Posts belonging to Category Cliche
Posted by Ravyn on September 28, 2010
I’ve noticed a lot of stories in which the evil gods (or at least, the antagonistic ones) are the only ones who ever seem to do anything. Either both sides aren’t allowed to intervene and they’re ignoring the prohibition, or they’re just the only ones who seem willing to do anything, period (except maybe tell [...]
Categories: Cliche, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Gods, Technique, World-building |
Tags: gods, good gods, roleplaying, roles of gods, World-building, writing | 
7 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on June 1, 2010
It’s an intense plot point, stretching along the span of media at least as long as people have had writing: a character’s final message to posterity. Usually, one gets it in a note where bits of words might be blurred with the spot-chromatography of fallen tears, or in a recording of some sort, when the [...]
Categories: Characterization, Cliche, Death, Undeath and the Afterlife, Dialogue, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Plot, Technique |
Tags: events, last messages, plots, roleplaying, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on May 20, 2010
The robe and wizard hat. Guns and black leather. White labcoats and peculiar equipment. Breeches, a nice jacket and a riding crop. A military uniform and a wide-brimmed hat with a chinstrap. A bag of dice and a backpack that makes one’s back hurt just looking at it. What do all of these have in [...]
Categories: Character archetypes, Character image, Characterization, Cliche, Description, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Technique |
Tags: Characterization, description, role-playing, visual cues, writing | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on April 28, 2010
Yesterday, I went into a big long rant about the Power of Love and/or Friendship and what under what circumstances it annoyed me. But it’s just not right to do a post about how something can go wrong without a follow-up on how it can be done right, so here are some ways to make [...]
Categories: Cliche, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Plot, Technique, Thematics, World-building |
Tags: concepts, gaming, how to, power of friendship, power of love, writing | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on April 27, 2010
It slices! It dices! It redeems the black-hearted, restores hope, purifies the corrupted, and can even raise the dead! And it doesn’t cost you anything but your originality! It’s the Power of Friendship (or Love, for those people who buy the Obligatory Romance package, and you can get it anywhere.
Now, I don’t have a problem [...]
Categories: Characterization, Cliche, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Plot, Technique, Thematics, World-building |
4 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on October 30, 2009
Some plot twists just can’t get themselves taken seriously; just mentioning that a story ends in one is enough to make a hefty portion of its audience look for something else. “All a dream” is one such, and quite possibly one of the most reviled of the offenders. But that doesn’t mean that the basic [...]
Categories: Cliche, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Plot, Technique |
Tags: original posts | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on October 29, 2009
In yesterday’s post, I mentioned that everyone has the potential to use dreams as exposition or foreshadowing. Unfortunately, not everyone does it well. There are a number of pitfalls that come from leaning on dreams to serve vital roles in a story.
The biggest mistake, of course, is not balancing the level of information with the [...]
Categories: Cliche, Description, Exposition, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Plot, Scening, Symbolism, Technique, Thematics |
Tags: original posts | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on September 22, 2009
Sometimes, there are people who just don’t realize they’ve gotten a message across, so they pick up a sledgehammer and pound it in, again and again ad infinitum, nauseum, etc, even to the point of the defenestration of the offending book, DVD, video… you get the idea. Such was the case with ‘Cloudy with a [...]
Categories: Characterization, Cliche, Reviews and technique |
Tags: original posts | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on September 3, 2008
Yesterday, I made a case for mixing elements in elemental systems. But I know not everyone’s going to do this, so instead I’ll look into the ramifications of fully differentiated elements.
One major irritation of these systems is the fact that they always seem to result in the same character types: the hot-headed fire-slinging redheads, the [...]
Categories: Characterization, Cliche, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Magic systems, Player Advice, World-building |
Tags: original posts | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on August 14, 2008
Continuing yesterday’s topic: the dwarven Apology to the Abandoned Picks, an example of ways to do New and Interesting Ceremonies for an invented culture. Enjoy!
The first ones into the Meeting Hall are, of course, the musicians. Barefoot and in pairs, they carry in the instruments from their respective access tunnels: bronze-keyed marvels, each one’s frame [...]
Categories: Cliche, Cultures, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Nonhuman characters, Player Advice, Technique, Thematics, World-building |
Tags: original posts | 1 Comment »