Meta Themes II: Mythology
As I’m sure I’ve posted before, mythology was an early love of mine. I more or less devoured books on the “classical” Western mythologies; Greek, Roman, Celtic, British. As I learned more I branched out and discovered Japanese, Indian and Native American mythologies and their associated legends and tales. Saavd is meant [...]
“…while an in-depth knowledge of the construction of the Tarot cards is critical for me to understand how to use them as a plot device, it is probably more detail than most readers care to follow. Engaging stories are about character, conflict, and suspense. Otherwise dictionaries and encyclopedias would be best sellers. However, for those interested, or masochistic, I will post some of the story behind the story.”
Many words lurk below, you have been warned…
Once again it has been far too long since I have posted here. Other worlds than Saavd have claims on my time as well. Nor is the “real world” the only competitor! I find myself with multiple stories vying for full attention. Character notes [...]
First: many thanks to the crackerjack staff on the technical upgrade of the Saavd Blog and the main website.
Second: it’s amazing how long it’s been since I posted to the blog. Daily life seems to take up a lot of effort and energy; and naturally I have books to read and games to play [...]
Shining light into dark corners is dangerous, oft-times lonely, work and there always seem to be another dark corner lurking nearby. For every soul dedicated to freedom and compassion, there seems to be a myriad who prefer the path of least resistance, the easy temptation, the subtle whispers of self-interest.
Throw in some artwork, a few trinkets lurking about, something borrowed and something new, and we think everyone will find something to enjoy.
The more rich the personal experience of the writer, the more engaging and interesting the stories that can be told.
Dungeons and Dragons is a natural setting for a fantasy world like Saavd and since we’ll eventually be setting adventure modules and other material in the D&D formulas, it is natural to start there when defining how certain things will work.
Another facet of the Saavd databases is the opportunity to use them to generate the open game content; character sheets, spell descriptions and the like, that we want to make available for anyone to use and adapt to help tell their own adventures and stories. Having the ability to cross-reference the abilities, possessions and backgrounds between characters will be a godsend as they wind their way through stories about each other.
If I begin the stories at the arbitrary present, does that remove the opportunity to tell the tales of earlier ages? Does it spoil the story if the reader knows the how the future turns out? Can I choreograph the actions and characters well enough that, even though the eventual resolution in general is known to the reader, that the reader will find entertainment and suspense in the specific details?