 Noticing Newbies: August 31, 2016 Issue [#7831] |
  Noticing Newbies
This week: Behind the Mask Edited by: Tornado Dodger  
More Newsletters By This Editor 
1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions
The Noticing Newbies Newsletter's goal is to make the newer members feel welcome and encourage them with useful information and/or links to make navigating Writing.com easier. Writing.com members of all ages and even veteran members can find useful information here. If you have specific questions, try visiting "Writing.Com 101" and/or "Noticing Newbies" .
Meet The Noticing Newbies Full-Time Newsletter Editors
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“Most of the people you see going to work today are LARPing (live-action role playing) an incredibly boring RPG (role-playing game) called "professionalism" that requires them to alter their vocabulary, posture, eating habits, facial expressions--every detail all the way down to what they allow themselves to find funny.”
― Cory Doctorow, In Real Life
An RPG or role playing game where participants play as a certain person/being/creature and follow a storyline or create a story based on the actions of the characters they represent. Role playing has been misunderstood over the years by non-gamers and even been plagued with some claiming it's 'bad' for the people/children playing it. Much like many other things like music, video games, etc. RPG's were blamed by some to be tainting the minds of youth. Some went so far as to claim it brought about devil worshiping and other fearsome actions. Whether you believe games and music can actually alter a person's mind, you can't argue that RPG's have been around for a very long time.
Regarded as the very first modern RPG was a game known as Chainmail created back in 1971 by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. It was a medieval war game that was the predecessor to a growing market that still thrives to this day. Gary Gygax's next step was working with Dave Arneson. They published the hugely popular Dungeons and Dragons through their company Tactical Studies Rules in 1974. The game itself set the stage and created many characteristics of RPG's that are still used today such as character classes and abilities, experience, hit points (HP and EXP), races, levelling up, and turn-based combat. This industry ballooned in the 80's and hundreds of RPG's were created in not just fantasy but many cross genres as well.
So what does this have to do with writing you may ask? For one, imagination is the key ingredient. Role-playing games require the players to use their imaginations and become the characters they have chosen to portray. The games usually have one main player who basically keeps everything running smoothly. As in Dungeons and Dragons, you have the "dungeon master" who keeps the players in check while playing double-duty as the game's storyteller. He paints the scene with details to keep everyone involved and making the game feel as real as possible, at least in their minds.
As a writer, we live in our minds a lot of the time. We enter contests and follow the rules. We answer to agents or teachers as to what we need to write. Sometimes we need to relax and let loose. The right RPG can do that for you. It can create excitement and allow your imagination to run free. It might even spur a new story. It can make you feel the way a good story makes the reader feel - taken away to a far away land, if only just in their minds.
Give it a try and let me know how it goes. 
Write and Review and Role Play on! ~ Brooke
 "Monty Python meets Voldemort.... Short fun satire, by equal shares odd and humorous, Mulogo's guide is an enjoyable quick read." Sheila Deeth, author of Divide by Zero
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[Related Links] 
This month's links are interactive items that act like RPG's in our community.
 "Wdc 16th Birthday Masquerade Party" by Tornado Dodger
A role-playing party where you can be whoever you want and win prizes!
 "Invalid Item" by A Guest Visitor
Strange things happen at an inn located on a space-time nexus
 "Steam" by Eric the Fred 
An Exhilarating Narrative Featuring The Technological Wonders Of Our Modern Age Of Steam!
 "Central International Airport" by Leger~ 
An airport with destinations and new beginnings. Take a trip.
 "The First Wal*Mart on Mars" by ♥noVember tHiNg♥ 
Wacky Cow pioneers light a campfire all the way to Mars, Still Funny After Many Years!
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My editor picks this month are all related to BIRTHDAYS! The first selections are all activities related to the birthday celebrations going on and the final ones are all newly written birthday-related items. Give them a read!
| | | 7-11 [E] #1700597
Writing.Com will award 11 reviewers per day during our 7-day birthday celebration!
by The StoryMistress  |
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Excerpt:
So, today is my sister's birthday. Of course, we have to have a surprise party for her. After all, you only turn 40 once, right? Unless the Buddhists are right, and then it doesn't matter anyway. But I digress. It's a little awkward for me to be involved in any of this, because I am from a different planet than my sister and her friends. I am smart, determined, successful, dependable, artistic, funny... you know, everything a reasonable person tries to be. My sister, on the other hand... I don't even know where to begin.
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| | | Mother Dear [E] #2094771
A poem I wrote in tribute for my mother's birthday the year after her untimely death.
by Jenny Leigh  |
Excerpt:
Where have you gone mother dear? You left me so far behind.
The touch of your hand, the sound of your voice is ever on my mind.
Do you think of us, oh mother dear, still struggling here on Earth?
Or have you forgotten all of these things since your Heavenly birth?
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Excerpt:
It was my sixth birthday, I was getting ready for my party when my sixteen-year-old sister, Cassie, came in and she said "Mom and dad are going to the store to pick up your birthday cake and I have to watch you until they get back." My mom and dad had only been gone an hour but I didn't think anything of it because my friends were starting to show up for the party.
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Excerpt:
On a summer afternoon,
Sitting quietly in his room
Monte, playing with his toys
Games, intended just for boys
Got so bored soon playing alone,
Being there just on his own.
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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I received some wonderful feedback to my last newsletter [#7779] "Are You Fruity?" and I'm proud to share it with you.
From SB Musing 
I like the valid point of how taste is all subjective to the person eating it. Somehow that tastes amazing to one person is another person's most hated food. I'd say as a 'flavor/taste' I'd be spicy, so hot I burn your tongue off. Then on the backburner, it cools down as an aftertaste with a touch of sweetness. Then turning back to spicy all over again. 
From Steve adding writing to ntbk. with item "Invalid Item"
My comfort foods are frito's and bugles. I will never eat okra. I'm not a newbie but I still enjoy reading the NLs and reviewing your picks of the newbies here in the WdC.
I reviewed all but one and encourage you to continue sharing here in the WdC and thanking you for giving your care and concern to the newbies of the WdC.
Copenator out!
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