# Writing and Role Playing Games **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 23, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-and-role-playing-games/693842 "2014-07-23T15:40:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-and-role-playing-games/693842/21 "2014-07-24T23:24:09Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > I used an old system called Adventure Writer to create a text-based adventure game for the C-64 back in the day, based on Lovecraft’s story “At The Mountains of Madness.” It won a third-place prize for writers of adventure games on the online service I was using at the time. But … > > wait for it … > wait for it … > wait for it … > > There were only three entrants in the contest. I vaguely remember adventure writer. I think my favorite part was writing and playing NPC’s. (This was in a MUD type environment) ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-and-role-playing-games/693842/22 "2014-07-25T00:29:36Z")
I once saw a conference presentation by an English professor named Trent Hergenrader who used tabletop roleplaying games as part of his creative writing courses. IIRC, he had the students collaborate on designing the setting, then each of the students created a character. They roleplayed together and used this as the basis for their story-writing assignments. I don’t remember if the students used events from the game and other students’ characters in their writing assignments or if they were supposed to be using the game as more of a jumping off point. Anyway, Hergenrader said that a lot of creative writing students struggle with setting and characterization and tend to write telling-not-showing stories of the “this happened, and then this happened” variety, and that starting with the game helped them to improve in these areas. I can’t remember if he mentioned this specifically, but roleplaying games are typically designed to force players to create characters that have strengths and weaknesses. Bad newbie writers are often tempted to create protagonists of the Mary Sue/Gary Stu type who are good at everything and perfect and wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-and-role-playing-games/693842/23 "2014-07-25T04:37:02Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > . . . protagonists of the Mary Sue/Gary Stu type who are good at everything and perfect and wonderful. It’s funny, but I’ve known “Mary Sue” for nearly fifty years now, but I’d never met “Gary Stu” before today! Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-and-role-playing-games/693842/24 "2014-07-25T05:26:53Z")
The really interesting thing is that virtual RPGing is so immersive, a lot more immersive than any other medium overall. There are dull and laggy elements of SL Gor, but I’ve pretty much stopped watching TV and movies in the evening in favor of RPGing. And I think the author who can convey that immersiveness in a book will be very successful. I’m just not sure it’s possible … part of the appeal is definitely the fact that other people are collaborating with you. But if you can capture that rush, that zeitgeist of a really good RP scene … wow! ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-and-role-playing-games/693842/25 "2014-07-25T17:26:41Z")
I used to play with a DM who was DMing a universe of her own creation, which she was actually writing a novel about. Her games could be a little railrodey at times (basically we were playing in the margins of her book’s plot, so some stuff was set in stone to happen), but I don’t think I’ve ever met a better storyteller. Obviously she knew her NPCs inside and out, and she could breathe life into her descriptions something amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-and-role-playing-games/693842/26 "2014-07-25T17:30:51Z")
I think playing RPGs _can_ help writing skills, but not necessarily, depending on your innate skills. If you have some talent for writing, I’d say you have to keep at it. You won’t become a better writer unless you write and write and write. I run an online _Star Trek_ RPG that’s all written (based on **What Exit** ’s wonderful _Lord of the Rings_ game here). PM me if you’d like more details. ---
**Author:** ![danhanegan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb9ed0/32.png) [@danhanegan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danhanegan)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-and-role-playing-games/693842/27 "2014-07-28T07:35:28Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Joel Rosenberg got his inspiration to write from **Dungeons and Dragons** , too. Esther Friesner was a member of the SCA when she started writing, which is just a form of roleplay. > > How much it helps a writer depends entirely on the writer. I think Rosenberg may eventually have come to regret writing the D&D themed Guardians of the Flame series. It sold reasonably well, and apparently paid his bills for several years, but when he tried to branch out into more original work he got little support from publishers. I am a big fan of his D’shai books, but email I exchanged with him before he died suggested his publishers just wanted him to write more of the Guardians series, and quit trying to do anything more original. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-and-role-playing-games/693842/28 "2014-07-28T13:04:42Z")
When my wife was in college back in the 80’s at the University of Minnesota, she got into a gaming group with a bunch of frustrated writers. They couldn’t sell any of their stories, so they built game systems of their own devising and ran campaigns set in their worlds. Some of them ended up including the gaming stories in their published works. They only played D&D late at night when they were too tired to try to explain how everything worked… The writers: M.A.R. Barker, Steven Brust, Patricia Wrede, Kara Dalkey, Emma Bull & Will Shetterly. I think it turned out pretty well in their case. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-and-role-playing-games/693842/29 "2014-07-28T17:16:41Z")
I rather thought there might be a link of some sort between writing and RPGs – the same skills that work for you as a writer can work for you as an RPG player. I sometimes have taken stuff from my books and used them in SL Gor, and I’ve taken stuff from SL Gor and used it in my books. I don’t use other people’s words, becuase, frankly, most of the RPers I play with just aren’t that good, though a few are. I definitely use the situations that occur. I bet that Univ. of Minn. gaming group played some incredible games. I wonder if you can read a book and figure out if it was the product of or strongly influenced by role playing games? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-and-role-playing-games/693842/30 "2014-07-28T17:53:19Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > George RR Martin’s “Wild Cards” shared universe stories got their start as a superhero RPG that Martin ran. [Wild Cards - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Cards) > > It helps when you’re an established author and your gaming buddies are also authors. In his short-story collection _Dreamsongs, Vol. I_, Martin gives some very interesting background detail on his RPG sessions in New Mexico, and how he and other player/writers thought up the _Wild Card_ series. > [@Trinopus](#): > > …Chris Claremont, writer of X-Men comics, was once asked exactly how strong Cyclops’ eye-beams (superhero zap) was. He said, “Exactly as strong as it needs to be for the story I’m telling.”… A Paramount Studios screenwriter once said, “The Starship _Enterprise_ travels at the speed of plot.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-and-role-playing-games/693842.md?page=1)