Honest Manipulators
Most of the manipulative characters in both fiction and RPGs are absurdly good liars—you know, the type who could sell shoes to snakes or convince a person that the sky was red while standing outdoors...
View ArticleBasic Flash-Characterization Exercise: The Dragonbreath-Style Summary
One of the things I’ve been discussing with my boyfriend for a while are tips for him in quickly generating background or semi-important characters. I was thinking about this a while back, and through...
View ArticleThe Joys of Sympathetic Antagonists
One of the character archetypes I find most interesting is the sympathetic antagonist—that living obstacle to the primary characters, whether villain, antihero, or just inconveniently motivated, who...
View ArticleThe Hazards of Sympathetic Antagonists
I talked yesterday about all the cool features of sympathetic antagonists. It has to be admitted, though, that sympathetic antagonists come with their own set of inconveniences; you can’t have the good...
View ArticleHey, Weren’t You Supposed To Be Sympathetic?
When I was talking last week about sympathetic antagonists, one of the disadvantages I listed was that it was easy to slip somewhere and end up with an antagonist that just doesn’t come across as...
View ArticleRavyn’s Rules of Mind Control
Into every game, a little mind-controlling the PCs seems to fall. And why not? It ensures they’re fighting one of the scariest things on the field, it forces them to change their tactics, and it gets...
View ArticleRunning for Smart PCs
It’s pretty easy for a GM to manage a group whose idea of ideal characters to emulate are your standard sword and sorcery hero. Provide plenty of things for them to pound/spellcast at/otherwise beat to...
View ArticleFive Interesting Questions When Building a Society
Most of my posts on building worlds have been at least one post per topic, sometimes a full series—which is nice and all, but not very good when covering things that don’t need ages of explication. So...
View ArticleFreewrite: Losing Gracefully
“My job as GM is to lose gracefully,” he says. And I start overthinking things, as is my wont to do. I know that this isn’t universal; I’ve heard about games in which it was GM vs. players, I might...
View ArticleFreewrite: More on Losing Gracefully, or Loss = ?
A continuation of last post’s maunderings on the idea of the GM’s need to lose gracefully. “You don’t have to lose gracefully,” I tell him. It’s been at least a year since our first conversation on the...
View ArticleThought Exercise: Fantasy World Weapon Control
Most cities in fantasy worlds have a vested interest in people not getting into fights to the death at the drop of a hat. It isn’t that different from the real world in that respect, after all. And one...
View ArticleA Short Consideration of Overthinking
I’ve been overthinking one of my primary characters for a while now. To be fair, in that game, it sometimes seems like almost any sort of characterization beyond finding a motivation to save the world...
View ArticleThey Mean Well
I think this might be the most universal of traits for RPG parties that don’t fall into the Chaotic Klepto mode: they mean well. UZ referenced one a few comments ago. Ursula Vernon’s Livejournal...
View ArticleIsn’t That a Bit Too Much Power?
I’m not going to try to claim that the power fantasy isn’t an integral part of the RPG experience. The illusion of competence, lots of shiny effects with which one can attempt to butter-knife through...
View ArticleTalking is a Paradox
Talking is a free action? Talking is…. Talking is that thing I do when everything is typed, nobody wants to try to tag-team someone in a couple of initiative counts (if I can even do that) and the turn...
View ArticleCampaigns I Want To…. Errrr….
When I saw this month’s RPG Blog Carnival topic, Campaigns I’d Like To Run, the first thing I thought of wasn’t of campaigns I’d like to run. At least, not entirely. For one thing, I’m already running...
View ArticleFreewrite: Things I Learned This Weekend
It’s been an educational last four days, let’s put it that way. Some people really are that oblivious. This is one of those “I have this DM, see…” things; I’d thought I was being clear that the fun was...
View ArticleThings Not to Do When the Party Hates Your NPC
They tell you in the real world that first impressions are everything. It’s even more the case with RPG characters, particularly the ones you want to keep around—and sometimes it’s just going to go...
View ArticleThings You Can Do When the Party Hates Your NPC
Yesterday, I talked about situations in which the party hates an NPC you need them not to hate, and how not to make it worse. Today, I’m going to look at the positive side—ways to actively try to get...
View ArticleDealing with Setting Discontent
A setting can make or break a story. Sadly, the setting is a lot more rigid than the character; characters are expected to arc on a regular basis, and can usually do so with relatively minimal...
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