June 2022's Writer Support Thread

Game Development Writing and Content
102

Not exactly a character sheet, but a document that lists characters’ personality, motivation, relations, flaws, the stuff. They’re fictionalised counterparts of real historical-domain characters, so I can’t stray too too far from that.

There’s a major hierarchical difference between the player character (bastard of minor gentry) and the politicians he’s allying himself with (princes and dukes and very rich people in general). They’re practically untouchable. Plus, the player character is already on pretty thin ice due to their notoriety, but given some clemency to prove their worth by either one of the two politician royal dukes in the story.

Still need to figure out how exactly the allegiance changes and backroom dealings and poaching strategies are going to work in narrative though. I want the possibility to do deception two layers deep (for when the player character allies with Stuart - undermine both the Whigs and the Tories, while appearing overtly Tory even if you don’t like them). That third option is a headache!

Going to do just that. Hopefully less tangled tomorrow…

History dump

This was a time where only 1% of the population–wealthy landowners–could vote, and the way politicians sway them to vote for them is by hosting the biggest parties or giving the fanciest gifts - in other words, who has the most money to throw around. The politicians are princes, dukes, and even the very lowest would be stinking rich industrialists or bankers. Nobody cares if they have bastard children, use laudanum, or other so-called minor problems like that. A lot of their life is already in the public eye anyway, at least within those circles of people rich enough to vote.

Meanwhile, the player character is the small fish trying to swim amongst the big fish. He’s the bastard child of an impoverished baronet. He has gotten into trouble before from past association with a fringe party (which is ironically what gets his foot in the door with either of the two big powers–Whigs and Tories–this time, or gets him recruited by a shadowy third party–Stuart–that promises big) that bungled an assassination attempt against the king. Father bailed him that time but that’s not going to happen again.

It’ll be a game of guile to get your way, not blackmail. As for the royal dukes, they’ll be the “contact point” for the player character for either party; one has an “illegitimate” (it’s complicated) son, the other has a son who’s blind, I suppose that could get played in some way? They’d likely exist in-universe anyway, but I haven’t seriously considered what to do with them.

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103

You can use wood.

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104

Just because It burns, it doesn’ t mean it’s going to bee a good fuel; even coal per can be a problem if it’s not the right coal (the higher it’s its C value, the more energy it can produce)

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I’m not saying coal isn’t better, but wood does work. Finns used wood-powered cars widely during WWII. (Well, it wasn’t steam engine, but engine nonetheless.)

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106

Wood doesn’t work well at scale, is the problem with it.

Coal has roughly twice the energy density of wood, and you get coal by hauling it out from underground. Wood, on the other hand, is much bulkier than coal and requires you to cut down forests. Coal is also almost worthless aside from its use as a fuel, while wood is a valuable material that’s often needed for other things, like ships and buildings and wagons and whatnot. And on top of that, widespread deforestation is a bad thing.

So while it can work for fuel on the small scale(making steel for swords), it can’t really work as fuel for large scale(making steel at industrial levels for railroads and building frames and fleets of cars and whatnot). Industrial smelting of both iron and steel, for example, required more coal than it did iron. That’s why the big steel mills in the USA were next to the coal mines in Pittsburgh and not over by the iron deposits over in Minnesota/Michigan. Trying to fuel all that with wood would have been impossible. It would have required something like twice as much wood by weight as it did coal and caused massive deforestation, as well as burning up tons and tons and tons of timber that would no longer be available for use as a building material.

So while you could use wood as fuel, IMO it’s just not practical as a fuel to push a world into a new technological era. That requires the availability and energy density of something like coal or a fuel oil. Granted, with magic some of that need for fuel can be averted, but that’s always a choice you can make as an author. If you don’t want them to be smelting steel or running steam turbines by using wizard work gangs to stoke the furnace, don’t make that a thing that works.

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107

Well sure, if you need to be able to go through industrialization right away. I thought we were talking about capability for technological advancement, not necessarily mass utilizing it; for that, there’s no reason to have trains before the engines are practical (and depending on location, trains may not be practical at all!) - in fact, I’d assume that not having coal would cause technology advance faster, since the lack of “good enough” solution would force people invent further. It would just have to be a scientific curiosity a bit further before becoming a method for industrialization proper. (And now I want to write that… too bad I have no stories currently going on that would be on an appropriate technology level.)

If we were talking about steam trains specifically, I apologize.

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108

The big boom to scientific and technological development comes from the ability to spread knowledge cheaply and en masse, the first step of it being the printing press (movable type is a big bonus). Because then you can reliably build on what has come before.

Free time comes exactly from scientific and tech development.

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109

Also enough people with enough free time, I would guess, otherwise no one can invent anything.

As long as some world-ending diaster or another isn’t wiping away too much of the population (which… actually might be what some of the fantasy worlds struggle with. Hmm). And as long as someone does the groundwork needed before the tech development starts to free masses (because otherwise it never starts, no?) but I think it’s safe to assume there’s some research going on anyway, (mesenate systems, universities, idle nobles, or something) so yeah.

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110

I would like some further advice on character motivation. Suppose your character’s X trauma was overcome in the first book. How would you handle their motivation in further books? Would you hit them with ‘waves’ of their old traumas? A new motivation, perhaps? Or maybe even an extreme version of their ‘enlightenment’? i.e. a detective obsessed with saving everyone reaches the conclusion he can’t and lets it go in the first book, however starts taking that to the extreme and stops caring altogether in the second? How to make a smooth transition between motivations?

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111

“Overcome” is not the term that I would use. I would strongly recommend favoring the term “process”. The reason this is important is that processing trauma is a complex, long-term process, and recovery is not linear.

I would say more, but I don’t feel confident expounding on it in as limited a format as a forum post reply. Suffice to say, if you have a major character dealing with emotional trauma, you should definitely opt for some deeper research. It’s helpful to get multiple perspectives, both professional and personal. A therapist specializing in trauma gives a different perspective than a person in recovery. Broader, but not as visceral.

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112

Apologies. I will keep this in mind for the future and choose my words carefully.

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113

What Hazel mean isn’t that the word ‘Overcome’ is offensive, but it’s wrong if you are talking about Mental Trauma and other kinds of trauma. And it depends on many factors, and one of them is tied directly to the individual and if they actually got treatments.

So it really comes down to what kind of trauma you are going for. But people can live with their traumas without treatments and their symptoms will worsen over the years.

Some even with treatment and medications, will still struggle day to day (PTSD for example, getting triggered and flashbacks, or rape victims). Think of traumas similar to being an amputee or being blind. You don’t overcome it, you gonna have to live with that for the rest of your life. Try to put on your clothes with only one hand and you get how someone with a missing arm feels every morning, and then add the traumas from the accident that caused them to lose the said arm.

When you want to write a character that has trauma you gotta do research then decide what kind of traumas they had, what caused them (Their past story), and if they actually sought help during your story (Or not). But you can’t just say ‘They have trauma’.

What kind? Depression? PTSD? Do they have a disorder like OCD? Schizophrenia? What? Are they alcoholics, or smokers? Do dopes? because those are not good for someone who is suffering from ‘Trauma’. Often those who abuse the 3 above would not seek help but self-medicate with alcohol, dope, and smoke.

Then there is the severity of the trauma. Not everyone has the same sad story, and everyone reacts differently to horrible things. Some will bounce back and live a good life. And some will sink deeper in hell until they die…by suicide.

That often happens during your writing, as you write your character you will get more ideas as it grows before your eyes.

For example here, how does this Detective get this ‘Urge’ to save everyone? Nobody just wakes up one morning and decides to go and wear his pajama and start flying like Superman. Something happens…always.

That comes from whatever happened in the 1st book. But you have the obligation to write it in a way that will lead you to that conclusion.

It’s not different than you opening the fridge wanting a snack and end up just getting a Soda. The transition in your brain and what you were craving…just happen. Write it that way, it has to be natural like that.

Like I said above, depends on the Trauma but it should be part of your character. Nothing pissed me off than a writer who creates this broken depressed character then by the end he is CURED! Fuck that, in the real world, it doesn’t work like that.

The best advice I can give you is to give your character more than just trauma as motivation. I urge you to not use ‘Trauma’ as a crutch unless you know what the hell you are doing. This means, your story should have much more.

And because of that? I’m calling my Deity @malinryden cause they wrote about this stuff in Fallen Hero and I sure like hell know they can shed even more light in a more eloquent way than I could. (Besides, they are like a Sensei to me, I could still learn something from them)

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I appreciate these new perspectives on trauma. I’m a beginner at the craft, so absorbing the knowledge from those who already write is essential. Please pardon any erroneous use of words or obvious questions.

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115

I lost every single one of my ChoiceScript files. They all somehow got deleted and I can’t find them to save them in OneDrive. Back to the drawing board for The Body Snatcher. :smiling_face_with_tear:

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116

Wasn’t sure if this needed its own topic, or where to put it, to be honest. But since it’s related to writers, here may be good? @Eiwynn

Anyway, just saw this:

It’s related to Itcho.io. I know many WIP is moving to use TWINE and then hosting themself on Itcho.io. So beware, and keep an eye on your work.

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“This thing that uses web3 stuff, all of which is a criminal scam, is a criminal scam.”

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118

This is Pandora all over again… :roll_eyes:

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119

Oof, that’s horrible. itch.io is so good for indie developers. I hope the scam site goes down quickly.

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@HarrisPS Pardon the tangent, but let me praise your work on Blood Money. An interesting concept aptly put into paper. Commendable world-building.

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Ah, that’s so kind - thank you so much! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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