With the exception of those times where I need hiatus, my game is a constant; once a week, every week. Most of the others I’ve gotten involved in, though, haven’t been, or in some cases have involved very, VERY long gaps. How was I to avoid losing track of all those characters?
In most cases, I [...]
Categories: Impractical Applications |
Tags: gaps between games, impractical applications | 
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In my last two weeks, here’s what I’ve been reading.
It was my mother who turned me loose on Pen of Iron: American Prose and the King James Bible, an exploration of how the King James Edition of the Bible has influenced American writing and rhetoric ever since—or at least, a look at all sorts of [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, Inspiration, The Real World |
Tags: books, Inspiration, real world | 1 Comment »
Where have my ideas gone, I wonder? They were there when I was young, and could churn out a story, two hundred and change pages in my handwriting on college ruled paper with a .5 mechanical pencil, in about a school year. They were there when I was in college, and could sometimes run game [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, Inspiration |
Tags: freewriting, Inspiration, roleplaying, writing | 3 Comments »
I’ve seen plenty of arguments about the matter of random chance in an RPG. Some people love it, for the risk involved; some don’t, for the way it takes the power to resolve out of their hands. Some don’t like the way the die rolls interfere with their suspension of disbelief, some just plain love [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers |
Tags: chance, philosophy, roleplaying | No Comments »
While some groups can meet every week without much by way of variation, others aren’t that lucky. Some are closer to once a month; some are brief periods of together interspersed with long droughts of “you’re across the country, he has school too, I have work, this game only seems to work live, now what?”; [...]
Categories: Characterization, For Roleplayers, Player Advice, Tactics, The Real World |
Tags: gaps between games, real world, roleplaying | 3 Comments »
Power: along with sex, money, and occasionally elephants, it’s a common motivation for characters. But while it may take five letters to write, it takes a lot more work to define precisely; even characters who agree that they want power won’t necessarily agree what power is, let alone what (if anything) they want it for. [...]
Categories: Characterization, Exercises, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice |
Tags: Characterization, Exercises, roleplaying, writing | No Comments »
Remember how I talked about holidays, and how sometimes they really are downright inimical to our work? It’s like that. The air’s all joyified, the Management’s off singing, the minions are plotting candy heists, and I can’t get anything done. Forget this, I’m going clubbing.
But never let it be said that I let my loyal [...]
Categories: Generic Villain |
Tags: advice for antagonists, filler, Generic Villain, Lilith | 3 Comments »
Apropos of none of this week’s posts….
I hit burnout again this week. It’s hardly surprising; it was a busy week to begin with, the company’s got me on inspirational overdrive, I’ve been mostly inventing my own jobs in the library, and I wrote game into a situation where I couldn’t keep track of all the [...]
Categories: Impractical Applications |
Tags: chargen, impractical applications, suggestions | No Comments »
Some freewriting I did not long ago on the subject of heroism.
If I were to choose a type of heroism for myself, it would not be the kind that pounds into the near-ruins of a town on a white charger, or gets into pistol duels on dusty streets while the citizens hide behind doors and [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, Technique |
Tags: freewriting, heroism, roleplaying, writing | 5 Comments »
A picture paints a thousand words; a picture with context can say a lot about a game; but explanations of the random sketches of an artist-gamer can say the most of all. In this series, I look at the just-had-to-draw-them images distilled from my games: what they are, what they mean, why they demanded drawing, [...]
Categories: Tales from the Sketchbook |
Tags: loose threads, Solace, Tales from the Sketchbook | 1 Comment »