#so... i will be including (and adding to depending on the chapter) a character list with all the original characters so ppl can follow

[non-un-topo]

The plot for this fic is getting WAY out of hand but we keep chugging along

[daggerfall]

M's Updated New Player Guide for Elder Scrolls Online

I have to simplify a great deal of this information since the intended audience is people brand new to ESO looking to get into it for questing (not pve or pvp), so if anyone thinks bits of this are a little wrong or lacking nuance, please understand it is likely intended. Credentials: trust me.

Top 3 Important things to know before you get started

Character creation: You pick your class during character creation and this can never be changed. Trust me, people miss this. Your race, appearance, and name can all be changed but for a cost (crowns, the in-game micro transaction currency), and little bits of your appearance can be changed with cosmetics that may or may not be free. Any class can quest just fine, some will be better at solo content than others, but don't sweat this. Some classes are also DLC (warden, necromancer, and arcanist). All classes are capable of all roles for the purposes you, a new player wanting to quest, care about. Make the character you want and can stick with, as you will need a Main for purposes of crafting, and crafting knowledge can't transfer to other characters you may make. Also, plan for them to deal damage primarily. Supports are not needed in questing and you'll often be alone anyway - save yourself the pain of killing enemies at a snails pace and invest in damage with a smidge of survival.

Alliances and the Main Quest: The start of the game for new players should always be the base game main quest and your respective alliance's main quest. Unless you started with the expansion that unlocks any race any alliance, your alliance will be tied to your race. Bretons, Orsimer, and Redguards: Daggerfall Covenant. Dunmer, Argonians, Nords: Ebonheart Pact. Altmer, Bosmer, and Khajiit: Aldmeri Dominion. Imperials are DLC but any alliance. This can be changed later for crowns, but only affects what alliance you fight for/against in PvP zones, minor dialogue interactions, certain cosmetics, and which version of certain quests you get during the main quest. The starting city/zone for each alliance is as follows: DC: Daggerfall, Glenumbra. EP: Davon's Watch, Stonefalls. AD: Vulkhel Guard, Auridon. When you leave character creation, you'll be sent through the Coldharbour tutorial and spat out on your starter island (DC: Stros M'Kai. EP: Bleakrock Isle. AD: Khenarthi's Roost). Finish those storylines until you hit your starter city, and the main quest will progress again with meeting the Prophet at the Harborage.

DLC, Chapters, and ESO+: Depending on the version of game you got, you may be pushed or tempted to play the newest DLC (chapter or smaller zone DLC). This is a trap. ZOS advertises the game as play how you want and in any order you want, and any longtime player hates this marketing strat. Functionally, any DLC can be played at any time in ESO, but you will miss certain bits of dialogue and story by playing out of release order. Characters will remember previously meeting you if you play in order, but not out of order. They may drastically change their appearance to the point of the story making no sense if it happened in that wrong order, or even die and reappear with no acknowledgement of their death. If this is your first time playing ESO, I Highly recommend playing everything in the intended release order at least once, and then decide for yourself what stories you think work as independent stories for other characters you wish to play. Don't listen to the devil telling you to play some random dlc because you like dunmer or vampires. Listen to me, some guy on the internet instead.

The intended order is (without listing every single dlc) the Coldharbour main quest and your alliance's main quest at the same time ➡️ Cadwell's Silver and Gold (the other two alliances' main quests) ➡️ Imperial City (PvP zone with a solo storyline, but can be skipped/played at any point) ➡️ Craglorn ➡️ all dlc in release order (including dungeons, zone dlc, and chapters). Dungeons can be done in any order (base game I and II dungeons should be done in the numeric order) up to Wrathstone, which is when year-long story arcs began and included dungeons in the plot, and more returning NPCs appear in dungeons.

The Infamous "ESO DLC flowchart" can advise you the order of when you should play certain storylines (base game and dlc), but it's just the release order and natural flow of the storylines. It updates too often for me to post the image here, but you can easily find it by searching those terms. Another good ESO starter guide I like is this one, that explains which story points to hit and when.

The base game alone is good and contains hundreds of hours of content. Get through the base game's main quests and decide for yourself if you like the game enough to continue on. And if you do want to continue, then the best way to play DLC is to buy the subscription ESO+. Among many other things, the main use for the sub is access to every single DLC in the game* while the sub is active. If you play consistently, you can play through the dlcs faster than it would cost to buy them individually, and you can end your sub whenever you want/need. The sub also gives free crowns each month which can be used to purchase permanent access to specific DLC for if/when you end your sub. Or spend them on a cute outfit. Up to you. You might get addicted to the craft bag in the meantime and keep the sub forever.

*ESO+ does not give access to the newest chapter, until the next one comes out usually a year later.

ALRIGHT big stuff out of the way. More advanced stuff for once you're already in the game and playing now. And some M brand yapping.

Start researching item traits at crafting stations ASAP. The timers for research grow exponentially with each trait, so an early start is good. This is necessary for crafting later on, and everyone should have A crafter (ideally their main for resource reasons)

First I wanna address the final barrier a lot of people have with starting an MMO: the other people. To which I'm going to quote something I have found incredibly therapeutic: I think you guys might be thinking about yourselves too much. There are absolutely ways to avoid interactions with other players - playing in offline mode so people cannot whisper you, and hiding zone/say chat to avoid seeing other players talking - but generally speaking, other players do not care about you or others enough to bother you. The overland is not PvP enabled outside of both players choosing to duel, you're not going to get made fun of for being low level or whatever, and you're not going to get harassing messages just for existing. Others have their own lives and things to do in game. Just play the game and embrace the goofiness of someone's name or how wild their costume looks. Be brave and just Do It. Have fun! Okay? Okay back to the actual advice.

Avoid any quest that goes into your journal as a Prologue - delete it right away. Prologues are like introduction/teaser quests for zone DLC and chapters. Doing prologues out of order should also be avoided. Once you're onto playing DLC, there is a prologue for each starting with the Morrowind chapter.

Find the stable master early on and begin "training your horse" each day for 250 gold. Also buy a mount there. It takes 180 real life days to fully complete on each character, but you'll notice the difference with your mounts speed and stamina, and to clarify, inventory means YOUR inventory. That's 60 more inventory slots! And mount training affects all mounts on that character!

Speaking of mount speed - once you reach level 10 on a character, you should do the Cyrodiil tutorial quest (I promise there's no PvP required for this). Use the alliance war tab to queue into a campaign (any works but go for one that isn't all that busy. Under 50 ideally), and complete the tutorial IN FULL. Do not accept the option to skip parts of it because you know what you're doing. You'll reach rank 3 in the assault and support skill lines and gain a few skill points, all while never having to do any actual PvP. Take the first passive in the Assault skill line to gain access to Major Gallop for faster horse speed. You want this on all your characters. Finally, leave Cyrodiil using the wayshrine.

Find the bag merchant in town and spend your gold on maxing out your inventory space when you can afford it. Bankers can also be found in each town and you can store a lot of items in your bank with them FOR FREE. No other player has access to your bank. Your bank space is shared across all of Tamriel and all of your characters as well, to allow for easier item transfer to alts

Back on crafting, don't worry about materials or crafting your own gear for a long time. You pretty much need ESO+ to be a crafter due to the craft bag. Just put on random gear you loot off enemies or get as a reward, and replace it as you level up and outlevel your old gear.

As a quester, you can use any gear and any skills you want - with a few suggestions. Don't use heavy armor as your primary armor type (a few pieces are okay), ice staves, 1 hand and shield, or restoration staves. Those are primarily support armor types and weapons. Also, read your tooltips and skill descriptions, and don't use skills that state they will taunt the enemy. ESO's aggro system works differently than you may expect from other MMOs. Anything else is free game. Though I will advise this isn't Skyrim, and using skills will deal far more damage than spamming "basic attacks", or light and heavy attacks. Stealth archer isn't a thing here, sorry.

DON'T fall for the crown store trying to sell you respec scrolls, werewolf and vampire skill lines, etc. You can redo your skills and attributes at any point for gold in a capital city, other players can give you lycanthropy or vampirism for free upon request. Merchants and banker assistants from the crown store I don't consider a scam. Those are good uses of crowns once you're further into the game.

The build advisor for each class/role is painfully out of date as it hasn't been changed since launch, and entire skills/morphs have changed over the years to be entirely different. With no nuance to avoid it getting complicated, stick to either investing in magic or stamina as your primary resource, and most of your skills costing that same resource. Skills scale their damage with your highest offensive stat, so splitting evenly doesn't do anything besides make your pool bigger, but you can use both stam and mag skills and they will deal similar damage. You just might run out of your "off" resource faster. Light armor benefits magicka users better, medium benefits stamina users better, generally speaking.

And if you mess up your build or change your mind about wanting to play mag or stam, you can respec whenever. There are shrines to respec skill points/morphs and attributes in any base game capital city or chapter big city. It costs gold, scaling with how many skill points you have. Additionally, you can use the free armory station (from the crown store) to save builds and revert back to them for free. A good use for this is to save your generic PvE/questing setup and a second different setup for PvP or playing another role like healer. Currently it saves everything except scribing setups.

Join the Mages Guild and Fighters Guild ASAP in your starter town. Regardless of RP, they have storylines you'll want to complete, as well as skills and passive abilities you may want, and it's better to get a head start on this leveling process. Undaunted is related to dungeons and can be skipped early on, but if you start doing dungeons, make sure you join! It has no respective storyline.

Weapon and class skill lines progress by having those skills on your bar upon gaining experience while On that bar, not with each cast of the skill. Individual skills rank up and can morph into other skills by gaining experience with that skill on your bar. Guild skill lines have their own unique progression requirements - read your tooltips!

Main quest marker icons appear slightly fancier than generic quest markers, and I would advise to avoid taking them out of order. Most main quests will guide you to the next quest giver easily, so if you find yourself going far out of your way, you may be getting lost or starting a different storyline. Blue quest markers are for repeatable daily quests.

Delves are public instances and can be done solo. Public dungeons are public instances and may be able to be soloed depending on skill. Dungeons/group dungeons are for 4 people, not public instances, and you should not try to solo them. Trials are raids for 12 people, not public, and you very much should not attempt to solo them.

Depending on what DLC may have come with your version of the game, you may be pushed to try the various DLC features added with each chapter. This includes psijic order, antiquities, companions, tales of tribute, and scribing. All of these individually (except psijic) can be started/done early without spoiling yourself on future DLC. But there's no real need to rush through getting access/completion of them right away either.

There are daily login rewards that reset each month. Most of them are bad, but it's good to keep up on them for the monthly cosmetic or big reward. Sometimes they give AP which can level the PvP skill lines without PvP, sometimes gold, sometimes crafting materials, could be anything. There are also daily tasks to gain "seals of endeavour", currency that allow you to purchase things that otherwise can only be gambled for in crown crates. Keep up on them, and about twice a year, you can buy the most expensive mounts in the game. Golden Pursuits happen every few weeks/months, with multiple themed tasks to unlock a specific reward.

Add-ons (PC only) are allowed in ESO, mods and macros are not. The application Minion is how most of us download and update our add-ons for various UI and QOL features.

Once you reach level 50 on a character, you start gaining levels in Champion Points, which are shared across all of your characters. Once you hit CP 160, you will stop out-leveling your gear and can start making gear you plan to keep. CP goes up to 3600, but you'll hit the cap on effectiveness around 1500 (role dependent) I think.

The fashion system in ESO is either using the outfit station to apply motifs (purely cosmetic) you've learned to that character to your outfit, or costumes you can get with crowns or other means (questing, collectables, etc). Motifs learned on one character allow any character to use that motif in the outfit station, but only that character can Craft an item in that style.

There is no auction house system. There are guild traders instead - storefronts that guilds bid on weekly to gain ownership of and use for their guild to sell items to other players, for a small cut of the profits. Anyone can buy from them, only guild members can sell. Most of the junk you find in questing is worthless to other players, and most players use add-ons to know the marketplace average worth of any item in game.

Speaking of guilds, joining guilds is a good way to get access to free wayshrine porting for easier movement across Tamriel, and more. Porting to another player is free, even if you're not at a wayshrine. Many guilds also have a "guild hall" (player owned house open to all that has many resources depending on the owner). Plenty of social guilds don't even have serious requirements to join - a lot are aimed at newbies.

If you're looking to just make enough money to get by, you can sell all the random gear you loot to merchants. It will despawn from their inventory with enough time or items being sold. Once you get ESO+ and the craft bag, daily crafting writs is the best way to make easy money with little effort. Get certified in all 7 professions and do your daily crafting writs for about 5k gold per character per day. With enough skill point investment in hirelings that send materials in the mail daily, you never have to spend any gold to do writs.

Thieving is mildly good for making gold, but it has a cap on how much you can sell a day. Sell or launder at outlaws refuges in each city. Thieves guild and dark brotherhood are DLC content so don't look for them in the base game.

Before you start doing dungeons, at any level of difficulty, you should understand how ESO dungeon etiquette works. People here aren't as friendly as final fantasy, but hear me out before you say we're all mean. ESO does an extremely poor job of keeping the casual questers from the sweaty endgamers, and forces them to share the same dungeon queue when they're in that queue for entirely different reasons. Endgamers need transmute crystals quickly, questers just want to see the quest, and each person needs the other to achieve their goal, but you can't do both at the same time. Both are valid reasons to do dungeons. Quests can't be repeated on the same character, so they can't even do the quest with you if they already did it years ago. Quests also give a skill point for completing, which is another valuable endgamer resource. In general, if you plan to use the group finder to find a team for a dungeon, do not expect them to sit around and wait for you to sit through dialogue. At best they will wait for you to spam through it for the quest completion, if you warn them in advance. Randos aren't going to be overly social, even a "hi" at the start may be ignored. It's to be expected, but not intended rudely. If you want to see a dungeon's quest in full, this is the time to find a friend to group with you! It's an MMO! Be social! Many ESO dungeons are unable to be soloed unfortunately, for strange mechanical reasons.

Also, you need to know your role before queueing, and that includes knowing how to actually deal damage as a damage dealer. You don't need to be amazing, but please don't just spam light attacks. Don't queue as a tank unless you actually understand the basics of ESO tanking, same for healing. Look into resources online for beginner builds. If you don't want to learn your role or how to git gud, then I'm sorry but doing dungeons with strangers is not for you then. It's a team effort, and their time should be respected too.

Related, if you get to the point of wanting to try the trials (which do technically have a repeatable quest), normal difficulty is less scary than you may fear, but still requires coordination and a group. Ideally you come above 160cp in full sets of gear and a basic understanding of your role. Checking Craglorn zone chat or the in-game group finder for normal PUG (pick-up group, just sorta grabbing anyone that wants to come, versus an organized run) trials is the best way to find a group without using discord or joining a guild. But I do recommend finding a social guild that does casual normal runs! Just please read if they're doing normal runs or vet hardmodes runs, or if they want specific classes/roles. And of course respect the raid lead's requests and requirements

Be cautious looking for advice regarding builds. The top result when searching for a solo build is not necessarily the best build - it is the most Search Optimized build. And it's most likely intended for crazy strats like soloing vet dlc hardmodes dungeons for views. You do not need any of that!!! You at most need to learn how to block, roll dodge, interrupt, sneak, and walk out of damaging areas. When you hit cp 160, all you need is gear at your level, start looking to complete set bonuses, and some kind of self heal.

For your purposes of leveling, you should not need to grind out levels. You get various buffs as you level that scale your damage to the enemies around you within the base game. You shouldn't race to level 50 or CP 160 on your first go-around. Enjoy being a baby. You will hate the game if you spend your first hundred hours listening to sweatlords telling you that you need to pay them to level you to 50, and then pay them to make you gear.

I am willing to offer specific advice in dms or asks if people have build questions, but I prefer to not use Tumblr for this. Join my friends discord server in my About Me (pinned) if you want detailed answers!

This isn't meant to be the most strictly followed list of all time, but things that I end up inevitably telling people or wish I had learned sooner. It's meant more as something to refer back to and to gently guide you in the right direction, as well as get you in the right mindset for character creation when planning a character you'll play for Years of quests.

[sanguinesky-if]

[Dev Log] November 2024

Hello, happy belated Halloween to you!

This dev log includes announcements of upcoming release dates and a brief overview of what was accomplished over the past month, so you might find it interesting to read to the end.

Announcement [Patreon Members]

With the start of this month, changes have been made to the Patreon tiers [Civilian $1 and Inspector $7].

If you haven't familiarized yourself with the updates yet, please be sure to read this post. Thank you for your support! ♥

Announcement [Release Dates]

Here's the release schedule for the upcoming updates:

Demo Expansion: November 9 [Patreon]

L's Side Story: November 30 [Patreon]

Demo Update [Chapter 3 Part 1]: December 7 [Public]

The full list of changes in the expanded demo will be included in the release post, but you can get a preliminary look at them here [in the "About my plans for the current month" section].

Regarding the public demo release: I had planned to release it earlier, at the end of November, but with L's Side Story release, I just won't have time to compile all the files.

Thank you for your patience and for waiting, I hope you'll find it worthwhile!

What was accomplished last month?

Refined the prologue and most scenes in Chapter 1, as well as some in Chapter 2 [especially I's scene].

Besides fixing grammar, I smoothed out parts of the narrative that felt choppy or awkward to improve the overall flow. Some elements in Chapter 1 still need polishing, but for now, my main focus is preparing the Expanded Demo for release. I would also like to thank everyone who submitted error reports. They were incredibly helpful, and I truly appreciate your time and support in improving my story!

Implemented height difference variables.

I've been working on how to best address the height difference between the ROs and the MC since I want the narrative to be responsive to these changes. However, since the two versions of the same RO differ in height depending on their gender, I had to implement 7 new variables to avoid writing multiple *if statements all the time.

A very simple example of usage: @{M_tall 1|2|3|4} = @{M_tall much shorter than you, around|shorter than you, around|around|taller than you, around} Mentions of height differences in the narrative will mostly if you choose flirt options.

Added additional customization for moles.

Thanks to the MC pictures that readers sent me [created with Picrew and drawn], I've decided to add this option for the MC customization. This option won't be mentioned in the narrative, but I thought it would be nice to give readers this choice, hoping that including it in character creation will help some of the players feel more connected to their MC.

About my plans for the current month.

This month will be entirely dedicated to preparing for the demo and side story releases.

In addition to that, the bonus content on Patreon that will be released this month will include:

T's NSFW Alphabet.

A short story [featuring I].

A detailed content release schedule for Patreon can be found here.

Author's Note.

Due to a heavy workload, I unfortunately cannot be active here and answer asks as often as I used to, and I apologize if you did not receive a reply.

I hope to have more time in December once the public update is released, especially since it will also mark one year since the demo was first released! ☺️

Thank you for reading to the end and for your support! Have a wonderful week and days after that! ♥

[yoonkinii]

Jjk M.list

Gojo Satoru

Perfectly Imperfect

Synopsis: Everyone is born with a soulmate. Everyone knows by the time they hit age 18, a different kind of soulmate mark will appear. Some are unable to see color until they meet their soulmates gaze, others have matching tattoos. These are the more common ones; ones that can be tracked down in history but others are rare. So rare that there’s rarely any information available about it. Rare like yours and the only case of this soulmarking was dated decades ago with only two lines describing it.

"Person A and Person B afflicted by this marking will discover themselves to be covered in string-like tattoo markings in certain areas. These areas are what the soulmate A or B deem unworthy of themselves; or rather, what they hate about themself."

This wouldn't be a problem for you if it wasnt for the fact that everything from the collarbone to your ankles was decorated in white string-like lines.

Pairing: Gojo Satoru x Reader

Theme song: Bonfire - wave to earth

What color is my sky painted? What color is your emotion? Close your eyes slowly and feel the wind. The bonfire is fading out. Maybe we are falling Falling down with the rain.

amore mio aiutami- Piero Piccioni (literally the song that plays when M/C looks at him)

Warning(s):

18+, Sub!Gojo (gasp!), cursing, mentions of self-hate, discussion of Self-hate, mentions of minor character death- Will be added as chapters progress but if you see something that I didn’t include here, please let me know!

Note(s):

Expect this to be a short fic. I do not plan on having this over 6 parts and even then it could be less or couple chapters more. Depends on how I write everything.

Part(s): TBA

Ryomen Sukuna

Snippets of Love

Synopsis: Glimpses of your relationship with Sukuna through prompts/questions.

Paring: Sukuna x Reader

Theme Song: Heart To Heart - Mac DeMarco

So I had a late Arrival So, we never saw the start of each others lives heart to heart

Notable tags: ModernAU, slight age gap, Canon/Fanon implements, Sukuna still has his tattoos, CEO Sukuna, uncle Sukuna, college student reader, pierced Sukuna.

Note(s): Inspired to do this series based on Kyarrcha fanart of Sukuna on Instagram! I want this to be mostly based on requests about certain moments such as when Sukuna and you first met, first date, and things like that. This can also include certain scenarios or environments. Feel free to send in requests but I will also add in my own takes.

Requests: Open.

Warnings: will be listed in the sections.

You are not required to read snippets in order, but it is recommended.

How y♡u first met Sukuna!

How y♡u met Sukuna again (and got his number)!

First date with Sukuna!

Sukuna letting y♡u doll him up!

Sukuna with drunk y♡u

Jealous Y♡u

Argument with Sukuna

Choso Kamo

Echos of Desire

Synopsis: Choso is one of the few to possess abilities that transcend human limits. His family was taken away from him and he was given to serve the king. He was trained in nothing else but to kill and follow orders. He was a man made weapon. His name whispered in fear- the kingdom's boogeyman. He hates it though. Hates how his freedom was ripped from his hands. Hates how his ‘gift’ is more like a curse. He is offered a deal he can’t deny- transport the princess to safety in a neighboring kingdom. The only problem is, she’s the daughter of the man that took everything from him and she is being hunted down by unknown forces. 

Pairing: Choso x Reader

Theme Song: my love is mine all mine - Mitski

Moon, tell me if I could Send up my heart to you? So, when I die, which I must do Could it shine down here with you? 'Cause my love is mine, all mine I love mine, mine, mine

Notable tags: FantasyAU, Fanon (I am creating my own world and using some pieces of jjk in it), major character death, burning alive, abuse, gore, blood, mentions of self loathing, anger. (Will be updated as more parts come out)

Note(s): Just a little something.

Part(s): 1 |

Headers by @uzmacchiato

[carawenfiction]

I have just learned about the rewrite since I've rechecked your tumblr, I didn't even know about you doing that. I know you listed changes in that post, but would it be possible to know how much will be changed, overall? I love this game so much so changes make me nervous haha! BTW, I made an extensive review both on Steam and the topic CoG forums a while ago, if you're interested in checking them out! Good luck! I love your work!

Hi Konoi!

I'm sorry for answering this (and all other asks) so late.

I read your steam review, thank you so much for taking the time to write it! It definitely reminded me about some things regarding narrative structure and to consider how to best balance character moments/bonding and overall pacing.

This is very premature to say since there's not a whole lot of content out yet, let alone the whole rewrite, but if any of you change your opinion of the final product once you've read it - whether that's negative or positive - I'd really appreciate an updated review!

I'm going to explain some key changes in this post. There are no big spoilers, but if you DON'T want to go into things with any prior knowledge about the game, please don't read the rest of this post!

My thought process

I began the old rewrite because of my personal dissatifaction with the story. I didn't have a clear picture of what exactly I wanted; I just knew I wanted it to be different. But the new, current rewrite is being created because of ideas that have developed in my mind regarding the setting and overall story. I'd say that the "shadow world" is a bit more dangerous, uncertain and that the threats that hide there are not immediately easy to determine, if that makes any sense at all. The original has you going from point A to point B and have everything explained to you, which leaves the MC with little to do and decreased agency. One of my aims is to let you explore the world in more dynamic ways than through exposition dumps and also giving you more choices and include more branching due to those choices, both big and small.

I was pondering what it might be like to enter a world like this and I think it would be a strange mixture of terror, surrealism, loneliness + a need to either depend on whoever you can, even if you don't trust them. Or alternatively, pretend like you depend on others while only really depending on yourself. That's not to say that TSS is a horror game now haha, I don't even know how to write horror 😔but my hope is that it feels like a more personal and intriguing experience rather than purely an "isekai" kind of story.

The MC

I didn't get far with the old rewrite, but I focused more on fleshing out the MC's hometown and M's background. While the new rewrite has a bit more added to chapter 1, I've kept some things that I previously tried to present more thoroughly purposefully vague for a reason this time around.

The MC is somewhat different, too. One thing I'm dissatisfied with in the original is the lack of an established past for the MC. There was your job and your father's accident, but not much more than that. And yes, there were hints at something more, but you didn't really get to delve deeply into that during book 1.

In this version of the rewrite, I think the MC is a bit more jaded. You can absolutely play an optimistic and happy kind of MC, but there are pieces of their past that have affected them and are currently affecting them to a lesser or greater degree depending on how you play. Ex. The death of their father is going to play a larger part throughout the story and will be depicted as something that haunts the MC rather than just being something that happened when they were little. The changes that have happened as they grew up - losing most of their old friends and ties as well as being curtly left by their closest friend/ex - has also affected them. The MC has some lingering abandonment issues there but it's up to you how the MC has developed because of them. There is a point in chapter 1 where it's mentioned that they currently find it difficult to grow close to people, but I'm going to update that section and offer different options that determines whether you keep an optimistic outlook or not soon.

The supporting cast/main cast

The relationships and characters are still at the center of the story. I want to make the bonds with them feel more organic and less "choose flirt, friendship, or rivalry" every time you interact with them.

In the original, the MC is thrown into this world together with M, and the group is (iirc) being very vague and generally unhelpful. I included romantic and friendship-raising scenes before you even knew anything about them, which is something I'm changing this time around (you still have romantic options during your first meeting with A and G, but they are not full romance scenes as such and only included because it fits the characters in question).

There's no longer a need to spend time with just 1 character and pick 1 right option. Instead, I want to include a lot of opportunities for you to get to know them, grow closer if you want to and keep your distance if you don't. I'm still in the process of developing this more, but all in all I want to include different branches for the relationships that aren't necessarily always as clearcut as friend/lover/rival, at least in the beginning when you don't know them well. Once the MC and the characters know each other better, I think more established roles like that will show more.

And about the romance, for those of you interested: I hadn't written much in the way of romance back when I wrote the original TSS. I actually think TSS is the first romance-related story I wrote at all. It was very much an exercise in writing in a lot of ways. Now that I have more experience I feel more confident in writing different kinds of romances, and there's going to be more romance-related content in the remake for those who choose that route. Those who aren't into romance have the option to get more platonic scenes, though!

In the original I interrupted scenes and threw in stuff that would delay certain revelations just for the sake of delaying, and the pacing, plot and characterization imo suffered as a result. The remake shows a group that is very much fractured, just like in the original (maybe more so now). They obviously know more than the MC does, but they all have different levels of knowledge and personal motivations that even others in the group don't know about. A and R obviously know each other from before, as do Q and A. But other than that it's very much a group that works together out of perceived necessity and their own motivations. Most of them don't trust one another either. They are also quicker to offer certain information and explain the situation to the MC since THEY also find themselves in a situation they didn't really predict due to unforeseen changes in their plans.

Basically they are a bit out of their depth at end of chapter 1 and chapter 2, and so they're on a bit more even ground with the MC in certain ways.

The Shadowman/Shadowlady is introduced a bit differently in chapter 2, and the main cast's backstories - and to some smaller extent, personalities - have been reworked/updated/changed.

The plot

Though I won't go into what happens in later chapters for obvious reasons, the narrative/plot is presented a bit differently. For example: in the original you met the group, had a 1 on 1 talk with one of the characters where you could raise friendship, romance or rivalry, then it was announced that you have to leave the house because it's no longer safe and the rest of the story takes place in the hideout and A and R's old home. But now that feels like a waste of an interesting story, because so much of the MC's past and so many secrets exist IN your old childhood home. That's why most of book 1 will take place inside the house itself.

It may sound less exciting, but it's not your typical house - while you need to stay in it for now, you'll soon realize that it sort of has a life of its own and can lead to places it shouldn't. I think it makes for a more intimate and personal experience as it allows you to explore more of your own character while giving you the option of growing closer to the other characters as well.

This got super long, but I hope all of that makes sense? If you (or anyone) has any questions regarding any of the info I've given just let me know <3

[guardian-of-time-if]

Guardian of Time FAQ

Hello readers! I've assembled this list of frequently asked questions which also includes some questions that don't get asked a lot but I still want to make clear.

Why is MC genderlocked/Will you consider making MC gender selectable?

I will not be making MC gender selectable. I know this is disappointing for a lot of people, but there are several reasons why I am set on this, so if playing a F!MC is a deal breaker, I hope you can find another game you enjoy. My reasons for genderlocking MC are a mix between technical, personal preference, and vision/plot/worldbuilding. Technically speaking, since this is my first game, I didn't want to make myself overwhelmed, so one of the ways I tried to limit the scope of the game is by keeping MC genderlocked. Preferencewise, I just wanted to write a story that was a female MC romancing men. In terms of plot and vision, I dont think the story would work with a gender selectable MC. Primarily because the emperor would never propose a marriage between MC and his son if MC was male as Nytheris doesn't have legal same sex marriage. While it may not seem like a big deal to take away the arranged marriage and have MC adopted outright or intergrated into the imperial family some other way, the coming chapters will have a lot of plot points that depend on the arranged marriage aspect. (And I couldn't just gender swap Lukyan because I'd also have to gender swap Tzesar and it would change a lot of the politics withing the imperial family.) I also wanted one of the themes of the story to be about angency, and have MC wrestle with how much control she really has over her own life. It's part of why the early chapters have a lot of other people making her deicisons for her. Due to how gendered Nytherian society is, I thought this theme was better explored with a female character. So those are my reasons, and I hope this is a good enough explaination of why I'm unwilling to budge on this.

2. Will you consider adding a female RO/making the RO's gender selectable?

The short answer is no. For the gender selectable issue in particular, I don't like gender selectable characters in IF, I know a lot of authors/readers prefer them, but I've always felt that characters with set genders are more fleshed out. I also don't want to deal with coding gender selectable characters. But this really comes down to, as I said above, I really wanted my first story to be a FMC with male RO's. I know that's not for everybody and I'm okay with that.

3. Do I have to romance anyone?

No, you don't. I'm still deciding how the nonromance route will look, but most likely when the other MC's get an RO scene, you'll get a friendhsip scene with Mercy instead.

4. What is your ask policy?

In gerneral, just be respectful. Thankfully, this hasn't really been a problem thus far. I do my best to answer every ask as soon as I can. Currently, my queue is set to release five asks a day and is backed up an entire week. The only things that I may refuse to answer are code diving questions or NSFW. If you have a question about the code, I'd prefer you DM me, there are a lot of details in the code, that I don't want to be public yet, and in some cases, it's organized in a way that will only make sense in my brain, and no one else's. Sometimes if something is vague enough, or I want to make sure it's clear, I will answer them, but in general, I probably won't. As for NSFW, my relationship with these is complicated. Mild/nonexplicit is probably okay, but nothing too detailed or explicit (such as asking about specific kinks). I know that's really vague, but in general, please just use your best judgement. If I find too many asks are crossing my boundaries, I'll switch to a blanket no NSFW policy, but so far you've all been very respectful, so I'm willing to take it ask by ask for now. If an NSFW question makes me too uncomfortable, I'll just delete it. As a side note, any NSWF content in the book will be fade to black. I'm just not comfortable writing smut.

5. Will we get to see Oren and Samira again?

All I'm willing to say on this is that you will get to see one of them again.

I reserve the right to update as nessecary. (If there's any question you all think you be added to the FAQ please let me know. These are just the only questions I can think of being asked frequently.)

P.S. I am going to start working on some RO profiles, and once they are done I'll link them here, and in the intro post.

[duplicityvn]

Welcome to Duplicity!

Below you’ll find links to tags and the new itch page (once part 1 releases; tags will be added as they’re posted). You’ll also find some general information about the game and what to expect from here on.

As per usual, this is a yandere game with dark themes and twists. It will feature an optional NSFW toggle, and it is not safe for minors. Minors DNI with this blog or the game.

Game development, art, & writing: me, @indycinders

Draft editing and Ideas Chief: @winndycakes

Game Summary:

It’s been several years since you’ve been home, and a lot has changed. After failing to meet the strict deadlines of your former publishing house, your contract was terminated and you were left to fend for yourself. Once a prolific and popular author of romance and adventure stories, you’re now forced to move back home to live in your best friend’s apartment as their roommate. Struggling to figure out the next book in your series, you’re faced with many life-changing events, such as having to go back to work a customer service job you thought you’d left behind.

As you navigate this new chapter in your life, you’ll meet friends, old and new, and perhaps finally experience your own romantic tale… Just don’t trust everyone you meet.

Art/Important Info:

Griffin Profile, Shipping memes

Tris Profile

Tag List:

#duplicityvn - general tag to encompass everything

#duplicitydevlogs - tag for dev-specific posts like progress and updates

#duplicity asks - tag for asks submitted to the blog

#duplicity griffin - Griffin specific tag

#duplicity tris - Tris specific tag

#duplicity taipan - Taipan specific tag

#duplicity dell - Dell specific tag

#duplicity nina - Nina specific tag

#duplicity savoy - Savoy specific tag

#duplicity riley - Riley specific tag

#duplicity melon - Melon specific tag

#duplicity mags - Mags specific tag

#duplicity all - general tag when everyone is involved in one post

#duplicity lore - tag for lore related to characters or settings

#duplicity AU - tag for AU posts and some silliness

#duplicity memes - tag for memes/silliness/etc.

Here’s some potential questions I might get that I’m proactively answering now:

Why was the old blog deleted?

-I had a bad experience in the community and wanted to remove myself from it completely. I also had no idea where the game direction was going. Honestly, it started out with me wanting to make a yandere game with no understanding of what was going to happen really.

Why are you continuing with Duplicity?

-Duplicity originally stemmed from vague ideas about a horror romance I had started writing three years ago. Really, only some of the character names were similar. Once I started to feel like I wanted to come back and resume with development, I knew it needed a complete overhaul. So I went back to that old story and started piecing it together so it would work for a visual novel!

What changed and what can we expect?

-In the original demo, the game’s MC was around 20 years old. This has changed to player preference of anywhere between 25-30. Why? Because I’ve been wanting to see older characters in yandere visual novels, and just in VNs in general. I also don’t feel comfortable writing younger characters anymore. The characters’ ages will change depending on yours as well, which will be explained later. The only characters who have set ages are Mags and Melon.

-Speaking of characters, Sophie is no longer part of the story. I didn’t think about it at the time but I don’t want a minor to be included in this story when she’s not directly related to anyone, like a sister or a niece or something. In her place are several new characters: Nina, Savoy, and Melon.

-The game will be released in 3 parts instead of on a day-to-day basis. Part one will be mostly introductory but lengthy, part two will probably be the longest, and part three will mostly be focused on the endings of each route.

-The game will have more than just Griffin’s route. There are currently 9 endings I’m in the process of planning.

-As of the publishing of this post, everything previously known to the game is no longer canon, except for a few things.

What kind of asks can we send?

-Asks pertaining to the game and its characters and settings are all completely fine. In fact, it’ll probably help me develop the characters even better.

-NSFW asks are allowed! While there might not be NSFW in the base game (still juggling around the idea of a paid NSFW version), I am happy to write little fics if people are wanting them. I love writing, give me prompts!

-Hateful, derogatory, or other such topics that are sent to this blog will not be tolerated nor published. I wish to promote a safe space for everyone, and I won’t pay attention to any negativity.

-Silly and nonsensical asks are also allowed if they aren’t negative in context.

Alright this was long lmao but I hope it encompasses the general idea of what to expect from here on out! I’m not putting myself on a publishing schedule and I will update as frequently or as little as I do. I’m an anxious bean and can only do so much.

[sinsinsininning]

A little bit softer

Chapter 4

Eustass Kid x crew mate!fem!Reader

This includes Kid’s POV of the end of Chapter 3 while the reader is in the shower. 😳

Also to clarify, Badger is a made up character, I didn’t feel like incorporating a cannon character into the reader’s backstory. I spent literally 2 seconds on the name and even less time on a vague description of him which I’ll post later.

TW: swearing, voyeurism, masturbating (both male and female)

~~~~~~~

After you left him on the deck, Kid ate slowly, thinking out the details of his next steps. He had no idea where this bastard, Badger, was or even what he’d look like.

Plus the West Blue was crawling with dangerous crews and the notorious 5 Families of the West, headed up by Capone Bege. Not someone Kid was on good terms with and, depending on how deep into the West they’d go, someone they’d likely run into.

While Kid would prefer to just make this a quick mission, so they could double back and enter the Grand Line, he was excited to think of all the practice the crew would get fighting all these other crews. It’d be good training before they entered the New World.

After finishing, he pulled out the maps and started charting again. Wire eventually returned to join him and the two worked quietly. Kid was making a list of things they could get while in the West Blue when Wire spoke up.

“So what’s this Captain’s name?”

“Why’re you asking?” Kid growled. “Just chart the stupid map.”

“I’m nearly done, I just need to know where to find him, then I can finalize the map. Right now I’ve just got it charted how to get there while avoiding marines bases and included supply stops. But I need a specific area to finish.”

“His name is Badger.” Kid said after a beat.

“Is that his first name or last name?” Wire asked.

“The fuck if I know. His name is Badger, he’s in the West Blue, and I’m gonna kill him. Make the map.” Kid blustered for a moment, he felt a little silly, all this effort and he didn’t even know who the guy was. Fuck he didn’t even know if you’d been honest…. Nah you were nearly crying, you wouldn’t lie like that. Wire sighed heavily and Kid nearly smashed the table.

“Ok, I can’t finish it tonight, but I’ll go through some logs and see if I can get more info on him.” Wire relented, knowing the captain was at his limit. “We should be able to make it to the next island tomorrow, I’ll do some more digging then too.” Kid grunted an acknowledgement, head down as he finished his list, pen nearly tearing the paper.

Wire stood and started putting the supplies away, he glanced at his captain.

“Boss… you know-“ He paused and considered himself, Kid glanced at him with a scowl. Better play it safe. “Just let me know if you need anything, you know I’d help.” Kid bristled at that, but just grunted again to dismiss the tall man.

He doodled a few sketches of his projects on the list, trying to clear his head. Eventually he puts everything up and leans against the railing, watching the waves and night sky.

After an hour or so, Heat joins him to take his watch shift, but brought a few beers for his captain. Kid downs his first two quickly, then nurses the next one.

“It’s none of my business,” Heat starts off.

“Then don’t fucking bring it up.” Kid snaps.

“But I think we should get rid of the sniper rookie.” Heat continues, eyes on the coast.

“What? Why the fuck do you think that?” Kid stood to shout at him. “Thought you two were buddy-buddy?!” He could keep the jealously out of voice.

“She’s alright. But she’s soft.” Heat isn’t phased by the shouting. “She won’t make it in the Grand Line. We can’t have that type of weakness.”

“Quincy’s soft. Wire’s soft. You questioning my authority huh?” Kid gulped the rest of his drink and tossed the bottle behind him. “You think I keep a weak crew?! That what you’re trying to say?!”

“The only thing she’s got going for her is she’s cute.” Heat added nonchalantly, Kid was fuming.

“Fuck off like she’d want your ugly, stitched up headed ass!” Kid grabbed his vest, forcing the other man to look at him. “She’s staying, she’s a good sniper and a good crew mate. Fucking question me again and I’ll fucking throw you overboard!” Heat grinned and Kid felt like he’d been caught.

“I get why everyone’s been fucking with you lately,” Heat chuckled. “It’s fun. You’re so biased for her, I’m a little jealous really, wish you’d defend me this hard.”

Kid wanted to shout again but he felt like he’d reveal too much. Well, more than what he’d already done. His face was hot and he felt deflated, but he released Heat with a shove.

“Maybe if ya did your job and not play mind games I would.” He finally says, Heat resumes his watch. An awkward silence falls over them.

“It’s not that bad, Boss. Trust me it could be worse. Imagine you liked Pomp? He’s fucking insane. I heard he sold his ex husband’s kidney for cheating on him in a dream.” Heat tried to console his friend, not his forte, but he felt a little bad at his trick. Kid let out a short laugh.

“Fuckin’ hell that can’t be true…. Can it?” He started on his next beer, sitting back down. They laugh together again.

“I don’t actually think we should get rid of her. Just sayin.”

“I know.”

“Yeah she’s soft, but she saved my ass that last fight, shooting that guy trying to creep up on me while I was taking care of Reck.”

Kid just hummed in response, still hesitant to say anything about her. Heat noticed.

“I promise it’s not that bad.”

Silence.

“I don’t think she’s scared of you, not really at least.”

“I heard what she said to you.”

“I think she’s scared of her ex captain. Should make her sit down with Wire, he’d sort her head out.” Heat lit a cigarette, offering a pull to Kid who shook his head.

“Not a bad idea. Just don’t want anyone knowing how-“ He paused. “She can go to Wire but I’m not gonna make her.” He said finally, Heat nodded in understanding.

“You can’t say it, I gotcha.”

“I can’t say it first.” Kid sighed, finishing his last bottle.

“Makes sense. Don’t worry,” Heat claps his hand on the captain’s shoulder. “It’ll happen.”

“Since when have you gotten this mushy?” Kid sneered. “I hate it. Go back to minding your own business.” Heat laughed as his captain got up. It was past midnight and he was tired.

He made his way down the halls, he needed to return his dishes or else Killer would bitch at him all day tomorrow. He placed them in the sink, then a thought struck him. Quickly glancing in the fridge, your plate was still there, all wrapped up nicely.

You hadn’t eaten since breakfast, he slammed the fridge shut. Fuck, you probably hadn’t finished your shit yet. He stalked down the halls towards your make shift shop room, irritated that you’d not finished yet and had still not eaten.

A small part of him was excited to have an excuse to talk to you, even if it was just to bitch at you. Maybe he’d walk you to the galley personally, to make sure you followed orders. Maybe he’d sit with you as you ate too, couldn’t let you try to skip out. After that he’d grumble at you for making him stay up late to babysit you, even though he chose to do it.

Then he may as well make you go to bed. His bed. With him. Obviously to make sure you didn’t try to sneak back to your project. He’d keep you pressed in his arms all night to ensure you didn’t try anything.

Fuck he needed to stop, he was hard in the middle of the hallway. He adjusted his belt before entering the shop room, hoping it’d hide his arousal. Somehow the shop was empty, all the weapons cleaned and stacked up correctly. He looked around for any mistakes or mess you’d left behind, anything that’d allow him a chance to speak with you.

But the room was spotless, everything put away correctly. Then where the fuck were you? He wondered if you went to bed right away, tempted to check your bunk. He headed toward it, pausing when he passed by the bathrooms, steam pouring out the door.

The doors to the bathrooms all had hatches at the top that opened to allow steam to vent. He was a little impressed that the hot water still worked after everyone’s showers.

With you in the stalls he didn’t have any excuse to bother you, you’d finished your work and unless he wanted to wait until you were out to force you to the galley, he was out of luck for tonight. Kid turned to go when he heard you moan.

Oh fuck.

He glanced around the halls, no one could hear you or see him palm his cock over his pants. You weren’t generous with your noises, obviously trying to stifle them, but some slipped out.

Your groans and whines sounded frustrated, like you couldn’t work how you wanted. He reached his hand inside his pants to grip himself, jaw clenched almost painfully to avoid alerting you. His mind filled in the gaps of what he couldn’t see. He pictured walking in and offering to help you reach your climax, since you still seemed to struggle.

He thought about how’d you’d look right then if he did, wet and naked, probably surprised and shy. Maybe you’d try to cover yourself, until you’d realize what he was offering. Or maybe you already knew he was there, confident he’d join you. Maybe you’d tell him exactly what you wanted from him.

He’d let you boss him around, at least at the start, but after you cum once or twice, then he’d be in control again. He thumbed his slit right as you let out a different moan.

Oh. That one was much more satisfied, he didn’t know what changed to make everything work for you, but he was pleased. He stroked himself faster now, checking the halls quickly, then held his ear to the open hatch. Your whines and moans were breathier, much more high pitched. He squeezed his cock, picturing it was you. When he closed his eyes and really focused on listening, he swore he could hear how wet your pussy sounds.

Your moans are getting faster and he tries to keep up, hand pumping hard to get himself off. Finally you let off a loud moan, cutting yourself off halfway through in a pathetic attempt to be quiet. He’s not quite there yet, so he moves his hand fast, but freezes when you turn of the shower.

Shit you were done. He was fucked.

Without adjusting his pants he quickly walks down the hall, his workshop is closer than his room. It’ll have to do for now, it’s not the first time he’s jacked off in there. He gets the door closed and locked before resuming.

Part of him is irritated, his high was so close just to be edged back. But more of him felt a little proud, you’d gotten off before him, as you should. Yeah it wasn’t like he’d gotten you to cum, but it still stroked his ego. He thought about that as he sat down, hand around himself again, stroking quickly.

He wondered how many times he should make you cum before he did. Hell how many times should you cum before he even fucked you with his cock. At least two times on his fingers and maybe three times of his tongue, that seemed fair.

He rubbed his tip harshly as he thought about your sounds, they were so sweet and full of emotion. Kid could basically read your mind from how expressive you were, so open and honest with your lewd moans. He could tell when you were close, when you were struggling, and even when something clicked. He wondered what it was that made you moan like that, thinking of ways to extract that info.

His climax caught him off guard as he thought about you. He came across his hand and chest with a groan, some of his spend getting on his pants. As he came down, panting as he leaned back in his chair, he could hear you walking down the hall.

Leaping up, he tucked himself back into his pants, grabbed an old rag to wipe the cooling cum from his hands and chest. He knocked over the chair and toppled a few tools in his haste. Your steps were quiet but he was hyper aware of you as you passed the door.

After a few minutes of quiet he finally exited, going straight to his room and laying face down on the bed. He wanted to shout but settled for smothering himself until he finally dozed off.

[primusfortuna]

Major Update

Yumekuro will be ending service on November 19, 2024 at 12:00 JST.

Below is some information on Yumekuro Offline, a version of the game that can be accessed even after the servers close. Please let me know if I missed anything important.

Yumekuro Offline

Yumekuro Offline is a static copy of your user data. You will be able to preserve and view all progress you personally have made in the game, but you cannot build your account or obtain new cards.

To download your data, click this button in the lower right of your home screen. The file size will depend on how much content is in your account.

The download option is available from now until November 19, 2024.

After completing the download, if you obtain any new data (ie. new cards or story chapters), they will not carry over to your version of Yumekuro Offline by default. You must redownload your data to preserve any new content you acquire. You can redownload as many times as needed.

IMPORTANT: You will not be able to regain access if you delete or try to reinstall the app after November 19. Some devices have a setting that automatically offloads apps or puts them into "deep sleep" mode. Please make sure to turn this setting off if you're worried about losing access.

What Carries Over to Yumekuro Offline?

Many features will be disabled in Yumekuro Offline. Below is a list of what you can still access.

▪ Home Screen Remains mostly unchanged. You can still set characters, backgrounds, and time-specific voice lines. You can now view player's birthday messages from your owned characters any day of the year.

▪ Stories The following will be made fully accessible, even if you haven't unlocked them yourself:

Main story*

All event stories (including collabs)

Misc stories (ie. login stories, Black Summer, Grand Finale)

*The current Prologue & Chapter 0 of Main Story will be slightly rewritten to omit the battle and gacha features.

All other stories will only be available if you've already unlocked them. This includes:

Meister and fairy cards

Affection stories

Voice dramas

"His perspective" stories

Past stories

Guild stories

Other stories (past exploration, hunting, stadium, fairy events)

EXCEPTION: These card stories will be available to read even if you don't have them unlocked: ・ Crow, Itsuki, Grandflair (Beginning of a Dream) ・ Evan, Navi, Himmel (Beginning of a Bond)

This only includes the card chapters, not their affection stories or outing lines.

Keep in mind that you cannot upgrade cards in Yumekuro Offline, so you MUST unlock all the chapters you want to preserve before completing your data download.

▪ Guild Life All Guild Home features remain intact, limited to the cards you own. You can now view player and meisters' birthday dialogues regardless of the day. Keeper's Board messages will still be available, but you can't obtain new ones.

▪ Library All information in here will remain viewable. The glossary can still be updated if you unlock new terms.

▪ Collection You can view badges and boards you already own.

▪ Alarm You can still use the alarm function.

▪ Player Profile Able to edit your profile like before.

New Additions

Some new features will be exclusive to Yumekuro Offline. As usual, access to these features is limited to the cards you own.

You'll now be able to access meisters' outing invites and thank-you messages under the "Memories" (思い出) section of the Keeper's Board.

A LOT of voice lines will be added to the Library:

Outings - Max skinship

Outings - Give a present

Login bonus - Daily

Login bonus - Total

Shop lines

Past exploration - Start exploration

Past exploration - During exploration

Past exploration - End exploration

Outings - Max presents

Various battle lines

★ Some unreleased voice lines will also be available:

Seasonal voice lines - Date on a cold day (all meisters)

Seasonal voice lines - Things to do at the harvest fair (all fairies)

Meister birthday lines for years 2-3

Player birthday lines for years 2-3 (from meisters & fairies)

Disabled Features

All quests/battles

Building characters/cards

Campaigns

Data restoration

Data transfer

Events

Event reruns

Friend feature

Gacha

Guild orders

Hunting

Increasing affection level

Increasing guild level

Increasing player level

Login bonuses

Meister birthdays (you can still access the voice lines in the Library)

Minigames

Missions

Obtaining and using items

Outings

Past exploration

Presents

Push notifications

Set support characters

Shop

Stadium

[ddwcaph-game]

Ask Guidelines Update

Now that I've cleared my ask backlog from the latest update, I've added the following to the FAQ:

To ensure a better response time from me, PLEASE LIMIT CHARACTER-RELATED ASKS TO 2 CHARACTERS. I might include other characters to my answer if I feel like it, but this will help me a lot in lightening my mental load when it comes to unanswered asks. I figure this is much better than restricting those kinds of asks entirely. I hope you understand!

Again, please keep in mind that I have trouble answering "favorite" asks in general unless it's something I've already established. It's not something I enjoy answering, and it'd be much easier for me to answer if a character would like something, rather than asking what their favorites are.

What's in the Next Update?

Anyway, before I decide how I'm going forward with Chapter 6, I’m also planning a smaller update later:

Extra ancestry flavor text

New NP option to ask Julie/Robert to pick you up even if your MC isn’t short

An entirely new discoverable secret for Tito Nestor that can help you with your sidequest

[T-Rex Tooth Replica] Souvenir will now give extra Max NP on successful Intimidation checks

Certain customization choices in the prologue are no longer considered NP choices.

A super special surprise!

The majority also seem in favor of the new Alternate Musical Scenes, so I might include that in the next update as well.

I'm also considering on reworking the [Five-Year-Old MC's Wish] Sidequests and change it to some sort of "bucket list" instead, so it's less restrictive to certain playstyles. Instead of specific objectives, you need to complete an X amount of goals (from a list of objectives based on your traits that you can do repeatedly), and you will gain additional EXP and NP for every milestone you achieve.

For example, MCs with the [Sweet Tooth] Trait will have "Eat sweets or desserts" as one of their goals. If you have a very high Manipulative stat, increasing/decreasing your Manipulative stat might also be one of your goals depending on your other traits.

I know it's hard to do with a mostly linear narrative, but I'm trying to add more emergent gameplay/mechanics to the story, so that you always feel like you're progressing towards something, and so that different playthroughs feel more unique to each other.

Bug Fixes

On another note, I just fixed a bunch of bugs (I fixed the first two secretly earlier):

Fixed certain clubs displaying incorrectly in the About Me section.

Fixed a bug in JM Sr.'s diary entry when a certain secret has been discovered.

Separated relative height choice in the prologue and moved to Chapter 2 to fix a bug with Dwarf/Halfling/Gnome/Goblin MCs being able to pick the [Tall-Blooded] Trait.

Minor edits/typo correction.

Roselyna is now approximately 2% more huggable!

[villainintern]

A compiled FAQ of things people are commonly curious about. ⬇️

(For the TL,DR short answers- skim the bolded words!)

How often will the demo update?

As fast as I can write it, every few months on average! This is a passion project of mine I guess, I'm working on it whenever I have free time (and daydreaming about it during my other responsibilities). However, I am a full time college student with a part time job, and also a part time actual internship, so I usually have some other thing on my front burner. But I want to get this thing done ASAP so I can submit it for publishing!

Help, I'm stuck at my desk computer!

This isn't the end! You've reached a mini-puzzle. Hints and solution here.

How will my super-abilities upgrade/change as the game progresses?

Your eventual power ups will happen on their own. They look a lot like "upgraded" versions of the initial abilities- sort of spin-offs, similar but stronger and with a twist to keep things interesting. It unfortunately won't be a branching choice (too many ability combos to track) but it will vary quite a bit depending on your initial power picks.

Genoid players will experience a mutation. Dormant genes will activate, causing a physical transformation and enhanced creature abilities.

The cyborg skill tree is gated by how much energy you can store in your power banks. This improves as you get better batteries. Your character will tinker on themselves, improving old augments and adding new ones to account for weaknesses.

Will there be romance? Who are the romantic options?

While my main focus is plot and story, Villain Intern is very character driven, you'll be able to have all sorts of unique and varying dynamics with the people you meet. Your romantic endeavors are absolutely a part of this (so yes!).

Currently, I have optional romantic storylines planned for Reid/Reney Sullivan, Peter Hyde, Dr. Elaine Foster, T9-670, and Blink.

My goal is to integrate these with the main plot as much as possible, so they feel like natural progressions rather than side-stories. For the less inclined, and to encourage interaction with the whole cast, you can also forge friendships, make frenemies, enemies, recruit minions, swear allegiances, develop a nemesis, become a sidekick to bigger villains/heroes, etc!

Will there be explicit content?

I generally don't write erotica, and I don't plan to include, like, explicit sex scenes. Apologies if you were hoping for that! That's not to say sex doesn't exist in the story, you may see fade-to-blacks and innuendos and stuff like that depending on your choices.

However, I reserve the right to include as much cursing and wanton violence as I please.

How long will the finished game be? Is there a sequel/series planned?

Personally, I think an interactive fiction game needs at least 500,000 words to really feel complete. So expect that, and probably more! As for the sequel- yes, that's in my outlines. By the end of this game, your character will either be promoted, defect to the superhero company, or fail to do either for various reasons. So naturally we'll need to see how that plays out- an internship is just the first chapter of your career, after all.

Will this game be screen reader friendly? Will you add a screen reader mode?

Yes, accessibility is important to me! It's difficult to implement in beta, with so much of the text and code in flux, but when things are finalized I'll go back and add a complete screen reader mode. There will be more updates & info posts for this down the line.

I have a question/concern that isn't listed here.

Please stop my my inbox! I'm grateful for everyone's generous interest, feedback, and bug testing, and I'm more than happy to chat about whatever. Also, it's fun to get mail. 💌

[yukiteruakari]

If Leon had lived longer or survived, I believe he would've been one of the main characters in the story.

I usually see promotional materials, such as merchandise, including Sayaka alongside the main trio of THH, despite her death in chapter 1. This is understandable given her early portrayal as the heroine. However, let me explain why it would also make sense for Leon to be included in the main group if the story had focused on him as it did with Sayaka.

Danganronpa often pairs characters with others who complement their themes, forming what I call "narrative partners," whether in duos or trios. This isn't just limited to main characters—most have these connections, though there are exceptions.

Leon's narrative partner is Sayaka. They are designed as complementary opposites, each embodying the game's central theme of "talent" more than any other characters, a theme that wasn't touched upon after their early deaths in the story. Also, Leon's crush on Sayaka, which is evident throughout the Danganronpa series, further ties their stories together. They were also the first characters created, serving as a foundation for the series.

Moreover, Leon shares characteristics with the "best friend" archetype seen in other Danganronpa games, like Kazuichi and Kaito. I would argue that these characters were inspired by Leon, suggesting that if he had survived, he would likely have become close friends with Makoto, potentially forming a trio with Makoto and Sayaka. This is supported by class photos showing them together, hinting at a potential narrative thread that was never explored. This relationship could have added depth to Makoto's character and made his optimism more realistic by showing it develop through genuine friendships, rather than it coming out of seemingly nowhere.

Including Leon and Sayaka in the story would have not only supported Makoto's 'optimistic' character trait through their friendship but also balanced out the stoicism of Kyoko and Byakuya. This balance is necessary, in my opinion, because Makoto often gets overshadowed by the two, who generally aren't very friendly, creating a rather unbalanced group dynamic.

Just as Sayaka relies on intuition and Kyoko depends on logic and facts, Byakuya's uptight and overly serious demeanor would clash with Leon's more light-hearted and playful nature. With Kyoko and Byakuya providing logical perspectives and Sayaka and Leon adding emotional depth and sentimentality, the group dynamics would have become more engaging and interesting, in my opinion.

I would have enjoyed seeing Sayaka and Leon embody the themes of talent, alongside Makoto and Junko symbolizing hope versus despair, with Kyoko representing mystery, thus tying together Danganronpa's main themes, with Byakuya taking on the role of the crucial anti-hero of the story. I also feel that this would have been much better than what we originally got, to be honest.

These are just my thoughts, but I'd love to hear your ideas too.

Oh, and maybe I should note that the official character list for THH goes exactly as follows: Makoto, Sayaka, Leon, Kyoko, and Byakuya. So, I shared an official picture of them together at the top! It makes me really happy.

Thank you for reading. :)

[danganronpa96]

I’ve heard mentions of a hypothetical 3rd killing game but I can’t actually find the original post so I guess this is a uh

Can you link back to it

And also share any new ideas you might have had

For posts about the 3rd hypothetical killing game, I did actually make a tag for that! I'll add it onto this post as well so you can look through all the other posts easily.

For talk about the most up to date list of potential cast members so far, you can find that in this post here!

And for those wondering, I have come up with a few more characters since then.

First, I'm thinking of scrapping Kokomi, and replacing her with Ena Shinonome (Project Sekai). Kanade gets a friend yippee! Also I know that gets rid of the potential "protag finally comes alone without a friend from their media" idea but this killing game will never actually happen so put down the complaint slab.

The thing is, however, Ena isn't just going to be a support, but actually a second protagonist! How does that work? Well, uh, I haven't really decided on all the specifics but I was thinking at certain points in the narrative, the POV would swap between Kanade and Ena. Whether this be in the same chapter, or one POV per chapter, I'm not sure. Does this make them exempt from either of them dying with this concept? Not really, but it depends how everything would play out.

Otherwise, some other characters I'd like to add next include: Rodrick Heffley (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) because I think his personality would be a funny clash with some others, and Filbo Fiddlepie (Bugsnax) as I recently re-watched that funny lil game and thought it would nice to add some rep from that. I mean, it doesn't have to be Filbo but he also has an interesting personality to add to the mix. And since we already have some puppet/la creatura characters like Duck, Pim and Charlie, it's not like he'd stick out like a sore thumb.

I was also thinking of maaaybe adding some rep from Lookism? Does anyone know what that is? It's this Korean webcomic about a guy with two bodies (where one is hyper conventionally attractive) and also there's a fight scene every other panel /hj

Character wise for that I was thinking either Vasco, Zoe, Jiho or Jay since they're my favourites heha

[sanguinesky-if]

[Dev Log] October 2024

Hello! Hope your autumn days are going well!

This dev log provides information about the public release of Chapter 3 Pt. 1, as well as the new features I've added and those I plan to implement before moving on to Chapter 3 Pt. 2, so you might find it interesting to read to the end.

Announcement: Chapter 3 Pt. 1 public release will be delayed.

Why?

As I stated before, I don't want to release the demo to the public until everything I want to include is finished. Unfortunately, I realized how to improve certain aspects and saw the opportunity to add more content only after I released the demo. Therefore, the demo will be expanded, and some parts that didn't turn out well will be reworked. [A detailed list of tasks I need to complete is included in the "About my plans for the current month" section.]

When will there be a public release then?

Not this month. The release date for the expanded demo will be announced at the end of October and will be released on Patreon first before being made available to the public.

I apologize for keeping you waiting, but I hope that when Chapter 3 Pt. 1 is finally released to the public, you'll find it worth the wait.

What was accomplished last month?

Added a new feature: the MC's smoking habit.

[Important note: this feature will be available in the expanded demo.] Now, you have four available options for your MC: 1. The MC smokes. 2. The MC has quit smoking but is tempted to start again. 3. The MC does not smoke but is tempted to try due to the stress around them. 4. The MC doesn't smoke. The second and third options will be reflected in moments of stress or when around others who are smoking [option to resume / begin smoking will be provided later in the story]. The first option [the MC smokes] will be reflected frequently in the narrative:

Fixed many bugs and errors in Chapter 3 Pt. 1.

Many grammatical and coding errors have been corrected, and I want to apologize to everyone who encounter it and ruining your reading experience. I really owe my thanks to readers who helped me to correct them and grateful to everyone who read my story despite of them. However, after this update it became clear to me that no matter how hard I try, my efforts aren't enough to maintain the right level of grammatical accuracy. That's why, most likely starting with the next update [or Chapter 4], I'll try to conduct beta tests. I hope this will help me identify and fix bugs and errors before the update is released on Patreon.

Finished L's Side Story translation.

About my plans for the current month.

Here's the current list of tasks I'll be working:

Chapters 2 and 3 will be expanded to include a new secondary character who will offer an alternative to Paul(a)'s path.

Reason: to explain briefly and without spoilers, my unplanned decision implemented in Chapter 3 Pt. 1 to give players more choices resulted in negative consequences, where players had to select options that may not align with their MC's personality just to access more content with some of the ROs. This is not how I want it to be in the IF I create, and the new addition will ensure that jealousy is based on the relationships the player has established with these secondary characters by choice, not on the MC's personality.

The content featuring Paul(a) in Chapter 3 Pt. 1 will be reworked [Paul(a) will now appear at a "flirt" status, not only "fwb"].

The variations of K's and Morgan's scenes without jealousy will be reworked [adding more content with them if Paul(a) or the new character doesn't appear].

The "Secondary Rivals" section in the "Romance System Overview" will be expanded [secondary characters will receive special indicators to help players understand which of the presented options establish relationships with them that will affect jealousy moments].

New variables will be implemented to make it easier to recognize the height differences between the ROs and the MC [taller / the same / shorter, depending on the ROs' gender and chosen height]. This will simplify height considerations without repetitive code statements I had to write.

L's Side Story: I need to finish outlining and begin filling in the sections that were left untouched in the drafts. After that, it's on to coding and refining, which is the longest part of the process.

In addition to that, the bonus content on Patreon that will be released this month will include:

K's NSFW Alphabet.

Morgan's POV [Chapter 3 Pt. 1].

A detailed content release schedule for Patreon can be found here.

As you can see, that's a lot of work, but the rework and expansion are necessary to ensure that everything is handled properly so I can move the story forward without needing to go back and fix things when it might already be too late.

Thank you for reading to the end, I'm very grateful for your support, questions and messages!

Have a wonderful week and days after that! ♥

[basedonconjecture]

those AI comments are so awful :( but actually, please talk about your drafting process? What usually starts you off, an idea/specific sentence/ship dynamic/etc? Are you a full outliner or do you just dive in and start writing? Do you write scenes in order or skip around? And anything else you want to talk about (:

yeah, it's p disheartening if I'm being honest, and I was like, haha, not in a great place about it earlier but! we! persist!

What starts me off could be anything! Sometimes it's a really strong idea of a scene—sometimes it's a fight scene, sometimes a conversation—and other times it's like....a vibe that I have to investigate a bit more. I usually have to chew on it for a bit before I commit fully, either way.

Then my process depends on the piece as to how detailed I'll get with it! I mostly envision things in scenes so for, like, one shots I don't do much planning for it, unless there's specific things I want to happen. Even in that case it's usually a quick an dirty synopsis and maybe a list of things I want to include. Those are pretty easy because I'm not trying to connect it to anything or make it make sense within a longer piece. I can just roll with the idea and see what happens.

I have learned with longer things, especially multi-chapter things, I really need like....a good 15-20k words before it starts to take shape. So, what will happen is that I take the idea, and run with it as far as it will take me, and then build off of that.

I used to be a dedicated pantser annnnnd never finished anything so I have to make myself outline at some point to keep going. But! My brain rejects most styles of outlining so I trick it by calling it a "road map" and keeping it really simple and leaving myself room to detour or move things around. It's like having a guide for when I get lost in the weeds but doesn't lock me in to anything.

My world- and character-building tends to go in a similar way: I get the basics and then build it out as far as I need it to go, adding, and shaping to whatever the story needs. I really like the term gardener when it comes to what my style is and I think it's the most apt for process?? It's almost midnight for me now and I'm about to start rambling like a mad scientist about planting very tiny seeds for later.

I do write pretty linearly for that reason, though. Unless I just have a really strong idea I need to get out of my head, I just start at the beginning and roll merrily along. If I'm skipping ahead, it's not usually very far, tbh.

This turned out very rambly (I've been awake way too long I think) so hopefully this makes sense! I could probably think of more thingssss but this is long enough already rofl

Thank you so much for asking, it really brightened my day <3 :')

[lou-wilham]

So since we're back on the bullshit that is discussing piracy and utilizing AI as a tool to write books, I feel like it's important to have a discussion about how long it takes to write a book.

Bear in mind, I'm an outlier. This process works for me, and this is the speed at which I write, but I am in no way the average author as I don't have a full time gig (I freelance), I don't have kids (I have a dog), and I don't have a family to take care of. That puts me in the position where I can work these hours on my craft, but this is in no way common.

TLDR: It takes Lou 16ish weeks (on the low end) to write a book, and this is why my books being scraped off a pirate site to fuel an AI pisses me off.

This sucker got long on me so... For my full process, and schedule, check beneath the cut.

Lou's Process

Step one: The Idea! - 10 mins

This initial spark usually comes when I’m engaging with another piece of media and I start asking questions. It doesn’t take very long at all. A moment of “oh but what if...” then the idea goes into a big notebook full of ideas

Step two: Fleshing it out - several weeks

This is when that initial spark graduates to its own notebook. I start getting world building, character building, dialogue, and all that good stuff. Depending on what else I’m doing this can take several weeks, especially if I have to do research to nail certain aspects of the story down.

Step three: Outline - 1-5 days

The outlining process also depends on what else I’m working on. But usually takes me a couple of days.

Step four: First Draft - 6-10 weeks

The very first draft usually takes anywhere from 6 to 10 weeks depending on how much I’m pushing myself to finish, and again how much other work I have to do.

Step five: Alpha Read - 1 week

This is the point at which I format the first draft, send it to my ipad, and read it through whole cloth myself. I write myself notes in the margins, and find any typos I can on the first pass.

Step six: Alpha Revisions - 1-2 weeks

I send my pdf with all my notes, and set to work tackling the things I noticed on my first pass. This can include fleshing out scenes, adding chapters, filling plot holes, and fixing typos.

Step seven: Beta Read - 1-4 weeks

The second draft goes out to beta readers. I usually give my beta readers anywhere from a couple weeks to a month depending on how tight my schedule is.

Step eight: Beta Revisions - 1-2 weeks

Depending on what the beta readers say, I spend a couple weeks working on this round of revisions. This also includes my second pass whole cloth where I make their changes, and read through it myself to make yet more changes.

Steph nine: Editor - a month-ish

This new draft goes to my editor, and they sit with it for a few weeks.

Step ten: Editor Revisions - 1-2 weeks

Again, this depends on the breadth of changes my editor recommends. Usually I don’t have to do more than hit typos, and alter a few sentences for clarity, but sometimes I have to add scenes.

Step 11: Final Read Through - 1-2 weeks

I format it again, and send it to my ipad again, and look for typos or last minute things, then I make those changes.

Lou's Schedule

Monday - Friday (and sometimes weekends)

10/11: Wake up. (I am not an early bird, never have been, never will be.) Make tea. Eat something for breakfast. Try to get myself feeling like a person.

12-2: This is a low estimate, but I spend this time dealing with social media stuff, returning emails, and generally trying to tackle my todo list. I also usually eat lunch at my desk in here somewhere.

2-4:30ish: Writing time. This is either drafting, outlining, or revising time, depending on what project is currently on my plate. I usually set a chapter goal, 1 chapter drafted, 2-5 chapters revised.

5ish: Dinner with the fam.

5:30/6ish-7/7:30: I circle back to writing time if I haven’t hit my goal already. If I have I circle back to my todo list, and try to tackle more of that.

7/7:30-9ish: Cardio. Whitney Spradling and I have cardio dates 4 nights a week where we do cardio while watching a drama or anime or something together.

9ish-1ish: Snack, shower, reading time.