#Colorado rpg

[leomon32]

Stop giving me ideas that I love, because I will try to do them Featuring JesseJerdak and Colorado statues (you can find them online).

[beaver-springs-broadcast]

Recent Ghost Citings

what do these spectors want?

drawing pictured above is not as scary as the ghosts reported were described, artist drew a halloween ghost just for symbolism and universal nature of the classic bedsheet ghost. (that and the artist didnt know how to draw misty apperitions)

    while ghost sightings arent uncommon in beaver springs, theyre much more commonly reported in our sister town, a now abandoned adderville. but recently, i’ve received some personal reports of ghosts being spotted at the old cemetary near vanderhoof national forest. these were reports of ghosts doing things like tugging on visitors clothes, whispering indicipherable phrases, and reportedly even shoving a victim to the ground.

    as believable as this may seem at first glance, it is important to remember that all we have for these more recent cases are witness testimony and word of mouth. if anyone has any more proof of the ghosts of vanderhoof cemetery’s shenanigans or any means to potentially capture more evidence on these strange occurrances, please reach out to me! im a theorist full time, so if you have any interest or information regarding these ghosts, please do not hesitate to visit me in beaver springs. even thoigh i dont share my name on here, if you ask anyone in beaver springs about this blog, theyll know how to send you to your pal bb. stay spooky out there

[underpressurerpc]

We know we’d said the 23rd was going to be neighborhood drop… but we couldn’t help but show off some of our skin! Check out our ~dark mode and profile set up!

[vertebrata13]

All they keep asking me  (all they keep asking me) Is if I'm gonna be your bride The only kind of girl they see (the only kind of girl they see) Is a one night or a wife

[shuunnico]

You like rpgs. Do you recommend any games like baldurs gate 3?

Absolutely. I'll assume you mean CRPGs and not RPGs in general.

Computer Roleplaying Games (CRPGs) refers to a style and genre of game that BG3 follows. Some have started calling CRPGs "Classic RPGs" instead. CRPGs are typically identified by an isometric, top down view style, a heavy focus on story and exploration.

I'm going to split my list it three main categories based on accessibility factors. These factors include the amount of reading involved, the depth of mechanics and the level of abstraction/math required.

Easy Entry Level

Baldur's Gate 3 - 2023 - Larian Studios. The current gold star for easy entry CRPGs. Exceptional graphics, every character voice acted, very little reading and fairly straightforward mechanics and concepts.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 DE- 2017 - Larian Studios. This is basically a less polished, more complex version of BG3 and made by the same studio.

Disco Elysium, Final Cut - 2019 - ZA/UM. Disco Elysium is a detective/social focus game that dives into heavy narrative concepts. Failing rolls is just as viable for the story as succeeding them, making the game's mechanics take a backseat to story. However, there is a lot of reading and that may be a barrier to entry.

Tyranny - 2016 - Obsidian Entertainment. A game about being evil, it's mechanically pretty simple, but there's a fair bit of jank due to it's low budget, and the game ends on a cliffhanger, but it's story is very solid.

Mid Entry Level

Wasteland 3 - 2020 - inExile Entertainment. The long awaited third installment of the Wasteland franchise and significantly less complex than its predecessors. Post apocalyptic, frozen Colorado, grim reality and goofy ideas. This is the franchise that originally inspired Fallout.

Shadowrun: Dragonfall DC/ Shadowrun: Hong Kong EE - 2014/2015 - Harebrained Schemes. Set in the Fantasy/Cyberpunk hybrid setting of Shadowrun. Fair bit of reading, but the game's mechanics are relatively easy to grasp and don't require a lot of math. Always play Dragonfall before Hong Kong.

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire - 2018 - Obsidian Entertainment. A unique setting, exploring a fictional parallel to the age of piracy. Very wordy (but a lot is voice acted), with a lot of world building, but well worth engaging with. The first game, Pillars of Eternity, is less accessible, but still good.

Kingmaker/Wrath of the Righteous/Rogue Trader - 2020/2022/2023 - Owlcat Games. Owlcat adapts existing systems into CRPGs, like how BG3 is an adaption of DnD 5e. Do not be fooled, these games are where you start hitting a lot of complexity, a lot of math and a lot potential to damage your playthroughs by accident. This is where things start to get difficult.

Difficult Entry Level

Baldur's Gate 1/2 - Bioware - 1998/2000. The prequels to BG3, these games use an older, much more complex version of DnD's rules. Be prepared for a lot of reading and complex mechanics, but you'll be rewarded with some amazing storytelling.

Planescape Torment - Interplay - 1999. Another game using DnD's older mechanics, Planescape is a completely different beast from BG3. Many consider this series mechanically inferior to the Baldur's Gate franchise, but with better storytelling and world building to compensate.

Fallout 1/2 - 1997/1998 - Interplay/Black Isle. One of the most widely known game franchises started as an isometric CRPG. Universally considered more complex, rewarding and deeper than the Bethesda portion of the franchise, you'll need some experience to get into them, but you'll be happy you did.

Games I haven't played but I've heard good things of:

Wasteland 2, DC - 2015 - inExile

Torment: Tides Of Numenera - 2017 - inExile

Neverwinter Nights - 2002 - Bioware

Arcanum - 2001 - Troika Games

Ultima 7 Part 1/Part 2 - 1992/1993 - Origin Systems

Icewind Dale - 2000 - Black Isle Studio

[pryings]

TOA Anniversary Munday

thank you neffi for this template!!!

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

Name: ruaidhrí (said pretty much like the english name rory and if you want to spell it that way that's fine too, ik irish names throw people off)

Pronouns: he/him

Birthday (no year): 25th of october!

Where are you from? What is your time zone? i live in colorado and my timezone is MST

How long is your roleplay experience? i don't know exactly how many years since i sometimes have years where h don't rp but i've been rping on and off since i was 11-12.

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? oh gosh, so ff.net used to have (maybe still has, i literally have not been on that site in ages) these like... forums? and i joined one for elder scrolls rp a little after oblivion came out. i was far and away the youngest one there but everyone was so nice in helping me turn my character into a proper oc with like... backstory, a real personality, etc. after that, i spent a lot of time using it to try and grow my creative writing skills.

How were you introduced to TOA? honestly i just stumbled across it randomly! i had just replayed a few fe games and was looking through some tags and thought it might be fun to try fire emblem rp (i'd done some on indie tumblr back in the day, as well as in an mfrp a little bit, but never fire emblem exclusive rp) so i sent arden to check it out and, well, here we still are.

Do you have any pets? simon (mini poodle), john hancock (tabby cat), and tim & geeb (fluffy black cats)

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) early spring! i also like late fall for its temperature, but i dislike snow/sleet/wet socks so spring is preferable because it's not very snowy here!

What is your IRL occupation? blessedly unemployed (health issues have prevented me from working aha)... i used to work IT though!

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? i like birdwatching, reading academic articles about ancient civilizations, and making espresso drinks

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? currently enjoying bg3 + doing a dragon age replay (in preparation for veilguard). outside current, i really like most single-player rpg type games (esp. with customizable character), stealth games (dishonored favorite), and Identity V is the first asymmetrical horror mobile game developed by NetEase for

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: my favorite pokemon ever is alakazam (and its whole line) i've loved alakazam foreverrrrr! favorite type is steel, though! apart from my psychic baby most of my other favs tend to be steel types

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! oh gosh i'm so bad at fun facts...

- i can put both my feet behind my head but i can't touch my toes - my favorite non-ancient empire to read about is austria-hungary - my cat tim was rescued from Outside

How did you get into Fire Emblem? friend's cool older brother was playing a bunch of the games in a seemingly random order. when i'd hang out at that friend's house sometimes we'd sit and watch. i asked him to lend me some and he did!

What Fire Emblem games have you played? i have now played all of them! (last year when i answered this i hadn't technically played them all, but i'd seen playthroughs and watched let's plays of all of them at the very least)

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: a bad translation of fe4 was first, por is still my favorite—but tbh there's not really one i dislike

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! - KNOLL (promoted to number one he's my special guy) - reyson - canas - ashnard - pandreo

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! QUAN—i have such a distinct memory of seeing him come in but i don't remember my initial thought, only that he would have my heart forever

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 vander. duessel. hardin.

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: first was sumia! i don't have a set nowadays because i've done a different one on each playthrough - Fates: first was xander, would probably still do xander if i were to replay - Three Houses: first was seteth, if i replay i'll go for hanneman - Engage: first was pandreo! next time i plan to do ivy though

Favorite Fire Emblem class? i like shapeshifter classes! beasts, dragons, laguz, etc. i just think they're fun to play with

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? oh gosh, i'd be an infantry axe unit probably. middling starting stats but high growths if you really work at making me good (there would be heated debates over whether the necessary time investment would be worth it)

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? black eagles!

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? axe boon, heavy armor bane, budding talent in faith magic (could be classed into an fe:a style war cleric and it would be my suggested goal)

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? i want to say brodia!

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔 toh-ah

Current TOA muses: just knoll <3

Past TOA muses? robin, niles, almedha, reyson, hardin, iago, perceval, lachesis (i think that's all?)

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? my first muse was m!robin and thankfully i am spared any temptation on picking him up as he is currently being written.

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?) i'm kind of all over the place, aren't i? i like characters where i can poke at hidden depths but ones who aren't too closely guarded. i like characters who are shy, withdrawn, standoffish, guarded, etc. in some way but who open up when spoken to. i don't think this has changed since last year, i've been writing for a long time and kind of know my comfort zone.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? boisterous/loud and over the top characters always challenge me, but i've never really managed to make them work, which is a shame because i tend to enjoy lively characters!

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?) -i love writing threads where setting/scenery is a focus, where i get to sort of use the landscape as a bit more than set-dressing - i enjoy throwing my muse at characters who mistrust him for whatever reason, and like to explore the kind of slow, mutual understanding that comes from two people getting to know one another - i really just like putting him in situations in general, forcing him to socialize—he's a very withdrawn character so any excuse to have him meet new people is very enjoyable

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? nothing specific! i have kind of an arc for him but it's loosely-defined right now

Favorite TOA-related memories? HAPPYLAND WAS SO MUCH FUN. sincerely i loved the interactions he had there <3

Present or past tense? i default to present, but adapt to what my partner prefers on this!

Normal size text, small text, no preference? small text, bolded dialogue. just easier for my eyes to take it in that way.

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 oh gosh. i recently had to go down to just one muse because my health is not so good, but i will admit i already have a few delusions. if i can get myself back to a spot where i feel like i can write a second, someone may return.

[rosieethor]

Life is Strange: Steph's Story is officially out in the world today! I loved writing this book and I hope you love reading it, too!

The official origin story of LiS fan-favourite Steph Gingrich featuring LGBTQ+ romance, inevitable heartbreak, and the punk-rock beginnings of Drugstore Makeup. "So, what kind of lesbian are you?" "The kind that... likes... girls?" "Same." Setting the stage for her appearance in Life is Strange: True Colors, this official Steph Gingrich novel sheds light on the Drugstore Makeup years and the story of how Steph crash-landed in Haven Springs, Colorado. Steph Gingrich has finally run out of couches to surf. Now she’s back at her dad’s place in Seattle to figure out what she wants to do with the rest of her life.  Steph fills her time working at the local gamer café during the day and running RPG sessions at night, that is until Izzie whirls into Steph's existence clutching a crumpled stack of band posters. Izzie is electric: a punk, a girl who likes girls, and a hella good guitarist. Turns out the punk life is exactly what Steph needs. She loves the music, the art, and the fashion, but most of all she likes the girl. Entranced, she offers to drum for Izzie, forming the band Drugstore Makeup. A hit in more ways than one, Drugstore Makeup compete in a battle of the bands before deciding to tour the offbeat punk venues of America. But Steph and Izzie soon find themselves on different wavelengths, unable to communicate, and needing different things.

[keganexe]

Earth has fallen, and no one knows why. On the morning of June 14, 1968, a group of hippies fled to the mountains of Colorado to wait for doomsday, as the meteor, Icarus, neared Earth. Icarus did what they were worried about, the land rending itself to pieces, but one places stayed safe...

Welcome to Eldorado Springs, Colorado.

Phanta is a 2-6 player alt-history RPG about what happens 50 years after the world has ended, inspired by the song Phanta by Le Tigre (and the real world events referenced there in). It’s a rules-lite (and secretly to me even) PBTA inspired romp through weird Colorado, and the things surrounding it.

Phanta was the first RPG I ever wrote, and I was at a strange place in my life when I did, and I think it’s reflected in the game. Super early on in the pandemic my family all got Covid, and I stayed home terrified that any moment I could get the call that they had died; and in a weird loopy no-sleep twilight state I wrote and laid out the entire game in one 12 hour sitting.

It’s gotten editing and playtesting since then, but it’ll always be the game I wrote while worried that the actual world was ending.

Anyway its a fun little game, and if you’ve never looked at my work before I think it’s a really good example of the type of stuff I like to put out!

Phanta by Kegan (@Keganexe)

Also someone wrote an extremely good campaign for Phanta that expands on lots of the base concepts in cool ways I never saw coming, and you can check that out here

Lonely Souls - a TTRPG Campaign by rpg_megs

Also I haven’t announced this anywhere yet, but there’s a... pretty good chance it’s coming to a crowdfundr near you in the new year?

[dynamite-derek]

RIP Akira Toriyama

It was the summer of 1996. A younger version of myself waltzed into a rip-off blockbuster, one of those family owned joints that often gets conflated with Hollywood Video, and was struck by the cover artwork of one game in particular. Chrono Trigger. It drew me in like a siren's song. It just looked so cool. I had experience with Earthbound, Super Mario RPG and Final Fantasy III at this point so I wasn't unfamiliar with the Japanese role playing game genre, but that isn't what brought me to the dance. It was the art.

Chrono Trigger would go on to become a major part of my personality as a youth. There was about a week straight where I would go around talking to nobody in particular using old English, like my favorite character Frog did. Thank you Ted Woolsey for that. CT would go on to form the basis for a lot of my video game opinions.

I remember getting Chrono Trigger for Christmas randomly in 1997. It had yet to become the holy grail of eBay, it was just a random gift from my uncle who knew how to use the Internet. I spent so long just glancing at the instruction manual and thinking the characters looked so cool. It's one thing to see a little pixel version of Lucca convince Crono that hopping into a teleporter is a good idea, it's another thing to see a fully illustrated version of the same character.

Don't even get me started on how I felt watching those anime cutscenes that came with the PS1 version for the first time. I consider Earthbound to be my favorite game ever, but Chrono Trigger is really what started my JRPG fix. Would I have gotten as deep into JRPGs as I did without Chrono Trigger? Would I be writing this right now? One of the first things I talked to my wife about was the Final Fantasy franchise, specifically my cat named Quistis. Would I have even grabbed that appreciation for Final Fantasy VIII without having been exposed to Chrono Trigger?

Fast forward to 1999. I had just moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado as a sixth grader. I had no friends. I didn't know anybody. It felt like the world had aged up around me. Everybody was using swears and talking about mature topics and I felt so out of the loop. In our temporary hotel housing I vividly remember turning the channel to Cartoon Network and stopping because the art style interested me. It looked kind of like that game I played back in 1996. Dragon Ball Z.

I can see it now. Vegeta was fighting against Recoome while Gohan and Krillin looked on exhausted. Things were looking bleak but some guy named Goku was on the horizon. I had no idea who any of these characters were but I knew they reminded me of something I loved with all my heart. From that point, Dragon Ball would go on to be something I absolutely cherished. Just like Chrono Trigger, it would help define my taste for years to come.

I remember being in high school wearing ridiculous looking Dragon Ball shirts because I thought the sleeves were really cool, I remember going to Toys R Us and seeing a damn near immobile Vegeta action figure that lacked his Saiyan-saga armor and I was so excited to bring it home. I remember hopping on limewire and downloading fansubs of Dragonball Z movies where the subtitles had characters swearing up a storm just because they could. How would I know any better? I didn't speak Japanese! I even downloaded all of Dragon Ball GT because I wanted to see where this wacky thing would go.

That specific anime would define a wide portion of my Internet life. I would post on the Funimation forums talking about whatever episode of the dub was most recent. It was there that I made a lot of my first Internet friends, including girlfriends. It was that forum that led me to create my own little Internet forum called Lindblum, a place that I still remember fondly to this day. I didn't have a lot of friends. I was an Airforce brat who moved around all the time, so it was hard for me to chat with people who knew each other for their entire lives. Lindblum was where I socialized and grew up as a person. Where I learned how to socialize and talk to people from all walks of life.

Writing on forums is what got me into writing in general. I was a lazy kid in school. I didn't care about anything except for video games. Writing was the exception to that, it was the only thing I considered myself actually decent at. I didn't understand math but I understood how to communicate what I felt to others. I work in journalism to this very day because of that fascination with writing. I have this dinky little blog I maintain because of that. Thanks to Internet forums. Thanks to Dragon Ball Z. Thanks to Chrono Trigger. Thanks to Akira Toriyama.

Toriyama, indirectly, helped shape me as an individual. A guy thousands of miles away from me who I had never met before, who didn't know my name, who didn't know I existed, had a hand in helping to shape the person I am today. The world can be a beautiful place sometimes.

RIP Akira Toriyama. Thanks for everything.

[regarding-stories]

The Fallout Series as stories (part 1, also: not about the TV show)

"Fallout" is a series of games set in a post-apocalyptic future. The world "ended" in 2077 and the player gets to explore the aftermath and interact with the people inhabiting "the Wasteland." What "Fallout" is about, however, is defined differently by various games, as they were produced by different people and companies.

To make things a little easier to follow, let's distinguish the games a bit:

Fallout 1+2 (FO1, FO2) were isometric 2D roleplaying games released by the original designers for Interplay, they run on the same engine and their stories build on each other. The settings are California and Northern California, respectively.

"Van Buren" was a design document for a third installment on a more modern engine that was never made since the publisher had to sell the IP. Its setting covers the Mojave desert, Utah, and Colorado.

Fallout 3 (FO3) was instead made by Bethesda, the RPG behemoth responsible for the Elder Scrolls series ("Oblivion", "Skyrim") and nowadays "Starfield". It is set around Washington, DC.

Fallout: New Vegas (FO:NV) was made under a license from Bethesda, using their FO3 engine, but by many of the people originally behind Fallout. It recovers a lot of the "Van Buren" material but ends up telling a different story. The game focuses on the Mojave desert, but you can visit Utah in a DLC.

Fallout 4 (FO4) is another RPG made by Bethesda, this time set near and in the ruins of Boston.

Fallout 76 (FO76) is more of a multiplayer shooter with RPG elements than a Fallout RPG. It eventually offered things like a Battle Royal expansion. It's set in the Appalachians.

Let's look a bit at the stories of these games, and especially what kind of stories they try to tell.

Dark yet hopeful

Fallout 1, a game released 1997, was a strange groundbreaker. It was celebrated as a spiritual successor "Wasteland" (1988), probably the first, or at least the first interesting, post-apocalyptic game. This is true and then not. Whereas "Wasteland" was a game about an organization called "the Rangers" trying to restore peace to a post-apocalyptical America and the party becoming heroes saving the world, FO1 has a different, more personal, and maybe noir vibe.

First of all, humanity, at least in North America largely survived the nuclear holocaust thanks to underground bunkers called Vaults, built by a company called VaultTec. The player character in FO1 sets out from such a vault to find a chip to control the vault's failing water purification system and begins to explore the surroundings, fighting various mutated monsters and dangerous raiders on his way.

During the course of the game you will deal with various factions, including the technology-preserving Brotherhood of Steel, a group of irradiated, long-lived and sentient ghouls, a sort of do-goodie hippie community, a cult worshipping a bomb, raider gangs, etc. Ultimately the player gets to decide the fates of many groups in the Wasteland, and combats the Supermutant menace threatening them all, ultimately thwarting "the Master's" plans to create a new sort of "super-human" from the Forced Evolution Virus, another threat released into the world during the war, and ultimately the cause of all these mutations.

I remember getting FO1 on a CD-ROM as part of a compilation and being to no end surprised by it. It looked at first like a low-end title with maybe nothing much to it, but it quickly blew my mind. Its mix of atmospheric dark music, a clever combat engine taking place within the portrayed world, its multitude of choices, and its storytelling were a unique combo.

Fallout itself has no simple story, it keeps telling you many things and expanding. It tells you how the world ended, but it's fair to say the world ended before "the bombs fell." Pre-apopalypse America was a militaristic police state that had occupied Canada and was battling China for the world's resources. The world from the before the final war looks bleak, and yet may in some respects look like heaven to those who came after.

Conflict remains a central theme, but this time it's about what the world will look like going forward. Raiders only think about what to grab and whom to extort, but settlers and merchants are trying to eke out a living. The Brotherhood wants to preserve technology, but is isolationist and ultimately an outgrowth of the last vestiges of the US military, formed by survivors in a bunker. Resources are contested, and the players pokes around in a lot of pre-war stuff.

When you walk around an old nuclear power plant or delve into the lore of the world it may seem Fallout is a game about the past. But its people are all looking to the future, even if the past exerts its influence through undetonated warheads and mutation viruses, and even if this future is full of hardships.

An evolving world

Nothing proves this more than FO2. Instead of setting another game in just the same place, the designers fast-forwarded 80 years into the future, and forward they did!

When we leave FO1, the protagonist cannot return to his home. He's cast out as the ones he's saved fear what he has become, so he goes north and founds a small community. These "tribals" live a lifestyle more oriented towards the land, as harsh as its, and revere the "Vault Dweller" as their ancestor.

Other elements have also evolved from the original setting. The settlement you came across first in the original game? It became the seed for a new nation state, the New California Republic. The Brotherhood is still around. Another vault has built a (stagnant, isolationist) city in the region. Supermutants still exist, some as roaming raiders, but also at times integrated into society.

FO2 (released 1998) has a bit of a different vibe from FO1. The basic gameplay is there, but there's more humor (sometimes so absurd that people dislike it). And it keeps building the world, this time north of San Francisco. FO2 evolves the feel of the original and adds new elements. Let's leave the feel aside for a moment (discussed below) and look at what FO2 throws at us.

You can visit locations like San Francisco (essentially its Chinatown), New Reno, mining towns, etc. There are Western elements here, and vibes of the American West. There's even more to do, and it's even more personal. You can now gain titles and reputations, and you can become a "made man" (a top-notch mafia-style gangster), a boxing champion, and a pornstar - and that's just in New Reno!

FO2 is also more about people than anything. Power and control are definitely among the themes, because even among the people just trying to survive there are those who'd sell them drugs just to take advantage of them. Bullies big and small. And the biggest bully of them all is the antagonist, the Enclave.

FO1 was about the world that was beginning (again) and the one that ended. In FO2 you learn many dark truths about the world that has ended and refuses to stay dead. Vault-Tec was never truly meant to save humanity, and most of what it did was conduct a large scale experiment on humanity. The Enclave is essentially the US government, and it's as dark a villain as you can expect.

This "government" hid itself on an oil rig, and is using the technology left to it (like "vertibirds", i.e. helicopters) to work towards its goal: Erase the population of the mainland and start it over in its image. (The "remaking by force (and virus)" theme of FO1 is alive and well, apparently.) Talk about persistence... Their plot unfolds 164 years after the war. Given it's the same government that launched the nukes and left humanity to die, mutate, and experiment on them, this is as villainous a blast from the past as can be.

Original Fallout, however, has a way to have villains make fools out of themselves. "The Master" ultimately was a fool, as his Supermutants turned out to be sterile - and hence have no future. They could not supersede the human race. And "the Enclave" cannot escape the effects of the FEV virus, even though they pretend they can. The irony is condensed into their main enforcer who has become a super-mutant monstrosity himself after exposure.

An aesthetic

Even though a lot of it was conveyed through videos, character closeups, and various game screens, Fallout managed to evolve a strong aesthetic and unique vibe. It's setting is futuristic and retro. The 1950s are back with their cars with fins, their ideas how a robot might look like, and their "Atomic Cafe" like vibes in reaction to the development of the hydrogen bomb.

Many design elements of Fallout have had a lasting impact on people coming in touch with them, including:

The Vault Boy, the iconic mascot of VaultTec, featured in its "educational" films and promos, but also in the various game screens. This becomes especially strong in FO2 where all these little reputation images and illustrations feature Vault Boy in various guises.

PipBoy, a (clunky) wearable device that acts as the world's biggest smart watch, including maps, a radiation detector, and various other things.

Full body power armor and massive guns, as used by the original US army, the Brotherhood of Steel, the Enclave, and ultimately the player.

Supermutants, looking like big, green, hulking brutes.

Deathclaws, a sentient giant monster.

You will find robots that have heads looking like brains in jars, robotic dogs, a "Mr Handy" utility robot with lots of tool arms, may own a fusion-cell powered car reminiscent of a Cadillac. You might even recover an oil portrait of Elvis from a crashed UFO labeled "property of Area 51."

FO1 and FO2 are a unique mix of genres, and its aesthetic of decay, rust and rot, its selective use of futuristic items define it. This combines with a dark synth soundtrack to a tight package. FO1 also has a pretty grim manual, explaining a good deal of what nuclear weapons are "nowadays" held by the various powers and how they are intended to be used at "lower yield" (150 kilo tons vs the multi-megaton monsters developed in the 1950s) to limit the phenomenon known as "fallout."

The combination of its graphics, lore, gameplay, design aesthetics - it all conveys together something that has become uniquely "Fallout". So much so that when watching "Loki" I couldn't shake the feeling of seeing something reminiscent to "Fallout", in spite of it taking its cues more from the technology and design of the 1960s.

Games about decisions

Part of the lasting impact the originals had was the fact that they left a lot to the player. Choices you made during the game would impact "the ending" - slides you were shown showing you the consequencs of your actions. Often these choices are between differing options, and not all of them can work out, even if taken. This alone added replay value as one tried to achieve the various endings.

But choice was baked in everywhere. Nothing prevents you from finishing the games killing all and everyone, or with as little violence and as much stealth and diplomacy as possible. This spiked people's ambitions, and is very different from many RPGs before and after it, often only offering slight variations of one path towards the end.

This also brings the concept of morality and consequences of your choices into focus, as your choices impact how you are received to a degree. You can also decide to play smart or dumb (which can be hilarious and limits dialogue). What you do and what you say feels like it matters. Already by that, the original games left a lasting impact on game design itself, being copied in various ways by later games.

This is the legacy of the original two games, and here my coverage of it takes a short break and is continued in other articles taking advantage of this groundwork. To be continued here.

[birdylion]

tag game

@the-moon-loves-the-sea shared this :)

Current time: 20:47

Current activity: writing

Currently thinking about: how to end the scene I’m currently writing

Current favorite song: Rachmaninov, Isle of the Dead

Currently reading on ao3: I’m keeping up with hermitknut​‘s The Michen Emperor, a Goblin Emperor AU in which Maia is made Emperor at age 8 instead of 18. I'm not reading much on ao3 at the moment, I'm working my way through my library stash (atm it's a big nonfiction book about cults in the late Roman Empire).

Currently watching: uh, nothing. My brain is full enough with stuff as it is, I can't seem to keep up with visual format these days. If it counts, the video game I'm playing (that I have already seen as a stream) is Life is Strange: True Colors, a truly beautiful game in which a girl who has empathy superpowers comes to a small mountain village in Colorado and ... things happen. It has stunningly warm and colorful visuals (for the most part), very likeable characters, a heartbreaking and tragic yet comforting storyline, and the only fault I can find is that you can't romance both of the romantic leads at the same time.

Current fav character: the OC I'm writing right now (for a rpg) :D a formerly very conservative and traditional young woman who I'm writing finding her way out of that mindset. She's come far already! and currently very happy with her girlfriend. They're thinking about getting a dog.

Current WIPS: in German: two fanfics for one of the many German cop shows, the one that makes it #1 trending once a year when a new episode comes out. The one in which two traumatised and barely functional cops who knew each other as teenagers meet again after 15 years of separation, pine horribly for each other while failing to communicate or even know their needs. Both are AUs, one is "what if they spent a few weeks together on a horse farm as teenagers and one realised by looking at those skin-tight riding pants that he's into dudes while the other learned some self worth through being chosen by a difficult horse". The other is "what if all their pent up tension exploded in a very badly communicated but mutually consensual and wanted SM one night stand".

in English: still thinking about finishing that The Old Guard x Rivers of London crossover in which Peter becomes immortal and has a chat with Nile

I’m tagging: @hermitknut, @shakespearerants, @evolutionsbedingt, @caffeespresso, @thelightinthesky @freizusein, @bumblebee-and-tea

[beaver-springs-broadcast]

The legend of BuckFang

cryptids have been a part of beaver springs history since its foundation. early settlers mentioned in their writings seeing a creature the size of a bear, but with the large flat tail of a beaver. 

(artists rendition above)

        over the centuries, only more sitings occured, as claims from people seeing a giant one-eyed beaver accumulated. the legendary cryptid that calls beaver spring its home has been nick-named “buckfang” by its adoring fans for its two sharp fangs that are alligned like the buck teeth on a beaver. while there has been no physcial evidence of the beast, the sheer number of sightings and the odd look of the monster make this mystifying creature a fan favorite for both natives and tourists alike. aparently this one eyed creature, much like its smaller relatives, lives both in and out of water. there are rumers of the wild buckfang sabotoging rafters and tubers in the raven river, slashing the rubber flotation devices where the victims drown in the rapids before being eaten alive for the beast’s sustinence. there have been tales of tubing accidents where after crash, the bodies cant be found, only the shreds of their tube scattering the shore. that being said, despite the morbid theories surrounding buckfang, it is still beloved by beaver springs’ residents, as a shrine has been made in its honor. people often leave gifts such as food or change, hoping to please the unknowable creature.

     while the proof behind its existance is murky, even if you dont believe in buckfang, its hard to disregard the presence and importance that it has created for itself here in beaver springs. 

[underpressurerpc]

𝙐𝙉𝘿𝙀𝙍 𝙋𝙍𝙀𝙎𝙎𝙐𝙍𝙀 – 𝑎 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑟𝑝, 21+, 𝑠𝑒𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑟, 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑜.

COMING SOON IN DECEMBER! Follow along for updates!

tumblr: https://underpressurerpc.tumblr.com/ discord: https://discord.gg/kdxjrpp6cy

[being-of-rain]

Hey, Rain! :D What are Monster Hour and Absurdia?

Oh thank you for asking! I've been meaning to make a post about them 😂

Monster Hour is an actual play podcast I've finally got up to date with recently, and I love it! It's recommended! The GM and the players are all very funny, and all their characters are so entertaining to watch interact with each other. The first campaign is a Monster of the Week game set in a town in... idk, I can never remember the difference between American states, let me check. Colorado! I found it when looking for MotW podcasts and it's a great use of the system.

The second campaign, which is currently ongoing, uses a new game (another Powered by the Apocalypse system) called Absurdia, which the GM of Monster Hour created! It (both the campaign and the system) is all about living in a suburban town where (to steal a phrase from the handbook) the surreal is ordinary and the ordinary is horrifying. It very much plays like a ttrpg version of Welcome to Nightvale, but it's inspired by lots of other great shows and podcasts as well.

I've just been really into Absurdia recently, and reading through the handbook for it which I bought on itch.io (link here). I think this all the time, but I really need an rpg group to play it with! 😂 And the character classes are so fun, including but not limited to The Bureaumancer (uses bureaucracy as a form of magic), The Void Archivist (steals and catalogues your memories), The Vox (radio show host like NightValeMan), and The Zeitgeist (a hivemind).

[commander-revan]

Tag Game!!

Thanks for tagging me @starlightbelle

Three ships:

Touya Todoroki/therapy (really everyone in MHA needs that)

Momo/Jirou/Kaminari (why choose when Jirou has two hands)

Raven/Beast Boy (first ever ship, still love them)

Robin/Franky (or Law, depending on how things keep going)

I don't have a ton of favorite ships (and a lot of my favorites are RPG Player Character/Romanceable Companion, which I feel like don't count here), but there are several I do love that aren't listed.

Last film:

One Piece Film: Z

American Psycho (first time watching it)

Currently watching:

Making our way through One Piece (at Dressrosa currently)

Fire Force, really not a fan of all the fan-service elements, but the animation and sound design in this show are incredible so far

Currently reading:

Finally reading through Naruto for my partner. I've been binge reading a bunch of manga this year thanks to the Shonen Jump app, and I've been meaning to actually read it for a while even though I know most of what happens in it. (Also if anyone has manga suggestions, feel free to send them to me!)

Currently consuming:

Watching One Piece while my partner is playing Cyberpunk 2077 on the other TV

Currently craving:

Coffee (always, I'm constantly exhausted and the only thing keeping me alive is spite and caffeine)

Moving to Colorado (I need out of the South)

If anyone sees this and wants to play along feel free to!

[eldritchsurveys]

1193.

When was the last time you admired some flowers? What kind/color were they? >> Earlier. There's a bunch of flowers in my yard and neighbours' yards that I think are just local wildflowers, but I don't know what their names are; also there were dandelions and tulips to admire. Spring really comes on rather suddenly when it comes to the growing part (the temperature part is much more fickle...). You wake up one morning and suddenly there are PLANTS

Are you in the process of watching or re-watching a series at the moment? >> I am watching The Wire, Riverdale, Foundation, and Jujutsu Kaisen for the first time, and rewatching Stargate SG-1 (well, it'll be a rewatch until I hit around season 5 or so), Red Dwarf, and Person of Interest. And while the first two seasons of Twin Peaks was a rewatch, I'm in The Return right now which is a first-time watch. I'm also finally finishing Steven Universe, slowly but surely (you'd think I'd have finished a show that has 10-minute episodes a long time ago but!)

If so, how many seasons does it have? And what season are you currently on? The Wire: 5 (3) Riverdale: 7 (2) Foundation: 2 (2) JJK: 1 I think SG-1: 10 (2) Red Dwarf: 12 (7) Person of Interest: 5 (5) Twin Peaks: 3 (3) Steven Universe: 5 (5) Has anyone you know gotten a new pet recently? >> No.

How old were you 10 years ago? Who were your closest friends at that point? >> I was 26 and my closest friends were Vlad, Sigma, and Sparrow.

Do you still speak to any of them? >> Vlad and I had a messy breakup, then Sigma and I had one a couple years later, and I live with Sparrow.

Have you ever kissed someone of another race? >> I've kissed a variety of people, yes. Are there any races you wouldn’t kiss? >> This notion is absurd to me.

What is your favorite thing about your best friend? . What do you mostly have in common with your best friend? . Do you like it when men shave their chests? If you are a guy, do you shave? >> I don't favour shaved bodies.

What is your favourite kind of video game? >> Narrative RPGs with deeply customisable player characters. When you’re visiting a site, do you still type “www.”? >> I haven't done that in a long, long time.

What can you hear right now? >> The sounds that can penetrate my noise-cancelling headphones -- namely, the heater, and the upstairs neighbour that just started clomping around literally right before I got to this question. Do you think it’s okay for kids to have cellphones? >> I don't care, really. Give them one or don't. There's positive and negative consequences with both decisions, pick which ones you can live with. Do you watch anime? If so, what are some of your favourites? >> I do. Kill La Kill, Kiznaiver, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Bungou Stray Dogs, Kimetsu no Yaiba, and I'd probably still like Ouran High School Host Club if I were to watch it again now.

Do you have any siblings? If so which one of them do you get along with the best? .

What’s your favorite TV show? And who’s your favorite character from it? >> I have no idea what my all-time favourite TV show is, I love so many. I'll just pick a favourite from the TV show I last watched: Alice Cooper (Riverdale). Have you violated any of the 10 Commandments? If so, what? >> I have violated like 5 of those Commandments. Which is fine because, as a non-Christian, I'm not beholden to them.

Do people think you look like either of your parents? Does that offend you? . Do you prefer regular bacon or turkey bacon? >> Regular.

Do you think it’s weird when people talk to their pets like people? >> It's normal to me because it's also what I do. I find the baby-talk stuff to be weird.

What is the last place, other than home, that you stayed overnight? >> Crowne Plaza Hotel in Indianapolis.

What is the furthest you have traveled alone? >> From NYC to Colorado and back (and there and back and there and back--). Have you ever dated someone simply for their looks? >> Sure, because when someone I don't otherwise know asks me out, what else do I have to go on to make my decision? (This was back when I did date that way, obviously. Right now, this concept is unfathomable to me.)

Have you ever been drunk? >> Sure.

What was the name of the main character in the last book you read? >> Annie O'Sullivan.

What are three of your favorite toppings for salads? >> For some reason I always blank on this, despite the fact that I love salad and salad toppings. All I can think of is feta. Do you prefer pizza or hot dogs? >> Definitely pizza.

What is your favorite pizza topping? >> Mushrooms.

Is your dad a jerk? .

Is anyone in your family currently in the military? .

What is your favorite dog breed? >> Pibbles.

Have you found any gray hairs on your head? >> I have quite a few grey hairs at this point, yeah. Not quite enough for a salt-and-pepper but definitely well on its way. Do you own a bikini? >> I don't. Never have. I'd like to, though, I think that would be fun. If you were a rockstar, what color guitar would you have? . Would you rather have a personal chef or personal house cleaner? >> I am desperate for a personal housecleaner.

Do you have any zits on your face right now? >> I do not.

What are three of your favorite bakery items? >> Another question I blank on very easily.

What are three creative hobbies you enjoy? .

What are three things you like about church? >> Architecture, basking in the heady vibes of religious fervour, music.

What was the last type of pie you ate? >> Whew, uh.... I have no idea. Maybe sweet potato? Which book did you love when you were younger? >> The Phantom Tollbooth, Many Waters.

Which book series could you read again? >> Well, certainly Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet.

Tell me about your first breakup, if you had one. .

Which person would you chose to travel the world with? .

Do you have (a) stuffed animal(s) sitting in your room? Which one(s)? >> I have like 30 stuffed animals in here, I'm not going to list them all.

Have you ever had to do a doubletake on someone ‘cuz they were so pretty? >> Absolutely. Is your last ex currently in a relationship? .

Who was the last female you were introduced to? . Who was the last male you were introduced to? .

Do you use a nightlight? >> I don't.

What’s your opinion on border control? >> Not a fan of borders in general.

What are your favorite things to create? >> Madness and chaos.

What’s something you prefer to keep private? >> My passwords?

Are you good at prioritizing? >> For my purposes and to my whims, certainly.

If you’re not religious, were you ever? What made you lose faith? >> I have always been some flavour of religious, but rarely affiliated with an organised one.

What feeling do you have the most difficulty in expressing? >> I think anger is the only one I have ease in expressing. The rest of them are all a struggle. When was the last time you looked at your significant other/crush’s Facebook profile? .