Roleplaying

Six Signs of Good Character Creation

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Prometheus carving a man from clay.

Character creation is one of the more difficult aspects of roleplaying-game design, and a few weeks ago, I wrote a post about the most common problems with it. Since then, I’ve received a number of questions about what makes character creation rules good, which is … read more »

Storytelling

Five Underused Character Archetypes

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Storytellers love character archetypes. They feel ancient and symbolic, and they’re just fun to play with. A while back, we mentioned some archetypes we think stories are usually better without. To banish the rain on our archetype parade, here’s five we want to see more … read more »

Q&A

How Can I Write a Tight Story That Takes Place Over Years?

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questions and answer talk bubbles

Is there a way to write a tight story which takes place over many years? (How?) I’ve recently realized, most of the books I’ve read don’t last more than a year, many lasting only a few weeks. As I’m planning a series where each book is anywhere between four and ten years long, I’m worried in case that is unfeasible and I should change it before I go any further. Read more »

Writing

Giving Your Hero Sympathetic Problems

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Making your protagonist a relatable underdog is a great way to encourage your audience to bond with them. Unfortunately, it’s easy for this effort to go wrong. Instead of feeling sympathy for your hero, the audience might think your character is whiny and unpleasant. The narration … read more »