namelessdeceased

[namelessdeceased]

Which ROS like to soak in baths and which hate baths?

with an honorable mention of sebastian because he’s the sebastiuzz

Loves Baths: [A], Rylan (it’s the ultimate relaxation time)

Doesn’t Care: N (please don’t drag them into this debate)

Hates Baths: Blane, K (because why would you enjoy soaking in your own filth while your skin prunes up?)

Honourable Mentions:

Caine doesn’t care either way

Sebastian prefers baths but doesn’t mind a shower (especially for efficiency and time)

[namelessdeceased]

Monthly Progress Update [20/JUL]

Hey gang, hope you’ve been doing well and enjoying your summer so far ✨

As promised, a progress update for this month! This will be a more general summary of the more detailed ones I've been posting on the Patreon every week, so if you're a member of that, this won't contain any new info for you 🙏🏼

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been chipping away at CH14 and making steady progress. After wrapping up CH13 and handling a round of bug fixes, I took a short breather before jumping back in, and so far it's been going well!

During the start of July most of my time went into outlining and building out the structure of CH14, which comes with a lot of variations at the beginning depending on your previous choices. These include things like:

A scene for R’s belated birthday gift, with a special variation for R romancers 💖

Differences based on your choices regarding Kham/Eshkar

Whether Yekbûn is still alive or not

Whether you got any citizens killed in CH9

Whether you had Ishrah spy on Bazo

A small extra variation for X romancers

Variation depending on your choices made during the public petitions last chapter

And that’s just the beginning of the chapter lol. There will be variations for A and D incoming too at later points in the chapter. It’s all necessary to tie up loose ends before the Crown and their companions set off on what I've lovingly decided to call the Road Trip for CH14/15 🤪

Basically, the Road Trip is gonna be a big shift in tone from courtly intrigue to more adventure and exploration, and it’s been super fun to work on so far. It’s also a great chance to dive deeper into the relationships with the cast, especially romances and friendships. You can expect a lot of bonding time, character moments, and new scenery as the Crown travels through Rojan's wilderness 👀

I’ve also started implementing a feature I meant to insert much earlier but hadn't got around to until now: letting you define your Crown’s hobbies and interests! These will come into play during the journey and help shape the flavor of different scenes to help shape your Crown in more fun ways for once haha

In terms of actual writing, I’ve gotten a few thousand words in, mostly on the scenes I’m most excited about. That includes:

A pretty major romance choice with R that’ll impact your relationship going forward, like how X and D got last chapter

A scene with X that shows their popularity among common folks for the first time, since we haven’t seen much of that side of them yet

Some variations in how the public reacts to your expedition, based on the decisions you made in CH13

And the return of the Crescent Blades! Expect lots of interaction with them throughout this chapter and the next, especially with familiar faces like Heval, Tûjo, and Şanazî 🫶🏼

This past specifically I’ve been writing some of the Kham/Eshkar variations and refining how those storylines split based on how you handled their arcs earlier. There's a lot of nuance there, especially depending on whether you worked with Kham, blackmailed her, or cut her out of the loop entirely. Eshkar’s role is also expanding a bit—he’ll be dragged along as a prisoner during the Road Trip if you chose that path.

Just imagine your Crown and their friends having fun picking flowers in the meadows or whatever while Eshkar is miserable in the background lmao

At the moment I’m still thinking how to best pace the final stretch of ACT I. CH14 is already shaping up to be a long one, and I might extend the Road Trip arc into CH16 instead of wrapping it by CH15, just to make sure it doesn't feel rushed. We’ll see how it all turns out!

Thanks so much for your support!! Hope this update gave you something to look forward to. X’s POV drop for CH13 is releasing on the Patreon soon too, while A's was already posted last week 🫶🏼

Catch you next time 💖

[namelessdeceased]

A during the entire episode is so HSJSGSJ

Felt so bad for my babygirl when first entering with how nauseous they were. Didn’t matter in the end because they were positively freaking out all chapter, but it makes my heart hurt to see my pookie princess in a state where the hunter isn’t sure how to reassure them 💔

They’re just an anxious person what can I say? Maybe you’ll be able to comfort them properly next chapter… Maybe with a little kiss on the lips hahahaha… Or not.

[namelessdeceased]

just thought of the hunter being so used to rylan being in their apartment they one day simply text them 'pick up some milk on the way home'

The funny thing is, Rylan would be over the moon reading that text. They’d happily pick up groceries for the Hunter if it means they’re accepted.

[namelessdeceased]

kristiiiiii why did you literally make N the most perfect human being in existence i. wanna give them flowers and go on walks with them and jump onto a table and serenade them high school musical style IM GONNA CRY

I was going to say something about how no one is perfect but you’re right, N is the exception to that. They are perfect. And they canonly have the most healthy romance style out of the five ROs (at least, initially), so do with that what you will.

[namelessdeceased]

My two cents about Aeran:

I really like him as a character and also I find him challenging to like, and it actually doesn't have to do with the trauma (which I can understand is complicated, personal, unresolved, and not the MC's right to know) or the fight.

But my frustrations about him involve how much he disapproves of the MC not doing exactly what he thinks they should be doing in every other scenario, and even before they reach the city. Whether it's talking to Quirinius on the boat or asking questions or even some of the choices in the first city (I'm sorry I'm forgetful), he seems very controlling. There's absolutely no room for the MC to diverge or disagree without costing their relationship, and I think that's really toxic. And it kind of makes it hard for me to imagine being best friends with him or more, if it feels like it always has to be on his terms.

That being said, if it's a mechanical choice, I get it. And I do like Aeran. I just get why people have such a strong reaction to him.

Thank you for sharing!

I wouldn't call an NPC who disagrees with or disapproves of the MC's actions controlling or toxic. The MC has plenty of room to diverge and disagree, and they can make up approval points that are lost. Approval in Wayfarer is supposed to fluctuate. No character is going to be the MC's yes-man, and interpersonal conflict is a part of the game.

I disagree with the assessment that there is no room for the MC to diverge or disagree with Aeran without sacrificing the relationship—relationships that plummet are because you are repeatedly in conflict, and the MC is just as much responsible for that as Aeran is. If Aeran is toxic and controlling, then so is the MC.

The sections where Aeran disapproves the most of the MC's actions, it's usually moments where they are doing something that will endanger both themself and him, they promised something and then backtracked on it, they're wasting time (this happens the most in Rona since Aeran knows they're on a time limit to find the Chalice—he's impatient and he wants to get shit done so he and the MC don't die), or they're doing something that goes against his morals (killing Marea for the Chalice, for example).

Another example: talking to Quirinus on the boat. Quirinus is a known enemy, the more you talk to him, the more he grills you, the more you fall for it, the more information you are revealing to the other side. Even taking Aeran's complex feelings about Quirinus out of the equation, remaining in conversation with the leader of the faction opposing the one you were hired to work for... is that a good move? Is it understandable that an ally might not think it wise?

Mechanically it is very difficult to represent the full breadth of human emotion and relationships with a bunch of numbers. There's always going to be faults and weak points in a system like this (for example, Wayfarer has approval thresholds, and while I do use continuity checks in addition to approval texts to make the flavour text as seamless as I can, there will be moments on some playthroughs where a single point of approval loss while shift things significantly because that was the point that moved you from the "good" range of 60-100 to the "neutral" range of 40 to 59).

I dislike relationship mechanics where the goal is to max out an NPC's approval, and then it just stays there. When the NPC never has the freedom to form their own thoughts and opinions that diverges from the player character's, when they are beholden to the MC, it makes for very flat storytelling and characterization imo.

This is actually one of my frustrations with Baldur's Gate 3—I love the game, don't get me wrong, but Larian has been making it easier and easier for companions to always approve of you and always be friendly or accepting. It lacks bite (even from Astarion and his vampire teeth).

One of the most impactful moments in the game for me was on my original playthrough. My Tav was in a romantic relationship with Gale and had a fight with him because she disagreed with his intentions for a certain artefact. While they did make up the next time she talked to him in camp, I really appreciated he didn't cave to her in the moment. I don't know if that scene remains intact or not given how many times the game has been patched, but the brief moment of uncertainty where I didn't know if I had fucked up my Tav's romance permanently or not was far more compelling than immediately resolving the problem in the same dialogue where the problem was raised.

(I also exploded Gale in Act 2 on this same playthrough after a conversation he and my Tav had, and if that hadn't triggered an early ending, then I would have stuck with the consequences of my actions. so. that probably says a lot about my game design preferences. 🤣)

[namelessdeceased]

That's really how I've felt about the Aeran situation the past few years—the MC may deserve answers, but they don't necessarily deserve answers at the cost of retraumatizing Aeran. Their needs don't exist in a vacuum and come into conflict with the needs of the people in their life. It's a very real, human struggle! I have it all the time with my own mental health- What's fair of me to ask of my loved ones, and are they being fair to themselves if they give it? The answers to those questions can be conflicting because life is complicated! You either learn how to navigate and find acceptance in that, or let those relationships go. I haven't seen Episode 3 yet, but I've found the setup and available resolutions in 2 to be quite representative of that complexity and enjoyed them. I'm definitely excited to see how the different choices impact everything moving forward. :)

Thank you very much! That's very inline with the intention of the writing.

I think with NPC/MC relationships, the question of "Am I being fair to the NPC?" is just as important as the question of "Is the NPC being fair to me?"

There's no easy answers here, it's just messy, complicated feelings. It's life.

[namelessdeceased]

are you sick of getting aeran asks yet? lmaooo i love the fight scene and every way it can go. i don’t think a single other if has made me feel so much…. every single time the fight with aeran makes me angry. literally every single time. i’m mad just thinking about it. it’s so fantastic!!!!!!!! it’s very satisfying to click that end friendship button but i know i’ll regret it in the morning (even if that morning hasn’t technically been written yet). in wayfarer the consequences are real and impending and they’re killing my dog in front of my face. i’m putting aeran in a blender. i really really feel like the characters in wayfarer do their own shit apart from the player (for better and worse) and even aeran, the npc who’s the most enmeshed with them, has this whole host of other stuff going on. uhhh yeah. 10/10. next write a really happy game where everything goes right

Not yet, haha. Honestly I'm really flattered that he has sparked such a wide variety of reactions and so much interesting conversation!

And yeah, the NPCs are very much on their own paths, with their own arcs independent of the MC's. Sometimes that leads to conflict, other times it doesn't, but there's always something else going on beneath the surface. 😌

[namelessdeceased]

you don't need to make customizable MCs. you don't need to include sexual content. you don't need to make everyone dateable. you actually don't need to make anyone dateable. you don't need to write 150k words. you don't need to give the player a choice to make every paragraph. you don't need to do anything because everyone else is doing that. you don't need to do anything that's not comfortable for you.

[namelessdeceased]

i dont often gotten around to drawing my MCs from the IFs ive read

[namelessdeceased]

sorry i can’t talk right now i’m busy looking at images of a guy online

[namelessdeceased]

i think if you ask maxwell he will 100% say something long and drawn out about how fighting has nothing to do with sex and that its a pure need to fist other gentlemen but will then, in a tiny but dinified voice say "although there has been penetration of the... penis kind."

[namelessdeceased]

you’re laughing. i told you a joke and you’re laughing. i love you

[namelessdeceased]

yknow youtube gives you a "are you sure you wanna unsubscribe" but meanwhile tumblr is just fucking like "yknow what . Fuck you . Unfollow your favorite mutual. Bitch . Becayse we dont fuckign like you"

[namelessdeceased]

the whump fan’s dilemma

[namelessdeceased]

so "we saw you from across the bar and really dig your vibe" does work as long as it's about dnd

[namelessdeceased]

please god stop talking about diets and weight loss in front of kids. especially if those kids are girls. and especially if you’re someone those kids look up to. but really just stop talking about about diets and weight loss when children are in earshot at all. I promise you you’re doing far more harm than good.