I love puzzles, riddles, and anything else that forces me to excersize my brain. I'd like to share some of these with you. Every month I'll post another with the answer to the previous month's puzzle. If you want to guess an answer, just make a comment. Let me know what you think of this.
Riddle: What can be seen by the naked eye, weighs nothing, and the more you take from it, the bigger it gets?
Monday, June 1, 2009
Claiming my Blog
This may seem like a strange post, but I'm trying to get my blog a little more attention...
I don't know if any of you have heard of tehnorati, but in order to claim my blog with them, I have to post this code:
Technorati Profile
Hopefully, this will help me promote my Imagination Station...who knows, maybe you're looking at this blog now because of technorati. Like I said in my Welcome post, just comment on what you'd like to read...I'm open to anything fantasy! Thanks again!
I don't know if any of you have heard of tehnorati, but in order to claim my blog with them, I have to post this code:
Technorati Profile
Hopefully, this will help me promote my Imagination Station...who knows, maybe you're looking at this blog now because of technorati. Like I said in my Welcome post, just comment on what you'd like to read...I'm open to anything fantasy! Thanks again!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Dungeons and Dragons: DMing as an Art
I recently recieved a comment stating that DMing is like an art...I agree to this and would like to delve a little further:
Dungeons and Dragons is split into two parts: playing as a character and DMing the campaign. Playing as a character is great fun as you can watch the story unfold and leave your mark on it as you wish. It is also much easier as you are responsible for only your character and his/her actions.
DMing is much harder as you are responsible for much more than a single character. NPCs (Non-Player Characters) are a big portion of the DM's job. any villagers, guards, enemies, royalty, or other adventurers (plus more) that the PCs (Player Characters) meet are your responsibility. A good DM inteacts with the players as best he can with every NPC the players meet. This can be especially difficult if your a male DM, for instance, controlling a female NPC that is infatuated with a male player's character. You have to remember that this is all happenning within the game and you are not actually flirting with your best friend across the table...it can be difficult.
The story that the PCs playthrough is also a large part of the DMs responsibility. How do the PCs actions affect the story? How will the key NPCs react to those actions? Is there now a portion of the planned story that the players can no longer access because of what they have done? If so, where do you go from here? You have to constantly ask yourself these questions throughout the game. For instance, in my current campaign, the players are in the major Dwarven nation and are seeking a way to become honorary citizens so they can defend a Duegar (Dark Dwarf) in court. This could be very interesting...so how do I, as DM, help them go about their task? Well, I have offered up quests that will get them some sort of reknown with the dwarves. In addition, since the players helped the dwarves stop a large prison break, they already have a welcomed status within the nation. Now, assuming they succede in becoming honorary citizens, how will the dwarves react to them using such an honor to defend a member of a dark race of hated dwarves? Will they then be cast out? Will their citizenship be revoked? Will they recieve thanks and welcomings by the Duegar? You must keep in mind that their actions must recieve proper consequences and sometimes this means a very indepth knowledge of the world you created for the players to adventure in.
There are pre-made worlds (ex: Forgotten Realms), adventures (ex: Pyramid of Shadows), and dungeons (ex: The World's Largest Dungeon) that DMs can use. This way, especially for beginners, DMs learn how a structured campaign works. However, in my personal opinion, it is much more rewarding to make my own world, adventures, and dungeons to put my players through. It is much more difficult but far more rewarding when my players comment on how they liked it and talk about their favorite parts. In the same aspect, I find DMing to be a much more rewarding experience than simply playing a character.
In reality, people die but the world goes on. In Dungeons and Dragons, characters may die, then that magical sword you saved for or that feat you couldn't wait to get is gone. But the world continues and the adventure pushes forward and as DM you are there, guiding that story, guiding the adventure, guiding the characters to greatness and many good, fun times.
Dungeons and Dragons is split into two parts: playing as a character and DMing the campaign. Playing as a character is great fun as you can watch the story unfold and leave your mark on it as you wish. It is also much easier as you are responsible for only your character and his/her actions.
DMing is much harder as you are responsible for much more than a single character. NPCs (Non-Player Characters) are a big portion of the DM's job. any villagers, guards, enemies, royalty, or other adventurers (plus more) that the PCs (Player Characters) meet are your responsibility. A good DM inteacts with the players as best he can with every NPC the players meet. This can be especially difficult if your a male DM, for instance, controlling a female NPC that is infatuated with a male player's character. You have to remember that this is all happenning within the game and you are not actually flirting with your best friend across the table...it can be difficult.
The story that the PCs playthrough is also a large part of the DMs responsibility. How do the PCs actions affect the story? How will the key NPCs react to those actions? Is there now a portion of the planned story that the players can no longer access because of what they have done? If so, where do you go from here? You have to constantly ask yourself these questions throughout the game. For instance, in my current campaign, the players are in the major Dwarven nation and are seeking a way to become honorary citizens so they can defend a Duegar (Dark Dwarf) in court. This could be very interesting...so how do I, as DM, help them go about their task? Well, I have offered up quests that will get them some sort of reknown with the dwarves. In addition, since the players helped the dwarves stop a large prison break, they already have a welcomed status within the nation. Now, assuming they succede in becoming honorary citizens, how will the dwarves react to them using such an honor to defend a member of a dark race of hated dwarves? Will they then be cast out? Will their citizenship be revoked? Will they recieve thanks and welcomings by the Duegar? You must keep in mind that their actions must recieve proper consequences and sometimes this means a very indepth knowledge of the world you created for the players to adventure in.
There are pre-made worlds (ex: Forgotten Realms), adventures (ex: Pyramid of Shadows), and dungeons (ex: The World's Largest Dungeon) that DMs can use. This way, especially for beginners, DMs learn how a structured campaign works. However, in my personal opinion, it is much more rewarding to make my own world, adventures, and dungeons to put my players through. It is much more difficult but far more rewarding when my players comment on how they liked it and talk about their favorite parts. In the same aspect, I find DMing to be a much more rewarding experience than simply playing a character.
In reality, people die but the world goes on. In Dungeons and Dragons, characters may die, then that magical sword you saved for or that feat you couldn't wait to get is gone. But the world continues and the adventure pushes forward and as DM you are there, guiding that story, guiding the adventure, guiding the characters to greatness and many good, fun times.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Welcome to Panthean's Imagination Station
Welcome to my Imagination Station. As it says in my profile, I'm interested in almost every form of fantasy including: video games, Dungeons and Dragons, movies, books, and I even LARP (Live Action Role-Play) once in a while; LARPing is like living a Dungeons and Dragons campaign for a weekend. For those of you that don't know about or play Dungeons and Dragons, consider it living a video game.
Anyway, I started this blog mainly due to the prodding of my father. I am attempting to write the storyline for a video game...a story that I've been working on for more than 6 years. He said that bloging is a good way to practice my writing, improve my imagination, and learn how to take criticism.
I hope to accomplish a few things with this blog, the primary of which is to improve my story. However, I also hope that this will improve my DMing skills for Dungeons and Dragons. My father overheard my friend and I preparing a campaign one day and said that I could use the blog to help others with their campaigns by providing help and advice. I don't know how well that will work, but if I can improve my own abilities and help others with their campaigns, then I'll give it a shot.
I'm not used to bloging, nor am I very computer literate so please show some patience with me...I don't know fully how to use this website and will be learning as I go. I don't know what else to say right now so I'll leave it up to any who will comment on what to talk about. I hope this will be more than just, I'll type and you'll read...I like interaction, so let me know what you want me to say. Enjoy the site and let me know what you want to talk about!
Anyway, I started this blog mainly due to the prodding of my father. I am attempting to write the storyline for a video game...a story that I've been working on for more than 6 years. He said that bloging is a good way to practice my writing, improve my imagination, and learn how to take criticism.
I hope to accomplish a few things with this blog, the primary of which is to improve my story. However, I also hope that this will improve my DMing skills for Dungeons and Dragons. My father overheard my friend and I preparing a campaign one day and said that I could use the blog to help others with their campaigns by providing help and advice. I don't know how well that will work, but if I can improve my own abilities and help others with their campaigns, then I'll give it a shot.
I'm not used to bloging, nor am I very computer literate so please show some patience with me...I don't know fully how to use this website and will be learning as I go. I don't know what else to say right now so I'll leave it up to any who will comment on what to talk about. I hope this will be more than just, I'll type and you'll read...I like interaction, so let me know what you want me to say. Enjoy the site and let me know what you want to talk about!
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