Friday, October 26, 2018

Story Mechanisms

Whew,
It has been about 7 days since last post. Time during that period was spent trying to go live with Story Mechanisms.

Story Mechanisms
Story Mechanisms
Individually value $13



Pick up Character Mechanisms  Character Mechanisms 


About Story Mechanisms


All-in-One Story book

This story mechanism book has tools to help create story plots, twists, theme, mood, motive, foe, story seed, scene action, transition scenes, narrative, and work with the main conflicts.
The tools may be used separately, together, or selective.
This meant to aid or take the place of a Gamemaster (GM) for creating dialogue and behavior. 
This Story Mechanisms brings together 9 prior existing tools and adds 4 new tools to total 13 story making tools.
Current length is 49 pages including cover, front matter, and table of contents. the generators are 2 pages each — one of them is the table turned sideways for printing.
This book either suggest, or refer to tables (a few which are not included in this text) for story ideas, design, and actions. Its generic enough for any game or story genre characters. 
The 13 included products:
  1. Three Conflict Chain RPG: New, expands Flash RPG.
  2. Deep Dive Engine: New, expands the RPGs further.
  3. Scene Action Generator: New, adds action words to a scene.
  4. Transition Generator: New, adds transition scenes to a story.
  5. Solo Game Engine: Used to make decisions and take place of GM.
  6. Flash RPG: used to create micro stories, adventure seeds, or background stories.
  7. Plot Generator: 144 plots
  8. Twist Generator: 144 story twists arranged by type and question word. 
  9. Theme Generator: 144 sets of themes.
  10. Foe Generator: 144 antagnists or foes.
  11. Motivation Generator: 144 motivations arranged by need, morality, personality, etc.
  12. Mood-Emotion Generator: 12 types of feelings arranged by degree of intensity.
  13. Modifier Generator: 144 modifier words to modify plots, actions, or almost anything.


Friday, October 19, 2018

Character Mechanisms - creating character profile instructions (part 5)

This is part of a series of posts to create a character using Character Mechanisms and the profile sheet.
From the last post, I generated the first of the character profile information. I focused on the group A first, which are the most important of the information for most occasions. Basic archetype information was created using the Character Generator. Human description traits were created using the Human Generator.

Priority A

Group A Important
√ Character Generator
√ Human Generator
Motivation Generator
Mood-Emotion Generator
Body Language Generator


In this post I continue with the next two, the Motivation Generator and the Mood-Emotion Generator.

1. Motivation Generator

What is my character's motivation?

I need two numbers per motive.


3 11
5 6


3, 11 social type motive, acknowledgment
5, 6  self-actualization, ugliness

Wow. Very shallow. Okay, this character is starting to come to life when combined with the personality and description.

Now for a basic temperamental mood or emotion to begin with.

2. Mood-Emotion Generator

What is my character's current mood?

9 5

9, 5 guilty type, blamed

This is starting to sound like a Cinderella type story if it is a female. The guard type encounter, lusty vice, and curvaceous auburn headed description however differ from Cinderella.

Putting that new information into the Character Profile, I have so far for this character this information so far.


I'll do some body-language and maybe start one of group B information next post.

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Character Mechanisms - creating character profile instructions (part 4)

This is part of a series of posts to create a character using Character Mechanisms using the Character Profile sheet.

From the last post, I created a hierarchy of the character profile information. I'll focus on the group A first, which are the most important of the information for most occasions.

Priority A

Group A Important
Character Generator
Human Generator
Motivation Generator
Mood-Emotion Generator
Body Language Generator

So first I begin with the Character Generator.

1. Character Generator

Up to six categories are presented. They are 1) personality, 2) stat archetype, 3) encounter, 4) virtue, 5) vice, and 6) quirk.

You may use as many or all of these that you want. A) You may roll up an entirely random character. B) Or you may use them as lists and select the qualities that you like. C) Or roll up qualities and change the character in ways that make sense to you. D) One fun method may be rolling 6 times in a pool first, and then assign the results one at a time to each part of the character. E) In social settings, you may roll a pool of dice and have each participant assign a character aspect using up each die. F) A story writer might only want to roll only the necessary part(s) of the character at an appropriate time in the story and over time reveal the character’s true nature.

Although they are presented in an order, you may roll in any order.

Qualities in any order
  1. all in order
  2. list select
  3. roll & change
  4. pool & assign
  5. pool & group assign
  6. roll only necessary
For this example character, I don't have any preconceived character idea. I'll do an entirely random character rolling in order, method A.

For rolling, I just make a spreadsheet with a =RANDBETWEEN(1,10) function in 6 cells. Then I copy pasted the results here below.
1d10, 6 times
3106215
3, skeptic
10, charismatic
6, guard
2, temperance
1, lust
5, diagnosis
Let me copy past some of the information to help inspire this unnamed character. This information will be used in the future for reference purpose. Having it here will save me some time.

No Name Yet
Skeptic - They seek the truth. They are tempted to be elsewhere and self-sufficient, not asking for help. They fixated on vengeance and they objectify abstract concepts into concrete actions. They desire self-protection. They fear being controlled, harmed, or violated. Debate and lust are their common expressions. When not challenging others, they desire to be innocent.


Charismatic - has high charisma and presence. He/she is outgoing and expressive.


Guard - police, cop, deputy, security, sentinel, army, patrol, sentry, watchman, warder, warden, keeper, fighter

Temperance - temperance might represent self-control, restraint, or moderation. Or it might represent justice, humanity, or concern for others.

Lust - lust might be the self-absorbed desire for something. Lust might be wanting or needing something even something mysterious or unknown.

Diagnosis

Record these qualities in the section of the character profile sheet along with the name if known.

Character Generator random Qualities
Next I will do the Human Generator creation.


2. Human Generator
The Human Generator rolls up a description. I will do 6 traits for now based on the advice. I don't know what type of character this is, but half should suffice. I'll also try using method C mentioned in the last generator, pool & assign, picking which traits and which numbers I want to use. Because I am using method C, I will only need to roll once instead of twice.

The number of human characteristics rolled may be limited by the type of character.
Main characters most likely are detailed with all or most of these twelve characteristics fleshed out.
Major significant and important characters might have half or more of these details revealed.
Minor significant, but important characters to the story may have three to half of these characteristics known.
Background characters focused briefly on in a scene, however that aren’t important, may have one or two characteristics observed.

6 8 9 4 1 9
I don't know the gender of this character. I will not assign one at this time.

First, I will pick the body shape since this is a guard-type charismatic character. I want a fit looking character:  hourglass, or square shaped. I'll pick hourglass since that is fit.

Next I will do hair style & length. Long and straight sounds good.

Next assigning the hair color would go great with the hair style. Dark auburn sounds ok.

Next I'll do skin color. This character is from a cold area, so maybe porcelain.

Next I'll do eye color. Hazel sounds good.

Finally, I'll do chest size. Having a large chest sounds ok.

6 Hair Color: dark auburn
8 Chest or Breast size: large (DD/E cup)
9 Hair Style & Length: long straight
4 Body Shape: hourglass with narrow waist
1 Skin Color: porcelain
9 Eye Color: hazel

I don't know the other details such as height and facial feature shapes.  All of that can be added or decided later, if the character requires those details.

So far, this is how much this example character has created after two generators.
With Human Generator random traits added
I'll work on the next two in the next post.

Monday, October 15, 2018

Elvish Language for Aioskoru now available

Elvish Language



Elvish Language 24 pg
By Ken Wickham


This Elvish Language book is written primarily for Aioskoru world, however, it can be used in any setting.

I call it Alvan a Kashi, which means Elf Language.

It includes an Elvish writing script, numbers, and advice for quotations.
95 common nouns
84 verbs
62 adjectives
11 colors
7 quantifiers (some, many, …)
counting numbers to 999,999
ordinal numbers (first, second, ...)
question words (who, what, when, …)
5 types of 7 pronouns (I, he/she/it, they, …)
2 demonstratives (this, that)
11 prepositions (on, inside, above, …)
7 conjunctions (and, or, because, …)
7 transition words (although, finally, since, …)
compass directions
Aioskoru distance measurements
Aioskoru 13 months
over 100 abstract nouns
naming system
basic fantasy jargon (weapons, armor, magic, 4 classes, 4 main races)

grammar for
sentence order
articles
plural
adjectives/adverbs
markers
focus
verb
pronouns
quoting (says, said)





Saturday, October 13, 2018

Character Mechanisms - creating character profile instructions (part 3)

Having added a character profile sheet to the Character Mechanisms book just after publishing the book, I never got around to making any sort of examples nor instructions.

This is the third post in the challenge to make instructions via blog for Character Mechanisms. In this post I want to try prioritizing the information on the sheet.

Source material

The source material

Character Mechanisms Profile sheets
Free profile download

Character Mechanisms
Character Mechanisms
$16 sold individually worth of tools.

I put the character profile as a free download, since it might help get some more people interested in either the separate books or the full combined book.

In this post I want to create a prioritized list using the text found in my product description, since I like to reuse material to speed development up. I will list the 16 items, comment on some, then assign a letter based on importance.

Priorities


  1. Relationship Generator C
  2. Character Behavior Engine relies on other info B
  3. Dialogue Engine relies on other info B
  4. Motivation Generator - important since I use motivation in several systems A
  5. Mood-Emotion Generator important to describe a character A
  6. Body Language Generator - important to reveal character emotions A
  7. Character Generator - important since I use personality archetypes, stat archetypes, and virtues/vices elsewhere A
  8. Fact Generator although important for gaming, this doesn't play as much of a role for character profiles C
  9. Modifier Generator C
  10. Human Generator - important as first thing seen in a character A
  11. Character Communicator relies on personality B
  12. Knowledge Generator C
  13. Career Generator C
  14. Dream Generator C
  15. Sound Generator D
  16. new also includes a combined engine B


After ranking them, I will pile them into groups and then sort them once again. The end result will be the order that I will create the initial instructions for the character profile.

Group A Important
Character Generator
Human Generator
Motivation Generator
Mood-Emotion Generator
Body Language Generator


Group B Reliant
Character Behavior Engine
Character Dialogue Engine
Character combined action engine
Character Communicator

Group C Flavor
Knowledge Generator
Career Generator
Relationship Generator
Dream Generator
Fact Generator
Modifier Generator

Group D
Sound Generator

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Character Mechanisms - creating character profile instructions (part 2)

In the last post, I outlined the criteria that I will try to cover for this new challenge.

Researching Content and Challenges

To review the criteria, I'll repost the summary from my first post.

So, for a few posts I hope to create instructions and examples for using the new character profile sheet for Character Mechanisms.
  • for different types of characters
  • covering all of the types of data
  • with prioritized character information
  • with a goal of completing before November 1st.
I like to reuse content wherever possible to aid in speeding up writing processes by not having to reinvent everything. So first, I'll research my content for possible suggestions.

Different types of characters 

Looking back at my generators and engines, probably a key piece of information cover the first criteria for different types of characters is found in the Human Generator. I'll color code with highlighter the four types of characters that I mentioned in that book. The actual number might differ since the profile is a much larger scope than the human character twelve descriptions.

Main, major, minor, background

The number of human characteristics rolled may be limited by the type of character. Main characters most likely are detailed with all or most of these twelve characteristics fleshed out. Major significant and important characters might have half or more of these details revealed. Minor significant, but important characters to the story may have three to half of these characteristics known. Background characters focused briefly on in a scene, however that aren’t important, may have one or two characteristics observed.
The easiest thing for me to do is to give the same sort of advice.
Amount of details for Character types: main, major, minor, background
The number of characteristics rolled may be limited by the type of character. Main characters most likely are detailed with all or most of these characteristics fleshed out. Major significant and important characters might have half or more of these details revealed. Minor significant, but important characters to the story may have three to six or so of these characteristics known. Background characters focused briefly on in a scene, however that aren’t important, may have one or two characteristics observed.
In the next post, I'll continue with the analysis of the types and priority of data.

Friday, October 5, 2018

Character Mechanisms - creating character profile instructions (part 1)

Having added a character profile sheet to the Character Mechanisms book just after publishing the book, I never got around to making any sort of examples nor instructions.

This sounds like a good topic in the form of a challenge for a few posts.

Challenge

So, the challenge of this and maybe a few more posts is a challenge to create instructions and example of creating a character profile.

Character Mechanisms Profile sheets


Character Mechanisms
Character Mechanisms
$16 sold individually worth of tools.

I put the character profile as a free download, since it might help get some more people interested in either the separate books or the full combined book

Scope

So, knowing the challenge, it's time to focus on figuring out how much work will be needed.

Different types of story characters

One factor that comes to mind is that for many of my tools, I mention a different between background, minor, major, and main characters.
  • I should probably mention in the instructions a way to generate the different types of characters for stories.

Full coverage

For a main character, I probably need at least to fill in every category with something.
  • All types of data should be covered.

Hierarchy and Prioritize

Since one piece of information isn't as important as other piece, I should figure out what is more important that the other information.
  • Prioritize character information.

Time Deadline

Ideally, having this done before NaNoWriMo would be ideal. 
  • Complete before November 1st, 2018 target.

Summary of challenge

So, for a few posts I hope to create instructions and examples for using the new character profile sheet for Character Mechanisms.
  • for different types of characters
  • covering all of the types of data
  • with prioritized character information
  • with a goal of completing before November 1st.