When I’m dealing with a vague story idea that needs a context, I tend to attack it from one of two directions. In one case, I look for contexts I’m likely to be using in which it would definitely work: “This brand of Mystical Library would probably work in my game, or might be worth [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers |
Tags: breaking block, questions, roleplaying, writing | 
2 Comments »
Originally posted on July 30, 2011.
I think I just began a story.
In one of my games, we’re rotating people who are functionally serving as GMs, or at least as hosts, as the characters we play run around between worlds. There really isn’t a metaplot; I’m not entirely sure there’s a plot, most [...]
Categories: Impractical Applications |
Tags: impractical applications, plot steering, questions | No Comments »
Keeping going in a game can be difficult sometimes—if the players are driving me crazy, the style isn’t anything I’ve done before, the… you get the idea. It’s easy to be frustrated nowadays. Writing, sadly enough, is likewise: if anything, a game is likelier to keep my attention, or at least my participation, because the [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, Motivation, Tactics, Technique |
Tags: motivation, questions, roleplaying, writing | 1 Comment »
I think I just began a story.
In one of my games, we’re rotating people who are functionally serving as GMs, or at least as hosts, as the characters we play run around between worlds. There really isn’t a metaplot; I’m not entirely sure there’s a plot, most of the time. Lot of getting intrigued by [...]
Categories: Impractical Applications |
Tags: impractical applications, plot steering, questions | 1 Comment »
Sometimes, a person just needs to find something out, both in character and out of character. A new group needs to learn how the world works, a new hand in an old group could do with being brought up to speed on the group’s history, someone needs to give a character an excuse to know [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, GM Advice |
Tags: information, PC/world interaction, questions, roleplaying | 1 Comment »
It’s rough being a new player in an unfamiliar system, particularly when there isn’t much time to learn, or you’re the only one who’s functionally a new player. Particularly when there are two ways of figuring out what you’re supposed to be doing; look through the book again, and ask questions. (Probably ask questions; I [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, Player Advice, RPGs for the Uninitiated, The Real World |
Tags: new players, questions, roleplaying | No Comments »
If there’s one thing I have learned from my game, it’s that it can be very, very difficult to play to a particularly reserved character. It makes sense that they’re not going to be fully realized starting out, very few non-recycled characters are, but on the other hand, if you’re trying to weave a story [...]
Categories: Characterization, Exercises, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice |
Tags: in character, questions, roleplaying, writing | 6 Comments »
As I mentioned in Monday’s post, one of my priorities lately has been reviving a flagging game. A lot has happened to it, between shifts in players and changes in time available, motivation differences and who-knows-what, and it needs a little looking at. On the plus side, I probably have an old player returning.
Where to [...]
Categories: Impractical Applications |
Tags: aversion, change, game salvage, impractical applications, questions, Switch | 1 Comment »
So I’m sitting and talking with one of my former players, and he asks me a question: why can’t these characters let their emotional shields down when the whole group’s around, since they seem to do just fine in sidechat? That gets me wondering. After all, the inner lives of the characters are my favorite [...]
Categories: Character dynamics, Characterization, Characters in the world, Dialogue, Exposition, For Roleplayers, GM Advice, Technique |
Tags: exposition, information, questions, roleplaying | 1 Comment »