Empathy is a powerful tool for understanding the world around you. It opens you up to a whole new realm of possibility in expressing artistic expressions.

In order to write any decent piece of literature you have to start with character. Compelling individuals are the most important part of any tale. They are the reason for the story and the vehicle for the action. When writing about vampires, it is important for the author to try and get inside of the psychology of these creatures. You have to understand the mind of immortality, the soul of the killer, and the lust for blood.

The vampire is a dichotomy of elegance and danger. They are born in violence, being taken into the dark covenant by another of their kind. Whatever particular details may exist, the vampire’s birth is always painful, and it always involves blood.

Yet this birth is the gateway to a whole new world; a world of power and immortality. One thing that almost all vampire tales have in common is the power of the beast.

So the birth of this creature is the death of the prone mortal, the weakness, the overpowering by a greater being. And yet in this process the person is reborn into a new, much more powerful existence.

In some vampires this could cause them to reject their old humanity, to hate it, to turn away from all things mortal. This is a rejection of weakness. When coupled with the vampires need for blood, it can lead to a violent reaction to humans in general.

On the other hand, many vampires go through a second emotional rejection, hating what they have become and longing for the simple life of mortality that they have left behind. The dichotomy of these two desires can tear apart a vampires soul, if they still possess one.

This article was written by Jim Slate on behalf of RolePages.com – in character vampire roleplaying. RolePages is a social network where you can be anyone that you want. Sign up as a vampire, werewolf, demon, psychic, barbarian, elf, wizard, or any crazy thing you can imagine.

Narrative fighting is an online game where two or more people compete in a fictional battle, by describing what they would do to the other person. Usually the game is conducted using avatars, i.e. each person pretends to be control, or pretends to be, a fictional character of some sort. For instance, one person can claim to be a dragon, and the other can claim to be a knight.

This game is usually conducted in either a chat room, or in a forum, depending on the communication devices that are available.

While the game can be played with just two players, there is often a third person who acts as referee present. If a referee is not used it can lead to disputes between the two players. A referee ensures that an impartial third person is there to keep the fight moving forward.

A game of narrative combat begins when one of the two fighters is chosen to go first. The one who goes first then has to type out what their character is going to do to the other character. For instance “my dragon breathes fire at you.” The second player then has to type out what their defense is, i.e. “I raise my shield and block the fire.

At this point if there is no referee, the players will have to continue attacking and defending until someone allows themselves to be hurt. This is more akin to play acting then actually fighting however, because the choice of who wins is decided mutually.

If there is a referee however, at the end of the second players defense, the referee can come up with an outcome based on both players text. For instance “the dragon breathes fire, but the knight blocks it with his shield, but the shield grows hot and he has to drop it.” In general the referee should award advantage to the player whose description was more creative and well written.

The game can end in a number of different ways. Some referees like to assign points, counting each hit as a lost point, until someone has no points left. Others like to let the fight happen naturally until someone’s actions kill the other. In either case it will be up to the ref to decide the winner based on the attacks and defenses that are suggested by the players.

The advantage of narrative combat is that it gets you writing in a directly competitive way. You have to be more creative than the other person, or you are going to lose. It’s like a writing exercise, that forces creativity out of you.

The conflict does not have to be limited to two people. You can have combat with several people, each taking their turns, although this can get rather complex. You can also have each person controlling multiple non player characters, or characters that they make up and direct. In this way you can actually have a narrative war between two armies.

Narrative combat is not a new invention. Thousands of kids have played the magic game, where they come up with spells and counter spells back and forth until someone pulls something so clever that the other cant counter it. However, when in written form it takes on a kind of literary life. It becomes a form of tandem creation in which two or more people build a story of conflict.

This article was written by Jim Slate on behalf of http://www.RolePages.com – an in character roleplaying community where you can be a vampire, a wizard, an elf, a goblin, a demon, a werewolf, or anything that you can imagine.