Posted by Ravyn on August 30, 2011
One of the most important parts of creating a warrior culture is coming up with the standards to which its warriors are held. Without standards, after all, what is to set a warrior apart from a non-warrior in his culture, or a person who fights from that group of people over there? How is he [...]
Categories: Characterization, Characters in the world, Cultures, For Roleplayers, For Writers, World-building |
Tags: Characterization, cultures, role-playing, warrior cultures, World-building, writing | 
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Posted by Ravyn on August 9, 2011
Sometimes, it can be hard to tell how much of a character’s personality is her and how much is her surroundings. Hopefully, a character’s personality will be independent of her role in the narrative she’s involved in, whether it’s a tabletop game or some sort of fiction. But what better way to check than to [...]
Categories: Characterization, Characters in the world, Exercises, For Roleplayers, For Writers, Plot, Technique |
Tags: Characterization, Exercises, plot, roleplaying, switching characters, writing | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on July 12, 2011
Have you ever had someone who thinks that what you do, or that something you just did, is the most awesome thing ever, even if it’s only for a day (or, heck, a moment) or two? The times I have, I’ve found the admiration to be one of the most gratifying emotions I’ve ever been [...]
Categories: Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice |
Tags: admiration, Characterization, roleplaying, writing | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on July 5, 2011
You know those blank, everyman characters whose purpose appears to be primarily to serve as an audience surrogate but who always seem to end up as the designated hero despite having all the color of a wet noodle?
They never worked for me.
It’s partly that they’re so blank. They have all the textbook hero motivations: get [...]
Categories: Character archetypes, Characterization, For Writers |
Tags: audience surrogates, Characterization, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on June 15, 2011
When we’re dealing with characterization, most of us have a tendency to write what we know—we’re used to the things we prioritize, and often figure out our characters based on “accepts this premise—rejects that one—ignores that one entirely….” Sometimes, though, we see characters who operate on a principle that just doesn’t resonate with our audience, [...]
Categories: Characterization, Characters in the world, Dialogue, Exposition, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Technique, Voice and Style |
Tags: alien mindsets, Characterization, cultural differences, roleplaying, writing | 2 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on May 5, 2011
There will always be mysteries.
You can know a character for years, run her through every online survey, every writing exercise you can find. She might spend time in your head, might occasionally be the muse for one of your freewrites; there might be portraits or character sketches, journals or even cartoons in her voice and [...]
Categories: Backstory, Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice |
Tags: Characterization, roleplaying, secrets, writing | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on April 25, 2011
Power: along with sex, money, and occasionally elephants, it’s a common motivation for characters. But while it may take five letters to write, it takes a lot more work to define precisely; even characters who agree that they want power won’t necessarily agree what power is, let alone what (if anything) they want it for. [...]
Categories: Characterization, Exercises, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice |
Tags: Characterization, Exercises, roleplaying, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on April 20, 2011
Over the past week and a half, I’ve been writing about factors that are going to influence how characters react to something that scares them. Now let’s put it all together and look at a step-by-step process for writing a character’s fear reaction.
First (assuming an immediate threat), let the instinctive, startle-reflex reaction hit: fight, flight [...]
Categories: Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Mood, Player Advice, Technique |
Tags: Characterization, fear, mood, roleplaying, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on April 19, 2011
You’ve probably noticed one of the more odd blanks I put on my fear profile template: the role of fear in the character’s life. After all, not all characters deal with fear in quite the same way; there’s what they think of experiencing it, how willing they are to show it, how much it affects [...]
Categories: Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Mood, Player Advice, Technique |
Tags: Characterization, fear, mood, roleplaying, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on April 18, 2011
I find that people’s ways of reacting to fear stimuli fall into two general categories.
On the one hand, you have direct responses to the fear itself: attempting to in some way eliminate the immediate need to be afraid. For some people, this might be removing themselves from the location of the fear-source, or trying to [...]
Categories: Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Mood, Player Advice, Technique |
Tags: Characterization, fear, mood, roleplaying, writing | No Comments »