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Head down, bum up, build a world
I hate worldbuilding. Well, okay, ‘hate’ is too strong a word. ‘Don’t enjoy or care about’ is probably more accurate. As I’ve mentioned before, my taste in fantasy runs less to Tolkien and more to...
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The magic of Raven’s Blood (part 1)
Chekhov’s Law is generally couched as “if one shows a loaded gun on stage in the first act of a play, it should be fired in a later act”. Here’s my corollary law for fantasy: if your wizard character...
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The magic of Raven’s Blood (part 2)
I don’t know about you, but I spent my Sunday afternoon running through a warehouse shooting zombies with a laser carbine – all as part of the IRL Shooter / Patient Zero project, which turned out to be...
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Culture wars and pieces
So I was in Shanghai last week. And you know what the defining feature of Shanghai is? If you said history, high population, international business activity or shitloads of skyscrapers – no. Well, yes,...
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East and west – the people of Crosswater
Now, where was I before I went off on a tangent about my hot new collection of flash fiction (oh go on buy one it’s really cheap papa needs a new pair of shoes)? That’s right, worldbuilding. (Still.)...
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Guild Wars 2 – the storytelling dos and don’ts (part 1)
Look, I make excuse after excuse about why Raven’s Blood is taking longer than expected, and many of those are more-or-less true, but here’s the real reason – I’ve been playing the shit out of Guild...
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Guild Wars 2 – the storytelling dos and don’ts (part 2)
Last week I started talking about Guild Wars 2, not because it’s a fun game (it is) but because it’s an interesting object lesson in the use of storytelling techniques. I wrote about 1300 words about...
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Wiki wiki woo
So one of the things I did on my blogging holiday was write wiki entries. WARNING WARNING WILD AND CRAZY GUY OVER HERE Specifically, I was writing wiki entries for some of my roleplaying campaigns, and...
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A month of maps
I kind of hate maps. This is another one of those things that make me a terrible nerd, like saying I’ve never watched any of the Star Trek TV shows or simply don’t care that much that Ben Affleck’s...
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Month of maps – Raven’s Blood
What I wanted to do today was mostly drink bourbon in bed with the covers over my head and maybe keep doing that for the next three years. But no, we must soldier on; there are new battles to fight and...
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World-building is a hell of a drug
I get distracted easily. Don’t even try to pretend it’s not true. So when I want to focus on writing, one of the first things I need to do is pare away my distractions. I’m not much of a TV guy, but I...
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So you wanna do a D&D (part 4)
And we’re back(!), with more talk for newcomers about what’s involved in crafting ‘D&D stories’ (i.e. playing D&D and games like it), and more evidence that I’m really shit at maintaining a...
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