Want to GM an amazing convention RPG event? Worried that your RPG event will be a disaster? Come learn these common mistakes made by convention GMs and how to avoid them! Many GMs treat their convention game like their home game, show up underprepared, and forget that a convention player is a customer. Hear from an experienced GM how these mistakes will ruin your convention game, and what you can do to run a convention game better than the rest!
Regardless of the genre you write in, chances are you'll put a love-interest in it. How do you blend a touch of romance into your story and how explicit should you be? Learn how romance can strengthen your story and make your characters more real and interesting. USA Today Bestselling fantasy-romance author, and this year's Author Guest of Honor, Elizabeth Vaughan leads the discussion.
Are you a Fantasy Craft adventurer or a Spycraft agent? Looking for the inside scoop on Ten Thousand Bullets, Mistborn, and the Looking Glass Wars RPGs? Then stop by and chat with Alex Flagg and Patrick Kapera to learn what’s on the horizon for Crafty Games and get revealing behind-the-scenes insights (not to mention the answers to all your burning questions about our exciting new products and diabolical schemes for global domination).
Make war, not peace! Ruffle the feathers of your characters. Stir the pot of emotions. Add a fistfight or two. Craft a clever and entertaining argument among your heroes. Not all conflict has to be bloody or increase the body count, but it does have to keep the reader turning the pages. Our panelists discuss the art of adding a dash of conflict to your pages.
Part of the master GM series: Veteran writer and GM, Dr. Rich Staats, steps you through the process of creating memorable NPCs. The system was originally published in Shadis magazine and was part of a for-credit course at MIT.
The philosophers say 'Know yourself.' The writing guides say 'Write what you know.' Even though writing about yourself may seem easy, your memoir still needs to have the essential elements of a story and should engage, enlighten, and entertain, all without making stuff up! Panelists will discuss making memoirs more effective, places to publish, and suggestions on how to deal with family members who don't remember the past the same way you do.
Dwarven vampires, space-faring elves, undead detectives, rap artists in King Arthur’s court. Are there lines and genres that shouldn’t be crossed in fiction? If you do cross lines, how many can you tackle? How many genres can you blend before your reader gets too confused and gives up? What combinations are natural? What combinations should be avoided? Are there rules to follow? And what rules should you break?
The modern West is awash in the paranormal, from ghost hunting to alien abductions. The paranormal, however, is hardly unique to us. Different cultures have had their own unique conceptions of the paranormal. If we widen our gaze from beliefs espoused by the Ghost Hunters and others, we see that paranormal ideas generally draw from cultural narratives and fill in perceived holes to help explain the anomalous or extraordinary.
There is a dark side to the “fairer sex.” In this hour, we’ll focus on female villains, hard-boiled heroines, and tough-as-nails supporting characters. How do you make a female character real without becoming a cliché or done-to-death stereotype?