OngoingWorlds blog

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

Jul
19

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Expanded Universe: Giving Your Game Depth

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Character Development, OngoingWorlds guide, Writing tips 7 Comments

Xanadu Crest

The Xanadu Report

 

If you’re in the Role Playing community, chances are that you’ve encountered expanded universe content before. flagsofTSABe if from your favorite TV show, a movie that you’ve loved your whole life, or a novel you’ve read a few thousand times. In fact, fandom games are part of a franchise’s expanded universe. As a writer, I tend to be obsessed with detail, so much so that for every post I’ve ever written there’s at least a few paragraphs of detail that got left out just to keep it within a sane amount of words (I say sane because my first Blue Dwarf post’s word count would have been up in the tens of thousands if I hadn’t regained my sanity and decided “maybe a novella doesn’t make a good post”, telling an entire life’s story doesn’t really work well). Read More

Jul
15

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Way With Worlds: Pandering To Your Audience

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

This was originally posted by Steven Savage on his blog, but has allowed me to republish it here as I think it’s useful for roleplayers! This is part of Steven’s Way With Worlds series of articles. -David

Scifi city by the river

Let’s talk pandering and worldbuilding.

You want the game to sell, you want the book to be read, you want the game to be exciting. But you also want to build an interesting world and a consistent setting. However, if you did just a few things you might just sell more, just a little fan service or . . . Read More

Jul
11

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Help! I don’t know what to post!

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

Frustrated writer

This article was written for us by Amy O’Reilley from Blue Dwarf.

We’ve all been there, we’ve all started a post with “Jeff walked along the corridor and…” then suddenly been struck with an attack of the ‘Oh God what nows?’ Or what happens when you are in the middle of a fight and you have absolutely no idea what to do with third technician Jeff Jefferson who only cleans out the chicken soup machines. Read More

Jul
8

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Way With Worlds: Creating Religion Is Hard

Category: Writing tips Tags: , , Leave a Comment

This was originally posted by Steven Savage on his blog, but has allowed me to republish it here as I think it’s useful for roleplayers! This is part of Steven’s Way With Worlds series of articles. -David

Warhammer space marine

So let’s talk about creating and writing religions in your world. You may now start panicking.

Creating religions is challenging,as we all know. That sense of challenge, the burden, the awareness of all the effort it takes can bring us down in our world building efforts. Chances are even mention this is giving you flashbacks.

So before we explore writing religions and creating religions, I want to cover the challenges we world builders face – and discuss overcoming them. Will I cover all possible cases? No theres only so much I can do or remember, swear to . . . Read More

Jul
3

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Spelling tips – It’s your game they’re looking for

Category: Play-by-post discussion, Roleplaying community, Writing tips Tags: , , 5 Comments

Obi Wan Kenobi

Nothing turns off new players to a game more than a poorly written post.  A misplaced apostrophe could very well send someone in search of a new role playing home away from your sim and to the next. Read More

Jul
1

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Way With Worlds: Finding Inspiration

Category: Writing tips Tags: , Leave a Comment

This was originally posted by Steven Savage on his blog, but has allowed me to republish it here as I think it’s useful for roleplayers! This is part of Steven’s Way With Worlds series of articles. -David

A busy space city

We’ve all had those moments where we’re just not inspired to build our world – or in writing in general. Other times we’re inspired but it’s actually not coming together, which is somehow worse. I imagine many a writer feels they exist inside a permanent form of writer’s block from which they escape only momentarily until their lack of creative forces drag them back to their prison. Read More

Jun
30

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How to Write a Credible Villain

Category: Writing tips Tags: Leave a Comment

Scar from Lion king

Scar from The Lion King wanted to be king but his physically stronger brother was chosen instead. He is determined, egotistical, and callous but he has no idea how to rule a kingdom.

What’s a Credible Villain?

Have you ever seen a character where the character’s coolness and alignment are determined by the number of times the word “evil” is used in their personality? Read More

Jun
24

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Way With Worlds: Continuity Errors

Category: Writing tips Tags: , , Leave a Comment

This was originally posted by Steven Savage on his blog, but has allowed me to republish it here as I think it’s useful for roleplayers! This is part of Steven’s Way With Worlds series of articles. -David

UFO attacking city

There you are, innocently writing along, and you look back on some of your published stories, perhaps to review, perhaps for fun, perhaps to see what past atrocities you committed on your language of choice. While doing this, you then see that which we all fear, the specter that haunts so many writers. Read More

Jun
20

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Way With Worlds: Having A Vision

Category: Writing tips Tags: , Leave a Comment

This was originally posted by Steven Savage on his blog, but has allowed me to republish it here as I think it’s useful for roleplayers! This is part of Steven’s Way With Worlds series of articles. -David

Supernova

A lot of what I write about worldbuilding is at least partially technical. It’s about breaking things into areas of analysis, questions, outlines, and more so you can make your world. Good worldbuilding is about thought and techniques and keeping track of things – well, half of it is. Read More

May
30

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Improvisation Challenge

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Writing tips Tags: , , 1 Comment

improv-o

Improv!

I just recently experienced something truly fun and thought provoking at the same time on Facebook. It started off with the phrase “He walked into the bar, he found a seat and ate from the bowl of stale pub pretzels as he waited for the bartender to come his way.” and ended up being a random story about a man named Major Major and a woman with blue hair and time traveling to rebuild something called the Consulate. It was truly comedic yet it also kind of opened my eyes to a true challenge for a writer. Improvisation.

Read More

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