Articles from March 2011
Posted by Ravyn on March 21, 2011
I’ve had long arguments with at least one of my players/GMs about whether a scene that seems entirely to be small talk is worth it—and goodness knows I’ve heard plenty about conservation of detail, streamlining sessions, that sort of thing. So it came as a bit of a surprise when, twice in two weeks, I [...]
Categories: Characterization, Dialogue, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Mood, Player Advice, Scening, Technique, Voice and Style |
Tags: Characterization, idle conversation, roleplaying, writing | 
3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 20, 2011
Being a puppetmaster is fun. I’ve done it myself a time or two, and I know some blasted fine ones from my travels, but I’ve seen at least as many people try and fail. Somewhere in the process, they forget about their goals and start being more interested in establishing to everyone who will listen [...]
Categories: Generic Villain |
Tags: advice for antagonists, Generic Villain, manipulation, priorities, puppetmasters | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 19, 2011
A while ago, I talked about details that make antagonists, if not redeemable, then at least a little more tolerable. That’s something I’ve tried to put into practice a few times, to test out audience reactions myself.
First, there was Jalil, and to a similar extent his family. The man himself was something of an accident [...]
Categories: Impractical Applications |
Tags: antagonists, Esemeli, Impratical applications, Jalil, loose threads, redeemable, Solace, Zora | 2 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 18, 2011
Yesterday, I compared two Rapunzel adaptations, talking about the elements they shared with the story and each other (or in some cases, just with each other). But the most important part of differentiation is differences, so I’m going to look at some of the major ones between the two stories. There may be spoilers; read [...]
Categories: Concepts, For Writers, Reviews and technique, Technique, Voice and Style |
Tags: examples, fairy tale adaptations, styles, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 17, 2011
I’ve talked a lot about fairy tale adaptations this week; I’m sure I don’t need to say that I think being able to differentiate yours from the numerous other adaptations out there is one of the most important parts of the creation process. But how can you get a unique plot out of a story [...]
Categories: Concepts, For Writers, Reviews and technique, Technique, Voice and Style |
Tags: examples, fairy tale adaptations, styles, writing | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 16, 2011
Looking into writing a fairy tale adaptation? Here are four questions to consider when putting it all together.
What’s the same? Fairy tale adaptations are rather like utilizing canonical or otherwise pre-existing characters in a game; vary too much, and risk either people not recognizing the story or people calling story derailment. Fortunately, fairy tales and [...]
Categories: Concepts, For Writers, Technique, Voice and Style |
Tags: fairy tale adaptations, styles, writing | 5 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 15, 2011
There are many hazards to retelling a fairy tale—people figuring the subgenre is played out, accusations of laziness, the difficulty of satisfying people who liked that other adaptation better—but I think the most dangerous hazard is the possibility that the audience won’t connect to the original source material, and that as a result, the story [...]
Categories: Concepts, For Writers, Technique, Voice and Style |
Tags: fairy tale adaptations, styles, writing | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 14, 2011
Fairy tales are pretty ubiquitous, either in their original forms or, more often, in some sort of thematically altered form. My library’s juvenile nonfiction section alone has a shelf of them, and we keep tripping over ones that might have worked just as well shelved with them in the 398.2s but ended up in fiction [...]
Categories: Concepts, For Writers, Technique, Voice and Style |
Tags: fairy tale adaptations, styles, writing | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 13, 2011
Some of us, particularly ones who make a career out of running antagonism, really don’t know when to slow down. We keep to the hero’s schedule, even—perhaps especially—when the hero’s trying to take a breather. (Whether they happen to go where we need to work, or we’re trying to hound them so they can’t rest [...]
Categories: Generic Villain |
Tags: advice for antagonists, Generic Villain, taking a break | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 12, 2011
Here I have a wrap-up of the crowd-pleasers in my last game session, as drawn from the session logs. If something seems to appeal to an individual rather than the full group, I mark it with the character’s name. For context, the session in question involved the group trying to get the hang of driving [...]
Categories: Impractical Applications |
Tags: crowd-pleasers, impractical applications, loose threads, Nyree | 2 Comments »