Archive for June, 2013

Breaking Through Writer’s Block Pt 1: Types Of Writer’s Block and ‘Blank Page’ Syndrome

This entry is part 1 of 7 in the series Breaking Through Writer's Block

I’ve long thought that the term “writer’s block” is an oversimplification and generalization of a whole range of different phenomena that can afflict the creative endeavor. I have a unique perspective on the subject, being a writer, an artist, and a composer; all three bring with them virtually the same problems when confronted with an […]

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On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 63-65

This entry is part 24 of 31 in the series Orcs & Elves

I’ve got so much campaign prep to get done that if I don’t do it here, I’ll never get it done in time… For those who read the player-redacted version of The Ages Of Existence (presented in Inventing & Reinventing Races in D&D: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 3), it should […]

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The Veil of Secrecy: A truth about organizations in games

Let’s talk about institutional secrecy. Organizations have all sorts of reasons for keeping secrets. Good ones. Necessary ones. Bad ones. I’ve watching repeats of JAG lately and recently they aired the Season 8 episode “Need to know” which is about a submarine which was lost at sea 34 years earlier, with the loss of all […]

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On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 59-62

This entry is part 23 of 31 in the series Orcs & Elves

I’ve got so much campaign prep to get done that if I don’t do it here, I’ll never get it done in time… This is the material that in the original plan (as revised a couple of weeks ago), would have been posted last week. Chapter 59’s content would have appeared as Chapter 55. And […]

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Creating the World Of Tomorrow: Postscript – The Design Ethos Of Tomorrow

This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Putting The SF Into Sci-Fi

I thought I was done with this series, I really did. But then I watched a seemingly-unrelated TV documentary series called The Genius Of Design from the BBC, (available on DVD from Amazon), and a persuasive new perspective was opened for my consideration. (You might want to read of the series to see why it […]

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On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 55-58

This entry is part 22 of 31 in the series Orcs & Elves

I’ve got so much campaign prep to get done that if I don’t do it here, I’ll never get it done in time… It’s a peculiar thing when you’re writing. You are continually reshaping and tweaking the content to be included to make the narrative as clear and valuable as possible, and sometimes what seemed […]

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The Seven Strata Of Story

A well-crafted campaign – or video game, novel, TV Show, movie, or short story – is composed of multiple layers acting in harmony and in concert. This is a simple point that is often overlooked, especially by novices or those focusing too intensively on a single medium, and not looking at the wider world around […]

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On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 52-54

This entry is part 21 of 31 in the series Orcs & Elves

I’ve so much prep to get done for the Fumanor Campaign that if I don’t do it here, I’ll never get it done in time… With this post, the regular Orcs and Elves series resumes. This content didn’t exist in the original draft, but I felt it necessary to show the Orcish events during the […]

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