General Hangout!

[Zelphas]

I'll echo that the intelligent questions and suggestions have definitely helped a lot, both with solidifying the character concept and breathing life into their existence and interactions. It's been tons of fun putting the character together and thinking through how they work, so thank you for that!

[TheRedGoat]

So hey, does anyone else here get hung up on the parts where your idea feels perfect in your head, where it nebulous and amorphous in its lack of details, but once you have to metaphorically put pen to paper you find your hands just can't possibly move fast enough to get it all down in one go? Forever stalling just millimeters from the page as inspiration hangs in front of you like some invisible lure forever pulling you in no direction at all?

Anyone? Cause if so

HELP

[Rumrunner]

just make a mess and clean it up as you go, don't worry if it comes out nothing like what you had in your head, you can always edit, but you cant make better what doesn't exist.

[Zelphas]

30 minutes ago, TheRedGoat said:

So hey, does anyone else here get hung up on the parts where your idea feels perfect in your head, where it nebulous and amorphous in its lack of details, but once you have to metaphorically put pen to paper you find your hands just can't possibly move fast enough to get it all down in one go? Forever stalling just millimeters from the page as inspiration hangs in front of you like some invisible lure forever pulling you in no direction at all?

Anyone? Cause if so

HELP

If I'm understanding this correctly, what you're struggling with is the fact that you want to write something, and your overarching concept seems solid, but you can't seem to find inspiration for the details? If that's the case, then I'd say try starting with question 9, 10, or 11 on the character questionnaire in the overview: fears, pet peeves, or hobbies. Pick something at random for each one; don't worry about if it fits your character's theme, just pick something that seems like it could be interesting or fun and go from there. Now that you have that, go back to your nebulous concept and feed in the new, concrete information: what does the "perfect"
character look like who also is afraid of centipedes, or hates people who chew loudly, or who writes purposefully bad poetry in a hidden notebook? Hopefully, the specifics will add clarity to the character and allow you to pull out more that you can work with.

 

The best advice is what Rumrunner said, of course; just write. If it helps, promise yourself that you'll fix all of it later, but remember that you can't "fix" something that doesn't exist yet. Put down words, even if they're the worst words in the worst order and they make everything terrible when you write them. They'll get better, I promise. The important part is to write.

[GleefulNihilism]

40 minutes ago, TheRedGoat said:

So hey, does anyone else here get hung up on the parts where your idea feels perfect in your head, where it nebulous and amorphous in its lack of details, but once you have to metaphorically put pen to paper you find your hands just can't possibly move fast enough to get it all down in one go? Forever stalling just millimeters from the page as inspiration hangs in front of you like some invisible lure forever pulling you in no direction at all?

Anyone? Cause if so

HELP

There’s a famous bit of writing advice that Neil Gaimon likes to give out.

”The Second Draft is when you try to make it look like you had a plan all along.”

[Varen Tai]

By the way, if we haven't commented on your character yet, here are a couple of reasons why:

1. We're getting there. I literally have a database in google sheets with every character submission, notes, etc to make sure we don't forget anyone. We'll make sure we comment on everyone's character, but it's taking time. NE has more going on than I do right now, so you'll see me commenting first, then NE later, typically speaking.
2. It's still incomplete. I'll give general encouragement before it's done, but we'll be jumping in once all the questions are answered and you have a solid backstory written up.

We've got several promising character concepts that are still incomplete, so don't worry that you are forgotten. We keep track of when each submission is completed so we can put it on the comment list.

If you have any other questions about the process, please ask. 🙂 We are happy to answer!

[TheRedGoat]

Thanks for the encouragement y'all. I feel like I was overreacting now (that I've had sleep and food) but I was also trying to force myself to go in order for those questions, so having voices outside my head actually tell me I should do x or why is great. Sadly the perfectionist in me and Neil Gaimon wouldn't get along, but I'll try to make them work together for now.

[Basil_Bottletop]

Can you offer some visionary things you guys have as GMs? At this point, we still really don't know what kind of campaign this is going to shake out to be from a player's perspective.

I don't want spoilers or anything, but something about the campaign may help us direct characters that fit the plot and tone better.

As of now, everything in the application process as been about us selling ourselves as writers and roleplayers, but we're still not sure if we're getting ready to do a Oops! All Bards! game or a West Marshes war game or... something the Dimension 20 guys play on the weekend.

[Varen Tai]

General flavor will simply be high fantasy campaign based in FR, but I'll be creating almost the whole thing from scratch based on your backstories. I want each PC to feel like they have personal stakes in this. I do have an overarching story idea, but it'll play out more in the background rather than directly. Well, mostly. But not in the sense that you need to worry about it in character creation.

I am looking generally for 1 slot for each of the basics: fighter, arcane, divine, rogue-ish, though that's not hard set. The other 2 slots can be filled in however we feel fits the game best and who has the best application/writing ability.

Does that help?

Edit:

Though Oops! All Bards! sounds like a GREAT campaign idea! 😆

I did once run an All Paladin campaign and that was great fun.

EDIT2: A little more clarity - I know who the BBEG is and what they want, as well as some connected relationships. The path to how they achieve their goals will be determined entirely from the backstories of the PCs, just like it was in the OG campaign. There may be some similarities depending on the PCs, but it might be entirely new. That's why I'm holding the cards to my chest on the basic plot, which will unfold in the campaign in a way that doesn't need the characters to mold themselves to any particular design. Does that make sense?

Edited December 15, 2023 by Varen Tai (see edit history)

[PixCO]

53 minutes ago, Varen Tai said:

General flavor will simply be high fantasy campaign based in FR, but I'll be creating almost the whole thing from scratch based on your backstories. I want each PC to feel like they have personal stakes in this. I do have an overarching story idea, but it'll play out more in the background rather than directly. Well, mostly. But not in the sense that you need to worry about it in character creation.

I am looking generally for 1 slot for each of the basics: fighter, arcane, divine, rogue-ish, though that's not hard set. The other 2 slots can be filled in however we feel fits the game best and who has the best application/writing ability.

Does that help?

Edit:

Though Oops! All Bards! sounds like a GREAT campaign idea! 😆

I did once run an All Paladin campaign and that was great fun.

EDIT2: A little more clarity - I know who the BBEG is and what they want, as well as some connected relationships. The path to how they achieve their goals will be determined entirely from the backstories of the PCs, just like it was in the OG campaign. There may be some similarities depending on the PCs, but it might be entirely new. That's why I'm holding the cards to my chest on the basic plot, which will unfold in the campaign in a way that doesn't need the characters to mold themselves to any particular design. Does that make sense?

Sounds like the campaign will reflect the material our characters bring into it, and in turn they will adapt to how the campaign employs that material.

Is that close?

[Varen Tai]

1 minute ago, PixCO said:

Sounds like the campaign will reflect the material our characters bring into it, and in turn they will adapt to how the campaign employs that material.

Is that close?

Absolutely. Like I said, I do have an overarching high fantasy plot, but even that will be highly impacted by what your characters bring to the table.

[GleefulNihilism]

An all Bard's game is a band on tour solving side-adventures like "Josie and the Pussycats" or "Jabberjaw and the Neptunes".

 

[PixCO]

10 minutes ago, GleefulNihilism said:

An all Bard's game is a band on tour solving side-adventures like "Josie and the Pussycats" or "Jabberjaw and the Neptunes".

 

While I've never tried that with D&D, I can personally attest that it works great in Shadowrun. The underground Battle of the Bands circuit gets pretty wild.

[Varen Tai]

3 minutes ago, PixCO said:

While I've never tried that with D&D, I can personally attest that it works great in Shadowrun. The underground Battle of the Bands circuit gets pretty wild.

Confession time! Shadowrun is probably my single favorite setting ever. Love everything about it! But aside from the (truly stellar) video games, I have never been able to get a group together to play.

[PixCO]

2 minutes ago, Varen Tai said:

Confession time! Shadowrun is probably my single favorite setting ever. Love everything about it! But aside from the (truly stellar) video games, I have never been able to get a group together to play.

I used to spend days optimizing cyberware builds on characters I knew would never be played. I liked the early magic rules, but at some point the meta-magic became too deep for me. I think it was when they started allowing Initiation at character creation.

Oh, but for the five minutes in the game's history where they accidentally stopped nerfing Skillwires? Best day spent with a shotgun ever 🤩