OngoingWorlds blog

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

Mar
5

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Spelling Tips: Part Deux

Category: Play-by-post discussion, Roleplaying community, Writing tips Tags: , , 2 Comments

Nearly four years ago, I published an article titled Spelling tips – It’s your game they’re looking for.  The concept was simple: Since what we do is sometimes called creative writing, shouldn’t we show some competency with the writing part?  We also certainly don’t want to turn new players off with our own poor spelling or grammar, right?  That piece covered the proper use of its/it’s, your/you’re, and there/their/they’re.  Today we’re going to look at five more situations that are often confused. Read More

Dec
18

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Child’s Play

Category: Inspiration for writing, Writing tips Tags: , , Leave a Comment

Parent's Magazine (www.parents.com)

Between school and work, we forget that some players are also parents. But is that really a bad thing? As a parent myself, I don’t think so. There is something special about kids that can help you create worlds, characters, and situations that you may not have thought about before. But how?

Situations

Let’s look at the situations first. Sure, some are rather silly, like marshmallow dragons getting stuck in a chocolate fountain that is full of peanut butter. Actually, that sounds tasty. But sometimes, they can give you the next grand adventure in your Fantasy RPG, or an intergalactic battle for your ship to come across in your Sci-Fi RPG. Just listening to their silly stories can often lead to something amazing.

Worlds

This goes along with situations, but you can also use the games they play as a bases for your worlds as well. Think about it. Read More

Apr
11

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Level Up – Description

Category: Writing tips Tags: , 2 Comments

I know many of us don’t want to be writers for a living, though some of us might consider it. The descriptions we use often paint pictures. While some aren’t as descriptive as others, this isn’t about the level of skill. It is more a matter of how that skill is acquired. As Role-Players, we have adjusted ourselves to describe our characters and what they do in detail, sometimes venturing into the X-Rated zone.

While many find this exciting, the level of description is easy to see. Those who have RPed for awhile, or those who write stories in their free time, tend to be more descriptive than those who haven’t written for long periods. It is in the descriptors. But what are descriptors? Simply any word that describes something, including (but not limited to) color, smell, and sound. Read More

Mar
6

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12 tips for writing Star Trek fanfiction & roleplaying

Category: Character Development, Inspiration for writing, Writing tips Tags: , 2 Comments

Star trek characters comic

Star Trek fanfiction is as old as Star Trek itself, and heavily dominates the world of online roleplaying. There’s many giant Star Trek roleplay clubs, like Starbase 118 and Star Trek: Borderlands. We’ve even got Star Trek games running on OngoingWorlds (see here). Here’s some tips for anyone who wants to write fiction in the Star Trek universe: Read More

Feb
28

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From TV to RPG – How Our Favourite Shows Can Enhance Our Roleplaying Experience – Part 2: Juggling Characters

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

This article was written for us by Diego Herrera from the Star Trek game Outpost Eden.

Lots of futurama characters

Welcome back to the second in a series of articles designed to look at how sci fi and fantasy TV series can prove useful for writing roleplays (read part 1 here). In this article, I’m going to focus on what we can learn from the way TV shows manage large casts of characters when running adventures with our players. Read More

Feb
11

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Beyond the Senses

Category: Inspiration for writing, Writing tips Tags: , , 1 Comment

Spidey sense

Just because we use five senses in our everyday life, and even do describe a scene in our games, this doesn’t mean we should stop with them. “Never ignore your gut feeling” is a saying that refers to your sixth sense. Read More

Jan
23

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Spice Up The Senses

Category: Writing tips Tags: Leave a Comment

spicy fireworks

This article was written by Maxwell Traenor from UFOP: StarBase 118

We as writers are used to “painting a picture” with our words.  Setting a scene that our characters inhabit is arguably the most important part of our writing in order to immerse the reader fully into the universe our characters live and breathe in.  But, the phrase “paint a picture” can be deceptive.  It implies sight, as in describing how the world looks through our character’s eyes. Read More

Dec
18

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Taking 5

Category: Inspiration for writing, Roleplaying community, Writing tips Tags: , Leave a Comment

When we need to reach a certain word count set by the mod, it can be difficult. But not everything needs to be said or even thought. Sometimes, bringing in our five senses gives two characters something to do or talk about. Read More

Nov
25

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Adding details to secondary characters (aka NPCs)

Category: Character Development, Writing tips Tags: , Leave a Comment

Police chief Wiggam from the simpsons

I found this good article with advice for creating characters by Lori L. Lake, and there’s a great section about creating secondary/minor characters (in roleplay we normally call these NPCs because nobody specifically controls them). Read More

Nov
25

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Adventuring: Continuing On

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplaying community, Writing tips Tags: , , , , Leave a Comment

adventure time

We all have to face it one day. Our game will come to an end. The goal complete and the characters wrapping up the story nicely. Then, someone asks “Want to continue the story or just end it here?” Read More

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