OngoingWorlds blog

News & articles about play-by-post games, for roleplayers & writers

Nov
16

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6 reasons why you should create a Dr Who play-by-post game

Category: Inspiration for writing, Play-by-post discussion Tags: , 16 Comments

dalek from dr whoRunning for over 50 years, I wanted to give a few reasons why I think the universe of Dr Who has great potential for roleplaying in.

Dr Who roleplaying games have been tried before, and we’ve even had one or two on OngoingWorlds, but for some reason they’ve not lasted too long. I personally thing the reason for this is someone inevitably wants to play the Doctor, who is always going to be more knowledgeable, and powerful than any other character. How can any other character compete with that? Read More

Nov
15

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Tib’s Corner – Plagues of the Writer

Category: Inspiration for writing, Writing tips Tags: 11 Comments

Rimmer Hey y’all! Tib here with a little misc post about stuff that regularly plagues the common writer. This will go through the most common things that can happen, such as simple grammar mistakes that make you explode in an unjoyful way. Here we-a go! Read More

Oct
11

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2013 Simming Fall Festival

Category: Events, Inspiration for writing, Roleplaying community, Trivia Tags: 17 Comments

FallFest image by James Drysdale

FallFest image by James Drysdale

FallFest ’13 is almost upon us!  This year’s premier event for the role play community is hosted by UFOP: StarBase 118 and chaired by Diego Herrera.  As always, #OWFallFest is open to all simmers and online role players, regardless of rank or club affiliation elsewhere.

The schedule of events includes interactive discussions, dynamic role plays, and engaging trivia games.  Be there later today at 1:45 PM Eastern Standard Time / 6:45 PM British Summer Time when Diego and co. kick things off with the opening ceremony!

Below you’ll find a complete listing of events and links to the applicable chat rooms and live audio feed. Read More

Aug
6

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Some alien inspiration from “Alien August”

Category: Events, Inspiration for writing Tags: , Leave a Comment

Alien august

If you’re roleplaying in a scifi universe, it can be a challenge to keep coming up with interesting aliens & creatures, especially if your characters are encountering new ones every week. The website SciFi Ideas has plenty of interesting concepts to choose from or inspire you to invent your own. This month especially they’re dubbing “Alien August” and publishing at least one interesting alien profile every day. Here’s a few of the best that might inspire you in your own story. Read More

Aug
2

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Alien August wants to highlight your best aliens – The Laudeans

Category: Events, Inspiration for writing Tags: , , Leave a Comment

Alien august

SciFi Ideas is a blog dedicated to publishing cool scifi ideas, concepts and aliens to get those creative juices flowing. A very valuable resource for scifi writers! This month they’re running an event called Alien August (more info here), where they’ll be publishing interesting alien profiles that have been submitted, for example here’s some they’ve published already.

As roleplayers we have to come up with new ideas all the time, and if you’re a roleplayer in a scifi game you might already have some aliens you’ve already invented, which might be worth submitting to SciFi Ideas, if published it’ll attract attention to your roleplay and might even get you some more players.  Read More

Jul
17

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Writing character death scenes in roleplay

Category: Inspiration for writing, Interviews, Writing tips Tags: , 2 Comments

Grim reapers drinking tea

I’ve asked a few people recently about their experience of the killing off characters in their roleplay, and have got some great snippets which I’ll publish here on the blog. I know it’s a morbid topic, but quite an interesting one! Read More

Jun
30

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Maintaining a creative atmosphere and inspiring players

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Inspiration for writing Tags: Leave a Comment

Greir Reinard from Starbase 118

This article was written by Amy Drysdale who plays Greir Reinard from Starbase 118

The roleplaying games that stand the test of time are those that can maintain a creative atmosphere and keep their players inspired. There are times when a mission seems to stall for one reason or another and posting rates seem to drop. If left unchecked the game’s players will start to get bored and eventually leave. There are several things that can be done in-game and as a group to keep players interested and inspired in the long term.

It all begins with mission planning and looking at the crew and the strengths they have. By thinking hard about players’ capabilities it is possible to find more creative and interesting ways to include them in missions. Read More

May
25

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Challenge Accepted

Category: Inspiration for writing, non-PBP roleplaying, Play-by-post discussion Tags: , , , , , 4 Comments

Why do we roleplay?  What point do I dictate by typing these words upon this screen?  To explain, to confined, to emphasize?   What point is there in continuing to come back to this reality when the real world is so beckoning, so insisting that I take out the trash?

I’m sure many have tried this, to explain why we tend to write, to live outside ourselves through some off handed dwarf, elf, commanding officer, or some other conceived creature of creation.  Many have come to assume it’s an escape, a means to leave the stress and sometimes confining reality we live in.
Read More

May
21

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Using a random generator to invent new alien ideas

Category: Inspiration for writing Tags: , 2 Comments

Alien idea

Mark writes useful alien & story ideas at ScifiIdeas.com (This isn’t Mark BTW, it’s an alien idea called an “Ancari”)

This article was written by Mark Ball, who blogs at SciFi ideas.com. 

As a science fiction writer, and as somebody who tries to pass himself off as an “ideas guy”, I know all too well how difficult it can be to think up new and original ideas.

Science fiction thrives on originality and creativity, and I’ve been told time and time again that coming up with something that has “never been done before” is incredibly important. I’ve also been repeatedly told that “there is no such thing as a new idea these days”, and while I don’t think that is any more true today than it was when the first science fiction stories started to emerge over a hundred years ago, it only goes to show that coming up with that all-important original idea really isn’t easy. Read More

May
6

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Naming your character without looking like a twit

Category: Character Development, Inspiration for writing Tags: 6 Comments

hello my roleplay character name isFor many people, naming your character can be one of the hardest things to do. After all they are a extension of you, an avatar of your will.

Two hours later you are still stuck on what to call your character. You panic a bit so you put down the first name that pops into your head.

Stop!…I mean it..You’ll regret it. Seriously! Worse you’ll not be taken seriously or be thought of as a bit of a 2 watt bulb. You character will be ignored, ridiculed and you’ll have to wear the cone of shame and you don’t want that now do you? Read More

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