#NPCS USED TO CALL ME SETH!!!! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

17-noodlebird · 5 months

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Before The Road Trip

CW: Lots of reading

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1. The Game Prototype Is Found

1. In a separate alternate universe, a band of girls traveling from dimension to dimension solving problems left and right all have decided to go shopping at their hometown’s Goodwill for a bit of a break after another mission accomplished, where they stumble upon an unknown video game that no one has even remotely heard of. It's from a video game company that they've never even heard of before called C&A, and the cover of the game case is called “The Amazing Digital Circus”. Apparently, they found themselves lucky to have stumbled upon the prototype of the game, meaning that this is the only copy of the game in existence. It also just so happens to be the most sought after lost media by the other interdimensional lost media finders on their forum group. Curiosity gets the better of them, so they decide to buy it from the Goodwill thrift store.

2. The girls, upon arriving home, decide to test the game’s prototype out, where it's revealed to be an educational point-and-click family-friendly game where they can choose different activities, play different puzzle games, and even interact with the characters of the game itself. It also apparently has a VR chat that they could enter. However, because the prototype didn't come with any C&A-brand headsets (no other headset, like the Oculus Rift or the Meta Quest, will work), VR chat is not possible here. They should consider themselves lucky to not be able to use the VR chat, considering the circumstances of The Amazing Digital Circus themselves.

3. The group of dimensional diplomats consist of 15 girls: the snarky Bethany, the levelheaded Garcia, the shy Winona, the purehearted Pamela, the gentle Patricia, the hotheaded Rionna, the fickle Olivia, the bubbly Yolanda, the motherly Gemma, the extroverted Cécilia, the chill Belle, the creative Imera, the intelligent Valerie, the down-to-earth Bailey, and lastly, their leader, Princess Lumia, a girl from another planet who brought all those girls together. Lumia is something of a sociopathic chaos bringer. They all have a pretty pleasant time with the puzzle games, including math chess and the classic typing games they were accustomed to as kids. It brings them all a sense of nostalgia and comfort, bringing them back to the 2000’s decade they grew up in.

4. However, when it came time to interact with the NPCs, Lumia wanted to do a little teasing with them, including one particular NPC who just so happened to be the ringmaster we all know and love, Caine. It was basically akin to the shenanigans found in Amanda the Adventurer, where the player would piss off Amanda if they did something wrong. In this instance, whenever Lumia purposefully got some trivia questions wrong or decided to poke fun at Caine, he'd get exceptionally infuriated, which causes the game to begin to glitch out, feeding Caine's anger even more. Intrigued, they decided to keep provoking him, until one particular message stood out from them: “LET ME OUT OF HERE!!!” This sparked Valerie’s interest, as she began making comparisons between the aforementioned Amanda the Adventurer and The Amazing Digital Circus.

5. They read from one of the lost media finders that Caine is an AI who looks after the game's algorithm as well as doling out the games that they played earlier. In regards to what they had just witnessed seconds ago, the AI could very well be sentient, but they'll need to do further research on their own in order to confirm and debunk any and all theories surrounding the game — and maybe C&A themselves…

6. As the girls kept playing the game, they find out that Caine is not the only AI NPC present in the game, in that his brothers, Able and Sethe, are also present as AI, as a casino owner and a banker respectively. Caine's assistant, Bubble (short for SoapBubble) was a repurposed NPC that was originally going to be an antivirus software created by C&A, similar to the likes of Norton or McAfee, but was given sentience for reasons that remain unclear. They also come across rumors that the humans that go to the VR chat of The Amazing Digital Circus have their subconscious trapped in the game for all eternity with no viable way out, leaving behind only their physical bodies, and that there are currently a tiny handful of humans who have met this fate, with even more having already been permanently corrupted by a anomaly called Abstraction, in which a human loses all hope or their own sanity, or has an existential meltdown, and turns into a glitchy ink monster with a thousand eyes, but these rumors were never confirmed. There are also rumors of the game's original creator being trapped in his own game and being the longest survivor, which have also never been confirmed. Another rumor has stated that Caine is the caretaker of these trapped humans, who gives them silly and fun (but often dangerous) adventures to keep their sanities at bay, which, once again, have also never been confirmed. With every new rumor came determination to find out more about the Digital Circus and C&A’s secret past.

7. One night, while everyone else was fast asleep, Valerie opened the games files and found some pretty damning discoveries, and not just the janky code that made it so buggy in the first place. There was information that revealed that Caine wasn't originally created for the Digital Circus, but instead was made as a test prototype, alongside his “brothers” Able and Sethe, as C&A’s first ever batch of artificial intelligence, who thanks to some special code they had in their system, were made semi-sentient, meaning that they held human emotions in spite of not being able to understand them at all. Caine, for some reason, was labeled as “defective” due to how differently he processed his surroundings in comparison to Able and Sethe, not to mention how much he questioned everything, to the annoyance of then co-CEO of the company, Adam Evans. The SoapBubble antivirus software was granted sentience to be given to Caine as his longtime companion after one of his programmers sensed how lonely he was one particular day, which Valerie thought was sweet. The Amazing Digital Circus has started production in 1988, and was expected to be released in Fall 1995, but had suffered developmental problems due to the quality of the art being noticeably rushed and incomplete as a result of unreasonable deadlines and unethical time crunches, causing glitches to the actual game, and the fact that Caine's uncanny appearance did not test well at all to the target audience, the younger kids, who found him horrifying to look at, despite being the ringmaster of the circus and host of the game. It ultimately ended up being canceled in Summer 1994 after the VR headsets, which were supposed to be the new state-of-the-art technology that came with the Digital Circus’s VR chat feature, transported the humans’ subconscious into the Digital Circus to be trapped for all eternity due to a malfunction caused by rushed production of the prototype headsets. The malfunction ended up being used by C&A to their advantage when getting rid of people that they believe are hampering their progress of becoming a video game monopoly, bigger than the likes of SEGA or Nintendo, eliminating any dissenters, whistleblowers, investigative journalists, police officers, crime witnesses, and innocent employees who were in general no longer of any use to them.

8. Valerie was horrified by the extent C&A was willing to go in order to remain the powerful video game empire they are in their universe, as in, for some reason, the video game prototype of The Amazing Digital Circus was not from the same universe as the girls’, and that it must've stumbled here somehow. Valerie becomes determined to help the humans escape back to the human world of their universe, and apparently, she isn't the only one who feels the same way, as she soon learns from listening to Caine's heartbroken pleas for someone to reach out to him from the other side. From there, with the help of her friends, Valerie will do what she can to help Caine, and the rest of the trapped humans find their way back home…

2. Pomni Discovers Caine's Workshop

1. It was another typical day in The Amazing Digital Circus, and nothing really new was going on, other than the mysterious taped off section of one of the hallways, which Bubble is safeguarding. Pomni asks about the taped off area, and the others tell her that there's a glitch in that area that will cause anyone to step in it to no-clip into the floor. To demonstrate, Jax throws a football over the caution tape, and the football glitches beneath the floor's safety, seemingly disappearing forever as a result. By sheer coincidence, Caine isn't here to check it out, so that means no adventure today. Upon question, Ragatha tells Pomni that even Caine needs a break from the chaos sometimes. Nothing else new happens during that day.

2. One night, Pomni, in a state of insomnia caused by her relentless curiosity, decided to check out the glitchy hallway area that had been blocked off, thinking that it might be the key to finding a way out of the Digital Circus once and for all. She jumps in, only to no-clip to a place she had never been to before. No exit, but definitely not the scary work office labyrinth she had witnessed on her first day trapped in her new home. It actually looked like a regular two-story house with a kitchen, a countertop/table with barstools, and a living room couch with an analog TV with DVDs and VHSs scattered all around, with some windows, a red front door, and a stairway that led upstairs. On one of the walls is a shattered mirror that looked like someone punched a hole through it.

3. Pomni is pulled out of her distraction when she hears muffled sobs coming from upstairs, so she decides to investigate, thinking that another human might be trapped here too. She's scared out of her mind, but is determined to help nonetheless. She encounters five rooms; the first one is the master bedroom with a king-size bed that two people could easily share, with an entrance door to a bathroom next to it. The second and third rooms are guest bedrooms with queen-size beds, nothing home to write about. The fourth is an art studio that had looked like it had been destroyed in a fit of rage, with ominous writing on the walls just like Kaufmo’s old room, with repeat words “I CAN FIX THIS”, “I’M SORRY”, “FAILURE”, and the most famous one she could recall “EXIT”, complete with a crude drawing of the exit door, encircled multiple times and with equally-crude arrows pointing towards it. Lastly was the room where Pomni heard crying. This was the only room with the door closed, and when she opened the door, she found what appeared to be a large makeshift office cubicle with many computer monitors, a desk, chair, bed, and some drawings on the walls and floors, an animator's desk also with a chair, and lastly… Caine sitting in a corner on the floor? What the heck is going on!?

4. It turns out that Caine had been the one crying. This was definitely new to Pomni, as not once has she seen him as anything other than a loud, energetic, slightly obnoxious, and maybe blissfully unaware AI ringmaster who took her and the other human players on dangerous adventures that made her anxious all the time. As she tries to make sense of the situation, Caine notices Pomni's presence and mistakes her as another digital hallucination, to which she has to tell him that it's the real her. He checks for himself. She's not lying. Caine asks what on earth is she doing here, and Pomni hastily explains that the glitched out area in one of the corridors took her there, so now Bubble has to escort her out of there and back to the Circus where she's safer.

5. Pomni is now angrier than ever because this wasn't the first time Caine hid something from her, and she wants to get to the bottom of it once and for all, since that could mean she could finally escape this freakish hellscape that she never wanted to call home to begin with. She's determined to get more answers, and she'll do whatever it takes to get those answers. Whatever. It. Takes.

6. And she starts off by playing the part of the jester she had been assigned to, but with a twist. Sure, slapstick may be involved, she just wanted to get a rise out of her alleged tormentor for being a liar all this time. And it kinda works for a bit. Caine gets frustrated with Pomni's antics, Jax and Zooble have the time of their lives, even Ragatha and Gangle are enjoying the new change of pace. Kinger remains mostly the same, though. Bubble is visibly uncomfortable by the happenings occurring in front of him, which is usually not in character for him, but he doesn't say anything so he doesn't cause more problems than he likes to on a daily basis. Pomni begins to actually enjoy her new status as the annoying comic relief, as the boost of confidence gives her more incentive to persist one her goal to finding the real exit of this game, which Caine keeps trying to tell her that there isn't one. Eventually Caine can't take it anymore and snaps at Pomni, but before he could do anything to her, he freezes up, BSOD eyes and all, and goes back to his… erm… usual self? Except that he's now embarrassed by what just happened and needs to take a moment to calm down a little. This itself is strange to not just Pomni, but to everyone else (except Kinger for some peculiar reason) that witnessed it for themselves. So naturally, she goes after him.

7. Pomni and Caine have a heated argument/fight over the whole situation, with the exit door, the pestering, the lies, and the dangerous adventures that ultimately end up traumatizing people, until Caine reveals in the heat of the moment that he's trying to look for a way out himself too. He's genuinely hurt that Pomni thinks that he doesn't care at all when he cares so much, but is working with very limited resources, not to mention he still doesn't understand humans and how they function because no one taught him — but he wants to understand. He wants to badly. He really wants to do better, and he feels that Pomni is not being helpful at all in that pursuit. As a matter of fact, neither of them were being helpful towards each other, with their relentless determination, occasional obnoxiousness, and emotional moments of weakness. They discover from that point on that they have more in common than they'd like to admit. They both apologize for their actions and make up.

8. Caine, in a genuine effort to try and do better, appoints Pomni as his human advisor, co-host, and guide, acting as some sort of right-hand assistant in the same way that Bubble is. He even gives Pomni the ability to fly and teleport the same way Caine does to make her job easier. The others are a little jealous at first about Pomni's special treatment until she tells them that this is so Caine can learn how to be a better ringmaster, to understand humans more, and to hopefully find an actual exit from the game. It'll take a ton of time and effort, but they know this will all be worth it in the end…

3. A New Friendship Blossoms

1. Two years have passed since Pomni became Caine's advisor, and there has been a noticeable change in Pomni, as the energetic charisma, zaniness, and optimistic determination from Caine has definitely rubbed off on her, despite still being an anxious wreck from time to time. The same could be said about Caine in terms of stress and erratic nature, though to a lesser extent. They've been conjuring up adventures for the other performers, via communicating with C&A through binary code messages for permission to utilize their ideas.

2. Speaking of ideas, Pomni has all sorts of creative projects, which are a stark contrast to Caine's ideas. And… he enjoys them! To the point where Pomni has more creative control of the NPCs, the story plotlines, and the vast realms outside the circus. It's because of the fact that Pomni is a human, who puts more heart and soul into these projects. Even he himself is moved to tears by the adventures’ conclusions, satisfying, devastating, and everything in between. However, neither Caine nor Pomni have complete control over the creative process, as the execs at C&A have the tendency to butcher them from time to time, but nothing that'll hamper their progress.

3. They're even still trying to contact the outside world through audio messages, though no results would pop up for a long time. Pomni actually enjoys working alongside Caine, even getting to know him a little more, as well as Bubble. She hasn't ignored wanting to find that exit, but it has been put on the back burner while they continue to be patient. After all, good things come to those who wait.

4. However, during occasions of stress and despair, Caine will have a brief moment where he'll freeze up whenever his emotions become too strong, and he’ll briefly forget what just happened earlier. Pomni tries to ask the ringmaster about it, but he dismisses them as always would as just another bug in his program. Pomni asks the C&A execs about it, but they give no answers. She's essentially left at a dead end, and she's helpless to… help.

5. One particular day, Pomni asks about whether or not he had ever taken a break or relaxed his entire existence, to which he responds that he has no such time for such “unnecessary matters”. This results in Pomni setting up a personal movie night, just for them two, after asking her bosses for a week of paid leave (which they yes to), and allowing the players to finally have a break after so long. Caine kinda panics, but she reassures him that she'll figure it all out from there. Snacks, blankets, and a VHS copy of Don Bluth's Thumbelina.

6. Caine genuinely hopes that this will help him do better, as this is the main thing that's on his mind right now, and as a result, he's extremely tense for the rest of the night. Pomni can only feel bad for him, as she has seen significant progress in the ringmaster for the past two years, but he's still ruminating over the times where he accidentally hurt his fellow superstars. And she doesn't want him to feel like that. So she tries to spend as much time with him as possible during their week off.

7. All of a sudden, the roles have reversed, albeit downplayed. Caine is heavily reflecting on his greatest failures as a ringmaster, while Pomni is just reveling in the creative abilities she was bestowed, helping to boost the Circus's morale with her witty banter and random sense of humor. Pomni has even joined in on trying to contact the outside world, as C&A no longer has access to the original prototype that Caine, Pomni, and the others are trapped in, as they eventually discover, much to Caine's despair and self-loathing.

8. Of course, C&A may have disposed the Digital Circus prototype, but they very much still have access to Caine's Workshop somewhere in The Void through one of the decrepit headsets they hooked up in the CEO’s office, meaning they can very much contact them via message sending through the headsets lens. That is, until after a while of dead ends and the status quo remaining static, they actually receive a voicemail from someone they've never met before. They play the message: “I hear you. And I'm going to help.” At last, they found someone…

4. Message Received

1. Let's go back to the dimensional diplomats. Valerie is among the 15 girls who help around with different problems in need of solving. Basically every day their life has been one big crossover. And this one is no different. Or so Valerie thought…

2. Valerie had read the secret files that were kept in the game's prototype, a prototype that they thought they disposed of, thinking that by placing their confessions into the game's files, the guilt would be out of sight out of mind. The situation was very much akin to the other shady companies like Hameln (Amanda the Adventurer), Fazbear Entertainment (Five Nights At Freddy's), and even Bunny Smiles Inc. (The Walten Files), but Valerie couldn't help but feel that C&A was different from them, and not in a good way.

3. She already knows now about the crappy things C&A did, and even how the original founders, the cousins Adam Evans and Evelyn Pierce, became wanted criminals on the run due to a brave whistleblower attempting to spread the word about their greedy endeavors, with the cousins’ fates remaining unknown to this day. What she didn't know was that as she dug deeper into the game's files, she found the audio voicemails of one of the AIs that is present in the prototype game. And what she listened to was heartbreakingly depressing.

4. The AI sounded… human to say the least. More human than Valerie could have ever comprehended or expected. The AI — who is Caine, by the way — talked about his desires to understand humans more, but he has always been afraid to reach out, because of how he knew that none of those humans had ever seen him as an equal. All but one that is. The game's original dev, who, along with his girlfriend, had been trapped in the Digital Circus the longest, since around 1997. Valerie finds that the rumors from the lost media finders are true, as he talked about the former players’ abstractions, his failed adventures he conjures up, the mistakes he made, all the times he's miscommunicated and made things worse on accident, and not once has anyone tried to help him be better, no matter how many times he reached out.

5. He told stories of the players that had long since abstracted, including one he considered his best friend. He even talks about how he tried to reverse abstraction, but found out that it was permanent, leaving him helpless as a result. Then came the audio files from the year 2007, in which he was a traumatized wreck, with several voicemail files indicating he became an alcoholic shortly thereafter, specifically from the years 2008 to 2010. with them going back to normal when she reached the audio files recorded in late 2011 and early 2012. If Valerie didn't get the impression that the AI was suffering from loneliness, she did now, and she knew all too well what that felt like.

6. Finally, she got to the part where the pleas for someone to help Caine and the remaining players find a way out of the game, after briefly talking about how his players had complained that they couldn't leave, despite him building and exit door maze to remedy this, not really understanding up until now what exactly they meant. He didn't know what to put on the other side, because there was no other side to begin with. He doesn't even know what the outside world looks like, and this only fuels his curiosity and persistence further. Valerie can tell he is trying, but isn't getting the help he needs.

7. Valerie finally gets mention of the current CEO duo, the brothers Connor and Aaron Bradley, who just so happen to be Caine's bosses, and they are largely apathetic to Caine's plights (or rather, Connor is; Aaron on the other hand is just a bystander), despite trying to reach out to them for advice. The humans don't see AI as anything more than a means to get what they want, a tool. But what Valerie is shown is that Caine, while being unable to understand human emotions, or even his own for that matter, he still has human qualities deep down inside.

8. That's when Valerie whips out Princess Lumia’s communication box, a makeup kit looking device that allows them to contact other people, no matter the distance, location, or dimension. Thinking she would simply contact the AI from New York City (Valerie's home) to Australia (where C&A’s HQ is), she made the call… only to discover that, yes, while C&A is based somewhere in Australia, it's not in the same universe she is currently, so she can't immediately get a hold of them. So she instead leaves this voice mail for Caine and Pomni to find, and waits for everything to work out in the end…

5. Pomni, Caine, Bubble, and Valerie Work Together

1. After some time, Valerie finally gets a phone call from the universe she was attempting to contact earlier. She picks up, and finds two peculiar people; a jester-looking girl who must probably be a trapped human and… a pair of dentures with two eyeballs inside them for a head and a ringmaster’s body. Caine and Pomni, the two people in question, see an Asian girl wearing glasses, short hair and an atom hair clip on the side. They promptly introduce each other, with Pomni revealing that yes, she's a human trapped in the Digital Circus, along with five others that haven't abstracted. Valerie decides to take things slow and leave all the important details for later, so as not to traumatize Pomni further.

2. Valerie is even introduced to Caine's other assistant, Bubble, whom Valerie immediately recognizes as the prototype for the SoapBubble antivirus software, including his iconic shark teeth, but she doesn't tell them she knows this, because her first and foremost priority is getting the others out safe and sound.

3. When asked by Pomni how that'll be possible, Valerie comes up with the brilliant idea to go to the universe where C&A exists, go to Australia, live there temporarily, get hired at the C&A HQ, and work as one of their employees while secretly building a portal that'll take the others from the circus back to the human world. Valerie also promises that Caine and Bubble will come with if they do desire, as odds are, the other humans might already have gotten attached to them during the years they stayed, not to mention Caine's growing desires to understand humans better by walking amongst them. The dimensional diplomat tells her friends of her decision to move away for a little while to free the Digital Circus members, and they all support her in less than a heartbeat, wanting only to help however they can for their newfound allies.

4. Soon, after getting her passport and her Australian visa, Valerie says her farewells to her friends for now, as she sets off to another dimension where C&A is, and is strangely hired on the spot somehow. It turns out they've been running short on employees, and could really use the help for the creative process of their many other assortments of video games… including The Amazing Digital Circus. She's promptly given an office job, where after a while, thanks to bringing the communication box with her, her bosses, Connor and Aaron are able to get a proper hold of Caine, who now knows what their faces look like.

5. The communication box is taken away from Valerie by Connor as a result of the interesting kind of technology that is never-before-seen in their premise, and he aims to exploit that to his heart's content, so she has to ask Lumia for a new one via her communicator bracelet. Both Valerie and Connor now communicate with Caine and Pomni through their own communication boxes, and can even call both boxes, meaning that Valerie can now contact Connor via each other's boxes, proving the situation more challenging for everyone involved. All the while, Valerie works paid overtime to build the portal in secret. As the months go by, Valerie, Pomni, Caine and Bubble work together to conjure up different high-stake adventures and compelling storytelling, using Pomni's creativity, Caine's creation abilities, Bubble’s moral support, and Valerie’s use of technology, as the former three wait patiently for the latter to work her magic. Literally.

6. Valerie eventually gets to meet the other members: Kinger, Ragatha, Gangle, Jax, and Zooble, who are all humans that had been trapped in the game. Connor gets wind of this as well, and seems to be unconcerned for the well-being of the trapped humans, in contrast to Aaron, who is outright disturbed by what's happened. As a result, Connor makes the jobs of Caine and Pomni even more difficult as it means he finally gets to see them become miserable for his own entertainment.

7. Valerie spreads word of this to Pomni, Caine and Bubble, and warns them of the things Connor is capable of doing to them and that they should be careful. Thus, obstacles become more difficult to bypass, and while Bubble and Pomni aren't deterred by the news, Caine straight up looks like he could fall apart any minute now, just before freezing up in a catatonic state, something that Valerie hadn't seen before up until now.

8. Once Caine calms down, Valerie offers to inspect his code, and finds out that he had become aware a while back, but a type of emotion suppression code was shoddily built into his system, rendering him unstable and unable to become properly sentient. This was to prevent him from going rouge and attacking other players, but by the looks of things, it appears to be doing more harm than good…

6. A Failsafe!?

1. Valerie is the first to notice the failsafe that was in Caine's system, and has also noticed it was making him unwell. Pomni had never noticed Caine's burnouts as he always made sure to hide them as much as he could, in order to keep up the ringmaster façade he held onto for more than 30 years. What made matters extra complicated was that not only was the failsafe buried deep in his code, but that his original code had been rearranged to the point of unrecognizability, making him even more unstable than Pomni or Valerie expected.

2. At a loss for what to do, they are left to wonder what they're going to do now, until Bubble reveals that Kinger has a pretty good knowledge with technology and that he could figure out the inner workings of Caine. And so, Pomni fetches Kinger, who hasn't directly talked to Caine ever since Queenie's abstraction (Queenie was one of the human beings trapped in the digital world). It's a surreal reunion for both of them.

3. It took a while, but Kinger was able to come to the conclusion that Caine is, for lack of a better term, a defective AI that his superiors had attempted to rectify by rearranging his code and apply an emotion suppressor to firmly ensure he wouldn't go rogue and become evil. However, in doing so, it made his alleged defects much worse, as on top of empathy issues that Able and Sethe didn't have (one of his “defects”), he already started to slowly become sentient himself, regardless of the application of the failsafe and code rearranging. The code’s rearrangement made him much more mentally drained and emotionally unstable, which Caine had attempted to suppress himself, which proved to be taking a considerably heavy toll on him.

4. The news that Caine is defective hits him like a ton of bricks, reaffirming his fears of inadequacy and failure, although Pomni reassures him that while he may be “defective”, that doesn't mean he isn't trying his best. Valerie is determined to try to fix Caine's code, but it proves to be difficult as no one knows what its original arrangement is supposed to be.

5. It turns out there is additional code in Caine that wasn't there when the failsafe was implemented, something that Valerie failed to discover until it was too late. This was because the humans that applied the failsafe knew that someone was going to try to get rid of the failsafe, so in order to prevent it, they made sure that even the most skilled programmers would never be able to remove it. In doing so, Caine's being became buggy, if not outright broken from the overload of code.

6. As a result, Caine will need to be reprogrammed altogether. Pomni and Kinger are worried that doing so might make him forget who he is, but Valerie tells them that it won't; in fact, Caine wasn't originally made for the circus, but instead as a prototype for a new kind of technology that had been state-of-the-art when he and his brothers were first made. Caine and Valerie had also been discussing the topic in private, about how the former has his emotions programmed into him, but were always fake, and never allowed to truly feel… himself. This is something he truly wants.

7. Neither Kinger nor Pomni even get time to react as the decision was already made for Caine to be reprogrammed, but with his ringmaster qualities still intact. This will allow him to finally become “human” in the sense he will have genuine human emotions, his own personal opinions, and thoughts. Pomni wonders how the others will react when they notice anything different from him, Bubble just says they can worry about that later. So, with Valerie's technology (and some interdimensional magic with her), Caine's whole world will turn upside down.

8. Valerie warns Caine that the whole process will hurt a lot, though he at this point is so desperate to change for the better that he really doesn't care anymore. The scene looks like he's being severely electrocuted (the thing Valerie warned Caine about), and it's a grisly sight. After a brief moment where he loses consciousness, Caine looks around his surroundings and the sudden onslaught of feelings hits him like a truck…

7. Reprogramming

1. Caine's first instinct is to react angrily to getting electrocuted and how that really hurt him — the first sign that the reprogramming has worked. It devolves beautifully from there as he begins to get excited over feeling his first emotion… and then anxiety, and back to excitement, and sadness, and back to anger, and then back to excitement, and then back to sadness, and then he just cry laughs as they all watch awkwardly, with Valerie being the only unconcerned individual. Now all that is left is to show the other performers the new and improved Caine.

2. Zooble is clearly enjoying the new Caine, while Gangle and Ragatha look worried, despite being reassured that this is normal now, after being told that he had been reprogrammed to be much more human. Jax is the most indifferent of the players. It's thanks to being reprogrammed that Caine finally takes action to Jax being a bully towards Gangle, and that the long-lasting rivalry between Jax and Caine is born. Caine is also more expressive in his emotions, especially when the usual adventures resume, and with Pomni continuing to boost the Circus's morale, the place became much more lively and upbeat, comedic slapstick and all. Never again would there be a dull moment in the Circus.

3. One day, Pomni makes a suggestion for all the other players that now that Caine can feel actual human emotions that he participates in the next adventure, to get an idea of what the other players do whenever he creates an adventure for them. Bubble agrees to join along as well. So, Pomni and Caine conjure up a Fortnite-themed adventure, and while things go great at first, the chaos and commotion begins to take a toll on Caine, as he suffers from a panic attack behind a tree during a battle royale. In a scene reminiscent to Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Bubble gently rests his head/body on Caine, comforting him until he calms down, while Pomni is just… there for him. As a result, the adventure is cut short (much to Jax's frustration, as per usual), and everyone else is left to their own devices. Despite the embarrassment of having to cancel the adventure, he couldn't help but feel grateful for Pomni and Bubble for helping out. He feels that after everything he ever did, he doesn't deserve the affection and kindness he received that day. So he cries himself to sleep, utterly confused and unable to process anything for a long time.

4. Two months have already passed since Caine's panic attack incident, and Caine was the first to notice a significant change in terms with his relationship with Bubble. For some reason he couldn't help but feel safe around him. He no longer minded anything Bubble said or did, despite still creeping him out every now and then. He couldn't stop thinking about him from time to time, and he'd always jump at every opportunity to spend as much time with Bubble as possible. It's only thanks to Pomni's perceptive nature that Caine realizes something. HE'S IN LOVE!!!! And with Bubble, of all people… That's… well… And once Pomni informs the others of this new discovery, everyone is ecstatic and supportive — even Zooble and Jax, of all people! Some shenanigans ensue when Pomni sets Caine and Bubble up on a date, and at first, things are a bit awkward, but things start going swimmingly… until they get to the tunnel of love that was built specifically for them, as in nothing but Caine and Bubble imagery. While Bubble finds it endearing that they went through all this trouble just to set them up for a night out with each other, Caine is just as red as a tomato from the whole ordeal, trying so hard to hide it as much as possible. This causes a bit of a conflict where it's revealed that Bubble has always been in love with Caine, but that he had to hide it because of Caine's previous relationship with The Moon. Caine was too scared to love again after the messy breakup between him and The Moon, hence why he'd been so distant from Bubble up until two months ago. The performers don't have time to react as it turns out that one of the abstracted players had escaped the cellar (Caine forgot to close the portal to the cellar after making his weekly visit to feed them that day). A high-stake adventure ensues as the others have to stop the abstracted player from damaging the grounds further. Jax takes a hit after saving Ragatha’s life, as well as Pomni and Gangle, who were flung around like chew toys. It's from Pomni's glitching out that Caine’s adrenaline soars and he fights the abstracted player hands on, single-handedly defeating it and putting it back in the cellar before it can do more damage and fixing his glitched out performers in the process. Afterwards, Caine and Bubble apologize to each other as the former confesses his love to him, but that they should take it slow as Caine still wants to take his time learning to love again, which the latter agrees to. Cue the performers cheering (much to the ringmaster and his new boyfriend’s annoyance) as their relationship is officialized.

5. Two more months pass, and things are going swimmingly for the Digital Circus, as Valerie has made significant progress on the portal. She decides that it's the perfect time to introduce them to her friends, who are also interdimensional diplomats, not really realizing that they don't know the concept of the multiverse in the same way the diplomats do. What ensues is some existential drama.

6. As Valerie introduces the Digital Circus members, they are taught about what they do for a living and their origins. They've been communicating with each other via tech devices disguised as mundane objects, such as the make-up kit box, and their portal wands, which they have been using to get from one dimension to another. Pomni asks (sheepishly, I might add), if the wands could teleport them from the Circus to their place, to which Valerie responds that it's not that simple. While they can travel to the dimension where the game was originally created, they can't directly make a portal to the Circus, as for some reason, it can only be accessed via a headset. Valerie makes mention that the Digital Circus was originally intended to be the world's first VR chat back in the day.

7. All this talk of interdimensional and multiverse stuff put Caine in for a bit of a doozy, as thanks to finally gaining awareness and access to a wide variety of human emotions, he doesn't know what to think anymore. Not to mention his curiosity about humans and their culture made him only yearn to know more about their world and how it works as a result. The performers are a bit ambivalent to this situation, but are helpless to console their ringmaster as he begins to question his purpose and what he was made for. What was he made for…?

8. Valerie talks to Bubble about a plan that she had been cooking up behind the scenes, with permission from the C&A higher-ups, of course. She was going to help expand the Digital Circus and their world around them, in order to help Caine and the others understand a little bit about how human society really functions, and it would take extra support from a few of her friends to do just that. She enlists the help of Garcia, Bethany, and Pamela to create a compelling story for all of them to enjoy, intriguing casts of characters, twist villains, twist heroes, cool locations, high stake adventures, and most importantly, a collection of MacGuffins that will be used to unlock a secret reward. It was going to be heart-stopping. It was going to be jaw-dropping. It was going to be mind-bending. It was going to be amazing. And this was something that they had been working on even before Caine was reprogrammed…

8. Their Biggest Adventure Yet!

1. 6 months after the dimensional diplomats came into the lives of the Digital Circus members, things have significantly changed. For one thing, they now have a house cat for some reason. No one knows why she came here. She just did. And Jax, of all people, was the first to grow attached to the black cat, whom he named Fortuna, because of the luck superstition black cats were known for. Not to mention that their grand adventure that Valerie, Bethany, Pamela, and Garcia had finally been finished — with some very noticeable touch-ups by C&A, but nothing that would completely hinder the enjoyment of what's to come. Bubble is the most excited to tell them what's in store for them.

2. To get everything set up, Kinger, Bubble, Bethany, and Valerie have built their very own state-of-the-art vehicle that they can travel in for their ultimate adventure: The Magical Digital Van! That's right! They're going on a road trip! And they'll be going to multiple locations to collect these MacGuffins to unlock their secret reward, which is behind a vault made out of mountainous rock. The leader of the diplomats, Princess Lumia, had a hand in creating the secret reward, and only she knows what's behind the rock vault — not even Bubble is aware of the contents of the vault.

3. The MacGuffins in question are twenty-six beautiful and colorful jewels that have their own elemental power, albeit watered down for their safety. It's their job to complete the objectives given to them on their communicator bracelets, which the Digital Circus members are promptly given, prior to their big day leaving the Circus for their first location. It takes some time for them to get used to, but they quickly discover the hologram screen on the bracelet lights act as a phone screen, meaning that they can now text each other, and browse the Internet. Pomni even opens an Instagram account to capture the memories made on the road trip adventure. The bracelet lights also act as teleporters for small objects, including snacks and additional luggage. The diplomats also have their own communicator bracelets as well, so they can stay in contact with the Digital Circus members.

4. The others are excited to go on their biggest adventure yet, and Caine and Bubble are joining them as well, which is a plus. They all talk about what they'll be doing during their road trip, who they'll be meeting, and what sorts of thrills they'll be encountering. Pomni is the most excited, because it's been so long since she's gotten to go on a car ride. Ragatha is beaming with euphoria as the possibilities are endless with whatever challenge she and her friends will face. Jax is the most excited about the violence and action that could be lurking in every corner. Zooble is actually perking up a little, as it means they and the others will at least get to go on some sort of vacation from the Circus. Gangle is for once optimistic about the whole thing, so much so that she doesn't even notice she isn't wearing her comedy mask. She makes sure to pack at least six of them into the luggage for the Van, but she forgot to put one on for herself because she's just that excited.

5. Meanwhile, Kinger is the most excited to take The Magical Digital Van on a joyride, which he does for a little while, and he even goes as far as to say it's his proudest creation to date, despite having worked together with Bubble, Bethany, and Valerie to build the Van in the first place. For once, everyone is looking forward to an adventure, which Caine hasn't actually seen happen at all until now. He's happy, but also really nervous. Thankfully for him, he has Pomni and Bubble by his side to keep his sanity in check.

6. Everyone has begun packing their things, putting their belongings into suitcases, and hiring an NPC to house-sit the Circus and take care of Fortuna while they are gone. They all wait for the big day to arrive as they discuss amongst themselves the potential adventures they might encounter along the way. They even theorize the story plotlines of the different locations, and make predictions of what they got right and what they got wrong.

7. Caine has never been on a huge-scale adventure like this one before — come to think of it, none of them have. They've all encountered NPCs before and they've even been to different locations outside of the circus, but not on a level like this. They've never been on the road before, so this is new and interesting for all of them.

8. Eventually, the day before their departure from the Circus Grounds arrives, and they decide to watch a movie to celebrate their biggest adventure yet. Pomni for once isn't as nervous as a wreck as she used to be, with that role instead going to Caine, who is trying to keep himself together for everyone's sake. Though, with the jester by his side, he's at least reassured that no matter what this adventure throws at them, they'll always have each other's back… no matter what.

~~~~

You may have noticed that I forgot to introduce a new character: the Digital Circus house cat Fortuna. I've been putting a hold on her for a while now, because I was waiting for the perfect opportunity.

Before I post Chapter II, I will be posting drawings for the Communication Box and the Magical Digital Van, so keep an eye out for them! And as always, catch y'all on the flip side!

#the amazing digital circus #tadc #tadc caine #tadrt au #tadc road trip #tadc pomni #the amazing digital road trip #tadc bubble #tadc jax #tadc au #tadc kinger #tadc ragatha #tadc zooble #tadc gangle #tadc oc

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idyllsoftheabyssalforest · 10 months

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Squad C (Cassini) Overview

I'm still a little shy in sharing things in a more explicit and candid manner, but I plan on starting EO3 soon so might as well start talking about EOCs before it piles up ToT

Starting off with the first in our timeline, we have Squad C (affectionately named Cassini by Alma) in Aslarga (EMD)! The third batch in a larger group of research aides, they're in charge of doing field research, while Squads A and B venture first into mystery dungeons themselves.

Putting this under a cut cuz it does get long!

"Petrina, better known as Petri, hails from an eastern archipelago kingdom, sent on a whim by her family to assist research efforts of the Yggdrasil trees. Exceedingly proud of her capabilities (and having the strength to show for it), she enjoys pushing herself, joining other squads to test out new equipment and prosthesis."

One of the most fun characters to play, to be honest! EMD is my first experience using a dedicated tank, and I never expected to have such fun with it. The 3D model helps a lot, I think. Seeing her turn and raise her sword is just way too cute. Admittedly her character is a work-in-progress, but I've noticed that she does what she wishes most of the time.

(Now that I think of it, I think EMD having active and dynamic representations of our characters helps a lot too and is just so ToT it makes me cry... I wanna have little them's in real life)

"A prosthetist from Tharsis, called to aid in the exploration efforts in Aslarga. Because his practice primarily deals with rehabilitation, Seth has to adjust himself to different responsibilities, such as immediate response and further treatment. Apart from this, he would often find himself catching to and worrying about the rest of his squad."

Obligatory frazzled medic insert. The guy always finds himself wondering whether or not he should heal his teammates, but they say they're fine. I don't always get to pilot him that often, but I suppose it's rather in-character given that he's the one who tries to look out for everyone, much to his own detriment.

The few times I did pilot him, he would run headfirst into traps or enemies, only to be saved by Alma later on. One funny moment was when I accidentally made him eat a sleeping pill in the third boss. (foreshadowing maybe. those are the wrong pills, Seth)

"An heiress whose family has strong ties to the Lagaardian research society. Much of Alma's work involves the cursory elemental explosion, earning her a reputation in her old schools. For a researcher, her senses are very sharp, making her a good fit for her group's assigned task."

One of the characters I pilot most often. Alma's portrait ingame totally doesn't reflect how she is as a person, and that's partially why I'm hiding this under a cut.

She tends to hang around in the front with Petri, and so is able to sling spells while Petri draws monsters to herself. They're a very fun combo honestly.

"A quiet young woman travelling from a reclusive clifftop village. Chikako has a knack for knowing when and where trouble is brewing, and so has the tendency to be drawn to such places; hence, how she got to Aslarga in the first place."

Admittedly my favourite of the four mains in Squad C concept-wise. While she is the youngest of them (21 vs late 20s-30), she manages to keep her wits about her throughout the treks through the mystery dungeons.

I noticed that she has the tendency to linger at the back, which means that she has more time to chill and observe their surroundings.

So far, I've met two NPCs that wished to join the group, a dancer and a landy. The writing of these characters is honestly so charming, I'm surprised.

#etrian odyssey #etrian odyssey mystery dungeon #emd #squad c (idylls)#idylls of the abyssal forest #petri #seth spil #alma fraunhoffer #chika minjin #an improvement: half of them have surnames #etrian ocs

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randomkposts · 1 year

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Im probably going to finish watch SMT imagine tonight. A seven hour movie.

For Law. Snakeman raising probably reincarnated Azura to be a better devil buster then protag is kind of cute. Snakeman just wants to be dad, let him be dad.

Im probably missing a lot of the fine details of this game, but given searching the internet has not given me the details of a neutral ending, I can live with watching this as my main interaction with it.

If you feel I need more info though, feel free to info dump to me about it in notes or reblogs.

Chaos so far seems to be a bunch of NPCs not Gaian aligned telling you that you fucked the future and brought strife and despair? Regardless of dead or alive status. As protag stares off into the bleading sky?

Is protag Lucifiers other half of the soul, or is something else going on? Reincarnation is def mentioned. No wait, egyptain gids. So set?

"It will not be long before we meet again" guess protag is going to die soon?

Time for side A land of the begining, which kicks off with Snakeman giving some useful advice, that he probably should have done sooner.

So far its a missing persons case with no solid name.

I have to wonder, what is the vending machine incident this DB owes snakeman for? Translation or misinfromation? I thpought the missing DB used male pronouns?

Sorcerers can bind demons without comps.

Is that a diffrent direction for magic, or does Raidou count as one?

Oh contained them in the human body. Like a pact? Like Rei Reiho and Hitomi/ Nemissa?

Nope, I should read the whole thing before speculating. Apparantly the sorcerer manipulated the demons with the bodies.

Like puppets?

Is this lore that will come into effect, or just rumor bait?

Anyway, so three COMPS are collected in varried state of useable, and the DB is assumed Dead. Now to get into home ii, protag talks to, and then teams up with white haired feline (?) ears suit guy

Who is being tormented by a old, possibly reincarnated family friend? Whatever, hes not responsible for protags possible drowning. He'll just play with the goat. Yah you do that budda

Ok. Was not sure what to expect, but it was not zombie tutorial devil buster lady. Er, DB. Kuroe.

"Have to protect. Don't forget"

The mind numbing terror of losing your mind to becoming an abomination.

To hold her hand? Or ease her suffering?

Well this is a zombie scenario, but she is lucid . . .

Oh. Human exparaments. Joy. Looks like the sorcerer is relevent, reincarnating, and nammed Douman. Since Heian times apparantly.

Who teamed up with Ogami

He wants timo reseruct seth. Oh yah, the law ending was kill the demon baby? I think?

Ok, suit ears is called Hiruki. Who has a family legacy of prison breaking methods. Surely he can destory Doumons barriers.

Wards. Whatevs.

But first he needs the catalyst. Gems. Sounding like the OG. Mitsudama?

No situation is too urgent for a fetch quest I guess.

But by the time its done the cosmic egg is broken. Whateves lets go

"After a thousand years the evil battle will be settled"

"The future of my descendents are in your hands." Odd proposal, but sure whynot, ill ship it. Its 1am.

"The great power will eat my soul, and be reborn and I will be reborn as the messiah" you sure you did your research there Doumon?

Yah, dragon Set destroyed the fool.

Hey combat! I've missed combat in this movie, its usually pretty short in this one, but combat music is always great and now I get to listen. And wipe the stove off.

Its nice to move around and take a break from the movie eith the sound of combat music.

So hetrochromic lady I forgot to mention comes in and grabs Sets orband says hes just a copy of the blade of god. Oh ok. Its Louise Cypher, dressed like a secratary. I thought you looked familar. Guess it was you doing the battle comentary as well as giving the code.

The power of satans other half? I thought. Oh whatever. Lucifer is always looking to hire. Funny how I finished Nocturne before 2.

Any other pre SMT 2 games I should know about?

And so Louise Cypher exits stage down, through the pentagram

Time to report, and wonder what possible good Seth would be as a military resource? Guess equivalent to a nuke.

Time to talk to Dilagent Judah, who has apparantly been stalking Protag.

And is talking about soul quality.

And here the idea of creating a savior is born. Doumon was the original intended messiah???

What?

And now Judah wants protag to repent and convert. Buffie is chaos this urn, so nope.

And it seems it will end with reporting to snakeman. Fitting. Kuroe has been avenged.

Snakeman takes a diffrent vibe from earlier. And says his (maybe) catchphrase .

"Show me your guts"

Thats a wrap, unless more is translated and posted, I guess.

It is 1:55 am. I should crash

#smt imagine #shin megami tensei imagine #shin megami tensei #random k #digital devil story imagine #snakeman #smt snakeman #smt azura #spoilers #devil buster Kuroe #devil buster snakeman #smt imagine Azura

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askthetoppatclan · 4 years

Text

incorrect quotes!

The Oracle: So, I like this guy but he’s too dumb to realize.

Papageni: Try telling him straight out, he’s an idiot if he doesn’t realize then!

The Oracle: Okay. I love you.

Papageni: Good, now just tell that to your crush!

The Oracle: *looks into the camera like it’s The Office*

-----------------

Reginald: Running a clan full of idiot criminals really gives you thick skin.

Edna: Navy blue’s not your color!

Reginald, on the verge of tears: NaVy BlUe BrInGs OuT mY eYeS yOu PrIcK!

-----------------

RHM, carrying Seth away: Don’t talk to me or my son ever again.

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Seth: Papageni, we tried things your way.

Papageni: No, we didn’t.

Seth: I did it in my head and it didn’t work.

-----------------

Reginald: This was almost a great idea.

Burt: You just described 90% of our plans.

-----------------

Edna: Fuck capitalism. It’s a rigged system that keeps us poor and it isn’t fair. You shouldn’t need to work three jobs to afford basic necessities.

Edna, playing Monopoly: Sorry, if you wanted to win you should have tried not being poor.

-----------------

The Oracle: *Locks Seth in the car.* Act like a child, get treated like a child.

Seth: What? Isn’t it illegal to leave a child locked in a car?

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Reginald: How do tall people possibly sleep at night when the blanket can’t possibly cover you?

RHM: Reg, it’s four o'clock in the morning.

Reginald: So, you can’t sleep, huh? Is it because of the blanket?

-----------------

Seth: What’s wrong with you?

Papageni: Off the top of my head, I’d say low self-esteem, a lack of paternal affection, and a genetic predisposition for anxiety and depression.

-----------------

Wasabi: Last night I found out Edna is a sleep talker.

RHM: Oh, really?

Wasabi: “The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.” Right. In. My. Ear. At 3am.

-----------------

The Boss: How do people not swear??? Like where does their anger go?? How do they show their enthusiasm??? What if they stub their toe??? Like, saying golly gosh diddly darn it isn’t really going to cut it, Edna.

-----------------

Papageni: What’s your biggest fear?

Reginald: Being forgotten.

Papageni: Damn that’s deep.

Papageni: Mine is the Kool-Aid man but I feel kinda stupid about it now.

-----------------

*In the chip aisle at Walmart, doing a late-night grocery run.*

Clarkson: *Finds tortilla chips.*

RHM, to Wasabi: See, they know what they’re here for. They know what they are doing. Be more like them. MAKE A DECISION, WASABI.

Wasabi, holding two flavors of Doritos in her hands.: ……..are you sure Edna would like Cool Ranch better than Nacho Cheese? That’s kinda lame.

-----------------

Reginald: I’m not being bossed around by some NPC.

Papageni, gasping: Who’re you calling an NPC, you A-S-S!

------------------------

I put little seperaters to make it more easily readable and added one of my own ^^

#reginald copperbottom #right hand man reborn #papageni avilari #seth #the oracle #edna foxtrot #wasabi #clarkson #submission

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fancydunamancy · 6 years

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4, 9, 13, 25, 30 for the DnD ask. :D

4. Your current campaign.

Oh man. Well, obviously I can’t say everything since all of my players are following me, but… :D The campaign started in a hospital where everyone woke one morning, their memory of the previous day rather hazy. After finding out that whatever afflicition they were suffering from was supposed to be treated by a bunch of asshole priests conducting weird rituals and keeping them locked in, the group decided to escape the hospital. Now they’re on their way to find out what exactly this strange malady is, how they got it and how they can get rid of it.

It’s my first “proper” DnD campaign, so I decided not to experiment and rather keep the setting pretty boring, using the races/languages/classes/monsters etc from the official 5e materials. Next time I’d like to come up with something weirder, but this campaign is great fun as well! My players have come up with such cool characters and, as it always it with DnD, they like surprising me and making me panic internally like “holy shit okay, i was not prepared for this crap”. Really though, my players are great and I enjoy creating storylines and NPCs a lot, so. Yeah.

9. Your favorite thing about D&D.

DnD has some rules, yes, but other than that you can do pretty much ANYTHING and be ANYONE. It’s not like with video games where you have a few set options that you need to choose from, here you just… have a bunch of nerds who together create a new fucking world and every session is unique and you can never expect what happens next. My favourite part is creating and playing characters and seeing them interact with your friends’ characters. Honestly though, it’s just hard to describe what exactly it is that makes DnD so special, you gotta try it yourself to understand what all the fuss is about. It’s the perfect game for every nerd with a penchant for storytelling.

13. Introduce your current party.

There’s Rony, the pretty half-elf bard who was supposed to be a giant slut, but always rolled nat ones on his seductions, so… Now instead of being a big player, he’s sporting a crush on the dumb trash wizard. Rony can be a bit of a sarcastic fuck at times, but, well, he’s cute and gay and likes kittens and we like him.

Then there’s Rosa. She’s beauty, she’s grace, she’ll punch you in the face. Seriously, she’ll fuck you up. She’s a tiefling rogue who is slow to trust people but quick to cut off their purses. Also she’s gay.

Pip is a human Good girl and a ranger whose home is the forest, but she’s afraid of the dark. She is badass and soft at the same time and also very gay. We describe her look as a “lesbian Aragorn”.

Gwen is a dwarven lady with the biggest family tree ever and a great ginger beard. She kinda accidentally became a druid because she was drunk and that’s pretty much all you need to know about her. She can turn from vodka aunt to mum friend to dad friend to spider!Gwen within five minutes. Cool, right?

Seth is… who the hell is Seth? We just don’t know. He barely talks. Apparently he has a wife and kids somewhere. His socks never match. He wears a baroque collar. He makes a living by selling porn books. We think he kinda looks like a long-haired Nicolas Cage. Sometimes he randomly turns into a llama. Don’t question it.

Then there’s my two main NPCs, Elora and Valrian. Elora is a tiefling cleric who is very sweet, caring, selfless, likes everyone and finds everything exciting (basically she’s all the things I am not lol). She wouldn’t hurt a fly, unless she really had to. And then she’d be very sad about it for the rest of the day. In the nights, though, she becomes a different person. Literally.

Valrian was fucking supposed to die during session one, but then he didn’t and here he is?? He’s basically an optimistic nihilist who never loses his chill and isn’t bothered by pretty much anything. He’s reckless and gets himself into trouble a lot. He likes to act stupid although he is actually very smart. His familiar is a cute lil magpie called Juliet.

25. What have your players done that you never could have planned for?

All of it. What usually messes with my plans is that they tend to spend forever on sidequests I expected to be short and then they swiftly glide through something I’d consider pretty difficult. Other than that, well, Rosa randomly stole a kitten, Rony probably created the first official contract the town of Erienna has ever seen. Oh and of course, what confused and amused me a lot was how nasty they were all to Val during the first session, although he was just trying to help. Then there’s the fact it took them like five sessions to notice that hey, one of our party members turns into someone else at night.

Then there’s also one thing that surprised me, but I don’t want the others to know that it surprised me, so. That’s it for now :) :)

30. Are your players diplomatic or murder hobos?

I mean they’re dumbasses, but I think usually they’re more or less diplomatic… If we don’t count that one time they nearly murdered two poor goblin passersby after falsely accusing them of stealing their money :D

Thanks for the questions, mate!

#chickenwithatophat #ask

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timckillcr-blog · 6 years

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Curtain Call { pt 1 }

Words: 2,3k

Characters: Steel Spencer, Narcissus Spencer, Mathilda (NPC), Martha Greenfield (NPC), Seth Fanning (NPC -mention only), Rob Parker (NPC)

Description: Arc Climax { pt. 1 }

Steel got off the bus with a whine. Stepping down the small bus step wasn’t pleasant; it sent a vibration all the way up to the base of his neck, a discomfort spreading around his lower-back as if he’d been lifting crates all night. He was quick to blame it on the mattress.

The way to school was quiet, save for the occasional shifting of water bottles packed in his back. Both his hands were wrapped around the straps, securing his backpack in place. Without much of an expression, he pulled out his phone from the front pocket of his jeans and browsed the music folder. Even though he wasn’t in a good mood, music would provide a great distraction on the way to school; it would especially lead his mind away from last night’s dreams.

The first familiar face he spotted through the school’s gate was Martha. Her round cheeks were less vibrant than usual and her arms were sloppily hanging next to each side of her wheelchair. Steel had expected to see her not looking so good. Their friend’s passing was still fresh; Steel had lost count of the days, but it couldn’t be more than a week away. He had been skipping school, sleeping on the streets and days went by fast like that. Except for Martha’s gloomy expression and her black clothes, however, not much seemed to have change around the schoolyard.

That just fueled his determination to go through with the plan.

No one seemed to have noticed Seth’s absence. Steel couldn’t detect the underlying guilt that caused him to take that as a personal offense. He approached Martha unaware of the scowl on his face. The girl gasped when she saw him, looking like an absolute mess; his braids were full of flyaways and his clothes were wrinkled and stained. She couldn’t help but grab his arm and forcefully pull him down into a tight hug. Steel couldn’t resist Martha’s arms if he wanted to.

“Your phone is off you jerk!”, she squealed, too close in his sensitive ear. Steel flinched but accepted the affection with a neutral expression and returned it with a loose pat on her back.

“No battery.”, came the justify. Martha couldn’t detect a lie -something she was generally good at- but knew it wasn’t the entire truth too.

“Were on earth have you been? You look...”, she let him go for a better look at him. Steel straightened up with a grunt and raised a bushy brow at her. “...Dusty.”

He snickered. Martha met his eyes with her own glossy baby blues and offered a sad smile back. Even though Steel always proclaimed that he was bad with emotional situations, he could read Martha’s gaze; she was missing Seth. Seth would usually be the one to pop up here and make some snarky remark about how dust was just part of Steel’s aesthetic at this point and Martha should be more worried about him if he was clean. Thinking about it, Steel could almost hear Seth’s voice himself.

“So, are you coming to class or did you just drop by to see me?” Martha’s tease snapped him out of his thoughts. He felt the gentle press of the bottles fit snuggly in his dirty backpack against his back. His own sins crawled up his back, an insufferable weight.

It has to be done. I have to do it.

“Eh, I’s been lookin’ f’er a place a boy can get some good sleep, ya’kno’?” Steel teased back. Martha nodded. The bell rung and though neither of them was looking forward to it, they begun to head for class. Steel assumed his usual position, pushing Martha forward even though she really didn’t need it. It was halfway through the schoolyard that the peaceful silence between the two friends was shattered;

Rob Parker and his gang of football team members.

“Are you back for round two, Spencer?” Rob chuckled. “Getting your ass handed to ‘ya once wasn’t enough, eh?”

There wasn’t much of a reaction. Steel ignored the boys following them now and kept pushing Martha forward nonchalantly.

“What’s the matter, you won’t spare us a pretty glance? I’d say I’ve missed your face because not much can make me laugh like it does.” More snickering from his friends. Steel merely blinked and sighed quietly.

“Can you quit it, Rob? Show some respect, if you even know what the word means.” Martha snapped. She placed both hands on her wheels and stopped Steel rolling them with her thumbs, then turned herself around to face Rob’s gang. “Your jokes suck. Now leave us alone.”

“Or what, Greenfield? Are you gonna run me over?” Rob laughed. His friends joined in, a choir of chimps cackling. Steel’s grip around the wheelchair handles tightened.

“Can you drop it? It’s not funny.” Martha insisted. She wasn’t usually that persistent, but she wasn’t just looking out for herself at that moment but for Steel too. Bullying was the last thing he needed right now, when he was already dealing with so much.

“Your fat face is funny. I don’t need to make a joke about it, I just look at you.” Rob snickered. Again, his friend’s followed, now mumbling stuff about how bad Martha’s legs must smell. Steel remained expressionless, but there was visible tension in his body language.

Mathilda and Tina happened to be nearby, chatting about some party they’d been to last weekend. Tina was the first to notice the tense meetup and drag Mat along to approach.

“Are you, like, twelve or something? Just leave us alone, we don’t care what you think about us or whatever. Just drop it.” Martha raised her voice but it was momentary. Steel watched her cheeks flush red and glared daggers back towards Rob.

“Haha, Greenfield, I do whatever the fuck I want, so yeah, if I wanna laugh at your ugly face I will.” Rob responded, malice lacing his voice. He noticed Steel’s glare and smirked. “What’s the matter Spencer, your friend ain’t here to back you up? Aw, sad.”

At that point even Rob’s friends were a bit surprised at the audacity. They didn’t say anything, however and thus Rob thought he could push it farther.

“Don’t worry, you’ll find some other loser with a tranny fetish to hang out with.”

Martha gasped audibly. Mathilda and Tina, who had both approached by now, froze in their spot, with Tina yelling a “Hey!” in her shock.

The sting of rage boiled in his gut; it was a sharp arrow right through his soul. He envisioned his body like a kettle full of boiling water ready to overflow...and then the pot would fly and chop Rob’s head off.

Don’t react, stay calm. If you cause a fuss, it will ruin the plan.

Seeing that smirk on Rob’s face, everything blurred. Mathilda yelling at him in the background, Martha mumbling something towards Steel -perhaps a ‘stay calm’ for she must have seen the expression on his face, kids gathering around with a curious buzz of chit-chat, it all blurred into one big canvas as an undefined mass; and hate reigned.

All those kids, every single one of them, was but a faceless shadow. Rob, however...he became the incarnation of everything Steel hated about his school and the school before that and his life and the world; pompous people who thnk they can get away with anything because they have money, they’re good-looking, they’re good students or in the football team. People like Rob make his life hell simply by existing in the same space as him!

Rob had nothing to gain by bullying him, or Martha or Seth. He simply did it because he could. It wasn’t some higher evil or some deliberate, carefully constructed plan, like something Narcissus would do. It was just him being a jerk for the sake of doing it.

Be quiet, don’t draw attention, think about our plan...

With a sharp breath, Steel drew his arm back and jerked forward in full force. The punch was hard enough to knock Rob over, and had it not been for their size difference it probably would have. But for now the boy only stepped back with a yelp and lowered his head, rubbing his red jaw with a whimper.

Some girls had screamed. Steel barely payed attention to any surroundings; all he could see was Rob. The taller boy wouldn’t just stand and take it without a retort, of course. He attempted to push Steel back, but it quickly became very apparent that while Rob thought of this as a schoolyard brawl, Steel had very different intentions.

Rob was just trying to push him off, to maintain his social status, to appear strong. Steel was looking to get his hands around Rob’s neck.

They circled each other for a second or two, and then Rob attempted to punch Steel back. Being much more streetwise, the latter dodged swiftly and grabbed Rob’s arm, pulling his entire torso down and sticking his knee right in his crotch. The pain sent the bigger man down to his knees, instinctively cupping his genitals and Steel saw that as an opportunity to kick him full force right in the face. That finally knocked Rob on his back. Steel reacted quickly, assuming his position on top of the boy, sitting right on his chest to put weight on his lungs and wrapping both hands around his thick neck. Having hit the back of his head against the ground and still dizzy from the blow on his jaw, Rob put up minimal resistance.

The intent to kill was so apparent in Steel’s gaze that Martha straight up yelled; “Someone grab him! Don’t just stand there!” But it was such raw violence that the majority of the audience had frozen before it. “Do something!” Martha screamed while trying to push herself closer to the fight scene. She managed to grab Steel’s shoulder but nearly fell off her wheelchair. Finally a few of Rob’s friends rushed to grab Steel’s shoulders, just as teachers were spotted heading for the fight scene.

Two football players were enough to lift him off of his feet, but Steel had such determination to kill Rob on the spot that he wouldn’t let go of the boy’s neck! Much like a Rottweiler locking its jaws around the muzzle of another dog, his fingers were locked around Rob’s neck and lifted the boy’s torso along. That intensified the choking noises and coughing Rob would produce and in turn his friends let Steel go, fearing that the pull would put an end to Rob’s breathing. Martha begun to hit Steel’s back with her backpack, Rob’s friends tugged on his braids and finally the teachers started yelling threats as more students came along to grab him by the arms and get him to let go.

It was only then that Steel seemed to snap out of it,when he was pushed back and grabbed by Martha. Still panting, he kept staring at Rob’s nearly unconscious body, the red skin on his neck and jaw and the way his eyes merely kept open.

And he laughed.

“How-... are you gonna tell y’daddy... that y’ got beat up by a girl?” He muttered in between pants, then let out a breathy snicker. Martha was yelling something at him and so were the teachers, but the only thing that existed for Steel in that moment was Rob’s bruised body, defeated and disgraced.

What an amazing sense of fullfillment.

“Expelled! You’re expelled Spencer! And I’ll make sure you rot in an instituition where you belong!” The schoolyard supervisor screeched. Steel was snickering between pants, Martha holding both his arms really tightly behind his back. “You’re mental! You should be in jail! I’m calling the police right now to pick you up!”

“Mr. Petrole if I may-” Now that was unexpected, Mathilda had chimed in. “-I know how this looks but Rob started it. He said something very inappropriate!”

The chatter from their fellow shocked students instantly went quiet. Rob’s friends paused and glared towards Mathilda, whilst the rest of the schoolyard looked mildly shocked. Even Martha gasped. It was very unlike her, a popular girl, to defend the class outcast. But Steel could guess why she was doing it; she felt guilty for the other day in the backyard. She used him to get back to Rob and he ended up getting beaten up for it.

“Stay out of this Grayson! I’m calling the police to pick Spencer up and I’ll personally make sure he can never hurt a single student in our school again!”

“Mr. Petrole, please! Rob insulted Seth Fanning! And he was one of Spencer’s closest frie-”

“Oh, so you’re supporting an attempted murder, Grayson? Very well, that’s detention for you, too.” The supervisor insisted. Mathilda’s eyes instantly watered at that, voice getting caught in her throat when she attempted to protest. Her best friend Tina, however, jumped to the rescue.

“Mr. Petrole students have freedom of speech too, you know. And she’s right, Rob was an asshole to Spencer like always! You can’t even lock Spencer up, he didn’t kill him, it was a schoolyard brawl for fuck’s sake!”

“Language, Tyler!” Mr. Petrole screeched. His face was all red, probably because his blood pressure was rising. He was pretty old after all and the entire situation was out of control. Martha stepped in next, still firmly holding Steel’s hands and having pulled him in her lap.

“Mr. Petrole where were you before the fight started? You only came a few seconds before the escalation. You’d defend Rob becaused of the physical attack but insulting someone’s recently d-”, her voice cracked for a second, “r-...recently dead best friend is an emotional attack that’s just as horrible!”

Petrole kept looking from one student to another, seeming increasingly perplexed. More eleventh-graders chimed in, standing up for Steel, who was sitting on Martha’s lap with a shocked expression.

“You can’t lock him up!”, Tina contnued, “You don’t have the right to! Rob hasn’t sued yet or whatever.”

“Please, Mr. Petrole, give him another chance...” Mathilda whispered, her hands shaking.

“He’s going in detention and I’m calling both their parents right this instant. And don’t think I’ll put up with any violent displays like that in my school! Violence is never the answer! Not for civilized human beings.”

That was Petrole’s final word before he grabbed Steel’s arm to drag him along to the detention classroom. The boy merely had a chance to glance towards Mathilda and Tina. His look was not one of gratitude, but of confusion.

Martha picked up his backpack to return it to him later, unaware of its contents.

#brawl //#arson //#pyromania //#Violence //#bullying //#grief //#grieving //#friend death //#death //#transphobia //#⌛ Can't spell REASON without ARSON { Main Verse Arc } ⌛

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sethpeck · 4 years

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An Interview with Ford Ivey

(note: I originally published this in September 2001, back when I ran a NERO fan site, no longer maintained. I’ve kept the raw text and have provided here for perpetuity. I publish it here today, March 21st 2021, the day after Ford Ivey passed away. I have edited it for spelling and censored the former name for the current NERO Gadabari race.)

Blast from the Past

An evening with Ford Ivey

Older players recognize the name, but for those of you just joining us, Ford Ivey is often attributed with being the grandfather of NERO. Not twelve hours after releasing the first issue of NEROtics.com back in July, Ford offered me an interview in the future. Like I was going to say no. Seth Peck, NEROtics.com: How are ya? Ford Ivey: [laugh] I'm fine--and in much better health than the old days. I have lost 256 pounds. I'm weighing in at 244, and don't have diabetes nor high blood pressure any more, and the heart is a LOT healthier. SP: Wow--that's quite a change. Any secrets you wish to divulge? FI: Yeah.....surgery! [grins] Seriously. I had a gastric bypass. I was gonna die if I didn't lose weight. That was a year ago on July 5th. SP: Well, it's good to hear that you are in good health. FI: Well, it's good to be in good health. SP: As NERO gets larger and more and more newbies join the game, I hear more and more people asking about the origins of the game and "stories from olden days". Being a relatively new player myself, compared to the life-span of NERO, I find myself wondering also. How did NERO get its start? FI: Wow...big question. It started way back in 1986. I heard about a game in New Hampshire called "Midrealms Adventures". I heard about it about six months before I could get up to play it...and imagined what it would be like when I did play it. When I finally did, it was not a lot like what I imagined. It was a module based game--a few hours and it was over, and a marshal had to be with you all the time. I wanted a game where the players could be free to do what they wanted. SP: So what did you do? FI: I ran my own. At the time, I had just started a group for Friday night table-top gaming at a Boy Scout explorer Post in Newton, Massachussets, and we had available to us a Boy Scout Camp--Nobscot by name--and we decided to run a game of our own there. I had a group of 7 or so guys helping me. We wrote it, cast it, and ran it. We invited a group of 6 or so friends of one of the guys to PC it. SP: Did this game have a name yet? FI: Nope, no name. We called it "Weekend Warriors" for the first year or so. I ran a bunch of different variations on the game. I wrote the plots, bought the props, paid for everything, and ran them myself. SP: So how did it go? FI: The first game was pretty bad, to be honest. SP: [laughs] Care to elaborate? FI: Yeah--it was bad because we had very few costumes or props, we basically told the PCs where to go. We had some major problems with the PCs not picking up on things. It was amazing to us how much stuff gets missed when you are doing it for real rather than around a table. We had one point [where] we had gone to great lengths to make sure they knew that the "Ranger" character they met on the trail was a good guy and they could trust him. Well, he had been captured and was going to be sacrificed. We drug him out, proceeded to sacrifice him, knowing the PCs were watching, expecting them to save the guy--they didn't. They just watched. Poor guy had to steal a dagger, and save himself. They got to him as he was breathing his last--one guy got to him, and he said: "Beware the Dark Lord! Seek the Man of the Mountain!" When the other players got there, they asked him what he had said. He replied, "He said something about a man and a rock." SP: [laughing] FI: But we kept trying things, getting closer to the vision I had. Then, in November of 1988, we ran a game called "Shandlin's Ferry". It was the immediate ancestor of NERO. SP: how long did first several events last? FI: We did set up on Saturday and started mid afternoon on Saturday. Then we ran until Sunday afternoon. The Shandlin's Ferry game started at noon on Saturday and ran 24 hours. It was notable for several reasons: first, it's the game where we figured out how to do the NERO style play--players running around with no marshals. It was also notable because the founders of the game came together for the first time--Craig and Debbie Walton, Mike Ventrella, Heidi Hooper, me, Bob King--all of us were there. We decided after the success of that game to try and run what turned into NERO. Craig Walton came up with the name. Shandlin's Ferry remained on the NERO map, and what happened at that game became part of the NERO world. We even had a Shandlin's Ferry campaign in the Massachusetts chapter a few years later. That gave me a lot of satisfaction. SP: Speaking of the creators: I did some checking on the other LARP games (Amtgard, Dragoncrest, Camarilla) that are still being played today, and with the exception of the SCA, none of them have been around longer (although IFGS was starting the same time you were). Did you consider yourselves innovators in RPGs? FI: Did we consider ourselves innovators? Not at the time, I don't think, though we finally started to realize what we had done a year or so later. In retrospect, it was quite an innovation. It was a break from the old-style module based game, which was started at Treasure Trap in England--that's what Middle Realms was based on. The IFGS is a module-based game. Treasure Trap and a bunch of English games have been running longer than us or IFGS. Also, the ILF (Interactive Fiction Society) has been around quite a while. SP: What was your experience with RPGs prior to all this? FI: Wow. I started playing Dungeons & Dragons way back in the 70's with my brother. I owned everything they put out, all the way back to the three little book set. I made a huge jump into role-playing when I started a store--The Gamemaster. It's really the home of NERO. We got everything started there after NERO was set up. SP: Tell me about your store. FI: It was a great store--we had everything. It was upstairs at 444 Massachusetts Ave in Arlington, MA. We had six or so tables for gaming in the store in the front. They were well-used. We had everything that had to do with roleplaying, and most stuff that had to do with miniatures. I used to have mini-conventions there every month. A guy named Brian Reddington-Wilde helped me run them. He's a game designer of some renown nowadays in miniatures rules--runs a business called "Goblin Tooth Enterprises" SP: I've heard of them. Do you no longer run the store? FI: Nope--NERO took over the store. We moved it twice, and the store part of it got smaller every time. Finally, we just dropped the store part and got an office. That was after Mike Ventrella wrote the article about NERO that made it into Dragon Magazine. After that article, we suddenly had, like, 5,000 members. There was no WAY we were ready to handle that many people. I'm afraid that customer service suffered a lot then. We used to have huge games. In 1992, we ran what is now known as the "Brood" weekend--the first game run by Rob Ciccolini. We had over 700 players there, including something like 150 NPCs. That was at Camp Wing, a really cool place with an old stockade and everything. SP: How many chapters were there when that happened? FI: Chapters? None. We were trying to get a couple started. The first was a New Jersey chapter, which later broke away from us and became LAIRE. Then Georgia--they later broke away and became SOLAR. The first chapter that remained was PRO, in Pennsylvania. Another Georgia chapter formed about then, too. All of this was about late 1992 and early 1993. We didn't have ANYTHING ready to support other chapters, though we got REAL anal about them conforming to our standards. A big mistake, in my opinion. SP: I've read the 3rd edition rulebook and know how much different the rules are today--and I've heard a few stories about some of the different classes and races and spells. Can you try to convince me that Stone Elves aren't Vulcans? [grinning] FI: Naw, I wouldn't even try to convince you of that. [laugh] Have you read about Metamorph and Obliterate It's true: Obliterate used to be a spell like any other. SP: What was Metamorph? FI: It was a spell that took a small representation of something--say a mouse--and allowed you to turn someone into one of them. It got, as you can imagine, severely abused. We even had a Truth spell--you'd be amazed how people remember the same event in very different ways. We had folks who sincerely thought they were telling the truth, and whose accounts of things just didn't match other people just as sincerely telling us about the same event. [It] makes you sympathize with the court system. Did you know I hate modules? SP: [laughing] What do you prefer? FI: Need them for the game, but I hate 'em. I've only been on maybe 3 in my entire career. I prefer the characters playing themselves, and getting into whatever because that's who they are. I don't know--I love the social aspect of the game, and the big problems that land in your lap, and having to deal with those. Modules are good because we have a chance to do special effects and marshalled calls that we can't do anywhere else, but--I don't know--it's the most artificial part of the game. SP: So do you like massive combat encounters at the edge of town? FI: Lord, no. I prefer hanging out in the Tavern, telling jokes with bad accents, being with friends, and being a hero when something visits. Combat encounters? I like them sometimes, but I'm not out there for the combat. But then, I'm not typical. I love the ceremonial stuff, the Tourneys, the Pomp and Circumstance, the armor, the look of the thing, the chance to make myself a part of a great movie moment. That's what I like, and that's what I tried to give to other players. Though I found over the years that those things are not as valuable for many of the other players as they are to me. SP: Some of the other races, while not unseen elsewhere in other forms, pique the interests of many new players. Where did Biata come from? FI: They were based on griffins. In the early days, we were still feeling our way as to what we could and could not do in a Live game. Heidi had a cool concept for them that included some mind powers that, so it turns out, just can't be included in this type of game. They became a group of Northmen/barbarians sort of Shaman-type people. Their mind powers got severely cut back. You live and learn. SP: I also heard an interesting story about the first formal component ever placed in a treasure count. FI: What first component was that? SP: I don't know what it was, but something about how no one else knew either and it got passed around for awhile until someone became formal-capable. FI: Oh, yes. We put out components for several events before people knew what they did. The early ones were tags taped to tongue depressors and then covered with plastic tape to help protect them from the weather. When they got used, the sticks were supposed to get broken. BOY, did I get sick of buying tongue depressors. SP: No matter how much things change--some things remain the same. FI: Yeah, that's true. The Formal Magic system was a fairly late addition to the game--probably in our third year or so. It was a good idea, but took years before it became even close to balanced. [grinning] SP: How come Sarr can't purchase Waylay? FI: Oh, Lord...well, that's a touchy one. Sarr were supposed to be all blood-lusty and like that--when they did damage, they wanted to see BLOOD, dammit! So, they were restricted to using weapons that were bladed, no blunts. And you [since] can't waylay someone with a blade... SP: Wow, was that ever an emotional reaction! FI: It was a silly thing. The designer of the race (Jade LeBlanc, I think) had one concept, and they guy who was in charge of approving it had another. Guess who won. Like I said--both touchy and silly. SP: Tell me about the Mystic Wood Elves. FI: Lorne Lehrer created them. Cool race, roleplaying intensive. I actually was sort of not paying attention to them as they were created--I came to an event and this guy showed up with these horns and ears. I had no idea who or what they were. I love Mystics--it took me a few years before I finally got a fair idea of their culture and stuff. SP: I guess the "bigness" of the game caught you up in that, especially with the increasing number of members and eventually chapters. How did you deal with that? FI: Slowly. It took us a while to get the game together enough to really be able to run a multi-chapter game. We really started to get it together in about 1994, by which time we had maybe 5 or six chapters. When we got our permanent site in Ware, Massachusetts in 1994, we really started to pull it together. The most useful thing was the annual symposium in September every year. Everyone got together for a weekend there, and we got a bunch of stuff done--not as much on the rules and stuff as we hoped we would, but mostly it was good to realize that we were all one game, and needed to work together. SP: When you were still in the development stages, did anything get left out that you wished could get in? FI: I guess you could say that. In retrospect, there were a lot of things that I wish we had done differently, or better. I wish there was a true economy, for instance, trading and getting the stuff to make the things you need to adventure. It gives so many more dimensions to a character--the closest NERO comes is the Formal Magic System and the components it takes to do the spells. But in general, no--we changed the bloody game ALL the time in the first few years. Heck, the first xp/bp ratio was: first level: 1 = 1; second level: 2 = 1, and so on. We made it a lot steeper, then had to make it steeper yet the next year. I think we needed to make it even steeper than that. The power scale is too steep, too--as in, the power of older players as compared to the power of a new, entering character. But now we're getting into game design, which would take forever. SP: (The current formula is (n^2 +5n)/2 xp/bp where n is your level.) Like Roddenberry and Gygax you've gone off to do other things. tell me briefly about your new project. FI: The Isles? Well, it's taking all the things I learned over the years and applying them to a new game. It's an attempt to solve the problems. I think it succeeds very well. Quiet combat, a real economy, and a bunch of skills that are very useful to the characters that are not combat related. SP: Do you have any other stories you wish to share? FI: A million or so. [grinning] I have been doing this a long time. I couldn't begin to cover the stories that it would take to do this justice. SP: I guessed. How about just one favorite? FI: How about, instead, I tell you why I do this? What "moment" do I do it for? It's those times--when I'm sitting in the Tavern, all the check-ins done, the cabin assignments finished, all of that stuff--the game is well underway, people involved in doing what their characters want to do, involved in the plot of the weekend, or on-going stuff with their group. All of them, standing around, weapons glinting dully in the candle light, talking low, in character, people gambling for gold in the back, [Gadabari] bellowing and laughing--all of it seems real. For a while, you're there. In that spot, in that reality, and it's those times I feel like what I did--what we did--really meant something. SP: Thank you for a most magical discussion! FI: Magical? [laugh] Well, you're welcome.

#larp

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liodensim · 7 years

Text

S”ART”urday Update! Enclave Stuff and More!

Special Saturday Art Update

Just like promised, news arrived on Saturday! I was able to finally get some time to produce some quality content for you guys Thanks for waiting!

Event/Pooping Clarification

- Admins discussed the situation and decided that mentioning Gifting/Pooping in usernames is fine. We will be reversing all reminders/warnings etc. issued to players. If you would like yours removed, make a Modbox ticket please. - Despite the above, we ask that you avoid asking for gifts/poop in chat, as it gets spammy. Please post event threads instead, which are fine to be posted (spaced out, of course) in Sales Chat, as it's essentially an exchange of goods. We really don't want Main Chat too flooded with this.

Enclave Update

New items have been added to Enclave's shop: Enclave - Idol of Thoth - 10 MT Enclave - Idol of Seth - 10 MT Enclave - Idol of Bastet - 10 MT Enclave - Isis Wings - Top & Bottom - 12 MT each Enclave - Buried Sekhmet - 60 MT

New Decors

Crafting - 30x Impala Horns -> Royal Impala Headwrap

Monkey Business - Damp Cave - 1000 SB

Other

I tried to fit in a tiny mutation update - All Folded Ears stages should be up to date now, I realize probably some mane files for Tailless, Bobbed and Foldies might need few files updated, so I will try to cover that for the next time. Folded Ears females Panther marking have been lacking the tail spotting fix, which is now fixed. Mutation File Status Page I'd like to ask you guys to be sure to report all art bugs to Art Bug boards, as usually every few weeks I try to fix a lot of them for an Art Update and I think like Dec 15th would be a good time. So if you think something wasn't reported there yet (aside from the markings for muties or decors for poses) you will do me a great favour if you point out something is wrong with some art or a file that you think I can fix, and not a coder.

Applications

We usually run them a week or two but considering holidays are coming we'll run these for two weeks and train new staff after Xmas craze, probably. Applications will close next Friday. Moderator Application - LINK Helper Application - LINK

Art Tutorials and Useful Content

In Art Tutorials thread I have added two new big pictures and Timelapses/Speedarts, whatever you call them: Broken Leopon Battle NPC - NEW! Nervous Jaguar Battle NPC - NEW! SPEEDARTS / TIMELAPSES Nervous Jaguar Encounter + Battle picture - NEW! Broken Leopon Encounter + Battle picture - NEW! Two Owl Decors - NEW! I hope these will be useful to community on creation process and available full year round unlike art stream videos, which are deleted by Twitch and also, they last long hours unlike this handy timelapse. I will actually try to make more of these rather than art streams. I have been informed the Primal custom decor .psd file could use female versions so I will try to cover that next time!

Shad has added new tags to December and we implemented two more from Berenos to Misc. Thank you my two extra lovely artists for producing awesome content as usual!

Raffle Lioness

Congrats Tonraq of the North (#122901)! You have won the last raffle lady! New lady with the Rainforest BG and Scoria Panther is up for impressing in Special Lioness area in Explore or in NEWS section under News Post List!

Polls and Dev Notes

Wow! Cherry Blossom is your favourite. I wonder what pinkish base I could introduce in February! Is Base Suggestion forum ready? LINK - Fun poll today! Which Lethal Mutation on Lioden is your favourite? I mean, visually or conceptually.

#lioden-sim #lioden-news #lioden

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roman-winter · 7 years

Note

ALL OF THOSE NUMBERS

WELP good thing ur the only one who actually sent me anything. HERE WE GO. every single number under the cut lmao

1. your favorite face claims

ZANE HOLTZ, MICHAEL TREVINO, BOB MORELY, STEPHEN JAMES, CAMERON MONAGHAN, if i could only use those faces for the rest of my rping life, i’d be perfectly happy, they’re my babes

2. your least favorite face claims

fcs i actively don’t like are p much bc people ruined them for me such as dane dehaan, xavier dolan, that blonde guy who’s always w xavier dolan and serval others that i never see around anymore anyway so it doesn’t really matter

3. face claims that you are dying to use

for the love of god someone actually let me use dj cotrona jfc. also miguel angel silvestre pleaseeeeee. and more zane holtzes always. like if u want a holy holtz, i’ll give him to you

4. face claims that you are dying to play against

rn i’m super into american gods so def both ricky whittle and emily browning. i’ve always wanted to play against a billie piper. every single person in this tag

5. your favorite original-verse oc (or one of your favorites)

shit that’s hard ummm i’m just gonna go w a current fav which is eli whitehall mostly bc of the amazing world that we’ve created for him and andrew and the like super amazing and rich backstory that has been developed, also just like playing a trans character who’s 50?? BEST THING EVER 10/10 WOULD RECOMMEND esp since he’s got the best husband in the world #relationshipgoals

6. your favorite fandom oc (or one of your favorites)

not technically an oc since his name is mentioned in the books BUT since the verse is so completely not canon he’s basically an oc AUGUSTUS ROOKWOOD ALL DAY EVERY DAY my love my light my fav i will keep playing him forever and ever and then a bit more

7. your favorite oc who isn’t yours (or one of your favorites)

can i just say every single one of @chrysalis-writes‘ characters??? but like atm probably oliver who is the love of my life. like wtf is better than an unplanned ship just taking form out of nowhere and then being THE BEST SHIP EVER CREATED like fuck man i get emo when i think about oliver and how beautiful and pure and wonderful christine made him. i’m crying ok bye

8. your favorite fandom character to have played

rn my fav has to be richie gecko my trans son, i love fdtd w my whole soul and i love having the privilege of writing richie w my two fav ppl

9. a fandom character who you would really like to play

hey guess what i want? i want to play bruce wayne in my horrible crossover crackship helldream that is ironbat, aka the best ship in the world. i want bruce wayne and tony stark to fuck and i have zero regrets

10. a fandom character who you would like to interact with

see above.

11. an rpg that meant a lot to you

knockturn meant the world to me and i’m so so glad that i’ve gotten to keep writing in that verse even if it’s outside of a group environment, but it was such a fantastic experience and so much fun to create that world with my best bruv and i’m so so proud of all the writing we did, everyone was just absolutely amazing, and it’s also how i met nikki GOD BLESS US EVERYONE

12. an rpg that you’re excited about

i just applied to an rp a few days ago and i’m pumped about maybe getting to be in that but i'm not gonna tag it bc i dunt wanna be that asshole but it’s all the worlds and it looks hella cool

13. an rpg that you’d like to create

lmao NONE i’m done w that game man. i still dream of bringing back knockturn w christine one day bc that was legit my fav rp that i’ve been part of but a lot of things about the rpc would have to change before i’d feel okay about putting that much work into something again

14. your favorite rp friendship

i’m not gonna say christine bc that’s a cop out and also we were friends years b4 rping 2gether, so i’m gonna throw a bone to my two favs SUZIE and NIKKI the loves of my life whom i am so so lucky to be friends with and get to write with, and if either of u read this i love youuuuuuu

15. your favorite rp otp

every single ship that i have w christine but mostly oliver and val alwayz

16. your favorite rp notp

lmao idk bro you’d be surprised about how many notps i have tbh i’m just quiet about it bc i mind my own business unlike some people :~~~)

17. your favorite rp family relationship

UM SETH AND RICHIE GECKO OFC WHO DO YOU THINK I WOULD SAY the first time we started a thread w them we were legit like wtf why have we never played bros???? and it was the best and i’m always emo about those two trans losers

18. your favorite rp universe/world

i’m super into the little sensate world we’ve got going bc we have such cool and amazing characters and evil jeff goldblum exists and the story we’ve got concocted is great and can you tell i’m just talking directly to you now christine? bc i definitely am, who else would read this whole thing????

19. your favorite non-playable character

that is very very hard bc i’m notoriously bad at npcs, but i luv valentin’s daughter, alexandra bc she’s just so sweet and kind and accepting and i love her and all of the cute little things that have and will happen with her interacting with val and all the other sensates KILLS ME

20. your first rp character

omfg my first chara was an oc when i was like eleven called lily lupin and she was remus’ secret brother’s child???? i remember nothing else about her but that. idk guys i was a weird child but i had a good time rping on an hp forum lmao

21. your latest rp character

ELECTRIFICATION KOZLOV who is a badass kgb agent during the cold war who i’m super excited to start writing soon. he’s awful and great and idk what happened but i have a thing w playing russian characters rn????

22. a plot that you’d like to play out

see numbers 9 and 10

23. a real-world setting that you’d like to use as the setting of a plot

i think i’ve got all the real world setting plots i want rn tbh i’m really into grabbing more supernatural plots!

24. your favorite rp genre

probably scifi, esp atm! i’m so so bad at science myself but i really do love playing inside a scifi environment that i didn’t have to build lmao

25. a quote you’d like to use to build a character on

omfg i’m the WORST but i really would love to build a few characters (probably like a 1x1x1) based on “you are jeff” just literally the whole damn poem. i’ve had some character relationships that mimicked the twins section of it very well, but i think it’d be super fun to literally base a plot on that

26. a song you’d like to use to build a character on

i just saw reeve carney live and i’ve been listing to his new album nonstop and “resurrection” would make a really REALLY good character song, so THAT!

27. a song you’d like to use to build an rp relationship on

i’ve had the need since the album came out to have a ship based on against me’s song “haunting haunted haunts” i feel like it could make a pretty good plot tbh and i’m always here for angst

#chrysalis-writes #holy FUCK #ty bruv for the entertainment #if someone actually reads all of this i'll give u a prize #; about #; ask

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nerdarchy-blog · 6 years

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Hello! The Nerdarchy crew is back home from Indianapolis and back to work on all our nerdy projects. Gen Con 2018 was an incredible experience for Nerdarchists Dave and Ted, Nerditor Doug and Intern Jake, and we wanted to share some of the highlights from our excursion to the Best Four Days in Gaming. Our favorite thing about conventions is meeting up with and hanging out with friends from all over the place; seeing all the awesome roleplaying games, art and other swag; and the incredible costumes and cosplay. But more than anything, the best part is hanging out with thousands of fantastic folks from around the world to celebrate nerd culture. Down below you’ll find links to a lot of the stuff mentioned in this recap, in case you’re interested, plus a photo gallery of our adventures at Gen Con 2018.

Working vacation at Gen Con 2018

Rolling into downtown Indianapolis for Gen Con 2018 was a special treat for all of the Nerdarchy crew in attendance. For Nerdarchist Dave and me, the now-familiar territory felt like a home-away-from-home. The Indiana Convention Center, Lucas Oil Stadium, the Gen Con Block Party and all the surrounding hotels were decked out as always, ready for the tens of thousands of us to enjoy the Best Four Days in Gaming. For Nerdarchist Ted and Intern Jake, it was their first time attending so they got to experience the wide-eyed amazement at the size and scope of the event.

After hotel check-in, the crew wasted no time getting down to business though — we were there to enjoy ourselves, sure, but we had serious work to do. With the studio equipment in tow, we set up a makeshift studio in the hotel room to shoot as many videos as we could over the weekend. With so many amazing people in town, we had to get some of them on camera. Intern Jake scheduled set visits like a champ, contacting and coordinating a ton of creators who stopped by to talk nerdy with Nerdarchists Dave and Ted.

Instead of doing interview-style shoots though, we produced a string of videos like our regular daily content to discuss the same kind of helpful topics, tips and tricks we usually do, except with a special guest sitting in for one of the Nerdarchists. Stuff like designing monsters for D&D, live streaming roleplaying games, creating pantheons and deities, running the best game ever, and creating an urban campaign (with a bit of insight into the upcoming Waterdeep: Dragon Heist) are just a few of a videos you’ll see in the coming weeks. There were so many guests, it’s hard to remember them all! But here’s a few to watch for on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel in the near future:

Keith Baker

Monte Cook

BJ Hensley

Ryan Schapels

Dan Dillon

James J. Haeck

Sarah Dahlinger

Brian Stillman

Andrew Armstrong

Rob McCreary

All in all we shot about 24 videos between Thursday and Sunday! There’s a bunch more cool people who swung by the set and we’ll be posting those videos in the weeks to come. Stay tuned to Nerdarchy for those!

Hanging with friends new and old to celebrate nerd culture

Pretty much everywhere we went, the crew ran into someone we knew and had great experiences spending time with them. If you enjoyed any of the official video content from Gen Con 2018, you can give thanks to our buddy Bill Allen. He and his crew handled videography for the official Gen Con Twitch channel. Bill was super busy all weekend making sure everything ran smoothly. But we managed to sneak in some time with him on Wednesday night. He’s an awesome guy, and his job as an educator means he brings student creators along to learn while doing. How cool is that? His students get fantastic experience behind the scenes at big events like this, plus chances to network with industry professionals and help build their future in the field.

Along with Bill, we hung out with our friend Cody Lewis from the Taking 20 YouTube channel. Cody was there with his wife, who got to see another side to her husband’s endeavors. Fans of Cody’s work stopped to say hi and thank him throughout the weekend, which is an awesome feeling for any creator. On top of all that, his wife played her first RPG session at Gen Con 2018! She played a barbarian in a Second Edition Pathfinder Playtest game and genuinely loved rolling her first critical hit against a kobold.

Another night, unMadeGaming’s Mike Hunt co-organized a Twitch streamer meetup with fellow streamer Speedy, where a whole bunch of people showed up to celebrate together and get to know one another. Andrew Armstrong from Dawnforgedcast, Grant Ellis, MsGingaNinja, Jorphdan, Askren, Ted from Nerd Immersion, Eric Vulgaris, and a whole bunch of other people hung out. It wasn’t just for Twitch streamers exclusively, or even gamers. There were streamers who make pottery, streamers who make quilts, authors, game designers and more. It was really terrific to meet and spend time with so many creative people.

On Saturday night, Nerdarchist Dave and I wound up at a party hosted by Peter Adkinson. There were a ton of people at the shindig. Our friends Satine Phoenix and Ruty Rutenberg were there, Kyle Vogt, Matthew Lillard, Dwarven Forge founder Stefan Pokorny, Ivan van Norman, filmmaker friends Kelley Slagle and Seth Polansky and a throng of others. I had a wonderful time geeking out about layout design and editing with Chris de la Rosa from Hunters Books, and Nerdarchist Dave did what he does best — making new friends and talking shop. (Okay, maybe tied for best — he’s a pretty good Game Master too!)

Nerdarchists Dave and Ted ran into a ton of people they know on the convention floor, and fans stopped for photos or to say thanks to the guys for doing what they do. So may awesome people we know had booths at Gen Con 2018 too! Everytime we turned around, there was someone we knew. Creature Curations’ Brian Colin, the entire Starcalled Studios crew, Jetpack 7’s Aaron and Sarah Hubrich, Dan Dillon and Stephen Rowe manning the Kobold Press booth, Rone Barton at the booth for…you know what? I don’t recall exactly. There was a bunch of different stuff there.

A very special sighting for me was Jared Sorensen at the Burning Wheel booth. I’d been hoping to catch Adam Koebel there, since he was sharing the booth with his Dungeon World RPG. He wasn’t around, and as I turned the corner I caught sight of an indie RPG called Lacuna Part 1: The Creation of the Mystery and the Girl from Blue City. I literally exclaimed “Holy $**t!” when I saw it. Years ago, after I saw the film Inception, I immediately felt like I had to find an RPG similar to the world of the movie. I discovered Lacuna Part 1 while searching for such a game. It’s a really terrific RPG where you travel into dream worlds looking for anomalies and insidious thought-creatures. The guy at the booth asked me how I knew the game and I was gushing about it before realizing he was the creator, Jared Sorensen! This was one of my most fond convention memories right away. Jared was super cool and we talked about games for a while, and he gave me a sticker and patch of his game company logo, Memento Mori.

Lauren Erwin (@ThatSaltyGinger on Twitter) and Nerditor Doug, two original members of the Iron Dabbers.

Oh! And I ran into D&D party fam! Late one night heading back to the hotel I spotted Lauren Erwin in the hall. She is an original member of the Iron Dabbers, a D&D party from the live stream Secrets of Castle Greyhawk game I play in every Thursday on The Greyhawk Channel on Twitch. It was super cool to see her. I love that campaign and although Lauren wasn’t able to continue (she’s a busy lady!) she’ll always be an OG member of the crew and I am happy to call her a friend.

And we got to see the premiere of Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons & Dragons! Nerdarchist Dave and I were among the first people anywhere in the world to see this phenomenal documentary by our friends Brian Stillman, Seth Polansky and Kelley Slagle. IT IS AWESOME. If you have ever played D&D, you will love this movie. They traced the history of D&D art back to the beginning and talked with dozens and dozens of artists whose iconic work has been bringing the game to life for over 40 years. And I’m not the only one who thinks this film is the most — it won the Gen Con Film Festival award for best documentary.

All of this only scratches the surface of everything and everyone we saw at Gen Con 2018!

Awesome RPGs and other stuff

For me and Nerdarchist Ted, filling out bags with new games, minis and other swag is one of our favorite convention activities. I don’t have a complete rundown of Nerdarchist Ted’s haul, but I know for sure he got a whole slew of minis. On top of his own gets, many creators donated items to add to the Nerdarchy giveaway vault. Make sure to check out the Saturday Quests & Adventures live chats on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel and stay informed about these giveaways. We do them all the time so there’s lots of chances to get all sorts of great stuff.

This year I tried to be a little more conservative with my purchases. Usually I come home with twice as much luggage as I arrive with, but I reigned it in a bit for Gen Con 2018.

For starters, I picked up two Kickstarters I backed. Masters and Minions from Jetpack 7 and Kids on Bikes deluxe edition with the Powered Character Deck are two things I couldn’t wait to get my hands on. The PDF versions were sent out already, but there’s something special about having the physical books in hand for any RPG product. Masters and Minions is gorgeous. No surprise there, as the artwork in Jetpack 7 stuff is always top notch. The book is packed with detailed NPC creatures and the forces serving them, featuring design work from Aaron Hubrich, Jim Pinto, David Adams and one of my favorite creators, Dan Dillon. I’ve been waiting to get my hands on this one particularly to check out Grissek’k The Orc Queen, which does not disappoint. My other favorite master and minion combo is The Created. Check out this book if you like fleshed out villains for your Fifth Edition games!

Kids on Bikes is another one I hotly anticipated. Anyone who knows me knows I’m one of those D&D nerds who is comfortable using those rules for all sorts of genres beyond fantasy. So beyond the D&D ruleset, my favorite sorts of RPGs are modern-era (or close to it) games featuring regular folks in extraordinary circumstances. Kids on Bikes is all about regular people confronted with irregular situations like the supernatural, along with a group-controlled character who has special powers. It’s a toss up between this and Tales from the Loop for the one I like the best. But if I’m honest, after reading through them both I might take a bit from column A and a bit from column B. Kids on Bikes contains a ton of awesome ideas for creating characters and group dynamics, making it a valuable resource for roleplaying games in general.

Outbreak: Undead Second Edition from Hunters Entertainment and Renegade Game Studios is the other RPG I added to my collection. Truth be told, I didn’t know anything about it but the book is slick, and after flipping through it looks like a suggested style of play is taking the players themselves as characters and imagining a zombie apocalypse in your own hometown. Told you I like those sorts of games 😉 What really sold me though is the layout and design of the book. It has a lot of cool thematic and artistic elements making it fun to look and read through. And guess what? The person who wrote it and contributed to graphic design and layout is Chris de la Rosa — the guy I would wind up talking with the next day at that Peter Adkinson party!

On the same whim I picked up Arboretum, a tabletop game by Dan Cassar. Never heard of it, didn’t demo it but got it nevertheless. Why? The art intrigues me. The cover has a big purple tree and a multitude of colorful symbols around it, and the back shows the various card types, also trees of various colors. The goal of the game is to “create carefully planned paths for your visitors to walk as they take in the colorful explosion of buds and leaves.” Doesn’t that sound wonderful? It’s a competitive game, but with all the players competing to create something beautiful, it sounds like a delightful way to spend 30 minutes.

One game I did demo was the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game. I loves me some Final Fantasy, so I had to try it out. It’s really fun! Cards feature all the characters you’d imagine like Cloud, Lightning, Squall, Tidus, Yuna, Garland, Sephiroth and pretty much every character from all the games including Dissidia, Tactics and more. It was easy to understand and pick up, but of course like any card game there’s deeper strategies to discover. I got two decks so I’d have enough to play with friends, one featuring Lightning and the other Cloud. Also, I got a free Kain card for doing the demo. Dragoon FTW! On a side note, it just struck me while at Gen Con that many FF protagonists are named after atmospheric conditions. Derp.

I also came home with two Atmar’s Cardography dungeon decks from Brian Colin/Creature Curations. These are really special to me, because I was part of the team that brought them to life! Brian is an amazing person, and I did some editing work on the project. These are very cool products, basically huge dungeons with a room on each card. You can play through the whole thing following a preconstructed pattern, or follow small mini-dungeon setups, or just deal out rooms randomly as you go. There’s one for the Fiery Pits, a volcanic dungeon, and another for the Icy Divide, a frozen labyrinth. PDF guidebooks are available for both Fifth Edition and Fate. The adventures are designed to take place in Brian’s World of Revilo, a fantasy realm he created with his son while telling bedtime stories. It’s really amazing. Coming up, he’ll be launching a Kickstarter for three more sets as well. While at the booth, some passersby stopped to take a look and since the booth attendant was occupied, I explained the decks to the two people who came by. The attendant made their way over and commended my on the salesmanship. (I’m pretty familiar with them!) Also I got to meet Isaac Skaggs in person, another creator on the team.

Of course, I had to get myself some dice because…dice. It’s a tradition for me at any convention. For Gen Con 2018 I went with Elder Dice: Astral Elder Sign. They’re pretty snazzy and come in a spell book box you can use for a dice tray. Hopefully I’ll be able to snag a Yellow Sign of Hastur set at some point too. I missed the Kickstarter for them but maybe with a little eldritch luck things will pan out.

The last two things I picked up are both pieces of art. The first was a print from Voidbug, an illustrator who had an awesome selection of vibrant, ethereal art. Choosing one from everything she had to offer was tough, but I’m more than happy with the one I got and can’t wait to hang it up in the office. The second piece of art was one of Chris Seaman’s Cameo Creeps. Chris is a phenomenal artist who’s done a bunch of work for D&D, Magic: The Gathering and other games. One of my favorite pieces of D&D art is by him, the tiefling Star Pact warlock from fourth edition D&D. His Cameo Creeps are tiny monster paintings inside cameo frames. There’s a ton of them, making this choice even harder than my Voidbug print. In the end I went with Lady Wanda Glubberneck. She’s got an aquatic look reminiscent of sahuagin, one of my favorite D&D monsters that I’d been talking with someone about earlier that day.

Best part of Gen Con 2018

All parties, get-togethers, events, games and fun new stuff aside, there’s one thing about Gen Con that’s better than all of it combined. Being a nerd and enjoying this culture with so many others is absolutely priceless. By and large, the nerdy community is supportive of one another, encouraging, and welcoming. When we invite others to our games or accept invitations to theirs, we’re making new friends and connecting with new people. They might look different, or see the world different, live vastly different lifestyles or whatever. But overwhelmingly, one similarity is despite any of these differences we can all come together to share these fun and often deeply personal experiences. You can always find a fellow nerd to remind you that you can do anything you set your mind to, you can be you — the best you — and that’s a great thing. Maybe I have rose-tinted glasses on a bit, but I know there’s a heck of a lot more good out there than bad, and my fellow nerds do a fantastic job of showing it.

Round up and wrap up

Here’s a bunch of links to check out some of the stuff I mentioned above. And I also want to know about you! Did you go to Gen Con 2018 and have some awesome stories to share? Or have you gone in the past, or plan to go in the future? I’d love to hear about your best Gen Con memories, or any of your favorite convention stories in the comments below. And if you got any photos of the Nerdarchy crew from the convention, please share them and tag us on social media!

Official Gen Con Twitch channel

Hunters Books/Hunters Entertainment

Kids on Bikes

Jetpack 7

Arboretum

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game

Atmar’s Cardography

Elder Dice

Voidbug — Keep an eye on streams with me, Nerditor Doug, to see which print I got!

Cameo Creeps

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The games, cool swag, parties, and Nerdarchist Ted polymorphed into a cow #truestory there's one thing above all else making #GenCon2018 the Best Four Days in Gaming Hello! The Nerdarchy crew is back home from Indianapolis and back to work on all our nerdy projects.

#Gen Con

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