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2K a Day
This included a chunk where I wrote 17,000 words over two days. Then I did some more. Also, God help me, this book is what, 17, 18 years old? I don’t know who needs to hear this for their career...
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Zero Draft
Three to five drafts, depending on the section, along with a lot of intermediary docs, and in 1e, I can still think of a sentence I wrote that I hate. So, elaborating on yesterday, I’m going to talk...
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What an RPG Developer Does
My first official Big Book For Another Company development credit. I have ones related to smaller stuff and self-publishing, and have developed parts of books without being credited, but this was my...
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Hide Your Process
Do up as many buckles as you like, but the next time around, drop the ones you don’t want or need. When people beat around the bush at the beginning of a section, easing in through atmosphere,...
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What to Expect From Development
I wrote up the Silver Ladder in a third-ish draft of Awakening 1e because developer Bill Bridges invented them after the first two drafts had already been submitted and there was still time for me to...
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Weasel Voice
Really, they deserve better. “Weasel voice” is a fake, possibly misleading name for a real problem encountered by lots of RPG writers. Everyone has heard of active voice and passive voice in writing....
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Writing for Nonlinear Readers
“Blah blah body text–but kids, y’ever heard of troupe play?” Folks like roleplaying games to read like fiction, like technical manuals, or like something in between. The in-between options are...
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Writing is a skill…sort of. In a traditional RPG with skill mechanics, writing would be something anybody can try to succeed at (unlike brain surgery or particle physics) with the education we assume...
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Lazy Declaration
The power of not caring what you’re gonna do until you’ve done it. Here’s an option you can add to most conventional RPGs that have a core mechanic. It’s called Lazy Declaration, and it’s inspired by...
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Table Secrets! Or how to play (old, maybe newer) D&D in a world where RAW is...
If you play without a map you savour these as uncommon delicacies. So around 15 years ago I started sitting in on RPG sessions as a third party to directly observe how people interact with the rules,...
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