Sep
23
I just finished watching the latest series of Torchwood. Despite its many flaws, it’s a fun series. The final cliffhanger of the series though has left me asking a question that applies to other TV series, roleplaying games, and any ongoing stories. Read More
Aug
27
I’m sure you’ve seen TV series where no-matter what happens in the episode, everything is back to normal again by the end, ready to start next time. TV Tropes calls this the “reset button”.
The Reset Button is any means by which previously occurring drastic events are made partially or wholly irrelevant by the end of the story. This is very common to American TV shows both live-action and animated, particularly from The Sixties through The Nineties, because programming directors like to have the luxury of repeating episodes in any order or no particular order at all.
TV Tropes – Reset Button
Resetting the story is way to make sure that the viewer/reader doesn’t have to sit through lots of episodes of back-story to understand the characters, or what’s happened to get them to the current point in the story.
“It’s just a matter of knowing the secret of all TV shows; At the end of the episode, everything is always right back to normal.”
— Fry, Futurama
It can be extremely limiting because you can only go so far with a story before you have to reset it all, but also can be very useful.
Aug
19
If you’ve not heard about Flashback week, see the details here and remember to enter the competition here.
In my last article I explained that flashbacks are great ways to help build your character, and they’re also really great fun to write because it gives you a totally open canvas to put your character anywhere and in any situation. If you’re writing about them with others as part of a roleplaying game, this can sometimes be quite a difficult thing to do, because you’ll have to get everyone else to agree that the story is taking a turn in the direction you want it to. But as anyone who’s ever done collaborative writing knows, the story won’t always go in that direction!
Aug
17
You might need some inspiration for flashback week if you want to create a really good back-story for your character, and want to enter the competition. We’ve shown you movies with flashbacks in them before, but there’s just so many, so here are some more to inspire you to write your own! Well you can watch all your favorite movies freely at https://freecouchtuner.com/years.
Despite not flashbacks in the conventional sense of cinema, we see glimpses of the main character’s life (Jim Carey), including many moments he shared with his girlfriend (Kate Winslet) as they are being erased by a company he’s paid to eradicate memories of their relationship.
Jul
25
Probably the biggest obstacle facing the Babylon 5 roleplayer is the huge scale and undeniable canonicity of Joe Michael Straczynski’s original vision, which covers several decades of detailed history and spans 2000 years in total. While most science fiction TV shows (Star Trek in particular) occupy wider, very versatile universes – an open landscape with canonical building plots available – the Babylon 5 universe is structured very closely around the events of the show itself. The Babylon station sits at the very centre of this universe, a focal point through which all the most interesting storylines pass. Stepping out of its long shadow is not easy, as the two ill-fated Babylon 5 spin-off shows demonstrate.
The B5 roleplayer therefore has two options; attempt to avoid the Babylon station and its long legacy altogether, or meet the complex existing plot lines head on. Read More
Jul
21
Last year we announced the first ever ‘Flashback Week’ a week-long writing event where writers and roleplayers were encouraged to think about something that happened in their characters past. The event isn’t held anywhere, there’s no fee, and there’s barely any rules – only to write a flashback about your character and your story and tell everyone about it. Oh, and to have fun!
Flashback week is the 2nd week in August, starting Sunday the 14th. If you’re writing in that week, make sure to include a flashback!
Apr
24
This article was first written by Jenn Brown as a talk for Derby Scribes, a group that meet every two weeks to discuss writing. I thought it was relevant to post here to show the similarities and differences between fanfiction and roleplaying.
Fan fiction is a piece of fiction that is set is somebody else’s fictional universe. It can be based on films, television programmes, books, or games. It could be a novelisation of events already dreamed up by the original creator, but is more usually a story of the fan’s own making that simply uses the original creator’s characters and universe for its actors and stage. It’s mainly an internet phenomenon, as the ‘net provides the perfect basis for sharing it with other fans.
Mar
20
If you’re creating a new roleplaying game, you might have given a lot of thought into the game you’re creating and the world where it all takes place. This might involve you doing a lot of worldbuilding to create a really imaginative but believable fantasy world. But remember that if you’re the next Tolkien or George Lucas, your members might not have the time to read the 10 pages of backstory and description about your world, how it was created and who each of the species are who inhabit it.
Feb
25
Zero Sum Game is one of Mack's novels in the Star Trek: Typhon Pact series
I was recently told by Miles Unam from the PBEM group Starbase 118 that he’d managed to get an interview with Star Trek author David Mack.
David Mack is the national bestselling author of more than twenty novels and novellas, including Wildfire, Harbinger, Reap the Whirlwind, Precipice, Road of Bones, Promises Broken, and the Star Trek Destiny trilogy: Gods of Night, Mere Mortals, and Lost Souls. He developed the Star Trek Vanguard series concept with editor Marco Palmieri. His first work of original fiction is the critically acclaimed supernatural thriller The Calling.
In addition to novels, Mr. Mack’s writing credits span several media, including television (for episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), film, short fiction, magazines, newspapers, comic books, computer games, radio, and the Internet.
Mr. Mack was gracious enough to talk with Tallis Rhul, a member of UFOP: StarBase 118, about his experiences with writing for Star Trek and his advice for aspiring writers. This is the first time I’ve seen a member of a PBEM game get an interview with a professional author, and it’s really interesting to read about how he has created new villain aliens in the Star Trek universe, as well as expanding on existing races, like the Breen, which was a race only barely mentioned in Star Trek: DS9.
You can read the full interview at StarBase 118’s website here
Oct
21
This article was contributed by Meg Gingie, a member of rolplaying game Reign of Blood
by Meg Gingie
While creating a character, you’re faced with several questions about it: What gender should they be? What should they look like? What should their names be? What background do they come from? Nearly all of those questions fall under what ethnicity/ies your character is/are. Going deeper into a character’s history makes it more tangible to other readers and much more interesting for them to read about and relate to.
