Sewers and Surgeons
by Wholesome Rage | 28 December 2017
Up until now, this blog has primarily been focused on giving writing advice. However, an important part of writing is knowing interesting things and reading a lot.
Like a toddler’s sticky fingers, you’d be amazed at what gets picked up.
Five Philosophies For Mastering Game Mastering.
by Wholesome Rage | 20 December 2017
A lot of the articles on WholesomeRage are targeted towards new and beginning storytellers, and a very common reason people dip their toe in the proverbial waters is tabletop gaming. Dungeon Mastering in Dungeons and Dragons, Storytelling under the White Wolf Line, a Master of Ceremonies if you’re Powered by the Apocalypse, but the most common umbrella term is GM: Game Master.
I’ve been mastering games every week with varying degrees of success for seven years now — a veritable novice by a lot of standards — and trading places with other GMs to compare styles. Here’s what I’ve found works best for my groups, and myself as both a player and a GM.
Every group, every GM is different. They have different needs, different philosophies, and the most useful advice is simply to communicate those needs.
That being said, here’s my personal philosophies, and why.
A Sympathetic Protagonist doesn't have to be Likable: Spider Jerusalem
by Wholesome Rage | 19 December 2017
Transmetropolitan is a comic by Warren Ellis that is fantastic. It’s enthralling, it’s brilliant in the way truly good speculative fiction should be; It tells an interesting hypothetical future that’s a dark mirror of our current values, our current society.
But that’s not what I want to talk about it.
Transmetropolitan’s protagonist is Spider Jerusalem, a man most accurately described as Hunter S Thompson by way of Nietzsche. In fact, Transmetro is a sort of counter-culture adaptation of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. A wise man descends from the mountain to speak his truth, then returns to the mountain again.
Spider is a huge bastard. His defining trait, in fact, is being the biggest fucking asshole to absolutely everyone, all the time, forever.
| Category | # |
|---|---|
| Writing Advice | 24 |
| Gaming | 4 |
| History | 4 |
| Media | 20 |
| Guest Article | 7 |
| Economics | 18 |
| Politics | 30 |
| Audio | 4 |
| Fiction | 1 |
| Mental Health | 2 |
