Tag Archives: magic

Fantasy Story Ideas

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I come up with ideas for writing in a lot of different places. This is something that was kicking in my head from a dream that I expanded on in waking times, in the shower, driving to work, falling asleep. At some point sometimes ideas stop kicking around in the head and I try to put what I’m thinking on paper. Sometimes I start writing the story, and other times I write character sketches, draw places, write scenes, or in this case: figure out mechanics.

One of the most fun things about the Sci-fi and Fantasy genre is the mechanics of how your world works. What makes it full of magic? What are the systems, schools, and conventions by which normal people become adventurers?

In this case I had the idea of four of each type of three categories of adventurers. Where (and if) you fall on this grid is determined by an extensive and even dangerous test, kind of like some sort of spirit journey. By the end of that journey it has been divined what school(s) you fall into.

Here are some of the sketches I did in my Blue Book (on of my journal sketchbooks) to help me figure out this grid. I figured each school next to each other should have abilities in common as well as each school having its own unique focus. There are 3 main schools: Warrior, Wizard, and Toil. Warrior covers the types of fighters. Wizards are the ones who harness magic. Toils are those who use worldly skills to make something otherworldly. If you read the charts the other way, You get the four worlds: Physical World, Natural World, Inner World, and Spiritual World.

To help figure these out, I thought of people I knew and what they might be based on the system I figured out.

Each particular class has a name and color. Each also has one main focus, and four minor focuses (or abilities) that are shared with the surrounding major focuses. Primes are those who only have a single class and those four surrounding abilities. They also usually have a special ability unique to having a strict focus. These abilities vary from person to person and sometimes are not immediately apparent. Most of the time, it s found out by the time a disciple has left their school.

I also left room for mixing classes across the grid: dual, tri, and quad classes. The further divided you are in your classes, the further split your focus.

A dual class gets two main focuses, but only a total of four surrounding abilities. Those four surrounding abilities have to be two from each focus and must be either horizontal or vertical.

A Tri class is also known as a Worlder as they pick a world. They get three focuses, and only the shared abilities from their world (those listed vertical). This gives them three main focuses and three abilities.

A quad class is usually known by the larger class name: Quad Warrior, Quad Wizard, or Quad Toil. They have those four focuses going across, and then the abilities between each. Since the classes have more abilities, it is usually found by the time a disciple graduates that they are weak in a couple of the abilities or lose a couple of the focuses. Those who keep their focuses remain Quads, as the abilities that are weak can be improved upon over time. However, if a focus is lost, the Quad usually will become a Prime or Dual. This is not considered a bad thing or a dishonor to have a more narrowed focus or a more broadened one, it is simply the way things naturally occur in a particular person.

All I Need To Know I Learned From Final Fantasy 6

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Twenty things I have learned from Final Fantasy 6 that are invaluable to life and living:

1. No matter how odd or unlikely it may seem, there is ALWAYS an elixer in the clock.

2. Never be the first person to be involved with testing a new technology. Just look at Kefka.

3. You can’t take the water from magical healing springs… unless you have a certain bucket in which case you can never move that bucket after setting it down. Ever.

4. Magic works better on invisible things. You can’t hit invisible things by normal means, even if they are perfectly still and you know exactly where they are.

5. A lone wolf may say he’s just a pickpocket, but he will go after your cute buddies if set free… cute buddies that don’t fit in your pocket. Lone wolf is obviously confused.

6. No matter how many times something is re released and uncensored, they will find something new to censor.

7. There are thieves and there are treasure hunters and there is a HUGE difference between them.

8. Sprinting is the only way to travel on foot.

9. John Locke’s stuff about tabula rasa is true where love is concerned at least

10. People with eye patches don’t tell the truth.

11. If you ever are in need of a lift, find a forest to stand in the middle of.

12. Air ships are the only way for seriously ambitious people to travel.

13. Suicide isn’t the answer, but a good attempt might bring you some.

14. Don’t eat slow fish.

15. Travel in fours.

16. Tackle hard stuff in three groups of four.

17. A picture is worth at least a good fight.

18. Redecorating is a BAD idea when it comes to magic statues.

19. Copying and sexual ambiguity are not only acceptable, but powerful.

20. If he has a dog, he can’t be all that bad.

FourmRuler & Writing is Born

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I attribute my writing to a natural result of reading so much, but the internet surely played a large role as well. I started writing once upon a time in the (then) magical land of Compuserve. Sure, before that I wrote long posts and emails and even sort of ‘message role played’- but it was just communicating thoughts and words. It didn’t occur to me that I was writing stories, poetry, and essays.

The lame story of how I figured this out was an encounter with a luser with the handle of “ForumRuler” mocking me even though he didn’t know me. I was about ten and not going to let it go. I had a “Well, I rule more than you do.” attitude and online persona. We went back and forth and finally he threw the gauntlet down. He challenged me to a contest of words. The rules were that we write a poem about our own awesomness. Who ever wrote the better one would be the true forum ruler. I think he was expecting an easy win because I was “Huh… never wrote a poem before”.

We were working something close to real time, both online, so I wrote:

You first hear footsteps,
Then the smile,
You know you will be dead,
In a little while,
You say why me?
You whine and run,
But you know what will happen,
She is the one,
She is the one I say,
The one you despise,
She is strong and charming,
and she is wise,
Whom is she you say,
Why has she come?
It doesn’t matter,
Your life is done.

He admitted it was ‘not bad’ having posted four lines of clever ‘roses are red I rule ‘n stuff’ and I never heard from him again. He probably had to change his handle and start over. I, on the other hand, found it very satisfying and started writing for the sake of writing actual works for the first time.

Notepad and I would sit down and write poems, story lines, dialogs, beginnings, middles, ends, and scenes. I wrote about taverns without ever have been drunk. I wrote about dueling with swords and sorcery, even though I’d never fenced. The real bits were always in the poetry and the characters. I only wrote about emotions, motivations, and interactions as I understood them. This was the a part of writing I fell in love with.

My true motivations for writing were somewhere between escape and expression. I felt better after all the jumbled thoughts in my head came out and made some sense on paper. Those thoughts didn’t have to be me, they became characters in far off worlds with much more important things to accomplish. They had much bigger trials to face.

The stories in my head were no longer just bedtime stories to myself after closing my eyes. They bore some sense of importance that I might one day get them down properly and share them with others.

Life as a Text Adventure

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Recently on Neopoleon, the blog of one Rory Blyth, Betsy Aoki brought up writing a ‘choose your own adventure’ game back in the day.

We all think that ‘back in the day’ is something grand whether we’re in our twenties or seventies. I remember text adventures and think, “Wow, that was great… playing Guild of Theives on the Atari ST!”. I might even have the Bank of Kerovnia account card and Kerovnia Guild of Discret Entry And Removal Operatives contract pasted in an old jounal somewhere. Bank of Kerovnia Account Card

Video games are fun and recreation. Often times a video gamer thinks to themselves “I wish life were more like a video game”. You have multiple lives, the reset button, gain experience and gold for beating things, magic, and strange old women/men in huts who give you things. Yes, life would be better with these video game elements.

But would life be better as a text adventure?

Let’s find out.

“You find yourself in your bedroom, awake, but groggy. Exits are to the north.”
Go north.
“That’s kind of hard considering you’re laying down.”
Get up.
“I do not understand.”
Go up.
“Do you think you have the powers of flight?”
Go out of bed.
“Ok.”
Go north.
“Ok.”
Look.
“You are in the live-in-kitchen. Your cat runs north. There is a laptop sitting on the counter. An Ethernet cable dangles nearby. Exits are to the north.”
Get laptop.
“I do not understand.”
Use laptop with Ethernet cable.
“Okay.”
Use laptop.
“You must open it first!”
Open laptop.
“Okay.”
Use laptop.
“You must turn it on first!”
Turn on laptop.
“I do not understand.”
Turn on laptop.
“I do not understand.”
Look laptop.
“The laptop is OPEN. There is a blank screen, keys, a touchpad, and an on/off button.”
Use on/off button.
“Okay.”
Look laptop.
“The laptop is OPEN. There is something displayed on the screen, keys, a touchpad, and an on/off button.”
Look screen.

Sans nostalgia, text adventures were nothing more than an exercise in frustration. Though I was taught about synonyms, spelling, and thinking/writing like a programmer, I am very glad I can now simply point and click characters to their destination or use the d-pad on a controller.

If life were really like a text adventure…

Jump out window.

“You must first open the window.”

Open window.

“Okay.”

Jump out window.

“Why would you want to do that?”

Go window.

“I do not understand.”

Use self with window.

“I do not understand.”