nocheri - Tumblr blog

[nocheri]

some random redemption arcs that aren’t just ‘zuko, but a little to the left’

I’m evil but all my evil friends betrayed me and I’ve decided that the best revenge is to ruin their evil plans. Yes, this means I’m a “good guy” or whatever. No, I don’t like it any more than you do.

I was evil but all my evil friends betrayed me and now I’m going to latch onto the first person who shows me kindness. If that happens to be the protagonist, I am totally fine with realigning my morality to match theirs.

I never wanted to do what I did, and now the biggest obstacle to me switching sides is convincing me that I’m not a living weapon.

Well as long as you’re imprisoning me in this magic amulet I might as well give you pointers on your technique. I mean come on if you all die I might be stuck here for millennia! It’s not because I like you and don’t want you to die. Nuh uh.

Look, I legit thought that being evil was going to be my best option to get this important thing done, but, uh, that didn’t pan out. Help?

[nocheri]

[nocheri]

[nocheri]

ppl talk about the difficulty of writing characters smarter than yourself, but the real challenge is writing a character who is funnier than you are

[nocheri]

I think in the same way there's a 90/10 rule with horror and comedy (horror works best when it's 90% horror and 10% comedy and vice versa) there's a 90/10 rule for some relationships in fiction that's like. Wholesome and fucked up. A good friendship is at its most compelling when it's also 10% a bit fucked up. Fucked up relationship is at its most compelling when there's at least 10% of something actually sweet and substantive within. Do you get me

[nocheri]

i think 'I trust you with my life but not your own' as a trope is one of the ones that can always fuck me up no matter what

[nocheri]

can we stop doing this trope

[nocheri]

[Image ID: A flow chart with two branches. The starting point reads "does this character have problems." One branch leads to "yes" then "make them worse," while the other branch leads to "no" then "give them some." End ID.]

[nocheri]

btw. i made this quick guide of some of the natural size and proportion reference points in the human body. of course this all varies even irl, and you can stylize however you want, so ymmv but thought it might be helpful for some folks.

[nocheri]

Tips on making your horror game genuinely scary.

Put in a ghoul.

Remember to utilize fundamental human fears, like the fear there might be a ghoul around. Put in a second ghoul.

Undermine the player's sense of safety by introducing something dangerous to areas previously considered safe, such as a third ghoul (in a ghoul-proof room or the like).

Draw on modern social anxieties, such as political radicalization or global warming. You can easily personify these things as, say, a fourth ghoul.

Create a sense of unease by...fuck it, that sounds hard, fifth ghoul.

Sixth ghoul, just in case the first five aren't scary enough.

Create disturbing imagery like a seventh, eighth and ninth ghoul.

Something something sense of powerlessness something something the uncanny something something. Tenth ghoul.

Remember to study the horror greats - King, Poe, Lovecraft. What did they all have in common? All wrote about ghouls probably. Imitate them and put in an eleventh ghoul.

Well, if you have eleven ghouls already, you might as well spring for a full dozen ghouls. That's just good business sense.

Thirteen is the spookiest number! Obviously a thirteenth ghoul would be the scariest thing! Your players will be talking about this for months!

Ok, fine, I guess you could put in a werewolf or shoggoth or something. Just don't blame me when the players are saying "hmm, that was pretty scary, but you know what would have been really terrifying? A fourteenth ghoul!"

Make the game room fit the tone of your game by having sinister music, low lighting and a fifteenth ghoul under the table who will eat anyone who complains about the number of ghouls in the campaign. That'll spook 'em!

Happy spooking and always remember the three rules of horror: ghouls. Ghouls! GHOULS!!!!

[nocheri]

as a child there's nothing cooler than a kid who gets subjected to evil experiments and gains special abilities. it's even cooler if these abilities also cause unfathomable suffering to use/against others. children love stories like this.

[nocheri]

LOVE failed chosen ones. Chosen ones who failed and chosen ones who aren’t special and never were and chosen ones by chance and chosen ones by a choice not their own and chosen ones who succeeded at what cost

[nocheri]

new tumblr game. put in the tags a GENUINE flaw your fav(s) has. cant be something like "too kind" or "loves too much" like something genuinely bad messed up morally wrong they are or have done

[nocheri]

So sick of dog motif what about cat motif.

I love you but we don't love the same. I can't be near you when you want me to be. Your love is smothering and your need to keep me safe is trapping me. I'm my own person but I don't know how to show you that. I lash out and hurt you even though I don't mean to. I need you to move slowly around me or I'll bolt. I love you, even though I don't say it. If you stay still I'll sit next to you, and even though we don't understand each other we can be together like that.

[nocheri]

big fan of characters with abandonment + attachment issues so profound that they leave claw marks in everything they touch but would sooner gnaw off their own leg than admit they just want someone to stay for once. in a totally normal well adjusted and not at all projecting way of course.

[nocheri]

Your writing will always feel awkward to you, because you wrote it.

Your plot twists will always feel predictable, because you created them.

Your stories will always feel a bit boring to you, because you read them a million times.

They won't feel like that for your reader.

[nocheri]

If you're struggling to write sex, write food. if you're struggling to write food, write gore. if you're struggling to write gore, write sex. They're all variations on the same themes.