Posts belonging to Category Thematics
Posted by Ravyn on August 31, 2010
I talked yesterday about designing a magical location around the effect it was supposed to have on the audience. But it’s one thing to say “I want this effect”, and another thing entirely to get the effect in question. How do you go about it?
First, of course, is actually choosing the effect. It goes without [...]
Categories: Description, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Mood, Places, Scening, Technique, Thematics, World-building |
Tags: effects, magical locations, roleplaying, setting, World-building, writing | 
1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on August 30, 2010
What fun is a fantasy world without inherently magical locations? They make it clear which genre you’re operating in, provide a little color, and because of the ability to use elements not present in mundane locations, can often create a more intense and targeted mood than their mundane counterparts. I usually begin with a combination [...]
Categories: Concepts, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Places, Scening, Technique, Thematics, World-building |
Tags: magical locations, roleplaying, setting, World-building, writing | 6 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on July 19, 2010
A long time ago, I asked a question: why do we always see magic? The answer I originally worked with was that it was easier, since people are visual; I know the English language has more sight-words than sound-words or taste-words or scent-words. But sometimes, it makes sense to make someone’s arcane senses pan to [...]
Categories: Description, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Magic systems, Player Advice, Symbolism, Technique, Thematics, World-building |
Tags: descriptions, displays, Magic systems, roleplaying, Thematics, writing | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on June 23, 2010
I’ve always been the kind of player whose greatest weapon is her and her character’s setting knowledge. No fewer than three languages if I can help it, maxed informational skills if at all possible—in short, trying to ensure that anything I know, the character knows too. But then I ran into an interesting sort of [...]
Categories: Characterization, Characters in the world, For Roleplayers, For Writers, Player Advice, Thematics, World-building |
Tags: denial, IC/OOC, roleplaying, setting knowledge, weirdness filter | 4 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on June 16, 2010
In any world, there are some things you don’t question. They are, and that’s all there is to it. Or at least, that’s what everyone says. (Which of course means that some main character, particularly if what we’re dealing with is a game because those things beg for PC questioning, is going to question them.) [...]
Categories: Cultures, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, History, Magic systems, Religion, Thematics, World-building |
Tags: concepts, roleplaying, untouchable concepts, World-building, writing | 2 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on June 8, 2010
Yesterday, I talked about how ambiguity in the creation of a world can make it more interesting than clear right/wrong binaries can. But how does one go about making a world in which these things are clearly ambiguous?
To understand that, it helps to understand how not to do it.
It’s pretty easy, and pretty common, to [...]
Categories: Description, Dialogue, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Magic systems, Religion, Technique, Thematics, World-building |
Tags: ambiguity, practice, roleplaying, World-building, writing | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on June 7, 2010
One of the things I’ve noticed about many created worlds, and felt that it might be good to reverse the trend of at some point, is that there isn’t much vagueness. In our world, you have a lot of things that may or may not be real or effective depending on who you ask, from [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Magic systems, Religion, Thematics, World-building |
Tags: advantages, ambiguity, roleplaying, World-building, writing | 4 Comments »
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 February 3, 2010
When you think of the phrase “fantasy setting”, what do you see?
I asked that around on Twitter and got a bunch of rather telling answers. Dragons, lots of dragons. Armor and swords, many swords. (For some reason, apparently you don’t often see halberds). Mountains, marketplaces—beards and funny hats.
Presumably, there are dwarves under a mountain somewhere, [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Geography, Places, Thematics, World-building |
Tags: original posts | No Comments »