tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377543525075660166.post8074437670442225486..comments2024-03-26T22:17:42.458-04:00Comments on Semper Initiativus Unum: Backstory, Actual Play and "Show, Don't Tell"Wayne Rossihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11347401495298367324noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377543525075660166.post-90891291562283982013-04-28T21:32:54.498-04:002013-04-28T21:32:54.498-04:00"hint but leave some things open" seems..."hint but leave some things open" seems like a different way to say the iceberg idea. Good advice for gaming and writing either way. <br /><br />Here' another adage aimed at writers that I've used to good effect in games:<br /><br />"Every character should want something, even if it's only a glass of water." <br />-Kurt Vonegut <br /><br />An orc becomes much more than just an orc when he hates/worships/desperately wants to prove himself to the ogre a few rooms down.<br />caelumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06888115424314880441noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377543525075660166.post-53424686381105576632013-04-16T13:11:00.432-04:002013-04-16T13:11:00.432-04:00Right, and when you detail something legendary in ...Right, and when you detail something legendary in a matter-of-fact way, it always loses some of that faraway glitter. The Clone Wars, for instance, on film and TV will never match what I imagined at 10 years old.Wayne R.https://www.blogger.com/profile/04118962136054206381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377543525075660166.post-76714311726408161442013-04-16T11:50:21.991-04:002013-04-16T11:50:21.991-04:00Thorough agreement.
The importance of evocative n...Thorough agreement.<br /><br />The importance of evocative names and hints is hard to overstate. When writing for an audience of D&Ders, I naturally assume them to be an imaginative lot. As such, a fantastic name or image ("The Lost Treasure of the Electrum King" or the "Weeping Crystal Trees" or etc.) does more for the imaginative Judge than do paragraphs of turgid prose: "Long ago, 1,671 years to be precise, the good King Ledogrand formed the kingdom of Yodald. He came from a long lineage of royalty, and he married a daughter of the crown princess of Dokalt. Their son (Ledogrand II) became king in the Year 29 of the Common Age, and he hired masons and wizards to constuct a grand dungeon in the very rock of the earth. Long decades they toiled, hewing winding passages and chambers in the earth's depths." Etc, ad nauseam.Geoffrey McKinneyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00042661843714609025noreply@blogger.com