Posts belonging to Category Player Advice
Posted by Ravyn on January 12, 2012
Some problems can be solved just by kicking down the door and wreaking havoc, but not always. When the enemy is still faceless and their whereabouts unknown, or when going directly after them would only lead to more trouble, sometimes it’s best to be the trap, letting the enemy come to you. But being the [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Plot, Tactics, Technique |
Tags: foreknowledge, roleplaying, Things You Might Want To Know When..., writing | 
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Posted by Ravyn on January 11, 2012
Sometimes you have characters of few words; you know the type, the ones who will nod or shake their heads or occasionally toss out a few word insults. And then there are the ones who don’t talk. At all. No, not even then. They’re mysterious, and they’re definitely a challenge to write or play; there’s [...]
Categories: Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice |
Tags: Characterization, roleplaying, silent characters, writing | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on December 27, 2011
Originally posted on September 9, 2008. Have you ever gotten tired of a character, PC, NPC or just plain fictional, who invited himself to a pity party and never left? So have I.
No beloved peasant villages were harmed in the making of this post.
If you’ve been running games for a while, you’ve probably seen one [...]
Categories: Backstory, Character creation, Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice |
Tags: angst, Characterization, reprise, roleplaying, techniques, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on December 22, 2011
In the comments to yesterday’s riff on why I don’t tend to start with my characters pre-heroed, UZ pointed out that there are two things that can both mean character development. It’s a topic I couldn’t resist poking a bit.
I’m going to start by assigning names to them so that we can keep the silly [...]
Categories: Character development, Characterization, Concepts, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Technique |
Tags: Characterization, concepts, meta, roleplaying, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on November 28, 2011
Two sides, both alike in… something, anyway… is an automatic recipe for drama: just ask Shakespeare! Between the inconveniences they cause and the general waste of life and potential they represent, blood feuds are a prime “problem” in a setting for protagonists to find themselves fixing. But there’s a lot to take into account when [...]
Categories: Cultures, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, History, Player Advice, Plot, Technique, World-building |
Tags: conflicts, feuds, foreknowledge, mediation, plot, roleplaying, Things You Might Want To Know When..., writing | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on November 9, 2011
When I presented Things You Might Want to Know When Planning a Heist, Michael pointed out that most of what goes into a successful heist plot can also go into a successful hostage rescue mission plan. It’s true, but on the other hand, not all that’s required for a rescue plan is really covered by [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Plot, Technique |
Tags: foreknowledge, plot, roleplaying, Things You Might Want To Know When..., writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on November 2, 2011
For the immersion/performance-oriented GM, one of the most common challenges is making sure that whatever character is onstage is coming across right: particularly vital when playing those characters who are known for intangible, shown-only traits, and even more so for the most dangerous of opponents. They run a bit, watch the feedback, compensate for player [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Tactics |
Tags: GM tips, player tactics, reactions, roleplaying | 5 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on October 12, 2011
It’s good to know what we need to know before we turn our characters loose on a new culture, and how to find it out, but sometimes knowledge just isn’t enough to keep our character’s feet safely out of their mouths. Instead, we need to figure out where the cultural traps are, and how to [...]
Categories: Characterization, Characters in the world, For Roleplayers, Player Advice, Tactics |
Tags: learning cultures, player tips, roleplaying | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on October 11, 2011
I talk a lot about characters fitting into their worlds, but I know it’s not always easy. Most of the time, there really isn’t time—or in some cases, there isn’t much motivation, or enough information—for a player to really understand the world that she’s just started playing in, or even the specific combination of culture [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, Player Advice, Tactics |
Tags: learning cultures, player tips, roleplaying | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on October 10, 2011
One of the side effects of dealing with worlds not our own is that we’re likely to be dealing with cultures not our own as well (and if we aren’t, why in blazes not?). From a player standpoint, or from the standpoint of a writer trying to deal with a culture not her own, this [...]
Categories: Characterization, Characters in the world, Cultures, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Plot, Technique, World-building |
Tags: Characterization, foreknowledge, plot, roleplaying, Things You Might Want To Know When…, writing | 3 Comments »