String fullTitle = '/wg/ - Writing General (and Storythread)';
int postNumber = 92633188;
String image = '1714242796485375.jpg';
String date = '04/27/24(Sat)14:33:16';
String comment = 'Writing General: 'thalassophobia' edition.
Welcome to /wg/, the thread for all /tg/ related writing. Whether you're plotting your campaign, trying to come up with a character backstory, or just trying to write some setting fluff, this is the place to post it. You don't even have a campaign, just an idea you want to develop? You're welcome here. While the rest of /tg/ is arguing over monstergirl mating and which way rivers are supposed to flow, we're here to help you turn your thoughts into an actual finished product.
As the successor to the Storythreads, we're also open to /tg/ related fanfiction (D&D, Warhammer, Battletech, whatever). In fact, if you've written any vaguely /tg/-related short stories, you can try them out here. We also have flash-fiction challenges from time to time.
There's a discord for writers here
https://discord.gg/6AwKHGF
The previous thread can still be found in the archive here
>>92552401
And finally an archive of /tg/ fiction can be found here:
http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Storythread
https://2d4chan.org/wiki/Storythrea
https://1d6chan.miraheze.org/wiki/S
'Sort of following on from our last topic, Lovecraft, this week it's the sea, and all things scary about the sea.
Personally I think it's an under-utilised area of horror. What do you think?';
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'>>92633219
Part of the problem with sea horror like your pic is how you depict it in a written story.
I mean, if you're writing from the perspective of the sailors aboard the ship, they don't see the big critter in the water sneaking up beneath them. From their perspective, things would be going just fine until suddenly the ship gets pulled into the depths and they drown, perhaps without even realizing what's happened.';
'>>92633219
Sea's a bit hard to work with unless you go with non-human protagonists due to the innate hostility of the environment. It fundamentally limits the stories you can tell even more than space or a cave would.
I've workshopped a few settings on seas to get around some of the limits though, including a giant tower sunken into the sea and sea bed undergoing an excavation from the top down and 3 "shallow sea" settings that were variously, a frozen evergreen swamp growing out of a sheet of sea ice, a mangrove jungle, and desert portion of sea where people cultivate mollusks and sea weeds and gasses and live on artificial structures between freshwater geysers barely poking out of the waves. Haven't written in them yet though, other than a brief internal dialogue from a librarian trapped in the tower going insane from isolation and from the preservation systems for the books keeping her from dying.';
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'>>92633188
Besides going full Lovecraft horror-style, how do you design interesting sea monsters for your stories that are more than just existing sea creatures made huge?';
'>>92635973
The simple solution to that is to have more than one ship.
Imagine a fishing fleet out in the North Atlantic. Skies are grey, seas are getting choppy... then the sea starts to bubble and all of a sudden *whoosh*, something the size of an oil tanker breaches the surface and swallows a fishing boat whole before slipping back beneath the waves. The other boats rush to cut their nets before they get dragged down too; one doesn't make it, the screams of its crew just audible over the roar of the waves.
Then the other boats have to make it back to the the shallows before they're swallowed too.
>>92637118
Now that I think about it, you know who just made the perfect deep sea monster story from a visual standpoint? Denis Villeneuve. Take the sandworms from Dune and put them in the ocean, and you've got exactly the aesthetic you need.';
'>>92643669
I think there's something to be said for taking the "Lost World" approach of taking ancient sea creatures and creating something based on the idea that a sequestered population managed to survive and keep evolving.';
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'Posting here since I didn't want to make a new thread for this.
I'm bummed that the game I GM fizzled out. I was really attached to the world, but attendance was spotty and killed the game off before we got to explore it.';
'>>92662145
That is honestly a real downer. You get invested, you make plans, and then it all comes to nothing. And you know that obviously no one is going to care about your setting as much as you do, but it would have been nice if it had generated a *little* enthusiasm in the players.';
'>>92662145
>>92662728
Why are normals such shit at attendance?';
'>>92662728
>>92663863
I think that part of what makes this suck is that it was largely collaborative. We went around adding our own things to the setting, and I made plans assuming that people would be excited for what they themselves made.
Honestly, I think it's just unfortunate, since the people playing had shit come up in their lives like a loss in their family that I can't blame them for.';
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'>MC has precious friend their care about
>Due to shenaniganary, they get infected by a demon soul plague
>Despite any and all attempts to cure it there's no results
>MC falls into the demon responsible's trap. They go meet with them and form a deal, with the MC being inserviced by the Demon.
>MC is tasked with killing [[important other being]] and in return the demon will cure their friend.
>The goal is for that [[other being]] to eventually convince the MC that they can help their friend and not to kill them
The problem is, im unsure how to resolve the deal part of this situation. Should the MC get out through some loophole? One would imagine a demon as ancient as the literal world would be able to write the most solid lawyer-proof deal imaginable so a loophole seems cheap. I cant really do the "Mc kills the person but they get revived somehow so technically" either because I used that exact solution for something else.
Any suggestions or ideas?';
'>>92672242
As is so often the case, The Simpsons has already done the best answer: when trying to back out of a deal with the devil, the best solution is that the protagonist already has a contract they were unaware of that takes precedence.';
'>>92674222
Ehhhh I dont know. I feel like that can get complicated considering the MC would by all accounts avoid any and all demon deals imaginable aside from this one.';
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'>>92678527
NIGGERMAN HELP';
'>>92678527
>what really happened to the Titan submersible';
'>>92674536
>Dying of space cancer
>Lost my faith years ago
>Whisper on my deathbed for my family to leave
>When they are gone, say that I would sell my soul to the devil if he made me a good offer
>Stranger in shadows appears at my side
>"What can I offer you?" he whispers sibilantly
>"Well I was going to ask for proof of the afterlife to ease my passing but nevermind I think I'm good"
>Die
gg satan no re';
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'>>92671597
good stuff';
'>>92671597
The classic.';
'>>92695162
Every so often I'll see something like this and remember 'oh yeah, I should check out /x/ more often'. And then I go there and it's nothing but coomers posting about semen retention and succubi and how every time they're about to have sex they wake up. Or it's people who clearly have literal schizophrenia.
That's not an exaggeration, btw, that's literally what's on the front page right now.';
'creepy merfolk are best merfolk';
'>>92700876
I'd still smash that';
'>>92700876
one of the next arcs that Im most excited for is for the exploration of my oc merfolk race. They're basically half vampire/demons half mermaids with the added benefit of each "half" having a sort of thirst. Be it blood or water.
Also the best part, I get to play with things like piety and restraint and having an "outcast" group of these merfolk that embrace their vampiric desires. I call these pirahnas.';
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}