"...are like a familiar voice from a foreign country."

Or so says my inner Ambrose Bierce.
This entry was originally posted at http://kilroy.dreamwidth.org/394057.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

 I'm building a list for analysis. I need twenty or so good universes of any fictional variety that have a bunch of persistent, politically relevant factions with different cultures and/or goals. Help me out?

Things that are good examples:
Avatar: the Last Airbender
Babylon 5
City of Heroes
Defiance
Discworld
Dune
Most well-constructed Dungeons and Dragons universes
Erfworld
Feng Shui
Game of Thrones
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Any White Wolf universe (including Trinityverse)
The Wire

Things that probably aren't good examples:
Star Wars-- it basically boils down to Rebels, Imperials, and Criminals. There are a bunch of alien races, but they all more or less fall into one of those categories. See also Firefly.
Doctor Who-- you get to see a lot of different cultures and factions, but the ones that show up multiple times are usually just villains or backdrops. Designed as an exploration/showcase rather than an integrated universe. See also TOS and to an extent TNG. 
Harry Potter-- the universe has some breadth and depth, but the story as told essentially boils down to everyone-versus-the-bad-guys. The different strengths of the good guy alliance are largely irrelevant. See also Lord of the Rings. 
Fables-- this actually goes too far into motivational territory, where every individual character has an agenda and even people nominally in the same group have only surface-level common ground. See also most superhero universes, Justified, Once Upon a Time, and Amber. 

This entry was originally posted at http://kilroy.dreamwidth.org/393467.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Getting this down before I lose it. 

Roleplaying games exist at a unique intersection of three elements: triumph, immersion, and collaboration. 

Triumph: Roleplaying games allow players to take actions to achieve their goals against some opposition. They are games-- they inherently limit the options of the players via the system and setting, which makes the players' success meaningful. 

Immersion: Roleplaying games allow players to be part of another world and to inhabit new lives. Where other fictional pursuits require the suspension of disbelief, roleplaying requires the active construction of the fantastic; every player is responsible for making up a person that doesn't exist and deciding what they should do in a world that also doesn't exist.

Collaboration: Roleplaying games allow players to interact with other people to create a shared experience. They exist at the intersection of multiple viewpoints and have a life outside of any individual-- the constant parallel streams of input and feedback from the participants mean the game is always changing.

You can have Triumph and Immersion without Collaboration-- it's called a video game. 
You can have Immersion and Collaboration without Triumph-- it's called acting. 
You can have Collaboration and Triumph without Immersion-- it's called a board game. 

For a player to enjoy roleplaying, they need some level of buy-in for each element. Individuals will focus more on some elements than others, but a complete lack of any one will result in a very frustrated player. 

This entry was originally posted at http://kilroy.dreamwidth.org/393197.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Roleplaying is being  someone you want to be doing things you want to do in a place you'd like to see.

This entry was originally posted at http://kilroy.dreamwidth.org/392825.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

I find it amusing and humbling that on my very first night back GMing after a six-month hiatus, my players threw me a perfect "why don't we fly in the top of the volcano" moment. And not only did I not see the obvious coming, but I didn't roll with it. Instead, I pretzeled the plot back to something resembling my original intention... when with a half hour's hindsight, I'm already figuring out ways that rolling with it would have been fine.

I hear you, roleplaying gods, and I appreciate the reminder: this is not a novel. It's a good thing to be whacked upside the head with after six months of crazily intense planning.

Tomorrow, we pick up the pieces again and see what new pictures we can make. :-)

This entry was originally posted at http://kilroy.dreamwidth.org/392542.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

When you change the bank software such that I am obligated to use a shorter password, pre-generated security questions, a widget-based interface, and choose my security image from cute animal pictures, it is not an upgrade.
This entry was originally posted at http://kilroy.dreamwidth.org/392315.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

We carry our burdens,
manufacture joy,
fight disappointment,
and forget
that we are not the world--
until we are pierced
by a single unsought moment.

One glimpse of fathomless everything.

It is the blessing of knowing
that where the unexpected happens
there is always the possibility
of change.

This entry was originally posted at http://kilroy.dreamwidth.org/392146.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

I am alone between two moments,
wrapped in the illusion of stillness.

Here there are no triumphs,
only empty memories.
Here there is no future,
only distant silence.

Here there is only vast, unknowable nothing;
no sound but the echo of my own voice.

When I speak, my words become the world.

This entry was originally posted at http://kilroy.dreamwidth.org/391546.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

In darkness there is the winter wind:
the clarion snap
that awakens the lost,
abjures the wasted,
and respects only purity.

Feel it blast through you,
scouring your very breath
until only flame remains.

This entry was originally posted at http://kilroy.dreamwidth.org/391316.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

I vaguely remember reading/hearing J. Michael Straczynski saying once that Babylon 5 just dropped on his brain all at once, and he had the basic setting and plot worked out in a matter of days.

Well, I suddenly believe him. I just had a nearly complete setting just drop out of the sky on me yesterday-- with a title!-- and I've been scrambling to write it all down. I already have four pages of single-spaced notes on the thing and I feel like I'm just getting started.

This has never happened to me before that I recall, but damn is it cool.

This entry was originally posted at http://kilroy.dreamwidth.org/390578.html. Please comment there using OpenID.