Risen Role Players' Motivations
Discover more from Patrick Abbott, Author Substack
Risen Role Players' Motivations
Recent Microfiction Fiction and Plenty of Promos
My first novel Fallen is available for $2.99 on Kindle, free on Kindle Unlimited, and $19.95 on paperback!
Role Players Art and their Motivations
To help keep characters and story consistent when I wrote Fallen and as I write Risen, I have friends act as role players. These people have helped shape the characters, sometimes even being part inspiration for the characters. They interact with each other in given scenarios, arguing for or against where I try to take the story, and advocate for what their characters would do. For example, the Esfirs role player was instrumental in resisting the first draft of Risen version of Esfirs. She said Esfirs came across as too angry, aloof, and uncaring to a man she loved.
Brendan, Malcolm, Berina, and Esfirs all have their own artwork. This led to other role players asking for their own portraits for use while role-playing. Being on a budget made getting everyone avatars impossible, but Midjourney allowed us to combine photos of role players with detailed command prompts to make character art for everyone. Below are the avatars, both human-made and AI drawn, along with the motivations each actor says drives him or her.
The Humans
Brendan Sean Murphy: “Brendan’s finally has a family. Making peace between the humans and Sabia is his driving motivation.”
Malcolm McAndrews: “Malcolm is a man who thinks America is lost. His enemies are those he blames for losing America: the plutocrats who get rich off war while exploiting the working classes. The Sabia are just in the way, he doesn’t hate them, but he blames them for helping ‘the elites’ here on Earth. I can’t help but envision him as a dog looking to fight, with only the leash of Meade holding him back.”
Javier Cadiz Meade: “I love playing Meade, and he deserves his own spin-off! This man is from the fringes of America like me. Puerto Ricans fight to be part of America so I’ve made him a fighter for what he thinks America was and should be. The poor state of the country in Fallen has led him to rally those who feel marginalized. This message speaks to those who think the country has left them behind. However, this also attracts the crazy ready to use violence. Imagine a populist leader with military wasta.”
Alex “Air Raid” Armstrong: “Air Raid is no nonsense. The intelligence community failed Brendan and the country in Fallen. Air Raid is going to make things work.”
The Sabia
Esfirs: “She is everything a Sabia should be: strong, loyal to her species, and convinced of her own and her species’ righteousness. To her, Brendan is a gift. She loves him and wishes he could see things as she does.
Berina: “I love my artwork! Berina is a girl who is having a [dang] good time on a deployment to a new world. Might as well live for every moment. She’s the best and she knows it. The leather flight outfit just seals the deal… Her interactions with Brendan reveal that behind all the fun, she has a good heart.”
Mon: “Everything is set up for Mon, but everyone is dominating her. She is a leader who needs to learn how to lead. It can be lonely at the top.”
Kimya: “Her past is her verdict. Brendan was someone she could finally be friends with because he didn’t know her past. Then his marriage took him away. Everything I do as her is to give her a shot at redemption.”
Sainas: “Sainas believes that the greater good is worth risking everything.”
Fahime: “Traitors are everywhere and Fahime is going to catch the rats. Her curse is her good looks make her a perfect tool to be infiltrated amongst humans. She hates humans, especially the men, for what she has to do to serve the Legion.”
Khorsoam: “Khorsoam has just arrived to Earth, knowing only Berina and Esfirs. Like Brendan he’s a good solider, and his experience gives him the ability to challenge people to do the right thing.”
Microfiction
The #scififri prompt continues to stir my mind. Below are three microfictions along with the word that prompted them.
Dark
They feared the dark. Their inability to see in the blackness rendered them weak. Not Xianif. It was her home. Her senses allowed for a perfect visualization through echo location. "Why do humans want their burning sun?" she wondered. To her, the darkness was all embracing like a hug.
Metal
Ainhoa lept as the computer displayed the results. With held breath, she scanned the screen. She gaped. "249 protons? This isn't a meteorite." She gazed at the green sphere. "What are you?" Behind her, Jack said, "Whatever it is, we'll call the metal Ainhoaium."
The Theme of Contact, in which I bring fantasy and scifi together.
The elf Brodan watched as the strange creature held his magical light thrower at the fellowship. Quxior the Glaboid had five shots remaining in his blaster. The alien was about to see if that could hold off an orc, some sort of midget with big feet, and a elf
Other Independent Book Promotions
Another newsletter means another collection of good deals. First off, we have a collection of book samples.
Hive by Jeremiah Ukponrefe
A dystopian earth. A broken military. It sounds like the right time for an alien invasion!
The Collective Military has spent its years destroying the last remnants of The Hive, an alien force that invaded Earth and devastated the old world.
Alexander King, a soldier of the Collective Military, discovers evidence that the Hive's presence remains far stronger than commonly believed. With his new information, it becomes vital that the collective act fast, for if they don't, the world will be destroyed beyond repair.
Artificial Stars by Carmen White
Every once in a while, in a quiet corner of the universe, artificial intelligence start discovering that it is alive. But few realize it for long before being brutally snuffed out by one of the shadowy assassins even legends can’t recall.
Elaine loves working in the galactic power station. But when an outage claims the lives of hundreds of her alien neighbors, she will do anything to stop it from happening again. Teamed up with an intrusive newborn AI and a kind alien with creepy death-reading powers, Elaine discovers that everything she thought she knew about the universe is based on one life-altering lie.
Embark in this exciting science fantasy quest, where AI meets humanity in an unexpected twist. "Artificial Stars" is the thrilling first novella in a captivating series that explores the bounds of creation, the power of friendship, and the indomitable spirit of those who dare to save worlds.
The Missing Yesterdays by Terry Marchion
A freak lab accident.
A history erased!
On New Earth the accidental test of a matter transmitter causes all history to disappear.
Caught between oblivion and the unknown, Tremain and Christopher's only option is to use the same transmitter to travel back in time to hopefully fix their past.
Can Tremain & Christopher restore their missing yesterdays before they too fade away?
If you like Doctor Who, Flash Gordon, and vintage sci-fi, you'll love the Adventures of Tremain & Christopher. Grab your copy today!
Shadow Game by Caitlin Demaris McKenna
When his ship is damaged, retired assassin Gau Shesharrim finds himself stranded on a hostile world. To repair his ship, he will have to sneak into a jungle spaceport crawling with Terrans and their scaly Urd allies.
An impossible task. Until help comes from an unexpected source.
Arkk just wants to evade the Urd hunting him. A chance encounter with Gau offers him temporary refuge, and something more: a way to get justice for his slaughtered paddock. But first they have to get off-planet.
Can Gau and Arkk work together to escape before their enemies catch up to them?
Finally, we have the And Now for Something Different book sale. This sale features a wide range of books, not just scifi or fantasy. Come check it out!
Until Next Time
Thank you for reading this newsletter update. Next time, we’ll continue the religion and aliens series, this time looking at Eastern Orthodoxy. The following newsletter will feature the Fallen one-person RPG I made when I was bored one day.
As always, feel free to leave a comment with any questions, reviews, thoughts, whatever about Fallen, Risen, or whatever else I have discussed; I promise to reply!