Writing Advice from Kurt Vonnegut and 3 Other Writers 17 0ShareNew In the 1980s, a group of great thinkers, authors and communicators penned a series of How To's for honing one's writing skills. The source of these amazing troves of advice was an ad campaign put out by a paper company. “Today the printed word is more vital than ever," read a box at the bottom of each full-spread advertorial. 1. via The Paris Review Tumblr. Tips include "find a subject you care about" and "have the guts to cut." 2. via PaperSpecs [PDF]. He gives advice for how to plan what you say and how to sound spontaneous. 3. "You must remember that it is permissible for spelling to drive you crazy," the author of The World According to Garp wrote. 4. via PaperSpecs [PDF]. Address the person you're writing to by name.
gm techniques - How to Manage Player Frustration and Disengagement - Role-playing Games Stack Exchange I like the answers posted so far. I have had a number of experiences related to dice frustration. There's been the table of mostly engaged players except for that guy that gets mad whenever he doesn't cleave an orcs head in every time he tries. We don't play with that guy anymore. Then there's the engaging mid-level campaign where everyone is starting to get frustrated because they've invested time from level 0 in the campaign and like it but the dynamics of their characters don't make sense anymore and everyone wishes they go could go back and change something critical at level 1. I pulled a plot deus ex machina out of thin air to explain the mishap with the displacer beast. Another thing that I have done in the past is keep a secret log of roleplaying that players do and use that to reward particularly unlucky rolls all without the players knowing I do that. Start of a session. Another approach that can work is to simply change gears.
5 Hobbies That Make People Better At Their Jobs Baking a cake or knitting a sweater might not seem like career building activities, but participating in after-work hobbies actually has a measurable impact on workplace performance. Maintaining such hobbies can make individuals seem more appealing to potential employers, improve their mood, increase their confidence, reduce stress, provide networking opportunities and help them work better with others. "It gives you a sense of mastery, you're developing new skills, new thought processes and really challenging yourself to learn something new and develop your skill set," said Dr. Kevin Eschleman, an assistant psychology professor at San Francisco State University, who led a study on the correlation between hobbies and job performance. In his study Eschleman found that hobbies provide a variety of benefits that extend into the workplace. Yoga One activity that Eschleman believes can improve overall work performance is yoga. Maren Showkeir would agree. Playing a musical instrument Volunteering
10881622 1792497947464768 3844279143315595546 n 11 ways to be a better roleplayer - LOOK, ROBOT (Edit: Since I published this piece a few months ago, an awful lot of people have looked at it and several of them have complained about the swear words in it. If you’re upset by profanity, I’ve written a version with all the rude bits removed that you can read and share instead.) I have read a LOT of articles online about how to be a good Gamesmaster. It’s something that fascinates me. I get a really good buzz off a game gone well that’s hard to replicate without sex or drugs, and getting hold of those both often involves more effort than I’m willing to put in. I want to get better at running games; I strive towards it. But it’s incredibly rare to find an article that teaches you how to play, and surely that’s more common? So this is a thing I have written, because there is not enough of it online. A note: I am not perfect! ONE. Job One for you as a player is to do stuff; you should be thinking, at all times – “What are my goals? Investigate stuff. Be active, not passive. TWO. THREE.
Improvisation practice to travel the U I started the U-lab because I wanted to dedicate and schedule time&space to continue my understanding of Theory U, which I discovered a while ago. It resonated very strongly with what I find in the core of working as an improviser. Most meaningful to me till now is the hope I sense experiencing all the levels the 3.0-to-4.0 shift apply to and the feeling that it is really happening. Within the factual listening what I find very meaningful is become very sensitive to the small "other voices". I'm sharpening improvisation practice for each level-shift.
Visual storytelling Dev Notes 9 - What is a Roleplaying Game? | Steamscapes Thanks to Enworld forum user Evenglare for reminding everyone of this XKCD comic. Because our last pair of Dev Notes weren't sufficiently controversial, I thought I'd tackle one of the most contentious and frenzy-inducing questions within the gamer community: "What is a roleplaying game?" This is a question that really does not seem to have a right answer, but it definitely has plenty of wrong answers. Just try to assert your opinion on this topic in any RPG-related forum and you had better be wearing your fireproof pants. And no, I am not going to pull my punches by presenting a bunch of theories and telling you to make up your own mind. Recently as I was listening to various podcasts and reading various forum posts that make fairly narrow assertions in answering this question, I remembered a conversation I had many years ago in college with one of my long-time friends. To be clear, not all film is art. Let's break that down. Yes, that tricky. This is also true for gaming.
Using comedy tools to drive creative ideas and serious results It might seem a long way from the comedy stage to the corporate world, but one organisation that’s working to close that gap is Improv Asylum, a Boston-based group that recently set up in Ireland. Founded in 1988, the organisation established a European corporate training entity known as IA Innovation in Dublin last September. It’s deadly serious about making workplace education both more engaging and more instructive. “Our slogan is that we teach your head to think on its feet. Our training is about more than just having fun and it’s most definitely not about teaching people how to be funny. He suggests that learning how the tools and techniques of improv can not only help individuals communicate and listen more successfully, but also inspire them to work better together as a team and build on the ideas of others. As anyone who remembers the television series Whose Line Is It Anyway? Teamwork “On stage, we try to make someone else’s idea better by working together. Optimistic Won over
maya eilam vonnegut Boulders v Keyholes: RPG Obstacles - The General's Tent Have you ever had the experience as a GM where you’ve crafted an exciting adventure and your players get stuck on the very first obstacle. The answer is so obvious but they have tried a million different ways without coming close to the solution. Now everyone is getting frustrated any the session is coming completely off the rails. When I first read the Mouse Guard RPG it I was amazed at the rules for failed challenges creating story twists instead of stopping the plot. What an “innovative mechanic” as Russ Wakelin would say. It’s funny, really, because this should be self evident to a good GM and doesn’t require rules to incorporate in any game, in any system. Some obstacles are bigger than others. The way I like to see a good obstacle is as a boulder in a stream. Strangely keyholes take more work than boulders. Take that energy you would have put into railroading your players and start thinking of how to make their choice interesting and incorporate it into the story. How about you?