Use artificial creatures for character development, worldbuilding, an adventure design! Constructs are artificially created creatures. Typically mindless, they are programmed to obey their creator. Because they are technically not living, they lack the weaknesses of hired henchmen and mortal monsters. They are unfeeling, relentless, and can be virtually unstoppable. That’s what makes constructs such terrifying […]
This is the weekly Dancing Lights Press Newsletter for 17 March 2019. This will be published every Sunday around 1pm EST. It will be simultaneously sent to subscribers and posted on the website. New This Week Worldbuilding Power: Forests – In the real world forests are the dominant ecosystem, covering around 30% of the Earth’s […]
Use the woodlands in character development, worldbuilding, and adventures! In the real world forests are the dominant ecosystem, covering around 30% of the Earth’s landmass. They hold most of the species of plant life, and can exist across a broad range of climates and habitats. There are boreal forests, or “snow forests”, near the poles […]
Everything we publish has to be useful or fun. Ideally, it should be a combination of both. Not everything that is useful can be fun. A tool has finite entertainment value. Allow it to be what it is, and don’t try to force it to be something it isn’t. Not everything that is fun is […]
A quick update, directly to the point: I am ill. This isn’t a plea for sympathy, just a statement of fact. You may have noticed the lack of blog posts this week. You won’t see a new release on Friday either. I am on bed rest and have been sleeping 90% of the time, which […]
In June of this year I will have been doing this full-time for three years. That’s three years that I have been earning a modest living doing nothing else but this. Three years that I have been the sole income in the household, paying all of the bills while my wife finishes graduate school. I’m […]
This is the weekly Dancing Lights Press Newsletter for 3 March 2019. This will be published every Sunday around 1pm EST. It will be simultaneously sent to subscribers and posted on the website. New This Week Worldbuilding Power: Necromancy – Necromancy is magic that deals with the dead. That covers a lot of ground. It […]
March 2019 Status Update This is a monthly status update for Dancing Lights Press. The purpose of this page is to communicate upcoming projects, works in progress, and other information of interest to customers and fans. It will be updated periodically throughout the month. A new status page will be posted on the first of next […]
Worldbuilding Power: Necromancy Use black magic in character development, worldbuilding, and adventures! Necromancy is magic that deals with the dead. That covers a lot of ground. It includes communicating with spirits as a form of divination. The unliving can be summoned, and usually commanded, by the caster. Raising the dead, as skeletons, zombies, or fully […]
There are always people within the industry, the community, the hobby — however you choose to parse those terms — who insist that things need to be done a certain way. Sometimes there are good reasons, best practices that have developed logically over years and decades of experience. Other times they assert “That’s how it’s […]