Writing Prompt Wednesdays - Writing for GenCon (tags #writingprompts #writing #rpgs #sfwa #sfw
Originally published at Ramblings from the Flip Side (Site under construction). You can comment here or there.
Welcome back to Writing Prompt Wendesdays where, as I recover from the Brain Drain that is GenCon, I try to come up with an appropriate writing prompt for everyone. During the convention, I was prepping con-goers for the Shadowrun Experience, an interactive demo of the Shadowrun 5th edition rules (with all your favorite characters). The demo was a 25-30 minute mission for which the runners got paid afterward.
The most interesting part of this was the 7 page document we were given that contained the game scenario contained background information, gossip notes, and NPC stats for combat. So, that’s what we’re going to do today. Write a scenario for GenCon.
Da Prompt: Pick your favorite RPG. Keeping in mind that you would only have 30 minutes to introduce the bare handed basics of the rules (combat, social and perception tests, legwork, hacking and magic, etc.), design a single scene, single location scenario that will cover all the basics of actual role-play mechanics.
Da Pagecount: 5-10 pages maximum, including any needed NPC stat blocks.
Bonus points for anyone who takes this prompt and uses it to set up a scene for their current prose Work in Progress that covers the basic rules of their world and the most important conflict of the story. The crunchy bits (like NPC stat blocks) are not necessary for this bit.
Have fun!
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Writers are frequently asked the question “Where do you get your ideas?” The question is a hard one to answer because we all find our inspiration in different places. Some people need to be given prompts, little snippets of ideas to spark their imaginations.
With that in mind, I am posting Writing Prompt Wednesdays. The goal is to inspire writers with exercises meant to train their skills and fire up the creative juices. There are rules. Most prompts will have associated word counts or style instructions. These are not meant to restrict the writer, but give the writer a chance to explore different ways of writing.
If you are an author in search of that one juicy idea, I hope these posts help. If you have ideas for writing prompts, please let me know.
Da Rules:
1) Anything goes so long as you stick to the spirit of the prompt.
2) I ask that if you do publish something based on one of my prompts, that you post the good news (and the link) in the comments of the prompt that inspired your success. You want other people to help you celebrate, right?
#sfwapro