Creation Daily

[Oversleep]

I just realized how a good scene which sets the mood can look like:

All wind mages will wear longcoats. Or have long hair. Because they ALWAYS have a handy dramatic wind. They can safely and easily stand on top of high things (having control over air has benefits) and have their badchull robes flutter in the wind because they command the wind.

So I will have a character point at such situation:
'Who is that?'
*Sigh* 'Five bucks that it's a wind mage.'
'How do you know?'
'They all do that.'

 

EDIT:

It easily conveys the we're-genre-savy-characters tone and that Soulsmiths have a soft spot for recreating tropes. And that there is lampshading and at the same time it's not a parody, but they will often joke about it.

Can't wait to finally allow somebody to crash through the window and remark "I always wanted to do that.". And somebody would reply "Oh, another storming Batman. Newbies."

P.S. Can I even refer Batman? What about author rights and so on?

Edited March 27, 2016 by Oversleep

[Landis963 he/him]

Okay, I need some help with developing secret signs. Like masons or something, secret handshakes... codewords to slip in conversation.

The situation is that I have a subset of Soulsmiths who cannot sense anything magical. Apart from some tricks they can do, they are basically normal humans. Now, the thing is: how will they recognize each other? While I assume they probably won't be able to recognize another member while walking by, I need some kind of confirmation system. Let's say two people set up a meeting, but they don't know each other.

Of course the signs cannot be accidentialy made by someone random (so scratching your nose is out of question) but at the same time it cannot stand out from normal interaction if you're wrong and you're talking to wrong person (so no "The grasshopers are vexing erinaceous constructs" because it will make you stand out and you can't exactly go around telling people that until you come across the right person).

I was thinking about choosing a short code and response to slip in conversation and after initial confirmation moving to more specific signs (I once heard early christians would draw a curve and for the other person to add a second curve making a fish symbol). So at first you would slip in "blue" into sentence and then a "turtle" and the other person would respond by mentioning "pen" and then "fifth". If any side does this in wrong order, you are to suspect a spy and proceed normally, but giving an additional code for "you made a mistake". If the other side gives normal answers but without responding to the check code ("I know I messed up") or gives wrong answers, you have a spy confirmed.

The next stage would be some gestures... I'm working on that.

 

Make an innocuous-sounding phrase a shibboleth of sorts.  For example, a time-travel RPG I found on TVTropes had its player characters identify friendlies by use of the question "What time is it?"  Anyone not in the know would respond as expected, i.e. they would tell you what time it was.  Other time travelers would respond in a more useful manner.  

[Young Bard he/him]

Talking of Time Travel RP's, I've come up with a very rough 3 laws system for one I'm hoping to run. Now all I need to do is get an alternate history off the ground, a set of rules for how the Universal Meridian (place where people go when they're moving from one place to another), and recruit enough people so that the whole thing will work.

 

Has anyone seen any especially interesting solutions to the major time travel paradoxes that exist? Or other possible time travel shenanigans I can shamelessly rip off borrow?

[Zathoth]

Talking of Time Travel RP's, I've come up with a very rough 3 laws system for one I'm hoping to run. Now all I need to do is get an alternate history off the ground, a set of rules for how the Universal Meridian (place where people go when they're moving from one place to another), and recruit enough people so that the whole thing will work.

 

Has anyone seen any especially interesting solutions to the major time travel paradoxes that exist? Or other possible time travel shenanigans I can shamelessly rip off borrow?

I had an idea for a possible solution to the bootstrap paradox (Also known as The Song of Storms paradox for everyone who played Ocarina of Time)

 

You know, Link goes forward in time to learn the The Song of Storms from the windmill guy, then he goes backwards in time to play it inside the windmill (to drain the well, but that is not important), which is how the windmill guy knows the song in the first place.

 

Thats a loop. Where did the song come from?

 

Personal solution to this is that somewhere the loop started. You dont really need to explain it, but the loop must have started somehow. In some timeline Link or the windmill guy were taught the song from someone else.

[Edgedancer he/him]

I had an idea for a possible solution to the bootstrap paradox (Also known as The Song of Storms paradox for everyone who played Ocarina of Time)

 

You know, Link goes forward in time to learn the The Song of Storms from the windmill guy, then he goes backwards in time to play it inside the windmill (to drain the well, but that is not important), which is how the windmill guy knows the song in the first place.

 

Thats a loop. Where did the song come from?

 

Personal solution to this is that somewhere the loop started. You dont really need to explain it, but the loop must have started somehow. In some timeline Link or the windmill guy were taught the song from someone else.

So for example in the original timeline Link spend a year or so developing the song himself and then thought it to the younger windmill guy. The game however only follows the timeline in which the old windmill guy already knows the song, to cut out the filler.

[Zathoth]

So for example in the original timeline Link spend a year or so developing the song himself and then thought it to the younger windmill guy. The game however only follows the timeline in which the old windmill guy already knows the song, to cut out the filler.

For example, or a cool theory i read on reddit.

(Majoras Mask spoilers, if you happen to care about that)

[Curiosity he/him]

Ok, I need a cool conflict for this idea. I'm very open to changes to the idea, but I feel like there are a thousand different directions that I could go from here.

 

A country's top secret military intelligence branch has opened a hole in our universe and can observe other universes very similar to ours. They have figured out how to "nudge" these worlds and observe the effects so they can finally make sense of chaotic systems, like weather and global economies. Rigorous, repeatable experiments can finally be enacted without messing up our world so we can enact reasonable and effective policy to better ours. Twenty-five golden years of using these hundreds of secret "guinea pig worlds" has solved climate change, provided vigorous economic growth, and shut down international conflict with minimal casualties. The nation now leads the world and the party in power holds unprecedented respect and power. 

 

But...

 

... they don't notice universes have started watching back and resent the abuse of power in the multiverse.

 

...they realize that they only learned how to do this because another universe (itself now on the brink of extinction) nudged them towards it and has been preparing to slaughter the fattened calf...

 

(Maybe this is the timeline where Hitler and Stalin rule the world or something.)

 

...the newly-inaugurated president finds out about this and reveals this to the public, tries to stop the experiments, and so throws the world into chaos.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I actually like the first one the most. Multiverse war! Two versions of the same president debating their own policies! Timelines where one world's democracy is another's dictatorship! Worlds on the brink of chaos taking cues from worlds that have already been nudged past the point of no return! It would be mind-bending, messy, and absolutely glorious.

[DreamEternal]

Why not all three of them, at different points in the story? The second sounds like a nice plot twist for the first, and could turn a multiverse cold war into a true war, while the third would basically be the in-between point, that made the PoV universe look vulnerable enough for the "Reaping" universe to finally strike.

[ChickenPlague he/him]

The 1st is the most predictable IMO. The 3rd however seems like it wouldn't have as much action regarding the other universes. I think a start with 2nd and 3rd being introduced slightly later would be good.

[+Slowswift]

Ok, I need a cool conflict for this idea. I'm very open to changes to the idea, but I feel like there are a thousand different directions that I could go from here.

 

A country's top secret military intelligence branch has opened a hole in our universe and can observe other universes very similar to ours. They have figured out how to "nudge" these worlds and observe the effects so they can finally make sense of chaotic systems, like weather and global economies. Rigorous, repeatable experiments can finally be enacted without messing up our world so we can enact reasonable and effective policy to better ours. Twenty-five golden years of using these hundreds of secret "guinea pig worlds" has solved climate change, provided vigorous economic growth, and shut down international conflict with minimal casualties. The nation now leads the world and the party in power holds unprecedented respect and power. 

 

But...

 

... they don't notice universes have started watching back and resent the abuse of power in the multiverse.

 

...they realize that they only learned how to do this because another universe (itself now on the brink of extinction) nudged them towards it and has been preparing to slaughter the fattened calf...

 

(Maybe this is the timeline where Hitler and Stalin rule the world or something.)

 

...the newly-inaugurated president finds out about this and reveals this to the public, tries to stop the experiments, and so throws the world into chaos.

 

Actually, I didn't notice that they were supposed to be three separate scenarios. I figured they were all different things you had planned.

[Curiosity he/him]

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone! It's just something I've been toying with, wanted to see what people thought would be most cool and if there were other ways to make variations. It had occurred to me that I could put all of the ideas together, but it sounded sort of messy. But I like the way you strung them together, Dream Eternal. Now it's time to work on character and specific conflict...

[Master Elodin]

What do you guys think about a city with different sectors with different laws of physics in each one?

[Zathoth]

What do you guys think about a city with different sectors with different laws of physics in each one?

I would read that.

[Young Bard he/him]

What do you guys think about a city with different sectors with different laws of physics in each one?

 

It sounds sort of like something I've heard before, yet I can't think where. I can think of several examples where there are different laws of physics depending on which parallel world/plane of existence you're in, but withing the same universe...

 

It definitely sounds interesting. How does it work (What are the underlying principles)? I've got a few ideas just from this, but I don't want to hijack your story, so PM me/mention here if you're interested, and I'll share them.

Edited April 2, 2016 by The Young Bard

[Oversleep]

I'm thinking about writing a short story about wind mage summoning a storm wind by whistling. How the wind responds to the melody and the tempo, that sort of thing...

However, I'm not sure if such power levels are possible for Soulsmiths. Controlling the weather requires such absurd amounts of energy... I'm thinking about it like starting an avalanche by carefully removing rocks from the top. So maybe he read weather maps, saw possible outcomes of the current situation and went to make sure that a storm develops?

[DreamEternal]

It had occurred to me that I could put all of the ideas together, but it sounded sort of messy. But I like the way you strung them together, Dream Eternal. Now it's time to work on character and specific conflict...

You are welcome. I wish I knew how to organize my story so easily.

My PoV characters all have some seven or more years of story-worth backstory on average, not counting the ones too old or experienced to fit no matter when I started.

This means I have quite the cast, but unfortunately only after those seven years they finally meet, and the actual time periods with interesting things vary a lot between characters, so I have no idea when to start the story. While I could do the "Stormlight Formula" and just do flashbacks, I feel afraid that not enough will come across if I don't make half of my chapters flashbacks.

So, would it be overcomplicated if I made half of my chapters flashbacks, without said flashbacks being in chronological order?

EDIT:

@Oversleep: is that wind mage a character from your "main" story? If not, you could just make they unnaturally powerful, either throught sheer cosmic coincidence, forces beyond or mysterious and for now unexplainable reasons. I've found that allowing some overpowered softness into magic systems, if used with caution, can create interesting plot points.

Edited April 4, 2016 by DreamEternal

[Oversleep]

@Oversleep: is that wind mage a character from your "main" story? If not, you could just make they unnaturally powerful, either throught sheer cosmic coincidence, forces beyond or mysterious and for now unexplainable reasons. I've found that allowing some overpowered softness into magic systems, if used with caution, can create interesting plot points.

While I won't allow any overpowering for regular characters, that gave me an idea how to nicely explain how he was able to do that. You see, originaly I wanted him to take his mobile out after he was finished with summoning the storm and call Haesar to tell him "I'm done. It's coming". Now I can just say... EDIT: Let's just say there is some planetary conjunction. What allows him to reach such power levels is what made Haesar ask him to summon storm in the first place. Some dung is gonna go down.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Oversleep

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

As I've been hunting for that spark, that handful of scenes that will make me want to keep writing until I can flesh them out, for my WIP, I've been toying with a few changes. 

 

First off, I'd previously (and tentatively) titled it Miles from Here, a line taken from a song called "Fin" by Anberlin. It's a beautiful song, and one that has a lot of meaning for me, but it never seemed to fit completely. Even the verse I took the title from….

 

Feels like you're miles from here in other towns with lesser names where

The Unholy Ghost doesn't tell Mary or William exactly what they want to hear

You remember the house on Ridge Road

Told you and the devil to both just leave me alone 

 

 

…didn't bear much resemblance to the overall themes and what I had of the plot. Then, while waiting for my flight to take off, my phone decided to play a song I hadn't heard in a while, "God's Gonna Cut You Down" by Johnny Cash. 

 

Well, you may throw your rock and hide your hand

​Workin' in the dark against your fellow man

But as sure as God made black and white 

What's done in the dark will be brought to the light

 

Go and tell that long-tongued liar

Go and tell that midnight rider

Go tell the rambler, the gambler, the backbiter

Tell 'em that God's gonna cut 'em down

Tell 'em that God's gonna cut 'em down

 

That is more what I'm going for—not only the smoky sort of throwback feeling in the song, but the themes of justice catching up to those who've eluded it for so long, who think they're above justice. I don't know what title I'll pull from that song, or even if I will at all, but I'm toying with it. 

 

Another change, and one that's a bit more integral, is the character of Lee and of Francine Newell's father. See, for some reason, I'd always pictured Lee as African-American. But that wouldn't work, since he and Whitelaw had been colleagues, and Whitelaw is pretty racist. 

 

So what I was considering was changing Lee's personality a bit, making him still warm and welcoming, but more of a grandfatherly figure. Francine's father would be a different minister, who would be more like I'd imagined Lee (as I'd introduced him in the Ask a Super thread) who comes to Spokane from (as I currently have it, though this is subject to change) Centralia, after Whitelaw kills Lee. 

 

And just like that, I had a spark. 

 

Any thoughts? Think I'm on the right track here? 

[Quiver he/him]

There's a project I've been considering for a while. I keep going back and forth on whether it's worth doing though. Since I'd probably be posting it here...figure it's worth asking you guy's for reactions.

So, my thought was...doing a Pokemon Nuzelocke Challenge. If you don't know, a Nyzlocke is a self-imposed challenge in the games; only capture the first 'mon per route, and fainting=death.

What I was thinking was...doing a nuzlocke (probably for Red/Blue), and writing it up as a story as I did.

But...pairing each chapter with a critical essay on...something. Basically using my play through to find topics go research and write about.

But ... dunno if anyone would find that interesting.

[DreamEternal]

…didn't bear much resemblance to the overall themes and what I had of the plot. Then, while waiting for my flight to take off, my phone decided to play a song I hadn't heard in a while,

by Johnny Cash.

Well, you may throw your rock and hide your hand

​Workin' in the dark against your fellow man

But as sure as God made black and white

What's done in the dark will be brought to the light

Go and tell that long-tongued liar

Go and tell that midnight rider

Go tell the rambler, the gambler, the backbiter

Tell 'em that God's gonna cut 'em down

Tell 'em that God's gonna cut 'em down

That is more what I'm going for—not only the smoky sort of throwback feeling in the song, but the themes of justice catching up to those who've eluded it for so long, who think they're above justice. I don't know what title I'll pull from that song, or even if I will at all, but I'm toying with it.

Weirdly enough, that song fits very well with my story. Except my protagonists are the ones working in the dark(not directly against their fellow men, but things get complicated), telling lies, betraying allies, running from justice, cosmic or otherwise, and causing even more damage as they do so.

And most of them are, or were, actually good people who took one wrong turn or dared to disagree with an unforgiving world, and had to sacrifice some of their morality to escape a punishment that was, at first, unjust.

Edited April 10, 2016 by DreamEternal

[Oversleep]

I was thinking... How do you create villains? Apart from occasional ancient-god-waking-up, I find it hard to imagine how could a person end up a villain.

You see, I'm taking this whole "realistic approach" combined with mixing in tropes. I don't have heroic heroes; I have fairly normal people who try to do something good, because basically everybody wants to do something good (everything goes wrong when some people have conflicting interests or views). But I find it unbelieveable to have a character devoted to doing evil. In order to create a 'villain' I would have to twist his personality or experience that what he deemed good or desirable something other people consider morally wrong. But after a look on how I want to build my world, I find a lack of the things characters would conflict over so strongly to make one side antagonistic.

It's so much easier when you have an evil god around like Ruin or Odium...

[Zathoth]

I was thinking... How do you create villains? Apart from occasional ancient-god-waking-up, I find it hard to imagine how could a person end up a villain.

You see, I'm taking this whole "realistic approach" combined with mixing in tropes. I don't have heroic heroes; I have fairly normal people who try to do something good, because basically everybody wants to do something good (everything goes wrong when some people have conflicting interests or views). But I find it unbelieveable to have a character devoted to doing evil. In order to create a 'villain' I would have to twist his personality or experience that what he deemed good or desirable something other people consider morally wrong. But after a look on how I want to build my world, I find a lack of the things characters would conflict over so strongly to make one side antagonistic.

It's so much easier when you have an evil god around like Ruin or Odium...

History is written by the winner. Thats a good thing to remember while writing villains.

 

It is not about good and evil, it is about conflicting interests. Curly McEvilmustache wants the Diamonds of Shirlack so he can be powerful and put an end to this stupid war, Muscle o'Hero does not believe Curly will be a good ruler or deserves the godlike powers.

 

Otherwise there are 'villains' in history. Look at their motivations. They probably believed what they were doing was right, or maybe they were selfish, maybe they were just pathetic human beings with a bit too much power.

 

Of course there is nothing wrong with complete monsters if you can make them interesting.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I was thinking... How do you create villains? Apart from occasional ancient-god-waking-up, I find it hard to imagine how could a person end up a villain.

You see, I'm taking this whole "realistic approach" combined with mixing in tropes. I don't have heroic heroes; I have fairly normal people who try to do something good, because basically everybody wants to do something good (everything goes wrong when some people have conflicting interests or views). But I find it unbelieveable to have a character devoted to doing evil. In order to create a 'villain' I would have to twist his personality or experience that what he deemed good or desirable something other people consider morally wrong. But after a look on how I want to build my world, I find a lack of the things characters would conflict over so strongly to make one side antagonistic.

It's so much easier when you have an evil god around like Ruin or Odium...

 

Well, I think one thing to look at when distinguishing between hero and villain is methods. A ruler who decides to increase the quality of life in his country could easily be a hero, but if he decides to do so by slaughtering intellectuals and forcing the survivors to adopt an agrarian lifestyle, then he's a villain. You could always begin with a heroic motivation, and then twist the storms out of it until the methods used to pursue it are monstrous indeed. 

[Kobold King he/him]

I was thinking... How do you create villains? Apart from occasional ancient-god-waking-up, I find it hard to imagine how could a person end up a villain.

You see, I'm taking this whole "realistic approach" combined with mixing in tropes. I don't have heroic heroes; I have fairly normal people who try to do something good, because basically everybody wants to do something good (everything goes wrong when some people have conflicting interests or views). But I find it unbelieveable to have a character devoted to doing evil. In order to create a 'villain' I would have to twist his personality or experience that what he deemed good or desirable something other people consider morally wrong. But after a look on how I want to build my world, I find a lack of the things characters would conflict over so strongly to make one side antagonistic.

It's so much easier when you have an evil god around like Ruin or Odium...

 

 

One piece of advice I've read before is to write a villain who firmly believes in the same core ideology as you do, but who takes it way too far. So if you have an environmentalist bend, you write Poison Ivy. If you feel passionate about protecting human rights, you write Magneto.

 

 

The villains I write tend to be largely the same way. (Most of my villains are in a Reckonerverse RP, and thus have an external force corrupting them, but I try to give them realistic motives beyond that corruption.) I feel like if I had superpowers, it would be my responsibility to do away with humanity's problems on a grandiose scale. For instance, my necromancer character feels like he's ridding the world of the problem of death by taking over with an army of immortal zombies.

 

Another couple of villains are dedicated to preserving the city they inhabit by any means necessary, willing to kill innocents if they feel it necessary. These are a simple type of villain to write, but an effective one. You just have to make sure that the wicked ends they go to will genuinely benefit those who survive them, or if not, that you highlight the growing irrationality in the villains' psyches.

 

Villains who act out of pure selfishness are simultaneously one of the easiest and one of the hardest types to write. They are very realistic, as people who rob, murder, and otherwise wreak havoc for their own gain are sadly common in society. But they tend to fall flat as characters in a story because, like the real-world people they're based on, they tend to be quite empty inside. You can make them more interesting by giving them attachments to family members or moral qualms, but ultimately they're fighting only for themselves and don't have a lot going for them. Compare the Lord Ruler to Straff Venture as villains. They both have their place in the story, but TLR is ultimately more interesting because his motives aren't a hundred percent selfish.

 

 

..I don't have anything else to say because it's gray, wet, and rainy here and I feel braindead. Point is, there are a lot of different ways to do it.