Posted by Ravyn on January 19, 2012
(Do I even need to tell you what prompted this post?)
When last seen, the broken walls of the old buildings had shimmered in the starlight, haunted by the soft strings and fluting of the lone musician; now the musician is gone, and in the sunlight the walls are merely ruined stone. The carnival last night [...]
Categories: Description, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Mood, Places, Scening, Technique, World-building |
Tags: locations, mood, roleplaying, RPG Blog Carnival, scening, the perfect version, World-building, writing | 
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Posted by Ravyn on January 18, 2012
My participation in RPG Blog Carnival: Fantastic Locations continues!
Light levels in a scene may be one of the most subtle ways of creating the mood for the perfect version of a location, but they’re not the most counterintuitive way; that honor goes to the people who create a location. After all, people aren’t part of [...]
Categories: Description, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Mood, Places, Scening, Technique, World-building |
Tags: locations, mood, people, roleplaying, RPG Blog Carnival, scening, the perfect version, World-building, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on January 17, 2012
This series was written for RPG Blog Carnival: Fantastic Locations.
When I used yesterday’s post to introduce the idea of the perfect version of a location, one of the mood-contributing factors I discussed was light. It’s easy to forget, as an element; we’re used to always having at least some around us, and to not being [...]
Categories: Description, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Mood, Places, Scening, Technique, World-building |
Tags: light, locations, mood, roleplaying, RPG Blog Carnival, scening, the perfect version, World-building, writing | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on January 16, 2012
This one’s back to writing for RPG Blog Carnival. I love the way it makes me think about aspects of the theme I wouldn’t have looked into.
One of the things that a lot of people forget about making locations, fantastic or otherwise, is that the locations themselves are in a constant state of flux. The [...]
Categories: Description, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Mood, Places, Scening, Technique, World-building |
Tags: locations, mood, roleplaying, RPG Blog Carnival, scening, the perfect version, World-building, writing | 4 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on January 5, 2012
More for RPG Blog Carnival, or at least inspired by it. This is my brain on poetic when mixing having just finished The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms with knowing location design is on the topic list in the very near future.
The root of a world is “What if”.
No, wait, that’s not quite right. The root of [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, Places, World-building |
Tags: freewriting, locations, my brain on poetic, roleplaying, RPG Blog Carnival, World-building, writing | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on December 24, 2011
Pre-article note: Due to various complications including the holidays and grad school applications, all posts for the rest of the year will be reprints of earlier posts.
I spent most of this last week talking about heroes for this month’s RPG Blog Carnival. I’ve done a few characters who have come close: Aisling would get between [...]
Categories: Impractical Applications |
Tags: heroes, impractical applications, RPG Blog Carnival, Tuyet | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on December 21, 2011
Yet more for RPG Blog Carnival. I need to take prompts more often.
My characters do not begin their games as heroes.
They’re the kinds of people who might make decent protagonists, sure. Many, but not all of them, are technically good. In some way, they might even be exceptional.
But by many definitions—and most importantly, both by [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers |
Tags: heroes, personal thoughts, roleplaying, RPG Blog Carnival | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on December 19, 2011
This month’s RPG Blog Carnival, on the subject of Heroes, Living and Dead, got me thinking about the term. “Hero” is a pretty subjective term, as these things go; some people consider heroism to be anything that involves improving other people’s lives, others see it as risking one’s life, there are still more whose main [...]
Categories: Characterization, Exercises, For Roleplayers, For Writers |
Tags: Characterization, Exercises, heroes, roleplaying, RPG Blog Carnival, writing | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on October 26, 2011
Yesterday, in response to the RPG Blog Carnival on making loot part of the plot, I talked about the kinds of plots that a piece of loot could be used to create, whether it’s in the hand, or still out there in the bush somewhere. But the thing about item-based plots, particularly if the plot [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, GM Advice, Motivation, Tactics, Technique |
Tags: loot, motivation, roleplaying, RPG Blog Carnival | 2 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on August 18, 2010
Another one for RPG Blog Carnival.
The most intimidating thing about a new player joining a game, particularly an old game, is the knowledge barrier—not only for the newbie, who has to absorb all the requisite information, but for whoever brought the newbie in, usually the GM. After all, that’s the one who has to make [...]
Categories: Concepts, For Roleplayers, GM Advice, Technique, The Real World |
Tags: knowledge, new players, roleplaying, RPG Blog Carnival, teaching new systems | No Comments »