Wow This Is Really Interesting Context For Characterisation.

This is indeed very helpful for writing.

Helpful things for action writers to remember

Sticking a landing will royally fuck up your joints and possibly shatter your ankles, depending on how high you’re jumping/falling from. There’s a very good reason free-runners dive and roll. 

Hand-to-hand fights usually only last a matter of seconds, sometimes a few minutes. It’s exhausting work and unless you have a lot of training and history with hand-to-hand combat, you’re going to tire out really fast. 

Arrows are very effective and you can’t just yank them out without doing a lot of damage. Most of the time the head of the arrow will break off inside the body if you try pulling it out, and arrows are built to pierce deep. An arrow wound demands medical attention. 

Throwing your opponent across the room is really not all that smart. You’re giving them the chance to get up and run away. Unless you’re trying to put distance between you so you can shoot them or something, don’t throw them. 

Everyone has something called a “flinch response” when they fight. This is pretty much the brain’s way of telling you “get the fuck out of here or we’re gonna die.” Experienced fighters have trained to suppress this. Think about how long your character has been fighting. A character in a fist fight for the first time is going to take a few hits before their survival instinct kicks in and they start hitting back. A character in a fist fight for the eighth time that week is going to respond a little differently. 

ADRENALINE WORKS AGAINST YOU WHEN YOU FIGHT. THIS IS IMPORTANT. A lot of times people think that adrenaline will kick in and give you some badass fighting skills, but it’s actually the opposite. Adrenaline is what tires you out in a battle and it also affects the fighter’s efficacy - meaning it makes them shaky and inaccurate, and overall they lose about 60% of their fighting skill because their brain is focusing on not dying. Adrenaline keeps you alive, it doesn’t give you the skill to pull off a perfect roundhouse kick to the opponent’s face. 

Swords WILL bend or break if you hit something hard enough. They also dull easily and take a lot of maintenance. In reality, someone who fights with a sword would have to have to repair or replace it constantly.

Fights get messy. There’s blood and sweat everywhere, and that will make it hard to hold your weapon or get a good grip on someone. 

A serious battle also smells horrible. There’s lots of sweat, but also the smell of urine and feces. After someone dies, their bowels and bladder empty. There might also be some questionable things on the ground which can be very psychologically traumatizing. Remember to think about all of the character’s senses when they’re in a fight. Everything WILL affect them in some way. 

If your sword is sharpened down to a fine edge, the rest of the blade can’t go through the cut you make. You’ll just end up putting a tiny, shallow scratch in the surface of whatever you strike, and you could probably break your sword. 

ARCHERS ARE STRONG TOO. Have you ever drawn a bow? It takes a lot of strength, especially when you’re shooting a bow with a higher draw weight. Draw weight basically means “the amount of force you have to use to pull this sucker back enough to fire it.” To give you an idea of how that works, here’s a helpful link to tell you about finding bow sizes and draw weights for your characters.  (CLICK ME)

If an archer has to use a bow they’re not used to, it will probably throw them off a little until they’ve done a few practice shots with it and figured out its draw weight and stability. 

People bleed. If they get punched in the face, they’ll probably get a bloody nose. If they get stabbed or cut somehow, they’ll bleed accordingly. And if they’ve been fighting for a while, they’ve got a LOT of blood rushing around to provide them with oxygen. They’re going to bleed a lot. 

Here’s a link to a chart to show you how much blood a person can lose without dying. (CLICK ME) 

If you want a more in-depth medical chart, try this one. (CLICK ME)

Hopefully this helps someone out there. If you reblog, feel free to add more tips for writers or correct anything I’ve gotten wrong here. 

I support it.

OKAY IM DOING A SCHOOL PROJECT ON GAY MARRIAGE AND I HAVE TO USE STATISTICS SO REBLOG IF YOU SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE AND LIKE IF YOU DONT

This is awesome and hilarious.

I was tweeting with tenfiends about how P5 kid should be Tatsuya and Jun’s son and it got out of hand

(Tatsuya is a detective, leading to hilarious antics as P5 kid conceals his identity from his dad, because his other dad Jun probably knows about it the entire time)

Fun & useful

25 Traps & Tricks For Your D&D Game...

A collapsing staircase creates a ramp that deposits the Party into a Pit at its lower end.

A ceiling block, or even the entire ceiling, collapses down upon the Party.

The ceiling lowers slowly into the room, as the doors lock shut and trap anyone inside.

A chute opens in floor, depositing the Party in a lower level of the Dungeon.

A loud clanging noise rings out, attracting any nearby monsters.

The door of the Dungeon Room (or other object) is coated in a deadly contact poison.

Touching an object in the Room triggers a Flesh to Stone Spell.

The floor collapses, or is an illusion, sending the Party falling down into another level of the Dungeon.

Several small slits in the ceiling act as a vent that releases a deadly gas.

The floor tiles of the Room are electrified.

A huge statue on wheels rolls down corridor, running over and crushing anything in its way.

The doors of the Dungeon Room lock as the Room slowly floods with water or acid.

A weapon, suit of armor, or rug animates and attacks anything that touches it.

An enormous pendulum, either bladed or weighted as a maul, swings across the Room or down the Corridor,

A hidden pit opens up beneath the Party, causing them to fall into a  Gelatinous Cube that fills the bottom of the pit.

A hidden pit floods with acid or shoots gets of magical flame.

The Party falls into a empty hidden pit. The pit then covers itself as it slowly floods itself with water or acid.

A set of brittle stairs collapse over a pit of spikes.

A large stone block smashes across the hallway.

The walls of a Corridor slowly slide together to crush anything unlucky enough to be stuck there.

A magical crown, when worn, ages the Creature by 1 Year.

A magical staff that, when touched by a living Creature, reduces the Creature’s Size by 1 Category (Medium becomes Small, Small becomes Tiny, etc).

A jewelled skull that gives false directions to any Creature it has not seen before.

A locked wooden chest that induces a great greed in any Creature that successfully opens it.

A scroll case that contains a false map of the Dungeon.

So cool! This is such an interesting take.

Rethinking Drow and Lolth

So I’ll preface this by acknowledging that while highly problematic, the Drow in their current state, canonically, can be an effective and interesting race when handled properly. Instead of plot-derailing gremlins, Drow PCs can be cunning and powerful additions to an adventuring party. Similarly, a shrewd DM can bring an even greater level of suspense to an adventure if they’re willing to portray their Drow NPCs with a level of dark prudence, making them cunning, savage warriors and Machiavellian criminal masterminds instead of asshole chronic backstabbers. 

However, I’ve also seen some really great discussions on rethinking how most dwarves, orcs, and ’monster’ races in general are portrayed in gaming and storytelling, and I’d like to posit that the same can be done with dark elf races. Here are a few of my ideas, and I’d love to hear others from fellow gamers and world-builders. (Screen cap taken from Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir.)

Keep reading

Ooh helpful reference

SHOUT OUT TO MY WRITER HOMIES WITH MUSLIM OCS/CHARACTERS;

1. WEARING A SHAWL TO BATTLE IS THE EQUIVALENT OF HAVING GIRLS FIGHT IN STILLETTOS. 

Just so you know, this is what I’m talking about;

-Is it bad-ass? Abso-fucking-lutely. Is it Practical? Not a chance in hell. Especially not if it’s silk. If it’s cotton, you are skating on thin fucking ice. That bitch will NOT stay on. It barely stays on with me just walking down the street to Walmart. Wielding axes and rifles and swords and daggers? I PROMISE you it will not do the job it’s expected to-WHICH IS TO COVER THE HAIR. (Some muslim girls dont wear them-and that’s fine. But those who DO do it to completely cover the hair in public. Is it ~Aesthetic~ to see the flyaway hairs in battle? Sure, but those aren’t usually practical either. )Consider instead; 

sport shawls 

-For one thing, it’s actually DESIGNED to be worn to atheletic activities. Archers tuck hems into the collar of their shirts so they don’t get in the way, and track runners pins (ill get to this bit later) them down into the shirts to prevent flyaway bits and to stop them from getting slapped in the face. It’s breathable, stretchy, presentable without being attention seeking. 

Bawals 

In a pinch, bawals work just as well-as long as you specify that they are COTTON. Unlike the shawl, which are rectangular, bawals are SQUARE, and thus easier to manipulate, fold and pin down. If you wear it right, they carry an equal aesthetic value to shawls, and come in plenty of pretty patterns as well. 

2. I’m not sure about the USA, but the girls I know wear this underneath the headscarf;

Does it kinda look like a beanie? It sort of works like a beanie too. Hair is slippery. It tucks in any extra hair you might miss just by wearing the headscarf, its harder to pull down and on the event the shawl DOES fall down, your hair is still not exposed. It protects the ears-which is important even on a daily basis, because pins, headphones and any other headgear that might pinch them. It comes in plenty of designs, including ones that has open backs to allow long hair and ponytails. 

3.SPEAKING OF PINS; I’M TALKING ABOUT THESE BAD BOYS;

BROOCHES 

though , i suppose most of y’all are most familiar with safety pins, right?

what’s the difference? Well, if your oc/character is an athlete, it’s actually LEAST likely they’ll be wearing SAFETY PINS. They’re cheap and super easy to buy in bulk, true, but they also SUPER easy to wear out even with the smallest amount of strenuous activity. Between the three of ‘em, I’d put the brooches as the best option to wear in battle because 1) it has a large surface area, thus hurts less when pressed on with heavy items, which includes bag straps and weapons, (pins are sharp and can poke you painfully);  and 2) more secure-the latch is covered by the gaudy jewellery above, and theyre usually smaller and tighter. Stays on the stubbornnest, even when headscarf is pulled. very roughly. I’m saying that even the cheapest brooches will allow the shawl to be ripped apart before even letting it go. 

3. They probably ponytail their hair. Because Come On, guys.

Anyway it’s been bothering me and I just thought if yall could bother knowing the difference between skin tones for POC you could bother with muslim practicalities too. Or something 

This looks link it would be great quick reminders of what to do when such things happen.

Here to help y'all gorgeous children

I love this so much. Made my day. Never knew I wanted this but the moment this popped up, bam I was smiling.

Scenes I need...

Peter Parker: -on meeting Loki, offers his hand- Hi, I’m Peter!

Loki: -shakes his hand- Loki of Asgard.

Peter: Aren’t you like…a bad guy?

Loki: It varies from moment to moment.

Peter: So like…on a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst evil imaginable, like…killing puppies, and one being I’ll spit on your hotdog…where are you right now?

Loki: …maybe a three?

Peter: Cool. Lemme know if it gets above a six.

Loki: -thinking- I like him.

ingrid sundberg's colour dictionary - writing help

Katsuya & Tatsuya are already there. Plus Akihiko's on his way there, pretty soon if the trend keeps up, there'll be entire police force of Persona-users.

For some reason I can see Yu becoming a cop possibly cause he's aware of how he and Adachi where similar so maybe he wanted to prove he's different by being a cop and not ending up like Adachi. but also cause Dojima made an impression on him being the only adult figure to pay him decent attention o maybe he wanted to be like him. but also cause Yu wants to protect and help People. just my thought on Yu's possible future which we got no hint about

Well, with Chie already becoming a cop and Naoto being a detective, this would place, like, half the IT in law enforcement. It’s a really nice headcanon though. I really think it could work.