![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hero by stuff
Jun. 20th, 2023 11:32 pmWas pondering how few origins there were for superheroes in my high fantasy world. Then I remembered that I had actually had another: gadgeteer. Mind you, with magical gadgets. There are clockpunk ones, but clockpunk needs something magic to make the springs hold enough power.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
philosophy of flimsy
Apr. 11th, 2023 10:28 pmThere's an issue closely related to the problem of change in superhero stories, and that's of sturdiness of world-building -- or flimsiness. (Also a high fantasy problem.)
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
supers and the source
Mar. 25th, 2023 10:02 pmWhere do you get your powers from, when you get them?
This is perhaps one of the greatest questions of super world-building. It can influence or even determine politics. It can implicate metaphysics. It can raise grave questions in ethics. It can box in theme.
( Read more... )
This is perhaps one of the greatest questions of super world-building. It can influence or even determine politics. It can implicate metaphysics. It can raise grave questions in ethics. It can box in theme.
( Read more... )
supers and setting
Mar. 20th, 2023 11:41 pmA useful image when thinking of genre: a wall. It looks like paintballs hit it and splattered, but as you get close enough, you see that center is in fact where the dots cluster. Those are the works that cluster to the center of the genre.
If you look at the very center of the superhero genre, you will see:( Read more... )
If you look at the very center of the superhero genre, you will see:( Read more... )
think it through
Sep. 29th, 2022 09:31 pmIt's all very well to have different things in your world-building, even things that would be impossible in the real world. But think it through?
You want epic fantasy, with vast battles, in the modern world with cell phones, motorcycles, and laptops.
( Read more... )
You want epic fantasy, with vast battles, in the modern world with cell phones, motorcycles, and laptops.
( Read more... )
portals as plot device
Oct. 9th, 2020 11:24 pmShoving your character through a portal of some kind to another world is not something to be done lightly. As in, not to be dropped without dealing with it.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
backstory, RPG vs. novel
Mar. 8th, 2020 09:00 pmAgain contemplating the differences between the games and the writing. In particular backstory.
the meta in the origin
Oct. 28th, 2019 09:58 pmMetaorigins are useful in a superhero universe. Provides a degree of unity in a genre not generally noted for it.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Appendix N
Jul. 7th, 2018 07:17 pmAppendix N by Jeffro Johnson
A collection of reviews of the famous Appendix N to Dungeonmaster's Guide. He picked a book for the authors without specified titles.
( Read more... )
A collection of reviews of the famous Appendix N to Dungeonmaster's Guide. He picked a book for the authors without specified titles.
( Read more... )
other worlds and the masquerade
Oct. 25th, 2016 07:27 pmIn the normal portal fantasy, there is no need for the masquerade: the magic's in another world, open there, and hardly hiding from the more mundane world, and if the characters aren't snatched from it by magic from the other, the portal is an effervescent and fugitive thing with a mind of its own.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
epic and tales
Aug. 2nd, 2016 10:56 pmHave been philosophically contemplating epics and fantasy and the TriWizard Tournament. . .
One problem with epic fantasy (or SF) is that, unlike an epic tale of historical fiction, you can't do against the backdrop of a known epic event. An epic tale of WWII would probably concentrate on as few characters as the main ones of The Lord of the Rings, but taking the background more of less as read.
( Read more... )
One problem with epic fantasy (or SF) is that, unlike an epic tale of historical fiction, you can't do against the backdrop of a known epic event. An epic tale of WWII would probably concentrate on as few characters as the main ones of The Lord of the Rings, but taking the background more of less as read.
( Read more... )
reflections on epic
Jul. 30th, 2016 09:12 pmIn one respect, Amber is much more epic than Lord of the Rings. It involves scads upon scads of worlds, and their fate.
It doesn't feel like it.
( Read more... )
It doesn't feel like it.
( Read more... )
the secret shop
Jun. 14th, 2016 11:35 pmThought of another justification for the masquerade, why magic lurks among us but we don't know it -- so that urban fantasy can take place in a world that is not alternate.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
superheroes and genre
Mar. 1st, 2015 12:25 amWas working on my superhero tale. . .
Which does not fit into a genre neatly any more than most of them do, because of the world-building issues.
( Read more... )
Which does not fit into a genre neatly any more than most of them do, because of the world-building issues.
( Read more... )
juggling projects
Feb. 8th, 2015 10:36 pmso poking around with short stories. There are also novels and even novellas in progress to go out, but with short stories I consider whether to go back to the trunk to pull out more tales.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
