Recent content by KarmaPolice

Clichés have their time and place; Terry Pratchett seems to thrive on subverting them. That and you've got characters who think in them - an example that comes to mind is Jim Hackett from Yes Minister who mangles them frequently, usually when his brain is obviously empty of actual thought but...

Of course, there's much more that can be listed, but I was trying to be as generic as possible and highlight the most common newbie problems in storytelling. I personally put "the velcro" in there from experiences from computer games and fanfic where the main character will have others...

Y'welcome. Yeah, I learnt those lessons the hard, painful way. It took two years, ~200k of writing and two ditched books to finally get to the stage where a couple of betas are reading it. No, I ain't had anything published (yet! - I hope) but I'm a real bookworm so can appreciate what makes...

Writing's both harder and easier than most people think. Just a couple of thoughts to get you started... Baby Steps - Don't try to write a doorstopper straight off. You'll end up ditching it due to lack of self-esteem and/or as you learn the trade, you'll realise the first parts were crap and...

This is my one... 'The Unofficial Vault'. In the 2040's, NASA (or whatever it's called here) sets up 'Moonbase Grissom', a facility in Florida to test the feasibility of a self-sufficient Lunar colony, helped by a young company which would soon become known as Vault-Tek. Fully functional by...

Any quest that left crud in your inventory forever. It's the first thing I do when modding; if you lose the damn thing and screw up the game, it's your own fault, sunshine. And it's a disease that seems to be getting worse; my Skyrim gal is currently laden with so much crap it's taking up around...

Chinese doctrine has stressed adaptability and unpredictability for thousands of years; it's mentioned in Sun Tzu's 'Art of War'. Deception and espionage is a cornerstone of this - assassins, misinformation on intentions and troop strengths and luring the enemy into conditions that favour you...

I'll have to take a couple of liberties, but here goes... Chinese Naval Forces. Operation Anchorage holotapes mentions heavy naval bombardment - so they'd need big ships, possibly battleships. Also, to invade Alaska in force from an 'Asian' port (China proper, Korea or even Russian Far...

The Armada succeeds, eh? But who says Phillip II would be able to exploit this effectively? Perhaps the rest of Europe goes nuts and France forms a massive anti-Hapsburg alliance to try to take down this shadow of Charles V. England might have just been another Netherlands; sucking in...

Hmm... here's a few off the top of my head. 1) A Vault full of teenage geniuses. Mainly the students from an elite private school (so under 18), with a few 'elders' (ie under 21) to fill the leadership roles. They think the 'true' Overseer, Doctor etc were lost in transit. Vault-Tek has made...

Ah, at least some are getting the true reason of this mess - NATO. A Ukraine that's a member of NATO, or *gasp* even the EU... waaay to close for comfort for the Kremlin. The old fears of being encircled rise in their head. Need to stop this 'rot' before it gets too big. Remember, Yeltsin had a...

An officer's duty is to follow orders, not to think. The level of skill in British commanders was usually between 'averagely dull' to 'plain incompetent'. It was common enough to get a name for it - Colonel Blimp. While the Blimps have finally died out, we're still saddled with his son - Tim...

Personally, I'm more a fan of what's called 'the minor rewrite', where a believable alternative happens leading the world in a strange direction. Like... 1) An violent alcoholic customs clerk in Austria beats his wife so hard in early 1889 to cause his wife to suffer a miscarriage? Result - No...

If I remember the plot for Arcanium correctly, technology wasn't actually new. It had come around before, but the mages squished it - could see that it was the future. And from the bits and pieces of story, you could think that the tech was 'new' to humans, but not to the dwarves. One of the...

'Nothing new under the sun' - Ecclesiastes 1:9. They were complaining about it even then. Steal one idea, you're a plagiarist. Steal fifty and lash 'em together, you're an artist. Even the 'greats' were nicking ideas from Classical Rome and the Bible. People don't really mind as long as you...