Posts belonging to Category Character dynamics
Posted by Ravyn on February 12, 2013
I talked yesterday about mutually dependent characterization, ending my riff with the idea that there are, in fact, risks as well as advantages to it. But what are they?
The first is utterly inseparable characterization. This most often happens when characters are designed as a set, rather than growing together naturally—they become so much of a [...]
Categories: Character dynamics, Characterization, Characters in the world, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice |
Tags: character dynamics, Characterization, mutually dependent characterization, roleplaying, writing | 
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Posted by Ravyn on February 11, 2013
Sometimes, you get characters who are, for lack of a better term, inseparable. Not in the physical sense, mind. They don’t always need to be in the same place at the same time—yes, they can be joined at the hip, but where’s the fun in that? No, this sort of inseparability is a result of [...]
Categories: Character dynamics, Characterization, Characters in the world, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice |
Tags: character dynamics, Characterization, mutually dependent characterization, roleplaying, writing | 4 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on October 22, 2012
This one was originally suggested to me by Shinali, though I’ve elaborated on it a bit.
For this characterization exercise, you’ll need two characters who, if they were to run into each other in most contexts, would be at each other’s throats—physically, verbally, or otherwise. They don’t necessarily have to be from the same world, but [...]
Categories: Character dynamics, Characterization, Exercises, For Roleplayers, For Writers |
Tags: characterization exercise, enemies, roleplaying, social restraint, writing | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on September 18, 2012
Yesterday, I talked about how almost everyone will look at a character’s job and decide that it’s easier than it actually is, including the character doing the job. Today, I’m going to talk about why that should matter to us, particularly to those of us who write rather than tabletopping.
The first, of course, is characterization—figuring [...]
Categories: Character dynamics, Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, Observations from Work, Plot, Technique, The Library, World-building |
Tags: Characterization, Observations from Work, perceptions of jobs, plot, World-building | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on September 17, 2012
Not too long ago, I had what felt like the same conversation twice in a span of about twenty-four hours. One day, on my commute home, I found myself talking to a fellow trolley rider who knew what my occupation was, didn’t quite get why I “needed to go to school for that”…. and then, [...]
Categories: Character dynamics, Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, Observations from Work, The Library |
Tags: Characterization, Observations from Work, perceptions of jobs, World-building | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on July 24, 2012
On the one hand, I’m rather fond of messed-up social dynamics and mindscrewy plots and behaviors, in my fiction and sometimes even in my gaming (when done well): they’re interesting reading, they show me a part of human nature that I really don’t want to deal with face to face but do think that I [...]
Categories: Character dynamics, Characterization, For Writers, Mood, Technique, Voice and Style |
Tags: creepy, narrative acceptance, social dynamics, writing | 4 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on May 29, 2012
There was a book I read last week. I’m not going to say which of the books I read that set me off, as it’s a bit of a spoiler for the piece in question, but—there was this relationship. I didn’t see it as romantic, and while there was apparently subtext I completely missed that [...]
Categories: Character dynamics, Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers |
Tags: character dynamics, roleplaying, romance alternatives, writing | 4 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 28, 2012
We don’t have to work alone when we’re coming up with our PCs’ histories—and a lot of us don’t want to! GMs like cross-backstories because it means they can circumvent the getting the group together part and focus on the actual plot; a lot of players enjoy the chance to collaborate—heck, some game systems even [...]
Categories: Backstory, Character dynamics, Characterization, For Roleplayers, Player Advice |
Tags: cross-backstory, player tips, roleplaying, shared backstories | 4 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 8, 2012
I’m not going to even consider quoting Tolstoy on this one. Happy families are not all alike, save to the kind of person who sees happiness and assumes it a default state, an absence of any effort to reach that point or of crisis to tear it away. Social dynamics, similarly, are never exactly alike—it [...]
Categories: Character dynamics, Characterization, Description, Exercises, For Roleplayers, For Writers, Technique |
Tags: character dynamics, Characterization, Exercises, roleplaying, writing | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on February 21, 2012
One of the things I find most fascinating about having multiple rival searchers in a search plotline is the strange bedfellows it creates. If you’ve got more than three or four different parties trying to get the same thing, there are bound to be alliances, people working together—at least for now—to increase their chances. What [...]
Categories: Character dynamics, Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Plot, Secondary characters, Technique |
Tags: plots, roleplaying, search plotlines, writing | No Comments »