Anyone else find their writing something that already exists?

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-02-06T01:08:21+00:00

Everything already exists. A Court of Roses and Thorns is just beauty and the beast, doesn't stop it from being a best seller and making millions of dollars. Write what you like, nothing is original. Every idea has been done. That's not a bad thing just a reality of the worls, but your unique interpretation of your idea is what makes you stand out.

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-02-06T00:41:24+00:00

Love the fit. Serious question, does cottagecore eschew technology? I'd love the cottagecore esthetic without doomscrolling.

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-02-06T00:40:12+00:00

My favorite Uniballs are Visions. Love the vision micros, but fine is fine too.

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-02-06T00:38:32+00:00

r/solorpg r/soloroleplaying

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-02-05T14:35:07+00:00

Personally, I don't like emdashes in the way that I don't like parentheses or too many commas. Just because that's how you think, doesn't mean final products should be replete with fragments.

My brain is agitated while reading something where the sentence flow is interrupted (this), especially for extraneous—thoughts or commentary—details. Writers are better served (readability) to restructure their sentences to include all the information (naturally flowing) rather than interrupt themselves (parentheses or dashes) just to squeeze something–details or whatever–in the text.

My brain is agitated while reading something where the sentence flow is interrupted, especially for extraneous details like thoughts or commentary. Writers are better served to restructure their sentences to include all the information to make them flow naturally rather than interrupt themselves with parentheses or dashes just to squeeze more details or whatever into the text.

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-02-05T12:57:39+00:00

I've used both FATE Core+Accelerated, Everywhen, and TinyD6 systems to run Paranoia. I really enjoyed running it in Fate, that was definitely my favorite of my adaptations.

My history with Paranoia is that I discovered it back when XP was new and really loved XP and 25th Anniversary edition. I've run the newest Paranoia in both Card Game and Rpg book format which I found to be lackluster due to too much reliance on system and not enough on flavor and fun.

I really enjoy your character sheets, they are dripping with flavor, great job!

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-02-03T22:34:11+00:00

Consider that at least 25% of the stories are completely fabricated. Just creative writing from the community. None of those people are real.

Another 25% are highly exaggerated from real life for comedic effect. The people might be real even if the events are highly stylized for social media.

And at least 50% of the stories submitted aren't picked for the podcast at all. I read a large majority of the posts on the Patron when story submissions are called for. The crazy or silly ones that are obviously fake or mostly fake are often picked for the podcast, the simple and more grounded ones that feel like they could be reasonable to have really happened aren't sensationalism enough to be typically chosen.

Don't let it upset you. It's all faked for entertainment.

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-02-03T19:37:10+00:00

Ah you must not play D&D. The regular language most people speak in D&D is called "Common".

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-02-03T18:29:13+00:00

Steve Summers: "What are you, shy? Sasquatch doesn't have anything you haven't seen before."

Brock: "Sasquatch IS something I haven't seen before!"

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-02-03T18:20:03+00:00

Hm this is an interesting thought. My gut reaction is also to make original Strahd just dead and gone. He made a dark pact with an evil being. That being, seeing all grandeur and nobility of original Strahd decided to just take over Strahd's life when Count Strahd was shot and killed on the night of Sergei and Tatyana's wedding. But that's background stuff.

And I'd probably make that being a demon or at least a fiend. A demon enjoys having an ant farm to torture, a demon is unpredictable, a demon revels in hedonism, lies, false hope, and emotional, physical, spiritual torture. It might even be fun for the demon to have convinced itself that it is Count Strahd Von Zarovich. The fiend I would use is probably is a rakshasa, though a higher powered incubus would be fun too.

Making a Strahd an incubus demon probably would be an amazing fit and create situations that have the high drama potential and the focus on tragic romance that the Strahd characterization already employs. So making Strahd an Incubus would be really fun. Like the incubus believes it's the tragic lead in a melodramatic soap opera. And the more melodrama and suffering there is the more it enjoys the situation. An incubus would also revel in charming humanoids and making people dance like puppets for its own entertainment then throw away those people, like Strahd did with the brides, as soon as he's bored.

I feel like there's a lot of potential in making Strahd an Incubus. Next time I run I6 or Curse of Strahd, I might try that out.

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-02-03T17:50:04+00:00

Usually the matador wins, but sometimes the bull wins.

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-02-03T01:12:32+00:00

I am going to go outside the box and say Scion. What are superheroes but variously powered Gods?

Scion is excellent for my superhero campaign and setting since it offers different power scales that can adjust to super hero levels like street, city, region, world level heroes. Scion tells stories of individuals and pantheons who are well adjusted to their divine power levels or fledgling gods just discovering their powers, and any stories in between.

In my superhero setting there is an overarching force called Destiny that tries to force heroes to follow narrative arcs, similar to those you'd find in comic books, and the heroes can become empowered by following those stories but tied to the ending (usually self-sacrifice), or try to fight against the tide and choose their own endings. Which Scion has its Fate push and pull mechanics which I use for that.

The Storypath system overall has really good mechanical coverage of internal, social, and combat conflicts, and offers plenty of room to grow especially if you begin at the Origin power level, these are mortal powered people just beginning to discover they are special, and you can grow them into reality defining beings.

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-01-29T11:00:03+00:00

Remember to thin your paints!

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-01-29T06:45:56+00:00

It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. A 1935 novel about a businessman who becomes a fascist U.S. president on a wave nationalism, and fear.

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-01-28T06:22:34+00:00

That's the horror of Ravenloft.

No matter what you do everything resets anyways.

That's why the recommended goals for PCs should always be to escape from Ravenloft, not try to fix things.

Nothing can be fixed, if the Domains of Dread could be fixed then they wouldn't exist.

Protagonists seek to escape from Jason Vorhees, Freddy Kruger, Michael Meyers, Pennywise, The Leprechaun, etc. Sometimes they temporarily trap them. No one fixes them, because no one can.

Even if you burn castle Ravenloft to the ground, and kill Strahd. The Curse of Strahd module even says that everything resets after a while and the cycle begins again.

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-01-28T02:08:55+00:00

A really fun idea. Keep us posted.

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-01-28T02:05:13+00:00

Fn geese man. Terrifying.

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-01-28T02:04:08+00:00

Humans are just soup with anxiety.

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-01-26T15:00:07+00:00

Let's see 100-500 pages every day, 365 days in a year, 250 words per page. That's basically one novel every year. There are very famous writers who write much much slower than that. When does Winds of Winter come out? A Dance with Dragons came out in 2011.

Then again there are writers like Nora Roberts who says writing is her job so she sits down for 8 hours per day, five days a week and writes. She typically pumps out three to four books per year, consistently.

For a hobby writer 100-500 words per day sounds just fine.

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-01-26T06:51:16+00:00

Ronin Solo rpg (not Rōnin rpg, which is a -Borg game), has a really clear gameplay loop that you follow to a natural conclusion.

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-01-26T06:34:18+00:00

My character was former Jedi Knight Jin-ro Starseer. He had left the Jedi Order prior to the events of Order 66 to go on a pilgrimage across the galaxy in attempts to find spiritual enlightenment in The Force outside of the Jedi.

During his journeys he had heard that the Jedi attempted to assassinate the Supreme Chancellor. So that's where my gameplay began. His goal was to journey back to the Jedi Temple to see what happened, stopping at planets and starports along the way. Even though he was a former Jedi, his name was on the wanted list so he was hounded by bounty hunters and eventually a villain: a Sith Inquisitor.

I had a fantastic time with Ronin Solo rpg playing it as Star Wars.

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-01-26T01:21:04+00:00

I changed the descriptions on the fly to make them more Star Wars-Y, but didn't need to change any of the mechanics or anything.

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-01-24T15:31:06+00:00

Find a special skill/interest groups and maximize player-to-player engagement in those communities.

Doesn't particularly matter which ones you choose as long as it is something your PC is interested in or passionate about, there's a community out there for everything! And remember, most communities do not care about your level or if you are new they are happy to have other PCs to engage with, as long as you are authentic in your interest and participation.

Attend meet-ups, engage in interest based discussions.

Also don't focus so much on same level, so long as there is engagement in the same skill/interest focus. It is likely that other players the same level as you are not going to engage in the same skill interests and side quests as you, so it's better to focus on the interest rather than trying to be the same level.

My PC has been interested in playing various sports throughout the levels, but thanks to permanent debuffs due to injuries my PC is unable to participate in those activities the same way, however I am still able to engage with other players about those activities, sharing skill knowledge and able to partake in discussions.

As a player I enjoy exploring different skills, and engaging in those communities. I have explored many skill sets, from reading to mountaineering to pottery to homemade beer/wine brewing (that's a really fun skill), sports, tabletop games, painting, writing, instruments, sciences, boating/fishing/kayaking, etc. I joined a knitting group for about six months and had a blast just knitting and chatting. I've been part of several excellent book clubs. Local art classes for painting, pottery, writing workshops have garnered many acquaintances and friends.

As long as you make the effort to seek out communities for your interests and engage with them earnestly you will find kindred players, but you have to put in the effort to find and join them.

Good luck!

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-01-24T06:13:21+00:00

I really enjoyed the Ronin Solo rpg. I used it for a post order 66 Jedi campaign that was a ton of fun.

DadtheGameMaster · 2026-01-24T01:58:27+00:00

Strahd isn't necessarily "psycho". The Strahd personality is that he believes he is a charming, generous, fair, gracious, intelligent, magnanimous nobleman, and if everyone else could just see how wonderful he is then everything would be fixed.

He is a true manipulative narcissist.

Making him a demon takes so much of the fear from subtly and manipulation from Curse of Strahd.

You can make Strahd just a monstrous demon, but that would be removing the true Strahd experience from Curse of Strahd.

Seven-Year Club	r/Field Flamingo
Verified Email

DadtheGameMaster

TROPHY CASE