“I Have All These OCs! But No Story…”

How To Avoid Plot Armor

Plot armor is when important characters seem to survive each and every treacherous obstacle that is thrown their way just for the sake of the plot. The readers know that your protagonist is important and won’t meet their demise because who else will defeat the bad guy in the end? This can result in underwhelming battle scenes, loss of suspense and an overall boring experience.

Here are some ways to avoid having your readers notice the plot armor (because let’s be honest, it’s there whether we like or not) or at least make it more realistic:

1) Injure your characters. Let it be known that no one is safe. During the heat of battle, the prized soldier loses his sword arm. The invincible superhero receives PTSD after witnessing a terrible event. Raise the stakes!

2) If they escape, make it believable. Did they sacrifice something to escape? Did a past experience give them the wits and knowledge to outsmart the danger? Justify your protagonist’s escape. Don’t make it an easy get away just because you need them out of the situation. 

3) There are consequences. Every action sparks a reaction. Have there be realistic push back. Your character shouldn’t be immune to the rules and laws of your world.

4) Detailed Explanations. So, your character needs their limbs, their sanity and anything else you could strip them of. How do you make it seem like they’re not immune to everything then? Equip them with what they need (knowledge, weapon, confidence, etc) and really sell it to your reader on how they survived. 

There’s no way a teenaged girl stakes a 400 year old vampire just by picking up a branch and defending herself. Equip her with some knowledge of vampires (fanfics to the rescue?), an ancient relic that she unknowingly wears around her neck and an insane amount of adrenaline… and maybe I’ll believe it.

5) Kill off other characters. Have their deaths affect the protagonist.

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In the latest gamechanger episode, i'm not sure if anybody else noticed but when everybody was being introduced again- the players in the 2nd round earliest- but yeah when they were introduced again for a very short second their title cards displayed a pun on their name relating to the loop !! in case you guys need it i decided to grab pics and stuff !!

[Photo ID: 7 images of contestants and guests of the episode's intro cards. Mike Trapp, Ify Nwadiwe, Siobhan Thompson, Sam Reich, Brian David Gilbert, Josh Ruben and Grant O'Brien. Except the names have been altered so that they reference the episode's 'time loop' theme and instead of their actual names they say 'Mike Trapped', 'Infinity Nwadiwe', 'Siobhan Thompsagain', 'Same Reich', 'Brian Déjà Gilbert', 'Josh Rewindben' and 'Grant O'Rerun'. Ify, Sam and Josh's cards are affected by visual effects like a glitched tv. End ID.]

Couple goals: Horrid beast tormented by voices, whose only choices are to witness/cause the death of their soulmate and a princess who’s doomed by the narrative to repeat the cycle upon their death.

I like this jester, too…

Home stretch on the Hanafuda deck, with just under a third of the deck to go! Here are some hotshots from the last few months.

As always, if you’re after particular A5 prints of these and pretty much everything I’ve ever drawn, the $20 tier of my Patreon is the place to be! Or if you just like what I do, every dollar helps to pay the bills.

Not far now from a physical deck, hope you’re all excited!

Previously: FF playing cards | FFVII playing cards | FFXV Tarots | FFVII Tarots | FFXV Playing cards | FFVII Full Tarots

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all video games should have a “I’m shit at video games but I’m curious about the story and I don’t want to watch a let’s play” mode

rat man bastard son of a bitch

Yo! merry christmas.

HEY THIS IS IMPORTANT whats your favorite place to find drawing references?

So…. Requiem For A Pizza (part 2) aye?