#MC: Commander Shepard

[fleshofmensis]

holy shit.. mensis talking about something not (directly)bethesda or fromsoft?

I'M SORRY I HAVE TO.. i've been really into mass effect andromeda and the outer worlds lately and i'm so so distraught with all the shit those two games get???

i actually enjoy them both so very much. i just love space games done right .. AHEM.. not starfield. and i'm not sorry for saying that lmao starfield is so dogshit??? ANDROMEDA AND THE OUTER WORLDS IS WHAT STARFIELD COULD HAVE BEEN .. AND THOSE TWO GAMES WERE INCREDIBLY RUSHED FROM WHAT I KNOW, AND THEYRE STILL BETTER

the main problem i'm seeing from everyone with andromeda is like "ohh it's not like the main trilogy" NO SHIT?? ITS A DIFFERENT GAME?? AND THE MC IS NOTHING LIKE SHEPARD AND DOESNT HANDLE THINGS LIKE SHEPARD 😔 poor ryder, bro was just tossed into being pathfinder and is doing the best they can

i will admit, in some places the dialogue can be .. wonky or cringe but oh well?? i think the companion chrs are so personable and fun and likable (except cora.. i wanna throw cora into a volcano) AND THE CHRS ARE SO GOOD OH MY GOD.. i have a few in mind right now that i just ADORE

—

i will throw hands for the outer worlds.. i think it's so so fun and looks great.. esp the salty petty "from the creators of fallout" in their ads UHHH YES? you go obsidian

yeah sure some things are unfinished or not. continued but that's fine? i loved the story and i feel it progressed fine enough. i haven't played the dlcs but i really want to ughhhhh AND THE AFTER END CREDIT SCENE? SOBBED

it's a beautiful game that actually has INHABITED AND FUN TO EXPLORE PLANETS ahem.. STARFIELD TAKE A HINT (sorry i'm so.. i dislike starfield so bad. i feel like i wasted time playing that game lmao)

that's all for now.. might blab about my favorite chrs from andromeda later byeer

[arlathen]

whenever i see someone play a man in one of my video james or IFs im always like. huh! i guess that is a thing u can do.

[if-seal]

Hello I am struggling with something a bit different.

So for my story, I have my story, my charcters, my MC and their background and their motivations. But what I am struggling with is knowing if the player is going to care about the MC's motivations and what they have endured and what they want, etc. Like how do I know if the player is going to care about a character, etc ?

Dear Struggling Friend,

I am sorry this has taken so long to answer, and I hope you have found some ways to improve your writing struggles. Perhaps this will be useful to other writers many months on.

This is a sea lion, but never mind; I love all my pinniped cousins.

There is always a leap of faith that you need to make as a game writer, and a degree of hope you must hold that that players will leap too. But you can make it easier for them to come along with you.

First it is helpful to figure out what sort of MC you have for your game.

Is it a Harry du Bois from Disco Elysium/Commander Shepard from Mass Effect where they have their own fully-fledged personality which you may move in different directions but which has elements that remain no matter what?

Is it a Hawke from Dragon Age 2 where you have a selection of personalities to choose from (whether they're explicitly visible to players, like in DA2, or not)?

Is it a Baldur's Gate 3 PC where you can have multiple backgrounds and classes and personality is expressed on the fly with dialogue choices?

Is it a PC from Choice of Games games where personality traits may be tracked and used like skills, but there are usually more of them than in DA2?

All of these are excellent ways of presenting an MC to the audience and all of them include an element that makes the MC different to that of linear fiction or kinetic novels: player choice.

Giving options around the MC will be helpful! As last week's Novice Friend mentioned, it can be overwhelming to try to account for a wide variety of options, but at the same time it can help draw players in.

As well, what I would say is that, sadly, you can never guarantee that a player will love your MC. But if you care about them, you can communicate that through showing the MC encountering such problems and endurances.

I am not a seal who necessarily needs to see everything onscreen that the MC has suffered, if it is a suffering type of game. I do not always love to play through a flashback, though that is a tool that you can use.

What I do love to see in suffering types of games is the impact the events have had and are having on the MC. How are they feeling right now and can the player choose the ways their suffering is manifesting in the present?

I especially love to see motivations that are choosable by the player, such as "I want revenge on the ones who wronged me!" or "I want to succeed to show those dreadful squid that I can do better than them!" or "I want to build a comfortable life for myself away from all that [and presumably "all that" will come calling at some stage]".

One last point - you do never know that someone is going to care, but you do not need to worry about the people who were never going to care. It does not matter that my own IF about yearning selkies will not be to the taste of players who do not like the sea, or yearning. What matters is that you communicate your excitement, and if you do that, you will reach those who care for it.

[the-bed-gremlins-reading-list]

Happy (belated) NEW YEAR!

Here's hoping this one somehow manages to be better than the last. I mean, it being worse, is a fairly steep bar to clear because of events in my personal life but:

Goals this year include:

Finish the prologue and Chapter 1 revamp of MMttCR, which if my estimates are right will probably double the length of the current content but also give me a better footing for what comes later. (It will make the MC more of a character than a self-insert, but that's fine by me.)

Redraft TPK's outline to replace the one lost in Lu's Puppy Teething Phase

Learn to keep my notebooks out of reach of the sometimes bored German Shepherd Mix so I stop having to rewrite my outlines.

Continue training Lu because the 60+ pound GSD-mix jumping on people because she gets excited to be paid attention to is not okay. (I'm trying to get her to the point she can pass the CGC evaluation, at the least, I also like to set up Rally courses in my backyard for us to do when the weather's nice.)

Get my first planted aquarium up and running without reenacting Commander Shepard in ME2. (I'm in the planting stage and slowly building it up. Once they're established and I get the water consistently in a safe range for them I plan on getting a small colony of Neocardinia.)

Grow potatoes.

[city-of-heavenly-heartbreaks]

Trying out a new game for once.

I won't lie - ME3 is an emotionally taxing game, and I finally needed a break 20 hours in. I was planning to start Mass Effect Andromeda once I finished the Trilogy, but since the stories aren't connected, there's no harm in starting early. As I understand, this one has a controversial past, but all I care about is having fun with whatever I'm playing. So far, I'm optimistic.

It has the unfortunate drag of an open-world map, but that was all the rage in 2017. I also don't mind Ryder as the MC - I've seen complaints about them being too young and not having the respect of their crew, but I'm pretty sure that's the point? They're not like Commander Shepard, who was already a ranked officer by the time we met them. Ryder still needs to earn their place, and I'm hoping to see that as the story progresses.

[carrinth]

Whelp I've done it. Just finished Witch Hunt which now marks the end of my Dragon: Age Origins run. 10/10 would recommend. Especially Awakening and Witch Hunt DLC.

And y'know what? Witch Hunt was worth it for this moment. A fitting end for my Warden. Reunited with his love (and baby mama) and peaces out of work and responsibilities via magic mirror. Just look at that face. I think this is honestly the first time I've seen my Warden-Commander smile in a LONG time. Poor guy.

Minor DA2 rant below cut;

Actually I finished it awhile ago but had been procrastinating by replaying Awakening.

Because uggghhhhhh... I don't want to play DA2.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I'll grow to love Hawke again but right now my mood is just... meh. Replaying Origins and all its DLCs just made the differences in quality and content between the two all the more jarring. Aaaand on a more personal level -- I don't want to stop being a Grey Warden. ಥ_ಥ

For the last near 150 hours, I was sold on being a Grey Warden. In fact, I think my best fun was Awakening where I actually got to BE a Grey Warden doing Grey Warden things WITH OTHER GREY WARDENS. We ALL drank the nasty juice! It was a bonding experience! This game spent so much time building up the lore and excitement of being a Grey Warden -- leaving so many unanswered questions about the Taint, the Blight, what it all means, dO wE GET griFFONs -- only to just... drop it all in DA2.

I'm just so confused by the direction DA2 went. Replaying Origins with the knowledge of the upcoming mage/templar plot in DA2, the conflict in Origins felt... minor. Sure we get hints here and there that things are Kinda Bad. But nothing major. Heck, I played a Circle Mage as my Origin and I never felt that 'Oh wow, mage rebellion should totally be Main Focus of the next game!' Like don't get me wrong, mage/templar conflict is 😌👌but the Darkspawn and Grey Wardens was what set Dragon Age apart from other fantasy.

"Well the Blight's over Carrinth, there's no more story to tell about Grey Wardens" you say. And yet, Awakening did a fantastic job of making an entire campaign post-Blight.

Part of me feels like if they didn't want to keep the Main Character the same (ala Mass Effect with Cmdr Shepard) then couldn't they have still made the DA2 MC a grey warden? Like a junior(?) Warden that's investigating Corypheus or whatever in Kirkwall but gets caught in the mage/templar mess. Sure we would have gotten a very different story but would that have been so bad?

In the end, I will likely end up playing DA2, if only for the excellent companions and to reunite with my Sad Mage and Angry Spirit Husbands. But at the moment... *sigh*

So goodbye Marzel Amell. You were the best Warden-Commander and I had fun throwing Storm of the Century on fools, flexing my maxed out Coercion, and painstakingly working out TACTICS. I will probably still keep stubbornly drawing Awakening fanart (because I am Not Normal about those idiots) but DA2 stuff will likely eventually bleed in. ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

Farewell Marzel and go live gloriously in mirror land with ur spider lady and kid.

[mercysimming]

@simblr-question-of-the-day: 📩 Simblr question of the day: A non-sims simblr question/s! Besides Sims, what other games do you play and what platforms do you like to play on? (PC, Console, Mobile...) What would genre/s do you tend to lean towards? (FPS, Sandbox, Multiplayer, Simulation, etc.) Bonus! If a game has character customization, do you like to make a completely new character everytime or do you like to use the same OC/Sim? Feel free to ramble, especially if you really enjoy a game (❁´◡`❁) (original post)

I play a ton of other games! If I had to name overall favorites, it'd be Red Dead Redemption 2, The Last of Us, The Ghost of Tsushima, Our Life, and God of War: Ragnarök. I play a huge variety tho: anything from FNAF to Life is Strange to Deltarune to Stardew Valley to American Truck Simulator (listen it's relaxing lmao).

I prefer PC gaming, but sadly my laptop is, uh, very weak so I can't play most AAA games on it. I would love to eventually have a gaming laptop (and desktop once I'm settled down in my own place). For now, though, I do a lot of my gaming on my PS4 and Switch. My first ever console, though, was my beloved Gamecube <3

Genre-wise, I'm fairly open-minded. With some exceptions (like the Sims, technically) I'm alllll about story. I'll play games with gameplay I don't even like if the story and characters are good. A vast majority of the time, story really is the most important thing to me. But, in general, I'm a single-player person who loves a game with some horror elements and good combat (as long as it's not all combat).

For the bonus, I loooove character customization. I make unique characters for all games (sometimes multiple) and I love when choice-based games let me develop their personalities. They are never based on me (with the exception of Stardew Valley sometimes) or previous OCs. Talk to me about my main Commander Shepard or my Our Life MCs sometime fdkshfdshakf

[s0lavellan]

Yes!! I was just going to say even though the Warden is a voiceless MC there’s still a lot to say about their personality and the ways their companions/NPCs respond to their dialogue. They’re just so incredibly well done. Even my Commander Shepard holds a special place in my heart.

Is it sad that I don’t feel attached to any of my Tavs or Dark Urges?

But my Inquisitor Lavellan, HoF, Hawke, and Rook? I want to wrap them all in a cozy blanket and defend them with my life. I can’t explain it but it is what it is.

[dalish-spectre]

all alone, in the place the world forgot.

[thelonegreywarden]

My Shepard, Taia (Mass Effect). Apprentice, Iris (The Arcana) and Hawke, Sonia (Dragon Age 2) made in Artbreeder!

[loveydoveymerrillsabrae]

God the preset femshep is so hot

😘🎂🙌

[badger-wife]

Excuse you @ endless summer writers, I haven’t had to make a choice this hard since deciding the fate of the galaxy in Mass Effect 3

And you bet your ass I’m gonna save my MC like I saved my Shepard (ish), sorry to the rest of the world

[amalthea-fictions]

Hi there! I'm Amalthea and I like to write! Feel free to make a request!

WORKS

🔥 Kyojuro Rengoku X Reader [KNY] 🔥

Fractured Sunlight [Aftermath of Mugen Train]

Kankagari [Pregnancy]

Red Light District Under Cover [Request]

🍃Suzukaze X Kamui [Fire Emblem Fates] 🍃

Snow [Fluff]

Taking a Hit for the Other Person [Angst to Fluff]

Kamui's Kimono [Fluffy Drabble]

Fruit Salad [Fluff, only on A03]

An Important Question [Marriage Proposal, only on A03]

Epilogue [Angst to Fluff, only on A03]

Camilla [She Reacts to Kaze X Corrin, only on A03]

As King and Queen of Valla [only on A03]

🌌 Shepard X Garrus [ME] 🌌

Commander Shepard's Nickname [AKA Trolling James Vega]

Alternate Shakarian Reunion [ME2]

🐉 Charlie Weasley X Reader/Jacob’s Sibling [HPHM] 🐉

Small Moments [Fluffy Drabble]

Quidditch Rescue [Exactly what the title says LOL]

Charlie Learns You Can Speak to Dragons [Request]

Charlie Hurt to Comfort [Request]

Charlie Gushes About You [Fluffy Drabble]

🦅 Talbott Winger X Reader/Jacob's Sibling [HPHM] 🦅

Talbott's Surprise [Request]

Love Potion Mishap [Request]

🐍Sebastian Sallow X Reader/MC [HPHL]🐍

Don’t Mess with MC [Seb vs. Beasts Class Bully]

💫Aaravos X Reader [TDP] 💫

General HCs [Request]

Stuck in Mirror with Artsy Reader [Request]

Platonic: Aaravos being a big bro to a young reader [Request]

[loveydoveymerrillsabrae]

Why do this to me ;;;-;;;

[bluem00n007]

Hello!! First off, I'm really sorry for not responding back to you earlier from my last ask. I got really busy with irl stuff that I didn't get the time to reply. But if I can still send in my answer, you don't need to apologize about the leash thing with sirius!! I should have realized that sooner lmao, but thanks for clarifying. Also, you definitely have a point that arcturus has so much potential to be a good, bad, or grey character. Besides his constellation, there's also his special magic, how he takes such a long time to get back to mc when he excuses himself from them, and the Shepard thing. These could be building up to something big later on in the story, and I'm equally terrified and excited. Side note though, I saw your comic about vega and vanessa and it was so good!! The layout felt so clean, not to mention the way you drew out their emotions was a critical hit to my heart!!

Also also, if you don't mind me asking on your opinion on this, what do you think are the effects of mc being imprinted with the sorcerers? Besides the boost in power ofc.

Apologies for the long text, hopefully I didn't bother you with this. Take care!!

OMG HEY ANNON!!! It's so good to see you again!!! ^w^)/ And please, don't apologise for not replying before, real life takes priority and I hope you are doing well

The Sirius thing was such an innocent mistake and well, it is a saying that not a lot of people are familiar with and use, so I really get what caused the confusion, Arcky, I think if he does indeed turn out to be a villain, would he be with the void on purpose or was manipulated, hm another Tumblr user, who's user I am forgetting at the moment, but all credits to them for this pointer, basically what they said was Arcturus is the protector of the bear, Summoner is represented with the bear constellation, so I think the void did wipe his memories and are now using him as a way to get closer to summoner, I mean so far everyone lives the way their constellations do

Also thank you so much!!!! I was really hoping you would see that comic TvT and I feel really happy that it was impactful, I don't know how to actually put this in words, sorry of if I can't say it properly, but yeah, I am really happy!

Now I think the best way to explain an imprint is that it's a very magical form of "red strings of fate", more so a promise to protect the parties imprinting and a way to ensure it than anything else, like the pact in obey me, it's a power scaler(?) Like you make pacts and if you learn how to use them, you can draw power from demons and make them do what you command, that's not what I think an imprint is, like Spica said, it's an oath to protect

For the imprints, so far we know bits and pieces for what makes them special, firstly they allow partners to feel each other's feelings, you have any idea how hard it would be to hide crushes? Jokes aside that means that there must be a while lot of trust between people before they imprint, Spica did a gigachad move, respect, because he just let us imprint with him without knowing us much

If we take Alpheratz's words at face value, multiple imprints are not possible, or at the very least not common, he looks so surprised that our heart was entwined with others, that or he was just surprised at how many imprints we had even before a week at Contell, this could be explained by the time loop theory, which if you didn't know about, is that Sirius is a time loop character, goes back in time, which creates a different timeline, the good stuff, that explains why summoner has so many pacts already, if the bonds carried over everytime, but honestly speaking, that actualy leaves more unanswered questions, why was Sirius surprised he got summoned? Why did us coming to Bound arlyn ruin his plans? So I am a little skeptical of this theory

I think that is what makes summoner a summoner, plus the entire potential of being able to summon stuff that are not under the same relam as constellations, hence so special, but then why these 6 specific guys? Which is why it's not a 100% disagree on taht, just skeptical

Third and personally my favourite, angst warning and it is a little morbid, so don't read this if you are uncomfortable:

3

2

1

you can't harm an imprinted partner or you get harmed yourself, it has so much angst potential (I love angst actualy) out of everyone, Sirius has the heighest potential, imo, to use this if he ever finds himself in a clutch, not because it's an easy way out for him, mind you, but most likely because it's the best way out for summoner in case the void catches them in a clutch (yes I do live for angst) plus if the time loop theory is correct it's not much of a risk either, plus storytaco has a reputation of having a high chance to kill any character, even MC has no plot armour

Sorry for the long reply, I kinda get in the whole flow TvT

[sunbentsky-archived]

Hi hello 🤠 I have a solid chunk of my new muse list figured out, but I'm on the fence about a couple of muses, some old that didn't see much interaction and some brand new. Here's the provisory list, with the last two groups being the ones I'm uncertain about. So, please help a fella decide and vote on this poll with which muses you'd like to see. You can select as many as you like, but I'll go with the top choices. Thank you!! 🧡

NOT GOING ANYWHERE EVEN IF I WANTED THEM TO:

Saskia - canon, the witcher

Letho - canon, the witcher

Oles - oc, the witcher

Villen - canon, the witcher

Bogdan - oc, red dead redemption / western

Ecaterina - oc, red dead redemption / western

HAVEN'T DONE A LOT WITH THEM BUT THEY'RE AROUND:

Myr - semi-canon, the witcher

Raymond - oc, fandomless / western

Ursule - oc, fallout: new vegas

Fred - oc, the outer worlds

Legion - canon, mass effect

IDK IF I SHOULD BRING THEM BACK:

Kaska Tomicka - oc, the witcher | dwarf, artist, fabric dyer, painter, art and literary forger

Mercer - oc, fandomless | hacker, DYI bio enthusiast, biopunk, organ harvester

Sidney - oc, fandomless | salvage diver, pirate, fence, con artist, ordinary thief, the soul of a magpie

Felix Millstone - canon, the outer worlds | dockhand, rebel without a cause, big-time dreamer, sportsball fan

Jolly Shepard - oc, mass effect | lieutenant-commander, spectre, butcher of torfan, savior of the fuckin' galaxy, overworked, dead woman walking

Nika Kader - oc, dragon age | dwarf, ex-general of orzammar's army, ex-queen consort to king endrin aeducan, mother of prince bhelen aeducan, would-be usurper, grey warden, warden-commander of ferelden

Rory Amell - oc, dragon age | human but barely so, blood mage, necromancer, goth, mortalitasi, arch-mistress of the mourn watch, sometimes the hero of ferelden

NEW FACES / POTENTIAL ADDITIONS:

Mike Haywood - oc, far cry 5 | musician and composer, member of project at eden's gate, devoted to faith, angel "herder" and "mc" (he's in charge of the music which controls faith's angels), almost an angel himself

Maddie Kouvatsou - oc, far cry 5 | singer and bass player, repentant sinner (allegedly), ex-member of project at eden's gate, one of the young women who took on the mantle of "faith seed" before rachel jessop, deemed unfit for the role

Sinclair Stoyanov - oc, far cry 5 | prizefighter, boxer, animal liberation front activist,  mama's boy, eden's gate brawler, not a chosen, not a vip, just some guy, although he'd appreciate the promotion, ironically, vegan

Will Douglas - oc, fandomless | zoologist (herpetologist), gator wrangler, wildlife rehabilitator, guitar player, rowdy cowboy without a horse

Arthur Morgan - canon, red dead redemption | you know him, we all know him