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Top 10 Tricks to Make your Villain Stand Out

Top 10 Tricks to Make your Villain Stand Out
Welcome back to the column that breaks down gaming into what’s really important, ten things at a time! Any story arc needs a good villain. The best big bads are more than just another devil or vampire or dragon. These ten suggestions can help take your villain above and beyond the ordinary and give your players a more memorable game. 1. Why do people follow this villain? 2. The villain should have a single overriding goal that drives all his or her actions. 3. Along with the goal, place concrete steps the villain needs to take to reach the goal. 4. The villain should be making progress if nobody is stopping him or her. 5. Give your villain a weakness the adventurers can figure out and exploit. 6. Avoid faceless or generic threats. 7. Make the villain’s presence known in every corner of the campaign. 8. One of the best ways to make the villain’s presence known is by reusing symbols and calling cards. 9. 10. Powered By DT Author Box Written by loganbonner Rating: 4.2/5 (25 votes cast)

Personality Traits, Character traits, Human Traits, personal characteristics, human qualities, Traits of Human Consciousness, human makeup, personal attitudes, negative attitudes, positive attitudes, list, makeup of the individual human, endowments, consc Several Steps Further: Aside from the listing above, traits of human consciousness can be viewed from a number of other perspectives. Here are several: Traits Organized from Psychological (Inner-oriented) to Social (Outer-oriented) Human personality/character traits can be divided by those that are inner/psychological; and those that are outer-oriented/social. Traits Expressing in the Vertical Scale of Human Consciousness (Physical, Vital, Mental) The individual human expresses exits at three fundamental planes or levels of being -- mental, vital, and physical. ARTICLE: Positive and Negative Human Traits (from a spiritual perspective) New Fundamental Traits/Capacities that Enable Higher Achievement and Personal Growth From our research, we have determined that there are certain fundamental human traits and capacities that enable an individual to accomplish at a higher level, as well as rise in consciousness and fulfillment in life. Personal and Society's Values

RPG-SoundMixer - The new PnP RPG Experience She's Such a Character: 8 Tips for Creating Characters By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy I'm well into week two of a terrible cold, but just well enough to get something accomplished, so I'm dipping into the archives again. Here are some tips to consider when creating a character. Characters make the story. No matter how intriguing the idea or exciting the plot, if there isn't a character there we care about (even if it's just curiosity or fascination) the rest of it falls flat. There are all kinds of ways to develop characters. I'm not one of those writers. What I've found more useful, is to ask questions about my characters that pertain to their lives and how that works with the story. And if you can't answer everything, or only have vague ideas at first, that's okay. There's nothing wrong with starting a story with basic, underdeveloped characters if you need to write them to know them. Here are some things to consider when creating a character: 1. Chances are these needs will be connected to the core conflict of the story. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3.

Writing Killer Fight Scenes Fight scenes are dangerous territory for writers. On the surface, they seem as if they’re guaranteed to keep the reader glued to the action in the same way as they often do at the movies. In reality, though, readers tend to skip over fight scenes – skimming the long, tedious, blow-by-blow descriptions in favour of getting back to the dialogue and character-driven drama that truly engages them in the story. My novel, Traitor’s Blade, is a swashbuckling fantasy in which fight scenes are a crucial part of the storytelling. This means having to ensure that every piece of action is vital and engaging; it means that every duel must draw the reader in and not let them go until the end. GIVEAWAY: Sebastien is excited to give away a free copy of his novel to a random commenter. Column by Sebastien de Castell, who had just finished a degree in archaeology when he started work on his first job. 1. No matter what you might think, violence is actually boring. 2. 3. 4. 5. You might also like:

Character Trait Chart Character Trait Chart and Personality Components It can sometimes be helpful to make a Trait Chart for each character. To use this chart, print it out and make a copy for each of your characters. Full name - a character's name is very important. Besides the character's official name, we also need to know what he is called (and, perhaps, what he prefers to be called). Date of Birth/Age - we should carefully consider assigning our character a birthday. Address - this can be as detailed or as vague as you wish, but it should answer a few questions: does the character live in a large city, the suburbs, a small town or deep in the country? Height - this doesn't need to be specific. Weight/Body Build - again, we don't really need to know a character's exact weight, only if he or she is stocky, slender or "had a figure that . . ." Hair - keep in mind the character's ethnic background in assigning hair and eye color. Health - does your character have any health problems or weaknesses? Questions?

Creative Writing For Dummies Cheat Sheet Rewriting and editing helps to tighten up your work. But it can be difficult – what to chop and when to stop may not be clear, and you may change your mind more than once during the process. Ask yourself whether you need to take out: Unnecessary information and explanation. Passages of dialogue that go on too long. Clunky descriptions that give too much detail. You may need to add or expand: Something you know but have forgotten to tell the reader; perhaps the age of the main character. You may need to move: Dramatic sections to make a stronger opening. In your final edit: Check for grammar, punctuation and spelling mistakes. Illustrations by Daniela Uhlig | Designerscouch #thecritiquenetwork Creating A Great Antagonist | Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors The antagonist or antagonists of a story are often the central driving force to the story or what causes the central driving force to come into being. That being said, a lot of thought has to go into creating an antagonist, especially the central antagonist. In fact, for horror novelists such as myself, it’s often one of the first things we come up with in a story, and what we often use to describe our stories to others (ex. “an evil clown demon terrorizes a small town”, “a cult leader with horrifying dark powers and those who stand against him”, “two children fall through a doorway to a world where the demonic ruler has a terrifying interest in the young boy”) When designing antagonists (human or otherwise), there are a few things I try to keep in mind in order to make them as evil/terrifying/monstrous as possible. 1. 2. 3. And now that we’ve come up with the antagonist’s motives and who’s going to try to stop him. 4. This is basically how I design villains. Like this: Like Loading...

How to Write a Flat Character Arc, Pt. 1: The First Act Next to the positive change arc, the flat character arc is the most popular storyline. Also called the “testing arc,” the flat arc is about a character who does not change. He already has the Truth figured out in the beginning of the story, and he uses that Truth to help him overcome various external tests. The flat-arc protagonist will be confronted with tremendous opposition. …the protagonist changes his perspective, learns different skills, or gains a different role. So how exactly does this work? If you’ve hung with me for the last few months, you’re already familiar with the foundational principles of the positive change arc. The Truth the Character Believes The positive change arc is all about the Lie the Character Believes—which he will spend the entire story overcoming. This is why we often see change arcs in the first book in a series and flat arcs in the following books. The Normal World The Characteristic Moment The First Act 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

How to Create a Character | How To's by Holly Lisle All Rights Reserved No matter what sort of fiction you’re writing, you’re going to have to populate your story with characters, and a lot of them, if not all of them, you’re going to have to create from scratch. Unfortunately — or maybe fortunately — there is no Betty Crocker Instant Character-In-A-Can that you can mix with water and pop into the oven for twenty minutes. There aren’t any quick and easy recipes, and I don’t have one either, but I do have some things that have worked for me when creating my characters, and some things that haven’t. Don’t start your character off with a name or a physical description. I know this doesn’t seem logical at first glance — after all, you name a baby before you get to know him very well. There are a couple of reasons. Do start developing your character by giving him a problem, a dramatic need, a compulsion. What does the character want? Don’t rely on crutches. Do empathize with your character. This is sometimes easy.

Writers' Workshop | Characterisation How to write convincing characters Characterisation - the task of building characters - isn't easy. But if you're struggling to build characters with real life and vigour, just follow these rules. If you do follow them correctly, we can pretty much guarantee that your characterisation will be just fine! Know what kind of character you are writing There are roughly two types of protagonist in fiction. The second type of character (rather less common, in fact) is the genuinely extraordinary character who would make things happen in an empty room. Either type of character is fine - don't struggle to equip your ordinary character with a whole lot of amazing skills, or try to 'humanise' your James Bond character by making him nice to old ladies and interested in baking. Empathy is about story and good writing Likewise, don't worry too much if your character is likeable. A) you write well enough that your reader is drawn in to your protagonist's world, whether they like it or not; and

Bug Out Bag - The 7 Types of Gear You Must Have to Survive Bug Out Bag For someone new to being a Survivalist building your first Bug Out Bag can seem like a big task. Everybody you read about has been tweaking theirs for months or even years and has a pile of gear built up. It’s hard to know where to start, but if you cover all of the basics in a survival situation you will still be much better off that 99% of the people. A Bug Out Bag, also called a BOB, I.N.C.H Bag (I’m Never Coming Home Bag),Get Out of Dodge Bag (GOOD Bag), or 72 Hour Bag is usually designed to get you out of an emergency situation and allow you to survive self-contained for up to 3 days. Here are the 7 basic types of gear you will need for your Bug Out Bag: 1. It should go without saying that water is a survival basic for any situation. 1 Liter per day per person is really the bare minimum. To expand your capability or survive longer than a couple of days you will need a water purification system. 2. Backpack Meals 3. 4. They Don’t have a ground tarp… 5. 6. 7.

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