As Cataclysm and his squad of nefarious super villains were carted away in holding cells, the people of Bastion City cheered triumphantly for their greatest heroes: The Guardians of Peace. Vanguard, Breakneck and Valkyrie stood before the people, their hands raised to silence the applause and adulation. The hero from another time, the fastest man [...]
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Before the hippies in the audience get up in arms, I’m talking about campaign materials. (Also, I work mostly from my laptop when DM’ing so I don’t waste paper.) I’ve got an opportunity to run a campaign again and I’m going to be doing it in a new system. I’m running my first Pathfinder game. I [...]
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Assault and Battery stand over the unconscious bodies of Bastion’s greatest heroes. The citizens cower in fear or run for lives as the villains begin to tie up the mayor and his staff and take them away from Bastion’s Annual Pea Parade. In the crowd a young boy thinks to himself; is there no one [...]
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Posted in Characters, Conflict, D&D 4th, Dungeon Mastering, Dungeons and dragons, Hero System, RPG, Roleplay, Tropes, backstories, storytelling, world building on Feb 3rd, 2011
Amnesiac heroes are one of the most poorly used tropes out there. The worst example I can cite is Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII. Cloud was a tool. I’m still convinced to this day that they gave him amnesia because they were never sure how his character was supposed to develop. He’s not the [...]
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I’ve always been a fan of making sure that there is a character with noble descent in any of my games, whether I was playing the character or not. Just because you have a mismatched group of adventurers on a quest to save the world doesn’t mean that they all have to be ragtag vagabonds [...]
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It seems that these few days everyone has been discussing the change from a 12 to a 13 sign Zodiac. Despite the widespread belief that astrology is bogus, statements like “We are just not compatible” or “He’s such a typical Libra” can be heard uttered by otherwise rational human beings. This got me thinking… maybe [...]
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Posted in Character interaction, Characters, Dungeon Mastering, RPG, Roleplay, Star Wars, backstories, locations, storytelling, world building on Jan 18th, 2011
Lucas Arts has made millions by giving people an opportunity to step into the shoes of the main characters from the Star Wars movies and books and let them be part of the story. These iconic events are repackaged in a seemingly endless string of video, board, and card games and have been as long [...]
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I’ve had a tendency in the past to write about creating and utilizing NPCs. Whether its finding interesting ways to easily create new NPCs, making the characters more memorable, or using recurring characters for story-telling reasons, I like exploring the mechanics behind non-player characters. By allowing your players to create certain NPCs you to do [...]
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Tension is not just for awkward people anymore, it is an integral part of any story. When you watch a movie or read a book the tension between the characters is what gives you that little bit of anxiety and makes you hunger for resolution. In many stories inter character tension arises from competition, personality [...]
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Posted in Character interaction, Characters, D&D 4th, Dungeon Mastering, RPG, Roleplay, Skill checks, Uncategorized, backstories, storytelling on Dec 21st, 2010
So, a while back, my friend Gestalt wrote a post about playing a character you can roleplay that got some interesting feedback. Well, if there’s one thing Bette Noire can’t do it’s mind her business, so I’ve been thinking about that post for some time now. After much thought, here’s my expanded opinion on the [...]
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