Writing Excuses 4.5: Roleplaying Games as Tools for Story Telling

Roll for initiative, folks! Brandon, Dan, and Howard all play tabletop role-playing games, and sometimes even play together. The question of the hour (well... quarter-hour) is "how can these games help your world building, storytelling, and anything else having to do with good writing?" If this 'cast doesn't make you want to play RPGs with your friends, congratulations on a successful Saving Throw vs. Dark Podcast Magic. If this 'cast doesn't make you want to sit down and start writing, you have our condolences. That's not the saving throw you were supposed to make! In the spirit of not-necessarily-related personal information: This week we learn that Howard is moister than Dan. In related news, see the Writing Excuses crew this coming Saturday, February 13th, at the Life, The Universe and Everything Symposium at Brigham Young University in the Wilkinson Center. We'll be there for the full symposium, but on Saturday we'll actually be recording in front of an audience. You'll also get to meet Bob Defendi, who gets mentioned at least three times in this episode. Audiobook Plug: Nation, by Terry Pratchett Writing Prompt: Don't write about players being sucked into their RPGs. That's been done a lot. Suck the RPG characters out into our world, and see what happens. This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by Audible. Visit http://AudiblePodcast.com/excuse for a free trial membership*. *Note: From the Audible website, here are the terms of the free membership. Read the fine print, please! Audible® Free Trial Details Get your first 14 days of the AudibleListener® Gold membership plan free, which includes one audiobook credit. After your 14 day trial, your membership will renew each month for just $14.95 per month so you can continue to receive one audiobook credit per month plus members-only discounts on all audio purchases. A very small number of titles are more than one credit. Cancel your membership before your free trial period is up and you will not be charged. Thereafter, cancel anytime, effective the next billing cycle. Any unused audiobook credits will be lost at cancellation.