Posts belonging to Category Motivation
Posted by Ravyn on August 27, 2010
There’s one in every world, isn’t there? Somewhere in history, there was a civilization. It was advanced, or at least looked advanced, probably in the areas of magic or technology. At least one society is descended from it, one way or another (or so they claim). And it’s not here now.
Ancient civilizations are ubiquitous because [...]
Categories: Cultures, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, History, Motivation, Technique, World-building |
Tags: ancient civilizations, roleplaying, World-building, writing | 
6 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on August 23, 2010
One of the advantages I’ve always found of tabletop RPGs as compared to console RPGs is the ability to talk to one’s enemies, whether it’s face to face, by distant proxy, even (perhaps especially) in the middle of a battle. In fact, battle banter is one of the few situations in which I will almost [...]
Categories: Character archetypes, Character dynamics, Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Motivation, Secondary characters, Technique |
Tags: antagonists, conflict, roleplaying, willingness to talk, writing | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on August 16, 2010
RPG Blog Carnival this month, over at Evil Machinations, is on teaching the game to new players, whether they’re raw beginners or just inexperienced with your particular system.
I’ve had a lot of occasion to learn this one from my end. I see the game and its immersion as the main end, and the mechanics as [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, GM Advice, Motivation, Technique, The Real World |
Tags: maintaining interest, new players, roleplaying, teaching new systems | 5 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on July 23, 2010
Yesterday, I talked about the creation of a feeling of intense achievement beyond expectation (or “gamebuzz”), and why and how its effect on the players in an RPG can be utilized. But what sorts of factors aid or hinder gamebuzz?
In my opinion, the most important factor is an apparent absence of pre-planning. That doesn’t mean [...]
Categories: Concepts, For Roleplayers, GM Advice, Motivation, Player Advice, Technique |
Tags: gamebuzz, mood, planning, roleplaying, Technique | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on July 22, 2010
Overwhelming emotion is the hallmark of the good storyteller, regardless of medium. Catch up the audience in the moment, throw them around a bit, and immerse them completely in the emotion, and the payback will be worth the effort. Most people seem to prefer the negative emotions—fear, rage, maybe sorrow, you get the idea—since they’re [...]
Categories: Concepts, For Roleplayers, GM Advice, Mood, Motivation, Player Advice, Technique, The Real World |
Tags: emotions, gamebuzz, metagame rewards, moods, roleplaying | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on July 14, 2010
Without motivation, there is no story. If there’s already a plot, it needs to be possible to get the characters motivated to do something about it. If there isn’t one already planned out, the characters need to want something enough to pull the story themselves.
When they don’t, bad things happen.
A character without motivation might follow [...]
Categories: Character autonomy, Character development, Characterization, Characters in the world, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Motivation, Player Advice, Technique |
Tags: Characterization, motivation, roleplaying, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on July 2, 2010
We all have parts of writing or gaming that we don’t particularly like. Might be coming up with characterization at a moment’s notice, voices, worldbuilding…. whatever it is, it’s just something we’re really not fond of, and possibly downright averse to.
The easy thing to do is to say, “I don’t like it, so I won’t [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Motivation, Player Advice, Technique, The Real World |
Tags: analysis, aversion, roleplaying, tolerance, workarounds, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on June 30, 2010
Maybe it’s that epic scene you just don’t want to finalize. Or there have been far too many distractions lately, and not enough motivation. The story will begin when the world’s ready—but what does ready mean? Inspiration, whatever that is, is refusing to come. What does all of this mean? There’s something you want to [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Motivation, Player Advice, Technique |
Tags: creation, motivation, real world, role-playing, writing | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on June 28, 2010
We’ve all had one of those games that isn’t quite what it used to be and wanted to do something about it. I know many people think that in situations like that, the best thing to do is just to scrap the game and start a new one, and it might be true, but let’s [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, GM Advice, Motivation, Technique |
Tags: motivation, roleplaying, Switch | 1 Comment »