Posts belonging to Category Nonhuman characters
Posted by Ravyn on January 2, 2012
“While Kueng is lecturing Black Rooster on how renouncing his greed will end the curse, the Enlightened Master steals a few of Black Rooster’s buttons.”
On the night of New Year’s Eve, we discovered (in the Weapons of the Gods/Legends of the Wulin sense, mind you, the fact was there all along but we never really [...]
Categories: Characterization, For Roleplayers, Nonhuman characters, The Real World |
Tags: group observations, real world, roleplaying, small animals | 
1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on October 29, 2010
I talked a lot, a long time ago, about how to choose characters’ names. But what about when the character just plain doesn’t have one?
There are a lot of downsides for a character not having a name. For one thing, it makes it harder for the audience to refer to the character quickly (though to [...]
Categories: Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Names, Nonhuman characters, Player Advice, Secondary characters |
Tags: nameless characters, names, roleplaying, writing | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on October 20, 2010
I spent yesterday’s post talking about things that make a monster or equivalent thereof lose my respect. Since it’s my rule to try not to post don’ts without corresponding dos, here are some things that get that respect in the first place.
Intelligence. Sure, this is an alien sort of creature, and I’m not sure I [...]
Categories: Biology, Character image, Characterization, Description, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Mood, Nonhuman characters, Technique, Voice and Style, World-building |
Tags: monsters, mood, respect, roleplaying, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on October 19, 2010
The fun thing about fantasy worlds is that we aren’t limited to mundane opponents. The huge, the nasty, the impossible—they’re all fair game, and when they take the field, they’re bound to strike fear into all who see them. Fear… just like…. Why are you laughing?
The problem with creating new and intimidating creatures is that [...]
Categories: Biology, Characterization, Concepts, Description, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Mood, Nonhuman characters, Technique, Voice and Style, World-building |
Tags: intimidation, mistakes, monsters, mood, roleplaying, writing | 5 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on July 15, 2009
Familiars: a perpetual presence on a character’s shoulder, not quite thinking in lockstep with the character but not entirely separate, either. I’ve written about familiars before. But that was about the familiar as a character in her own right; tonight, I’m going to talk about the familiar as an outgrowth of a character. (Needless to [...]
Categories: Character archetypes, Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Nonhuman characters, Player Advice, Secondary characters |
Tags: original posts | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on April 3, 2009
While being able to assign a personality to an intelligent landform or building is a wonderful thing, we can’t neglect character development. Just because they’re inanimate by our standards doesn’t mean they can’t grow and change in their own right!
Photo courtesy of pale from stock.xchng
Some of the character development [...]
Categories: Character development, Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Geography, Nonhuman characters, World-building |
Tags: original posts | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on April 2, 2009
Yesterday I talked about the factors that might affect a living building or sentient tract of land. Today, I’m going to get into what shapes the personalities of these amazing not-quite-creatures.
Photo courtesy of msjr from stock.xchng
The first step in determining a sentient location’s personality is its inherent nature. [...]
Categories: Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Geography, Nonhuman characters, World-building |
Tags: original posts | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on March 27, 2009
Intelligent magic items can serve a lot of roles in a storyline, particularly in a roleplaying game. Unfortunately, with their advantages come disadvantages, particularly the world-altering variety that so many GMs, myself included, tend to default to. While they aren’t insurmountable, it’s best to be careful, particularly when you’re dealing with a magic item that [...]
Categories: Characterization, Characters in the world, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Nonhuman characters, Plot, Technique, World-building |
Tags: original posts | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 26, 2009
So you’ve just picked up a new magic item! It’s one of a kind, blasted useful, and best of all, it does something none of your friends’ fancy artifacts does: it talks. Yes, you’re the proud owner of an intelligent and probably rather snarky magic item. But pretty soon, you’re going to discover the one [...]
Categories: Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Nonhuman characters, Player Advice |
Tags: original posts | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 25, 2009
Yesterday, I went through the basic considerations of creating an intelligent magic item. It’s a good summary, but it skimps a bit on personality. Today, I’m going to fill in the gaps.
Photo by ATunska of stock.xchng. Is that not the biggest bronze (brass?) fly ever?
In giving a magic item personality, many people start with the [...]
Categories: Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Nonhuman characters, Player Advice, World-building |
Tags: original posts | 1 Comment »