OngoingWorlds blog

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

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Add more drama: Natural disasters

Volcano by ZombieSmith

Stories without drama are really boring, which is why in TV, books and films, characters are always faced with perils to survive and overcome. Natural disasters are excellent ways to add drama to a story.  Read More

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Do your roleplay villains have a sensible cause?

10433202_10152850667551605_3472694221903309925_nHaving villains in your roleplay works so much better when they’re realistic. We’ve posted some tips about creating an effective villain before (read it here), but what also makes a big difference is credibility (we’ve posted an article about this before too – see here).

The best villains aren’t just ones that are “evil” or do “evil things”, because if you think about it… what does that mean? That’s not realistic. Read More

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‘Newest games’ added to homepage

newest games homepage

The paradox of creating a new roleplaying game is that people will be less likely to join a new game if there’s no players, meaning you can’t get players until you… have players.  Read More

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8 articles that’ll improve your writing by Bang2Write

Characters

As a roleplayer it can sometimes be easy to forget you’re a writer. But… you spend a lot of time writing about characters and scenareos, so… you’re a writer! Here’s some links to articles from a great website called Bang2Write: Read More

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Is the term “Mary Sue” sexist & belittling?

Peggy carter is a strong female character, but that doesn't make her a mary sue
There’s an ongoing debate about the term Mary Sue, and what it means in the literary world. In roleplaying, we know that Mary Sue characters can ruin a game for others, but in a novel surely it’s okay for a protagonist to hog the limelight and display all the characteristics of a typical Mary Sue, right? Read More

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I’ve always been fascinated by Star Trek’s vision of the future

This article was written for us by A.S. Williamson, about the new Star Trek Victory game which launches soon. We don’t normally post articles that are adverts for games, but I thought this showed an insight on roleplaying which was quite interesting. – Onion

USS Victory miranda class

I’ve always been fascinated by Star Trek’s vision of the future

It’s not just the spaceships and the aliens, the technology and wonder – it’s this really unique look at the way that humanity evolves over the universe’s run. Read More

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Top 10 overused plot devices that you definitely SHOULD use in your game

halo4_02

This week I found a great article of 10 overused plot devices (read it here), the author says NOT to use these in fiction, but I think we definitely SHOULD use them in roleplaying games! Read More

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Most popular articles on the blog in 2014

tardis deloreanAs 2014 comes to a close, and we approach 2015 (accurately depicted of course in the 1989 documentary Back to the Future II), lets look at the most popular articles from this blog over the last year. Read More

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StatCat – The year in review

statcat3

StatCat, our clever moggie is back with some interesting stats from throughout the year of 2014. Read More

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A character does not breathe until that first post

many individual roleplay characters

A few weeks ago I posted an article about creating believable characters, and using the 2:1 rule for flaws vs awesome. Read More