Articles from May 2010
Posted by Ravyn on May 21, 2010
Yesterday, I talked about visual cues—simple parts of a character’s physical appearance that hint at her job, skills, background or other salient details. Most of us have a mess of visual cues trained into us, but when we’re creating worlds, what’s the fun in only using the kinds of cues we’re trained to see? Why [...]
Categories: Character image, Characterization, Characters in the world, Cultures, Description, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Technique, World-building |
Tags: Characterization, roleplaying, visual cues, World-building, writing | 
1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on May 20, 2010
The robe and wizard hat. Guns and black leather. White labcoats and peculiar equipment. Breeches, a nice jacket and a riding crop. A military uniform and a wide-brimmed hat with a chinstrap. A bag of dice and a backpack that makes one’s back hurt just looking at it. What do all of these have in [...]
Categories: Character archetypes, Character image, Characterization, Cliche, Description, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Technique |
Tags: Characterization, description, role-playing, visual cues, writing | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on May 19, 2010
We all know it’s a good idea to know, in general, what a character’s good and bad at, what she looks like, and what her personality’s like. Most games will let you get away with just that (all right, plus or minus a little backstory); most writing gives you a chance to fill in details [...]
Categories: Character creation, Characterization, Characters in the world, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Technique, World-building |
Tags: Characterization, research, role-playing, writing | 5 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on May 18, 2010
So you’ve got a world in which religions grow and flourish for a while, and then die down (usually, one of those places where the gods and the religions aren’t joined at the hip). And you have to wonder, just what happens to the gods of the religions that are left behind? Are they remembered [...]
Categories: Cultures, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Gods, Religion, World-building |
Tags: gods, religion, stories, succession, World-building | 2 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on May 17, 2010
It sometimes seems like a character’s name (or occasionally lack thereof) is one of her most important features; not only can it occasionally serve as a hint about the character’s purpose, background or abilities, but it’s also the fastest, most concise way to sum up a whole mess of qualities in as few syllables as [...]
Categories: Characterization, Characters in the world, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Language and Linguistics, Names, Player Advice, Technique, World-building |
Tags: emphasizing change, names, role-playing, slang, writing | 4 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on May 16, 2010
Last week, I talked about advantages to going in and infiltrating the protagonists’ organizations, travel-groups, social circles or other effective units. That’s not to say that there aren’t downsides; that kind of infiltration can endanger your life, your plans, and your standing as a Hand of Darkness, and even your image beyond the Wall.
So what [...]
Categories: Generic Villain |
Tags: cons, Generic Villain, infiltration | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on May 15, 2010
As you’ve probably guessed, conflict without combat is one of my favorite story elements to play with (probably in part because creating characters whose primary skills are in combat, and fight scenes in general, just don’t appeal to me. It’s hard for me to visualize them without going a little too over-the-top epic.)
I thought of [...]
Categories: Impractical Applications |
Tags: Aisling, conflict without combat, impractical applications, Lysha, Tuyet | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on May 14, 2010
Any time you’ve got two characters opposing each other, there’s bound to be some sort of conflict. How else do you reach a resolution? The thing is, most people think of conflict, and their thoughts immediately flit to physical conflict and the crash of weapon on shield. To quote Flanders and Swann’s Reluctant Cannibal, “Don’t [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Plot, Technique |
Tags: alternatives to combat, conflict, plot | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on May 13, 2010
I read a lot about perspective and alternate points of view, but reading it is never quite the same as living it. Today gave me a chance to experience one for a few minutes, to a minor extent. It was quite an education.
So what happened?
My trolley’s late, but the one I’m supposed to connect to [...]
Categories: The Real World |
Tags: perspective, real world, trolley incident | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on May 12, 2010
While yesterday’s writing exercise can say interesting things about a character, why stop at just one character waiting? One interesting way to extend the exercise is to, instead of looking at a single character sitting and marking time, look at a small group instead.
What’s a group waiting do for descriptive and characterization purposes that a [...]
Categories: Character dynamics, Characterization, Characters in the world, Exercises, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice |
Tags: character dynamics, characterization exercise, waiting | No Comments »