u/Ashamed_Ladder6161

Further to the last session, we find Gill considerably more amenable to Oz's request. Waterboarding has that effect.

Oz reveals to Gill the satellite he scavenged from was still semi-operational and had been recording the comings and goings of nearby ships, legal and otherwise. One particular shuttle had made several trips smuggling narcotics into Dwai for a gang called the Cutters. The disc Gill acquired, and Lenton had hoped to sell, contained its flight path.

Now for the job.

Oz "requests" Gill, along with Lenton and two of his own operatives, track the shuttle to its current location and burn it to the ground.
The job needs to be handled quietly. Oz may be the more powerful presence in Dwai, but an outright war with the Cutters could be costly. Destroying their supply would force them underground without too much bloodshed.

"You may refuse, of course" Oz tells him. “But I think we've established the alternatives".
Obviously, Gill agrees to the terms.
"One job. Then we go back to being strangers".
Gill is ever the diplomat.

In an unusual show of generosity, Gill is allowed twenty-four hours' respite in Oz's luxurious (and, crucially, air-conditioned) mansion. There are even several swimming pools, but Gill passes. He's spent quite enough time underwater for one day.

Unfortunately, an examination of The Drift spoils Gill's mood. The damage is worse than first appeared, and the parts required are both expensive and uncommon. Still, it shouldn't stop the bird from making a few short journeys.

During this downtime, Gill is reunited with a badly bruised Lenton.
"For what it’s worth, I really am sorry, Gill" Lenton tells him.
"Easy money, you said. Remember that? You asshole."

Gill is introduced to Oz's two operatives over a game of poker.
Brogan is a thick-set, square-jawed brute. Muscle. Human, although somewhere in his ancestry a gorilla likely slipped into the gene pool. Says little but quick to anger. Gill knows the type.
Juno is a plucky teenage gearhead and scavenger. Shows considerable bravado but has an irritating habit of using words she doesn't really understand. One of Dwai’s many street rats.
"I'm the fuckin' best at reading people" she announces while the cards are dealt. "Like I'm telekinetic or something."
Foul mouthed. Gill can't help but like her a little.

Gill cleans house at poker.
"Deal again" growls Brogan.
Gill looks at the sizeable pile of money on the table in front of him.
"Nah. I think we should end on a friendly note. Right, big guy?"
Brogan doesn’t consider this a friendly note, but he does pay up.

Mr Midnight watches from a balcony.

The following day, Gill learns from the data disc how the Cutters' courier shuttle has been travelling between Dwai and a nearby planet called Mokal. An ocean world battered by volatile atmospheric pressures, global hurricanes, and acid rain. What few settlements exist hover in the lower atmosphere. Depots, shipyards and industrial platforms, all suspended above the storms.
One such place is Providence Hold, home to around a thousand people, mostly dock workers and their families. It's here the Cutters have been distributing their narcotics throughout the Anvil.

Gill, Lenton, Juno and Brogan take The Drift to Providence Hold. The journey is uneventful, and heavy rain doesn't prevent a smooth landing.

Lenton has contacts on almost every planet in the region, most of them crooked or desperate, often both. A local foreman directs the group towards Hangar 3.21, a notorious topside dock exposed to the elements, where (in his carefully considered words) "a lot of really bad shit goes down".
The foreman can’t say for certain who owns it, but it sounds like the Cutters.

And that's it. I actually managed two sessions that day, squeezed between some chores. I'll post the next one when I can. Shit goes sideways, again.

Long story short:

I'm part way into Starforged, and there's another character / setup I'd quite like to play.

I'm also itching to play Ironsworn.

Too many choices, so little time.

Has anyone successfully balanced several games, or do you get the best experience concentrating on just one?

Many thanks.

I have an idea I'm presently kicking about, and I'm curious if anyone has any experience with using public domain characters? Any obstacles I may not be considering?

Thanks all.

Keep writing.

A huge thank you for making this sub what it is!

After much procrastinating, worrying about all the rules, and whether solo roleplaying was for me, I just completed my first Starforged session. Had a great time. Thought I'd share how it went.

Gill Cassidy is a small-time crook. He’s lazy, but not inept. Shady, but not unprincipled. He drinks bad coffee and is dead set against working any harder than necessary. Picture a 30-year-old Ron Livingston. His vow is simply "retire". Gill's dream is to disappear somewhere quiet. A small hut on a beach, walks, sunsets, his own space, and (most importantly) no longer having to look over his shoulder.

Scoundrel. Gunslinger. Courier.

This story opens in The Last Call, a bar in the settlement of Dwai, on a far flung jungle planet. Think Vietnam crossed with Mos Eisley. Humid, crowded, full of wheeling and dealing. Gill’s contact, Lenton, a schlubby humanoid shrew, offers him a job. There's an old satellite in nearby space, deserted and under lockdown because of a substantial hull breach. Lenton wants Gill to retrieve a data disc from it.

"Easy money, friend. Easy money."

Gill takes the job and sets off in his ship, The Drift. An uneventful journey.

He finds a serviceable landing point with a connecting umbilical, and fortunately the outer hatch isn't locked or damaged. Things inside are surprisingly intact. Gill makes his way through the satellite to the central hub and finds the disc. Just as he takes it, part of the satellite breaks away into space. The place isn't quite so safe after all. Gill makes an urgent return to his ship through alarms, jets of steam and collapsing pipework. As The Drift pulls away it takes some damage.

Fucks sake. Still, he has the disc.

He has absolutely no idea what’s on it. And, being Gill, he's not really interested in finding out. He's getting paid to fetch it, not to be curious. I suspect that decision may come back to bite him.

Gill returns to Dwai and heads back to The Last Call, noticeably irate about the damage to his ship. He fails to notice Lenton is looking very, very nervous. For context, Dwai is a lawless settlement, full of crooks and mercenaries going about their own business, so Gill sees no reason to be discreet. He hands the disc over and that's when half the bar turns on him with guns. Seems poor Lenton found himself in his own bad spot after Gill left, and was being used to bait our hero on his return.

Enter Mr Midnight.

Dressed in a long, dark coat. His neck and the back of his head are clearly cybernetic, and his eyes are completely black, each with a white glowing halo where the pupils should be. Calm, polite, and ruthless. He tells Gill and Lenton they're coming with him. Obviously, Gill tries to talk his way out. Midnight isn't buying it, but he's amused by the effort.

Gill and Lenton are separated.

Gill is eventually brought before Ozmandas, one of the planet's biggest kingpins. Gill is far too smalltime to be on Oz's radar, but here he is. Oz is an insect-like humanoid, somewhere between a locust and Moriarty, dressed in an expensive white suit. Gill arrives with a bag over his head.
When it's pulled off, he's standing in a beautiful room with enormous windows overlooking the distant town. Venetian blinds. A beautiful view. And air conditioning.

Oz explains that Gill should be more careful about the work he accepts. The disc contains sensitive information, and Oz has taken possession of it. By his reasoning, Gill now owes him, and Oz wants him to complete an errand. Gill, being Gill, tells Oz he doesn't do anything for free.

Oz clicks his fingers and Mr Midnight takes Gill away.

An hour later, Gill is wet, bruised, and considerably less argumentative after a thorough beating and near-drowning. Oz tells Gill again how he now owes him. This time, Gill is less inclined to disagree...

Can't wait for session 2.

Advice on when (and how) to hook your readers is varied, but personally I've always felt sooner the better.

Slightly ashamed to admit, this being a writer's sub, but if I'm not hooked pretty early I'll just put a book down and give up, my time is very limited and I don't have any to waste. Ideally the first page is where I wanna feel like I can invest.

Hell, I think I've even been hooked by more than a few opening lines...

Some of my favourites;

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" Neuromancer.

"Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die" Fight Club.

"This is a book about sex, drugs and rock and roll. Well, one out of three isn't bad" Soul Music.

"It was a pleasure to burn" Fahrenheit 451.

And one from a book I've never actually read, but has become utterly iconic;

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed" The Dark Tower, The Gunslinger.

Oh, to have an opening line like these.

What have been some of your favourite opening lines, pages, or chapters? And how much leeway do you feel an author has to properly hook your reader?

Thanks for all your time and support. Let's see if we can hit 2k. The more the merrier, and the better our engagement.

Spread the word, spread the love.

Keep writing!

A different kind of question today.

Given the keys to any IP of your choice, what would you enjoy writing a canon story for?

I'm always interested how people juggle character and plot, when starting out on their story.

I think it's probably fairly typical in science-fiction and fantasy to start with the setting (and to some degree, the plot), and later find a protagonist that lets you explore it.

I know some writers, typically mystery and thriller writers, who swear blind they start with characters every time. I guess, if you know your characters, and by extension know their goals, that's almost always a starting point with milage.

However, for me, both ways feel like you're trying to pull the rug from under your own feet.

I always try and do both together. I'll have an idea for 'a situation', and I immediately start thinking about who that situation might impact and why.

- A corpse is found in the river of a small village, shot in the back. Does my story follow a local journalist, a lead detective, or maybe the dog walker who finds the body? All three?

- Or perhaps I have an interest in the English Civil War. But, a story told from the perspective of a widowed mother with 2 children is going to be entirely different to one told from the viewpoint of a grizzled general who finds his faith and loyalty tested.

So, 'situation' settled, I think about building the plot to accommodate these threads. Bouncing between character and plot as and when it feels like the two meaningfully cross.

I fully appreciate that's far from the only way to start writing, and I don't mean to suggest it's by any means best. That's just how I write.

How do you write?

Do you start with a world, a situation, a character, a plot, or maybe even a theme? Or does it all depend on the project?

Do share.

Simple question; in the books you've read, who has been your favourite villain?

Might be someone truly reprehensible, or someone you maybe find sympathetic? Maybe you just loved having them on the page?

Maybe you've got several?

Do share :)

I know planning isn't for everyone, but I spend a lot of my own time doing it.

Characters, plot-lines, sub-plots, settings, story beats, themes; the whole works. To the extent I know most of everything before I start page one.

It's likely just my age, but I still find it easiest to plan the old fashioned way, with pen and paper (more often than not, on small cards). I've tried digital, and it feels like more of a faff. With paper or card, I can scribble and move things around in front of me. Stopping every few moments to switch screens or search folders, or move cells around, doesn't help my head space.

For this of you who do plan, how do you go about this? What works for you?

Anyone know of somewhere in the UK that actually sells the official cards? I only seem able to get them from the States, and it costs an extra £50 to ship.

I'd love an official deck :(

Any ideas what's happened? Reports are a bit vague.

Clearly serious, Norfolk police have stopped taking non-emergency calls to help out Suffolk.

There's not much that irritates me more (as a reader) than sinking tens of hours into a story, only for it to completely fuck the landing.

"Who took her away? Seriously, no answer?"

"They all stabbed the guy?"

"It was a fucking dream? Come on!"

"He's got thirty years on you, AND he eats people!"

"God exploded the bomb?!?!"

So...

Good writers that I'm sure we all aspire to be, how do you go about NOT infuriating your readers with a weak ending?

Personally, I don't start page one until I already know (and I'm happy with) how it ends. From there I'm essentially joining dots. I believe you can keep that feeling organic while still arriving where you intended, with the right characters and circumstances. Occasionally the story takes me somewhere better, but at least I'll be unlikely to end up somewhere worse.

Before this turns into a full-blown debate on what actually counts as a frustrating ending, I know this is art; entirely subjective. What works for one reader might have someone else throwing their book across the room, because they don't quite value ambiguity quite the same way.

Let's allow for that and not dog-pile anyone.

And I say this mostly so all the Stephen King lovers don't rip me in the comments for following the ending to The Stand.

Anyway :)

Where do you sit on this? Start with an ending in mind, or find it as you go? A bit of both, maybe? Perhaps you go wherever the story takes you, and later polish the earlier chapters to make that ending pop? Any hard lines you'll never cross? For me "it's all a dream" and "go back in time and fix it" are off the table.

Share away.

I'm thinking along the lines of Watership Down, rather than anthropomorphic fantasy.

By that I mean, these animals still largely behave as they do in the real world. They have a culture and a language, but we're still talking about rabbits.

So, if you were writing a similar story from the perspective of a certain animal, what species do you choose, and why?

As a bonus question, what do you think the plot might be?

Presently storming the fortress but have to vent: sometimes the hit boxes on 'spikes' (any scenery-based insta-kill) feel waaaay off. The part where you drift up through the burning tower was brutal.

That said, this is maybe worth mentioning -

I play on my PS5, but my son plays it on his Switch. Sometimes he asks me to help out and I've noticed the hit boxes on the Switch feel a LOT more forgiving. I've gotten away with shit i know would have killed me on PS5.

Just venting. Now I'm being hounded by an ice and fire demon in a tower filled with saws. Wonderful...

As you likely know, our community continues to grow, and we're at a point where we probably could do with a few more mods.

Many hands make light work.

We're looking for people who can;

1. Give a little time every day to be a positive presence on the sub.

2. Respectfully answer any questions and concerns our members may have.

3. Ensure we're all keeping to our community rules.

I realise I posted about this recently, but regrettably I never got round to reviewing the submissions. I plan to try something a little different this time.

If you're interested (or still interested) in joining our small but friendly team, just post below and say a little about yourself. Either myself or one of the other mods will try to contact you directly.

We can't promise to contact everyone, I apologise for that in advance.

All the best, happy writing.

That's it. Just spreading the good news. This time last week we'd just broke 500.

Thank you for being a part of this community.

Keep writing :)

I'd love to be a wider reader. Hell, just having more time to read anything would be appreciated.

But, one of the hurdles in expanding my book collection is one of tense. I seriously struggle to read, or write, novels in anything other than past tense. Bizarrely, I feel this way even though most of my own experience is in screenwriting, which is present tense.

I do wish I could shake this.

I know there're some brilliant novels written outside of the past tense. I haven't read The Hunger Games, but I understand it's first-person present. Wolf Hall, American Psycho, and The Night Circus, all doing interesting things with tense and perspective, come highly recommended by friends. Haven't read those, either. Black House has sat on my shelf for years, still unfinished.

I realise this is a failing on my part.

That said, I have a real soft spot for first-person narration, especially in noir. But even then, I still tend to prefer events being recounted in the past tense, even when they're being told in the present.

I'm curious where everyone else sits on this.

What do you enjoy reading, and how do you write? Do you mix it up? And for anyone tired of vanilla past tense, what novels would you recommend?