Community

As I was saying in my previous blog post, here's the first entry in the Author Roundtable, courtesy of my talented editor:

community.wizards.com/wotc_vetanda/blog/...

Cheers

P.S. Any questions in particular you'd like to see answered? Let her (or me) know by private message.

I just thought I'd take this opportunity to give a shout-out to my hard-working and heavy-weight-to-bear editor, Susan Morris, also known on these boards as Vetanda.

Susan is the editor of the recent Realms of the Dead anthology (which includes a story by yours truly), as well as numerous other Realms pieces of the last five or so years (most of the anthologies such as Realms of War and Best of Ed, for instance, as well as the entirety of the Eddie Presents Waterdeep series, my previous Realms novels, and at least half of all Realms novels that show up on the shelf). Hard-working, like I said.

She also makes time for her own work, including the various practical guides, the most recent of which is--I believe--A Practical Guide to Wizardry.

She's also putting together an ongoing "WWYFFRAD?" ("What would your favorite Forgotten Realms author do?") series, whereby each of us odd-duck writers answers questions about life, the universe, and the zombie apocalypse.

Also, though I am probably a foot taller and weigh almost twice what she does, all that martial arts training she does means she could probably defeat me with her pinky.

Yay Susan!

Cheers

EDIT: D'oh! I was incorrect. Susan actually put on her author hat and *wrote* a story in Realms of War, while Phil did the actual editing.

She *did* edit Realms of the Dead, however, which is shaping up to my reading to be really, really excellent. :D

Hey all,

Having secured lodging and flights, it's official: I will indeed be at GenCon Indy this year.

I usually run one or two events--more info on that later.

Hope to see any of y'all there!

Cheers

I am running an FR campaign, which is being chronicled by one of my players (Ben) here, through the perspective of his heroine, an elf invoker. Check it out!

The characters are currently in the Scepter Tower of Spellgard, from which they will branch out to follow one of my numerous plot hooks . . . or else go off elsewhere in the wide Realms to explore and adventure.

Next session will be January 31, at which I hope there will be some considerable action.

Cheers

People often ask me how to go about naming their characters, whether in writing, in gaming, or whatever.

My favorite and most effective method of naming a character (other than sudden insight/inspiration, which you can't control) is three easy steps as follows:

1) Write down the type of character.

2) Think of a word that you associate with the character. Basically, a word that defines the character--either their role in the story, or something that is extremely significant to them.

- If it's a passive sort of character, use a noun.

- If it's active, use a verb.

- If it's a particularly striking character (i.e., one particular physical or mental characteristic), use an adjective.

3) Then just start tweaking the word. Reverse orders, replace a few letters, etc.

Here's an example:

1) Fire genasi swordmage

2) Fire (both a noun and a verb, denoting that she is both cautious and thoughtful, and also fierce when needed)

3) Fira, Fier, Fiera . . . Fiera.

See? Easy.

And also, of course, you think about who else has that name and what they're like. Fiera, for instance, one of the archdevils of the Nine Hells. Fire. Appropriate, no?

What I like about this technique is that it invests the character (subconsciously) with the concept you're getting across. As an example, Arya, heroine in Ghostwalker, comes from "aria," meaning a lone, beautiful song that rises above the rest. "Greyt" comes, obviously, from "great"--the great hero. Rhyn comes from a combination of "run" and "rhyme," appropriate for an avenger with a bardic past.

Now, of course, there are way, WAY more complex names out there (don't ask where Gyl'theryel came from, or, worse, Ruukthalmuramaxamin). But hopefully, this'll get you started if you get stuck on giving your work of art the perfect label.

Cheers


P.S. Apparently, when Bob (you know, Bob) writes a novel, he doesn't name any of the characters initially (mostly because he *hates* naming characters), but rather puts in filler names so that he can do a universal find-and-replace later. So Bill the drow fighter, Steve the Uthgardt barbarian, Melanie the high priestess of Lolth, etc., etc.

And sometimes, the story goes, one of them will slip through. Ahem! :D

So this is mostly an instruction about how to write bad guys, but it goes for lots of things: DMing effective evil NPCs, directing bad guys in movies, trying to take over the world yourself in your spare time, etc.

The first rule about writing bad guys is that they *aren't all bad*.

If you make a villain who is all-evil, all-the-time, that's boring.

If you make a villain who has absolutely no redeeming qualities, that's boring.

If you make a villain who does evil just because it's evil, that's boring.

(There are, of course, exceptions to this, but generally speaking, an evil-for-evil's-sake, completely-utterly-psychopathic monster is only really usable as a parody of itself [see Xykon, Order of the Stick].)

The more your audience relates to the villain, the more effective the villain is, and so for that purpose, we need to craft some characteristics in our villain that make him/her relatable.

The trick to a *good* villain (so to speak) is to make your villain a real person, that is, with hopes, dreams, goals, ambitions, cares, fears, and--above all--motivations. Villains don't exist in a vaccuum--there's always some reason they're villains, no matter how small or ridiculous (compensating?) that reason is. Even Darth Vader had a reason (no matter how much Lucas bungled in showing it on the big screen).

Secondly, every villain needs redeeming qualities. Again, Vader cared about his son, even though he was this big bad evil bad guy^TM (BBEBG)--so much so that it led to casting the emperor (pretty much his entire focus for being) into a great pyrotechnic doom. A villain who is noble (after a fashion) or is doing all the wrong things for all the right reasons (or more interestingly, some right and some wrong) is much, much more interesting. Remember, your villain doesn't think of himself or herself *as* a villain, but basically--at worst--misunderstood and forced into a bad situation. Being able (or at least trying) to justify your evil actions by some sort of logic is Evil 101.

Thirdly, some people say that rappers--I mean, villains don't have feelings (we have feelings), but they do. Barring use of actual monsters, you're going to be using  (and let's face it, you're going to need something vaguely human for your story, right? Because the more your audience relates to the villain, the more effective the villain is. Your villain may have trouble relating to people, but he should have things he loves to do, dreams and desires--stuff that real people do. He has needs--though as he's a villain, we'd expect that somehow his needs aren't being met. Your villain is going to love people, even if they don't love him back, and he's going to try to do best by the people he cares about. Sure, he might end up killing them along the way, but he should be broken up about it. Otherwise, again, cardboard cutout.

Finally, before signing off, let's talk about the difference between empathy and sympathy for a second. Empathy means you can relate to a character, while sympathy means you feel sorry for a character. It's like the difference between understanding (empathy) and siding with a villain (sympathy). Sympathetic villains are sometime important and very effective (when done correctly), but it's not really necessary to have a sympathetic villain. For instance, I don't sympathize with Vader or Redcloak (again, Order of the Stick--I'm a fan) at all, but they're both examples of really effective villains that I can *empathize* with (see the difference?). It is completely necessary to have an empathetic villain, however--that is, one your audience can understand. Again, if your villain is just a faceless force of maleficence, your story's going to lose something in the translation.

So go forth and do villainy! In the best way possible.

Cheers,

Erik

Sorry to those who were waiting for me to friend them on the community. As I said, I only recently got up and going after a couple months' absence.

I will, however, give a shoutout to James Davis, Erin Evans, and Jaleigh Johnson--three awesome writers, and three of my fellow Waterdahvians. Go check them out in my friends list, and check out their books while you're at it!

Circle of Skulls (James Davis)

The God Catcher (Erin Evans)

Mistshore (Jaleigh Johnson)

Cheers

Hail and Well Met, fellow D&D/miscellaneous gamers!

I have a semi-active author's blog elsewhere (eriksdb.livejournal.com), but I thought I'd finally start up a blog here as well.

I am first and foremost an author. My published work so far includes three novels in the Forgotten Realms setting (Ghostwalker, Depths of Madness, Downshadow) and contributions to three anthologies (Realms of the Dragons II, Realms of the Elves, Realms of the Dead [recently released!]).

Secondarily, I am a freelance designer, having had articles published on DDI (such as in Dungeon: Eye of Justice and in Dragon: Champions of Torm), as well as print pieces (I am a contributing author to Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea and I authored the forthcoming PHB3 Game Day Adventure, "Beneath the Lonely Tower" [see this article, toward the bottom]), as well as a number of projects I just can't talk about for now.

I love interacting with fellow readers and gamers. If you ever have any questions for me--particularly if you have feedback about one of my works or a clarification question--ask away!

Now let's roll some dice!

Cheers

P.S. Oh, and the tall guy reference would indicate me. I am 6'6.6" in height, a fact that is not only vaguely creepy in its resemblance to the mark of the beast, but also one that has prompted quite a number of queries re: basketball and getting things down off the high shelf for little old ladies. I try to use my powers for good, you know.