters in the world, Exercises, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice |
Tags: original posts | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on June 21, 2009
For a lot of us, it’s all about the villain-cred. Sure, we don’t kick puppies or engage in overdone isms just so we can demonstrate ourselves as eeeeeeeevil, we aren’t necessarily mustache-twirlers or cape-slingers or the like—but that’s not because we’re not trying to make a proper appearance as [...]
Categories: Generic Villain |
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