I am curious as to what fantasy, non-fantasy, science fiction helps you get into the atmosphere of Thera. Inspiration is a good thing and I could use some.

Hey thanks all! I have been reading some of the authors suggested and it has helped me develop my character a fair bit.

Also I have learned to be patient about getting the word out about ideas a character has and how to interact with others. I always seemed to forget that not everyone will remember what you tell them or worse have access to your role.

Emotes and esays are the bomb diggity as well when it comes to enhancing interactions with others! Some pretty cool characters out there have inspired me to investigate these a fair bit.

I do have one issue though: using a pen to write on parchment has way too vague instructions. I only got one sentence on a parchment and then I could add no more. That was a tad frustrating. Oh well!

Current character has taken a lot of neat turns and I really like where it is going. Thanks all.

This is more how I get inspired for 'Character Creation' than atmosphere but hopefully a lot of it applies to your inspiration problem. I should warn you I see myself as a small time novelist (I do far too much thinking on story/character creation), excuse me if my answer is a somewhat off-aim.

First of all, Terry Pratchett has long been a great influence on me. I absolutely adore his quirky humour/writing style. If you analyse his characters, there is very little in it that is romanticised. In fact, despite their quirks, his characters have a disturbing 'down to earth' quality and sense to them. In my opinion its this that makes his humour so easy to relate to - whatever culture you might originate from.

Inspired by him, my own technique involves taking real people and trying to place them in the CF world.

I take mental notes whenever I meet someone new. What you do is, find someone you admire/hate for a particular aspect of their personality. Then imagine how they'd adjust to a world like Thera. Most of the characters I play out handle the same day to day problems anyone in the real world would. Both you and your character will eat, socialise, work and recreate regularly. Though looking through smoked glass can help when trying to draw parallels.

I happen to carry a notepad around with me to take notes (I'm an avid creative writer in my spare time), but I can imagine you doing just as well with mental notes. Here's an example:

My last successful char was based on an 'evil' manipulating girl I know that does anything to get her own way. Whenever something doesn't suit her, she dismisses it as silly or stupid. What better insult than to turn 'Lynnette' into an evil male priest called Srinlete? He started out 'weak' because thats how I thought she'd be beneath it all. But he lied, cheated and eventually argued his way from poverty to riches. As he grew, so did his moral strength (Thanks to Khasotholas' religion and the scars he acquired through it). In the end I was playing a rich character far from his origins - yet somehow undeniably similar to the girl I know. Its always worked for me and very few of my characters 'fail' with a recipe like this. A few final tips:

Don't forget you're doing this for fun.
Find a way to twist it how you like and always remain flexible. Never 'plan' too heavily for the future and don't ignore big personal events.

Hope this helps get those creative juices flowing. Enjoy!

Yhorian.

I am only going to include stuff which imho stands up to any test as a book (i.e only the stuff that is well written regardless of the fact that it is fantasy).

The best of the best of the best.
George R.R. Martin, a song of fire and ice.
Any kind of char you could hope to play will be represented in here. Amazing stuff, best fantasy ever written. First book is "A game of thrones."

Fritz Leiber
Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser (Ill met in Lankhmar, etc).
Leiber was a contemporary of Tolkein. He did for swashbuckling "low" fantasy what Tolkein did for "high" fantasy. IMHO Leiber was the far superior writer.

Gene Wolf, The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, and The Citadel of the Autarch.
This series is... Twisted. Very well written and shockingly original. Not as directly D&Dish CFish fantasy, but well worth reading.

David Gemmel -- Legend
I would not reccomend all of Gemmel's books. He cranks them out and many of them are crap. Legend on the other hand is amazing, and I would wholeheartedly reccomend it, especially if you are considering playing a rager. Theres a few archtypes for ragers in here, that are very different.

Tim Powers, The Drawing of the Dark.
Powers is not normally considered a straight fantasy or sf writer, because he blurs genres and is a very skilled writer period. The above book would be good if you wanted to play a herald though, and is a fun, if odd read.

Classics -- One thousand and one nights. Beowulf. Gawain and the Green Knight. Ivanhoe. The Song of Roland. Faust (if you want to play a scion). Grimms Fairy Tales.
All the above are must reads for any one, but also are where modern fantasy comes from.

I have a larger one, but a taste to get you started.

- Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time
All around fantasy

- Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth
Some nice woodsman stuff. A woman with power not afraid to
unleash it when needed. Larger scale battle scenes, tactics.

- Elizabeth Moon's Paksennarion Trilogy
Very very good read if you want to play a Paladin.

- Jennifer Roberson's Sword Dancer/Singer/Maker/Breaker (4 book series)
Mystical swordplay, elemental contrast.

- Michael Scott Rohan's The Winter of the World series.
Smithcraft!

- (various authors) Harper's Series (Forgotten Realms)
All around Fantasy

- Terry Pratchett's Discworld books
Comedic wit

- Joel Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame series
Tabletop gamers turned to real fantasy by an evil teacher/wizard.
An interesting way to be submersed.


And when I'm feeling a little evil:
- C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy
Fela, dark sorcerer, challenged Paladin/Warrior/Mage
Magic and Death

- (various authors) Dark Sun series
General evil

- Vampire Chronicles, The Mayfair Witches series, and a handful of others by Anne Rice (or Anne Rice under pen names)
Blood and darkness, even if some of them are more modern day.

Feel free to email me if you need the titles to the series listed: tharena@hotmail.com, or want the single titles of the additional books in the fantasy read list. =)

- Tharena

The Absolute Beginners Guide to C.


I've read the first two chapters about 3 times now, damned if I know
what the hell all those gobblygook characters mean yet!

Woot!


Grurk

>The Absolute Beginners Guide to C.

I can't tell whether you're joking. On the off chance you're not, I highly recommend the K&R (Kernighan & Ritchie) book.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0131103628/002-0207725-3815248?v=glance&n=283155&%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance

I wish I could also recommend some book on "style", but I don't know any good ones off the top of my head. I'm sure they're out there, I just don't know what they are.

Put down those coding books and pick up the stirrer, your chili's a bit dry.

:-)

I love the forgotten realms books. Favorite authors; Ed Greenwood, Salvatore, Cunningham. If you are looking for something funny you could read the Xanth serious by Piers Anthony.