i can't hold all these characters

D&D/Pathfinder sideblog

[luna-azzurra]

Real thing that changed how i write: I started asking "what does this character think is wrong with them" and separately "what is actually wrong with them." Those two things are almost never the same. She thinks she's too much. She's actually terrified of being too little. He thinks he's bad at commitment. He's actually just never met someone he trusted enough. The gap between their diagnosis of themselves and the real thing, that's your character arc right there. you don't have to explain it. just write both.

[the-punforgiven]

I'm just saying, if you're going to worldbuild magic being a "raw, primal force, akin to and interweaving with nature itself" you gotta explain to me why animals don't use it

[the-punforgiven]

I know the normal answer is "they just aren't smart enough for it" but idk I've seen enough media where a character uses a spell in a moment of brain-off panic ilI feel like animals could probably stumble into a spell or two like, accidentally

[the-punforgiven]

Also how funny would it be to see a completely normal regular bear cast magic missile outta nowhere

[the-punforgiven]

Also there is no way ravens wouldn't figure out spells, tbh

They're smart fuckin birds, I believe in them

Either through observing or just figuring shit out ravens could 100% learn how to cast spells I'm sure of it

[the-punforgiven]

Dogs can also cast Magic Missile but every time they do the projectile is shaped like a bone or a stick and they chase after it

[rathayibacter]

group of wizards who ask this in-universe, and after extensive study learn to their surprise that animals are casting spells all the time, just that their magic is so fundamental as to be unrecognizable to humans. turns out the only reason acorns grow on trees is because squirrels keep wishing for them.

[thatquietkid108]

When a species becomes extinct humans have to figure out what kind of magic they were doing to keep the ecosystem from becoming out of balance

[unheardoracle]

Your dialogue is stiff because everyone is being too honest

Great dialogue can come from radical emotional honesty. But in most real conversations, people

dodge questions

answer indirectly

lie (badly)

change the subject

crack jokes to avoid serious answers

lie (convincingly)

say half of what they mean

tell the truth but get so anxious/angry/defensive others now think they're lying

If your dialogue feels unnatural, it might be because everyone is saying exactly what they think, or articulating their thoughts too well. Try letting characters hide things instead.

Subtext is where tension lives.

[unheardoracle]

Your dialogue is stiff because everyone is being too honest

Great dialogue can come from radical emotional honesty. But in most real conversations, people

dodge questions

answer indirectly

lie (badly)

change the subject

crack jokes to avoid serious answers

lie (convincingly)

say half of what they mean

tell the truth but get so anxious/angry/defensive others now think they're lying

If your dialogue feels unnatural, it might be because everyone is saying exactly what they think, or articulating their thoughts too well. Try letting characters hide things instead.

Subtext is where tension lives.

[taylortut]

the “sexy lamp test” but for disabled folks: if you can replace your disabled character with a beloved pet dog that needs an expensive surgery to survive then you have to throw out your manuscript 

[taylortut]

reblogging one of my most underrated posts: the dying dog test

[luna-azzurra]

The thing about a good character flaw is that it has to be the same thing as their greatest strength just turned up too high. the person who loves deeply and therefore controls. the person who sees everything and therefore trusts nothing. the person who is so loyal they lose themselves. there are no clean villains and no clean heroes and once you understand that in fiction you can't unsee it in people. everyone is just their best quality at the wrong volume.

[anexperimentallife]

[caxycreations]

This isn't very hard when you know some of the most genius strategies in human history were incredibly stupid, circumstantial events that led to victory by sheer luck of that strategy working.

Case in point: Tsun Zu's rival defended a city with 10 men against Tsun's army of hundreds by disarming his own soldiers, dressing them in plain clothes, INVITING Tsun's army to come in, and it only worked because Tsun knew the guy was an ambush master and thought "if we attack the city he's inviting us into, we will die." and left without even trying ON THE BASIS OF HIS RIVAL'S REPUTATION AND NOTHING MORE

Another example: Tsun Zu, on being told his soliders were out of arrows during a battle against a city across a river from them, had his men craft scarecrows, put them on a boat, send it out on a line, leave it there for half an hour, then pull it back in and used the arrows the enemy had fired at the boat to restock their own ammunition. It only worked because it was foggy and the enemy couldn't tell the difference between the scarecrows and actual soldiers.

Stupid things like that work INCREDIBLY WELL if the circumstances favor them, so you really don't need to come up with some multi-layered, Shikamaru-esque strategy. You just need to come up with a strategy you like for the characters involved, then write the circumstances (weather, environment, individuals involved) to favor it enough that it works.

[ariaste]

Even better cheatsheet: Study history, steal liberally. Those genius plays listed above? Free for the taking, and I guarantee 99% of your audience will have never heard of them.

True genius is simply in knowing how the guy before you did it.

[thefirstempress]

Speaking of writing stupid, circumstantial events leading to victory. In The First Empress: Book I, my girl Queen Viarra steals an invading army's escort fleet and supply ships out from behind them by knowing that the enemy generals are experienced beach-stormers who know to chase the defenders off before beaching their ships and unloading the supplies.

The defending phalanx engages the attackers and lures them away from the beach with a fighting withdrawal. The attacking generals disembark D-Day style from their warships and troop-transports but order the sailors of their biremes and triremes to stay aboard ships and the merchant galleys hauling the invaders' supplies not to unload until the defenders have withdrawn.

Once the attacking phalanx is pulled far enough away from their ships, part of Queen Viarra's army that's been hiding in dockside warehouses breaks cover and boards the now-undefended warships. The queen's soldiers offer the warship crews the opportunity to sail for her as privateers, which tends to be more lucrative than chasing pirates and hauling hoplites around. (There's also the implied threat of her soldiers simply murdering the unarmed sailors and rowers if they refuse to comply.) Once the ships are secured, they move to blockade the invaders in the harbor.

One of the queen's messengers approaches the captains of the merchant vessels the invaders commandeered to haul their supplies. The messenger 'bribes' the captains to sail away with the invaders supplies, giving them the chance to sell the materiel to another city-state. (Again, with the implied threat of using the captured warships to smash the merchant galleys and deny the attackers their supplies that way.)

Once the supplies and warships are absconded, the defenders retreat back into their walled city, leaving the attackers effectively besieged outside the walls. Queen Viarra gives the invaders the ultimatum to surrender within seven days, allowing the survivors to board their troop transports and sail home peacefully. If the attackers refuse, her army will instead let hunger do it's job, then round up and survivors and sell them as slaves to another city-state.

Seeing their clear disadvantage and knowing that their hegemony is under massive debt to a powerful empire, the invaders' surviving officers offer instead to defect to Viarra's army. Viarra takes the defecting army, sails home with them, marches them right up through the gates of their capital city, and deposes the reigning tetrarchy, thereby nullifying those debts and making her the new hegemonic overlord.

[dare-to-dm]

I get a little miffed when I see people criticizing common scenarios in games like D&D such as killing bandits for being "violent" or "problematic" and suggesting that people can/should play D&D in a more non-violent way.

I agree that it is very possible to do and I'm cool with people playing games they own however they want to. But the reality is that most of D&D's mechanics were designed specifically with combat in mind. You look at any given class, and that's what the bulk of their abilities are for. For pretty much everything else, you have a "skills" system that functions, but is not developed with much depth. Most of the toys you get to play with are there to simulate fantasy violence. And part of the fantasy in such a game is that you can solve problems, save the day and be a hero with violence. Enjoying that fantasy doesn't make you a bad person, and if you don't enjoy that fantasy, you might be better served playing a game with a different design philosophy and priorities.

For comparison, imagine it's a hot summer day and you're watching some kids play outside. It's your job to keep them entertained, healthy and safe. So you want them to play a game that's going to get them physically active, have fun and cool off.

So you set out a big bin of water balloons and super soakers and a hose and tell them they should all get wet. If those kids pick up the super soakers and the water balloons and start shooting each other and playing war, it would be weird of you to then chastise them for simulating violence. After all, that's basically what those toys are explicitly designed to do. And sure, you could explain to the kids that they could instead choose to spray themselves with the hose or pop the balloons by sitting on them or whatever. There are definitely possible ways to use those toys that don't involve pretending to be violent. But if that's such a dealbreaker for you, you probably shouldn't have bought those toys in the first place. Like, you could have set up a sprinkler or a Slip'n'Slide or an inflatable pool instead. Choose the toys/the game that's designed for what you want.

And don't assume that just because I would relish taking someone out "execution style" with a super soaker that I would approve of the same thing in a non pretend situation.

[dare-to-dm]

Funnily enough, that example was inspired by my real life. Mom bought my sister and I some water pistols when we were young and was then horrified when we used them to pretend to shoot each other.

She instituted a policy of forbidding all toys that were meant to simulate violence. Unfortunately for her, we craved violence intensely. And we used the nice fun creative building toys she gave us to create our own weapons.

Video games were banned in our household too, but I guarantee nothing you find in a video game can top the war crimes we were getting up to with the power of our imaginations. And yet somehow we both managed to grow up into well adjusted adults.

[valtsv]

this may just be me going into overanalysis mode but i feel like the choreography of spellcasting can tell you so much about a magic user. a snap of the fingers, for example, implies confidence, even arrogance, while hands thrust out and straining to the fingertips suggests desperation, throwing one's whole body into the spell as though hoping the physical effort will make a difference. rapid, jerky body language tells you that a spellcaster is passionate and reckless, while graceful, fluid movements demonstrate calm and concentration. some magic users may choose to stomp their feet or clap their hands when casting, channeling power through percussive motion, whilst others may see magic as a tool separate from the self, and focus it through objects like a wand or staff. a new spellcaster just coming into their power may be tentative and slow, but a practiced study of magic will be able to rely on muscle memory to guide them.

[marlynnofmany]

I love all the possibilities. There can be tiny differences like the way two spellcasters will make the same motion with a wand, but the one with all the schooling will have it pointed with perfect form, while the one who learned on the fly is yelling incantations from the moment their arm started to move.

There can be cultural differences, like the social importance given to which focusing crystal someone chooses -- a type of gemstone that's rare and valuable in one land, but commonplace in another; a specific faceted shape that matches the architecture back home, versus something unaltered straight from the ground because it would insult the gods to change it.

Personal flair, like the choice between a broomstick or a flying carpet or a vacuum cleaner or a Roomba.

And the motions that these spellcasters use when operating all of this can tell us volumes.

[sci-fi-gifs]

It was dreamlike. Nightmarish? Not always. Sometimes it was beautiful.

Annihilation (2018) dir. Alex Garland

[frodo-of-the-nine-fingers]

immortality as theft (you have to steal life from something else) immortality as parasitism (there is something else inside You that is keeping you alive and you become less of yourself more and more the longer it stays in you) immortality as violence (everything is trying to kill you because everything is supposed to die and the universe will always try to find a way to right the wrong that is You) you understand

[ninewheels]

#at least once a month I think about that one post about laminating a paper towel#and how that makes it immortal but also forever prevents it from fulfilling its true purpose#yes you will live. but at the cost of everything that makes you You

(courtesy of noknowshame)

[fallout-lou-begas]

do you have any advice on character design?

watch The Sopranos

[fallout-lou-begas]

i actually wanted to elaborate on this and say that i think it’s a really bad habit of a lot of artists, influenced by current media casting practices, to unconsciously or consciously make every single character they create super pretty, like everyone is just hot in that very boring, homogenous way, and this also comes as a result of people using actors and celebrities as character references or faceclaims and AI facial generation programs like Artbreeder being trained on people who are generally very pretty-looking. it results in alienating, uncanny worlds and drawings completely devoid of people who just look like regular people. it results worlds populated by mannequins fresh off the CW. I feel like whether a character is attractive or not should actually matter, be part of their character, because that kind of thing absolutely affects the way you move through the world and the way the world treats you.

so i wanted to throw in some suggestions that, whenever I’m trying to find a character reference or otherwise draw very interesting-looking yet regular-looking people, which i usually have to do for bit characters in @ikroah​ or something, I tend to look for references in the following places. these are far from the only reliable way to get inspiration, this is just a non-exhaustive list of places i’ve looked before for visual inspiration when needing to create a character, whether starring characters or background ones:

pre-2000s television (The Sopranos and Twin Peaks especially having incredible character design)

extras in comedy sketch shows

esports players

real photos (not staged stock photos) of line cooks

70s baseball players

athletes from more obscure olympic sports like the javelin toss or greco-roman wrestling, especially if you’re looking for a specific body type

ska, jazz, and blues musicians

firefighters

improv troupes

for teenagers, searching “high school english class project” on youtube and sorting by Upload Date

state senators, small-town mayors, and generally obscure local government positions like comptroller or treasurer (yes i know politicians can be bad sometimes but smaller elections especially don’t really depend on looks)

people who walk by your window (if you live in a city like I do)

and again these are just, in my opinion, deep and easy wells to dive in if you want to get a good idea of what regular people look like. these suggestions aren’t the limits on where you can possibly find inspiration for character design

[roganaut]

Fellini’s movies have remarkably interesting and unique looking actors

[fallout-lou-begas]

Yes!!! There’s an entire book called Fellini’s Faces that’s nothing but portraits of his actors that’s phenomenal for this kind of thing, though it’s fairly rare to get a hold of today.

[sartorialadventure]

(Since I know a lot of writers/artists follow me for costume/character design ideas!)

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

I know most of my posts are about non-humans, but this applies to them too! You have to do a variety of studies on human diversity if you want to build the right skills to also create varied non-human characters that don’t just fall into conventional human beauty standards.

[what-even-is-thiss]

Religion in fantasy worlds: Everyone believes the exact same things about Green Nature Goddess and has official rituals for her that are the same everywhere

Religion irl: Technically it’s heresy for me to worship this skeleton but my spiritual advisor said that it’s legit so I’m gonna keep giving it offerings of yogurt

[what-even-is-thiss]

Religion in fantasy worlds: We’ve gotta pour water over this statue or else the god will get angry

Religion irl: We’ve gotta pour water over this statue? Why? Idk man that’s just what you do. Just do it alright.

[what-even-is-thiss]

Religion in fantasy worlds: These are the rules. The rules are law. Nobody can break the rules.

Religion irl: Okay you say that there are “rules” but how exactly are we defining “rules” here? Like is a suggestion a rule? How are we defining suggestion? No come back. Listen. Are we going by nuance in the original language or are translations fine or-

[what-even-is-thiss]

High control religions/cults recruiting in fantasy worlds: Join us! For we shall all eat the moon! This is a legitimate position to have!

High control religions/cults recruiting irl: We have free snacks. That shirt looks sooo cute on you btw. What, you heard that we wanna eat the moon? The media is always telling lies about us you know. We may have some unorthodox opinions about the moon but, tell you what. Come get some snacks, make some new friends, maybe chat about the moon a bit. See what you think. We’ve got pizza.

[what-even-is-thiss]

Religions in fantasy worlds: We must make a sacrifice to appease the gods! *draws up a sacrifice circle and completely destroys the sacrifice*

Religions irl: We must make a sacrifice to appease the gods! *has a communal barbecue*

[dovewithscales]

That last one is a personal pet peeve of mine. It's not just a stupidity of fantasy religions, but also a stupid misconception of actual religions. There are plenty of religions that actively practice animal sacrifice today, and a ton of people (even pagans) who are scandalized by it. Like to the point that sometimes one of the first things pagans clarify when explaining their religion to outsiders is that they do not practice animal sacrifice, as if animal sacrifice is intrinsically unethical. Which is both religious bigotry and extremely racist.

Animals intended for sacrifice are better treated than factory farmed animals. Often better treated than secular sustainably farmed animals.

In almost all cases, a sacrificed animal is one that was going to be slaughtered for food anyway, and the ritualized slaughter is a way to ensure that the slaughtering is done correctly (for humane treatment and food safety), as well as a way to invite the divine to join the party.

Animal sacrifice is substantially more ethical and sustainable than factory farming. I don't currently raise animals for food (though it's often been on the table for me) but if I did, I would ritualize the act of slaughter. As a Hellene and a priestess of Hekate there is appeal to the idea of raising black goats for food and sacrificing them in her name.

[00000000000000z-deactivated2022]

happy Mother’s Day to these two queens

[makapatag]

10,000 SWORDS AGAINST HEAVEN is a brutal occult martial arts ttrpg. you are a wanderer. martial artist, mystic, outcast the world is the corpse of a corpse, slaughtered by Heavenly Bourgeoisie's nuclear javelins

CHANGE THE WORLD DIE TRYING HEMOCLYSM AGAINST THE RULING CLASS

KILL GOD LOSE EVERYTHING LOSE EVERYTHING KILL GOD

as a wanderer, you must organize under one of the six Left Hand Sects that dominate the Martial Underworld, situated outside of the Pacified World Order of the Five-Armed Demiurge Array, where everyone is stolen from their capacity to Cultivate their inner Sidhi.

you will need to organize. you will need to return to the masses. you, laborer, lumpen, scum, subaltern wretch of the earth. the five-armed demiurge array is a last-ditch attempt by the ruling class to push down the material conditions for relentlessly violent revolution

the world is a tropical gothic occult-materialist world inspired by post-cold war southeast asia and east asia. you play as maggots upon the divine corpse what will you do with the world? or will you even survive long enough to think about a reason? UNTIL ALL BEINGS ARE FREE

FREE

10,000 Swords Against Heaven by makapatag

Pugilist Praxis Occult Xianxia Role-Playing

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[feldfrog]

If a fantasy world has an ancient tree of wisdom, that means it must also have young trees that are dumb as shit. Just giving terrible advice like, "the evil wizard is kinda hot"'

[writers-solace]

I don't think Tolkien is a good fantasy writer because he scored the highest at some objective Best Fantasy Book Test that every fantasy writer has to take, I think he's a good fantasy writer because he created a world based on things that he was interested in. I feel like a lot of fantasy writers think that they need to create a whole language for their world because Tolkien did and obviously his books are the best so they have to emulate him, but Tolkien did that because he was a linguistics nerd. I think the lesson to be learned from him is not that you have to include elves and deep history and new languages, but that you have to write endlessly about the things you are a huge nerd about and use those things to create your fantasy world