#aaaaand THATS the context <3

[companionwolf]

Dreamscape (FIST) - Hazard Function aka the first 8 sessions of the campaign

Session 1

1/22/2024 - 3h28m - rooms cleared: 4

Context: started our fist campaign; running the players through a modified Hazard Function (a character funnel normally), which in this game is actually a VR simulation that a NPC is trying to free them from (PCs all took a job that offered lots of benefits in exhange for time spent being used by the corpo who needed testers for the sim)-- all the PCs save Silver are not FIST mercs yet (that comes after the escape)

PCs: Pierce, he/him; Kinship, they/them; Silver, he/him; Hare, she/her; Innsmouth, xe/xem; Molotov, it/its

- this hospital is Weird, and the PCs are starting off strong by realizing that

- Where Are the Nurses, ask the PCs. The Staff. Why Don't We Remember How We Got Here.

- teehee :3c says me

- SURVIVE FUNCTION. RESCUE SOON.

- enter: the pitch black parking lot

- aaaaand they initiated combat already

- YAY A BOLT ACTION RIFLE

- FIRST INJURY OF THE GAME IS A GRAZE

- flashlight to the head says bye bye to half a enemies HP

- Molotov don't die, get away from that truck.

- being lifted by the throat sounds. Painful. Sorry Hare.

- INNSMOUTH WITH THE 'RAM XERSELF INTO THE ONE HOLDING HARE' MANUVER-- WAIT WHAT THE FUCK, THAT WORKED?

- Molotov continues to get shot :/ stop

- CAR EXPLODES ALA XCOM 2, ENEMY 1 DIES

- but Innsmouth, Hare, and Molotov are alive!

- Kinship jumps on a bitch and kills them

- Molotov tries to shoot back at the last enemy, fails ofc

- KINSHIP GETS SHOT AND THEN ALSO A CAR EXPLODES BASICALLY ON TOP THEM BUT THEYRE. ALIVE. they're fine I prommy

- Silver takes the rifle from Molotov, goes -_- and kills the last enemy

- group takes a minute to examine the dead things which are androids, strip them of weapons, and then go smashing parked cars (to find anything they use to patch their injuries)

- in the distance ...

- a office building

- OH fuck a TURRET

- oh they killed it in like. 3 turns

- Molotov's big wound is treated yay

- Silver uses his TRUTH trait

- the referee is kind (+1 medkit)

- Silver helps everyone but himself

- and we begin to move through the office

- that's where we ended today

Session 2

1/23/2024 - 1hr - rooms cleared: 3 (total 7)

- OMG ANOTHER HUMAN

- oh they're hostile ):

- gun turret the second one

- CAN MOLOTOV STOP GETTING SHOT PLS

- Silver continues to be a tank

- everypne is tearing their sleeves off to make makeshift bandages for everyone else ;w;

- Hare with the gun turret killshots

- the singular other hunan they saw has fled

- YIPPEE A LAPTOP

- too bad molotovs too ouch to use it rn

- pause for medical treatment yay

- Silver continues to put others above himself

- Silver: I see a way over this electrified water to the exit door

- * Silver falls in the fucking water *

- Kinship saves his ass from death by spicy water

- Hare nearly eats shit trying to get herself and Molotov across to the exit Silver pointed out

- OH BOY A PISTOL FOR PIERCE

- everyone makes it out the door but more than half fuck up their rolls to jump out instead of walk and take damage from the spicy damage

- ooo another parking lot

- this time ft Light. And barrels

- and also some androids that will shoot the party

- Pierce takes the fucking shot

- THE DICE SAY FAILURE, cue explosion

- so.

- the explosions killed both androids.

- BUT

- it also detonated their grenades, and a car, and a explosive barrel

- SHRAPNEL HELL BE UPON THE PARTY

- ..the dice say everyone got damaged

- everyone has hp at 0 or negative now :,)

- thank God for anesthetic depth optional rules

- anyway they need a REAL hospital

- but all they have is [checks notes] more parking lot that is surrounded by a forest

- and thats where we ended today

Session 3

1/24/2023 - 1h34m - rooms cleared: 0 (7)

- the team finds a bunker in the forest

- Silver leads the group down into it

- fuck the other people in the forest ig

- YAY MEDICAL SUPPLIES

- Silver plays doctor with everyone

- things that exist in this world: portable IVs/blood infusion tech and 'repair biofoam'

- also Silver continues to put himself last

- Kinship go AAAAAA bc ouch ouch fuck ouch

- Hare: can I offer you a paw in this trying time

- Molotov you know crying is okay right

- innsmouth leads further bunker exploration

- Pierce it's okay to ask for help

- SILVER OVEREXTERTED AND PASSED OUT

- and Hare just slings him over her shoulder #BAMF

- oh thank fuck some bunk beds

- let's just. Barricade ourselves in here. For safety

- NO MAN LEFT BEHIND says Pierce

- Hare is touched by the group continuing to be normal and not cruel about her being ultrahuman

- (Molotov voice) IM IN

- ... but the computer is boring

- innsmouth starts first watch, everyone else does a eepy

- and that's where we ended today

Session 4

1/25/2024 - 1hr - rooms cleared: 0 (7)

- Silver isn't used to people caring about him

- the bathroom in the bunker works! rejoice

- Silver gazes into the bathroom sink mirror and has a #Moment

- INSTANT COFFEE YAY

- and pancake mix yay

- Molotov knows how to make pancakes

#canon

- why does everyone in this party drink coffee black (save Kinship who just dumps a lot of sugar in there)

- INNSMOUTH GOT A MEMORY

- its about how xe can't make pancakes lol

- Silver asks God why they're kind, and when that'll stops

- yaaaaay breakfast as a family <3

- OH SHIT that door has a seal on it (the lock kind not the aquatic)

- Silver resigns himself to the party opening the sealed door and going to investigate whats inside

- party resupplies (items, weapons, clothing, etc) and prepares to unseal the door

- that's where we ended today

Session 5

1/26/2024 - 1h21m - Rooms cleared: 2 (9)

- door: unsealed

- bear: present

- hotel: trivago

- Molotov and Pierce do not believe in bear

- SURPRISE BITCH THE BEAR IS REAL

- THE BEAR IS LOOSE

- innsmouth takes a bears set of claws to xer legs oof

- dm makes unintentional bear puns and laughs

- Pierce kills the bear; dm makes another joke

- person on the cot drops some LORE

- also they didn't think hybrids were real

- # of times ppl have touched hares ears: 1

- Pierce Has Opinions On This Experiment

- oh this person is also an amnesiac

- but worse

- like innsmouth really

- Silver gives the person the codename Vex

- group brings back Vex to the bunker amenities

- innsmouth stays behind as the group goes back to scout out the rest of the bunker

- and thats where we ended today

Session 6

1/30/2024 - 1hr - rooms cleared: 0 (9)

- ooooo room of storage whats in there

- oh shit tanks . we xcom 2 in this bitch

- Silver ponders if this is a hospital. fucked up if true, he thinks

- Hare has beef with tanks apparently die to being a animal human hybrid

- Kinship knocks on a tank and their own face presses up against the glass lol #jumpscared

- 'their eyes aren't human. or ultrahuman. they're inorganic. machine.' definitely not foreshadowing

- oh FUCK that says Hare

- Silver leaves the choice to Kinship as what to do as their doppelganger struggles in the tank

- Kinship releases their doppelganger

- uhhhh the doppelganger doesn't have blood (that's probably fine)

- kinships doppelganger remembers more than they do, that's...also fine (:

- Pierce argues if these are all doppelgangers of the group, each should meet their other first

- Silver releases his doppelganger; both consider this being a plot point or hook

- Silvers doppelganger says the Fucking Thing (it's an end to afterlife, the answer to true death)

- THE FINAL DISEASE BABEY (<- this is an Eclipse Phase reference sort of lmao)

- and thats where we ended that session

Session 7

2/1/2024 - 26mins - rooms cleared: 1 (10)

- still in storage releasing the doppelganger

- Hare releases hers, they briefly consider who's the original, which of them is real

- Pierce releases his, explains what the group is doing and offers the doppelganger to join up

- Molotov frees it and Innsmouths doppelganngers

- this was a super short session

Session 8

2/13/2024 - 40mins - rooms cleared: 1 (11)

- group of 10 continue down the stairs

- oh boy a reactor room

- Oh Boy Heavy Androids

- OH BOY COMBAT START

- so. the doppelgangers are constructs ala TMBD <- silver's just opened a gunport on his arm and shot a dude

- a android tries to hack Kinship's doppelganger, fails, PCs don't know this is what it was doing but . Yeah.

- Kinship: is [gestures at the robot doppelganger situation] a problem ? / Silver: nah

- also silver: GM PLS BE NICE

- Pierce will give a fuck Later. Rn is Murder Time

- Molotov is just grateful for the help

- innsmouths doppelganger freezes up so bad Silver has to yell at xer to get xem to act

- Silver + his doppelganger take out the last android together

- the gm realizes 5 pcs + 5 dmpcs vs 3 enemies is not balanced very well. Whoops

- Silver searches for useful items, as he does

- they move to go through a door--

- FLASHBANG (?) OF EVERYONES SENSES

- oh shit WE'RE all in tanks?

- who is this man yelling at us

- why is this room fancy. also alarms?

- we'll find out next time

- tldr:

- they finished the hazard function portion of this part! yay!

Total time: 7h8m - 11/22 rooms cleared - 27/24 clock - finished in: 8 sessions

[bubblebaath]

a few ppl wanted a tutorial on how to make these kind of gifs so here u go! it goes thru a few basics of blender so if u already kno that stuff u can just skim most of it djsfhfkjh

warning: very long and probably doesnt make sense in some parts

OK step 1: draw the creature u wanna animate as a doodle:

step 2: lineart all the different parts u wanna use and fill them in solid black. (keep each shape on a separate layer)

step 3: if you wanna use a blinking animation for an eye, draw out a fully coloured one n save it in its own file for later (ill do an AnimAll tutorial for it at some point kjhdkjh) otherwise u can just draw it straight on the head.

step 4: disassemble the puppet so all the parts are spaced apart. u might wanna take a picture of what it looks like assembled in case it gets difficult lining up parts later. save as a transparent png.

step 5: open a new file in blender. press num pad 5 to go into orthographic mode,and then num pad 1 to align your view to the front. if u cant see an extra menu to ur right that has options like background images/motion tracking etc press N.

open the background images tab and add your disassembled puppet as an image.

step 6: set your mesh view to wireframe, and add a plane mesh by pressing shift+A. there should b an operator panel that pops up to ur left with an Align to View option, check this box. (unnecessary note: u can also make a plane without aligning it, go to edit mode, delete the plane, and add in a new plane aligned to ur view so it doesnt mess with its object rotation but it doesnt rlly matter in this context)

step 7: position planes in edit mode over each part. it doesnt have to be super neat, as long as it covers the whole part and accounts for any joints.

 its probably best to b generous with the amount of space you leave around each part, so it doesnt shrink too much when you apply a subdivision surface modifier in the next step. 

step 8: go back to object mode, go to the wrench icon on the tabs to the right, and add a subdivision surface modifier. (apply it to the mesh with the settings as they are already)

step 9: go back into edit mode. to your right, pull up a small window from the corner tab thingy at the bottom, and switch the view for that window to UV/Image Editor.

step 10: select all of your mesh part by pressing A, click on the shading/UVs tab to ur left, and choose Unwrap>Project from View (Bounds)

step 11: press the image tab at the bottom of the UV window, and open your puppet image again. u may notice everything is misaligned bc i dont know a better way to do this kjfdhdkjhlkjdfh

you can realign them by putting your mouse over a part and then pressing L to select it, and G to move it.

extra notes for ppl who havent used blender a lot: pressing X or Y while in move mode will lock it to the X or Y axis. you can do the same when you scale by pressing S instead of G.

step 12: focusing back on the actual mesh in the edit mode window, go to the materials tab at the right and make a new material with the plus button. scroll down until you see a shading tab, and check the shadeless button.

underneath that, check the transparency box and set the alpha bar to 0.

now go to the textures tab add a texture slot with the plus button, and import your puppet picture where the folder icon is.

scroll down to the influence tab and check the alpha option.

13: your mesh should now have the puppet texture on it yaay

in edit mode, move parts into the correct layer order u decided on when making the drawing. (eg, head is at the front, arms are slightly in front of the body etc)

the order doesnt matter too much if the puppet is a solid colour, but it helps when rigging it.

14: assemble the parts so its in the right place like your original picture was, then go back to object mode. add a single bone thru the same way you added a plane.

15: place/extrude (e) bones over the parts/points you want to move/bend. make sure to name them smth Not Ridiculous in the N menu so you can find them easily later.

if you want bones to move with other bones automatically (like arms moving with the body) you can go to this tab, and select a parent bone for it.

16: once u have all the bones u need, go back to object mode. deselect the armature. now, click on the mesh to select it. click the armature second while holding shift to select them both. press control+P and choose the With Empty Groups option.

17: deselect them both and click on your mesh. in edit mode, click on the triangle dot thing tab to see your vertex groups. (this is y you need to name bones)

this part is straightforward. if your mesh part has no joints in it, you can select the part for the vertex group by hovering your cursor over it and pressing L. then click on the correct vertex group name from the list on the right, and press Assign. (if u fuck up you can also use Remove in the same way)

you can assign individual faces by using the face selector thing for meshes w multiple bones.

if you wanna see how it works, select the armature and change the view to pose mode and try moving/rotating a bone. (if u rigged it, it should move)

if you go to pose options, theres a box that says Auto IK. if you check it, you can grab bones like this!

18: to begin keyframing ur animation, you need to press this button at the bottom of the timeline. if you want the animation to loop, you need to copy/paste the starting pose on the first and last frame.

if u wanna make it look creepier, you can select all (or just some) bones , change your view on the window to ur right to Graph editor:

and go to Key>interpolation>pick any (the gif uses bounce)

...aaaaand thats basically it! heres a few extra steps if you wanna render it also:

to render the animation:

go to object mode, add a camera, go to the camera tab to the right and set it to orthographic. you may need to adjust the view thing so your mesh fits on the screen (moving the camera back wont work in ortho)

to stop the texture looking sorta blurry:

go to your texture tab, scroll down to image sampling and turn interpolation off or to Box.

i think i got everything dskjfjdfhj this was written at like 4 in the morning so forgive me for typos

[silver-falling-star]

1, 2, 8, 10, 19, 80, 88, 92, 93, 96, 97, 98, 128, 133, aaaaand 140

1. 3 fears.

The dark, needles, the idea of one day not existing anymore

2. 3 things I love.

cats, my friends, video games

8. What do I miss right now?

I’ve been missing my friends who graduated last year tbh. It’s weird not seeing them around the caff anymore, for instance. It always made my day a little bit better to go in for a meal and see them already there.

10. Do I have a crush?

nope.

19. How I feel right now.

Tired. BUT I’m gonna be doing some tabletop tonight so hey that’s exciting.

80. What do I want for my birthday?

Well i’ll be honest some bookends would probably be nice because every time I remove a book from my desk shelf everything goes everywhere.

88. What do I like about myself?

I like my artistic ability and my sense of humor among other things.

92. What kind of people are you attracted too?

I have zero clue what my actual type is tbh.

93. Do you think you’ll be in a relationship two months from now?

probably not

96. What does the most recent text you sent say?

”It’s also got four tiny bells inside”

97. What are you five favorite songs right now?

In no particular order:

1. Don’t stop me now - Queen

2. When I swing by - Miracle of Sound

3. literally anything from imagine dragons b/c I’m a sucker for that band

4. Honeybee - Steam Powered Giraffe

5. Mama Mia - ABBA

98. Do you like it when people play with your hair.

Depends entirely on the context and who’s doing it.

128. Name a person you love.

Uhhhh fuck. First person to come to mind are my parents I guess? I know thats not technically “a person” but they come as a package deal really.

133. Do you regret anything from your past?

Oh yeah, I regret a lot of things, lots of things. Some of the things I’d change if I had the chance to go back, but some stuff I’d leave.

140. Get the closest book next to you, open it to page 42, what’s the first line on that page?

Well there’s a fuckton of books close to me so lets grab Lamb.

“But it makes me feel so bad”