Flux

Happy Birthday, Dan! You've been a great help to me before, so I hope you *had* a great day!

I have both, but today and yesterday were the first time I've played in a while. (Been playing too much Melee...) The real problem is that until I move out this summer, I'm stuck in a rural area where the only decent internet we get has a download cap, so I can't really play online unless I'm at a friend's house or something.

I could maybe be put there for Pikachu, since he's my main when I play Sm4sh. Then again, I haven't played the game with any of you, so you can't really confirm how good I am with him. I figure somebody is better than nobody though. EDIT: Completely missed that Palutena is blank too. I play her as a secondary, so I suppose I could do that too, if need be.

Happy Birthday, Kam! I haven't really talked with you much, but I have played in a few small tournies with you, and that was enough for me to tell that you're beyond me in a battle. Have a good one!

I just want to point out how much I love the fact that Kamina is the one who pointed out the effects RNG can have on a battle.

And it's only one chapter long... Oops. Thanks, though. I'll try to get on top of things ASAP. I've already got most of this chapter planned out, so things should go at least a little bit more smoothly.

Just updating again to let you all know that I haven't forgotten about this. Some of you may have seen my post in the Aftermath thread, but basically I've got graduation coming this week and life has been hectic lately. I've got final presentations to give and a speech to write, so it's been tough to get on Reborn what little amount I have been lately. After graduation, I should have a lot more free time, so I should be able to handle this RP a lot easier. Thanks for hanging with me, and hopefully I haven't lost any of you in the wait time.

I'm supposed to be updating my own RP with a new chapter as well, but I've been kept busy with school wrapping up and graduation approaching, so I don't really feel like I could give it the attention it needs right now. I'm honestly kind of thankful this is so slow right now, as I don't know that I could keep up with it if it weren't.

Hey everybody. This is going to be the closest thing I have to a "guide" on here right now, and it's not really even my guide. I'll be sharing some information I came across recently with you, and then I'll give you my take on it and how it can be used for roleplaying purposes and creative writing in general. Anyway, I recently read an article about Alfred Hitchcock and some of his philosophies on film making. In particular, he talks about the difference between surprise and suspense and how they come about in a movie. The primary ideas are his, which is again why I can't take credit for this, but I will give some thoughts on turning this idea from film to roleplaying. Here's the important point -- Hitchcock's "Bomb under the table" analogy. You may have read this before, or at least heard of it. Maybe not. Whatever the case, here it is in Hitchcock's words: I'm going to try to summarize what he said there and how we can utilize this to make roleplaying scenarios more effective and exciting for those involved. It all comes down to the title of this thread: Limits on information. As hosts, we have complete control over how much information we give our roleplayers. While I think most hosts do think a little bit about that, we don't really put a whole lot of thought as to what exact details we have given our readers, and that is a very important point. What Hitchcock is saying is that by keeping close control over the information you let the reader know, you can change a bland narrative into an exciting scenario of suspense or surprise. It all depends on what you let the reader know. Take surprise, for example. For our purposes in writing, we can define surprise as the moment an unexpected event occurs. It catches you off guard, gives you a few seconds of adrenaline. Surprise is a great tool to utilize when you want to quickly change the focus of a scene and generate quick energy in writing. This works especially well in an RP setting, where you have players participating. Surprise will get the players excited over the plot twist, and they will likely feel inspired to write up a good reply quickly. The best way for us as hosts to generate surprise is to LIMIT INFORMATION. For a scene to truly catch your players and readers by surprise, you want them to have no hint of what is going to happen prior. The information you give them has to be extremely limited. As the writer, we often want to reveal so many things to the players about our world and plot at once that we overlook the effectiveness of strictly limiting what we tell them. As such, or "surprise" scenes may not be as effective as we had planned them to be. This is why we should place a greater focus on the exact details we write. Suspense, on the other hand, is a little bit different. We can define suspense as the gradual buildup of tension in a scene, and potentially the buildup of anxiety in the reader. A truly suspenseful scene is one of the most effective feelings a writer can portray upon their readers. Suspense keeps the readers/players curious and focused on your writing, which is obviously going to be key to being a successful writer or host. To create a suspenseful scene, a host still needs to limit information, but you also have to allow a certain amount of information to slip through. A truly suspenseful scene is a perfect balance of limited and released information. You need to let the readers/players know that something is coming, but still restrict their knowledge of the event. You do not want them to be as all-knowing as your are; that takes all excitement and suspense away from the scene. You should release hints and information to the players and readers, while making sure that the characters know nothing of what is to come. This builds up tension in the players, as they want to warn the characters that something is going to happen, but they cannot. Anyway, that's about all I have to say. I hope some of you can find this helpful or useful in some way, as I think it's something we can all try to focus on a little bit more. I think it will help our community improve and grow as a whole. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read all of this, and I'll see your around the forums!

But I love that song.

Stahl and Miriel were pretty interesting for me. It's the average joe paired up with the genius girl, and it made for some interesting chemistry.