
For Roleplayers Who Start Writing - BerislavLopac
https://mythcreants.com/blog/nine-truths-for-roleplayers-who-start-writing/
======
Aeghie6i
All of this is true if you write to be read.

I used to write a lot when I was younger, but this was always painful. My
friend and family would go "meh" when reading what I wrote (they're not avid
readers themselves), other writers would "love it", then want to change
everything, and I started to second guess everything I was writing, to the
point I didn't love it anymore and procrastinated more and more until I had to
admit to myself I just stopped writing.

And then, a few years ago, I started playing dungeons and dragons, in play by
post games. It was fun, and I did enjoy writing again, even if it was casual
writing.

Then it hit me : why not play solo and go a bit further? I started playing
alone, doing both the game master and the players, all written (while still
continuing other games with people, of course). And this was _incredibly_ fun.
It was the same feeling that I had when I started writing younger, but with no
obstacles anymore. Plus, because of the dice rolls, even I was not sure what
would happen next. I take weeks to create characters with detailed
personalities and backstory, I drop them in the story, and I discover them,
because it's only when they face a given situation or talk with a given
character that it becomes obvious how they will react.

I would recommend that to anyone who loves writing. There's nobody to tell you
it's too short, or it's too long, or this section is not detailed enough, or
this one is boringly full of details. If you write only for yourself, you can
focus on the best things in writing : imagination, and having fun.

~~~
mttyng
I’ve wanted to try D&D, but don’t know anyone else that plays. Are there other
mediums to play in (i.e. is “by post” still a thing)?

~~~
Ui1ahcex
Additionally to what others mentioned, Dnd Beyond [1] has a quite active play
by post board on their forum. It's great to get started, but games tend to
rarely go to the end of the campaign and stop after a few months. It's still a
good thing as a first experience.

After that, I would recommend to find friends to play by mail. Somehow, I
noticed players less easily give up the game when they're friends. Simply by
talking regularly about your first games is usually enough to get other
friends interested. Just don't push it on them and let them come by
themselves, as it's quite a commitment and will be felt as a burden if they
feel they're playing with you just to be nice to you.

[1] [https://www.dndbeyond.com/](https://www.dndbeyond.com/)

------
deathgrips
Good article. On the last point, about delayed gratification when writing: one
way, and perhaps _the_ way to complete a long writing project is to enjoy what
you are writing, which means you are writing the book that you would enjoy
reading. I've tried multiple times to come up with a novel idea that would
sell but I ended up never pursuing them. Once I started thinking really hard
about a story that I wish someone else had already made, I got started and
enjoyed the whole process.

A corollary to this is that you must know what kind of stories you like, which
means you have to develop your taste. I don't mean "taste" in the sense that
you have the same opinions as New York Times critics. I mean that when you
watch a movie or read a book that you enjoy, try to understand what parts of
it you enjoyed, what parts of it you didn't enjoy, and how you would change it
to make it better. This doesn't just apply to literature. In developing your
artistic taste, you could try to understand exactly what part of an awesome
painting evokes feeling in you.

After I started thinking this way, I came up with a story that might not
appeal to most people but sure as hell felt moving to me. I realized that the
story could be told better in a visual format instead of in prose, so I
started practicing art again. I'm a perfectionist who hated drawing when I
studied art in school, but now that I have this idea in my head I feel very
little inhibition in practicing. Instead of wondering how to make my story
sell better or second guessing every mark I make, I move forward because if I
hesitate I feel like I'm letting down the characters in the story I want to be
told.

------
Everlag
Most good rules always have an exception, Malazan[0] is a fun set of
exceptions to these.

If you're not familiar, Malazan is a series of high fantasy novels and they're
quite good. Well, they're excellent apart from the first book which is usually
what kills the series for people. Just start on the second book if you're
interested in trying out the series.

Malazan started as a setting from some campaigns and grew from there, so this
feels pretty appropriate to bring up.

\- It has an absurd number of characters. On your first read you will lose
track of who Widdershins is. Hell, between books you'll probably forget who
Bottle is. This is a listed of named characters[1].

\- A bunch of events that happen in earlier books don't make sense at that
point. The setting slowly unveils its magic system and world between each
books. By the tenth book, most things that were confusing are justified.

\- Character motivation is usually upfront except for a few characters that
define the majority of the plot's direction. Those characters are complete
blackboxes. Some of those are viewpoint characters that become non-viewpoint
characters.

\- Jokes are sometimes appropriate in even the worst situations because its
appropriate to that set of characters.

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malazan_Book_of_the_Fallen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malazan_Book_of_the_Fallen)
[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Malazan_Book_of_the_Fa...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Malazan_Book_of_the_Fallen_characters)

~~~
Wowfunhappy
> Just start on the second book if you're interested in trying out the series.

Can you keep going from two onward or do you have to go back at some point?

~~~
AllegedAlec
Gardens of the moon is sort of required for Memories of Ice. A lot of the
characters pivotal in Memories of Ice are introduced in the Gardens of the
Moon.

If Malazan book of the fallen is for you, you'll know after reading book 2.

Although, in all honesty: I _wouldn 't_ start with Deadhouse Gates. Although
it contains one of the best plotlines in the series, it also contains the
worst character, and she drags stuff down a lot. Were it not for having read
through the first book, I would've probably stopped because of her.

------
captn3m0
If you're planning to write a RPG as a story, Microscope[0] is very well
designed for this. I've been playing it recently across multiple groups, and
it shines for the "big-picture" usecase. It is often used as a "bootstrap-
your-actual-RPG-campaign" scenario builder. You play with your group for a few
sessions, and you end up with a world complete with plothooks, campaigns,
motivations, challenges etc.

The expansion set, Microscope Explorer[1], optimizes the rules a little bit
for World-building, but that's entirely optional - You can easily go miles
with just the standard rules ("Just Play Normally" is part of the expansion
here).

Also, random related trivia: Expanse[2], the famous book series that was
adapted into the (now) Amazon-run TV series is a RPG game written down. This
explains a lot of character actions that are very much player/character
driven, and not plot driven.

[0]:
[http://www.lamemage.com/microscope/](http://www.lamemage.com/microscope/)

[1]: [http://www.lamemage.com/microscope-
explorer/](http://www.lamemage.com/microscope-explorer/)

[2]: [https://www.cbr.com/the-expanse-series-rpg/](https://www.cbr.com/the-
expanse-series-rpg/)

------
BerislavLopac
Pretty much all of my life I have been trying to write, even managed to
publish some shorter works and, ironically, ultimately ending up in a 25-years
long software engineering career due to writing (it's a long story). I've also
done plenty of roleplaying, across a number of different systems (including
several of my own).

But the main roadblock in my writing has always been my problem to find a
story. I can build worlds and invent interesting characters to no end, and
describe cool scenes and situations -- but any attempt to have some kind of a
coherent story has always ended up looking like, at best, a second-class rip
off of one or another of my favourites works of fiction... :(

