Top Ten Frustrating Things about Role-playing Games

I’m a huge RPG fan. I love the storylines, the strategic gameplay, and the feeling of going on a journey that you don’t get with almost any other type of video game. But there are some things that will annoy me even as I play my favorite genre of games. Here’s the top ten things that bug me whenever I see them in an RPG.

10. Not enough gameplay

RPGs will almost always have more storyline than other genres. The point of the game is to play a role, after all. But when an hour or more passes by of walking from one cut-scene to another, I start to wonder why I’m not just watching a movie or reading a book instead. Games are supposed to be interactive. Let me play!

9. Extreme difficulty spikes

I’m not opposed to hard games. They give the player a real challenge along with a sense of accomplishment upon completion. But it’s annoying to spend hours developing my character through a bunch of small battles only to have him killed in one hit from a boss. Why am I the hero again? It seems like I’m not cut out for this career. Maybe I should switch to making crates and barrels. There’s always a market for those in these sort of games.

8. Abrupt endings

With the possible exceptions of either a novel or an entire season of a TV series, role-playing video games are the most immersive, long-term, fantasy escapist experiences. So why do so many of them wrap up over sixty hours of gameplay with a thirty second cut-scene? Is it a crime to give the player some closure? I’ve even seen games that have the player’s companions say their last farewells before the final boss battle, as if even they know that the developers are basically just going to drop everything and take a three-day weekend rather than give us any significant resolution to the storyline.

7. Too much post-game content

The other end of the spectrum of course are games that don’t stop after the ending, but don’t really go anywhere either. This isn’t like an open-world RPG that has tons of sub-quests to do after the main storyline is finished. These are the games that drop you right back into the world without any goals or tasks beyond endlessly continuing to farm levels. Yes, that’s exactly what I want to do, rather than start up a new game…

6. Useless level-ups

A good RPG makes every level-up a tiny victory for the player. A sign that not only are you doing well, but that your characters are going to be even cooler now. In a bad RPG, your current level might as well be a total-hours-played display, interesting to see how long you’ve been at this, but it has no bearing on the experience.

5. Battles we can’t win

I’m not talking about hard battles here. I’m talking about battles that are scripted for the player to lose. You are not allowed to win these fights, but they’re still treated like a regular fight. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve burned through all of my expendables items (doubly painful for me, as I’m definitely a hoarder gamer) only to die for the fourth time, check online, and find out that I should just stand there like a doofus and let the character kill me because the developers couldn’t be bothered to make this fight a cut-scene.

4. Battles we can’t lose

These are even worse. At least with the last issue you can get a sense of the helplessness of your character and the inevitability of defeat. But with these battles, it’s like the developers decided that I’m just too stupid to be trusted with the difficult task of playing their game. The worst example of this was a JRPG that would automatically resurrect any killed characters during the final fight of the game. Gee, I hope I win…

3. Puzzles that require a walk-through

I grew up in the heyday of adventure games, so I’ve done my fair share of trying to use a tuna-fish sandwich on a broken airplane, but I’ve never been a big puzzle fan. That’s why I play story-driven games where I can regularly kill monsters. At least the internet exists for people like me.

2. Too many useless NPCs

I realize that a game world devoid of people can be boring, but the solution shouldn’t be filling it up with dozens of villagers just wandering around all day. Often these people will only have one or two lines of dialogue, but in some games each citizen in each town has a different comment to make after every major plot point in the game. I never know how many of these people I should talk to for the ‘full experience’ before I just start racing past them all because it’s been over an hour since I last did anything that earned me experience points.

1. Invisible, arbitrary rules

This is the worst, and it happens all the time. “Don’t open those three chests or you won’t get the best weapon in the game later.” “Don’t talk to that merchant or you’ll miss a quest later.” “Don’t walk to the left of the screen or you’ll trigger a cut-scene.” None of these rules are ever intuitive, and often you have to reload the game or check a walk-through before you play through an area just to make sure you don’t miss things. Maybe some people like this sort of thing for replay value, but personally, I’d rather replay a game because I enjoyed the experience, not because I accidentally stepped on a butterfly on my first play-through that caused a hurricane that swept all the healing potions in the world out to sea.


Those are my personal top ten things that bug me about RPGs. If you’d like to read more about this style of game, check out my list of the Top Ten Character Tropes in Japanese Role-Playing Games.

My Time at Emerald City Writers Conference 2015

The greater Seattle chapter of the Romance Writers of America always knows how to put on a great event. This was my third year presenting at their annual writing conference, and it’s still one of my favorite events as both a presenter and an attendee. The atmosphere at the conference was equal parts welcoming, enthusiastic, and casual, and I’m so grateful to the organizers for inviting me back this year.

As always, the workshops were a great mix of craft, business, and research subjects. Sabrina York gave an incredibly insightful workshop on street teams, while University of Washington Law Professor Zahr Said clarified a variety of issues regarding copyright law. While I wasn’t able to attend my good friend Gordon Frye’s workshop on firearms, I did get to go to Tina Shrigley’s wonderful presentation on the real face of PTSD. The most exciting workshop was probably M.A. Taylor’s hands-on crime scene investigation presentation. It was morbidly fun to search for blood marks, fingerprints, and telltale clues in a variety of mock crime scenes.

While there were no bloody knives or guns at my workshops, everyone attending still seemed to have a great time. Nearly every seat was full, and we all had a lot of fun as I taught about revision techniques, beta readers, and deciding where to start your story. My favorite part was when I was answering questions after my first workshop, and one lady came up to ask me what my other workshop would be about.

“Who cares?” said another lady nearby. “It’s him! Just go to it!”

“I will!” the first lady responded. “I just wanted to know what I’m going to!”

While the Emerald City Writers Conference may be organized by romance writers, the truth is that nearly all of the workshop offerings would be of benefit to writers of any genre. Of course, it is still very much a romance writer’s party. Nearly all of the attendees are published romance writers, as are all of the keynote speakers and organizers. Still, if you enjoy great workshops and the company of friendly authors, then this conference would be a good choice for the Seattle area. And if you’re writing romance, then this should definitely be your first choice for an annual writers conference.

Magic, Mystery and Mirth is Coming November 10

Yes, my collection of fanciful short stories will be available for purchase in print starting on the 10th of next month. To celebrate the release of my third title, we’ll be having a launch party at the Tumwater Timberland Library from 5pm to 7pm. Planned activities include games and readings along with treats and maybe even a few door prizes. For more information, check out the Facebook Page for this event.

In anticipation of the upcoming book launch, I’m also actively looking to increase the number of people in my street team. With that in mind, if we manage to reach our target number of team members by November 1st, then every team member will receive a free pre-release PDF version of the anthology. To learn more about how to join my street team and what’s involved, check out the following link.

Great Opportunities for Fans

Exciting New Opportunities for my Fans and Readers

For a while now, I’ve been looking for ways to better connect with my fans and followers. I’ve also been exploring possible ways to help spread the word about my books and share these stories that I love so much with more readers. With that in mind, there are two new ways that my fans can stay connected and get involved. 

My New Mailing List

Using MailChimp, I’ve set up a list that anyone can subscribe to in order to receive a regular newsletter in their e-mail. These newsletters will include high-lights from some of my most recent and popular blog articles, upcoming book releases and promotions, and some of the details of my speaking schedule and author appearances. All information provided by subscribers is kept private, and the newsletter can be unsubscribed to at any time.

To sign up, just click the link below and enter your information.

Subscribe to Lindsay's Mailing List

My New Street Team

This is a place for people who love my stories and want to help spread the word. Members of this team will be entered into drawings for free books and goodies, receive invitations to exclusive parties, and have a special Facebook group where they can interact with myself as well as each other. In exchange, the street team will be given monthly goals to help promote and discuss my stories, spreading the word and sharing the characters and adventures that they have come to love. A typical monthly goal might be ten new book reviews on Amazon, or fifty new follows on my Facebook author page. Each time a goal is met, members of the team will be rewarded with additional goodies and events.

There will be no dues required to be a member of my street team. All that’s required is an enthusiasm for my stories and a demonstrated desire to help more people discover them. With that in mind, fans who are interested in joining my street team should include a link to an amazon review that they have written for one of my books when they subscribe to my mailing list. If the applicant is accepted into the street team, they’ll be added to the street team mailing list and will receive an invitation to join the street team Facebook group.


I hope that all of my fans will take advantage of these great new opportunities. My ongoing goal is to continue discovering new and better ways to connect with my readers and have fun as a group. I look forward to hearing from you!

On Steamposium and the Chanticleer Authors Conference 2015

I recently finished what has been the most ambitious speaking schedule I’ve attempted thus far. Two days at Steamposium, the Seattle steampunk convention, and three more at the Chanticleer Authors Conference in Bellingham. Seven panels and workshops in five days on subjects ranging from the origins of steampunk to managing author marketing resources. It was intense, exhausting, a little scary, and very, very rewarding.

I started bright and early on Friday morning at Steamposium, manning my vendor table and selling books along with fellow authors Jeffrey Cook and Lee French. Over the course of the two days, I saw a variety of elaborate costumes and had many opportunities to discuss both the culture and literature of steampunk. My favorite part of the Con probably happened on the first day while sitting on the Steampunk 101 panel. As we chatted with the crowd before starting, I noticed a face in the audience that seemed familiar. It turns out that he had attended a similar workshop that I’d given at the Brass Screw in Port Townsend, and had been hoping to hear me speak again in Seattle.

Since I spent most of my time either at the vendor table or sitting in on panels, I didn’t get much of a chance to see many of the Con’s attractions. I did take the time to wander the vendor floor a few times, and was impressed by the vast array of artistic and mechanical talent demonstrated by the artists and vendors. It would have been nice to stay for the final day of the event, but I had a workshop to give at nine in the morning on Sunday in Bellingham, so I headed north.

The Chanticleer Authors Conference was both intimate and intensive. There were speakers and presentations nearly every hour of each day, mostly focused on the business of promotion and marketing. Despite giving several workshops myself, I found myself furiously taking notes during nearly every presentation and plan on making some significant changes to my own marketing plan as a result. Of course, it wasn’t all business. I made many new friends from both the States and Canada, including James Wells, a hard sci-fi author and the great-grandson of H.G. Wells. James was also kind enough to allow me to stay at his home throughout the event, which was a delightful treat for me.

There were many highlights at the authors conference for me. Hearing Robert Dugoni speak was one of them. Learning enough about promotion to feel a measure of confidence rather than intimidation was another. But the greatest part of the event had to be staying with James and his family. He showed me a clock that had belonged to H.G., as well as a book that was full of the classic author’s own penciled edits.

I wasn’t sure how I would handle the demanding schedule I’d created for myself, but I’m proud to say that I emerged from the experience with both greater knowledge and some amazing memories. Standing in the cool evening air on Sunday night and watching a red-tinged lunar eclipse with the great-grandson of H.G. Wells, I realized that I was having a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Here’s hoping that I continue to have similar experiences as I pursue my dreams and goals.

An image of H.G. Wells' personal notes on an early copy of The Country of the Blind provided by James Wells