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rekkingcrew · 4 years

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Campaign Debrief

So for nearly 2 years I ran an Edge of the Empire campaign with 3-4 players, mostly weekly. These last couple of months we’ve been using discord, which has gone great. I want to get down some of my thoughts about what worked and what didn’t.

This is gonna be a big wall of text and all but two bits are gonna be under the cut: system and play style.

Fantasy Flight Star Wars game system is legit my favorite system EVER. (Not to dick wave or anything, but that’s including D&Ds 2-5, Gurps, White Wolf, Blades in the Dark, Dungeon World, Deadlands, and a few miscellaneous other short form ones). The system of advantages and disadvantages, and especially triumphs and despairs rather than just straight successes and failures really opens up complex narrative opportunities and gives a chance for wild story beats that just would not have happened otherwise. The fights go fast but feel meaty and there’s a lot of room to pitch advantages to your friends so you’re not just waiting your turn. Character creation is granular enough that your choices always feel meaningful, and points can be spent anywhere, so you can really specialize and shape your character.

We played very collaboratively and it made things AMAZING. Part of this is that we were all good friends and have played together for a while now. Our taste in what kind of story we want is similar- nuggets of drama scattered throughout, but mostly cutting up. A lot of the best NPCs and story suggestions came from my players rather than from me- our season one boss villain, Imperial spymaster “Uncle” Karston Severax, a pantoran ex-special forces black operative whose current public face was a Mr. Rogers-esque children’s TV presenter, for example, was someone my players started out and all of us collective “yes and” added to around the table, and he was JUST THE BEST. These kind of exchanges also gave us moments like the time our tech tried to blackmail the head of a security corporation with the fact that he was having an affair and he’d written just LOADS of incredibly cringey fanfiction; but the roll was such that the attempt ended with him finally getting the push he needed to quit a job he hated, get out of a marriage that just wasn’t working, and follow his dream of self-publishing. He even dedicated his first book to our slicer. Because it wasn’t a DM vs Players atmosphere, because we were all on the same page, I could ask my players “hey, what do you want for your triumph?” and “all right, so who is the NPC you know?” as well as just “that’s enough to finish this guy, what does this look like?” This campaign was 1000% better for sharing that world building load, and the players were all, I think, more invested.

more below the cut.

What Worked

One of the most useful things I ever did was start giving players morality pet NPCs that were their special hench people, and I’m embarrassed that I waited so long to assign one to our droid.

The zero session was absolutely invaluable in setting the tone of the game and the relationship between characters, and I will bang this drum until I’m fucking blue in the face. Don’t meet in the first session. Sit the players down and say “how do you know each other, why do you stay together, what are some of your past adventures?” It’s just so much better.

Cameos and ties to our other games, in what we’ve been calling “The Drax Kreiger Expanded Universe” have continued to be welcome pretty much every time. People were delighted to have a moment or two to slip back into old characters.

I was able to identify what each player wanted and give them that. Brick’s player wanted quiet scenes with big character emotion, like his one on one pit fight the character didn’t want to have, or the letter from his mother telling him how proud she was of him, or the time in training where he tapped into how angry he really was and it spooked the character and everyone on the ship. Nyla’s player wanted a big epic, but also difficult space journey of good vs. evil, and so Nyla got a padawan whose parents she had possibly killed when she fought for the empire, she dug up the grave of her clone teacher’s order 66′d jedi for the crystal for her lightsaber, she got to cleanse a temple that was trapped in a fruitless struggle between light and dark, and a climactic lightsaber battle that was about possibly sacrificing herself for the good of others. TK’s player was deep into star wars trivia and space stuff, so he practically squealed when Verpine shatter weapons showed up, and he seemed to get a kick out of the Evocii, and also that time they put on wing suits and dove the atmosphere of a gas giant. It’s worth noting nobody was actually all that interested in the thing that turns my gears: complex mysteries with a lot of clues and investigation, and once I let that shit drop, things ran a lot smoother.

Some of our best stuff was non-combat challenges, like climbing the cliffs of Naboo or navigating the deep undercity of Nar Shadaa. The guys reliably failed anything social, but environmental challenges were always appreciated.

I always tried to make sure there was more than one way to do things. For any given mission, especially early on, I’d try to brainstorm at least three ways something could be accomplished.

My party split up a LOT, but we found a sort of cinematic cutting back and forth to be really useful. When there was a big crit, or a goal accomplished, or something like that, we’d jump to the other party even if the fight wasn’t over. Sometimes that was only just, like, Brick and the guys doing drunk karaoke and saying to no one in particular “MAN, I hope Nyla’s having as fun a time as we are!” but it kept everyone involved and it wasn’t just people waiting their turn for 20 minutes at a time. Also people chimed in with fun advantages and disadvantages.

I had everybody write backstories and whenever I could, I incorporated in things from what they’d written. Our second season was basically TK tracking down the guy who’d made him, a Thackwash alien with the same sort of shifting personalities he had. TK’s player hadn’t written much about the guy except that he’d been a salvage mechanic who constructed TK for protection when he got in trouble with the local mafia. Giving that guy complementary personalities for each of TK’s really helped stick the landing on that one, and the player really enjoyed having actually completed his character’s goal.

It’s worth saying, we took some time at several points during the campaign, either individually or as a group, to talk about what we liked and didn’t, what we wanted more of, where we wanted things to go, possible directions for characters, mechanical issues, how to have a better game, group dynamics, all sorts of stuff. In a way it’s like sex: people have this fucked up expectation that you’ll just be good at it without communicating, and man, fuck that. Talking to my players was ALWAYS worthwhile.

I was always adamant, because it was a thing that bugged me when I was a player, that if a character had spent the points to be good at something, they got to be good at it. That made some things difficult, but I think it was the right decision. It took me a while to tailor fights right, and honestly a lot of times, splitting up the party was the best way to balance fights, but I never said to anyone hey that thing you spent all those points on, could you please not do that?

My players were excellent about encouraging each other to have serious dramatic moments. TK was completely ready to die in a fight, and when he lost a significant chunk of his programming, the way he chose to play it was really heartbreaking. Everyone came inside and had tea with Brick’s mom. No one stepped on anyone else’s fun when it was time to be serious, and everybody was great about cheering each other on, whether they were being funny or being dead serious.

I FUCKING FINISHED A CAMPAIGN. IT HAD AN END. So much stuff petered out over the years, I was adamant I wasn’t going to do that.

What Didn’t Work

Boy, my players had pretty much all the trouble trying to remember to use “they/them” pronouns for NPCs with neutral or alien genders.

No one is interested in falling damage. Sigh.

I did not keep good track of money or ship fuel or anything. The campaign didn’t end up relying on it too heavily (I was honestly expecting a much more Cowboy Bebop setup than where we drifted), but that was an area I kind of fell down.

We never really got obligation working correctly and in the end we just ended up abandoning it. We kept doing the force morality because the lone force player was very into it and it was a huge part of that character’s journey, but for the rest having people show up to collect on obligation was sometimes not possible in the story- or if it was possible it was pretty cumbersome. Campaign did obligation by arc, and I think that’s a pretty useful way to do it- roll at the end of the arc for what’s coming next.

Early on, I made way too many assumptions about what was an adventure hook for my players and what was an annoyance. Honestly, bits of this lasted pretty late. At one point I gave my players a spy for the larger rebellion they could totally talk to- he was even working with their resident bothan spy- but they looked at the senatorial assassination he was doing and literally said at the table “I think it’s best if we just walk away from all this.” And so they did. Which was frustrating, but, you know, it is what it is. They also never much cared about the hutt gang war.

I let a lot of things drop that I would have liked to bring back before the end, but in all honesty, I think we were all running a bit out of steam. I would have liked to put in Brick’s old mentor, or follow up with the imperial governor that was a falleen in a human skin suit, or see more of the bounty hunter’s guild, or have a nice end thing with our bothan spy, or any of that. But I do think it was time to end it. And we followed the threads people liked.

I had way too many NPCS.

What sort of worked

I had like 200 npcs and they were not all bangers. In particular, I let the party design their own ship, which I wish had played a bigger role (though it did really set the tone), and I let them design 2 npc crew who would fill in any party roles they didn’t want to play and guard the ship so they could go on adventures without worrying about it. The devaronian scoundrel was with the party to the end though I never really got him to be more than a joke, but the bothan spy kind of fell off, and while she made some appearances, she didn’t really have as big an impact as I would have hoped. She kind of got replaced by Nyla’s padawan, a hench mon calamari called Nezrene, who was a better fit with the party. But, you know, players will do what they like.

Factions. In the first bit of the campaign, my factions were a fucking life saver, because I could design scenarios with a sort of “what is each faction doing/ which faction hurts from this, which benefits?” By the second season we’d kind of abandoned them to go to the core, and by the third my group was solidly rebel, so the hutts and bounty hunters fell a lot by the wayside. I still think having a couple of broad poles of power, and having the players know them and their leaders, is a good call. But they do seem to kind of organically pare down on their own, and it’s easy to get caught up too much in them. Useful sorta?

There was definitely a point where my players just were not challenged by conventional challenges. We ended up doing most of the later fights that involved a lot of minions in montage. I’d have them roll their fight skills unopposed, just to see if they got any interesting advantage/triumph set ups. I still had boss fights that were mostly challenging, but there just was no point in throwing storm troopers or low level gangsters at them. Not when they have soak 8 and autofire, and that one talent that lets you kill every minion in a combat. Designings fight got a bit tricky, and in those big high level combats, despairs and triumphs come up a lot more and really sway the fight, which I like, but also it’s very hard to plan for.

Mass combat was tricky. I did a lot of it toward the end because my players were generals in a rebellion. I always had them do the rolls and some of the narration, but that wasn’t always enough to make them feel like things weren’t very arbitrary.

I personally love the rule that if you roll a despair shooting into an engaged combat you shoot your friend. Nyla, who got shot twice this way, does not.

We started the game with a tech character who dropped out. Toward the end, we picked up another tech character whose player couldn’t do their regular stuff because of covid lock down. Neither of these characters could fight at all, and both were very differently oriented than the rest of the party, and that was tricky to manage. Additionally, the dude coming in at the end had like a year and a half of in jokes he did not get and there were 200 goddamn npcs. I tried to give him the lowdown on what he might have heard about the party, but it was a combination of too much information and not that much player interest. He did get to break a star destroyer though, and I think he liked that.

I offered players XP to write backstory stuff, and later goodbye notes others could find if they kicked it. Not all of them did. In the end it made a negligible difference, and I still think offering the bounties on this is basically a good idea.

What I would do different next time.

Three ring binder that opens and closes so I could move fucking NPC stats around. I filled two goddamn school notebooks with notes for this campaign and there were so many goddamn times I was like “I KNOW I wrote this down, but where?!”

Players felt a bit aimless when they didn’t have a specific villain. I’d planted a few in, but they took finding, or they were too easy to avoid. Next time I would have a few more people who were actively on my player’s tails.

I would keep better campaign notes and/or ask one of the players to do so. I used to do recaps for the games when I played Rek. There’s stuff I KNOW I’ve forgotten, and more I’ll forget as time goes on, which is a shame. It’s a weird, ephemeral medium, but possibly I’m just spoiled by living in an age of easy reproduction and enormous storage where data is concerned.

Better book keeping in general, really.

When I did a mystery short, I wrote up a list of all the clues people could find but not where specifically they were, so that I could just jam them anywhere they seemed like they’d make sense whenever a roll called for a player to find something. I think I’d try to do that with player’s personal stories so they could be woven in a little better. I did a lot of flying by the seat of my pants.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with how it went, and I’m ready to get back to playing for a bit. I loved DMing, and I more or less DMed the game I would have liked to play, but man, doing this all the time, or being the only person who does it? After a while, that’d be a lot, and I’m looking forward to the break.

#star wars edge of the empire #Edge of the Empire #tabletop rp #i dmed

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sob-dylan · 4 years

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Hey! Maybe a stupid thing to ask, but you reblogged a post saying how “Kylie Ren is x coded”. What does the coded part mean? Like I get what they’re trying to say with the x coded thing but when did I it start/is it an academic term/how do you understand it?

i may not be the best person to answer this because i’m a 21 year old dumbass who hasn’t taken any kind of english or lit crit class since high school, but . . .

as i understand it, when a person says a character is “x-coded” they’re either A) referring to subtext they think that they have inferred or B) they’re arguing that the character is broadly symbolic of some human condition, such as the female experience, the gay experience, the trans experience, etc., even when the character themselves is not female, gay, trans, etc. this may be evidenced by the character exhibiting certain mannerisms or possessing certain attributes commonly associated with that demographic.

A would be most commonly used to describe works in which the author, for whatever reason, felt they couldn’t or shouldn’t make certain aspects of the character explicit, (am i just . . . defining subtext? perhaps). a good example would be the talented mr. ripley (at least the book is— i haven’t seen the movie). they never explicitly define ripley’s sexuality, but he’s pretty heavily queer-coded. and i’m not just pulling this out of my ass. the book was published in 1955, (by the same woman who wrote strangers on a train and the book that carol’s based btw), so it would have been difficult to if the “hero” was explicitly gay. nonetheless, it is widely, widely accepted that ripley’s behavior was largely motivated by repressed homosexual urges. like, it’s so widely accepted that this is what the story’s about that matt damon turned down a lead role in brokeback mountain because he didn’t want to do two “gay” movies back-to-back, even though i don’t think the movie made it much more explicit than the book. so, in summation, if the term “coded” is used as a way to describe subtext then, yeah, sure, that’s a perfectly appropriate tool in the literary/artistic analysis toolbox. (apropos of nothing: i recommend this book! it’s a fun, quick, easy beach read. but i would not read it at the beach if you plan on taking a boat ride alone with a friend).

B is a little trickier. i can’t think of any good examples related to specific characters off the top of my head, but for a class i took last semester i read this paper by queer theorist jack halberstam about “trans interpretations” of the work of avant-garde artist gordon matta-clark. matta-clark is best known for his idea of “anarchitecture.” he would perform large scale operations on existing buildings in order to subvert architectural norms/challenge how we interact with the built environment. some examples:

i first learned about matta-clark in a freshman “intro to environmental design” course. zero mention of any non strictly architectural interpretations. then, a couple years later, i read this paper for another class, and i suddenly had a whole new lens through which i could view his work. matta-clark wasn’t trans, he certainly didn’t set out to embody the trans experience in his work, but halberstam was able to find myriad similarities between the ethos of anarchitecture and his own experience as a trans individual. just as matta-clark subverted architectural norms, halberstam argued, the trans experience subverts normative ideas about gender. just as matta-clark challenged how we inhabit the built environment, the trans experience challenges how one inhabits their body. (there’s also something about surgery in there, but it’s nearly 5 am and i haven’t slept, so i’m not gonna bother re-reading the article). in this way, matta-clark’s work is trans-coded. (i won’t spend a lot of time breaking it down, but if you’re interested in this stuff you can check out this lecture i attended a few months back. this guy talked about the place of genderqueer individuals in architecture and architectural criticism, and how alienating it is when critics use heavily gendered and queer-coded language to dismiss postmodernist architecture. like “voluptuous” to describe a zaha hadid building or “flamboyant” to describe a frank gehry building. it was a pretty decent lecture, so watch it if you have the time and interest, but i would definitely recommend the halberstam article over this).

i’m not sure when this kind of use of the word “coded” became popular, nor am i aware of how frequently it’s used in serious academia. obviously, it’s proliferated widely across the internet, and often with little thought or nuance. e.g. in that post i reblogged: the assertion that loki is “jewish-coded.” of course he isn’t fucking “jewish-coded.” first of all, he’s a marvel villian. it’s not that deep. didn’t he try to commit genocide in the first avengers movie? i doubt anyone could make a strong argument for loki being “jewish-coded.” but people keep on saying shit like that and “kylo ren is femme-coded.” no! what?! that’s so dumb! as you can see in the halberstam article, it’s totally possible to make a strong argument supporting an interpretation of a work that clearly doesn’t mirror the creator’s intentions, and it can be a perfectly legitimate interpretation because art is a two-way street! art doesn’t stop with the creator! it demands engagement with an audience, and an audience can never truly divorce their interpretations of a work from their own lived experiences! but imo, for it to be “legitimate” or “valid” or whatever, it’s gotta be a sort of marriage between creator and audience. you can’t just completely ignore a creator’s intentions and rewrite your own story over their work. i find that when the term “coded” gets used out here on the great, wide internet, it often means someone has found a character that they like and has decided to projected onto them and/or sanitize them by forcing them into relatable, “non-problematic” categories. people just see what they wanna see.

P.S. i’m not really all that plugged into stars wars, so i spent a long time staring at this ask, just trying to figure out who the hell “kylie ren” was. for a minute there i legit thought it might be a nickname for kylie jenner. i was fully getting ready to talk about her exploitation of black femininity.

#i really didn't mean for this to turn into an essay #sorry bout that #ask #long post #Anonymous

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smokeybrand · 4 years

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Steal Your Heart

I’ve been playing the sh*t out of Person 5 lately. My anticipation for P5R is boiling over so i wanted to revisit where it all started. I’d gush about the game itself but i already did that, twice. No, this is more about how dope my summon crew has become. I adore the team I’ve put together. It took some fenangling but I’ve customized the sh*t out of some of these guys to create legit powerhouses.

Satanael

It was a legit pain in the ass to get this guy. I had to jump through hoops and two entire playthroughs before i had all the materials to create him but, i must say, i am SO glad i did. This asshole is a goddamn powerhouse! He’s resistant to everything, absorbs curse, and nullifies Holy. I’m pretty sure he’s the only Persona in the entire game that nullifies Holy. My particular version carries the strongest curse attack in the entire game, Maeigaon as well as the strongest non-special Holy attack in Megidoloan. He also has Cosmic Flare, the strongest Nuclear option and Riot Gun, one of the most powerful Gun techniques in the game. I don’t really use the Gun stuff but it’s nice to have. On the other side for support, I kept Salvation, Full HP and cure all stat ailments as well as Samarecarm, a revival spell that returns on ally to battle with full health. Dude also has Holy boost and Victory cry, fully rover Sp and HP for yourself after every battle, as passive skills. He’s pretty f*cking hardbody and i like to keep him in the party for the endgame. That being said, he’s not my go-to. I adore this f*cker but my main is far more powerful than he is in an active battle situation. Still, it’s dope knowing i have this option on deck when necessary.

Strength: 63

Magic: 62

Endurance: 59

Agility: 61

Luck: 59

Thanatos

I know this isn’t part of the Compendium proper and it’s kind of cheap but i love Thanatos. Persona 3 is my favorite of the the series and it’s introduction t the series was just breathtaking. I was mad shook watching this thing ravage those shadows nd became stupid bummed when i was forced to use f*cking Orpheaus for 70 percent of the title. But then i finally got my dude and it was a wrap after that. Seeing him as special DLC in this one made my heart flutter so you KNOW i had to fenangle my guy into the party! My Thanatos opens the deck with Door of Hades, an laughably powerful Holy attack. That sh*t wipes the floor with EVERYTHING! I’m pretty sure it’s the second most powerful attack in the entire game, Holy or not, and carries a chance to instantly kill a foe. It’s stupid OP and i wish it transferred because if i could get my main to inherent this attack, she’d be perfect. I followed that up with Maeigaon and Mamudoon, a curse based attack with a medium chance to instantly kill. I don’t really use these attacks considering Door but it’s nice to diversify. Speaking of diversification, i also have One-Shot Kill, a gun attack that deals sever damage with a very high critical rate. Not bad of the offense side but what about defense? Nothing. I have no buffs of healing spells on this cat. That’s not what he’s for. He’s a f*cking wrecking ball for tight situations and i love him for it. As far as Passive, he’s got a ton. We start with Curse Amp to beef up those two curse attack, Fortified Moxy to increase crit rate during an ambush, Enduring Soul to stay alive with full HP if I’m wiped out, and Adverse Resolve to increase Crit rate if i start a battle surrounded. Stock attacks, sure, but dude doesn’t need much. He’s a goddamn powerhouse out the box!

Strength: 67

Magic: 70

Endurance: 59

Agility: 60

Luck: 48

Ishtar

Ishtar is my requisite healer. She naturally lends herself to that task but, at the same time, has enough attack power to make hr a front line fighter if necessary. I’ve rarely had to whip her out for offensive situations but she’s front loaded with Megidolaon and Psiodyne, the most powerful Psy attack in the game outside of Specials. These re dope to have but they’re not really all that necessary. No, the strength of Ishtar lies in her healing and debuff abilities. Mediarahan restore full HP to the entire party, Samarecarm revives one fallen ally with full HP, and Salvation recovers full HP to the entire party while curing most status ailments. I told you; Healer. To buff her abilities, i have Spell Master, Halves the SP cost of all spells by half and Arms Master, reduces HP cost of skills by half. Growth 3 is in there as kind of a place holder. I plan to change that out with a proper inherited skill as soon as i think of one that compliments her build. I thought about Drain Wind to nullify her her only weakness but she’s not out in battle enough to waste that slot. SO far, I’m at a loss but, considering how rarely i have to use her because of my MVP, I’d say it’s not too big a loss.

Strength: 52

Magic: 69

Endurance: 62

Agility: 70

Luck: 51

Alice

My baby. My love. My heavy hitter. Alice is not only my favorite, ll-time Persona, but l most always become my min in every game. Ever since i fused her way back in Persona 3, I’ve been infatuated with how diverse you n make her build. If you craft correctly, she can become the most powerful beast in the entire game! That ludicrous strength lies in her flagship attack, Die For Me. This Curse based, Instant Kill attack slaughters everything not a boss, at a near perfect rate. Not only that, but it can be buffed to greater success. If you put into the time to craft her properly, Alice is a genocide in a blue skirt. And you KNOW i took that time, bro! I had her also inherit Megidolaon and Maeigaon because they’re two of the most powerful attacks in the goddamn game! Plus, i spotted her Salvation for good measure. on the Passive side, she has Holy Boost, Mudo Boost, Curse Amp, and Victory Cry; all buffs to her already ludicrous fighting strength and one that instantly heals my guy after battle. As long as i don’t run out of SP or HP before the end of a fight, I’m golden. And let me tell you, with this build? I win fights, bro. Sh*t is EASY with my girl and i love it! Also, she has one of the highest Magic ratings in my game.

Strength: 54

Magic: 74

Endurance: 53

Agility: 69

Luck: 54

Honorable Mentions

These cats just missed the boat. They are formidable Persona in their own right and I’m proud to call them the B Squad, but they are a WAYS off from being as staunchy as the A-Team. I usually have them in slots 5 - 9 just in case, but they see the field even less than Ishtar.

Mother Harlot - I love my Whore of Babylon! Ice Age ain’t a bad attack either.

Lucifer - He’s got a decent build, i love Morning star and Black Viper, but it’s hard to ride with him when there’s Satanael.

Satan - Same problem with Lucifer; Satanael trumps him. Diamond Dust is a gorgeous attack bu not pretty enough to get him in the main line up.

Messiah - That Oratario gave this thing an run at my Healer build but Ishtar beat it out. Barely. Messiah Picaro isn’t bad either, just not as good as Ishtar.

Metatron - The thing about Meta is that he’s way to specialized in Holy stuff. It limits his versatility considerably. Still, that Makougaon and Diving Judgement combo is nasty.

Seat Fillers

I add these cats mostly because i like their aesthetic. They will never see battle but i have a thing about not fielding a full 12. While every other Person on this list is maxed out and customized for my style of battle, these 3 are only here because they look cool.

Cybele - Ma is a nice alternative option for healer if Ishtar is taken out. She has a lot of the same spells, just a tier lower. Also, she lacks Spell Master.

Lilith - Lilith is an interesting case. She has a little of every elemental attack. I toy with the idea of tuning her into a general, elemental powerhouse by giving her Megidolaon and Maeigaon at the cost of Spirit Drain and Eigaon but why though? Maybe later. Maybe.

Magatsu-Izanagi - Dude has the potential to be a force if i invest the time to properly build him but it’s hard to want to when i already have Thanatos. It would take a lot of tuning to make this cat great. Outside of Magatsu Mandala, Izanagi is kind of trash. all of his attacks are forgettable but that just means i have 7 skill slots to play around with. Tuner’s delight!

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smokeybrandreviews · 4 years

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Steal Your Heart

Satanael

Strength: 63

Magic: 62

Endurance: 59

Agility: 61

Luck: 59

Thanatos

Strength: 67

Magic: 70

Endurance: 59

Agility: 60

Luck: 48

Ishtar

Strength: 52

Magic: 69

Endurance: 62

Agility: 70

Luck: 51

Alice

Strength: 54

Magic: 74

Endurance: 53

Agility: 69

Luck: 54

Honorable Mentions

Mother Harlot - I love my Whore of Babylon! Ice Age ain’t a bad attack either.

Lucifer - He’s got a decent build, i love Morning star and Black Viper, but it’s hard to ride with him when there’s Satanael.

Satan - Same problem with Lucifer; Satanael trumps him. Diamond Dust is a gorgeous attack bu not pretty enough to get him in the main line up.

Messiah - That Oratario gave this thing an run at my Healer build but Ishtar beat it out. Barely. Messiah Picaro isn’t bad either, just not as good as Ishtar.

Metatron - The thing about Meta is that he’s way to specialized in Holy stuff. It limits his versatility considerably. Still, that Makougaon and Diving Judgement combo is nasty.

Seat Fillers

Cybele - Ma is a nice alternative option for healer if Ishtar is taken out. She has a lot of the same spells, just a tier lower. Also, she lacks Spell Master.

#Persona 5 #Steal Your Heart #Shin Megami Tensei

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lotrewrite · 7 years

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8/12 Chat Recap

Only a week late, but here's the recap from last week's chat! Since it was a lot of positive commentary rather than suggestions, I've mostly copied and pasted the comments themselves, albeit with removing the names attached. So know that people really liked it :)

Question for the hivemind:

Intro: we should probably make a standard for how we do the intro - both who it is, and WHAT it is (though obviously episodes will have variations). Thoughts?

General Comments: each and every single episode I read so far I was like OMG THIS IS MY FAVORITE EPISODE, and then i read the next one and was like NO WAIT THIS IS THE BEST ONE EVER and so on I want to give a shoutout to Stephanie Fisher for playing test audience! does anyone know who she is on tumblr? I want to, like, send her hugs; it's so nice to see someone who doesn't know what's going on comment everything is wonderful? *raises hand to say exactly that* i think overall there's less tweaking than I thought and also i'm super happy with the concrit i got one thing I'd like to say is that the style is largely consistent, except for a couple outliers each episode is legit good fanfic AND good TV i'm loving everything. it's not just better than the show, it's all really great on its own And I think we've managed to get consistent characterizations as a maybe off topic note, I'm super happy with the commenting because I actually felt super awkward about my episode, but having people comment how awesome it was helped so much with self esteem I'm super happy with the commenting because I actually felt super awkward about my episode, but having people comment how awesome it was helped so much like, people are so good at spotting things that don't make sense or that aren't consistent it was actually the first time i wasn't disheartened by getting crit, since it was actually really useful and pointed out valid stuff (btw I want official statistics of how many beers Mick drinks and how many people he headbutts) we have SO MANY awesome women btw are we sending the showrunners a link or sth? to show what you can do when you really care about the show and the fans? when we're done? I'm all for it

just something I forgot to mention earlier re: Stein and his perspective on changing time - he goes from ep 1 where he wants to change it for personal reasons and goes to this point where he's the opposite (which is the perspective I followed in ep7); I would blame that on episode 2, i.e. episode 1: let's change things, episode 2: I changed things, things went wrong, after that, he's all "we can't change things, look at how bad I screwed it up", as an echo to Sara's arc If we do a season 3 rewrite wishlist: go back to visit Ching and the Chinese pirates, a Nate cameo, Austria episode, French Rev episode, Israel episode

Episode 1: Nate is wonderful; he's a history nerd, he's well-meaning, he interacts well with the rest of the team; omg he hasn't met Len yet! like, if we weren't bringing in so many guest stars, we could have had him stay for the entire season and I wouldn't have a problem with it about ep1, did we ever resolve the issue of the nazis having the knowledge and the material to blow up NY? It was provided by Eobard. Is there anything stopping him from giving them more? The fact that he's a speedster with the attention span of a gerbil? yeah, I think the key thing is that he left no more Eobard, no more disruptions

Episode 2: before anything else, BAMBI WAS AMAZING. <3 BAMBI. I think we all love Bambi. can we keep her on the Waverider next season? team mascot! i really thought those Ray scenes were so good. btw, I noticed over the course of the episodes that we have a really fantastic Ray arc going on, starting here. His emotional isolation and struggles with identity are just spot-on every episode. Like, I'm remembering why I actually liked Ray in season 1. Seeing Ray (rich white Christian privileged tech guy) have to deal with basically Mick's storyline is so much more emotionally satisfying. It doesn't feel like punching down, you know? yes, Ray's isolated, but it's not because the other Legends are dicks. it's because he went through trauma and identity isuses What did people think of the Crusades arc in episode 2? So far so good :D I like the argument about faith vs logic

Episode 3: The JSA is awesome! god, yes. They have so much more character! I love Amaya and Rex' relationship. I was just about to say I actually ship it this time re Ray: him having pulled up pictures of the Bamibiraptor species because he misses Bambi? MY HEART GOD YES and THAT FIRST GLIMPSE OF LEN that was such a cool moment with Nate XD Nate and his grandfather was a fantastic moment.The Nate and his grandfather scene was ON POINT and also Nate's hemophilia was handled so much better too. like, I REALLY liked Nate by the time we were done with him Amaya was done really well, I think. it's kind of funny; we all, working mostly separately, gave Amaya a more coherent personality than the actual show did Amaya and Sara are awesome together too! Amaya and Sara had a real honest budding friendship everything made /sense/ and you even threw in a historical woman for us For a possible title: Heirlooms? Stein is on team "don't change things" in ep3 because of the consequences in ep2. Connection can be made clearer.

Episode 4: YOU MADE ME CRY. gooood title. very good title indeed! I thought maybe Sara was a bit very trusting of Eo in the bar scene, even though she knew there was an evil time traveler out there, but maybe she was a bit drunk? yeah, drunk and depressed was what I was going for

Episode 5: VIKINGS! YESSS! I LOVE IT SO MUCH all the viking myths being undercut, with Ray as the audience proxy! it worked so well! I knew from the moment Ray gave Mick the horned helmet Mick would headbutt someone with it XD I was so looking forward to it I really liked the Jax-Gunlod relationship in ep 5 – same - yeah, that felt really natural to me. JAX IS SO DAMN GOOD. they? actually seemed to like each other? Jax and Gunlod were so sweet - if we can revisit her too I would be delighed! also I CRIED THIS EPISODE TOO, the bonfire scene :) it was so well done; it was the send-off to Len we all deserved the singing magic was awesome oooooh, and Jax using the football terms!!! and Mick finding viking friends :D And Lisa! (Forever in the Lisa Snart fandom over here...) YES LISA IS SO AWESOME

Episode 6: speaking of awesome Lisa I thought the heist was basically perfect one comment, kickingshoes drew Dr Metcalf as a woman, but in the episode they seem to be a man LEN *heart breaks* that scene where Mick and Len are talking, and Mick is like he should've known he'd see Len since that's where Len belongs..............;_; the "it's where he belongs" scene was PERFECT That was the only crit I had, really - he shouldn't say he's alive so soon I loved the worldbuilding so much I also really liked the Sara-Amaya relationship, Yeah, I know we agreed to keep things ship-neutral for the most part, but I think if people are into Sara/Amaya they are going to be REALLY happy with this rewrite. XD also, it felt properly cyberpunk?? VERY AWESOME one last thing @ ep6: LOVE THE TITLE

Episode 7: my personal little wish is that maybe we could have a line of dialogue in episoed 7 where Amaya tells the Nerd Squad about time travel side effects and maybe mentions what happened to her? I liked that you added in the other supergirl folks, and you made mention of the green lanterns and Alex and Mick getting along! that was all so fun!! XD I think there's a few points that could use some more dialogue like, where it just says Felicity says X and Cisco feels Y i want to SEE those scenes I loved the Green Lantern nods! And I agree, putting into more of a script format would be good I think. oh, I loved Barry's "NOT AN URBAN LEGEND!" yelp for the dominators, their motivations kept changing! I think just stick to the first "they're evil expanders" yeah, keep it simple "Now we’ve got aliens, and time ships, and – uh, whatever you deal with, Oliver –” “Ninjas,” says Oliver, wearily. NEEDS TO BE ON A TSHIRT

Episode 8: I love Constantine And Zed!! ? I feel like once it'll be more fleshed out, it'll be easier to comment I did like Queen B's intro. I was really excited by the, kind of, cinematic image I got during the Queen B scene? Like, I think she has such a Look and is so powerful that we can really make her intro visually gorgeous, since this is supposed to be a visual medium

#episode 1 #episode 2 #episode 3 #episode 4 #episode 5 #episode 6 #episode 7 #episode 8 #recap

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exilesofembermark · 7 years

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Game Dev Update | 3.8.17

There are seven-- SEVEN-- delivery ends for this battleaxe. Sadly, there aren’t seven different ways for this axe to connect with your opponent in Exiles, but that biggest big blade there will connect for sure. It was designed to destroy the FACE of your enemy when they dare to oppose you. This axe has been a regular entrant to many previous screenshots which heavily featured the Warrior Class.

So it’s fitting to use a Warrior weapon to say goodbye to the Warrior for a little bit-- this Dev Update will be so much moar about MAGES. Last time, we dug into the visual telegraph system for gear, the state of PVE, our upcoming presence at GDC and a couple Ability Deep Dives.

This update, we are focused on running. Cuz now we run. The game version that we brought to GDC was the first time Exiles was running entirely from the backend-- with PVP battles, PVE Quests, Choose-Your-Own-Adventure choices and even hidden treasure pushed to your device from a magickal computer in the sky.

Why care?

Cuz now we run-- all of the static screenshots and concept art and whatnot we’ve shown throughout development will now make their way INTO the game, and it will happen like Chain Lightning.

EXILES GOT TO GDC!

The GDC booth for Epic’s Unreal Engine was gigantic, and Exiles was honored to play a role within it as a showcase mobile title. All week last week, the Gunslinger team demoed to showgoers, players and press. We got a ton of great feedback and some new ideas from the show, and swung by the Touch Arcade GDC homebase to do a video demo you can see here:

youtube

If you want to see what TA had to say, the full article is here. As always when I demo, I hid some stuff-- I hid a series of numbers in this discussion-- they’re throughout the video. 2...15...20...5...10...13. If you can tell me where they “show up” in the demo, PM TheWizard in the forums with the answer, and you’ll receive a free Chest of loot in the game when it launches.

SO. MANY. MAGES.

At long last, wizarding is at hand. There are always a few times during the development of a game when you go “yes finally! WOOT” and this is one of them. The three starting Classes in Exiles are Warrior, Mage and Rogue (each with three specialties) along with three others designed, but we’ve been working through development with the Warrior as the template. Now that the game is getting ready for testing, Exiles systems support the input of any number of Classes (<-- foreshadowing), and the remaining few are going in.

We have a huge number of Rogue fans in the community, so a word of caution: don’t expect the Rogue in next week-- we need to fill out the Mage’s gear. And fill we will!

Robes, boots, shoulders, staves, books (yes, books), orbs, gloves etc are all rumbling through the art pipeline. A Legendary or two will make an appearance and then we’ll get Mr/Ms Thief McPocketses into the game.

Mage Talent Trees are up as well! Here’s a look at the Elementalist Tree, one of the three specialties within the Mage Class (the other two being Blood Mage and Warcaster). Characters can pick and choose from each tree as they like.

THE NEW WILDEWOODS

The Zones (regions) of Embermark have been evolving since day one and the starting Zone, Wildewoods, has been a particular favorite for the team. We’ve been working on Lore behind every town, landmark, ruin and port in Embermark and there will be plenty to find (and fight) once the game is live (remember, the world map in Exiles functions like a Google Map, with various activities, Quests and events appearing in different places and at different levels of zoom).

To see how the map art is evolving, take a look at what Wildewoods used to look like and where it is now:

The new icons there in the screen represent where a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure type choice would be made (affecting your Motivations and Standings) and the other one is... TRAYSURE. These can be visible or hidden depending upon your character’s development, the current Season’s plot and what events are live.

(And if you want to know where that old Bog Hag lives and what she’s up to, look no further. Is she evil or good or purely pragmatic? You decide...)

PVE IS LEGIT

Huzzah! I’ve said it often, but one of the ambitions of Exiles is to have a living, breathing world, with ebbs and flows of faction, politics and motivations (even morality, if Lord British can dig it), so having our PvE system online is a big milestone for the team.

Questing, events, making choices and finding caches of valuables are all driven by your actions (and achievements) in the game and that system saw its debut in this last build. The screenshot below is a big deal for us, not because the Ogre is trying to squash a bug, but because his actions are driven by the backend of this game and that means we can push any NPC at any time with any abilities and any loot into the game in real-time. With no update. You’ll just get the goodness in your game.

STAVES

What’s an RPG without them? And this one is looking at you...

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE MAGE IN ACTION

Here’s a bunch of GIFs that illustrate how the Mage is coming along. Ol’ “MadeOfMagicks” here starts off with a classic-- the Fireball, which does decent damage (affected by stats and gear of course) along with a chance to Burn the enemy. (he rocks a Crit too, so Addrighar is in trouble)

Blizzard doesn’t do a ton of damage, but its Chill effect slows down the other player for a few rounds, offering some first-shot chances and decreasing the enemy’s defense.

Poor Addriggar. Poor, poor Addrighar...

Huzzah!

(please note that these GIFs made the Warrior look like a knucklehead. He is not a knucklehead and will soon have his revenge)

TRAYSURE

Last update, we showed what you might find in the placed (and random) treasure caches found around Embermark. Oftentimes, you’ll get a drop (random-ish), but sometimes you’ll get something specific. Something that matters to someone that might not be you...

ABILITY & TALENT BREAKDOWNS

Each Update, we’re featuring a couple of Abilities (active) and/or Talents (passive) to preview what kinds of effects the choices you make in developing your character have. This time, we’ve got one of each, both from the Warrior Class:

Devastating Swing

So the “devastating” part of this swing isn’t when it connects. It’s what comes after. This Warrior Ability does a decent amount of damage (affected by stats and what weapon you wield, of course), and then leads to an effect-over-time. It increases Crushing damage for 2 rounds after the move is played. So if you follow with Bash, Shoulder Rush or the armor-increased Skull Crush, your enemy is in for it.

Blood Madness

“No, my friend. You’re crazy.” This one isn’t an active Ability. This one’s passive, despite its name and disconcerting icon. Bleeding (an effect that can sit on either combatant) causes the Warrior to flip his/her lid, increasing the weapon damage they can do, and it’s increased if you spend more Talent Points on the Talent (max of 5). The interesting part is this-- either combatant bleeding trigger this effect, and both means PUNISH.

THE 3D LOOT INSPECTOR

Want to check out that new piece of loot that just dropped on your character without having to equip it (or upgrade it... or salvage it)? Booyah:

See that triple-dot on the bottom-right part of the armor’s description box? Click that to get all the details you could ever want about a Pounding Mage Chest.

REMEMBER

We’ll keep sharing details as we head into testing (remember to PM TheWizard on the Exiles forums if you want in on closed testing & beta later), and you can count on early impressions from the testers throughout our various channels.

If you haven’t already, follow along with the Exiles development on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And if you haven’t, I’ll find you. And SMITE you.

DISCORD, IF YOU WANT TO KNOW...

If you want to hear about the game, ask questions or connect with others who are helping the development team think about features, design and narrative, hop into the Discord Channel for live chat and say hi-- it’s a friendly lot and there are daily shenanigans (there’s even a Shenaniganizer).

BONUS: A VERY BAD GUY

Very. ‘Cross the Breaches came many a monster. Not all of them were rampaging. Some were measured, thoughtful, insightful...

(back-only is shown to you on purpose for dramatic effect)

BONUS BONUS: SCREENSHOT

Oh boy-- Armadillo is coming in with Destruction’s Wake, and Nezuja’s not super-happy about it, given his 74 remaining HP...

Ha! You thought after the Bonus Bonus, we were done!

WRONG.

Remember how I’ve been showing the evolution of Embermark’s awful, awful wolves from concept to in-the-game? Well, here’s the next step-- what kind of RPG wolf would she be without a blood-curdling howl?

Now we’re done (till next month)!

#gamedev #rpg #gdc #mobile #wizards

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