Five Signs Your Character Is Fully Developed
The internet abounds with exercises to help storytellers develop their characters. These steps are all helpful, but none of them are irreplaceable. What’s important is the end result. But what does that endpoint look like? Here are five signs that you’ve arrived. Read more »
Six Types of Character Flaws
Perfect characters kill tension with ruthless efficiency. It’s really hard to get interested in what they’re working through, because it’s obvious they’ll succeed. Characters that overcome obstacles despite a serious handicap seem stronger than ones who don’t. Read more »
How to Color Your Map Using SCIENCE!
Forests, tundras, deserts and plains don’t appear arbitrarily. These biomes are located where they are on Earth due to the way air and water circulate in the atmosphere – and any Earth-like world should follow the same basic rules for its atmosphere that Earth does. Read more »
Six Plot Excuses No One Wants to Hear
When storytellers are cornered by a tough plot problem, our first instinct is to ignore the problem by making our characters behave irrationally. Then we use character dialogue to handwave it and hope the audience doesn’t notice how unrealistic it is. Just take these six excuses. Read more »
Five Mechanics That Will Make Your Game Worse
Rules are absolutely essential to roleplaying games. We wouldn’t have much of a ‘game’ without them. They give us a structure in which to tell epic stories of heroism and, of course, to murder orcs for their precious copper pieces. Unfortunately, not all rules are good. Read more »
Three Things That Will Make Your Characters Deeper
Creating interesting characters with depth is hard. It doesn’t take long for your audience to discover everything there is to know about a shallow character; adding depth will keep your reader engaged and invested. Here are three tools you can use to make deeper characters. Read more »
Five Tricks to Invigorate Your Ending
Stories can end in countless ways, and no one can tell you which one is the right one. But these tricks can give your ending – whatever it is – some extra pizzazz. None of them will work for every story, but try them on. You might find the perfect fit. Read more »
Torchbearer Is Fun – With House Rules
Torchbearer is a new roleplaying game from Burning Wheel HQ, the guys who brought us Burning Wheel and Mouse Guard, among other things. Their games have a great track record, so I rushed out to get this one as soon as it was available. Read more »
Seven Ways to Make Your Story More Powerful
An important part of revising any story is looking at each event and asking yourself how it can be more effective. If you think any of your conflicts are feeling “blah” or your emotional moments are falling flat, use this checklist to make them pack more punch. Read more »
Poisons: How to Use Them
Your characters have to face death at some point. Why not let chemistry help? Ah, but not all poisons are created equal, and not all poisons will be available in all settings for your murderous plot devices. Read more »