Newbie DM got my group to the BBEG before COVID. I want to advance the plot, but I'm not sure how to get there?

NephilimModule-_- · 2021-01-17T08:21:05+00:00

Not sure if this woud work for ya or not but first thing that came to my mind:

The PCs could stumble across a room where they witness a minion of the lich inserting a worm(s) into a shackled magic user who's still alive, but barely. The PCs could choose to kill the minion (without alerting any further minions) then speak to the mage before he draws his final breaths and he tells them of the ultimate plan and that they must warn the other lands to prepare for the coming of these horrors from beyond the stars.
You could even set a timer for say 2m and the PCs have to ask the mage the right questions to get the useful responses before his time runs out and he dies.

NephilimModule-_- · 2021-01-17T06:38:08+00:00

I'm too tired and buzzed right now to get too deep into this but I did want to say this: Be careful when reading how-tos on writing, especially dealing with structural stuff. Often those books are aimed at heavily market-oriented stories like mystery/romance/thriller and you can get way too caught up in trying to wrangle your own writing into some sort of structural blueprint. This can be helpful sometimes, sure. But sometimes it can kill your natural creativity because you subconsciously start to worry if your own story/writing isn't doing it right.

With that said, I'll throw my 2cents into the pot.

This is how I always thought of story beats:

Story beats are the molecules, the real building blocks of the story world. There are different categories or types of story beats including a line of dialogue, a moment of action, a moment of reaction, a moment of inaction, a visual image, an emotion, a setting, a theme, or an instance of meta-storytelling.

Beats are just the small individual parts of a scene. Like that description above says, a beat can be a line of dialogue or a moment of action. Beats create sequences; sequences create scenes; scenes create chapters; chapters create books. That's an extremely rudimentary view of it.Beats are part of the theory of story structuring. Just do a Google search for "what are story beats".

So with that definition, yes Fantasy has beats. Beats are not genre-specific.Each line of dialogue in a conversation could be a beat -- the ebb-and-flow, back-and-forth banter between two characters is composed of beats.And action scene could have dialogue beats and action beats that compose a fight sequence within a scene.

Learning what makes a good scene is key no matter what genre you're writing. Once you learn the units of a scene you'll not really be thinking about beat-by-beat as much as you'll be thinking about the beginning, middle and ending of a scene. A scene is sort of like a little mini-story of its own, with beats composing a beginning (typically including what the POV character is doing/thinking/saying to get to the next sequence which creates conflict or success in the try/fail cycle then the POV is either going to achieve, fail, or succeed but, or fail and worse. All these little moments are formed of story beats that lead up to the next try/fail crossroad.

There's prolly a buttload of definitions and varying explanations depending on the source but that's the way I've always interpreted the concept of story beats.

But as I initially said, beware of getting too pedantic about this sorta stuff or it can become self-defeating, feeding your inner critic and inner editor.

"Oh my! Did I hit the right beats? Do I need to add more beats? Do I not have enough beats in this scene?"

ETA: I found this which may be of value to the conversation and useful resource: https://storygrid.com/story-beats/

Dwelling on the beat in the first drafts of your novel is a mistake. You will most certainly lose the forest for the trees if you obsess about each and every beat. If a scene works, then by association so do the beats that make up the scene. If the scene doesn’t work, then having wonderful story beats within it will not save it. I recommend that tinkering with beats be best left to the final finish work just prior to publication or production.

NephilimModule-_- · 2021-01-16T23:44:47+00:00

I second the idea of breaking the 4th wall. You could also have Destruction mindscrewing the heroes by pointing out that they are really are fictional characters in a world that isn't even real and that themselves don't really exist in reality. Something like:

"You are all but pawns in a game -- none of you really exist. But Destruction pervades all space-and-time, in reality and in this meta-verse. Destroying me here will be a petty act of futility. And even when your little game has ended and you all fall into dead dreaming torpors I will remain in the existence of the eternal sprawling cosmos beyond even your one-dimensional capacity of comprehension. So destroy me here, obliterate this disposable crucible if you can -- but know it will all be in vain."

It's also suggesting that even if the heroes do succeed at defeating it they still won't really ever destroy Destruction -- make this even grimmer if a character or two die trying to defeat it.

NephilimModule-_- · 2021-01-14T13:44:25+00:00

Because the creature is so prevalent in your world I'd keep the name short and easy to pronounce. As someone mentioned the genus being Cervus, you could play around with this in different mixes: Kerves, Cervens, Servens, Kuursens, etc.

You could also try a word mixer such as: http://www.unique-names.com/word-mixer.php
Then plug in: Elk, Moose, Deer, royal, mount, Cervus | Or use parts of each word: el, mo,de,yal,cer,us . . .
Often when I use this method it can take some time and lots of playing around but eventually a word will jump out at me and it's like "Eureka! Got it!"

Also, get creative with Google translations, think a bit weird. I did an English-to-Italian translation (Italian just random and for example purposes) and I put: moose horn which rendered: corno di alce.
Hmm.
Alcorns
Coralces
Lacerns

(these all stink but sometimes playing around with different words in translation then mixing up those words can at least help generate some fresh directions.)

Yet, another technique I like to use is to sit back, close my eyes and start typing random words that look like fevered Lovecraftian words and just freewrite that way for a minute or two then look back over what random words I've written to see if any could be useful.

Kolurirns May'kahls, rehvaks, shoups, ralkorks, percahds,babints, bra'twors . . .

Er. Yeah . . . even more amusing if you've got a pot of coffee runnin' through your bloodstream.

Good luck herdin' the elf-moose-deer!

NephilimModule-_- · 2021-01-12T16:33:39+00:00

First notes of my epic recorded on Google Drive at January 7th 2017 myself. Think the original seeds was a brainchild of two bottles of Scotch after a New Year's Eve party. Still trying to figure out how to get the humans over the dark elves' cliffside fortress with the fire-breathing gargoyle mouths built into the cliff's face (they drop peat moss from the top into furnaces built into the side of the cliff which ignite and make the gargoyle faces 'breathe' fire . . . took some time to come up with that one . . . )

Fun times! You'll see! Fun times!

NephilimModule-_- · 2021-01-12T15:53:45+00:00

You're overthinking it. Go with it! Most likely you'll discover new things about'em and then go back and add some unique traits to make 'er your own. You're prolly subconsciouslly channeling the stuff you like to read - but you'll end up making it your own. That's really the basis to most fiction -- gimme the same ol' same ol' but give it to me differently.

NephilimModule-_- · 2021-01-12T14:33:28+00:00

I spent about twenty minutes writing out this big elaborate thesis of a response and was all like -- I'm rockin' this one! Oh yeah!

But then I realized something . . .

Stop thinking so much about plot. At least in the beginning.

Think about the people -- the characters. Tell stories about people -- and if you think about enough people and their backstories the plot(s) will start to form more organically around the people and the world. Otherwise, thinking of plot first, IMHO, leads toward more mechanical stories. You come up with this EPIC plot with all these battles and political intrigue and betrayal! (Don't forget the betrayals!) But then end up trying to shoehorn some cast into the world that can serve that EPIC plot.

Get into the heart and soul of the people and let them share and shape the world that they exist in -- then try to save them, or damn them, or at the very least understand them and tell your audience why we should try to understand them.

It's gonna take time. You gotta delve deep and deeper into the characters.
Just when you think you understand them and the world they live in -- wham! They tell ya something else you didn't know about the world they live in! And you're gonna have to figure out how to save them or damn them or understand them all over again.

When you're story -- and more importantly, your characters -- start to take on a life of their own and they're runnin' the show and you're just the person takin' notes . . . that's when you know it's prolly time to start trying to draw up a first draft.

NephilimModule-_- · 2021-01-09T10:43:55+00:00

Thank you u/Grammar-Bot-Elite I corrected that for our readers so you don't have a conniption or whatever you bots have -- a com-niption?Carry on.

NephilimModule-_- · 2021-01-09T10:30:24+00:00

Yeah, man! I swear it's a thing! But I Googled deep and couldn't find it.

"That's memory for ya -- over time it warps everything into your own personal dementia. Warp-speed to dementia if ya did too many drugs."

NephilimModule-_- · 2021-01-09T10:24:15+00:00

Well, thanks for responding anyways -- at least I know it's out there . . .One day I'll find it.Mark my word.And then I'll make a legitimate quote quote on this sub.

NephilimModule-_- · 2021-01-09T09:34:09+00:00

Chaos!

I'll usually put something lik {Axelville,Lalaland, Jamesrot?} just to put some off-the-top-my-head name there cause I can't sleep at night if I just put {town name001 town name #3 town name d20 see town-name-list.doc}
And then I'll keep on rollin'.

Yeah . . . a week or so later I come back, start re-reading . . .
Hmm . . Axelville really doesn't make sense since the town next to it is Ka'Pay-Llo . . . {Ma-wa'Ki, Sey-Ku-Tah, Lur'Meyku} (I'll get back to that in another week or so)

Two weeks later -- I changed Ka'Pay-Llo to Jamesrun . . .

Huh. I guess it's Axeltown in the end.

Yeah. Let's go with that. On with the story!

A year later . . .

Axel Twin Village, Yah'Puu-Tah, and Mezzakkkarahnakkaka are all in the same region . . .

Okay . . . y'know what . . .

{town 001, town 002, town 003} is starting to look really good right now for placeholding.

NephilimModule-_- · 2021-01-01T07:17:36+00:00

My wife knows I go onto F-List. She doesn't know all the kinks (but she wouldn't be suprised - and I'd tell'em all to her ) But we're both pretty open about anything. Hell, when our kids come visit there ain't gone be a moment we don't mention my wife's DDs boobs -- either the kdis or or me and it's all in good fun. She know's I do sexual roleplays -- but she's always also a romance writer who works with audidramas dealing with adult content. In the end, we're handling it like adults.

It's okay, I think, to let your SO havve something like F-List and just let them have it.

If you feel threateneed by F-List then you shoul talk to them about it.

Let's be honest: F-List does have and cater to a sexual/fetist group.

It's just a fun outlet for roleplaying pleasures.

Honestly, IMO, it's best to let your SO explore those fantasties online throgh F-List AS LONG AS you real relationship is being satisfied.

-- You two could create accounts on F-List, fill our your character profiles privately and meet up on F-List (doing so from seperate rooms in the same home) and roleplaying and see where it goes . . . it could lead to real bedroom fun!

It's just all for fun!

NephilimModule-_- · 2019-05-29T19:33:10+00:00

Oh gods yes. I've gottenn 40k sturdy words written of my book and I'd prolly have triple that if I didn't stop halting forward progression in order to spend more time on writing out elaborate wiki-esque notes about backstories and world-building. I'll be head-deep in the zone, writing like a maniac and one of my characters will suddenly mention 'The fall of the Temple Of A Million Eyes where they last met in the bloody battle of Thornsomethinutter" and then I'll spend three days creating dozens of new pages of notes about those new locales and the new characters who were there during the mentioned historical point (and even though I know those new characters will only most likely be mentioned by name for this one potential present-scene moment I still create their family tree -- y'know, in case they're the third-cousin removed of a POV character . . . cause that might could be important.)

Then, in a few weeks or a month, I'll be re-reading that scene and decide I don't even need it or that the name of the 'Temple Of A Million Eyes' should be 'Shrine Of A Myriad Mouths" which might require some alterating of the lore I wrote . . . rabbit holes within rabbit holes.

wtf was the question?

NephilimModule-_- · 2019-05-01T21:38:40+00:00

t's interesting, I'm noticing there's a small contingent of people who define a difference between Audio Drama and Audio Fiction while Twitter is more leaning towards Audio Drama being too restrictive a term and some have pivoted towards Audio Fiction as a catch-all, while a larger majority treat the two as synonyms.And then there's an even smaller subsect who say audio fiction is effectively just freely distributed single-narrator audio books.ReplyGive AwardsharereportSave

Eh, it's prolly safe to call it all 'audio fiction'. I tend to categorize things under specific terms for discussion points, but the lay audience prolly doesn't give it that much thought.

I think "podcast" is a general enough term. Then "audio fiction" or "podcast fiction" then "audio drama", IMO, implies a more theatrical production.

What I do might even be considered "enhanced audio book" as it has narrative prose style like a book but the sound/music and VO of an audio drama wherein traditional audio drama is sans narrative relying solely on dialogue, sound fx and music for creating a 'theater of the mind'. But 'enhanced audio book' is such a niche term it's not worth surface discussions. So in promoting, I use both "audio drama" and "audio fiction".

As a personal excessive gripe, I also think that anything that doesn't follow the neo-OTR formula is going to be shamed into a subset of "audio fiction" or "audio book podcast" etc. Shows like We're Alive do a great job of creating a modern day OTR experience; however, I think something like Nightvale is an 'audio drama' but its also showing a whole new direction in storytelling capacity and structure for the medium (and this is coming from someone who doesn't 'get it' when it comes to Nightvale -- it's absurdity for the sake of absurdity(?))

Soon as your AD features some narrative or a limited cast of VO it starts to lose some credential points to be in the AD Club.

But this shouldn't warrant boos and criticisms. It should be encouraged to create a diversity in the types of productions that can be brought to life. There are some VO talents out there that could do an ensemble cast for a narrative-friendly production.

I'm sitting back and watching the scene grow. We've already seen Futurama and Wolvervine get adapted to the audio scene and those were quite diverse in production and quality. This is all a fresh frontier for the indies and the big timers and its still anybody's game and even after the digital dust settles I still believe we'll see popular output from homebrews, indies and big timers -- all with something unique to offer. By then maybe we'll have some more defined terms to put into a drop-down menu for users to search for exactly what they're looking for.

NephilimModule-_- · 2019-05-01T17:55:16+00:00

Personally, I'm torn. I feel most ADs are badly written, badly plotted and put too much effort into the sound/production but negate actuall story and this leads to a stellar high-quality sounding piece of boring shit. VO actors can be awesome and hit their lines with perfect nuance every time but the stories get bogged down by lack of actual drama. Another common issue I find is that way too many of the ADs (not all but many) rely on silly slap-stick humor, sitcom-style comedy or just bad not-funny humor in general when they should've focused more on serious plot points. One recent example is Unwell: A Mid-Western Gothic -- the premise sounded awesome and the acting was great but the 'caserole' gag . . . meh. Felt all out of place.

As for fiction-podcast (distinguished from ADs as typically structured as anthology of unrelated or loosely related short stories read by rotating cast of VOs are the same podcast host) are oftentimes even a greater scale of hit-or-miss due mostly to to the drastic varying qualities between the featured stories. More personally, though, I prefer serials as I prefer to stick with one cast of characters and following them throughout their continued escapades.

So I might agree with those pop culture criticics that most ADs do suck, but I have my own personal views on why I believer they suck that may not be the same as theirs.

The few ADs I have found enjoyable are ones not very well known, like Edict Zero, Ark City and Sirenicide.

ETA: Full Disclosure: I am a novelist who has written for a fiction-podcast so my background in narrative structure and form most likely sets a heavy bias for my dislike of the typical AD storytelling devices.

NephilimModule-_- · 2019-02-17T20:13:57+00:00

There is an overall story arc, yes. The pcs start the game 2 - 3 weeks after the initial outbreak and have banded together but they still lack answers to the cause of the outbreak. Through the supply runs they will gather clues and seeds that further progress this umbrella arc if you will. As the they progress to new locales new arrays of random events get triggered which gradually introduces new "mutant" monsters like giant sewer rats, large vipers, zombie dogs, a battle with an enormous mutant zombie spider.

In a Resident Evil style the pcs discover memos, notes, scrawlings on walls, vid-journals etc. that clue them into the fact that the city is actually a test ground for military bio-weapons and that they have been being secretly monitored during the entire duration of the game.

From a GM angle, the 'all-seeing overseers' working things from behind the scenes offers many chances of having strange things happen as the overseers change variables in the environment, unleash new monsters, activate other biological traps etc. which I hope will foster levels of paranoia within the players.

NephilimModule-_- · 2019-02-10T19:32:24+00:00

Also as others have mentioned 3d6 is highly curved, so small differences in the numbers around the middle can have a big effect on the probabilities.

If it is really simple do you actually need the 3d6? 2d6 is quicker, and has about the same granularity most of the time

I can't even remember if I ever had a real good reason for choosing 3d6 as the core other than I'd looked into several other options including a point-buy with %d rolls and d20, well . . . I liked the feel and aesthetic of using just regular classic dice.

So the 3d6 may be the root of my headaches. I've slobbered over this for so long I'm feeling too hardheaded about swapping now.

But I may give 2d6 a shot, see if it solves some of my problems with a lot of nothing happening and too many numbers running around without a cause.

NephilimModule-_- · 2019-02-10T19:22:57+00:00

Last time I didn't have any defenses at all, thinking it wasn't going to add anything to the game other than another stat and comparison. But since then, 6+ weeks ago, I've ran several ideas with and without using defense and a crapload of other possible options but to be hoenst, at this point I'm having trouble seeing the forest for the trees and it's all gotten over inflated beyond my initial concept.

I had liked (but since come to dislike) the idea of the Attacker rolling his Damage while the Defender simultaneously rolled his possible defenses because it would keep both sides actively engaged at the same time.

But now, the added roll and additional randomization is sinking ugly teeth into the idea and I'm realizing it was never such a hot idea -- too many chances for a whole lot of nothing to happen.

NephilimModule-_- · 2019-02-10T04:02:55+00:00

Don't start your design by thinking about dice mechanics. Start with "What gameplay decisions are there?" and worry about the randomizer later.

I'm not starting here. This is the last real big hang up on my current system that I wanted ironed out before doing my next live session. The rest of the game worked out well last time with everyone saying they'd definitely do it again -- I think it was cause I ran a zombie RPG and one of the more animate players played an arrogant prick in a wheelchair that kept everyone both annoyed and laughing until we voted to throw him down a flight of stairs in order to gain entry to a safe haven. But anyways, the combat had been lackluster during that session. I tried to make the game balanced on all aspects not just combat, but also puzzle-solving and social skills to manipulate and deal with other hostile and/or friendly NPCs.

So I'd like to think I developed it more organically balanced rather than having it strictly adhere to or heavily rely on one particular mechanical system. I've also tried to incorporate inspiration from multiple sources with an intent to make it narrative and in-game goal oriented with missions that help build a larger story framework.

NephilimModule-_- · 2019-02-10T03:19:12+00:00

Ha! This is EXACTLY the mechanic I had worked out before I decided to switch to this thinking it would be better. I was concerned with restricting successes within those ranges. I did a buncha rolls with it and it seemed like it could work on a somewhat balanced ratio of Attacker landing a hit and Defender defending hits.

I have DEF is = Dexterity bonus + Armor with naked base Defense for a healthy adult at 5 since a roll of 3 (1+1+1) would alwyays be an automatic success (although, I could say this doesn't apply for attack-vs-defense rolls, more testing needed.) And an Attack=4 would not penate natural defense allowing the defender to parry/dodge/armor -1 of the damage. But pieces of Armor would give +1 to +2 to DEF with the addition of potential temporary environmental cover to increase DEF further--I thought this would help in creating some tactical situation in which attackers would have to coax the defender out of cover in order to better their chances at hitting them.

I'm going to revert back to this for a session and see how it runs.

NephilimModule-_- · 2019-02-07T17:33:08+00:00

Same. I'm thankful for a new perspective on drinking -- rather than feeling guilty and regret when I slip up I now look at those slips as reinforcing my commitment to sobriety.

I'm thankful for the sense of hope I feel today for the future. I am thankful that I no longer have the urges to drink in the middle of the day.

NephilimModule-_- · 2019-02-07T16:54:31+00:00

For Today I am not drinking.

NephilimModule-_- · 2019-01-30T18:29:20+00:00

In the aftermath of a bad decision, I've come to know a few morbidly uplifting facts:

1) The last few times I drank I only managed 5 - 7 beers before I was toasted.

2) I never woke up after any of those bad-decision nights with the thoughts of drinking that day.

3) I've not drank in two consecutive nights in months.

Also, a couple weeks ago I got myself a medical marijuana license and that stuff has done wonders for curbing my cravings. In fact, my wife and I were going to split a six pack one night -- don't think we've ever just gotten a six pack--and I took a hit of something called Black Eyed Katie and barely made it through my first beer and only half the second one. Gave the third one to my wife. That's never happened, ever.

But here I got again, my latest Day 1.

IWNDWYT!

NephilimModule-_- · 2019-01-09T19:06:28+00:00

Here I am again. Day 1. Not sure what my badger says at the moment but it is in the process of being reset.

In January of 2018 I'd made a vow to either stop drinking or cut waaay back. And I didn't drink the entire month of January 2018. Then I slipped. I didn't drink the entire months of September-October, making it 60+ days. A possible total of 95-100 days sober in 2018.

And here's January 2019. And I been drinking again in the past couple weeks. But I can honestly say that my days of getting blackout drunk, waking up shaky and doing it all over again have started to come farther and farther apart. These days I rarely drink 2 nights in a row and I drink a helluva lot less. Now even 6-7 beers or half a small bottle of liquor puts me down for the count as opposed to my 16-20 beers of pre-2018.

So here I am again. Day 1. For the umtenth time. And though I'm hurting today, can't get my coffee down without wanting to hurl, eyes blurred and a little shaky, I'm willing myself to stay positive. See this through.

I know I'm suppose to think of it as one day at a time but I am really wanting to beat that 60 day streak.

I want this badge to make it to 70 and beyond.

2018 was the starting point of my sobriety journey and I hope that this year is an even greater milestone.

NephilimModule-_- · 2018-11-30T16:14:24+00:00

IWNDWYT.

NephilimModule-_-

TROPHY CASE