Serendipity Peter's guide to map creation: How to create fantasy maps Here is my take on creating maps for roleplaying games. Off course, you will be able to use the method for other purposes also, but why spend time doing anything, which isn't related to roleplaying:-)To see what a map done according to my advice might look like, here is one of the maps I did (180kB). Preparations Step 1.1 Determine how you want the world to look. Draw some loose sketches. Step 1.2 Determine the map scale. Step 1.3 Get access to a good drawing program. Step 1.4 Get access to a scanner. Startup Step 2.1 By now, you should have a rough sketch of the map in front of you. Step 2.2 This is very important! Step 2.3 Then, look at the map you drew. Step 2.4 Since mountains is the feature I have the greatest difficulty getting just right, I've made a page to describe how I do them. Step 2.5 Review the map. Step 2.6 Scan the map. If you want to make changes, you can draw with a black painbrush tool to make corrections after erasing the faulty lines. Computer manipulation Step 3.1
Write It Sideways » Blog Archive » 5 Visual Strategies for Plotting Your Novel I don’t know about you, but for me, plotting a full-length novel is one of the most difficult aspects of writing. I tend to come up with a great premise, but turning that into a plot becomes a lot of work. I don’t usually get it right the first time, either. Personally, what works best for me during this outlining process is to have plenty of visual material on hand. Here are 5 visual strategies I have used for outlining: 1. Pictures are a great way to visualize your plot, setting, and characters. You can keep either a digital file of pictures on your computer (taken yourself with a digital camera, or ones you find on the internet), or a real file with film pictures/magazine cutouts. Whichever you use, make sure you hold onto them for when you start actually writing. 2. There are a few different types of writing software on the market, all of which help you organize your projects into bite-sized pieces for ease of writing and revising. 3. 4. 5. Visualize Your Plot
Place Name Generator - Generate Fantasy City, Country and Town Names! Jump down to the Generator If you have come here looking for a fictional place name, you have probably tried to come up with one and you know just how hard it is. To create a good interesting place name you will need time and a lot of investment, you probably do not want to spend hours just on a place name, you have a book to write or a game to make/play. This generator will hopefully help you on your way to finding the perfect place name for your book, game or what ever you are playing/working on. There have been millions of place names created throughout history for cities, countries and towns, some stand the test of time and others get changed or forgotten, by using this place name generator you should be able to find a suitable name which will be interesting and memorable. Southspell Place Names Generated: Favorite Names: Click on the names you like the best. Southspell Copy your names before you leave.
Realistic Lateral Thinking Puzzles Lateral Thinking Puzzles, unlike most puzzles, are inexact. In a sense, they are a hybrid between puzzles and storytelling. In each puzzle, some clues to a scenario are given, but the clues don't tell the full story. Your job is to fill in the details and complete the story. You can try solving these puzzles on your own -- that's certainly a legitimate way to go about this -- but usually you can have more fun if you involve other people. Warning: For some reason, these puzzles have a tendency to be rather morbid. The scenarios given on this page are realistic, if unlikely.
religion in fantasy novels | helluo librorum Since no one burned my house down after the Tolkien post, I’m going out on a limb here and talk to you about using religion in your fantasy novels. Generally speaking, when building worlds in fantasy novels, the religions of your world will be a reflection of the religions here on good old planet earth. So I’m going to offer a few suggestions – take them or leave them: Know thy religion. If you’re basing your world’s religion on an existing faith thoroughly understand those beliefs. If all you have is superficial knowledge of a religion, it will show in your writing; at best you will look inexperienced, at worst, like an idiot. Understand the core beliefs. Avoid stereotypes. Religions don’t kill. Treat all religions with respect. Don’t be malicious. World building is a difficult process; as a fantasy writer you are creating a whole social order, and you want it to be believable. A few articles to see: Like this: Like Loading... Please visit my web site at: www.teresafrohock.com
Medieval Demographics Made Easy Fantasy worlds come in many varieties, from the "hard core" medieval-simulation school to the more fanciful realms of high fantasy, with alabaster castles and jeweled gardens in the place of the more traditional muddy squalor. Despite their differences, these share a vital common element: ordinary people. Most realms of fantasy, no matter how baroque or magical, can not get by without a supply of ordinary farmers, merchants, quarreling princes and palace guards. Clustered into villages and crowding the cities, they provide the human backdrop for adventure. Of course, doing the research necessary to find out how common a large city should be, or how many shoemakers can be found in a town, can take up time not all GMs have available. This article is a distillation of broad possibilities drawn from a variety of historical reference points, focusing more on results than on the details that create them. Population Density: How Many In That Kingdom? Population Spread An Example Kingdom: Chamlek
The Featured Creature : Showcasing Unique and Unusual Wildlife 10 Steps to Finding Your Writing Voice Bonus: Need help finding your writing voice? Click here for free tips. I write only because / There is a voice within me / That will not be still.–Sylvia Plath Awhile ago, I wrote an article called, “Finding Your Blog’s Unique Voice.” In it, I explain that a blog needs a voice that is both exclusive and authentic. Photo credit: Dan Foy (Creative Commons) But here, I want to share a little bit more about how to find your overall writing voice. Spending some time deliberating over voice is worth your attention and focus. If you struggle with getting people to read your writing or with staying consistent in your craft, you need to stop chasing numbers and productivity and reboot. An exercise for finding your voice Not sure where to start? Describe yourself in three adjectives. Why do you need a writing voice? Finding your voice is the key to getting dedicated followers and fans and that it’s the only sustainable way to write. Once you’ve found your voice, make sure you continue to develop it.
64 Things Every Geek Should Know - laptoplogic.com The term ‘geek’, once used to label a circus freak, has morphed in meaning over the years. What was once an unusual profession transferred into a word indicating social awkwardness. As time has gone on, the word has yet again morphed to indicate a new type of individual: someone who is obsessive over one (or more) particular subjects, whether it be science, photography, electronics, computers, media, or any other field. A geek is one who isn’t satisfied knowing only the surface facts, but instead has a visceral desire to learn everything possible about a particular subject. A techie geek is usually one who knows a little about everything, and is thus the person family and friends turn to whenever they have a question. 1. USB – Universal Serial Bus GPU – Graphics Processing Unit CPU – Central Processing Unit SATA – Serial ATA HTML – Hyper-text Markup Language HTTP – Hypertext Transfer Protocol FTP – File Transfer Protocol P2P – Person to Person data sharing 2. 3. Here’s what one looks like: 4.
10 Crazy Scifi Plot Devices That We'd Like to See "1. 4Chan script kiddies unleash a virus that takes control of military drones (yes, such a virus already exists), crashing them into random targets just for the lulz." Would it be more likely that virus or worm would instead keep fetching porn images from 4Chan and then display them on the operator's monitors as the drone useless crashed into a children's orphanage or something? "2. How do people deal with space elevator music? The trip from Earth to the launch platform is three days long!" I'm think this would be handled in the same why as cruise ships or train travel, lots of movies, books to read and shuffleboard. "3. I'd rather see that happen to Dennis Richie, who died at roughly the same time, and in co-creating Unix and writing the first C compiler, had at least as large affect on the world as Jobs and Woz did. Sadly his death got almost no fanfare in the press. "4. For this! [www.youtube.com] "5. That is a frighteningly serious possibility. "6. Actually I think Gibson did this. "7.
Origami Envelope If you’d like to make these cute little “Flap Lock” Origami Envelopes–all you’ll need is a piece of square paper…any size. I used Christmas scrapbook paper. 1. Make sure your edges are even. 2. 3. fold the right corner about 1/3 of the way to the left. 4. 5. 6. 6. 7. 8. 9. And there you have it! Now scurry off and make a million of these–or at least 24 if you’re using them for the Family Advent Countdown Calendar. Not in the mood to fold your own? 12 bizarre real-life places that are stranger than science fiction Science fiction is home to some fantastic societies, from Cloud City to Bartertown. But you doesn't have to leave reality for this—our own world has places so abnormal, they make alien societies seem ordinary. Here are 12 remarkable locations in which people once lived (and some still do). 1. Izu Islands Off the coast of Japan lies a series of volcanic islands. 2. Neft Daslari is a functional city built 34 miles from the nearest shore. 3. One of the creepiest places on Earth, Sedlec Ossuary is a Roman Catholic chapel in the Czech Republic. 4. Temperatures in this Australian mining town reach well into broiling, so the opal miners who live there have built most of their town underground. 5. In 1962, a huge underground coal deposit ignited beneath the town of Centralia, Pa. 6. It's funny how something as boring as zoning regulations could lead to one of the most exciting office buildings on the planet. 7. Inside a spectacular Spanish church sits an enormous glass box. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.