Linked to this post is a free google slides document I’ve designed for the purposes of character and plot development. You can use this in several ways, including:

Making a copy to your google drive and editing it digitally

Downloading as a Microsoft powerpoint document

Editing in google slides and then downloading as a printable PDF

This document includes technical instructions and guides to the planning models I integrated. The included pages are:

Character/arc design sheet

Secondary characters sheet

Three-act flow chart

Plot story map

I’ve read a lot of fics, have seen many shows, and have watched many movies that are completely inaccurate when it comes to sparring. NOW, i know it’s fiction, and I greatly enjoy it nonetheless, but I would like to share a few things with you, as a person who trains in Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA). There are a few general things in this, as well as stuff more focused to a certain european weapon. (this is all Historical European stuff, obviously if you’re writing for a different region, this probably won’t apply that much.)

SPARRING

-you don’t practice with real sharp swords. Never. It’s incredibly dangerous, especially since sparring is trying to practice your killing/injuring skills. In older times, you would use wood, maybe wrapped in leather or canvas to practice. Today, you use weighted nylon swords/weapons, and you usually wear a mask while doing so. Steel is and was an option, but the blade will be completely dull, and the tip will be bent over itself.

-It’s practically impossible to knock someone off their feet while sparring, unless you are hooking your foot or weapon behind their leg. It’s hard to push back and cause someone to fall, since they can just retreat back a bit.

-YOU. DON’T. SPEND. HOURS. SPARRING. ESPECIALLY WITHOUT A BREAK. It’s exhausting, the most people usually go is 10 minutes before they have a break. During Training, you only spar for about 2-5 minutes before stopping and having a rest.

-You try your hardest never to cross your feet. It’s dangerous and it unbalances you. Your opponent can take advantage of you easily.

-Usually, you want to strike your opponent with the last ¼ of your blade, basically just the tip and a little below. That’s the sharpest point, and you get the most force behind it.

-Swords aren’t super heavy. Stop the giant, huge, I-can-barely-lift-this trope. Longswords are usually 3lbs. It’s not heavy when you pick it up. However, it gets heavy when you’re holding it up above your head for a while. Swords were not made to be heavy, especially since you would have to hold them up in battle for sometimes hours.

-It’s incredibly hard to engage in witty banter and such. You are constantly moving and trying to strike your opponent. Since it’s fiction, you can do what you want, but just know that trying to have a conversation while sparring is like trying to have one while running. It tires you out even more, and usually just comes out breathless and wheezy.

-Swords are not lightsabers. You cannot try and hurt someone with just any part of your blade. It will just annoy your opponent. Now, for sparring, you will want to focus on hitting your opponent with the edge of your blade, and you won’t really ever be trying to hit someone with the flat of your blade.

-In sparring, you will get hit. And get bruises. I count five from just 2 days ago. (Also reminder that bruises don’t form for 1-3 days.) If you happened to get a hard thrust to the ribs, they will probably fracture. It happens. I haven’t had it personally, but those who’ve trained longer have. The worst injury I’ve gotten is a bruise on my chest that didn’t fade for nearly a month.

-Grip!!! You don’t clutch your sword super tight. No. It limits movement. My instructor taught me to hold firmly with the thumb, pointer, and middle finger, and use the other two as more guiding fingers. You swing your sword with your wrist, not a big giant arm movement. That is tiring and slow. 

I will be focusing on using a one handed sword in this next bit, specifically a Scottish Regimental Broadsword. A basic sword to build off of.

-FOOTWORK. It’s not a super complicated series of perfectly planned out steps. It just isn’t. With Regimental Broadsword (which is what I will focus on, since it’s what I’ve trained with most), you have to have a good base (rear-weighted stance, front foot pointed at your opponent, back foot turned sideways), and then once you have that, you just have to move around and try not to get hit.

-Slipping. (Continuation of footwork). With a rear-weighted stance, the goal is to be able to move the front foot anywhere. You should actually be able to keep your front foot an inch off the ground without having to adjust your back foot. Slipping is when this comes in handy. If your opponent takes a swing at your front leg, you should be able to just slip it back to go next to your other foot, and swing your sword up to get your opponents head. Slipping is really important.

-Advance and Retreat (other continuation of footwork). While moving forward or back, you always want to feel the ground with a heel-toe movement, so you can tell if there are rocks or branches and such. Advancing, you want to move your front leg first. Retreating, your back leg.

-Traversing (last continuation of footwork)(maybe). Transversing is basically advancing in on your opponent in a circular motion. You’re trying to get close and personal. Reminder to not cross your feet. You will loose balance and probably end up getting whacked with a sword. Traversing is a spiral motion sort of. Your opponent can avoid getting trapped If they do it as well.

I reblogged a post a day or so ago, and the result (which made me sad) was mostly people saying that they feel they cannot flirt (and therefore cannot write it effectively). 

So I thought I’d share my own, admittedly limited, knowledge (under the guise of writing advice) so that you can all write kick-ass romance and show your feelings like the boss-ass-bitches you are! 

The Basics; Eye-Contact, Personal Space, Body Language

The thing about flirting is that most of it is non-verbal, and the world is split between those writers who find this part the easiest, and those who find it the most incomprehensible. 

The problem is that it’s all dependent on a fine, mostly unspoken, line which makes the interaction creepy if crossed. When writing a character who is trying to flirt with someone, or when trying to flirt with someone yourself, you need to keep three main things in mind; personal space, body language, and potential restriction. This is especially important for men. The problem is that this is mostly instinctual, and so it can be hard to write if you haven’t had time to develop the right skills yourself. 

Personal space

When trying to show that your character is flirting you need to make a note of them moving into the other person’s personal space but not too much. Consider this; someone leaning into your space just a little to speak to you versus someone being practically nose to nose with you. One catches your attention, the other is uncomfortable at best and intimidating at worst. The idea is to lean in enough to show interest and create a sense of intimacy, without becoming overbearing or threatening. As a rule, I find that I begin to feel uncomfortable if a man I’m not sure of gets closer than the distance it would take to perform a ballroom Waltz. 

To get an idea of how that looks, hold up your hand at arms length as if pushing someone away or pressing against a wall. Now slowly bend your elbow until the point sits just under your breast or pectoral muscle. 

That’s the maximum personal space invasion I allow from people I don’t know well. In my experience, this is common to many women, though others prefer more space. Likewise, in my experience, men I have met seemed perfectly comfortable with me being closer than even that, but I am small, relatively unthreatening, and we have to allow for the fact that we were in the position of viewing each other as romantic interests. Men may prefer more space from other men, or from individuals that they do not see in a romantic light already. This changes from person to person, and noting your characters preference is a good way to show what kind of person they are.

Eye-Contact 

Another fundamental which relies on instinct subtlety; conventional wisdom says that you should make eye-contact in order to show interest. Actual wisdom will also tell you that too much becomes intense and a little creepy. If your character holds someone’s eye for too long its becomes fixative rather than flirtatious; it becomes staring. Depending on your character and their interest this can either read as obsessive, creepy, or aggressive. 

Flirtatious eye contact can take a few forms; 

1 - the “getting caught” method where a person looks at someone and quickly looks away again. When caught have your character (or yourself) look away quickly and then back, hold eye contact for a few moments and then acknowledge the other person. A smile, wink, or nod will suffice for this. 

2 - the “lash” method where someone, usually a woman, catches their crushes eye, looks down, and then back up from under the lashes. Also very effective when done by men with big eyelashes. 

3 - the “full cheese” method by which someone winks, grins, or wiggles their eyebrows. This is effective when used sparingly. 

If your character also touches the person they are flirting with lightly, this will build tension. The touch should be gentle, but obviously deliberate. Avoid possessive gestures like gripping or pulling, however. 

Body Language

When flirting, the body language of both people is important; your character should watch their crush for signs of interest and/or discomfort. 

Positive signs; leaning in, touching, playing with hair, smiling, licking or biting lips, tilting their head slightly, mirroring. 

Negative signs; leaning away, crossing arms, pursing lips, refusing to make eye-contact, raising their shoulders, crossing their legs away from the other person, frowning, clenching jaw, balling fists. 

This body language can apply to both characters in the scene. 

Advanced Techniques; Verbal Cues, Suggestions, And Other Senses

This is the shit I thrive on, as a writer you will probably feel the same way; I notice the sounds, smells, and textures of another person as well as what they say (in fact, when you read my work you’ll notice that the smell of any romantic lead is noted upon more than once). 

Verbal Cues

This is the thing that most people focus upon when it comes to discussions or attempts at flirtation. The verbal sparring that comes with flirting is what really gets our stomachs churning and our hearts pulsing… but why are some people so naturally good at it, while others are… less so? 

And why does some of the most vapid and run-of-the-mill stuff seem to work between the right people? 

Well, the sad news for your unlovely characters is that physical attraction makes us more likely to respond to even the most poorly constructed of verbal flirtation. Then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder so even the least pretty of characters could find themselves flirting up a storm with the right person. 

Verbal cues include; 

- Gentle teasing 

- Compliments

- Inside jokes

- Using someone’s name (yes, really)

- Asking questions and responding in a thoughtful way

- Sexual innuendo (when used tastefully and sparingly)

Suggestion

This is the easiest to miss or overshoot because it’s a combination of everything else we’ve already covered. For example, your character saying to a friend, 

“I’m just going to hop into the shower, talk soon.” 

Is not a suggestive statement. Now imagine your character flirting with someone on the phone before sighing and saying, 

“I’m going to take a shower… I’ll speak to you soon, ok?”

The difference is subtle but important; the second suggests that they don’t want to stop talking to the other person, that they definitely want to speak to them again as soon as possible, and subtly encourages the other person to consider them in the shower. You see? 

Easy to miss, easy to fudge. Suggestion is hard to pull off, and hard to write, but think of it this way - suggestion;

1) Encourages the other person to think of you/your character in an intimate way

2) Implies enjoyment in and desire for their presence

3) Is open-ended and encourages reciprocation

The Other Senses

This is not so much flirting, but the act of making your character/yourself as appealing as possible to another. Personal hygiene, a good fashion sense, and good manners are a part of this.

But - 

When writing about this you should not discuss it directly unless your character is making a conscious choice. Instead, focus on the character that yours is focussed upon. 

- How do they smell?

- What are the textures of their clothes?

- What manners do they affect?

- Does their voice have a texture?

- Do they touch your character a lot? 

- Do they note upon your characters smell or noticeably try to take in their smell? 

- Do they react noticeably to your character’s voice or mannerisms?

This is just a basic guide, of course, but if you get this down you’re in a good position to build romantic tension in every walk of life!

- your most sought-after goal

- a strongly-held belief or conviction

anyway, the storm tamer, a ranger conclave that is wet. that's it, they swim.

Week 0- Preparation The Chronomancer- Spell update!

The Chronomancer Sorcerous Origin has been a pet project of mine for quite some time. It was the subclass that got me into homebrewing, and one of the first to go up on this blog. A long time ago I noted that to truly bring out the subclass’ potential, I’d need to brew up a suite of time based spells. And, well, since I was brewing time based spells… I thought I’d add some advice on running time travel. None of its groundbreaking- the most useful bit is probably the section about agreeing on what happens when time breaks (and if it can break in the first place). This one has balooned far beyond its original scope- something bordering on a supplement more than a single subclass. I hope you all enjoy! I stayed up far too late hammering out the details on this one.

illiterate

speaks in a ridiculous accent

your setting’s equivalent of a scientologist

libertarian

takes every possible opportunity to talk about their dad

morally opposed to masturbation

writes fanfic about campaign relevant figures of your choice

insecure about their height

does nude sketches of their party members, entirely from imagination

investigates or attempts to identify things exclusively by licking them

sexually attracted exclusively to a weird thing of the player’s choice

divorced

takes every possible opportunity to talk about their mom

their primary weapon or arcane focus can talk, but is extremely annoying

avoids swearing at all costs

embarrassingly sex positive

their backstory is an elaborate lie they came up with to sound cooler

collects whatever the player decides is their slain enemies’ funniest body part

enthusiastically eats things like bugs and rats

I was just digging through “Xanathar’s Guide to Everything” for stuff to steal inspiration and I found the table of Rivals—not the real enemies of the campaign or assassins hired by the Big Bad, but an NPC that opposes the party for reasons of their own, like that shitty Lake-Town mayor in The Hobbit or Walter Peck in Ghostbusters. Roll d50:

Rival adventurer or party out for the same goal for different reasons

Rival adventurer or party that wants to steal something currently owned by the party

Politician that genuinely thinks adventuring parties in general cause more problems than they solve

Politician that genuinely thinks most adventurers are fine but the players’ party specifically causes more problems than they solve

Politician that claims the party causes more problems than they solve to try and hide the fact that they caused the problems in question themselves

Tax collector that thinks the party is evading

Wealthy idiot with no day job that believes some treasure held by the party is legally theirs by ancestral rights

Wealthy idiot with no day job trying to manipulate the party into a particular action to win a bet

Tradesperson whose livelihood was ruined by the party’s actions (e.g. a farmer whose fields were trampled, a fruit-cart owner whose cart was knocked over, an undertaker whose customers were revived by the party’s necromancer, etc.)

Wealthy landowner whose property was ruined by the party’s actions

Merchant or other public figure that thinks the party’s actions negatively affect “the economy”

Cleric that believes the party has offended their deity

Wizard that blames the party for some recent disruption to the magical or natural world

Sorcerer that believes the source of their magical blood was wronged by an ancestor of a party member

Warlock ordered by their fiendish patron to tempt a particular member of the party to evil

Barbarian upset over some trivial slight

Rogue that is just an asshole

Bard that says the party’s Bard stole a song/routine from them

Fighter that wants to prove they’re better than the party’s fighter

Ranger convinced the party magic-user cursed them

Druid concerned about the path of destruction left by the party, in particular to monster-based ecosystems

Assassin (any class) that was assigned the party not as a real contract but as a challenge to earn their guild membership

Adventurer (any class) whose sworn enemy was previously defeated by the party, out for revenge for denying their victory

Jilted lover of a party member

Jilted lover of the current lover of a party member

Jilted lover of a known enemy of the party that believes by capturing, disrupting, or killing the party they will win favor

Person that was arranged to be married to one party member that has no real interest in them but can’t get their inheritance until they do so

Adventurer that was kicked out of the party at some point in the past (if the party was only recently formed, they were kicked out of one of the members’ previous parties)

NPC that formed an unrequited para-social relationship with the party and wants them to stop adventuring and come hang out

Childhood rival or member of a rival clan from a particular party member

Person from a party member’s village/clan that wants them to come home to fulfill their destiny

Former employer or mentor of a party member that claims they left without completing their contract

Estranged sibling or parent of party member

Sibling or ally of defeated enemy

Ghost (or other undead version) of defeated enemy, out to kill the one that killed them

Ghost (or other undead version) of defeated enemy, out NOT to kill the one that killed them but to make their life as long and miserable as possible

Ghost (or other undead version) of a party member’s ancestor’s defeated enemy

Inventor of some spell or equipment being used by the party that thinks they aren’t worthy of it (or the ghost or an heir if the spell/equipment is too ancient)

Member of the same college or clan or whatever as one party member that believes they are unworthy of membership

Person that claims a member of the party is an imposter and they are the real one

Person that believes an item held by the party secretly contains the soul of their master or loved one

Time traveler trying to cause or prevent a certain chain of events (if this is too sci-fi for your setting call it “a magic-user trying to manipulate destiny” or “a seer that divined future events, out to re-weave the tapestry of fate” or something)

High-level adventurer of an opposing alignment that just wants to test out a new spell or piece of equipment

Beholder that was convinced by someone else that the party is out to get them, presumably as a distraction to get it out of the way while robbing its lair

Extraplanar, Fae, or other similarly otherworldly creature that has decided to test the world by placing trials before the party

Extraplanar, Fae, or other similarly otherworldly creature that thinks the party is fun to annoy

Conspiracy theorist that believes the party is in league with their enemies

Honest journalist that believes the party is up to something

Scandalmongering journalist out to make the party look bad

Culture & Society

Creating Fictional Holidays

Music For Your Fantasy World

Creating Religions & Belief Systems

How to Design Your Diabolical Cult

Historically Accurate Sexism in Fantasy: Let’s Unpack That

Debate with the Squirrels: Sexism in Fantasy

Feudalism

Using Politics In Fantasy Fiction

Mythic Justice – Crime and Punishment in Your Fantasy World

Government Worldbuilding

Realistic Political Strife

A Politics Of Worldbuilding

Language

Creating a Language

The Language Construction Kit

The International Phonetic Alphabet – Audio Illustrations

Fantasy Name Generator

Geographic Names

Medieval Names Archive 

Squid Name Generator 

Model Languages

Xenolinguistics 

History

Prehistory

Mythos

History

Today

Myths, Creatures, and Folklore

Encyclopedia Mythica

The Ancient History Encyclopedia

Using History as Inspiration for Fantasy

Victorian Era Family Day Life in England

Peasant Life in the Middle Ages

Everyday Life in the Middle Ages

English Monarchs

Feudal Japan

The Story and Structure of the Iroquois Confederacy

Science + Geography

Dimensions

Solar Bodies

Climatology

Planetary Geography

Water Geography

Cartography, Maps, Star Charts, and Writing

Fundamentals of Physical Geography

Dating of Middle-earth events, using Precession of the Equinoxes and Tidal Friction

Orbital Operations in Science Fiction

Planet Designer

Artificial gravity calculator

Natural gravity calculator

Selden’s Catalogs of Objects for Celestia

Medieval Technology

Defining the Source, Effects, and Cost of Magic

How to Create a Rational Magic System

Miscellaneous

/r/worldbuilding

Fantasy World Generator

SciFi World Generator

Focused Ambiguity: Using Metaphor in Fantasy Writing

Space Engine

Terragen

The Five foundations of Worldbuilding

Setting the Fantastic in the Everyday World

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We fight together ⚔️✨

For @/mustangsart’s combat wheelchair v3.0!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KVW9Hv0QDPB6IiWbVY6RVi13S3W3bGuy?usp=sharing

I feel like roll20 and D&D Beyond are the ones that people likely hear about first (at least I did).

I've seen really cool homebrew stuff on Reddit, itch.io, and Tumblr. Dungeon Master's Guild looks intimidating somehow lol but also really useful.