Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

[Misfit Angel]

As Arkadelphiak and Aether might say: RIPPERONI

why oh why did you put this terrible thought in my head: pepperoni made with Furret meat.

I was a completely innocent person until this moment, thanks

 

[Lyrebird]

My goal was to finish writing one piece of fiction and I accomplished that. I'm never going to write another story again.

 

[Beth Pavell]

So just curiously, how many of you guys plan to eventually kill off one of your main characters?

In the most banal way possible. As in random chance banal.

Anyway, I get the impression that some authors tend to think of character death rather like one of my old former someone I used to play RPGs with - as kind of like a box to tick to prove the story is serious. I've never quite liked that idea. In an RPG context deciding to just kill a PC is unfair on the player, since as the GM you can do as you please. In a fiction context I tend to think that the serious threat of death should be more important. If the stakes feel as high as all that, it won't really matter - as much - if the characters come through it alive

 

[Instrutilus]

I take a dice and roll it when I'm deciding on events that could kill someone. One story will end with a total party kill as a result.

 

[Ereshkigal]

In the most banal way possible. As in random chance banal.

Anyway, I get the impression that some authors tend to think of character death rather like one of my old former someone I used to play RPGs with - as kind of like a box to tick to prove the story is serious. I've never quite liked that idea. In an RPG context deciding to just kill a PC is unfair on the player, since as the GM you can do as you please. In a fiction context I tend to think that the serious threat of death should be more important. If the stakes feel as high as all that, it won't really matter - as much - if the characters come through it alive

I get the same impression. As such, I tend to use character death to signal what kind of story it is and the nature of the serious events. And to illustrate just how serious things were to force some of the changes we see in-story.

 

[Misfit Angel]

I take a dice and roll it when I'm deciding on events that could kill someone. One story will end with a total party kill as a result.

"Your party is walking down the street."

*rolls dice*

"There's a giant flash of light in the sky! Quick, roll a perception check!"

*all fail to accurately figure out what's going on*

"No bonus XP this time, sorry guys. Now, let's see some saving rolls."

*one character rolls a 1 while the rest roll higher than 12*

"Sorry, you've died because of a meteor strike. The rest of you, singed hair."

 

[diamondpearl876]

why oh why did you put this terrible thought in my head: pepperoni made with Furret meat.

I was a completely innocent person until this moment, thanks

Sadly, Phantom Project seems to have been reduced to comments about pepperoni and dead furrets off of the forum, so... at least your fic is innocent, even if you're not?

 

[Instrutilus]

"Your party is walking down the street."

*rolls dice*

"There's a giant flash of light in the sky! Quick, roll a perception check!"

*all fail to accurately figure out what's going on*

"No bonus XP this time, sorry guys. Now, let's see some saving rolls."

*one character rolls a 1 while the rest roll higher than 12*

"Sorry, you've died because of a meteor strike. The rest of you, singed hair."

Hey, one character warned him about practicing Draco Meteor without an expert nearby! I can't be blamed for that.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Actually, now I think about it, I did once try to kill a PC. He was getting cocky about all the defences he'd stacked onto his character so I decided to remind him that on my tabletop there's no such thing as invincibility

 

[Instrutilus]

Actually, now I think about it, I did once try to kill a PC. He was getting cocky about all the defences he'd stacked onto his character so I decided to remind him that on my tabletop there's no such thing as invincibility

So how did you go about it? Just "Instant Kill" or try and draw it out to mock his attempts at invulnerability?

 

[Ereshkigal]

So how did you go about it? Just "Instant Kill" or try and draw it out to mock his attempts at invulnerability?

I dunno how she did it, but I like to use their defenses against them.

There's nothing quite like the look on an overcocky wizard player's face when they walk into a wild magic zone and all of their defensive spells convert to fireballs...

 

[Beth Pavell]

A little bit of both, actually. If I had gone for the "Smitten by the hand of god" approach he would have just said it didn't count because I was ignoring the rules. So I did a bit of digging and found a curse that bypasses conventional defences.

I rather enjoyed the look on his face as he did the maths and realised that if I had rolled just a bit higher his character's heart would have exploded

 

[Instrutilus]

I've never played tabletop RPs, I should probably look into playing one...

...oh wait, no friends, never mind

 

[Beth Pavell]

PC gaming killed off my group. I got tired of writing games only for them to go unplayed at the last minute

 

[Instrutilus]

Well I hope you either find a new group or a better outlet for your creativity.

 

[Ghostsoul]

I've started playing DnD recently, goodness I am awful at it though!

 

[Misfit Angel]

Interestingly, PC gaming was what formed my most recent group. We all met on a trashy MMO and decided that we could do better than the crap we were playing, so we started up a (virtual) tabletop group. And then Overwatch was released... Never heard from some of them again. :|

 

[Jaypom]

Interestingly, PC gaming was what formed my most recent group. We all met on a trashy MMO and decided that we could do better than the crap we were playing, so we started up a (virtual) tabletop group. And then Overwatch was released... Never heard from some of them again. :|

Sounds like a typical symptom of overwatch

 

[Ereshkigal]

Interestingly, PC gaming was what formed my most recent group. We all met on a trashy MMO and decided that we could do better than the crap we were playing, so we started up a (virtual) tabletop group. And then Overwatch was released... Never heard from some of them again. :|

This is why I tend to prefer face-to-face. Then, if they're not going to show because of something like Overwatch, you typically get more forewarning.

 

[Instrutilus]

Incidentally, I'll be disappearing for a week with Breath of the Wild coming out. Hopefully nothing major happens that I miss...

One week later...