Well, I'm not much of a writer. But I have been Gaming, and DM-ing, for about 25 years, now.
And not just
D&D, but a lot of RPGs:
Earthdawn to
Shadowrun;
RIFTS to
Witchcraft,
World of Darkness to
Battletech;
TOONS to
Superheroes; more.....
Various Play-By-Post Sites have improved my (Still Limited) writing skills.
(two P-B-P Sites I run – one for D&D and one for X-Men – anyone interested can email me. BLATENT PLUG!! [sorry.])
I normally love to play with different fonts and colors. However, different fonts and colors do not always work for every Posting Site – I have yet to figure out how to do different fonts here. Colors is possible to do, but a lot of people have complained that the different colors makes it harder for them to read what I posted, and so I stopped doing it.
From what I have noticed, to write something for an RPG is like being the Uber-DM. You have to take into account everything that you want to happen, but also be flexible enough to see everything that could happen – and then figure out ways to change things in unexpected ways, so that your readers are almost always surprised by that event.
Being the Uber-DM also means that you have to look at your Villains and Monsters, and make them as “Human” – and as believable – as possible.
It also might mean letting the Baddies “win” from time to time, and then finding a way for your Hero(es) to defeat them.
Also look at unusual Races for Characters – my favorite “Monster Race” in D&D is the lowly Kobold.
This race has as much a chance to be almost any “D&D Class” as any other Race in the Player's Handbook. A Lawful “Communistic” Society, that has a lot of Racial history of being the Underdogs; and a great amount of anger, frustration, and “Religious Hype” against everyone else - remember that their only deity is evil, and hates all non-Kobolds, but especially Gnomes.
Can you Imagine a Gnome/Kobold "Romio & Juliette"? Write out the viewpoint of each, Before, During, and After they "fall in love".
First try a Gnome boy and a Kobold girl, and then try the reverse.
Also – decide if they are going to (1) break up, (2) suicide to be together, or (3) simply elope.
I once had a wonderful (IMhO) story (and not the R & J, above) about how a young Kobold becomes a powerful “Hero” of several “Normal” Races, as well as his other Kobolds.
But the story was lost years ago, from moving around so much, and technically it is nothing more then just “Fanfic” anyway.
My point was – that inspiration can come from a lot of sources, including playing RPGs.
Well, yes, but Dragonlance is rubbish.
After the first two trilogies (
Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, Dragons of Spring Dawning; and
Time of the Twins, Test of the Twins, War of the Twins) I would tend to agree.
A few of the first Prelude “Histories” - and a few Short Story collections – were ok, but most sucked rotten eggs.
