Using writing tricks for RPGs, and vice versa

[TitaniumMan]

Has anyone used fiction writing techniques to improve how they play their roleplaying games, and vice versa?  Me, I used to read a lot of fiction writing books back when I had aspirations of trying out fiction.  These days, I prefer to get my creative jollies out in RPGs, but the stuff I learned in those books - strong characters driving the plot, especially - has really improved my game, both on the player and the GM side.  Has anyone had this kind of experience before?

[Breandan]

I started out writing the Dark Nova series of novels with the intent to publish them, and leave it at that. However, I was approached and... "encouraged" (in a Mafia kind of way) to sign onto an RPG development deal based on the setting of the novels. Well, here we are a couple of years later, the RPG is on the shelves (well, was till it sold out) and the novels still haven't been submitted with the necessary revisions. Irony is a pain in the butt

That being said, I found that writing a comprehensive setting, history, background, etc.- far beyond the scope of the three novels I had originally planned- has significantly aided my ability to do the novels. I now have a solid setting framework in which to set any number of stories, and the three novels have now expanded to at LEAST six that have been outlined and storyboarded.

Conversely, the RPG benefited from my experience writing the novels, with fully 80 pages of in-character setting and history descriptions that are more like reading a documentary than bland background. This has been one of the major selling points, as it creates a rich, deep world that the players can get into. If I hadn't had the experience of writing a novel, it might not have been as compelling or entertaining, and become more dry campaign setting data that most players get bored with. A bit of an example-

> IDENT 3391001: ISN Field Office 335, New Berlin, AC Stellarcom Relay 4471
> Oh what a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! Thus did the Bard himself describe mankind over seven centuries ago. I do so dearly love the classics, tis a shame they are lost upon the benighted youth of today’s culture. Which brings us, dear reader, to my little part in the development of this literary primer on our universe. T’would seem that a large number of the target audience of this missive are blissfully unaware of the culture and general lifestyle of the Terran Alliance and its many disparate nations. The dear captain has tasked me with rectifying this by presenting a basic overview of the general life and quirks of our beloved demesne. Alas, I have grown but a trite too verbose in my introduction, therefore let me simply draw this prologue to a close and present to you, dear reader, an overview of life in the 24th century.
> Olivier 2318-19 May-2203 GST

Society and Customs
T’would be most unsporting of me if I did not set the auto-translator to turn my rather expansive and theatrical verse into the common vernacular, so pardon me for a moment… there we are. As you can imagine, there are many strange and exotic customs found amongst the many peoples of the Terran Alliance. The Freemen of the Free Systems Alliance are rugged hyper-individualistic Libertarians who hold to a do-what-you-will-so-long-as-it-harms-no-one-else paradigm. Their worldview harkens back to the founders of the old United States of America, and is seen by many as quaint and charming, if a bit backward. The Ahruga are no longer even human, and their blend of ancient Celtic culture and society with hyper-modern technology and scientific understanding of the multiverse has often been said to be even more alien than many aliens around us. They are a study in mutually-exclusive  contrasts- simultaneously a very aggressive, violent people and masterful artists and brilliant scientists and philosophers, holding to an ancient Iron-Age-based culture and customs, yet having some of the most advanced technology in the Terran sphere, being bullheaded and uncompromising, straightforward idealists, yet capable of phenomenal subtlety and cunning.
My own nation of the Andali Confederation is not far behind them, either. Due to our obsession with the history- doctored though the good captain may claim it to be- of our ruling houses and the Golden Age of the renaissance, there is something of a neo-renaissance flair to everything we do. Just as neo-classical architecture, dress, and philosophy abounded centuries ago, late medieval and renaissance architecture, music, art and even styles of dress influence our own today. Though, in my defense, tunics are a damned sight more comfortable than a neoflex business suit. The folks of the Tarsus Corridor Alliance have- in their mad dash to shed from themselves anything resembling Terran identity to forge an entirely new one- blended Asian, Persian and European styles and customs together into a strange new culture born entirely amongst the stars. Belonging to mobile castes rather than occupations, living in extended-family communal dwellings rather than individual family homes, having a thriving artistic community consisting of musicians and artists competing to see who can come up with the strangest masterpiece, etc. are all part and parcel of the Tarsan identity. The Nipponese have their traditional culture and customs, as do the Zhongguoren of the Han-Zhou Empire, blending those traditions with modern technology and customs to create a hybrid culture.
Most nations, however, hold to a fairly universal common culture descended in large part from the Big Four of the early explorers- Europe, America, India and Australia. This common culture has evolved into an identity of its own, becoming what is simply referred to as Terran culture. This ‘overculture’ is relatively simple in nature- a person’s identity is largely based on their occupation and their status in the hierarchy of that career, extended family is important, but friends are more so, second only to one’s spouse or spouses and children, and pleasures and diversions take up as much of one’s life as work. Due to generations of minor genetic tweaking and stop-while-you-shop cosmetic surgery and genome treatments, Core World humanity is what their ancestors a few centuries ago would’ve considered inhumanly beautiful. To a one, there are no overweight, underweight or ugly people by the old pre-Fall standards. This does not mean people consider everyone around them beautiful, alas, it merely means that they have resorted to nitpicking minor details to maintain the cattiness. I have studied old Terran concepts of beauty- I am a thespian, after all- and by their standards today’s Core Worlder would look almost plastic, with flawless smooth skin, perfect skin tone, perfect hair, perfect… well, damn near everything. The saddest part is, most of them had no say in the matter, five or six generations of their ancestors poking and prodding their kids’ DNA in-utero produced it...

So, in the end I think writing the RPG as if it were a novel with game mechanics thrown in has proven to be a very useful approach. The DFRPG takes a slightly different spin on this which is not only rather unique, but amusing, with characters from the novels being the ones who "wrote" the RPG based on the world around them. The sticky-notes, annotated entries, and random snarky commentary make it entertaining to read and hooks a player in.

[trboturtle]

I write in the Battletech universe, 13 stories published so far from the Battlecorps.com website and hopefully more to go.

I have a hundred or so books for the Battletech universe, both in DTF and eBook that I can draw on for people, places, and items. The universe is a live one, moving forward in time (3085 right now), yet going back and filling in details that had been mentioned but not explored.

States rise and fall in fortune, and major things happen (The universe is coming off a massive war that was started by a bunch of tencho fanatics that wiped out a number of planets, destroyed dozen of units, killed major characters and shook up the status que.) But the constant is that warfare exists and the Battlemech is the king of the battlefield.

But Battletech has always been about the characters, and with the wide number of groups and backgrounds, there's all type of characters. For me, it's a matter of taking all that history, all that background, and crafting characters and stories that fit into that universe. For me, its one step in the direction of creating my own universe -- All I have to do is create characters and stories. My background is already there, as the events I can play off of.

I am creating my own universe for my own stories, but for now, I'm going to stay and hone my craft in the battletech universe....

Craig