{"id":30086,"date":"2021-02-23T00:08:45","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T13:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/?p=30086"},"modified":"2021-02-23T00:11:45","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T13:11:45","slug":"quora-rpg-answers-by-mike-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/quora-rpg-answers-by-mike-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Quora RPG Answers By Mike – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series RPG Quora Answers By Mike<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Image by Gordon Johnson<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a>, background color by Mike<\/p><\/div>\n

I’ve been an active Quora user for the last few years, as long-time readers would know. Since August 2017, more than 1200 answers have been viewed almost 250,000 times. My content there averages more than 2000 readers a month (my content here averages more than three times that number).<\/p>\n

I’ve even built whole articles here at Campaign Mastery around some of them. You see, I try hard to stick to the point when answering someone’s question, whereas in an article here, I feel more free to explore side-aspects and tangents that might be of interest to a general audience.<\/p>\n

Lately, a lot of my answers have been RPG-related, and that means that a broader round-up might well be of interest to readers here.<\/p>\n

I’m going to split the list in two, and save the second half for the next time I need a fill-in post. I’m also going to pad it a little with some more general answers that could have RPG applications.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Afterwards:<\/strong> Wow, there have been a lot more relevant answers than I expected! I’ve only listed up to 2019 and I already have 130. There are WAY too many for just two posts. In fact, there are probably enough just in the ones listed so far for three posts of about 40 links per post. And, since I’ve written more on RPGs in the past year than I had previously, there will probably be at least two more in the series after that dealing with 2020 – by which time, there will be at least one more covering 2021 before I get up to date! It looks like this will be my go-to for fill-in posts for quite some time to come….\n<\/ol>\n

    So let’s get started….<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Do experienced DM\u2019s usually create their world first, or create it based on characters?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    What are good ways of writing a character (say, an Ancient Golden Dragon) to seem incredibly knowledgeable in a pen-and-paper RPG setting?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    How do I create a good combat system for a tabletop RPG?<\/a><\/strong> (my answer to this question was the foundation for an article at Campaign Mastery that still gets lots of traffic, almost three years after initial publication: Combat System Design and Understanding The Rules<\/a>).<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    How is the movement handled on large imaginary maps when people play through text and speech in D&D?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Why is “Dungeons & Dragons” used synonymously with “Pen & Paper RPG”? I am never sure if a question is specifically about D&D or not.<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Is there a good physics books that cover everything we know, but that’s intended towards filmmakers and novel authors?<\/a><\/p>\n

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    How can I write a compelling villain with a motive based in philosophy that is understandable?<\/a><\/p>\n

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    I feel so bad when I spend hours writing my blog-post and when I share it on FB only a few people react. Should I stop blogging?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Will the author of a blog know I am reading their blog?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    What are different ways to remove text from an image?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Is 5,000 words a day a reasonable goal for a writer?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Can having a lot of interests be a bad thing?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    As a science fiction writer, how do you decide how the aliens will look and the name that is given them if you choose to include them in your story? Do the choices come easy for you, or is a huge process involved?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    How do rumors get started? Is there something which is in such a large percentage of the population that makes them lie to people about other people? Is it a disease or habit? What is is it?<\/a><\/strong> (may be outdated in this era of Fake News, which was almost unthinkable back in early 2018).<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Who are some of the nicest rock musicians? I’m aware of the rock jerks, but at the same time there’s gotta be some genuinely nice rockers.<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Do non-serious fiction novels usually do worse than serious fiction novels? I am thinking of writing one, but it is supposed to be a light read which doesn\u2019t require much thought to enjoy.<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    How would I go about making a D&D character who is based around plants? Her motivation for adventuring is gathering rare specimens and such, and she knows all about plants. What class should I choose?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Is it a good idea to just improvise a several session long campaign for D&D 5E?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    How do I improve the image quality for webtoons? I have made a canvas of about 2000 x 10000 but crop each one individually and resize it for the requirements. When I try to draw in the required 800 x 1280, it\u2019s too pixelated.<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    What is a good amount of time to play D&D? We play 16 hours usually.<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    What’s the most interesting D&D world you made or played in?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    How would you run a game of D&D with only 3 people?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    What are some of the most interesting shower thoughts you have had?<\/a><\/strong> (My answer is about mapping and coastline lengths)<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    In D&D, as a DM, how do you coax shy PCs into roleplaying more?<\/a><\/strong> (This answer was discussed in, and was the inspiration for, Inhabiting the Character Space and 16 other ways to help shy players<\/a> here at Campaign Mastery).<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    What is the most imaginative science fiction concept you have ever come across?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    How would you go about writing and describing a fight sequence in a fiction novel (any genre) that resembles those seen in The Matrix films? Have you read any novels that attempted something similar? If so, did they work?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    If life could form on the surface of a star, what would it be like?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Is there a limit to how much new scientific discoveries there are?<\/a><\/strong> (This actually came up in Saturday’s RPG campaign, when the PCs had to estimate the pace of advance of medical knowledge to postulate when the treatment that they needed would become available).<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    What advice would you give to a new dm\/gm?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    How can I fix this (D&D), \u201cPlayers are only motivated by gold and have way too much of it\u201d?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    How can I keep my D&D campaign on track when my players talk their way out of every problem?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    What\u2019s the best way to reward players in D&D?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    How do you play an RPG character who is anxious and cautious but not a buzzkill (I\u2019m about to start a D&D game and I\u2019ve made a very nervous character, but I\u2019m worried that she\u2019ll make the plot of the game move slowly or just be super annoying.)?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    How late can we discover a long period comet in the worst scenario (which is about to hit us)?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    In D&D I wanna make an Artificer Alchemist who is a bit insane. I wanna make her creepy but cheerful at the same time. Any tips how I could do this?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    How do you manage a kingdom in Dungeons and Dragons?<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    If the universe is 13.7 billion years old, does it mean that no two stars can be more than 13.7 billion light years apart?<\/a><\/strong> (From memory, I actually expanded on this, with some illustrations, in a post here at Campaign Mastery: The Improbable Dances of Space and Time<\/a>).<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    How does a writer choose what to apply from the large amount of sometimes contradictory writing advice out there?<\/a><\/strong> (Applies to GMing advice, as well)<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Do you think there will ever be a time when humans believe that ethnicity & nationality aren\u2019t as important and all humans will collectively focus on advancing our species as one unified group? (in terms of technology, thought processes, etc)<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    What is the most fun \/ memorable \/ unique way you have ever started a Dungeons and Dragons campaign?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    \nOkay, that should be roughly 40 answers, more than enough for people to read! Some will be very short, only a dash of wit or a line or two, or perhaps couple of paragraphs; others will contain reasonable depth – but all of them will be much<\/em> shorter than the average article here at Campaign Mastery. And I have only to put together introductions, and another couple of these footnotes, and I have two more of these posts ready to upload, and have started on the one after that. So posts might occasionally be late, but there should be no reason not to put something<\/em> up here every week!\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series RPG Quora Answers By Mike<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>

    I’ve been an active Quora user for the last few years, as long-time readers would know. Since August 2017, more than 1200 answers have been viewed almost 250,000 times. My content there averages more than 2000 readers a month (my content here averages more than three times that number). I’ve even built whole articles here […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[64,63,65,29,66,67,68,215,70,32,74,89,90,221,12,91,92,94,95,96],"tags":[100,101,151,106,108,163,155,109,116,117,127,172,286,218,282,136,139,140,283,146,223,150,232],"series":[350],"class_list":["post-30086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beginners","category-blog-admin","category-campaign-creation","category-campaign-management","category-combat","category-dnd","category-dnd-3e","category-dndnext","category-gm-ing","category-game-philosophy","category-mike","category-npcs-etc","category-online","category-opinion","category-pcs","category-plans-and-prep","category-rewards","category-ideas-and-inspiration","category-tools","category-write","tag-adventure-prep","tag-advice","tag-campaign-admin","tag-campaign-background","tag-campaigns","tag-cultures-societies","tag-dd","tag-dm-advice","tag-game-mastery","tag-game-mechanics","tag-inspiration","tag-npcs","tag-opinion","tag-pathfinder","tag-pcs","tag-philosophy","tag-player-advice","tag-player-goals","tag-players","tag-running-encounters","tag-sci-fi","tag-treasure","tag-writing","series-rpg-quora-answers-by-mike"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1toiD-7Pg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30086"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30098,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30086\/revisions\/30098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30086"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=30086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}