anyone play a game for a plot to write?

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aguywhotypes

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I'm wanting to do this and not sure how good it will turn out but I think it would be fun to play an rpg solo or group doesn't really matter.

It would probably be easier with a group and then video tape everything. Use that then to pull your characters from, dialogue and plot and write your story.

Anyone tried this?
 

ArachnePhobia

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I've heard Dragonlance was written this way, down to the cast's characterization being ripped from their RPers playstyle.

I've never generated an entire plot from a gaming session, but I do make my MCs in games with character creation systems when I'm stuck and then run them around to see what trouble I can get them into. Sometimes watching them stumble and struggle gets me back to thinking of them as people with vulnerabilities after I've slid into seeing them as elements of plot problem solution.

OTOH, other times your cute li'l middle-grade heroine puts down a Dragon Quest final boss in three rounds and you wonder if your villain ever really had a chance.
 

sreeves2

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Oh my gosh.
For the sims 2 PC, I used to unconsciously make stories for the sims I create. I actually created a character Yolanda after a sim I made, who sadly got bit my a vampire and became one.
And even on Skyrim: The Elder Scrolls, I sometimes make characters and their stories when my person has a follower and whatnot.
It's fuuun.
 

CoffeeBeans

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If I know some of what I want to write, but I haven't got the characters/plot details nailed down, I make character-sims and try to apply what I know to the game.

I've learned the best random things about characters that way, some of which have totally made it into the plot - one character who couldn't seem to keep a job because she kept getting fired for silly things, another had her first kiss after finally beating her crush at chess for the first time, etc.
 

Zoombie

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I actually ran an epicly long RPG fest online - so, all the posts were saved. I copied them into a 140,000 word text document and have been kicking around the idea of editing it.

But since it's a gigantic Mass Effect/Aberrant crossover, I don't think I can sell it.
 

Lissibith

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Not on purpose. I did end up turning part of one game and my GURPS character from it into a novel, but in the end it wasn't a very solid one.

I've also bought and read a few (sometimes stories, but more often comics). They're not bad, per se, but I find it somewhat easy to tell some of these stories were specifically based on an RPG among friends - especially a freeform one.
 

cmhbob

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I toyed with the idea of doing this based on a party from Twilight:2000 many moons ago, and even got several thousand words into it. I was going to game out encounters myself using the T2K system, etc. Not sure why I stopped.
 

Melanii

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ArachnePhobia said:
I've never generated an entire plot from a gaming session, but I do make my MCs in games with character creation systems when I'm stuck and then run them around to see what trouble I can get them into.

THIS IS ME.

And my problem with W-RPGs. XD Give me a character creation menu, and I'll spend my time making the characters from my current novel, a game I'm making, or whatever is in my head. 'Tis the bane of my existence.

((I'm actually trying hard not to turn on the desktop and use the Oblivion mods my boyfriend downloaded so I can create some characters... >>))
 

aguywhotypes

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interesting indeed

I'm a rpg pdg rules collector I have tons of rules I've donwloaded including some really little odd bits and pieces over the years from rpgnow and drivethrurpg or something like that.
 

ssbittner

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I've seen it done, but I've never seen it done really well. I think the somewhat randomized nature of a game makes it a different kind of storytelling than a novel. But you could get some good ideas out of it.
 

PrincessOfCats

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My latest completed novel is based on one storyline from a massive 5+ year D&D/Pathfinder game that my husband ran. I didn't copy what happened word for word, but it's really close. There was no video taping or anything -- in fact, I only decided to write the novel over a year after the game had ended. But it was one of those games where you never forget the epic stuff that went down, so I didn't need it recorded.

I think these things can work, but you have to be willing to change a lot of things to make a more cohesive story. The best thing to do is to pick the most amazing, iconic scenes, and then build the story from those. Or that's what I did, anyway, and it worked out pretty well.
 

JohnnyGottaKeyboard

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I remember seeing some SF/F Publisher who mentioned in their submission guidelines something along the lines of "No novelizations of gaming sessions please!" Of course this was ages ago when one worked the old fashioned way of looking for publishers in the hardbound print out of Writer's Marketplace...And when most gaming sessions involved guys (and gals, at least in my case) sitting around rolling dice.
 
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