Articles from July 2009
Posted by Ravyn on July 31, 2009
When I was first hired on, I’m not sure what I was imagining a military base library to be, but I didn’t expect the interesting range of similarities and differences to public libraries that mine had. And between the fact that not everyone who reads this is going to have seen a military library, and [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Observations from Work, Places, Scening, The Library, The Real World, World-building |
Tags: original posts | 
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Posted by Ravyn on July 30, 2009
Do you want a way of explaining where characters acquired or could acquire knowledge without having to worry about where they keep the books? A point of contact for academics, with each other or possibly even with everyone else? A way to make sure that knowledge in your setting, be it facts or stories or [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Observations from Work, Places, The Library, World-building |
Tags: original posts | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on July 29, 2009
Imagine you’re reading a story about a group of people. They’ve been traveling for a while, gotten themselves into and out of loads of trouble, and in general been through just about everything together. Then someone comes upon them, refers to one of them by name before they’ve even been introduced, and in subsequent conversations [...]
Categories: Exposition, For Roleplayers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Technique |
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Posted by Ravyn on July 28, 2009
A new player joining a pre-existing group requires two elements: the group and the player. Duh. Yesterday I discussed how the player can adapt to the group, but it can’t be just her job; today I’m going to talk about what the group can do for the player.
First: provide a welcoming atmosphere. You may not [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, Player Advice |
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Posted by Ravyn on July 27, 2009
It’s pretty common for a group to acquire a new player in mid-story; maybe the group’s been whittled down too much and needs to get back up to their old numbers, or the new player’s old game dried up and the GM figured they needed somewhere to play, or a hefty portion of the group [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, Player Advice |
Tags: original posts | 2 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on July 26, 2009
You often see these little nuisances hanging around the protagonists. They’re characterized by being engaging underdogs—usually small and cute, but sometimes just lesser in power or Narrative Vitality than the protagonists themselves and somewhat more personable. (Given what angstballs today’s heroes are, though, that’s not hard.) They’re likely to have odd speech patterns, or compulsive [...]
Categories: Generic Villain |
Tags: original posts | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on July 25, 2009
Inspiration style synergy is all very interesting, but I haven’t touched so much on how it works as that it works. On the other hand, I’ve been fortunate enough to be in a group that’s practically powered by it.
The primary group I play in currently has four members, counting the GM, though we’ve had more [...]
Categories: Impractical Applications |
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Posted by Ravyn on July 24, 2009
I’ve talked before about how the creative process doesn’t need to exist in a vacuum, and can in fact benefit from collaboration with other people. Inspiration style—particularly knowing the form of inspiration, be it expansionist, mechanist or conceptualist—can help by letting you figure out whose skills and approaches are likeliest to complement yours.
In all cases, [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, Inspiration, Inspiration Styles |
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Posted by Ravyn on July 23, 2009
Yesterday, I talked about inspiration styles, and Michael asked, “How do I tell what my inspiration style is?” So I thought I’d share a bit on how my process works.
I usually begin with form, as that’s the easiest to sort into one category or another, and certainly the easiest to find within myself. Think about [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Inspiration, Inspiration Styles |
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Posted by Ravyn on July 22, 2009
We all know ideas come to different people differently, and all have some idea what sorts of things tend to trigger us, whether it’s reading or music, thinking about the problem or working on something else to let the subconscious take over, or any of a number of other inspiration tricks. But we don’t often [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Inspiration Styles |
Tags: original posts | 4 Comments »