Didrik Stennes

Joined 13 November 2011
Revision as of 18:46, 10 January 2023 by Didrik Stennes (talk | contribs) (New section. Characters with joke names. Feel free to take one and use it as an NPC.)

Saluton!

My PCs

A Player Character (PC) is a character owned and written-for by a writer in the group.

My PNPCs

A Personal Non-Player Character (PNPC) is a character created and written for a player's own purposes and used regularly in the plot.

My NPCs

A Non-Player Character (NPC) is any character within the game that serves only a plot-related purpose. These characters can be used by any player for any purpose.

My MSNBCPNPCs

A Mission-Specific Personal Non-Player Character (MSPNPC) is a special PNPC assigned to a specific person for the duration of a mission.

Characters with joke names

I love creating NPCs with names that are either jokes, puns, or that give a clue as to what they're about. Some of these, like "Hamsan Dwich," "Debi T'Kard," and "Ferzdy," I've used in sims. But I've also cultivated a heck of a list that would otherwise not see the light of day.

Available to use as NPCs

If you ever want a throwaway character with a joke name, feel free to go shopping on this list. If you end up using one, let me know so I can retire it. I'd love to read the sim, too!

  • Aiburnda Roste (I burned a roast)
  • Cho K'Tawndatu-Thpick (Choked on the toothpick)
  • Ovanai Totes (Overnight oats)
  • Porquemarr Ketts (Pork markets)
  • Snakk Onanappel (Snack on an apple)

Famous Federation divas

  • Andoria Estefan
  • Borgbra Streisand
  • Breenyoncé
  • Céline Dominion
  • Deltan John
  • El-Auretha Franklin
  • Jem'Hadariana Grande
  • Lady GornGa
  • Sulibonnie Tyler
  • ViDiionne Warwick
  • Xindi Lauper

Improv and simming

I teach and perform improv, and over the years I have found a lot of overlap between the skills of successful improvisers and successful simmers. Here are a few bits and bobs I've collected about improv, which I think are relevant to simming as well:

Radical collaboration

  • Great improv comes from mutual discovery and surprise and the process of one character being affected by the other. It never comes from drawing a bunch of dots on the stage and handing the other actor a crayon and expecting them to connect them in some crazy design you have mapped in your head. —Ben Bowman
  • When you play chess, you move your pawn first. You have to. The important pieces are held back, but they’re there. How many chess games will you win if you make a ton of moves without checking what your opponent is doing? Zero. So make one move and check in. And make your next move according to your partner’s first move. Just remember, it’s practically impossible to win without moving those big pieces at some point. And no one wants to see a scene entirely of tiny pawn moves. But your board must balance the other player. Otherwise, one of you is going to get steamrolled. And that’s a bad improv scene. —Ben Bowman

Agreement and acceptance

  • We want to avoid conflict, debate and negotiation in our improv scenes. The audience knows we’re making it up – building something from nothing – they don’t want to see us arguing over imagined reality; they want to see us react to an accepted reality. What’s the best way to avoid arguing? Acceptance! Agreeing to a conflict-laden declaration is the easiest way to ensure a scene’s forward momentum. —Patrick Gantz