#but i want to write a first person horror rpg where you are lost in the eternal halls of a hospital

[mayonezroulette]

So I have a new Table Top RPG that I backed on kickstarter that I want to run called Slash! Which calls itself the Horror Movie Roleplaying Game. It can have from 1 player to 5+ players. It can have anywhere from 1 session (2-5hrs) to 3+ Sessions (10+hrs). There's 3 acts where your character gets to choose abilities and reroll for luck as well as have character growth, which is where sometimes your traits change to more represent how you play the character. Like Act 1 you start as headstrong and brave, but instead of barging in head first in situations, you have your character sneak and hide, then Act 2 you might instead get practical or cowardly as a trait to replace headstrong and/or brave. I think it's really cool. I have two ideas/campaigns I'm thinking of running and I'm looking for players. I don't know how I want to set up or what to use for an application if anyone wants to join so if anyone has any suggestions that's be appreciated. It'd simply be an application asking for age, name, pronouns, what you are comfortable and not comfortable with in horror, and if you are okay with like LGBTQ+ themes if they come up. It is a horror game so like certain themes like death and phobias and gore will probably come up, but depending on peoples thoughts and feelings about certain topics I can easily gloss over details that might gross people out or make them uncomfortable. I also have somethings myself that I won't have happen in the game because I personally don't like certain topics or horror tropes kind of deal. It's one of those things if I do this we'll have a session 0 to discuss this stuff, lay down boundries, and also figure out the relationship web, and decide what game idea everyone wants to run. Me and my froend Stacie literally came up with a trilogy for a horror movie frenchise we thought would be cool called the The Seamstress. The other one would be your typical slasher like film with some of my OCs I have created for a horror movie like comic I want to make. They each have different settings and stories that I hope some people will find fun and kind of scary. Anyways, if anyone would be interested in signing up let me know. I'll figure out what to do for an application. We'd be using Roll20 most likely for running the game. Also if people wanted I could make a Discord server so people could chat and show off art of their characters and the such. Also I could write notes for everyone after each session where they won't get lost too.

[ttngummybear]

Laying here trying to sleep, and I want to write out a bunch of random game ideas I've had over time which I have no means to create. No specific order or grouping, and I won't get too super detailed. May elaborate on some of them later. General warning for creepiness and themes of life and death.

- A game in which you play as a Healer, rescuing people. There would be an outsider safe and unsafe version/toggle.

- A cute/innocuous game that you can play perfectly normally... But if you go to a specific odd place or complete a specific odd action/set of actions, you can basically unlock an entire other game underneath the first one that's horror of some type.

- An RPG maker game where the protagonist is guided through Erebus, the darkness between the earth and the underworld, after being involved in a road accident.

- A twine game where the protagonist encounters Kiera (my character/persona) while lost in the woods where she lives. Things seem very weird, and protagonist isn't sure they're safe (spoiler: they are).

- A first-person horror game in which you awaken and walk out of your room in the middle of the night to find that there's a wall of dark water where the entrance to your living room used to be. You turn on a light, and find that it's not just a wall of water- you're somehow at the bottom of the ocean. You must use materials you can find in the impossible fragment of your house that you're in to get back to the surface and return home.

- Basically a more fleshed out version of the flash game "Blue rabbit's climate chaos" where you get to actually enjoy your vacation after you save the day.

- A "horror" game where you're being pursued by a Healer, with multiple endings. Hint: getting caught by the Healer is not a bad end.

- "Wander", a game in which you play as a street puppy with a psychic ability to see into the lives of humans just by looking at them. You have the ability to affect these people positively or negatively, however and whenever you see fit. This game would probably have tons of endings and be very lighthearted and sweet; the negative effects would be more mischief than malice.

- An MMO with monster/animal avatars. This actually isn't a response to wildworks shitting the bed- I got a specific idea for an MMO I wanted to make way back in 2012. In trying to prevent the end of the world, a mad scientist uses a machine that turns everyone into a strange animal or monster. In the original concept, these were cyborg hybrids. The first one was a roadrunner with a scorpion tail.

That's all I can think of for now. I have more in my head somswhere, I just can't think of them at the moment.

[zehecatl]

rec post for @f-eef that got too long for its own good, and is now just. a general rec post i guess

(as of writing, today is the steam summer sale! writing this before that goes live, so no guarantee everything on here is on sale, but! most of these are older games, so it’s likely. keep them in mind~)

- Iconoclasts my absolute favourite game, ever (along with OFF, but shh), if you check out one game from this list, let it be this one. it’s a genuinely almost flawless package, with gorgeous pixel art, fun gameplay, a really good story, and a cast of characters i just. adore. it’s so so so good, and three years later, i’m still not over it

- The Binding of Isaac so there’s this genre called roguelikes, wherein the whole gimmick is that, when you die, you gotta start from the Very Beginning; and the ‘point’ is getting better and better at the game, until you win! it’s super easy to just, play a few runs (they generally don’t last that long!), and then go on with your day, so it’s a really fun game to just waste time in, if you just wanna chill with some game. and, in my personal opinion, Isaac is the best roguelike game, with so much stuff to unlock, a whole slew of items to play with, and so much content it’s kind of unreal. i definitely think the DLCs are worth picking up, but it’s mostly for more content than like. actually being necessary

- Terraria it’s minecraft, but 2D. unlike MC, it’s got a bit of guidance, which i personally prefer, with bosses to fight and such. an absolutely BLAST with other people too

- A Hat in Time a 3D platformer, ala Mario, that’s just. super charming. it’s also really fun to play. i haven’t actually played the DLC’s, since i played it way back, but i’ve heard good things about Nyakuza Metro, which does look super slick, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

- Slime Rancher you are a slime rancher. you ranch slimes. it’s honestly just wholesome as hell, and just exudes happy vibes. mostly for running around and collecting slimes, ngl

- The Messenger really funky retro game, wherein you play a ninja on a mission. it’s primary draw is definitely in its gameplay, but there’s a surprising amount of story for this kind of genre? i honestly really just like this one. it’s neat

- Underhero you play as a cute minion, who kind of like. managed to kill the hero. and whoops, guess you’re doing his job now? it’s got that undertale vibe, though i’d say it’s less polished than it. HOWEVER, it’s absolutely lovely and it’s climax is REALLY good

- Hatoful Boyfriend bird dating sim. trust me. the ‘secret’ finale route is just. *chef’s kiss* fantastic

- Night in the Woods if you don’t mind having a very poignant sad time, oh my god, i could not recommend NITW more. it perfectly captures that period when you’re done with school, and suddenly your whole life is stretching before you, and you feel so so fucking lost, and overwhelmed and pained with it. it’s just. so good. a sadness worth experiencing 

- Shovel Knight another retro game! this one is, pretty much, the king of the genre, and for very good reasons. the first one (shovel of hope) doesn’t have much story, but the latter ones really add on it. they’re honestly just, really solid games! with funky knight characters!!!

- Hyper Light Drifter man, it’s just a masterpiece. everything about it is perfect. it’s been like, five years, and it’s still one of the very best indie games

- Tell Me Why it’s currently free for june! and it’s a story game! plus, if you like the genre, the devs got the ‘Life Is Strange’ serie(s) to delve into!

- Cat Quest honestly, i just really like this little game. the gameplay is SO much fun, and everything else is just. really charming :’)

- Yoku’s Island Express metroidvania, where you play as a dung-beetle post officer, and the gimmick is that it’s pinball-y! it’s really fun, and very cute and just an all around good time :)

- Owlboy you play as an owl boy! named Otus! and you can fly around, and there’s GORGEOUS pixel graphics, and a neat story, and just. the BEST cast of characters. it’s delightful

- Yuppie Psycho + Count Lucanor just gonna bundle these two together, because they’re both REALLY GOOD. YP is the newer one, and is therefore probably ‘the better one’, but i like them both a ton! they’re 2D horror, but i wouldn’t say they’re that spooky? though that might just be because they’re pixel games! you explore spooky place, and weird stuff happens around you. just a really fun time :)

- Angels of Death my FAVOURITE rpgmaker game, it’s main draw is, a 100%, the main characters and the relationship that develops between them. i just love it a whole lot, and it’s got that lil’ tinge of horror that i, personally, fucking adore. there’s actually an anime based on this, but i haven’t seen it myself!

- Celeste curve ball! it’s a 2D platformer! it’s really good, got a ton of accessibility features, and has like. the tightest gameplay- and, on top of that, surprisingly emotional story! 

- Bastion putting Bastion here, because it’s actually the only one i’ve properly played, but you could probably buy any of the Supergiant Games, and come out satisfied. Bastion is the oldest of the bunch, and is definitely a bit less polished for it, but i personally adore it; the gameplay probably hasn’t aged that well, but i think the story and presentation more than makes up for it

- The Darkside Detective funny point and click adventure, with great wit, and a pair of characters i kind of simply adore. it’s main draw is definitely its humour

- Littlewood very wholesome and chill farming game, that feels more like an RPG than something like stardew valley- i’d not recommend it over SV, but if you want more of SV, Littlewood might scratch that itch!

- Pony Island + The Hex absolutely adore both of these, though if i had to rec only one, it’d probably be Pony Island? they’ve both got that undertale-off vibe, though Pony Island definitely leans harder into it. very interesting plays, both of them

- Oxenfree another horror-ish game! primarily story-focused, but oh boy, what a story! i’m a BIG fan of this game, and the sequel was recently announced too! definitely worth a look if you like ghost shenanigans

- Creature in the Well wasn’t a 100% sure if i should rec this, but beside the finale boss, i really enjoyed my time with this! it’s this weird pinball inspired hack and slash, with some amazing vibes

- Kindergarten 1 + 2 they’re just fun little games okay. the 2nd is much more fleshed out, but the 1st one is really fun too

- the Henry Stickmin collection I JUST... LIKE THESE GAMES A LOT... i think you can find the old versions somewhere on the internet, if you wanna check them out first? idk, they’re fun!

- LIMBO + INSIDE personally, i like INSIDE more, but both of these are classics, and also they’re made by a danish team, and i like them a WHOLE LOT

- The Final Station i could not tell you why i like this game as much as i do, but oh my god. i love this game? it’s got a dying world, neat pixel graphics, big zombie apocalypse vibes, and a weird little story

- Year Walk i love Year Walk :)

- Smile For Me if you liked undertale’s lovely cast of characters, oh boy, you’d likely LOVE this game! it’s really, really, fantastic, and the epilogue (not in the actual game lol) hit me right in the feels

- Pikuniku just a fun little game! there’s not really much there, in the grand scheme of things, but it’s a wonderful little play, one of those games that just sets out to give you a good time, and absolutely success. i like it a lot :’)

- A Short Hike wonderful game, where it’s more about exploring the island than actively finishing the game. it’s real wonderful

- ULTRAKILL ANOTHER CURVEBALL! no idea if you like FPS, but oh my god. ULTRAKILL is so fucking good. just an absolute blast to play. there’s a demo to check out, and i’d definitely recommend it, because if it’s a genre you might like, you’ll love this one (OH also it’s in early access, which means it’s not finished yet! personally, i don’t mind that, especially considering this is more gameplay focused, but ya’ know!)

- My Friend Pedro it’s honestly just really fun to play, and sometimes i still think about the implied lore, and go all !!!!

- Little Misfortune another point and click! this one is pretty short, and is set within the same universe as their other game, Fran Bow, which is much bigger, but idk. i like this one. it’s dark cute

- This Strange Realm of Mine i honestly dunno how to explain this one, because it’s kind of weird and a bit odd, but i really like it, in all its weird poetic glory. it’s neat!

- Donut County you’re a terrible racoon who’s ruined the whole city with holes. it’s great and i love it

- OneShot another ‘gives me undertale vibes’, though this one was in development before UT, if i recall correctly! it’s so good, and it’s got some fantastic meta bits, and i love Niko. i love Niko so much

- Inmost gorgeous vaguely spooky game with a neat story... my favourite genre

- Sayonara Wild Hearts i’d call this more of a spectacle than anything else, but oh my god. what a spectacle it is! the OST is amazing, everything about it just hits right, and even if you suck at the gameplay (which i did), it really doesn’t matter, in my opinion? it’s just great all around!

[sugurus-slxt]

Hiya! May I request a matchup (Ruby) for Jujutsu Kaisen for the follower event? I just stumbled onto your blog; congratulations on getting 100 followers! Let’s see…I’m 5’9” and 25 years old, I have shoulder length wavy light blonde hair (bleached), hazel eyes, pale-ish skin, and kind of an athletic body type (with a little bit of chub). I’m pretty quiet and tend to keep to myself, but if I’m around friends or anyone that I’m comfortable with, I can be pretty loud. I have been told that when I laugh, I can be heard from several rooms over. I don’t really take life too seriously, I mostly just go with the flow. I’m a pacifist; I don’t like to start arguments or fights and I HATE confrontation. However, if someone genuinely pisses me off, I will not hesitate to call them out. I get rather shaky and anxious when doing so though, as I’m not used to it. I’m also pretty open minded and I try to see things from everyone’s point of view.

I love to hike, go running, read, bake/cook, play video games (occasionally), and listen to music! I like EDM; drum & bass, electronica, trance, chill etc. I listen to other stuff besides that, if it’s pleasing to my ears, I will listen to it. I generally read stuff on tumblr, but if it’s a book I gravitate towards fiction! I’m a Libra, and my mbti type is ISFP (though some other tests I’ve taken have typed me as an ISTP, I’m in the middle with thinking and feeling). I like to stay active, as I get bored if I’m not. I mainly do trail running since I love being outside! I have an appreciation for art in any form, and I enjoy looking at what others have created. My favorite types of video games are RPGS, or anything I can get lost in. I also have a weakness for horror games, or anything horror related. I like to listen to horror podcasts, and research urban legends and creatures. I honestly would love to go urban exploring, but I don’t want to risk getting caught trespassing on private property! I also have a pretty big sweet tooth, I have practically zero willpower when it comes to desserts.

Ok, some of these are oddly specific, but some things I dislike are closed minded people, people getting in my personal space, public speaking (I would rather throw myself off a cliff), the colors orange and yellow, deviled eggs, and country music (sorry to the people who love it, ya’ll are still great, keep doing your thing 😆). I’ve had sensory issues ever since I was little (I was always over sensitive), and people getting close to me or touching me has always made me feel very uncomfortable/nervous. I struggle with showing affection, so I can be seen as rather detached or aloof at times. I’m not a very clingy or needy person; I prefer being independent. Also, I can get somewhat irritated if a person keeps offering to help me with something I can easily do on my own. As silly as this sounds, even if their intentions are pure, I feel as though they are saying that I’m incapable. Unsurprisingly, I have a lot of trouble asking for help. I prefer to work things out on my own. I prefer to stay in my comfort zone, and I rarely move out of it. However, deep down inside, I’m craving an adventure.

My style varies; I can go from looking like an up and coming professional runner to a troll that lives underneath a nearby bridge. I tend to favor a lot of darker colors, black is my number one go-to! I wear a lot of athletic leggings and sweatshirts/oversized t-shirts. Mostly because they’re comfy. I do love the cottage core aesthetic, though my clothing/room doesn’t reflect that. For who I seek, I suppose I’m looking for someone who is similar to me! Someone who I can feel comfortable with, and someone who isn’t super into PDA (or too clingy). I can be kind of goofy at times, so a sense of humor would be nice too. Some other things real quick, my dream vacation(s) would be going to Oregon or visiting the Netherlands! My dream jobs would be either a pastry chef (hell just put me in the kitchen in a bakery and let me bake), or working at a nursery/greenhouse. I like to work with my hands, so I would love either one!

I don’t exactly have any characters that I don’t want, I’m just curious as to who I will be matched with! Take your time and have a wonderful day 🙂

Personality Matchup

One 𝑅𝓊𝒷𝓎 coming right up for anon

A/Note: Hey thank you so very much for visiting THE VAULT. I hope you like your match up :) Sorry that I’ve taken so long, I’ve been preoccupied with school, and even though you said to take my time I think I took way too much. I hope you enjoy this. Love <3 ~ Sar-chan

I match you with...

Runner Up: Inumaki Toge

Here are some HCs:

Nanami definitely loves your loud side though he often comes off as reserved I think he really likes how from being super quiet outside or in a meeting to just saying what you’ve been holding back from saying. He loves hearing you talk and every time you shift from quiet to loud he lets out a soft chuckle and a smile he’ll hide away from you.

I think when Nanami is with you he’d find ways to crack jokes just to hear you laugh and he often has this running line, “I’d say I wish your laughs were all mine but I’m sure the neighbour heard it dear,” and finish off with, “I’m joking it’d be a crime not to share your laugh with the world. You and your laugh are far too beautiful to keep hidden.”

I think your personalities and natures would compliment each other nicely. I feel like both of you give a very “it” couple vibe.

Regardless of the suit Nanami wears, I think he dresses more comfortably in his free time. Larger more oversized clothes specifically sweaters and looser pants. He often lends you his sweater, he was a bit hesitant at first but seeing you in his clothes makes his lips quirk into a smile he won’t let you see.

I think Nanami enjoys reading for you especially if you lay against him (if you’re up for it) as both of you get settled for bed. If you fall asleep while he’s writing he’ll place a soft kiss on your forehead and whisper ‘I love you’ as he places the book to the side and repositions you to lay down.

If an argument ever happens to break out between you and Nanami he’ll try his best to bring it to more of a conversation he doesn’t like yelling and he doesn’t want to make you anxious.

He often accompanies you on hikes but almost always on runs because it’s also good for his physique and he gets to spend a bit of extra time with you.

Nanami favourite moments are when he gets to hear you talk about your day in the evening but he also appreciates the quiet moments where you both are just anywhere in the same room doing your own thing, he likes your presence and if the other sees something interesting and just points it out.

He isn’t clingy but Nanami gets touchy on mornings if he’s had a nightmare about you or he’s had an extremely bad day. He likes when you smiley hold him and run your fingers through his hair. He just likes knowing you're there.

I feel like you’d buy Nanami a nicer tie and though he loves you he just might refuse because he’s very accustomed to them and they are in a way essential.

Nanami isn’t the video game type but I think there might be a few select ones he’ll try out with you on the weekends and he just might get pretty addicted to one.

If you ask Nanami he might just take you to some of the places he’s exorcized curses from and as put together as he looks, he’s definitely trespassed. He’ll take you to some quite chilling places and he’ll be keeping an eye on you, however, if you do happen to get scared he will snicker just a bit. He’ll probably take you to a bakery or a coffee shop after to make up for it.

Nanami likes to watch you work in the kitchen if you’re baking up a storm he’ll probably be nearby reading a book but sometimes he’ll leave you to it because he knows you like pace as well.

EXTRA:

I hope you liked it, I apologize for taking such a long time.

THE VAULT IS NOW CLOSED, THANK YOU :)

[maskedpeach]

RPG Maker Fever Hero & Issues

Warning: This article may contain spoilers and the content inappropriate for children…or may not contain.But get the children away from the screen just in case.

Five little authors went out to write. One little author has missed the deadline. Four little authors didn’t pay him much mind. Three authors are left since fourth drank the lye. Three little authors are bursting with confidence. One overworked himself and other two ignored his absence. Two little authors try to finish hard task. Teddy bear hugged one and one stands at last. One little author is left all alone. He hung himself on the chandelier and then there were none…Then who has finished this article? And why this teddy bear is giving me a weird look?

1. Walking on a Star Unknown

Walking on a Star Unknown is the latest game made by Segawa and most heartwarming out of her three games (while End Roll was more heartbreaking than heartwarming, and Farethere City is somewhere in-between). Game  tells a story of two alien siblings, whose ship has crashed on the unfamiliar planet, where they decide to participate in the cooking tournament to get their ship fixed. Gameplay is simple yet very fun - most of the time you gather ingredients, learn new recipes, do side-quests and make friends with the planet inhabitants. Game has memorable cast of characters with their own interesting stories and  bright and stylish visuals. As previous Segawa’s  games Star also has some disturbing themes and some areas are dark and creepy, but overall tone of the game is bright and optimistic.

2. Witch’s Heart

Actually I wrote the detailed review on this game few posts ago, but  I’m still including WH in the article for those who are lazy to read that enormous wall of a text. The most notable part of the game is its plot (which is interesting to follow and full of good twists) and memorable cast of well-developed characters. Along with it WH has  entertaining  gameplay (mini-games included), great presentation and catchy soundtrack. Overall it is one of the best games I’ve ever played, so if you like rpg-horrors I suggest to at least give it a try. Game is still unfinished, currently only one ending (out of four routes) is available, but even in the present state it means about 15-20 hours of gameplay.

3. The Mystery Files of Detective Inaba No. 1, 2, 3

Here goes a game trilogy about Sogo Inaba-a tsundere detective with adorable side and Nina Arimura – his energetic assistant, together they solve various cases, some of the cases are pretty normal, and others are somewhat paranormal. First game of the series is a detective with minor supernatural horror elements – some rpg-horror typical puzzles and minor chasing sequences included. Second game is purely realistic and much more simple gameplay-wise comparing to the first game. Stories in first two games resemble Agatha Christie’s detective  novels mixed with japanese psychological horrors. Third game of the series is closer to pure survival horror with minor detective elements and plays like many other rpg-horrors . To be honest, the third game is my personal favorite, since it is the most polished game out of three and the good conclusion for the Inaba and Arimura’s story. All three games are about 2 hours long and have great presentation (like quality art-style and great in-game music).

4. Asadoke no Majo

Asadoke no Majo starts with our protagonist  Yui arguing with her father and as a result running away from home to …another country, where resides their old family mansion along with dark family secret and a handsome guy managing the estate as a bonus. Game is about 2 hours long and has pretty simple puzzles, minor jumpscares and several chasing scenes (but a final chase is the only frustrating one). Despite being pretty typical rpg-horror Asadoke no Majo leaves very positive impression thanks to bright cast of characters (the Nogi guy here is something else), good story and atmosphere along with well-chosen soundtrack. Currently game is available in japanese and russian.

5. Hero & Daughter

H&D is a dungeon-crawler made by tachi (Headless Prisoner, Moonlight Ghost, Hello?Hell…o?), which mocking famous fantasy cliché “hero defeats a dark lord”.Our hero Ralph get his level reduced to 1 because of his arrogance, and with this permanent level 1 he is tasked to defeat the Demon Lord. Again. That’s where Ralph’s friend of the haremancer class comes to rescue. This guy can summon pretty girls (including heroines from previous tachi’s games like Erina and Akari) to help Ralph in his quest. H&D is fun and entertaining, battles are fast-pacing, dungeons are complex, visuals are nice, also game has enormous level-cap and loads of optional content and many playable characters. Plot may be simple, but H&D has good humor and characters ( even generic Ralph got a nice personality). If you like quality role-playing games I highly recommend to try it out

6. Ai korosu yori, Ai korosaretai

An ordinary (alright, maybe a bit eccentric) family moves into new house. Soon after that their daughter Lucy falls with high fever.When she gets better, she discovers that her parents are gone  and various weird phenomena is occurring in the house. To find the missing parents Lucy will have to search the house and learn about its history full of mysterious disappearances and tragic events. AiAi has very interesting story (good mix of horror and sci-fi) and entertaining gameplay with interesting puzzles and action cut-ins. Also beside proceeding the story you can also do some optional stuff  like gathering collectibles and later saving runaway cows. If you like quality horror-adventures I highly recommend to try this game out. AiAi is currently available in japanese and russian.

7. Escatpade

Here goes another quality game for those who is tired from horror and tragedy and wants something warm and relaxing. Escatpade  is about the girl who falls into the pit and finds herself in the weird place full of adorable talking cats. Game is nice and fun, have a bright, adorable designs and simple yet elegant puzzles. Also some items in the inventory can change appearance of our heroine (like clothes, glasses and stuffed kittycats).

8. Tower of Feles

ToF made by the author of Escatpade and also full of adorable cats. But unlike Escatparade this game is slightly more challenging. ToF is an action-puzzle where your objective is save your little sister from evil witch. In order to do so you have to climb on top of the tower, solving various puzzles and avoiding witch’s servants in the process. Every floor has a time limit, and if either time runs out or your health drops to zero you’ll have to start the floor over. Game is a bit tricky and very fun to play. If you have beaten Escatpade and want more cats and cuteness- Tower of Feles is what you need. 

9. Twilight Epic

Twilight Epic is a sequel to Amayado Bus Stop. This time the main character is Akane’s and Akari’s cousin Akino, who  receives a call from unknown girl, who tells him about certain “promise” and right after that he finds this girl’s dead body (or not quite dead). The boy decides to find out the truth and grown-up Chitose and Akari are helping him out. Game is far more simple than its predecessor-puzzles are mostly gone and chasing scenes are pretty straightforward, but still the game is very enjoyable, since story is good and heartwarming. Also game has quality art-style and skit system similar to one in Tales series. Twilight Epic is currently available in japanese and russian.

10. Peret em Heru: For the Prisoners

Peret em Heru is survival horror with rpg-elements about a group of tourists, lead by an archeologist, professor Tsuchida, exploring  ancient  ruins underneath the Great Pyramid of Giza. Needless to say, that these ruins are filled with deadly traps and Tsuchida’s intentions are far from mere scientific interest.  Gameplay resembles Sweet Home and Corpse Party –Rebuilt-, but more simple and straightforward – you play as one of the tourists,  fight monsters, grind levels,  and save your teammates from booby traps. Overall Peret em Heru is a nice game with stylish old-fashioned visuals and good music, game is about 3 hours long and have one ending, which varies depending on how many of your teammates have survived.

11. The Object

You awake in the dark room in the unknown place and find out that not only your memories are gone, but your head is gone as well. On top of that  you can attach literally anything to an empty place where your head once was. Now your goal is to regain the lost memories along with the head and leave the house. Game consists from exploration and simple yet elegant puzzles, which you solve by swapping  your heads. Game is pretty interesting and  has five endings , to get all of them  you’ll  need about 30 minutes.

12. Colors: Lost Memories

This time you play as a little girl who finds herself in the colorless world inhabited by talking animals. To get back home she must return this world its colors. Colors have stylish visuals highly reminiscent of old GBC games as well as unique puzzles based on using various colors you get during the game at the right places. First you can use only one color (for example red is needed to light or put out fire), later you will be able to activate up to three colors at the same time.Game is cute and fun to play, approximate time of the playthrough is one hour.

13. Nemoral

Nemoral is a short game about two cops who end up in the abandoned mansion while chasing the cult followers, assuming that they have something to do with the recent disappearances of children. And this mansion hides pretty dark secret about a project based on the famous fairy tale. Nemoral is quality action-horror, where both visuals and gameplay is somewhat resemble very first Resident Evil (in the good way of course). The only con of Nemoral is anti-climatic ending (game was made for the contest, and author was short on time). But even in present state the game is still enjoyable.

14. B*x. Colorful.

I’ve decided to unite both games in one mini-review, since they are both made by the same author and both are very short. B*x is about lonely girl in bunny outfit, who lives with her boyfriend, the only person who cares about her. But it seems like he’s hiding something from her. Game is about 30 minutes long and have few easy puzzles. Colorful is only 10 minutes long and have no puzzles at all, and more depressing than B*x. In Colorful you just listen to the story and watch pictures. Both games have very nice art style.

[rpgmgames]

November’s Featured Game: Grimm's Hollow

DEVELOPER(S): ghosthunter ENGINE: RPG Maker 2003 GENRE: Indie RPG, Adventure WARNINGS: Discussions of death, losing a loved one, grief SUMMARY: Grimm’s Hollow is a spooky, freeware RPG where you search the afterlife for your brother. Reap ghosts with your scythe, explore haunted caves, and eat ghostly treats on your journey through death.

Download the game here! Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! *BB: My name's Bruno and I did some of the music along with Nat! I’m super happy to have participated in this game! *NW: I’m Nat Wesley, a.k.a. Natbird! I’m a composer available for hire with a few projects in the works. I’m honored to have had the chance to work on the soundtrack to Grimm’s Hollow! *GH: Hello! I go by ghosthunter online; I started developing RPGs with a friend in school when we found out that we both enjoyed RPG Horror. I enjoy art, webcomics, cartoons and narrative-driven indie games a lot. I bought RM2K3 on sale and started pouring pixel art into it, before learning how to do things like chase scenes, cutscenes, etc. I used to fantasize about making my own game, drawing dungeons and ghosts in the back of my sketchbooks, before I finally started Grimm’s Hollow. Now I’m near the end of high-school, and I’m hoping the best for uni!

What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially? *GH: Grimm’s Hollow, originally, wasn’t as ambitious or personal. It was simply just going to be “my first game”, something that I could finally put my doodles and RM2K3 skills to. I wanted a game that a younger me would have enjoyed, back when I first discovered the classic RPGMaker games and replayed them constantly for those endings. That was my initial inspiration. It eventually evolved into an action turn-based RPG that relies on timing, yet it’s mostly narrative-driven. You traverse death in search of your sibling, and try to make an escape. There are unexpected pieces of me that ended up in this game, some of which I’m still noticing even now.

How long have you been working on your project? *GH: Since the summer of June 2018.

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *GH: Standstill Girl, OFF by Mortis Ghost, Undertale, Over The Garden Wall, and the animation medium in general.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *GH: Many! Making your first game is such a giant learning curve, that the list of challenges goes on. I would say that the most difficult issue I encountered (and that, in some ways, I am still facing after release) is working around the limitations of the game engine I am using. I wanted to see whether creating an engaging but simple 1-party RPG in RM2K3 (without going completely custom) was feasible, and I experimented with quick time events as part of that. I worked around the engine’s built-in formulae so players could see progress when they upgraded their stats - although the game might display as defence as “10”, in reality the game stores it as 40 since the engine splits defence by 4. Since I did not want to create an RPG which was too complex for my first game, I also scrapped traditional staples such as armour or weapons. There were also issues such as having an appropriate “game over” handling event which wouldn’t shoot you back to the title screen after you lost a battle; getting RM2K3 to play a small cutscene where you faint and respawn somewhere else was tricky. I felt that if the player had to reload after a loss, it would disrupt the game flow.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *GH: Like I mentioned before, the game started off impersonal. I just had a soft spot for a spooky cute aesthetic, and I wanted to indulge in that. It was (and in its essence, still is) meant to be a short story, to keep the player invested for the short game length - nothing grandiose. The original draft did not have Baker play a role in the narrative - he was just an ordinary shopkeeper NPC. For a long time during development, Lavender did not even have a name. In the very first draft, she was a silent protagonist the player could name and customize. But she played a very active role in the final outline, so it was hard not to give her own unique voice when one emerged from the narrative naturally. I am glad I did; she grew on me quite quickly! Grimm was virtually unchanged from beginning to end. The only difference was that a close friend suggested that he seemed like he would be into drinking Oolong tea - so that’s what he offers you when you meet him. Timmy also did not go under massive overhauls like Lavender and Baker did, but his relationship with Lavender became much more fleshed out as I wrote the narrative. In other facets of the game’s design, there were not many changes to the original prototype.

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *GH: It was just myself, doing the art, writing, programming, etc. But halfway through creating the second cave, I realised I would need a very specific sound for Grimm’s Hollow. So, I contacted Nat for music, but I also created a post on tumblr calling for a composer since there were many tracks to make. I met Bruno as a result! I am very happy with their work and I am so grateful I’ve got to work with them! (Some players are asking for an OST release, which is in the works).

What is the best part of developing a game? *GH: I really enjoyed the early stages of development: creating new tilesets, sprites and maps and piecing them together in the editor, then taking a small screenshot and sharing it with my friend over summer vacation … It was nice to see the game’s world slowly come together. I think that’s what I enjoyed the most from beginning to end: that sense of world-building, that sense of relaxation from making a small cosy game. The latter started to disappear as work and other responsibilities started to intrude, and pressure began to seep into development time - but I never stopped loving making the world and characters. I also want to say that, by lucky chance, I have met a lot of kind people from making my first game. I’m very grateful for that, so thank you to everyone.

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *GH: All the time! Other RPG Maker 2003 projects are great inspirations for pixel art tilesets, as well as how to code harder features such as custom menus. They’re also just fun to play.

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *GH: Lavender and Timmy are relatable to me in multiple ways. I can’t elaborate on Timmy since that would go into spoiler territory, but I somewhat relate to Lavender’s insistence on managing her life on her own - sometimes to her own detriment. I’d say the most fun character to write for was Grimm. He can be unintentionally silly while speaking in the most formal way, but also very caring too. Everything he does and says was easy to write, whereas I had to think harder for the interactions between everyone else - especially for very crucial scenes regarding their development. That being said, my favourite is still the game’s central two siblings. I can not pick between them for the life of me.

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *GH: I wish I started testing even earlier! Not only does it give you a good sense of what’s missing, but seeing people enjoy what you’ve made yet get hindered by bugs is a very strong incentive to fix your game immediately. When I was lacking motivation or was stuck, I found that good feedback and support made me motivated again. I also wish that I could have pushed the deadline a little further, or perhaps released the game on Early Access since it will take me a while to refine post-release bugs - but as it is, the 31st of October really was the deadline for my game due to external circumstances (no, that deadline wasn’t just because it was Halloween!). Other than that, I wonder if using an updated version of RPG Maker would have produced the same game …? It’s hard to tell, but I hope people enjoy it for what it is - I will be working on that post-release patch soon!

Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *GH: There are no current plans, but I would be happy to have the opportunity to improve and expand on the game. As it is, the game’s released for free and done as a hobby, so I would struggle to do that by myself.

What do you most look forward to now that you have finished the game? *GH: Earlier on, I was really looking forward to players’ reactions. Games are made to be fun, and I would have felt distraught if my game didn’t achieve what it was set out to do. Yet it was not just about the gameplay; it was about the narrative. I hoped that what I found funny, the player would too; what was heartfelt to me, was heartfelt to the player as well. Like sharing a laugh, or just a good experience together. I hoped they would enjoy the feeling that went into it, despite the struggle of making it against circumstance and limitations. Now, I look forward to resting and sleeping once this over. I want to explore my other interests, improve, and explore new media. I want to relax, and refocus again like I was before the heat of development.

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *GH: Bugs! Some are easy to fix, but others are harder due to the limitations of the engine (e.g an error in one ending is caused by an overflow error).

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *GH: Show your game as early as possible, to as many people as possible. As soon as you have something playable, it’s ready for feedback. You’ll see if that game mechanic you spent hours refining works, or if it doesn’t work and why. You’ll understand what players enjoy and what they want more of, but also what they don’t like or don’t enjoy. And you will definitely encounter bugs. You’ll be able to pinpoint and fix minor problems early on that can easily become a larger issue later. You’ll be able to fine-tune your game so its best bits shine, and the difficulty is just right.

Question from last month's featured dev @dead-dreams-dev: Is there anything you’ve added to your game for no other reason than because you’re hoping fans will get a kick out of it? Fanservice, fourth wall breakage, references to other games, jokes, abilities that are just ridiculously overpowered and badass, etc? *GH: It’s hard to say; game design is trying to find the intersection between what’s good for the player, what the developer enjoys, and what’s feasible to implement. Every decision made should be conscious of that … I think a lot of the game’s early light-hearted jokes was not only made because I enjoyed it, but I hoped the player would “get a kick out of it” too. But more so, I think it’s because I would struggle to write a story which is serious and bleak from beginning to end. The game is a little self-indulgent in the narrative that way.

We mods would like to thank ghosthunter & team for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out Grimm's Hollow if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum

[seblaine-rph]

it'd be so easy to do a s1 redo with age appropriate characters. you could have all the fun s1 drama and storylines but with characters that are 21+ and even alternative fcs to give it a twist, it surprises me there aren't any active rps like that around

Despite the one (super problematic) redo rp we can see in the tags, there aren’t any others. You’re right. And they are really easy to open up, run, and figure out plots and stuff for because you already have a full seven seasons worth of script to work with if you ever get lost. There have been rps like that before, which might be why there aren’t any now. Nobody wants to be the person that takes a thousand years to make a whole rpg only to get spammed with anons about how unoriginal and they are as thieves. I don’t think anyone looking to do a redo rp should feel like they might get harassed for theft, but it might happen. I can see gleerp sending out anon hate if another season one glee redo in college were to open up, even if they made their original. But it’s not like there’s anything unique or new that the admins over there created themselves, so there’s nothing for them to claim as intellectual property. If it were a season one redo with a twist, that might be a different story if someone were to snatch the unique twist. But it shouldn’t apply to the basic skeleton of a redo rp because you’re redoing something that someone else made, it’s not your original brain child.

Nobody wants to be the person that takes a thousand years to make a whole rpg only to get no apps either, because the community is pretty much dead and nobody applies to anything that their current friends aren’t already in. I wish it wasn’t like that, but it is. For this second issue, it would be nice if people were more open to joining things that aren’t made by their friends. If we could get that “I’ll join anything that looks interesting based on the plot and nothing else” energy back, we’d have a lot more rps in the tags. Graphics used to be the hot button, where nobody would app if the graphics weren’t stellar, but now it’s about friends. I remember seeing photoshop-less groups popping up a few years back to retaliate against the super pristine, elitist, you have to spend approximately ten lifetimes and sacrifice your first born to make a successful rp mentality, but those aren’t around anymore. I think that in general, the grpc and rp in general has been starting to really die off and wind down because people are no longer comfortable joining anything but their friend’s rps. So new people try to take their hand at admining an rp and in the past, that could have succeeded but in this rp climate.. it just ends up closing. Because people beg and scream for original rps all day and all night, but they won’t join them. The only rps in any of the tags that I’ve been able to find lately ALL have the same plot: open fandom or oc, everyone magically poofed from their hometowns and woke up here for no reason oh well here we are, let’s just write like that’s normal and nobody is going to be upset about being uprooted at all. The only rps I’m seeing in the grpc tag that are really active are just open town, no plot rps. All of the original ideas that I’ve seen started have all died off before they could even begin. Nobody seems to realize that by not applying to rps that are run by other people, they’re refusing to cross pollinate masterlists and create new breeds of friends that can blossom and flourish. If we all joined any rp we wanted to, we’d be making a ton of new friends left and right. Instead, we’re quarantined to our own friends and will only rp with the same people we’ve been rping with for five years. Think about it. If we all made our own rp, but refused to join anyone else’s rp... how are we going to get members in our rp? If nobody is joining anyone else’s rps? It’d just be the one admin per group and nobody else. You have to reach out and cross pollinate to keep the rpc active and fresh. I really do think that this right here is the number one killer of all things roleplay these days. I do still have places to rp but I have heard so many people complain about how hard it is to get their rp masterlist to flourish. 

It really would be easy though, and to be honest it would probably get more people involved in it than the pedophilic alternative. It’s 2021, not 2012 despite what my dyslexia might want to say about it sometimes; most people have learned how to spot and avoid a dumpster fire and with all of the people going to jail for internet activities that involve pedophilia and cp in 2020 and 2021 (I thought we learned the lesson with the former Glee actors much earlier than now, but I guess not), it’s no wonder people are avoiding pedo rps. You really have to want to engage in pedophilic activity to be hard-headed enough to not age the characters up appropriately and cause no actual harm to yourself or anyone else, it’s not like it used to be when people were dim enough to do it without thinking. Like twincest, incest, and other problematic behaviors that used to saturate the community... the silent time where people ignored the nasty and joined anyway while pretending to not see anything they thought might be problematic are over. We’ve all seen prominent figures in the grpc being torn down from their pedestals for engaging in problematic behavior, pedophilia being one of those things that people are getting mass hate for. So it really is a fight to keep writing it. You have to go through being dragged through the mud and hated on in order to cling to these things nowadays. To me, that just makes it even worse. Not only are we all advanced enough now to be beyond the 2012 insanity, it is also costly to a person’s reputation and ability to go through life without being flamed by anon hate to continue to live by offensive behavior in a way that wasn’t “real” back in 2012. Not to mention, we’re all 9 years older than we were back then. So we should have matured 9 years and we should be 9 years further away from being invested in children having sex and writing out the whole “teenage sexual awakening” and “coming of age” stories. Maybe 9 years ago when we were all 18, it might have been closer to relevant and something cathartic, but why on EARTH would someone that is around 30 years old still NEED to write children coming of age if not because they’re pedophiles? That’s the one argument I always see for this. But I want to write a coming of age story, but I want to write about my character maturing as a teenager and finding adulthood. WHY? Why do you want to do that? Why do you want to write that? Why do you want to obsess (because let’s be real, we all obsess over our muses and their relationships and lives) over children having sex? Why? Why can’t you write an appropriate coming of age story for someone in college? Why is it that the characters being 14 is so integral to your smut and your plot and your needs as a writer?

You’re also risking the law, as I’ve stated many times. Feel free to Google what happens when the FBI decides to look at your internet history and finds pedophilic content there. And the FBI will get involved if it’s a bigger case, like a roleplay group that contains a dozen members that are all tied to the pedophilic content. You can even Google “roleplay” with that and you’ll find horror stories of people being sentenced to 10-25+ years in FEDERAL PRISON for roleplaying the 18- having sex. That alone, if your morals are weak, should be enough to keep you away from writing pedophilic content. I just don’t see how anyone could ever say to themselves that they needed to write 14 year olds having sex SO BADLY that it was alright with them if it meant they had to go to prison for it. That’s making these people’s need to write child porn sound like an addiction. Nasty.

I honestly, truly, definitely, genuinely do not understand. You have to be a SERIOUS, GENUINE, SERIOUS PEDOPHILE with a SERIOUS PROBLEM to be willing to write in a group like gleerp that has minors having sex in it. Look at the risk. I do not ever want to be able to understand how the “reward” of being able to write 14 year olds having sex with each other is going to outweigh the negative risk. Even just your run-of-the-mill, every day pedo is going to be too scared to do something like that, because the risk outweighs the reward. So.... I just don’t understand how 30 year old adults are so invested in these characters NEEDING TO BE children in order for them to want to write them. Like... Age them up to an appropriate age and make it a college rp and have exactly the same plots and exactly the same things and exactly the same everything except suddenly it’s appropriate and not pedophilia or... keep them kids and get hated on daily and risk getting yourself and everyone else in your group locked up? 

I think the choice is clear to any sane individual. 

[hermitcraftheadcanons]

To Do List:

What's up, my Herd of Nerds?

Anyway, as you can tell, tomorrow is AU Sunday. But, because it's one after a 'my input' one, it's a follower input AU day! Yay!

So, send me your AUs and I'll put all of em in a hat to pick one randomly. The winner is picked and posted and we'll all try and make headcanons about your AU.

Done:

Zombie Apocalypse AU :: (https://hermitcraftheadcanons.tumblr.com/post/618314308275863552/zombie-apocalypse-au-masterpost)

Pirate AU ::

Currently In The Raffle:

-Toy Story AU.

-Ever After High/Descendants/Vaguely 'nex gen priness' AU.

-Eldritch Horror AU :: Or if that's a bit too out there, a more normal Monster AU. I don't care, but in my heart, I know Cleo is some kind of eldritch horror. Zombie is far too easy.

-Eldritch Monster AU! Hermits are all Lovecraftian horrors who all individually decided that they wanted to pretend to be normal and are all trying to hide their otherworldliness. I also feel like Mumbo or X or someone as the one actually "normal" player on the server would work well. Most hermits don't know that everyone else isn't normal either, but some find out about friends maybe.

-Rabid Debate Club AU :: Random weird au idea where it's basic hs/uni au but like two of them try to start a debate club, then invite some friends just so there's enough people; cut to like two months later, it's all the hermits just fighting over whether or not pineapple should go on pizza or not lol it isn't very good i'm sorry but ya know rabid debate club AU.

-Animal/shapeshifting AU :: (Suggested Twice.) Every hermit can shapeshift into one token animal. (If it's something like "dog," they can only turn into one breed and color of dog, EXAMPLE: doc can shift into a black sable belgian malinois, but not anything else.)

-Wedding Planners AU :: Hermits work in various unrelated businesses such as a bakery, flower shop, etc., but see each other semi-often bc they're semi-often called upon to work together by another hermit's wedding planning business (obvs if you couldn't tell i know absolutely nothing abt wedding planning & businesses n shit lol but it's the /concept/ of it yannknow)

-Avatar: The Last Air Bender AU. (Suggested Thrice.)

-Fusion AU :: (Also suggested by Anon.) (Suggested Twice.) What if Hermits could fuse with each other? (Viva and Jumbo fused into MumboJumbo.)

-SCP AU :: The hermits have spooky powers and are kept locked up bc of it (or they have to keep the world safe from monsters and cursed objects!)

-RPG AU :: I feel like someone already thought of that but I am just wondering about it lately :p -🍋

-Adventure Time AU :: The hermits live in a post-apocalyptic world and the Lich (bad guy) is making everything decay. They need to gather all the gems (belt colours) to unlock the Enchiridion (a book) and have one wish each granted from Prismo (multiverse wish granting dude) before the Lich does. Only 4 elements can enter the multiverse: Slime (The Lich & Jevin), Redstone (Tango or Mumbo?), Ice (Stress), and Dirt (Grian, much to his dismay). Only the elementals can see the book. Grian's the protagonist with his sidekick Scar. He originally started collecting the belts because they were shiny but eventually decided to read the book and find out what they were for when Scar said he didn't see it. Doc, False, and Iskall are major obstacles because they don't believe the book exists.</p>

-Total Drama Island AU.

-Magical Girl AU :: Zedaph's the lead magical girl and rounds up a bunch of other magical girl hermits.

-Pokeman AU :: What are the Hermit's roles in this world? Who's the Champion, Elite Four. Are they scientists? Trainers? Do they compete in competitions, do they specialize in types? Who's everyone's starter? Has anyone encountered any legendaries?

-College AU

-High School AU

-Wizard101 AU :: I (🦊) recently got this AU idea and recently started going off somewhere with it in terms of writing, but, like, Hermitcraft meets Wizard101. Tons and tons of magical shenanigans, monster hunting, and idk what else.

-Magic AU

-My Hero Academia AU :: Headcanons can be about which hermits would have what quirks and occupations based on them.

-So I'm writing an AU where there's a second game of Demise but 5 years later. So far the first 2 hermits (Joe and Xisuma) have died, and their dead forms are cracked with an arrow in his chest (Xisuma) and cyborg (Joe). So since it's Saturday, I'm looking for what some skins would look for.

-City AU :: I mean this is really just a normal everyday AU.

-School AU.

-Terraria-Minecraft Fusion AU :: Who chooses what class? what events do each hermit prefer? how to they deal with the world infections? preferred biomes? Favourite NPCS? It has potentiallllll.

-70s/80s Teen Horror AU :: (like Stranger Things, Carreie, The Lost Boys, Halloween, etc.) -🦇

-Demi-God AU :: Sort of like percy jackson (everyone being the children of different gods from all different cultures.)

-Supernatural AU

-Marching Band AU :: Xisuma is the band major and all the show music is the remixes. I need to come up with some ideas for uniforms. Outfits and flags for the colorguard too.

-Different Eras AU :: (Suggested Twice.) All the hermits are from different time periods or eras. Like Wels is from the mediveal/dark era, Mumbo is from 1890-1920's, Iskall is from 2030, TFC is from 2020(?), Cleo is from 2130, etc!!! Like the mobs/animals became feused with humans, is when the mob players came from.

-Star Trek AU :: Like maybe they could be on one ship and each have different roles like engineers or doctors? I don’t know if this has been suggested but hope you enjoy! - 🐦

-House Mates AU :: ApartmentAU but scaled down?

-Atlantis AU :: (Could be merged with Mermaid AU???)

-Fighting Game AU :: Some influences would be Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Ultra Instinct, that kind of stuff.

-Time loop AU :: The hermits each have to deal with their own time loop.

(All those above in red are from our community's lovely Anons!)

-Superhero/superpower AU :: They each have a unique power/powerset that is in some way connected to their personality. (ie Mumbo *could* control electricity because of his love of redstone) Some Hermits may even choose to be "villains" and prank their other servermates. If you need power ideas, I've got a couple. (12u3ie)

-Daycare AU :: The recap peeps are the caretakers :P (-@tikauniverse.)

-Incredibly Long Cross Country Train Ride AU :: they all are in the same train car, telling stories of where they’re going, backstories.)

-Stuck In An Airport AU :: pretty similar to train au but they can be going diff places.

-Doctors AU :: they’re all doctors working at the same hospital.)

-Circus AU (Also suggested by an Anon.) (Suggested Twice.)

-Spy AU (Also suggested by @shadeswiftdraws.) (Suggested Twice.)

-Runaways AU :: The hermits are all teenagers who have run away from home, they all live on the streets until TFC takes them in. Head canons can be about backstories, living on the streets, or when they’re with TFC.

-Criminals and Police Officers AU

(-@lookitsspacekween)

-Dancer AU :: I mean, I already got a list kind of planned out, but headcanons for why specific styles are chosen would be appreciated! :) (usedtobelucythefallenangel)

-Broadway/Musicals Hermits AU :: The hermits are all casts of various musicals and when this newly-built theater opens up they all fight for which musical gets to play in it first (they have a riff-off maybe?) musicals mainly included are Hamilton, BMC, DEH, SiX, Beetlejuice, etc (feel free to add more!) (-@heyitsroby.)

-DnD AU (Also suggested by Anon.) (Suggested twice.)

-Mermaid AU :: In honor of the end of Mermay

-Space exploration AU :: There could be different ships, command centers, aliens.... Maybe someone could even get stranded/crash on a new planet? Who knows, could be fun.

-Paranormal/ghost hunter AU :: A couple Hermits could be the ghost hunters going to haunted locations to prove/disprove their hauntedness, others could be camera crew, owners of haunted buildings, or even the ghosts themselves.

-Camping/Vacation AU.

-Summer Cottage AU :: They all spend summers/weekends along the same shoreline and do different summer activities together. Outdoor fun and shenanigans!

-Space AU :: like star trek or similar.

-I would say evil clone au but I think that's pretty much the entire Hermitcraft tumblr right now lol. (Suggested twice.)

(-@shadeswiftdraws.)

-Magic AU :: Magic exists and all the hermits have powers. They can also summon a weapon but what that weapon is depends on the hermit. I'm thinking it'll take place in a sort-of Demise 2 in S7 with a big war. So far I've got: Grian - Cloning himself to his different personas (each has a different power). Xisuma - Making barriers, teleporting, and transforming into different mobs. Scar - Making mutant plants & boosting other hermits' attack & health. (-@datsaltyperson.)

-Demon AU :: Something enters the overworld and turns into a supernatural style-demon through Dimentional Distortion. Who gets posessed first, who goes crazy, and who actually kills it? Honestly I think that, if anything, Tango would know how to gank it, for obvious reasons. (-@fireflower-dusk.)

-High Street AU :: Everyone owns a different shop on the same street or some run a shop together (-@violets-arepurple.)

-Cat AU :: Either they're were always cats, or Hels turned everyone, including himself, into a cat, and they have to survive and overcome challenges in the Season 7 world. An example of a challenge would be Cub's a Sand Cat(the cats that always look like kittens no matter how old they are and live in deserts), and everyone's not sure if he can actually swim, so they have to find a way for him to get around without involving water. (-@scp10000.)

-How about a secret AU.. Every hermit has their big secrets and when Grian joined. He doesn't really know anything about those secrets even till season 7. Not many hermits talked to him in S6 anyway.. Mumbo was the closest to him so they would have regular chats For Iskall is mostly business related things Grian wants to know why so he set out on a quest to force the others to at least talk to him so he wouldn't be lonely. (-@babylightstudentbiscuit.)

-Hermit Family AU :: Xisuma is very busy dad but when he isnt busy the kids and younger hermits annoying the hell out of him. Grian once asked to use Xisuma's computer and crashed the whole thing trying to download illegal gamesites and get money off the internet. Mumbo and his trains run through the entire house and Xisuma trips on them daily. (-@gamerutx.)

-College AU!! But they are not students. THEY ARE THE TEACHERS (-@ivi-prism.)

Ones I planned to do anyway but Hermitblr Hivemind and all that:

Battle of The Bands AU: i believe u once mentioned a bands/ battle of the bands au... thats my jam... (Anon.)

[thesteadydietofeverything]

Top 10 Games of 2019

This was an extremely good year for games. I don’t know if I played as many that will stick with me as I did last year, but the ones on the bottom half of this list in particular constitute some of my favorite games of the decade, and probably all-time. If I’ve got a gaming-related resolution for next year, it’s to put my playtime into supporting even smaller indie devs. My absolute favorite experiences in games this year came from seemingly out of nowhere games from teams I’ve previously never heard of before. That said, there are some big games coming up in spring I doubt I’ll be able to keep myself away from. Some quick notes/shoutouts before I get started:

-The game I put maybe the most time into this year was Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. I finally made the plunge into neverending FF MMO content, and I’m as happy as I am overwhelmed. This was a big year for the game, between the release of the Shadowbringers expansion and the Nier: Automata raid, and it very well may have made it onto my list if I had managed to actually get to any of it. At the time of this writing, though, I’ve only just finished 2015’s Heavensward, so I’ve got...a long way to go. 

-One quick shoutout to the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy that came out on Switch this year, a remaster of some DS classics I never played. An absolutely delightful visual novel series that I fell in love with throughout this year.

-I originally included a couple games currently in early access that I’ve enjoyed immensely. I removed them not because of arbitrary rules about what technically “came out” this year, but just to make room for some other games I liked, out of the assumption that I’ll still love these games in their 1.0 formats when they’re released next year to include them on my 2020 list. So shoutout to Hades, probably the best rogue-like/lite/whatever I’ve ever played, and Spin Rhythm XD, which reignited my love for rhythm games.

-Disco Elysium isn’t on this list, because I’ve played about an hour of it and haven’t yet been hooked by it. But I’ve heard enough about it to be convinced that it is 1000% a game for me and something I need to get to immediately. They shouted out Marx and Engels at the Game Awards! They look so cool! I want to be their friend! And hopefully, a few weeks from now, I’ll desperately want to redact this list to squeeze this game somewhere in here.

Alright, he’s the actual list:

10. Amid Evil

The 90’s FPS renaissance continues! As opposed to last year’s Dusk, a game I adored, this one takes its cues less from Quake and more from Heretic/Hexen, placing a greater emphasis on melee combat and magic-fuelled projectiles than more traditional weapons. Also, rather than that game’s intentionally ugly aesthetic, this one opts for graphics that at times feel lush, detailed, and pretty, while still probably mostly fitting the description of lo-fi. In fact, they just added RTX to the game, something I’m extremely curious to check out. This game continued to fuel my excitement about the possibilities of embracing out-of-style gameplay mechanics to discover new and fresh possibilities from a genre I’ve never been able to stop yearning for more of.

9. Ape Out

If this were a “coolest games” list, Ape Out would win it, easily. It’s a simple game whose mechanics don’t particularly evolve throughout the course of its handful of hours, but it leaves a hell of an impression with its minimalist cut-out graphics, stylish title cards, and percussive soundtrack. Smashing guards into each other and walls and causing them to shoot each other in a mad-dash for the exit is a fun as hell take on Hotline Miami-esque top down hyper violence, even if it’s a thin enough concept that it starts to feel a bit old before the end of the game.

8. Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I had a lot of problems with this game, probably most stemming from just how damn long it is - I still haven’t finished my first, and likely only, playthrough. This length seems to have motivated the developers to make battles more simple and easy, and to be fair, I would get frustrated if I were getting stuck on individual battles if I couldn’t stop thinking about how much longer I have to go, but as it is, I’ve just found them to be mostly boring. This is particularly problematic for a game that seems to require you to play through it at least...three times to really get the full picture? I couldn’t help but admire everything this game got right, though, and that mostly comes down to building a massive cast of extremely well realized and likable characters whose complex relationships with each other and with the structures they pledge loyalty to fuels harrowing drama once the plot really sets into motion. There’s a reason no other game inspired such a deluge of memes and fan fiction and art into my Twitter feed this year. It’s an impressive feat to convince every player they’ve unquestionably picked the right house and defend their problem children till the bitter end. After the success of this game, I’d love to see what this team can do next with a narrower focus and a bigger budget.

7. Resident Evil 2

It’s been a long time since I played the original Resident Evil 2, but I still consider it to be one of my favorite games of all time. I was highly skeptical of this remake at first, holding my stubborn ground that changing the fixed camera to a RE4-style behind the back perspective would turn this game more into an action game and less of a survival horror game where feeling a lack of control is part of the experience. I was pleasantly surprised to find how much they were able to modernize this game while maintaining its original feel and atmosphere. The fumbly, drifting aim-down sights effectively sell the feeling of being a rookie scared out of your wits. Being chased by Mr. X is wildly anxiety-inducing. But even more surprisingly, perhaps the greatest upgrade this game received was its map, which does you the generous service of actually marking down automatically where puzzles and items are, which rooms you’ve yet to enter, which ones you’ve searched entirely, and which ones still have more to discover. Arguably, this disrupts the feeling of being lost in a labyrinthine space that the original inspired, but in practice, it’s a remarkably satisfying and addicting video game system to engage with.

6. Judgment

No big surprise here - Ryu ga Gotoku put out another Yakuza-style game set in Kamurocho, and once again, it’s sitting somewhere on my top 10. This time, they finally put Kazuma Kiryu’s story to bed and focused on a new protagonist, down on his luck lawyer-turned-detective Takayuki Yagami. The new direction doesn’t always pay off - the added mechanics of following and chasing suspects gets a bit tedious. The game makes up for it, though, by absolutely nailing a fun, engrossing J-Drama of a plot entirely divorced from the Yakuza lore. The narrative takes several head-spinning turns through its several dozen hours, and they all feel earned, with a fresh sense of focus. The side stories in this one do even more to make you feel connected to the community of Kamurocho by befriending people from across the neighborhood. I’d love to see this team take even bigger swings in the future - and from what I’ve seen from Yakuza 7, that seems exactly like what they’re doing - but even if this game shares maybe a bit too much DNA with its predecessors, it’s hard to complain when the writing and acting are this enjoyable.

5. Control

Control feels like the kind of game that almost never gets made anymore. It’s a AAA game that isn’t connected to any larger franchises and doesn’t demand your attention for longer than a dozen hours. It doesn’t shoehorn needless RPG or MMO mechanics into its third-person action game formula to hold your attention. It introduces a wildly clever idea, tells a concise story with it, and then its over. And there’s something so refreshing about all of that. The setting of The Oldest House has a lot to do with it. I think it stands toe-to-toe with Rapture or Black Mesa as an instantly iconic game world. Its aesthetic blend of paranormal horror and banal government bureaucracy gripped my inner X-Files fan instantly, and kept him satisfied not only with its central characters and mystery but with a generous bounty of redacted documents full of worldbuilding both spine-tingling and hilarious. More will undoubtedly come from this game, in the form of DLC and possibly even more, with the way it ties itself into other Remedy universes, and as much as I expect I will love it, the refreshing experience this base game offered me likely can’t be beat.

4. Anodyne 2

I awaited Sean Han Tani and Marina Kittaka’s new game more anxiously than almost any game that came out this year, despite never having played the first one, exclusively on my love for last year’s singular All Our Asias and the promise that this game would greatly expand on that one’s Saturn/PS1-esque early 3D graphics and personal, heartfelt storytelling. Not only was I not disappointed, I was regularly pleasantly surprised by the depth of narrative and themes the game navigates. This game takes the ‘legendary hero’ tropes of a Zelda game and flips them to tell a story about the importance of community and taking care of loved ones over duty to governments or organizations. The dungeons that similarly reflect a Link to the Past-era Zelda game reduce the maps to bite-sized, funny, clever designs that ask you to internalize unique mechanics that result in affecting conclusions. Plus, it’s gorgeously idiosyncratic in its blend of 3D and 2D environments and its pretty but off-kilter score. It’s hard to believe something this full and well realized came from two people. 

3. Eliza

Eliza is a work of dystopian fiction so closely resembling the state of the world in 2019 it’s hard to even want to call it sci-fi. As a proxy for the Eliza app, you speak the words of an AI therapist that offers meager, generic suggestions as a catch-all for desperate people facing any number of the nightmares of our time. The first session you get is a man reckoning with the state the world is in - we’ve only got a few more years left to save ourselves from impending climate crisis, destructive development is rendering cities unlivable for anyone but the super-rich, and the people who hold all the power are just making it all worse. The only thing you offer to him is to use a meditation app and take some medication. It doesn’t take long for you to realize that this whole structure is much less about helping struggling people and more about mining personal data.

There’s much more to this story than the grim state of mental health under late capitalism, though. It’s revealed that Evelyn, the character you play as, has a much closer history with Eliza than initially evident. Throughout the game, she’ll reacquaint herself with old coworkers, including her two former bosses who have recently split and run different companies over their differing frightening visions for the future. The game offers a biting critique of the kind of tech company optimism that brings rich, eccentric men to believe they can solve the world’s problems within the hyper-capitalist structure they’ve thrived under, and how quickly this mindset gives way to techno-fascism. There’s also Evelyn’s former team member, Nora, who has quit the tech world in favor of being a DJ “activist,” and her current lead Rae, a compassionate person who genuinely believes in the power of Eliza to better people’s lives. The writing does an excellent job of justifying everyone’s points of view and highlighting the limits of their ideology without simplifying their sense of morality.

Why this game works so well isn’t just its willingness to stare in the face of uncomfortably relevant subject matter, but its ultimately empathetic message. It offers no simple solutions to the world’s problems, but also avoids falling into utter despair. Instead, it places measured but inspiring faith in the power of making small, meaningful impacts on the people around you, and simply trying to put some good into your world. It’s a game both terrifying and comforting in its frank conclusions.

2. Death Stranding

For a game as willfully dumb as this one often is - that, for example, insists on giving all of its characters with self-explanatory names long monologues about how they got that name - Death Stranding was one of the most thought provoking games I’ve played in a while. Outside of its indulgent, awkwardly paced narrative, the game offers plenty of reflection on the impact the internet has had on our lives. As Sam Porter Bridges, you’re hiking across a post-apocalyptic America, reconnecting isolated cities by delivering supplies, building infrastructure, and, probably most importantly, connecting them to the Chiral Network, an internet of sorts constructed of supernatural material of nebulous origin. Through this structure, the game offers surprisingly insightful commentary about the necessity for communication, cooperation, and genuine love and care within a community.

The lonely world you’re tasked to explore, and the way you’re given blips of encouragement within the solitude through the structures and “likes” you give and receive through the game’s asynchronous multiplayer system, offers some striking parallels for those of us particularly “online” people who feel simultaneous desperation for human contact and aversion to social pressures. I’ve heard the themes of this game described as “incoherent” due to the way it seems to view the internet both as a powerful tool to connect people and a means by which people become isolated and alienated, but are both of these statements not completely true to reality? The game simplifies some of its conclusions - Kojima seems particularly ignorant of America’s deep structural inequities and abuses that lead to a culture of isolation and alienation. And yet, the questions it asks are provocative enough that they compelled me to keep thinking about them far longer than the answers it offers.

Beyond the surprisingly rich thematic content, this game is mostly just a joy to play. Death Stranding builds kinetic drama out of the typically rote parts of games. Moving from point A to point B has become an increasingly tedious chore in the majority of AAA open world games, but this is a game built almost entirely out of moving from point A to point B, and it makes it thrilling. The simple act of walking down a hill while trying to balance a heavy load on your back and avoiding rocks and other obstacles fulfills the promise of the term ‘walking simulator’ in a far more interesting way than most games given that descriptor. The game consistently doles out new ways to navigate terrain, which peaked for me about two thirds of the way through the game when, after spending hours setting up a network of zip lines, a delivery offered me the opportunity to utilize the entire thing in a wildly satisfying journey from one end of the map to another. It was the gaming moment of the year.

1. Outer Wilds

The first time the sun exploded in my Outer Wilds playthrough, I was probably about to die anyway. I had fallen through a black hole, and had yet to figure out how to recover from that, so I was drifting listlessly through space with diminishing oxygen as the synths started to pick up and I watched the sun fall in on itself and then expand throughout the solar system as my vision went went. The moment gave me chills, not because I wasn’t already doomed anyway, but because I couldn’t help but think about my neighbors that I had left behind to explore space. I hadn’t known that mere minutes after I left the atmosphere the solar system would be obliterated, but I was at least able to watch as it happened. They probably had no idea what happened. Suddenly their lives and their planet and everything they had known were just...gone. And then I woke up, with the campfire burning in front of me, and everyone looking just as I had left it. And I became obsessed with figuring out how to stop that from happening again. 

What surprised me is that every time the sun exploded, it never failed to produce those chills I felt the first time. This game is masterful in its art, sound, and music design that manages to produce feelings so intense from an aesthetic so quaint. Tracking down fellow explorers by following the sound of their harmonica or acoustic guitar. Exploring space in a rickety vessel held together by wood and tape. Translating logs of conversations of an ancient alien race and finding the subject matter of discussion to be about small interpersonal drama as often as it is revelatory secrets of the universe. All of the potentially twee aspects of the game are balanced out by an innate sense of danger and terror that comes from exploring space and strange worlds alone. At times, the game dips into pure horror, making other aspects of the presentation all the more charming by comparison. And then there’s the clockwork machinations of the 22-minute loop you explore within, rewarding exploration and experimentation with reveals that make you feel like a genius for figuring out the puzzle at the same time that you’re stunned by the divulgence of a new piece of information.

The last few hours of the game contained a couple puzzles so obfuscated that I had to consult a guide, which admittedly lessened the impact of those reveals, but it all led to one of the most equally devastating and satisfying endings I’ve experienced in a video game recently. I really can’t say enough good things about this game. It’s not only my favorite game this year, but easily one of my favorite games of the decade, and really, of all-time, when it comes down to it.

[aprilrph]

hello friends !! i recently got a dm asking for some advice in regards to running a successful group rp. one quesiton is specific for multifandoms, but the rest is general advice that should apply to pretty much any group you’re in.

anything you think would be helpful for someone who’s never created/modded an rp before would be very much appreciated!!

the first and most important thing that i can say is: be the kind of member you want your members to be.

do you want to have a diverse group? then you need to be playing muses of color, trans/enby muses, etc. no excuse.

do you want to have an inclusive group? be the first to include everyone. react equally to starter calls, plotting calls. reply to every open starter. every. single. one. don’t wait a week and a half to do it, either – you need to be proactive and set the example for the group. also, don’t ignore people replying to your opens.

do you want to have an active group? be active, for fuck’s sake. if you’re not writing on the dash, people notice. if you take two months to reply to threads, people lose interest. activity falls apart if the admins don’t pull their weight.

beyond that: have an admin team that you trust and are good with communication. how many you need depends on the size of a group, but any more than 4 is... well, excessive. hold each other responsible for being good members on top of being admins. maturity is really important to make sure that things don’t become full of pettiness.

how do you plot events/tasks between mods? how often do you do them?

i’m going to separate events and tasks.

events: having some kind of chat to bounce ideas off of each other is essential. discord is ideal because you sort into different channels for different ideas, have a channel for a specific event, etc. – this keeps it from getting lost.

as far as plotting the actual event, most of the time, it’s either a) something typical for rps, like a carnival, ball, party, etc. b) something that effects every character in the rpg, like the setting changes, some kind of new species is introduced, etc. or c) something inspired by the members/muses of the group. 

a) is pretty easy. this is good for kicking off groups, keeping the group active, without having to put too much work into it.  i actually have an old masterlist of event ideas that you can find and reference right here for some inspiration, and there are others out there. be mindful, especially around holidays, to be inclusive. don’t just do a christmas thing, do something secular or something for everyone. thanksgiving? mmm, not a great idea.

b) so this varies a lot depending on what the group is. for a supernatural rp, maybe a new species is introduced. for a horror rp, someone could be murdered. for a celeb/band/etc rp, a new gossip blog spills something huge. for a town rp, there could be a new law, maybe new locations, curfew after something bad, power outage, etc. for a scifi rp, maybe aliens. you can really play with this depending on the vibe of your group and where you want to go with it. 

c) this, by far, is my favorite thing to do, but also the most challenging, because if people ghost then it can all fall apart. but at the same time, you don’t want it to be centered on the admins, because then it’s not inclusive of members. again, it varies a lot per group, but get your member’s input !! see if they have a muse who could cause some kind of massive thing, whether it’s a witch ruining a town, a journalist unveiling a big secret, etc.

tasks: this section is much shorter i promise lmao. i would not do them more often than every other week. don’t make them too complicated, don’t make photoshop necessary. make them optional, but see if you can find some kind of reward to incentivize members to do them. do them yourself, to set the example. character development tasks are great, but the longer and more developed they are, the less people that will participate in them. again, i have an old masterlist here that you can look through for inspiration.

what’s advertising like? how often do you do promos? 

picloadr is your friend. learn it, use it, save yourself the headache. picloadr combined with xkit’s tag bundling extension can save you a lot of time. have a sideblog to promo on.

hit tags like “appless rp” “town rp” “oc rp” “multifandom rp” etc. often, because they move faster. personally, i wouldn’t want to be in the tag more than once an hour. if you’re going for something more specific, like a fandom tag, be very cautious about spamming those as you will get indie rpers sending you anons about flooding the tag.

in addition, i think it’s cute and more effective to make posts from the main in the tags, letting people know you’re online, maybe plugging what’s going on in the group, and definitely plugging most wanted characters or wanted connections. with this, though, be courteous not to spam your members who just want to rp on the dash, not see th emain flooding it.

is there a lot of drama to handle?

yes, and no.

drama in a group can be really hit or mess, so it is just luck of the draw most of the time. the best way to prevent drama in your group is to a) not start any yourself and b) be able to nip it in the bud without hurting your member’s.

please take a moment to note things like racism, transphobia, misgendering (this is usually frequent and excused), homophobia, anti-semitism, etc. are not drama. these are serious issues that should be addressed immediately. 

some drama that i have seen in my day has ultimately come from differing opinions on fandom related matters, and people not being able to accept that other’s just have different opinions, interpretations, etc. people get petty, passive aggressive, and that’s the kind of thing that you have to nip in the bud before it can turn into something bigger. be firm, and kind. you don’t want a thing between two members to disintegrate the whole group. genuinely hear people out before you make a decision / take any kind of action.

other drama usually comes from a clash of personalities. some people are pushy, some people are anxious. one can come out as forceful, another comes out as not being inclusive. you have to set up your members in a way that makes it easy for both sides to get along. equally elevate things like open starters. push inclusivity – make a thread roulette, randomly pair up people for threads that don’t usually interact with each other. 

the most important thing is to make yourself available so that members feel comfortable coming to you when they’re having issues. being comfortable to talk to admins can fix a lot of things, and people just don’t get that these days. make sure that people know they can beyond just saying they can. show it, act like it.

(multifandom specific) how do you look at apps/characters for fandoms you aren’t at all familiar with? 

fandom wikias are your friend.

i’ll usually check that + previous casting to make sure that a fc is casted appropriately. some fandoms are tricky, like atla, but most are pretty easy to navigate even if you’re unfamiliar. also, if the first glance at a character tells me that they’re a villain type, then i’ll usually dive a little deeper to make sure that they’re not explicitly problematic.

most multifandoms have copied the same banned list from older groups. honestly? pretty good thing. usually it consistents of media like you, handmaid’s tale, 13 reasons why, as well as various other historically-based items. banning nazi/nazi-affiliated characters, rapists, etc. is pretty necessary. you don’t have to ban all villains, but not all villains are equitable.

another note on multifandoms:

be creative, please, with your plots. 

hint: if the plot is “all muses are in cutesy little town with memories of a fake life”, then the plot isn’t original. it’s been done so, so many times. not even just by groups that have since died but in multiple currently active groups (and in many deceased groups).

do something new !! make it themed !! hell, do it based on that one weird episode of supernatural where they got thrust into the ‘real world’. literally, just be creative !!

[phantoms-lair]

This is completely random, but I’v been thinking about this for a while. 

When the Pathfinder Adventure Path Strange Aeons came out, I was excited. How could I not be? Fantasy RPG and mythos style horror, yes please.

I’ve since become very disillusioned with it, and I’ve been trying to put my finger on why. In the end, it comes to a balance of motivation, effort, and reward, which I don’t think the module achieves.

SPOILERS FOR STRANGE AEONS

The first two parts (In Search of Sanity and The Thrushmoor Terror), I enjoy greatly and highly recommend them. You start in an asylum that all hell has broken loose in. Cannibalistic undead are abound and Dopplegangers replacing people, so you don’t know if someone’s real, and other survivors doubt you are.  To make matters worse you have no memories of who you are and how you got there. Solving your personal mysteries, figuring out what’s going on, surviving and helping other people survive. These are strong motivations, it’s challenging, but the puzzles and haunts are interesting and you feel a real sense of victory when you overcome it.

The next part has you in town, learning who you were and how you got there, as well as uncovering strange occult happenings and piecing everything together. Again the fights are challenging, but finding the truth feel rewarding. It ends with you leaving town in pursuit of the Nobleman who hired then betrayed and tried to use you as a sacrifice.

Unfortunately, after that it quickly looses me. It doesn’t help that pretty early in the third part of the module it commits what I consider a sin of adventure writing - the unbeatable enemy.

The Formless Spawn was a horrific first enemy to run into in the dream world. As a small cavalier I literally could not damage it. After taking horrible hits we retreated and did other things while trying to come up with a way to deal with it. And I mean we spent real life months  trying to figure it out. Turns out, we were never supposed to fight it, we were supposed to run away (GM finally told us when we went back with the intention to sneak past and it was gone). If you present something as an enemy and have it attack, the players aren’t going to intuit that it’s unbeatable, just that they’re not doing something right. Especially in a game that has really challenging encounters as a matter of course.

But we progress, and do a large number of fetch and subquests to get to the location Count Lowls is at - only he’s not there anymore.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, became the recurring theme of Strange Aeons. An adventure doing a number of sub quests for characters we don’t care about in exchange for Lowls location, only to have just missed him and having to start the whole process over again. And to be frank, I have stopped caring. It just gets to the point where you shrug and want to go the way of ‘the best revenge is living well’. What began as a very personal mission has lost all spark. What’s the point of tracking him down when we know he won’t be there anymore? We get loot, sure, but never the goal we seek

I know the game tries to counter this with ‘Lowls is going to destroy the world and we have stop him’ but...we don’t? Like this is the world with the Pathfinder Society, Medevian Crusaders, heck even the Hellknights wouldn’t be down for the end of the world. There are absolutely more qualified people we could turn this over to.

And like I said this module is hard. Like Byahkee (intended for level 4) and Dopplegangers (for level 3) at level ONE hard. It’s a lot of work and constantly being denied the promised reward is draining. I have heard my fellow players say ‘Why are we doing this again?’, never something a good module should make you feel.

If I had to change something to make it better, I would have had the party catch Lowls at the end of the third part, only to find out he was either the pawn of another, or had set things in motion that only we could stop due to our status as failed sacrifices. The story continues on, but we reached our goal and felt good about. Just look at Carrion Crown, you complete your initial goal, collecting your inheritance, very early on, but it doesn’t make you want to stop exploring and see things through to the end. It never gets old.

Strange Aeons tried to go for style, but completely lost the substance early on and never really got it back.

[ghostflowerdreams]

List of Free Horror Games (2019)

This is an updated list of free horror games. The other list is old because some of the links on it are broken or the games are no longer free. This time I’ve included a description with each one. Some of these games you can even play right in your browsers (just make sure you’ve updated your Abode Flash). 

1916 - Der Unbekannte Krieg

Nestled deep inside the deluged trenches of the German frontline, you play as a soldier desperately looking for a way out. Hidden somewhere in the sunken maze of passageways is a ladder, and finding it almost certainly spells freedom. The only thing that stands between you and safety is a pack of dinosaurs.

3 AM

The city has been evacuated, something sinister haunts it at night, only a single path is safe, but to find it you have to lose your soul. A game inspired by H.P. Lovecraft. Specifically the dogs of Tindalos.

5 Days A Stranger

Trilby, a cat burglar, breaks into an supposedly vacated manor of the aristocratic DeFoe family. He quickly finds that things are not that simple. Together with a group of strangers, he finds himself imprisoned by some invisible intelligence. A force prepared to do anything to keep them all there forever.

7Days

It's a psychological horror game done in first person perspective. The game has very little plot or background. All you know is that you are a person who wakes up in a bed in a house. Your goal is to to get out of the house, but of course things aren't that simple.

Alice Mare

The game follows an amnesiac young boy named Allen who was placed under the care of a man called Teacher who looks after four other children. One night, Allen investigates the rumor of a mysterious voice on the second floor and when he returns to his room, he finds a strange black cat who leads him into his closet.

Animal Village

It’s a short survival horror game with light dating sim elements made for the Pixel Horror Jam 2016. The game is about exploring the pit in the middle of Animal Village, a quaint little settlement inhabited by talking animals. Don't talk to the bird-headed man, don't acknowledge him and don't trust him.

Ao Oni (青鬼, lit. 'Blue Demon')

The player assumes the role of Hiroshi, a young teenager who enters a haunted mansion with his friends, Takuro, Takeshi, and Mika (Along with Kazuya and Ryota in the original). Shortly after entering the mansion, the doors lock behind them. Hiroshi doubts that the mansion is haunted, but soon finds himself being pursued by an enigmatic blue Oni. Hiroshi must now find a way to save as many of his friends as possible and escape the mansion alive.

Ascension

It’s a psychological horror game in which you play as Atticus, a groundskeeper who has brought his sick daughter to work on the day of a horrible accident in his building. Separated from his daughter, Atty must survive the hordes of monsters stalking him and make it back to her before something else reaches her first.

Baby Blues

You play as Tommy, a toddler that wakes up to a strange noise in the middle of the night with a bright light shining in his eyes. Realizing his beloved teddies are missing; he climbs down out of bed and start to look for them.

Backstage

Tom Keller is lost. He has gone astray, and become trapped in a nightmare world that is a twisted mirror image of our own, tormented by horrific aberrations, haunted by shattered memories. He is alone behind the world, and to escape, he must come to terms with all of his sins.

Bad Dream: Series

It’s a series of short point-and-click games. It takes place in a creepy, dark and sad land of dream. Some of games will be a cruel and painful as nightmare, and some will be disturbing and illogical. Gameplay will always look the same, but the dreams will be different.

Project Entities: Blame (originally simply titled Blame)

This is a horror survival game. You have to dig into the game, however, to piece it together. You might also have to uncover a lot of the hidden and secret material. Epileptics, as well as those who are sensitive to light play at their own discretion.

Bunny Man - Lost Souls

It’s a game made in Slender-style where you go around and save people's souls from an urban legend creature called Bunny Man. Your goal is to save as many souls as you can before he catches you.

Candles

It’s a 3D game where you have to light up your house, which has been invaded by dangerous imps. 

Corpse Party Zero

It’s a survival horror adventure fan-made game by Noraenu created using RPG Tkool XP. It’s a prequel which stars two sisters mentioned only in passing in Corpse Party, Kaori Hasegawa and Shiho Hasegawa, who try to escape from the cursed school.

Corpse Party -Rebuilt-

It’s the remake of the original survival horror adventure game in the Corpse Party series made by an anonymous member of a Japanese message board with permission from Team GrisGris. A group of friends unknowingly perform an occult ritual that traps them in an otherworldly elementary school. Here, the vengeful spirits of young children threaten their lives and their sanity, and the only hope of survival is to uncover the chilling details behind the murders of those trapped before them...

The Crooked Man

David Hoover decides to move into a new apartment during a rough time in his life. After some odd occurrences, he decides to ask about the room's former owner, but learns little. So he sets off in search of him, strangely compelled to know more about this man...

Cry of Fear

It’s a psychological single-player and co-op horror game set in a deserted town filled with horrific creatures and nightmarish delusions. You play as a young man desperately searching for answers in the cold Scandinavian night, finding his way through the city as he slowly descends into madness.

Daily Chthonicle

You take on the role of a Supernatural Newspaper Agency boss and editor. The world it takes place in is a dark and haunted one, with ghosts, zombies, monsters and even shapeshifting murderers, pretending to be human after they have stolen their victims' bodies or infiltrated the humanity. It was inspired heavily by the works of H.P. Lovecraft and it builds on the atmosphere of uncertainty and noir of the 1940s.

Dark Deception

It’s a story-driven first-person horror maze game. There's nowhere to hide and nowhere to catch your breath. Run or die -- it's your choice. Trapped in a realm of nightmarish mazes with a mysterious woman, your only hope of survival is to find a way to escape the darkness.

Dark Dread

A missing teenager. An abandoned hospital. You are a detective who has to find out what happened to Helena Greenwood.If you don't go insane while doing so...

Deep Sleep, Deeper Sleep & The Deepest Sleep

You are stuck inside a nightmare dream. Something lurks in the darkness... Something in the depths of your own mind wants to pull you even deeper. Someone will escape this dream for sure. The question is -- who is that going to be?

The Designer's Curse

The first chapter of an unforgettable survival horror experience. Solve puzzles and work your way through this terrifying place. You may be more familiar with it than you initially think.

The Devil Haunts Me

Survive, explore and discover the secrets of the woods. But be careful, there's something else in these woods...

Devil's Tuning Fork

It’s a first-person exploration/puzzle game in which the player must navigate an unknown world using visual sound waves. Inspired by M.C. Escher’s classic optical illusion and the echolocation of dolphins.

Dissolving

Her ex-boyfriend became a shut-in. The girl goes to visit him... then things start to go wrong. They always do, right? Experience two stories about digital gods and loss. And remember -- believe in the net.

Disturbed

Play as a farmer who struggles to manage a failing farm. You come to a point where there is no more hope, and you must do something.

Doorways: Old Prototype

It’s an immersive and twisted adventure created before the official development of the Doorways saga.

Doki Doki Literature Club

The Literature Club is full of cute girls! Will you write the way into their heart? This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed.

Don't Escape

I woke up in a room... It is not locked and I remember everything. I'm a werewolf. Tonight I will turn and people will die... unless I find a way to prevent myself from escaping this place.

Don’t Look Now

Don’t look at them. They will drain you of your last sanity if they catch you. Direct your consciousness and reach your happy place.

Erie

Erie begins in October 1966, when the Fermi 1 Nuclear Power Generator suffers a partial meltdown, and locals begin disappearing from a sleepy Michigan town. Oliver Victor is a Red Cross Investigator sent to find missing locals, but quickly finds himself trapped underground and being hunted by a product of forced-mutation experiments.

Eyes

If you like Slender, you'll like this too. You’re to search an old, abandoned house and collect any valuables but be careful -- there are rumors of a ghost haunting the building.

Exmortis & Exmortis 2

You wake up in the woods with no memory of how you got there. Nightmares of blood and screams still echo through your mind. It's late and it's cold - unless you can find shelter fast, you won't last the night. You spot a house in a clearing up ahead and left with no choice - you decide to shelter there for the night. Soon after you begin to realize that death is a welcome choice compared to what lies waiting for you inside...

Fausts Alptraum

It’s an single player, puzzle game created by LabORat Studio, an indie game team from Taiwan. The story is based on Goethe's Faust. Players will play as a troubled girl wandering around in a crayon-drawn world.

Forget Me Not Annie

It’s a first person psychological horror game. You play as a 15 year old girl Annie who is trapped within her own mind and has to use her telekinetic powers with the help of Howard who you are able to summon at any moment to surpass puzzles.

From Next Door

It’s a short mystery-horror game developed for the 2016 Pixel Horror Jam. It draws inspiration from the works of Junji Ito and games like Silent Hill, with the story focused on the eerie and the bizarre. It tells the story of a young woman who moves into a new house, only to experience weird occurrences from the seemingly empty house next door. Depending on your choices the outcome will change and could even grant her safety or not.

The Groundskeeper

After a horrific accident, you find yourself trapped in an unfamiliar place where no one can hear you scream. There's a dark presence... A dark secret that this place holds. Is there any way out? Is HE watching?

Hello? Hell…o?

It’s a Japanese RPG horror game by Ryuuichi Tachibana created with RPG Maker VX Ace. You play as a boy named Kazuki that is going through strain in a relationship with his girlfriend, Akari. It takes place in a strange room where you have to accomplish certain things in order to complete all the endings.

Hide

Play hide and seek with someone who hides in the mist. All you have is your ears.

The House & The House 2

It’s a point-and-click flash horror game. Built in 1970, and deserted some time after that, no one has entered the house since the entire family committed suicide due to reasons unknown. Your goal is to search through the house to unfold the mystery of what really happened to that fateful fictitious family.

Human

It’s a short psychological horror game which examines inherent, earthly, and otherworldly evils, and the forces which drive them. As you make your way through an Alaskan auroral research facility in search of employees it quickly becomes very clear that something has become alerted to your presence.

I Can’t Escape

You have fallen into a vast underground maze. Can you find your way out, or will you end up trapped in darkness forever?

I See You

You play as an unnamed protagonist waking up in an empty hospital. However, it soon turns out the hospital is not quite so empty...

Ib

A young girl named Ib visits an art gallery with her parents. While observing the many exhibits, she suddenly realizes she is alone. And in her search for others, she finds things awry in the gallery...

Ildefonse

In 1935, Mr. Ildefonse was betrayed by his wife who then fled with their children, Mr. Ildefonse lost his head and unleashed a massacre at his home involving employees, then he committed suicide. The rest of the story is completed with letters from tenants who lived in the building, which was later converted into flats but haunted by the things that happened in the past.

In the game, the year 1977, the player is a lawyer hired to collect the testament papers in the house, requested by a family member.

Imscared: A Pixelated Nightmare

The player must find keys, open doors and search for the exit to this nightmare.

Lamia Nox

It’s an indie horror game made with RPG Maker VX Ace. Laura, an 14-year-old who is pretty much a normal young girl. But her life is changed for the worse when she wakes up one day to find that her home is completely different. 

The Last Door: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3 & Episode 4

Free episodic horror game, with original pixel-art visuals and a gorgeous orchestral music score. Surrounded by a thrilling sound atmosphere, player's will experience a really immersive environment thought the stimulation of their imagination, just like classic horror writers like Poe and Lovecraft used to.

Leave

The game begins with the protagonist waking up in her bedroom, but it's up to the player to search her house for the backstory.

Lucie

Lucie, a girl who, after waking up in a strange room realizes that she is stuck in a lucid dream. She encounters evil beings and traps while searching for her body.

Lurking

It’s a sound-based survival thriller gae, where sound is the only way you see, and they hear your fears.

Mad Father

Aya Drevis is a young girl living in an isolated mansion in northern Germany. Since her mother's passing, she's felt lonely living with just her father and his assistant Maria. What's more, she knows her father's secret...

Mermaid Swamp

Rin Yamazaki and her college friends have their car break down in the mountains on a trip. Fortunately, a kindly old man offers to let them stay at his house. But there's a legend about the swamp outside the mansion...

Misao

It's been three months since the mysterious disappearance of Misao. No one has any idea where she could have gone, but many believe she's dead by now. And when paranormal events crop up around the school, rumors spread that she's out for revenge...

Miserere

In Miserere you explore the dreams of a lonely space station occupant. The unnamed occupant have been on this station for years, all alone. Needless to say, this has taken its toll on our poor protagonists mind. This occasionally shows in the dreams. But there are still glimmers of hope.

Nightmare of the Snow

It’s a RPG Adventure Horror game developed in late 2013. The game centers on Yuuki Shinozaki, a shy middle schooler who is attending a farewell party, but before that, she is taken mysteriously to a lost dimension where a mansion that was supposed to had disappeared for many years exists. 

Ningyo Heart

It’s about a man’s journey through a nightmare, in search for his beloved and finding his true self. The main theme in this horror game is friendship, romance and horror. Game play will focus on puzzle solving & survival horror (run and chase event).

Nyctophobia

You have a job. That job is to be a security guard during the night shift at a local office complex. You and Marley do it every night. Get decent pay for it too. Enough to keep you going. But Marley's just called in sick, so you gotta do the shift alone. Shouldn't be bad, right? Well, the power's just gone off, and I don't think you're alone anymore...

OFF

It’s an 2003 RPGmaker created game. You take control of a mysterious person called “The Batter”, who is described to be on an important mission. The Batter, and yourself as his controller, are dropped off in zone 0, the first of 4 zones in a perplexing, unknown world about which you slowly find out more and more in the process of the game.

One Late Night

It’s a short immersive horror-game experience, starring an unnamed graphic designer employee, working late one night at the office, until strange things start to happen.

Pact With a Demon - Episode 1 & Pack With a Demon - Episode 2

You must survive on an island after a car accident and find a way out, while several demonic creatures try to attack you.

Palette

One night, the psychiatrist Sianos B. Sian is requested to counsel a girl called B.D., who has lost her eyesight and memory in an accident. Through conversations with her over the phone, the past that hides in her memories comes to light...

Phantasmal: Survival Horror Roguelike

Experience Terror that is Never the Same Twice with Phantasmal, a Lovecraftian survival horror that evolves every time you play!

Pocket Mirror

It’s a horror game created in RPGMaker VX ACE. You play as a nameless girl in the journey to find her purpose and memories within a mysterious world.

Port of Call

Imagine waking up on a small dock with no recollection of who you are or how you got there. The first person you find is a grumpy, old man who enlists you to work on his ferry boat which seems to have materialized behind you.

[REC] Shutter

It’s a horror game that you must progress through levels while avoiding the paranormal and solving puzzles. You take the role of a reporter named Connor, who will be investigating Pennyhill, a dark hunted asylum.

Re:Kinder

Third-grader Shunsuke goes to stay over at his grandmother's house. Upon his return home, he finds not his familiar hometown, but a ruined town of death. He meets his surviving friends and some other children their age, but a crueler reality awaits them...

Schuld

It’s a surreal, psychological horror game. This is an translated version of the German game. Schuld (Guilty) is about a man who finds himself in a dying world, without knowing how he got there and why he is there.

SCP - Containment Breach

It’s a survival horror game based on the works of the SCP Foundation community.

September 1999

Its a free, VHS styled, first-person found footage horror game, which runs exactly for 5 minutes and 30 seconds.

Serena

It’s a point-and-click adventure horror game. How long has it been? A man sits in a distant getaway cabin waiting for his wife Serena. Where is she? Things in the cabin evoke memories, and the husband comes to a disturbing realization... 

Shutter

You are woken up by a sudden loud noise in the middle of the night in your recently moved into apartment. Moving boxes are scattered all over the place, still things left to unpack. All the lights in the house are turned on, but you're sure you turned them off. You leave your room to investigate, your trusty camera in hand.

Silent Hill: Room 304

It’s a point-and-click horror game based on the popular video game series, Silent Hill by Konami Digital Entertainment.

Silent Santiago

It’s inspired by the popular Silent Hill survival horror series from Konami. This horror game is developed by students of a Chilean university. The streets in this game are inspired by the reality of the Santiago city, in Chile, going so far as to recreating the plazas and the narrow alleys. The atmosphere, however, is incredibly eerie and similar to the Silent Hill games, with a thick fog covering the entire city. The goal of the game is to navigate the maze-like streets of the city of Santiago and to reach the exit.

Slender: The Eight Pages

The game centers around an unknown character being chased by the Slender Man in the woods while seeking eight pages scattered about various landmarks.

Spooky’s Jump Scare Mansion

Can you survive 1000 rooms of cute terror? Or will you break once the cuteness starts to fade off and you're running for your life from the unspeakable hideous beings that shake and writhe in bowels of this house? They wait for you, they wait and hunger for meeting you.

The Night That Speaks

You don't remember how you got to the graveyard, but you know you've been meaning to visit.

The Static Speaks My Name

A dark, sad, weird, and funny first-person exploration game. You play a man on his last night alive as he obsesses over a mysterious painting.

Try to Fall Asleep

John Herrin survived a horrible accident and as a result, he damaged his brain and lost his memory. Only Dr. Rick Norberg and the friendly robot "AB" can help John to recover from his brain damage and restore his broken memory. 

By falling asleep and rediscovering the past in his dreams, John can restore his memory and remember what caused the unfortunate catastrophe in one of the most secretive laboratories of the "Revivel" company. But due to John's brain damage, falling asleep won't be as easy as it seems at first... 

Vanish

Thrown into a Labyrinth for reasons unknown, you must roam through the darkness to find your escape. Do you have what it takes to get out alive? Or will you be another feast for the walls that seem to live?

Which

It’s a short game in which you look for a way to open the door out of the small house.

The White Chamber

It’s a point-and-click horror adventure game. You play as a trapped young woman from 3rd person perspective as she solves puzzles and overcomes the twisted obstacles in her path.

The Witch’s House

The young Viola visits a mysterious house in the woods. She soon discovers its dangerous nature and must find a way out. But the house is ever-changing, and death could be lurking anywhere...

Within Deep Sorrows

A demon haunts you throughout your nightmares, as it gradually makes its way into the real world. The only way to prevent this from happening is for you, Johnston Barker to destroy your diary, which is hidden within your third dream. Each descending dream makes it harder to avoid the demon, allowing it to become stronger, and more aggressive. The time period is set in the 1990's, though when dreaming, it is set back in the 1950's. You are not alone however, as your conscious speaks to you during the process, giving you guidance as you deeply wonder within your nightmares.

Yume Nikki (ゆめにっき, lit. Dream Diary)

It’s a 32-Bit game created by KIKIYAMA, a mysterious Japanese game designer. It was made using RPG Maker 2003. The players explore the dreams of a hikikomori named Madotsuki, where they encounter a number of surrealistic horror creatures and locations.

[kittysukagasterfics]

Gaming Human

Note: A look into another of Sam’s hobbies: video games! Hope you all enjoy! Anyway, onto the fic!

Handplates belongs to: @zarla-s

Requested by: Anonymous (Because Minecraft)

Summary: Sam decides to introduce Gaster to one of their favorite video games: Minecraft? How will his experience with it go?

     Sam let out a long sigh as they continued to stare at the cell wall. They had lost track of how long exactly they had been awake now. The Human had woken up at the crack of dawn and was unable to go back to sleep. Subjects 1 & 2 were obviously still asleep and Sam certainly wasn’t going to wake the sleepy skeles up. In short, the Human was extremely bored. They had resorted to digging through their dimensional box for something to do.

     They didn’t really find anything of interest at first. Sam had found the Rubik’s Cube but they quickly put it back, not wanting a repeat of the last time they tried to play with it. Unlike the skeletons, the Human wasn’t the best at solving the color cube. One time, Sam had gotten so frustrated with that cursed cube that they gave up after an hour and threw it on the ground before curling up on the couch and crying. Gaster had to actually take it away from them for a while. It wasn’t a very good day. Pushing aside other miscellaneous objects, Sam finally found the thing they were looking for: their cell phone.

    ‘*You check the battery percent on your phone.’ ‘*It’s on 100%...perfect.’

     Taking the device out of their dimensional box, Sam booted it up and swiped through their many apps. However, they wanted to play their favorite game, Minecraft to be exact. Although the Human personally enjoyed RPG games, there was something about Minecraft that made them for hours on end. Whether it be the soothing background music, the cute mobs, or the fact that everything is cubed-shaped, Sam always found enjoyment in the popular open-world game.

     Sam clicked on the Minecraft icon and then pressed start when the main menu screen loaded. They weren’t in a hurry to level up in their character in Survival Mode or suffer and rage quit in Hardcore Mode so the Human decided to just mess around in Creative Mode. Sam first started to build a house but they kept getting distracted by all the mobs that happen to walk by them. The Human ended up walking too far from the house and getting lost. They were then forced to build it again from scratch. Just a typical day in the world of Minecraft. Sam was so engrossed that they didn’t even realized how long they were playing until the Human heard 2-P yawning.

    “*You tell him good morning before resuming your game.”

    “GOOD MORNING, HUMAN SAM...UM, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

    “*You tell him you’re playing a game.”

     The small skeleton began looking over the Human’s shoulder. The game they were playing was very colorful and everything was shaped like the color cube. He even saw skeletons in the game! 2-P got so excited that he started asking Sam a lot of questions about it. The skeleton started to get a bit loud, causing Subject 1 to suddenly stir and wake up. The tiny skeleton started asking questions as well when Gaster suddenly appeared in front of the cell. He looked surprise to see Sam was already awake.

    “Sam, did you stay up all night again? I put you and the Subjects back in the cells at a reasonable time for a reason you know...”

    ‘*You start to call him a hypocrite but he interrupts by telling you and the brothers to follow him...’

     Gaster took the three of them to his office, where Toby was waiting for them after somehow getting out of the locked cell. Subjects 1 and 2 ran over to an excited Toby and began playing with the pup while Gaster and Sam sat down on the couch. The scientist watched them play as he stroked Sam’s hair. The Human just continued to play on their phone. He tried to talk with them multiple times but Sam was just too absorbed in their game. This caused the scientist to get upset and snatch the Human’s phone out of their hands.

    “*You tell Gaster to give you back your phone as you try to grab it back.” ‘*He keeps it just out of your reach...’

     Gaster looked at the screen before looking back at Sam.

    “Is this really what kept you up all night? Honestly Sam, what’s so special about this game anyway?”

     The Human stopped trying to get their phone back and gave the skeleton a sly smile. Gaster immediately felt like he was going to regret saying that.

~~~~~~

    “Explain to me what this game, ‘Minecraft’, is about again?”

     Sam grinned as they explained the whole premise of the game. Basically Gaster needs to craft items in order to progress in Survival Mode, but in order to do that, he has to collect materials that he can find around the open-world. Gaster began to look a little nervous.

    “I’m not too sure about this, Sam...”

    “*You reassure Gaster that you’ll guide him through the game as he progresses.”

     With Sam’s reassurance, Gaster entered the game upon their instructions. Once the game loaded in, the skeleton was surprised by what he saw. The in-game world bared so much resemblance of the Surface, apart from everything being cube-shaped. It was just like how Gaster remembered the Surface looked like. It was especially nice to be able to see the Sun again. He could now see why the Human enjoyed playing this game so much. Maybe one day they could-

     His thought were interrupted by Sam pulling on his sleeve. They were explaining something while pointing at the screen.

    “*You ask him if he sees that tree to his right...”

    “Yes, I do. What about it?”

    “*Go punch it.”

     Gaster gave Sam am extremely baffled look but complied with their request anyway. He made the character walk over towards the tree and, as Sam explained, began collecting wood. Gaster then went from tree to tree collecting until the Human finally him to stop. Using a crafting table he had Sam make for him, they had him craft planks from the wood before crafting what looked like a pickaxe and a sword. After doing that, Sam gave him a smile.

    “*You tell Gaster that he’s now ready to go mining.”

    “Okay, but, what’s the sword for?”

     Just as he asked this, Gaster’s character was suddenly attacked by a large, green creature, or as Sam called them, ‘an adorable Creeper’. The skeleton began panicking and tried to land a hit on the Creeper but kept missing. Sam eventually had to take over and fight it off, killing it in the process. Gaster stared at the screen with a slightly disturbed expression.

    “Did you just-”

    “*You explain that the creatures in-game are called ‘mobs’ and he needs to kill them in order to gain XP and gather more materials...”

     They said it so nonchalantly that Gaster felt a chill run down his spine. He knew that it was probably a mechanic in the game but Sam just seemed so calm about it. Maybe he was reading too much into this. That’s when Sam suddenly pointed something out to him. It was apparently a mob that looked like a skeleton, which was interesting but Gaster was concerned about the skeleton lacking clothing.

    “Wait, why isn’t that skeleton wearing any clothes?”

    “*You tell him that these skeletons don’t wear anything...”

    “Isn’t that a little inappropriate since children play this game? Skeletons are a very modest species after all...”

     While Gaster was speaking, the Human noticed that it was starting to turn to daytime in-game and wondered if they should say something. However, Sam didn’t need to since as soon as Gaster turned his attention back to the game, it had finished transitioning to daytime, causing all nearby skeletons to suddenly burst into flames. Gaster watched in horror at this horrible sight. Sam just giggled at his reaction.

    “Why did that skeleton just burst into flames, Human?!”

    “*You tell him that’s what they do in-game and ask him if he does the same thing.” ‘*He narrows his eyes at you...’

    “You know for a fact that I most certainly don’t, Sam. Why even ask such a question?”

     Sam just continued to laugh as Gaster scolded them. Suddenly, there was a loud sound of thunder coming from the game interrupting the two of them. It began to rain in Minecraft, causing Gaster to go quiet. Sam noticed and asked him if he was alright. The scientist only nodded. The Human realized what was happening and laid their head on Gaster’s shoulder. It was very peaceful to listen and watch the in-game rain as Minecraft music played in the background, both of them wishing they could stay in that position for long time.

    ‘*Your phone suddenly cuts off and a dead battery symbol flashes for a quick second before shutting off completely...’

     Sam’s phone had died, ending the soulmates’ gaming session. The Human was a bit disappointed as they placed the phone back into their dimensional box. Gaster just huffed in annoyance before checking the time. It was time to get back to work anyway. The scientist had Sam, the brothers, and Toby head back towards the cells but before the Human left the room, Gaster had them stay behind for a minute.

    “Uh, Sam...I...had fun today, surprisingly. Do you maybe want to...do this again sometime? I-I can see if Alphys can lend me some of her games. B-But, only if you want to...”

     They stared at him for a moment before smiling brightly and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

    “*You tell him that you’d love to turn him into a gaming nerd like you...”

Note: Gaming soulmates! What could be better? I hope you all enjoyed reading because I enjoyed writing it! Thank you all so much for reading! I love all of you! Stay tuned for more.

[theonyxpath]

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate art by Yihyoung Li

Hello, everyone! This is Dixie doing the Monday Meeting notes this week, so expect 89% fewer puns. We had a pretty short meeting this week, and focused mainly on what we and our freelancers are doing during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. As far as our day jobs go here at Onyx Path, it’s business as usual since we work from home, but we know that’s not the case for everyone. We have freelancers who work in healthcare, some who are immunocompromised or otherwise susceptible, and then others who have to take care of older family members or small children as cancellations continue.

In addition to anyone directly impacted by the outbreak, there’s also the spate of conventions being cancelled, and many people have had to postpone/cancel trips and events. this is very much still a developing situation, and we encourage our freelancers and fans to take measures to keep themselves safe and healthy. While some people may think, “Oh, this will mean everyone can get a lot of their freelance work done while they’re self-isolating!” that’s not always going to be the case (childcare, housemates all being home, etc.) but we’re working with our freelancers as best we can.

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate art by Gunship Revolution

The Onyx Pathcast hosts in particular would like to apologize if anyone thought we were making light of the COVID-19 outbreak in last week’s episode. I assure you, everyone here is taking it seriously.

That said, self-isolation can be difficult if you’re used to being around people, including gathering for tabletop games, so our friends at Astral Virtual TableTop are giving everyone their paid features for free during this time! There’s a post about it here: https://ift.tt/2TTFS5O, but your account should already have the features unlocked.

That’s all well and good, you might say, but I don’t have any new games to try out! Well, we’ve got you covered on that front, too. Today, you can pick up V20 Dark Ages for free at DriveThruRPG, and we’re putting up a new free corebook every day this week. They’re only up for one day each folks, so make sure you grab the ones you want!

You can get V20 Dark ages here today: https://ift.tt/2QjDtiw

Tuesday we’ll be offering the Werewolf 20 core here: https://ift.tt/38RNqdL

Wednesday is Mage 20: https://ift.tt/2IU0dBE

Thursday is Changeling 20: https://ift.tt/3b2fJr8

And we’re wrapping up the week by descending into the Underworld with Wraith 20: https://ift.tt/2vwtfEA

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate art by Gong Studios

In other news, the Legendlore Kickstarter is ongoing, and we’re close to halfway funded! I, personally, am a big fan of the setting. As Ian A. A. Watson put it on Twitter:

Do you like El-Hazard, Alice in Wonderland, Labyrinth, Wizard of Oz, Chronicles of Narnia, Neverending Story, Magic Kingdom of Landover, Apprentice Adept, Castle Perilous, or the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon?

@VonAether

If so, this book is for you. Check it out and read manuscript updates here: https://ift.tt/2x03Pzp

Another cool thing you can do while you’re home is to attend Gehenna Gaming‘s VirtualHorror Con April 4-6. From the website:

VirtualHorror Con is a two-day virtual horror tabletop RPG convention that can be experienced on any screen no matter where you are. Many of your favorite events and conventions have been canceled, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the convention experience. This event will give fans and players the opportunity to connect with the game developers, artists, and publishers they love. No lines. Safe social distancing. Horror-themed actual play streams, live panels, and digital tabletop RPG one-shot sessions running the whole time!

All ticket and raffle sales will go to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization to support the development of vaccines, tests, and treatments for the coronavirus pandemic.”

For more information, check out https://ift.tt/2TTwcbC

There isn’t much else that came out of our meeting, as people are just buckling down to get some work done and continue monitoring the situation. We’re still working on the Dragon-Blooded surprise and will have that out to backers as soon as we can! So stay safe, wash your hands, and as always…

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

As noted above, Legendlore is in its first week of Kickstarter! Please go check it out; it’s a truly awesome book, compatible with the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game!

Onyx Path Media!

This week, we’re talking Scarred Lands with Travis Legge!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

Despite everything in the world right now, or maybe because of it, we’ve got a massive number of shows for you on Twitch this week. Please tune in for an enjoyable distraction! We’re going to have three games of V5, as well as Chronicles of Darkness, Pugmire, Hunter: The Vigil, Changeling: The Lost, Mage: The Awakening, Scarred Lands, and a Dark Eras Werewolf: The Forsaken chronicle! 

This week sees the finale of Blood City as well as the finale of Uptown Shadows. I would like to give major recognition to both streams for their fantastic work in bringing our games out to the audience. Thank you! You can subscribe to our channel over on twitch.tv/theonyxpath to catch up with any episodes you missed! (Another great idea for social distancing!)

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more, including:

Scion: Behind the Screen: https://youtu.be/v9Wo38rl5-Y

Changeling: The Lost – Littlebrook Reunion: https://youtu.be/hxSbemynBLs

Changeling: The Dreaming – The Last Faerie Tale: https://youtu.be/gKAm-zGxTW4

Even more Scion: Behind the Screen: https://youtu.be/QDSIS_ClFbE

Pugmire: Paws & Claws: https://youtu.be/Ddm-cl48OR0

And even more Changeling: The Lost: https://youtu.be/dqM0ZdeS88s

Do subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

The Story Told RPG Podcast reaches the penultimate episode of their excellent Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition chronicle right here: http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/the-78-laments-episode-4-passenger

And if you missed it, here’s The Story Told’s review of Trinity Continuum: Aeon http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/episode-40-trinity-continuum-on-overview

Red Moon Roleplaying’s V5 Cults of the Blood Gods “The Family” chronicle continues on their YouTube channel, Spotify, their website redmoonroleplaying.com and everywhere else good podcasts might be found! https://youtu.be/PDPZyy-ZHNw

More new Occultists Anonymous for all you Mage: The Awakening fans out there:

Episode 88: Arms and Armor – Wyrd has a terrible premonition about the strike on the vampire Prince. The cabal helps ready Songbird when she is called to action by the Adamantine Arrow.  https://youtu.be/WPHjGDGwRmQ

Episode 89: Tactical Yeet – Songbird enters the vampire Prince’s haven with a small team of Adamantine Arrows while the rest of the cabal scrys on the proceedings. Things don’t go according to plan, in several ways.https://youtu.be/r5zuU4UglYs

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

Update: the devs are working on the updates for the roller in both Android and iOS; here is the rundown from them:

1) Redo the UI for system for Android. It will look the same as the current design. My goal is to have something ready by Saturday to send out to the Facebook users, asking them if this fixes the issues. This will be a beta type thing. This will break several of the fancy dice.

2) If the above worked out and the android users give all the clear, we’ll redo the graphics system to fix the fancy dice that got broken. We’ll do another Android beta through Facebook. This might take up to two weeks, as my schedule allows.

3) If everything worked well, we’ll release to Android for real at that point.

4) Port all of the existing stuff to iOS and release on that.

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scarred Lands (Pathfinder) books are also on sale at Studio2, and they have the 5e version, supplements, and dice as well!: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/scarred-lands

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

This week, Geist: The Sin-Eaters Second Edition will be available on Studio2, IPR, and DriveThruRPG! Yay!

Conventions!

Though it’s subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s our current list of upcoming conventions:

UKGames Expo: https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/

GenCon: https://www.gencon.com/

Tabletop Scotland: https://tabletopscotland.co.uk/

Gamehole Con: https://www.gameholecon.com/

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

And now, the new project status updates!

(We know why you’re here.

Development Status from Eddy Webb! (Projects in bold have changed status since last week.):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep.)

Scarred Lands – RUST (working title)

TC Aeon – Under Alien Suns

TC Aeon – Mission Statements

TC Aberrant – Novas Worldwide

Exalted 3rd – Adversaries of the Righteous

Exalted – Exalted: Essence Edition

Deviant the Renegades – The Clades Companion

Deviant the Renegades – The Devoted Companion

Scion – Saints and Monsters

Mage: The Ascension – Rich Bastard’s Guide to Magick

Scion – Wild Hunt

Redlines

Exalted 3rd – Dragon-Blooded Novella 2 (Roy)

TC Adventure – Adventure!

Exalted 3rd – Hundred Devils Night Parade

Mummy: The Curse – The Book of Lasting Death

Chronicles of Darkness – Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters

TC Aberrant – N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment

Second Draft

Exalted 3rd – Exigents

Exalted 3rd – Crucible of Legends

Exalted – Many-Faced Strangers (Lunars Companion)

Changeling: The Lost – Kith and Kin

They Came From – They Came from Beyond the Grave!

Trinity Continuum – Assassins

Development

Exalted 3rd – Heirs to the Shogunate

TC Aberrant – Aberrant Reference Screen

Exalted 3rd – Across the Eight Directions

Chronicles of Darkness – The Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks

Mage the Ascension – Victorian Mage

Manuscript Approval

Scion – Scion: Dragon

Scion – Masks of the Mythos

Scion – Scion: Demigod

Post-Approval Development

Scion: Origin and Hero LARP

Geist the Sin-Eaters: One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart

Editing

Legendlore – Legendlore  

Realms of Pugmire – Pirates of Pugmire additional adventure

TC Aeon – Terra Firma

Exalted – Lunars Novella (Rosenberg)

Realms of Pugmire – Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire  

They Came From – Tales of Aquatic Terror

Mummy: The Curse – Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition  

Scion – Titanomachy

Chronicles of Darkness – Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle  

Chronicles of Darkness – Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart

TC Aberrant – Aberrant Jumpstart

Trinity Continuum – Jumpstart

Post-Editing Development

Hunter: The Vigil – Hunter: The Vigil 2e

World of Darkness – Ghost Hunters

Deviant: The Renegades – Deviant: The Renegades

TCfBtS! – Monsters of the Deep

Indexing

They Came From Beneath the Sea! (TCfBtS!)

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Scion Titanomachy

Tales of Aquatic Terror 

TC Aeon Terra Firma – Contracted

V5 Let the Streets Run Red

Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs

WoD Ghost Hunters – Getting KS artwork going

Aberrant

Pugmire Adventure 

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Mummy 2 – ADing that out post Aberrant AD

Deviant

Legendlore – Kickstarter in progress

Technocracy Reloaded (KS)

Cults of the Blood God (KS) – Contracting

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

TCFBTS Screen and Booklet

Contagion Chronicle

Vigil Watch 

Scion Companion – Artwork in progress.

Proofing

Trinity Aeon Jumpstart 

Pirates of Pugmire 

TCFBTS Heroic Land Dwellers – Inputting proofing comments

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate

At Press

Ex 3 The Silence of Our Ancestors (Huggins Novella)

TC Distant Worlds

Scion Mythical Denizens

Night Horrors : Nameless and Accursed – Errata gathering

Dark Eras 2 – Errata with Aileen

VtR Spilled Blood – Josh wrapping up inputting changes and tweaking layout to account for any shift in the text

Geist 2e – Out this week

Dystopia Rising: Evolution

DR:E Screen & Booklet

DR:E Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties

Geist 2e Screen

Memento Mori

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Indexing

Chicago Folios – Awaiting PoD proof

Geist 2e Anthology – Errata gathering

C:tL 2e Oak, Ash, & Thorn – Errata gathering

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Yesterday was the Ides of March and tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day! Please celebrate either one responsibly and while practicing safe social distancing. Also, today is my stepmom’s birthday! I don’t usually get to do shout-outs on the blog, but since I’ve taken over today I’m indulging myself. Happy Birthday, Laura! Hope you and dad are having a blast (still while practicing safe social distancing).

[kpopisthereasonihavenolife]

Omg Tay, I have so much to say about Oberon! Seriously, I made a new note on my phone so I could remember all my reactions to it. First of all, AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! IT'S SO FREAKING GOOD AND THE WORLD BUILDING YOU DID REALLY PAID OFF AND I'M SO PROUD OF YOU FOR FINISHING THIS BEHEMOTH OF A FIC!!!! I digress, the world building was so beautifully done. The different take in fairies (regarding the leaf fairies) and the tree traveling! All the different species of creatures in the central village!

2/6)  It was all wonderful! I especially loved how you spent some time on how the OC was cleaned up to show the difference in how it's done there. Speaking of cleaned up, I LOVE ALINA! SHE'S SO CUTE AND I WANTED MORE OF HER TAY! I love how you made all of the OC's dresses resemble flowers in some way, it really ties in the importance of nature to the Fae. I got mad Beauty and the Beast vibes at some parts too. On-Looker's Lake, when the OC sees the books, and Joon saving the OC being the best examples

3/6)  I deadass thought that the thing in the lagoon was a kraken! Idk why, but I did😂 and then I was like "update: it's a kelpie". I wanted to also mention how you took a twist on environmental activism in the human world. I'm definitely a sustainability conscious person and I thought that the dichotomy of the Order and the RAO was fascinating. I also really liked how you made it that the "waves cannot keep secrets" instead of the trees or flowers cannot keep secrets we see so much in literature!

4/6)  Also, the fact that the OC was like "Namjoom sounds fake" 😂 I laughed so hard when I read that! I also wrote down "THE MANDRAKE LEAF!! HARRY POTTER IS BACK BITCHES". I was just really happy about it. Also, I really liked the part where Joon showed the OC Titania via their dreams. I thought it was well done and I loved the intermingling of the real memory and then the possible (which definitely happen) interaction with the OC. Tbh, I thought Titania's soul was doing some weird stuff to the OC

5/6)  But it just turned out to the air,,, I'd really love to see more(?) interactions with the OC and Titania via dreams or while unconscious. I think it would be really cool. Lastly, I was highkey hoping Joon would kill the Order dudes. It would have been nice to see, but I guess diplomacy is fine too. I do have a few questions for you. With the tree traveling, is it via the root system or the trunks and branches? You mentioned going up so I wasn't 100% sure

6/6)  Also, what is the time difference between the human and fae realms? I know that the Fae realm is slower than the human realm, but by how much? Overall this was such an amazing piece of work and it definitely took Blight's spot for #1 out of your fics. Your hard work paid off and I'm so glad that I could help keep you motivated and (somewhat) sane while at work or writing. Lastly, I really love that (literal) cliffhanger you left us at😂😂 Much love Tay💜

WAAAH LILAC THERE IS SO MUCH TO UNPACK HERE AND I LOVE IT.  I love that you took note while reading- that makes me so happy uwu. First, I’m happy you were happy with the world-building! I only complained about it to you about aBAZILLION TIMES LOL.  And the Leaflets design was inspired by me actually pulling apart leaves as a hobby when I’m forced to sit in nature LOL.  

I ALSO LOVE ALINA.  I WANT TO MAKE THIS CLEAR.  I didn’t intend to have as many OCs as I did (three to be specific + Titania ig) in this piece, but although I love all of them, my little mute Alara fairy girl is def. my favorite.  10/10 would die for her. I actually didn’t realize any parallels while writing it, but yeah I can def. see the Beauty and the Beast connections now that you point it out- how neat! 

For the Kelpie, I had a lot of options when choosing what species of fairy to make the quote ‘bad guy’ when looking through te Unseelie Court, but the Kelpie was the one I was most familiar with (thanks anime LOL) so I just went with them.  Plus, the thing under the water holding her down while the KEplie attacked her, wasn’t actually another Keplie but instead a dead tree that had fallen into the lake because a branch of the Order’s pollution killed it.  It sensed the OC’s humanity, thus deemed her the enemy.  

For the inclusion of the Order and the RAO, the whole premise of this is absolutely an anti-pollution thing as that is the *biggest* issue the RAO has with the Order and their constant want to burn down/shrink the forest or just kill it (I mean how dumb amiright?). I didn’t want to play into it too much, well bc who wants to read a 42k fic about pollution and rebellion in the form of going against the government? Sounds too much like irl politics if you ask me LOL. 

For the ‘waves keeping secrets’ I kept it like that instead of the forest greenery because unlike the forest’s grass or trees or flowers, the water has a distinct connection between Liana and the human world!  All sorts of gossip come from the water LOL. 

LOL The ‘namjoon sounds fake’ line was actually for the original concept where this was gonna be a wonho fic.  He was gonna announce himself as Wonho and not Hoseok, so she would accuse him of a ‘fake name’ and later on he’d really tell her his birthday.  However, when I changed idols, I decided to keep it in for comedy!! (also the mandrakes actually weren’t inspired by HP, but from an RPG horror game Mad Father, bc ya girl hasn’t seen/read any HP material oops) 

If I’m being honest, the parts featuring Titania and the dreams the OC was materialized in are some of my favorite parts.  Not just because I loved Titania and the way she held herself in her short little scenes, but because it opened more of Oberon’s story.  Briefly touching on his reluctance to be King Oberon to fast-forwarding to the point he had to rule on his own when she died.  

The reason the OC got so sick was a mixture of things.  In the story, obvs it’s explained it was the air.  However, there is more too it! I kept it brief because in the moment, Namjoon didn’t have the time for a proper explaination- both when the OC was dying and when he was explaining things to Changkyun and her on the cliffside.  The reason really tied back to the Kelpie.  

It was explained that the Kelpie took a chunk of her magic when it attacked her at the grey lake, right? Well, it’s because of the chunk of magic it took that Liana’s air became toxic. OC’s magic was tied into her by the soul fragment she was born with that held Titania.  When the Kelpie attacked her, it took a large part of that fragment out- the piece that was able to breathe and live in the forest's air like Titania once did.  So, in a sense, it was Titania keeping her safe from the pure air, and when she lost it, it all went downhill.  so, you were really wrong to assume it was Titania! 

Tbh, the ONLY reason Namjoon didn’t kill the Order platoon was bc before he could the OC was already marching towards them and he didn’t want to risk anything.  If she hadn’t started going to the leader for his radio, he would have made tree-kababs out of them. 

For the Tree Trunk Travel System (as our OC calls it lol), it was a mixture of root connections and teleportation.  All the trees int he forest are connected via their underground root system.  For traveling to be possible, you’d get into a tree, think of the place you want to travel to, and through, magic relay that to the tree so it could find the root of the nearest tree to that location.  Then it’d be a gust of wind from below (because of the roots finding the passage) before you disappear and reappear somewhere near! It’s a lot less complicated than it sounds lol.

The time difference between Liana and the human world is a big funky I’ll admit.  I didn’t put a lot of thought into it frankly.  However, as stated when OC returns after her ‘almost dying attack’ Changkyun mentions how she was gone for two months.  Before that, OC mentions how she had been in Liana a month. So, it’d be easiest to assume that Liana moves and works a full month behind the humans.  So, for example, April in the Human world would still be March in Liana.  

WOW THIS GOT LONG LOL. I hope I answered all your questions (and if not just ask me again LOL).  I’m so so so grateful to you for reading it and keeping me motivated to write it! And ofc, your moral support while I edited this monster LOL.  Who knows, maybe next time I’ll ask you to beta if something ever get’s this big again LOL (probably not bc i have a guilty conscience alsdkjf).  

I’m glad you enjoyed Oberon as much as you hoped and although Blight may not be #1, I don’t think Jungkook would mind since Namjoon took his place LOL.  

Much love coming to you from me!!! 

[planetarywho]

15 Questions for 15 Followers

Ok, that’s new. Never done that before. Thought I’d give it a try.

Hey, @noir-renard! So, it took me a couple of centuries to write back, but here it is... Sorry! I’m not terribly used to actually answering questions, it turns out, and got a bit distracted... But here it is!

The answers are a bit long. I may have gotten carried away.

1. Are you named after anyone?

Yes, I am! My mother adores Audrey Hepburn and all her movies, and named me after Sabrina Fairchild, arguably the most dramatic of Audrey’s protagonists (and one of my mom’s favourite movies).

2. When was the last time you cried?

I believe I almost cried yesterday, reading a story, but not quite. For me to cry it is usually like that, when books are involved (be them on paper or audio). But if the question is more towards real life crying, then it would be about two weeks ago, when Lady Migraine was particularly nasty for a few days in a row.

3. Do you have kids?

No kids, just pets! Currently, a dog (though I live with two other dogs and one cat), a small and troublesome creature that I love with all my heart.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

Not even a little bit.

Sorry, story time: my mom and I have very similar voices. When I was in high school, a friend of mine, when calling my landline, decided that it was only safe to assume it was actually me talking if the answer to his question: “Sabrina, are you sure it’s you?” was not a very understanding “yes, of course it’s me” - in which case he believed to being messed with by us - but something on the lines of “no, I’m not quite sure. Maybe you should ask again.” or “sorry, I was so very wrong, it’s actually Santa!”. Then, and only then, he’d start talking.

5. What’s the first thing you notice about a person?

I think it depends on the person, really. There isn’t a universal answer. Sometimes, people have something striking about them that is very particular. I suppose I notice posture a lot, and movement. Hair and hands fall into this category as well. I never pay a lot of initial attention to shape, I think, as much as to motion. So, visually, that’s it. Voice is also something that i notice a lot, even when I don’t see someone - the sound and the tone, with bonus points if the vocabulary being used seems fascinating. But people-watching is something of a habit I’ve had for too many years, to the point where it’s maybe a bit tricky to actually pinpoint first impressions.

6. What’s your eye color?

Gray-ish blue, or blue-ish gray, depending on the weather, but my pupils are way too big, so once in awhile they look black at a distance, and I’m accused of being creepy on purpose. Nope. Just have bad genetics.

7. Scary movie or happy ending?

So difficult! Happy ending, even if I’m seemingly unable to write them (mine are usually bittersweet). But a good scary movie is always fun, and horror is a guilty pleasure!

8. Any special talents?

I’m very good at creating reasonably complex stories out of nowhere, and the same with games (a.k.a. “good teacher skills” meet “good DM skills”). I can read languages easily, even some that are very different from mine (a.k.a. “the day I had to read an article in Dutch, even though the closest thing to it that I speak is English”). I don’t know... A good ear (and tongue) for accents?

9. Where were you born?

Curitiba, Brazil (it’s in the south, the cold bit).

10. What are your hobbies?

Lots of reading, less writing than I wanted to, bookbinding, crochet, some amateur lettering, some ocasional painting, some... How do you describe making costumes? Lots of walking aimlessly through the city while listening to things. Lots of singing. Playing rpgs, and a few regular tabletop games. Baking, and decorating the results. 

11. Do you have any pets?

The one listed as a daughter above. Her name is Amelié - I planed on calling her Amelia, actually, after Amelia Earhart, because she jumped so damn high when I adopted her, but I stopped by my mother’s house before going home, and she started calling her Amelié. That was two years ago. Last month, looking through some old family papers from my father’s side, I found out that my great grandmother, a french immigrant, was called Amelié as well, to my dad’s endless delight: now he can call my dog Granny every time he visits. 

12. What sports do you play/ have you played?

I tried a few things. Karate was the one that lasted longer, and my absolute favourite, but I had to stop after a handful of years, because college happened. Before that, I tried artistic gymnastics for a couple of years, and ended up screwing up both my knees in the process, which was so not fun (and that’s what happens when you don’t warm up!). As a kid I tried a year of ballet, a few months of volleyball, a few of kung fu, and so on, but I changed schools often, and ended up not settling. I did yoga for a while as well, mainly because my mom owns a studio, but I find it boring as hell. Lately I’ve been wanting to learn rollerskating, and considered going back to karate, but there’s still not a lot of time.

13. How tall are you?

1,70 m (170 cm. I believe 5′7 is the closest in the american system? But honestly, i do not know for sure. Maybe it’s 5′6...)

14. Favorite subject at school?

Oh, well, if there were no projectiles (I had to convince all my P.E. teachers chess was a valid sport) or overly organic things involved, I liked it. So, anything but biology, really, and that one mostly because I fainted a lot and found it icky. History is a given, and so are Literature/ Languages and Philosophy, but I used to love Math and Physics as well - I even studied electronics in high school as a technical course. Ok, yeah, I loved studying. It was fun.

15. Dream job?

Honestly, i’d like for my hobby to became an actual profession, and for me to be able to write fiction full time, and be paid for it (so far, I’ve got three short stories published, neither of which ever resulted in payment). Who knows...

Now, for the tagging bit. There will not be 15 people here, sorry. I’m too much the awkward kid at the playground to call this many people, and will do so only in the name of... I don’t know. Curiosity about how something will be written? The same idea that this feels a lot like a giant virtual game of tag (in the old sense of the word), and I’m simply wanting to be friendly by inviting someone to play? I’ll stop, now. So, anyone who feel like it, really, go for it.

@sinner-orion - Hey, hon! Sorry, you sent me something very similar at around the same date, and I failed miserably to answer! This one was a bit smaller, and I felt weird posting two answer-y things together, so instead, I’m answering some here, and sending you a few different ones (also here, I guess), in case you feel like it. Again, sorry...

@trumpetsandbookmarks (Sorry, but your writing and art are always such fun!) @lizziestudieshistory (finding other lost historians around is a treasure) @aimtomisbehave-shootempolitely (you have good taste in scientific articles, so...) @mrbrojangles (I don’t know, you’re always very sweet. Consider this a friendly wave) @akiltfulofcumming (hey, there! Yep, mr. Cumming is distracting. Still, any other obsessions?)

Yep. That’s a good enough number. Sorry for the notes. And the excessive apologies.