Weaknesses help define your character and make him interesting as much as his strengths. Who wants to read about the perfect person? It’s no fun when the character can do everything and do it perfectly every time. Life isn’t like that. Your character shouldn’t be either.

Protagonists

As you’re fleshing out your character you’ll have to decide if the flaw you give him is one that he or she has always been aware of or if it’s one yet to be discovered. Maybe someone else discovers it on behalf of the character, revealing it to light.

The idea behind a good flaw is to go beyond the usual basic fears and turn them into something unique. Start with a flaw that your readers can relate to. For example, maybe your character is afraid of the dark and he or she can’t sleep without a nightlight.

Ask yourself why the flaw exists. What event triggered the flaw’s existence? Did the character get scared as a child by an imaginary monster in the closet or under the bed? Was his or her father a fireman or militiaman? Did he get called away one night and your character woke up the next day to find his father was killed in the line of duty?

Now think of which flaw is more interesting. I’d say the death of the father. Not only is there a fear of the dark, but there are abandonment issues to toy with as well.

Antagonists

Many times, whether in a role-playing game or in a fiction novel, protagonists meet an antagonist who seems invincible. By giving that antagonist a real and often simple weakness turns the tide of the whole plot.

A novel or game plot can revolve around finding the weakness of the characters your character faces and exploiting it. This task might take some time and might entail your character overcoming his weaknesses in the process, but it can lead down some very interesting roads.

What is your character’s weakness? What would bring him to his or her knees if anyone found out?

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Does Your Character Have a Weakness?

I could be mean and leave this post at that question just to illustrate my point, but that wouldn’t make for interesting reading, now would it?

Suspense is all about building anticipation. That anticipation keeps your readers turning pages or stuck on the page, and anticipation keeps readers coming back for more. Anticipation and suspense makes a story great.

Bait and Hook

There is a term in both writing and music called “the hook”. The hook is the part of the story or the song that makes the reader want to come back for more or makes the listener want to hear the song again. The hook is an element so addictive that no one can stay away.

In writing, the key element to a good hook that creates suspense is that it doesn’t give readers what they want. You heard me: Don’t give them a thing.

Maybe readers have an idea where the plot is going and they’re not quite sure, or maybe they have no idea at all and want to find out so badly they can’t stand it. Either way, don’t reveal your hand too soon.

The Strip Tease

The more you tease, holding back on giving out, the more readers want to know what happens. Just a hint is enough to entice curiosity and make a reader want to have more of what he or she can’t have right now.

Do you remember waiting for your birthday to come or Christmas to arrive? You might have counted the remaining days on the calendar or even tracked hours until that special day arrived. Your parents might have been the type to drop little teasing clues along the way, just enough to keep everyone guessing.

That’s how you add suspense in your story. Reveal a little bit at a time. Heighten the uncertainty. Create a situation where the reader catches just a glimpse of what’s coming and yet cannot say for sure that will be the outcome.

Creating suspense and anticipation is an art. Reveal too much, and you’ve blown your cover. Sound the surprise too soon, and it won’t have impact. Wait too long, and readers lose interest.

The Prestige of the Moment

Finally, you pull back the curtain with a flourish, revealing the truth, and you shout, “Ta DA!”

If built up to the moment properly, readers smack their palms to their foreheads. They should have seen it coming, and of course! How fantastic! Then all the clues and hints you’ve revealed will fall into place, and readers see that it was right there in front of them the whole time.

Creating good suspense is like hunting. You might have to sit in a tree stand in the cold dawn for days on end, waiting and watching while readers wander in and out of your sights. The suspense of their suspense is as much of a flurry of anticipation for you as it is for them.

Finally, the time is right. You can draw the bowstring back and let the arrow fly.

Do you enjoy suspense? How do you feel when anticipation starts to build? Have you recently experienced that agony of not knowing and the need to know more?

(Click here for full lyrics)

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How To Build Anticipation and Create Suspense

When it comes to Escaping Reality and the World of Darkness, though, some of these myths apply and others don’t.

Werewolf Myths and Facts:

True or False? Silver bullets kill a werewolf.

True: Silver harms a werewolf or other shifter. The slightest contact causes a burning sensation. A small cut heals slowly as if the werewolf were only a human and may leave scars.

If a werewolf is shot or attacked with silver, results can be deadly. The injury won’t heal quickly and the werewolf could die if the wound is serious enough

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True or False? Werewolves only change at the full moon.

False: Werewolves can change forms any time they please. It’s best they do it when there is no one around to witness it except other shifters. We wouldn’t want people to know, now would we?

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True or False? A character can become a werewolf by being bitten by a werewolf

False: The ability to become a werewolf is part genetic and part connection to the spirits. A bite won’t do it.

However, the Forsaken do mark potential shifters with a bite or scratch so the person can be tracked through a spiritual link to the blood once the Forsaken has tasted it.

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True or False? It’s easy to spot a werewolf.

False: Nope. Sorry. Forsaken and other shifters look the same as everyone else. However, their actions, words or behaviors might give them away, especially those of inexperienced shifters.

***

True or False? Kill or dismember a werewolf while in wolf form and the body or appendage reverts to human form.

True: Cut off a piece of a werewolf in one of its non-human forms and that piece turns back into its human form. The body also reverts to human form upon death.

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True or False? Werewolves always travel/work alone.

False: The Forsaken are pack-minded creatures. They can’t go for extended periods of time without the support or contact of their kind.

Vampire Myths and Facts:

True or False? Vampires have an aversion to garlic.

False: The only aversion a vampire will have to garlic is if the individual never liked the smell or taste of it in their previous life.

***

True or False? Vampires have an aversion to crosses and holy water

Partially true. If there is enough belief in the heart of the individual wielding the cross or water, then that object burns the vampire. If the character never believed in those things or has doubts, the objects are not going to have an effect at all.

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True or False? A stake through the heart kills a vampire.

False: A stake through the heart won’t kill a vampire, but it will incapacitate him. When staked, a vampire goes into a state called torpor. The vampire can see/hear/feel everything but is basically paralyzed and can stay in this state indefinitely until the stake is removed.

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True or False? Cutting off a vampire’s head kills him.

True. Cut off a vampire’s head and your character destroys him.

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True or False? Vampires turn to dust in the sunlight.

Partially true. Sunlight has to touch the vampire’s exposed skin. Vampires with the ability to “stay up late” can walk in the daylight, but they have to be very well covered.

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True or False? Fire kills a vampire.

Fire kills a vampire. Many vampires have such an aversion to fire they can’t even tolerate a lighted match. Some, like those in the Ordo Dracul, work hard to overcome this primal fear of fire, but the action is one that needs a roll of the dice to determine success of action.

***

True or False? Vampires have to sleep in coffins.

False. That’s a vampire’s personal preference. Some (the Gangrel) go underground and sleep in a hole. Others might have an elaborate lair tricked out with more security than Fort Knox.

***

True or False? The bite of a vampire turns a character into a vampire.

Partially true. A single bite won’t do it. The change only happens with what the Kindred call the Embrace. This is a process where the the vampire sucks out all the blood from the victim to the brink of death and then the victim is forced to drink the blood back from the vampire.

***

True or False? Vampires live forever.

Partially true. A vampire can survive forever, if he’s smart, but there are ways to destroy him.

***

True or False? Vampires can shape-shift and fly.

True. Some vampires have Disciplines (supernatural abilities) that allow them to change forms (wolf, bat, mist). With practice, they can fly in bat form.

Any other questions?

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Common Werewolf and Vampire Myths Dispelled

I had the plot and several twists figured out five minutes into the movie. As I watched the movie, my thoughts progressed to how the writers put their plots together. They took several seemingly unrelated elements and made them work.

Note: Spoiler Alert has now been activated. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, read no further.

Crystal Skull is set in the 1950s. Its base level plot revolves around the 1947 Roswell incident and the possibility of aliens having visited earth throughout history. It also tied in ancient Mayan mythology and a Russian conspiracy during the Cold War.

No wonder my Dad was grinning when he asked me, “But do you know what the Crystal Skull is?” He knew I’d appreciate the way the ancient myth of the original crystal skull was used.

Remember Your History Lessons

The end of Crystal Skull had me groaning with these two lines:

Mutt Williams: I don’t understand. Why the legend about the city of gold?

Indiana Jones: Well, the word for ‘gold’ translates as ‘treasure.’ But their treasure wasn’t gold, it was knowledge. Knowledge was their treasure.

But now that I think about it, a lot of the classes I took in college and high school are rich sources for my story ideas for games and fiction. Knowledge is a treasure and it will serve you well throughout life.

For example, we recently used a time warp on Escaping Reality. We didn’t know we were going to torment present the players with that situation until I dug into some Nevada history.

One thing led to another and the inspiration came easily.

Stay Sharp

Another way to keep coming up with plot twists that rock your players’ worlds is by paying attention to the details that happen throughout a story. I’m notorious for remembering nearly insignificant incidents and using them later on when no one expects them.

Early on in Escaping Reality, several of the characters met a mysterious preacher at an equally mysterious church. When one of the characters met another preacher during the time warp, he discovered the preacher had the same name.

I don’t plan this stuff. Honest. It’s like I have a massive file in my head and every so often a little mental red flag pokes up and says, “Use me!”

Timing Is Everything

Timing is definitely the key to a successful twist. All those little sticky notes cluttering the edges of my monitor are fantastic, but used too soon and they’re not worth the paper they’re written on.

Introducing a plot twist takes patience. Like a hunter, you have to sit and wait on a tree limb for a while before the prize wanders into your sights.

The Collective Consciousness

I get so many of my ideas from movies. There’s nothing wrong with using what someone else has done, provided you put your own special spin on it. As much as our players admire how I might put a twist on a bit of plot, I also admire people better than me at doing so.

My advice? Just keep your eyes open. Take what might not fit on the surface and look deeper. Make it fit, but make it fit enough to suspend disbelief and leave your players or readers wondering what hit them.

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Where Do Storytellers Get Their Ideas?

For the Forsaken, this transitional period is usually a long process, often starting months before the actual change happens. The closer the time comes to the actual change and shift to animal form, the more the symptoms magnify.

So how do you write this process effectively? Turning into a werewolf or another supernatural character isn’t an everyday occurrence. There’s really no one you can ask to recount theirfirst-hand experience.

The Best of Times and The Worst of Times

For the player, the First Change is one of the most exciting periods in your character’s life. Your character is still the same person, but now the character is forced to face traumatic changes.

A First Change will tear your character apart. He will have nightmares and long periods of missing time. She’ll start doing things that normal people don’t usually do. His personality might become more animalistic as instinct overrides reason. Emotional levels run high and it doesn’t take much to set off an argument or a fight.

Unless your character is lucky enough to have mentors around him, his First Change usually ends in tragedy. A simple domestic dispute takes a bad turn when the inner Rage takes over. Sometimes the new werewolf wakes up bathed in the blood of his loved ones.

Depending on the auspice, a new shifter might take a nosedive into hedonism or try to run away from everything. They might get lost in the spirit world and lose touch with reality. They might have dreams and visions that make no sense at all, further blurring the lines of reality.

Resources

One of the best resources for before, during and after a First Change is the Forsaken sourcebook, Blood of the Wolf. If your character is about to go through this ordeal, you’d be doing yourself a favor by picking up this book.

Another excellent book is Robert R. McCammon’s Hour of the Wolf. This spy thriller with a werewolf twist is set during World War II. The book alternates between the lead character’s childhood in Russia, his adolescence as a new werewolf, and his adult life as a spy and assassin for the Allied forces.

The way McCammon takes Michael through the process of becoming a werewolf is very close to the way we view the First Change in Escaping Reality.

Movies are another excellent resource. There’s the 1981 American Werewolf in London series, and Wes Craven’s 2005 film Cursed with Christina Ricci. Cursed isn’t the best movie I’ve ever seen, but it does have some good First Change ideas.

There’s also 2004’s VanHelsing, which in my opinion, has the best looking werewolves I’ve ever seen.

The Best Laid Plans

A First Change isn’t something you can map out in advance. You could try, but chances are that your character is going to surprise you. This is one time you will have to take some risks and resign to the fact you will have to hurt your character while he or she lives through a dramatic situation.

It’s a wild ride to be sure. Enjoy it and get as much as you can from the experience. Explore all avenues and leave no stone unturned. Although you may create other characters that go through a First Change, your first character’s change will always be special. Make it rock.

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Tips on Writing Your Werewolf’s First Change

But what if you have a character so unlike you that you’ve never experienced half the things your character has? A little research takes care of that.

I’m talking about the little things we take for granted. What if your character needs to roll a cigarette, but you’ve never rolled your own? What if your character gets drunk, but you’ve never been drunk yourself?

Within the larger scheme of experiences, no one would know the smaller details unless they have been through it themselves.

Living Vicariously

How do learn an experience? Where you find this information?

The Internet is your friend. It’s amazing what you’ll find if you look. Need to know the effects of a particular drug or the effects of alcohol? You’ll find everything from medical reports to first-hand accounts on the web.

I had one player ask me how to roll a cigarette, and while I’ve done that, I couldn’t explain it well. A quick search on You Tube provided dozens of how-to videos.

If you want more flavor, you could risk a little bit of embarrassment and ask someone who’s experienced the situation to describe it. I find that when you tell people that you’re a writer and need help, they’re more than willing to go through a quick interview.

Videos and articles can give you the basics, but there are small details people can tell you that bring the experience to life. These details add credibility to your fiction so that your reader says, “Wow, he really knows what he’s talking about! I felt just like that!”

Much of dissecting experiences is emotional. People never have the same experience. Just look at how different people act and behave when they’re drunk. Some are happy drunks, some get mean, others get downright stupid. Sometimes the type of alcohol plays a part in modifying basic behaviors while drunk.

In some ways, writing from inexperience is no different from writing about a specific genre or setting, like writing about medieval times or futuristic space. You still have to do your homework and research.

There are certain experiences you can try for yourself, but use discretion and don’t try anything dangerous. Half the fun of writing is acquiring vast knowledge on many subjects. It keeps your writing fresh, your readers interested, and goes a long way in creating strong suspension of disbelief.

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Writing From Inexperience

…one of the players disappears.

Alright, no problem. You wait a day. Then another. Then you wait three or four days. The scene starts to lag and everyone realizes, “Hey. That player’s gone.” No one hears anything from the player and the scene is left with an inactive character and a gaping hole.

What Now?

What should you do in a case of a disappearing player? What if the character was integral to the scene or the current plot? Should you act as if this character never existed? Should someone create an in-game excuse for the player’s sudden disappearance?

I’ve been on both sides of this issue, as both player and Storyteller. No matter which side you’re on, it’s a frustrating situation and it’s also a little annoying. As a player, you’re left hanging and waiting on some action. As a Storyteller, you have to create a reason why the character isn’t active anymore.

In a best-case scenario, players who know they won’t be playing in the game anymore should be kind enough to notify fellow players and Storytellers of their retreat from scenes. This gives everyone ample time to fill in the blanks and work a solution into the story in a realistic manner.

Players sometimes find the commitment to a role-playing forum is more than they can handle. They’re often embarrassed to admit it. Sometimes it’s a lagging interest, because the game isn’t what they expected, but they don’t know how to tell others they’re just not having fun.

So, these people take the easy way out and just stop playing. More often than not, no one gets advance notice and no one ever knows the reasons for the disappearance. Not cool - but what can you do?

Storytellers are usually the ones who decide how to handle the issue. Here are some options a Storyteller might explore:

• Ignore it: Sometimes a character wasn’t all that important or impressive. The character may not have made much of a dent in a plot or scene. It’s sometimes easy to pretend that a character ever existed and just move on. Remaining players can use whatever past history they had with the missing character, but should move on as if the character was never really there.
• Create mystery: Sometimes a disappearance works well. It’s a timely moment and the missing character’s disappearance is discovered by remaining characters. That leads to extra plot and material for remaining players. What happened? Where did the character go? They may find the missing character and they may not. That character may have been murdered, taken by enemies or eaten by something that goes bump in the night.
• Use the character as an NPC: A Storyteller may opt to adopt a missing character and keep playing him as an NPC. If the character was a good one, why let him or her go to waste?
• Temporary absence: Some players who leave a game may want to return later when life is less busy. The character is written out of scenes, either by the departing player or Storytellers, and goes on a temporary hiatus. The character returns from his “adventures” at a later date.

For the most part, missing characters don’t interrupt flow of scenes or stories very much. With good storytelling strategies and so many options available, all it comes down to is using the imagination to make the disappearance work well. Most of the time, scenes don’t even skip a beat.

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What to do with Missing Players

In tabletop role-playing games, dice play a large part in generating actions and reactions. In Live Action Role-Playing (LARP) games, the preferred method is rock/paper/scissors.

Online games are a little different. For the most part, they use an honor system. Most sites have dice generators players can use, or players and storytellers roll dice alone at home.

80% of the fun, though, is the anticipation of taking a chance. You never know if a move will succeed or fail. Making a risky move and getting an incredibly lucky roll or an epic fail makes the game that much more interesting for everyone.

This is where true role-playing comes in. Dice results give you the unexpected in an already touchy situation.

When To Use Dice

The best time to use dice rolls is in combat or when trying to use a certain skill or ability. Dice are also helpful if your character uses a skill never before tried or one he or she hasn’t learned yet. Shooting a gun in a high-stress situation? Roll the dice. Cornered on rooftops and attempting to leap to the next building? Roll the dice.

Dice have other uses too. We frequently use dice rolls for results such as when a character is faced with a choice of two options that could result in very different outcomes.

When your character’s actions involve another character, you need to roll the dice. Your character can attempt to kick a knife out of someone’s hand, but the other character may have too good a grip or have faster reactions.

Smaller rolls to determine outcomes don’t require the intervention of a Storyteller, though. Players can perform rolls between themselves or alone.

You may not even need dice. For example, sometimes James and I just ask each other to choose odds or evens, a number between one and ten or to pick heads or tails. (Of course, James always chooses evens, six, and tails). This is perfect for players who don’t have dice or access to an online dice roller.

Results are always final, though. We abide by the resulting success or failure even if we’ve just royally screwed over our characters.

When Not To Use Dice

Once you become intimately familiar with your character and know his or her personality well enough, or when your Storyteller has a good grip on the character’s personality, skills and abilities, results are more common sense than rolled by dice.

If you know what your character is capable of doing, then you can logically figure out the chances of success or failure. If the action is one your character has learned and performed countless times, there’s probably no need to roll the dice.

Dice rolling and number crunching can get tedious if you take it too far and bog down the thrill of the game. If you know when to use dice and use them well, their spontaneous results can spice up a gaming experience tenfold.

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When to Use Dice Rolls to Determine Outcomes

Risk-takers aren’t people who make stupid go-for-broke types of risks. The number one rule in role-playing is that stupid gets your character killed. Risk-takers, players who take calculated risks that make a game rock, know this very well.

Too often, role-players become very attached to their characters. These players constantly choose safe, predictable routes that often lead to a major snooze-fest. This happens because these players don’t want their character to get hurt, either physically or mentally.

Take a Chance - Go On, You Know You Want To

Conflict is the key to any good game or fiction novel. One way to bring about conflict is to take chances with your character.

Part of the fun of being in a role-playing game is getting your character out of sticky situations (or into them). Sure, you could go the safe route and do what you might do in the situation, but why not really take the time to think about what the character would do?

What’s the worst that could happen? Well, if you’re stupid your character might die. Taking a chance doesn’t mean being stupid, though, and the results could be spectacular.

These chances and risks might not always seem the safest or easiest course, but sometimes a risky move could set off a whole chain of events you never dreamed possible.

Out of Character For My Character?

When you’re in a crisis situation or under a lot of stress, do you really act like yourself? You probably do things that are out of character for your personality and everyone who knows you notices.

Likewise, it’s alright if your character steps out of line. Maybe he found a well of courage he never thought he had or maybe he’s not as tough as everyone thinks he is.

Think of these situations as defining moments for your character. Just like you, your character needs to grow and develop. The only way is by taking chances.

So this week, go ahead and take a chance. See what your character is capable of doing - but remember, be smart!

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Taking Risks With Your Character

Did you know that Happy Days coined the term “jumps the shark”?

At some point in long-term series, the writers begin to run out of new material. They scrape for something to write about – like the episode of Happy Days when Fonzie jumped over a shark while on water skis. Many people believed this was the point when Happy Days got absurd and went downhill from there.

The term stuck.

I was watching Heroes recently and wondering if the show had jumped the shark. The plot used to be great, with lots of incredible twists. Now it seems that the added twist value is simply for the sake of cheap shock.

The same thing happened to Lost, and Smallville jumped the shark the moment superhero costumes came into view.

How to Avoid Jumping the Sharks in Your Scenes

None of us wants to get so excited about something that seems really cool and then watch it fall flat while people laugh at the absurdity of our action. There are ways to avoid wrecking scenes and jumping the shark:

• Don’t do something just because it seems like a cool idea.
• Make sure you’re not drunk on your own words. It’s easy to get caught up in what you think is the greatest scene ever, but be careful that you’re not so involved that you can’t see how cheesy it is.
• Know when to leave well enough alone. If you’ve reached a particular climax, let it happen and be done with it. Don’t insult the intelligence of your audience by saying, “Wait, there’s more!” Defining moments are just that: the definitive moment when the story reaches the point of no return. Let it go and move on to something new.

Can you think of television series or a series of novels that jumped the shark? When did you notice the shark? Have you ever jumped the shark in any of your own scenes?

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Don’t Jump the Shark in Your Scenes