Reading, Writing and Role-playing.

Hello again Nerds and Nerdettes. This time the Dragonspawn has read two books about writing for Role-Playing Games, and I will share some insight about both of them. Hopefully I will have taken away a little of their writing do's and don't for this review.

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The first book is written by someone who's work I've read before (and that I've commented on his work: How to Game Master Like a Fucking Boss!). This is a short, 14 page book about how to write adventure scenarios. Now this could be just for yourself or you may want to get published. 

Venger's book is shorter than Ray's but covers the main elements of writing but does not go into that much depth. Two of the pages are just art and a few other pages have some illustration on a portion of the page. The author doesn't use big complicated terms and words, he is concise and direct. He also doesn't make as many comical comments as his previous books, which helps with this subject.

He covers things such as the ''Elevator Pitch'', ''Anatomy of an Adventure'', ''Scenes'', etc. He's also included some tables to roll on, but I find they are not all that useful when it comes to Adventure writing. Bullet points probably would have been better.

This book in my opinion is good if you want some tips on how to set up a basic structure for your adventure, whether you wan to submit it to a publisher or just for yourself, but may not be worth the price.


by Venger As'Nas Satanis.

3.00$ at DriveThruRPG
2 out of 5.

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The second book of this article is from Ray Vallese, who's been writing and editing in the RPG industry, for over 20 years, as well as in other spheres (because he has bills to pay too).

I find this book a more complete guide to writing for those of you who wish to submit your work to a publisher or even if you want to self-publish. At 44 pages, it cover many of the elements needed for the RPG style. He gives us examples and suggestions on phrase stuctures, run-on sentences, word use, participles, player-text versus GM-text, etc. 

If you're submitting your work, he even recommends asking the publisher if they have a ''Style Guide''. Something I didn't even know existed, but then, I'm not a professional writer nor did I study journalism.

Ray does a very good job of showing us the little thing need to write with style. Venger's book mentions this only briefly, were as Ray goes in depth.

I believe that both of these books would well together, but that if you can only chose one, then go with ''Writing with Style''. For only 2$ more you get more bang for your buck.

by Ray Vallese

5.00$ at DriveThruRPG
5 out of 5.


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You can always reach me for ideas, suggestions or comments at
bignastydragon@gmail.com

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