#like if you want to make a character based off of some random npc from an obscure franchise go ahead

[geminiiviolets]

if I made a fan dorm/fan school based around Nintendo characters would anyone want to join?

[nekodatta]

More Tears of the Kingdom/BOTW rambling based on the new trailer.

They seem to be building a lot of emphasis on the "you are not alone" part of the trailer. We see Link accompanied by the new champions in what looks like boss fights, Link straight up fighting side by side with Sidon against a random enemy, wide scale battles with NPCs fighting enemies by themselves, a shot of Link with what looks like more random NPCs overlooking a field.

This all seems to hint at an entire "building an army against Ganondorf" system, maybe unlocking new npc allies as you do sidequest for them, while the story important characters will join you as "full party allies" when you complete their various part of the story and maybe random battles will break out all over Hyrule.

And if this is really what is going on, I find it all so... Beautifully poetic, and perfectly in line with the fact that this originally started as "BOTW DLC".

In BOTW, you travel a broken Hyrule completely alone, only stopping at little villages and stables here and there to rest, to buy stuff, to prepare for the next part of your journey. You meet people on your travels, but you exchange some words at the most, help them with some sidequest, or maybe save them as they are attacked by monsters, and then you are off on your own again, preparing for the next Divine Beast, the next shrine, the next mountain to climb.

But now, all the work you've done in BOTW will pay off. People all over Hyrule *know* Link. Not as some chosen legendary hero, but as the random guy that showed up and helped them with some little thing in their life, or thar swooped in as they were being attacked, or that helped them in something as little as gathering some fireflies for a girl to just watch them glow in the night. (I loved that little sidequest btw)

And people in Hyrule now WANT to help Link back. They're not standing by the side and waiting for him to do all the work. They will step up and fight against Ganondorf's forces, and I hope that they "reuse assets" in the BEST way and actually make them be the SAME people you met in BOTW, name and all.

From waking up in a shrine completely alone, no memories of who you are, just a distant voice telling you that you have to accomplish this impossible sounding goal of defeating the calamity... To standing side by side with all the people you've helped, all the bonds you have forged after retracing your past and regaining your memories.

"You are not alone Link"

[choliosus]

I still think about qsmp purgatory

To me, that arc was absolutely perfect.

The stakes were so high, we genuinely thought some or all of the eggs might die depending on who the winners ended up being, and no one knew exactly how that would play out, so you had to just try damn hard to win for your kid. But there was even that chance that if your team did win that would be the wrong outcome and your kids would die.

But anyway the atmosphere was insane

That eye and the ominous fucking voice, that opening animatic of the mystery guy walking into a surveillance setup, monitoring everyone on the island, that’s so cool. So much mystery, so much implied power.

And then we get there and girlies have NOTHING. And it was fucking bugged or something for the first part so no one could fucking mine cobblestone. Then the random disadvantages pile on top of that, now you’ve got to worry about thirst, all the food is going bad and won’t stack.

And I watched Bolas pov so that’s what I am talking about:

This group was at every conceivable disadvantage. Right off the bat they only have like half the active members of the other groups, no one there is good at pvp, and most of those guys don’t really grind and play that much. They keep dying, Phil starts to make some progress and admins spawn mobs all around him to prevent even that. They give up, and resort to killing each other.

And somehow, from rock bottom, from passing through all the stages of grief and landing on insanity, this small group goes from being but a speck in the progress bar percentages to fucking winning the whole thing.

Watching their madness turn into actual power is sooooo wonderful to watch. They stay fully crazy. But somehow, that works. Going absolutely feral, saying fuck the rules and do whatever, yell mumbled nonsense at your enemies, steal all their shit, that’s the winning play.

There is something so gratifying in watching them go from day one of not having a base, dying over and over again, to week 2 where they are kinda doing the damn thing. And still don’t have a real base and die over and over. I mean that’s literally Jaiden’s main strategy.

And then Baghera with the fucking chainsaw. And Cellbit leaning into his character’s preestablished bloodlust thingy, and everyone collectively building off of each other’s energy.

And something about watching my favorite blorbos lose their goddamn minds for 5 hours every day. I loved every second of it. And it wouldn’t be able to be much longer, Slimecicle for one was absolutely exhausted, that guy doesn’t stream for more than a few hours and now he was grinding for 5 a day. Only adds to the chaos.

But the pace, it being every day and yet a scramble because of the time limit of play time.

The stakes of the eggs lives potentially being on the line

The complete foreign nature of an entirely new island?? With a new scary npc??? Unprecedented.

I absolutely love this arc.

It’s been a while and I still think about it.

I’m mostly making this post because we’ll mainly it’s 2am and that’s the sort of thing you do at 2am but also because I remember like during and right after the prison event people saying that was their favorite qsmp arc

And like good for you bestie but I do not get it

My heart belongs to purgatory

And I want to submit “ok but do you remember-“ to the council because it was fucking perfect.

And omg the fucking bolas shrine and Baghera and cellbit cameo in purgatory 2 like, ah my heart.

Bolas forever o7

[probablynotasquid]

i've been watching a lot of drawfee lately and seeing all the @vaaiz content lately had motivated me to draw something, and that something just happened to be a pretty much self-insert oc lmao

behold my tumblr persona as a genshin character :DD some details under the cut if youre interested ;)))

Name: Squid (nickname, probably)

Affiliation: Apam Woods

Vision: Anemo

Weapon: Catalyst

Constellation: Architeuthis

they use finger guns to fire anemo bullets :D their elemental burst summons a fungus friend that deals an extra instance of anemo dmg every 1.5 seconds and reduces the enemy's elemental res to whatever it swirls

some random details/facts:

has aloy's vision shell type because they're technically an outlander as well

they call themselves 'squid' but nobody believes it's their real name bc who would name their child squid lmao

they live in the apam woods just vibing with the fungi in a crappy little hut up in one of the huge trees

also befriended some dusk birds and teaches them to talk

uses their vision to traverse the woods and peep above the canopy

sometimes helps the forest rangers with withering zones (they encountered tighnari one day and he tried to kill their fungus friends lmao rip but they're cool now)

love language is giving people little rocks or shinies or things from the forest that make them think of someone

collei especially has a little pile of pebbles and a single decorated ruin guard piece somewhere in her room

tighnari once opened his door to find a piece of driftwood poorly carved into a little fox on his doorstep

lowkey wants to try on cyno's funky hat but has never actually seen him around and would never ask anyway because they're way too intimidated

fun fact this design is actually v2 because v1 didn't look very genshin so i did a bit of an overhaul :D i tried to make the longer cape things' inner design look a bit like tentacles but idk how well it really worked ahah

i didn't really base them off of any real-life culture, rather in-game sumeru npcs (corps of thirty, merchants...) they're not originally from sumeru but they're technically living in the region so i figured i would try and make them look like it lol

i know this isn't what you followed for but you know what i had fun drawing this up and exploring their character a little bit so humour me lol

i realise now that it actually seems a bit like i based quite a bit off vaaiz but i didn't i swear we're just too similar asdfghjkl im sorry i did my best to make them their own character

[ratgingi]

some little doodles and rambles pages :-] bonus Longer Ramble under cut, goes into some general oc stuff as well as kinda how things work in my oc group set up

on the topic of michy, her name is accidentally a nod sorta to her relationship with mingus. since her last name is knight . you can make the connections there but it was Not intentional on my part i just happened to name her that (just like i. named her michelle before finding out that was mingus' original name HJSHBAVJDSAB) and my qpp cress pointed out the potential for it

speaking of names, i got inspired to pick jacksons name based on a tiktok i saw while creating him, with a character named 'chase wood'. i thought it was Really Funny but didnt want to directly rip either of those names so got to work thinking of something. i took the name jackson from the song that sort of inspired his personality (called "jackson, you are dying" by picture us tiny) and grabbed the last name coxx after seeing a randomly generated npc in a video i was watching to complete the joke

also charlie got his last name the same way jackson did in the sense of a random npc in a game video i was watching had it and i thought it was good enough. while i was trying to figure out what kind of name to give him (hed already had the name charlie for a good while, since he was a generic objecthead oc i had but decided should Become a dt one) a character named 'warden steiner' was mentioned like. once. and i thought that sounded close to frankenstein and was like. yeah thatll be cool

also kara has a second major nondateable technically. she may or may not get scrapped bc shes genuinely horrible (i hate. writing her. i made her design pretty nice but i just actually hate her BHJSJHABJD), but shes a rival from karas pageanting days who would lead to two different bad ends if she became real, one of which is. a death end for kara. i dont wanna go into full detail bc again its likely to get scrapped just bc i literally hate the rival but tldr kara gets shot(? or smth idk she eats absolute shit either way) during a performance because the rival convinced the player that the only way to help kara realize performing isnt for her was to sabotage it and it goes Wrong. the other bad end is just kara trying to warn the player that the rival isnt good to hang around and eventually cuts off from the player which would lead to the shit yourself and die end bc player probably gets thrown under the bus by the rival during smth. most likely in a literal sense

i wanna talk about mechanics some now uhhhhhhhh ok so on the topic of 'major nondateables'

i have probably explained how it works before but in order for a character to qualify as a 'major nondateable' they have to 1. heavily effect the route [to the point of interactions with them being able to change its course] and/or 2. heavily influence the route's dateable's thoughts/actions/general motivations during it, sometimes both. they also CANNOT be another dateable in a different route. if i were to apply this to in-game characters for example, mr dickens would be a major nondateable from olivers route, and mayor mingus would be a major nondateable from norms. the majors dont have to have an active presence near the dateable during the route, they just have to apply to the above guidelines. these are the reasons why characters like exie, adelaide, stephan, stop, etc are not considered major nonedateables, because while they are close with the dateables from the routes they have a presence in, they do not change the route or motivate the dateable toward anything. charlie actively changes the route and clearly has a big sway over lillith, oakey would be mentioned several times by kara as a reasoning for why she says or does certain things during her route, and juniper - despite not being close to margo - has the ability to effect the outcome of the route.

and not every route Has to have one obviously . and there are some that would Technically be major nondateables for each other (ex. murr and roe, isaac and vinnie) but Because the other half of the pair is also dateable in a separate route, they do not qualify

also smth i dont think ive talked abt much is the fact that yes outis genuinely does call the ocean his wife. i mentioned he does that a few times when i first made him but there would be several points in his route where he does this (its mostly joking but there would be points where hed be talking abt it and say smth like 'i love my wife a lot but she scares me very much'). also originally i was going to give him a shark tooth on his necklace, based on the one i have irl, but the story for my irl one is a guy punched it out of a sharks mouth and i think if outis found out about that hed start crying and would not want anything to do with it. so shell necklace it was

also the two instances the petstore would show up in are once in outis' route and once at the end of murrs. for outis, you would be accompanying him to his shift that day, and brainstorming ideas for what you can do to try and figure out how to help him overcome his anxiety. kiki would approach you once you arrive and would spend a moment interrogating the player on who they were and what their intentions with her friend were, and would occasionally chime in with her opinion while you talk to him. in murrs route, youre taking him there to introduce him to the idea of maybe getting a pet he can dote on. after he doesnt really connect with any of the animals there would be a little interaction with twerpy where he gives the two of you directions to the shelter that their sister works at and he decides hell go sometime alone. (he ends up getting a cat, her name is darling and hed kill for her. you dont get to meet her bc murr and roe still dont show up in ch3/4 but she Exists)

murrey is a firm believer in the concept of true love and believes hes found it multiple times in the past, and absolutely Despises the thought that some people have of only being able to really find it Once. during his route thats what hes chasing (there would be a point where he complains hes gone so long without feeling true love that he intends to find it again, and the player has the option to tell him you can only find it once - which would start you down one of his bad ends), and the thought that its something you can only obtain once and never again makes him incredibly miserable.

murr is also entirely aware that there are different kinds of true love, but hes been stewing in his loneliness for so long that the romantic kind is the only one his brain will allow him to focus on. this is why his good end sort of helps remind him of that along side dealing with his loneliness in healthier ways

also adelaide has a side job at the shelter as well. when you meet her with margo and juniper in chapter 4 shed mention something about murr adopting darling and inform you that hes a lot happier now that he has the cats company. also margo and juniper are doing better after your help as well bc margo is getting a bit better at communicating and juniper is trying to be less. [gestures vaguely] . shes still an ass bc thats just her but yknow what i mean

also im thinking about making michy my only dateable that shows up in chapter 3. everyone else's interactions that would be in ch3 have been moved to 'chapter 4' but she was my first gal i think she deserves her spot there. youd meet her with norm while heading down to the subway and shed run up to you two after recognizing his voice (shed talk about being on her way to a date with her partners, i Wanna make them show up in person but as they both belong to friends of mine im not confirming anything really bfhdjbfdjs) and talk about how after your help to get out of her parasocial issue shes found true love and is focusing more on her friendships and her happiness. :-]

also funfact i have partial scene scripts for stephan and stops routes somewhere on my laptop. they were both going to be dateables at one point and i wrote a little about what mightve happened + pieces of a scene from each but idk if ill be able to find them nor will i ever show them if i do probably but they are there. somewhere

also !! alex is intersex . i dont think ive ever stated that anywhere bc it isnt really relevant to the story or anything but its pride month so might as well share. good for them

also i am gonna confirm at least ONE of the library dateables is actually a vampire. probably. yall dont get to know who though (my qpp knows but cress keep that info to urself /vlh)

i had more i wanted to say but forgot to write down somewhere so. take this

[thecoolertails]

pokemon black/white nuzlocke tips:

- use a guide. in fact use multiple guides. serebii is your best friend, always try to make sure you know what pokemon each trainer will have before you fight them and what moves they have, even random trainers on routes. there are also online trackers to help you keep track of what you've caught on each route and tell you about upcoming important battle. and there's the nuzlockedex wiki which provides useful information about different evolution lines in reference to nuzlocking specifically (though there are some pages that are absent, you'll have to resort to serebii and googling for those).

- track your EVs and use the marriland IV calculator so you know your team's stengths/weaknesses and can work around them. bulbapedia has a list of all EV yields that each pokemon gives. if you're using a browser that automatically refreshes, keep track of EVs in a notes app/notebook etc. because there's no way to check them in-game

- gym battles are actually pretty difficult in this generation, especially if you're limiting item use or following level-caps. plan your strategy out before challenging them and keep them in mind when building your team and your pokemons' movepools

- grinding can take a long time in this gen because EXP yields are calculated based off of your own pokemon's level in addition to the opponent's. a convenient way around this is audino grinding, because they give significantly more EXP than other pokemon. they can be found on just about any route with grass, specifically in shaking grass (though in some routes there can be other pokemon found there as well)

- you don't need to be in the grass in order to make shaking grass appear. every time you move a tile, all grass in a 5x5 area around your character has a small chance to start shaking. this can be manipulated so that you don't have to cross any other grass to get to your rare pokemon, eliminating risk of an unwanted encounter. you could also use a repel, because repels don't stop rustling grass encounters. other phenomenon (like rippling water and dust clouds) work the same way as rustling grass, and because there's a limit on one phenomenon happening in an area at a time, you'll have to stay away from water if you're trying for a pokemon in the grass, or else a ripple could appear instead and you'll have to leave the area and come back.

- speaking of audino, if your ruleset includes a dupes clause, you should pick up an audino in the dreamyard. it's almost a guarantee to get one from the shaking grass there, and after beating the first gym is the earliest you can catch one (shaking grass doesn't appear until then). besides audino, the only pokemon available in the dreamyard at that point in the game are munna and purrloin in the normal grass, and a small chance for musharna in the shaking grass. if you catch an audino here, you can guarantee rarer pokemon from shaking grass later because you've already caught audino. audino is also generally a great addition to your nuzlocke team due to its bulk, deep movepool, and normal typing which boosts the move Return's power up to a max power of 153.

- unless you're limiting which starter you can pick, get tepig. you want a guaranteed fighting type for lenora, and a guaranteed fire type for burgh.

- the elemental monkeys are actually pretty decent, don't overlook them. if you count gift pokemon as your encounter for an area, you can get an audino somewhere else.

- TMs are infinitely reusable in this generation. take full advantage of this, and keep it in mind when you're deciding what moves to overwrite

- dont play risky. if a crit from any of the opposing pokemon's moves could kill your pokemon, switch it out (unless that would get more important pokemon killed). when grinding, do it on the edges of grass closest to a pokemon center or healing NPC so you dont have to risk an encounter on the way back. pay attention when you're grinding, even if its against lower level pokemon.

- level up more than 6 pokemon if you have them and keep a rotating team so you dont have to spend time grinding up low level pokemon to replace your fallen comrades. it also keeps more options open for important trainers

- dont hold off on evolving pokemon unless there's an important move their evolution(s) can't learn, and if you have to wait for a high level to get it, it might not be worth it -- especially if the baby stage is really weak (usually the case) and might not even make it there.

- consistency is important. try not to rely heavily on moves with low accuracy, evasion tactics, confusion, etc if you dont have to, especially for important/difficult battles. they can be useful as an extra level of security, but don't rely on them

[ultyso]

So my friend let us come over to try the XVI demo on their PS5.

Overall I’d give it a 6/10. Not something I’d immediately rush to buy a PS5 for. But if I did own a PS5 already, I wouldn’t object to buying the game.

Here’s my thoughts included below. Forewarning this point forwards is spoiler territory:

So played the demo and there are some things I liked and some things that’d prob be better the more I’d get to play. But from just the Demo, it just didn’t really hype me up as much as it did for others. I’m not really into medieval type games, which prob is a major factor. But, I didn’t want this to deter me so tried to give this a fighting chance by going in with an open mind.

For those who may not know, I’ve played many FF. Not every single one out there but to give some info on what I have if it means anything for you: VI, VII series, VIII, IX, X series, XII partly, XIII series, XIV slightly, XV

The first Eikon fight, reminded me of Panzer Dragoon so thought that was kind of neat. Starting the game off with fighting Ifrit just had me thinking of how XV had started with an Ifrit as well. I figured after this fight it would move back to the past afterword, but it didn’t do it as quickly. I did like the whole fight, found it interesting. ^^

The UI is nice and simple. I like how it’s all formatted, easy to pick up and learn. Nothing cluttered.

For gameplay, this is probably the strongest point it has. It feels like an enhanced gameplay of XV, making it much better. I like all the different skills you can acquire (based on what I saw for the Eikon challenge mode I played after.) I honestly like the most how the dodging is in the game. It’s such a simple thing, but idk it just moved so smoothly, I liked it.

Not having to hit any buttons to pick up items was probably the best thing to! Biggest grievance with XV with the pick up/interact and jump being same button was so annoying.

I know everyone said it was super lax but the scene with Bernadictka and Titan dude still made me uncomfortable as hell 😂

I do find the ‘oh we must go and do this important task but first do this random side quest’ so you can learn further fight mechanics, felt a bit wonky and could have flown more seamlessly a different way. Just kinda took me out. I liked Wade he amused me. The marlboro fight was interesting, fairly simple, I liked how they did the QTE events but I felt it dragged on longer than needed to be, like health a little too high. So sometimes the fighting got boring.

I wish the environments were less dull looking. Everything is so grey. I hope this is not so much the further in you go. The only times it looked visually very pretty were the Eikon fights.

As for the characters, I’m not really feeling anyone. honestly a lot just def give generic NPC vibes. None really made me care about them a whole lot. Except Torgal. I loved the furry baby. Clive not really anything omg about him. He’s typical duty bound character. He’s just ok. The dad tho lookin nice 👀👀 well till they killed him off right in front of poor Joshua, poor kid gonna have major trauma. I was sad they killed him off already. This whole scene just like XV. betrayal and killing the dad part. Uhm the wife is an asshole, scumbag I forget her name. Joshua is alright. He’s just trying his best. His voices sounds weird to me sometimes when it gets all cracky, but I can tolerate it. This other dude I forget the name of just looks like Clive with a slight different hair cut. Also wtf my sis wasn’t kidding with her issues with there being no diversity to the designs. Everyone looking like generic white dudes lmao.

The map looks so much like how Stranger of Paradise is. Which made me a little eh. Hope we’ll be able to manually travel more than what was given.

Poor Joshua for getting all beat up by Ifrit like that was so not okay 😤 Poor kid. If anything with Joshua, I just feel bad for the mess this kid has had to go through already.

When I got to the thanks for playing, I was all ‘that’s it?’ So it was engaging enough I wanted to continue playing despite some of the issues I had. Hoping that a lot of what I was meh of will be improved upon later as you’ll get to know characters more and move to new places.

Uhm those were main things I remember. So some good and bad but a lot of things left me lackluster. It is pretty much what I expected I’d feel based on my thoughts from the trailers, they didn’t change much. My main thought was that like Stranger of Paradise, the gameplay would be more engaging than story, which it is too for XVI for me. I personally wouldn’t call this game the pinnacle of Final Fantasy. It doesn’t scream the best of the best, at least just from demo standpoint. Thoughts could change the more that is played beyond.

I’m not super hooked. If I had a PS5 I’d buy the game. It’s not a game that I’d be all “I need to buy a PS5 stat” I can wait it out. It’s overall just an OK game. Of course, these are just my opinions. Everyone else is clearly ok to like it lmao.

[professor-tammi]

more azure gleam rambles, up to chapter 11 :D

- looking through some of my screencaps (which I sadly have no easy way to upload to my computer...), I recall now that back in the Rescue Dimitri chapter, Rodrigue and Gustave are also in the capital causing a diversion, and Felix is the one character who wants to capitalize on this to go to straight to Dimitri. Shez and Annette have to step in and tell him to not just, leave the others behind (Annette obviously worrying about her father). ... the implications of this are interesting...

- this is not a Felix hating Rodrigue thing, for the record -- there’s also a base conversation with a random NPC who comments that Felix doesn’t seem to be on that bad terms with his dad. and, being perfectly honest, the more of their interactions I see, the more clear it is to me that Felix is just that angry 14 year old that never grew out of his “screw you dad” phase :’) (Rodrigue IS a good dad I swear)

- Cornelia outright tells Dimitri that Edelgard is the one who killed Patricia in Hopes, which is... curious. he doesn’t believe her, though! quite the change from Houses!Dimitri :D he does believe that Edelgard knows something, however , so his next goal at that point in the story is to have an actual talk with her at Arianrhod.

- after Count Rowe’s death but before the Arianrhod chapter, there’s a NPC in camp who talks about Count Rowe having an adopted son with a “beautiful face” who also had an “air of viciousness” about him, and that Count Rowe was “completely enamored” with him (obviously, this is about Yuri)... in the pre-chapter scene, Yuri reveals he tipped off the Empire about secret passages in Arianrhod and Gwendal goes wait I never told you about those, to which Yuri responds, verbatim,

“No, but the count did. I won’t be sharing under what circumstances, though.”

... huh?? huh. Koei. are you implying what I think you’re implying here.

(anyhow, Yuri is actually quite happy to be recruited to the Kingdom since he has friends and family there, so it’s nice to have a guilt-free recruit, unlike, say, Dorothea. Yuri having supports with Dimitri, Ashe, and Sylvain is all also very interesting -- excited to see those!)

- as most people who read spoilers probably know at this point, Edelgard is forcibly transformed into her Hegemon form by Thales after Arianrhod (though not before telling Dimitri that Thales is the orchestrator of the Tragedy), destroying much of the fortress and leaving Dimitri heavily wounded and, most notably, leaving Edelgard as nothing more than a mute puppet afterward -- I heard some people call it mind control but it’s not really that, she’s just... not there. Thales then uses this as an opportunity to install Duke Aegir as the Emperor.

now, I do not like that AG reduces Edelgard to this, but I think I understand why the writers made this decision. not too rarely, you see people ponder why Edelgard didn’t just move against the Slithers earlier in 3H; and when she does so in Hopes, she seems to get off scot-free... except for in AG. this is where her decision to make an enemy of Thales comes back to bite her; it’s the writers saying, “this is something that could happen to Edelgard if she moves against the Slithers without preparing properly first, and that’s why she works with them in 3H”. I feel less upset about the whole thing with that justification in mind.

- ... anyhow, since Dimitri is injured, there’s a brief little story moment where he makes a pained noise and Felix just goes “Dimitri” in concern and yes this is noteworthy because he actually says his name :D!

- supports stuff! Dedue/Dimitri A is, as expected, very sweet. Dimitri acknowledges and, I think more interestingly, accepts that Dedue is dependent on him because he Dedue tells him nothing is changing that -- so he promises to take better care of himself for Dedue’s sake, rather than his own. (... because Dimitri, being the character he is, would never place any value on himself for his own sake.)

- I’ve already posted the Dimitri/Felix A support, but. I swear it reads like Dimilix fic dialogue. Dimitri confiding in Felix about his hallucinations? Felix being... actually a surprisingly good therapist about it? oh, and not only that, but also Dimitri acknowledging that Felix is the only reason he hasn’t gone completely mad? Dimitri asking Felix to be his right-hand man and Felix dragging him off to bed in response? this is just shipfic content. honestly.

(you know people always say dimitri needs a therapist but we never realized felix was the therapist he needed all along. oh my god)

- Shez / Dimitri B support features Dimitri waking up from a coma after having been hit by some stray magic and Shez commenting that everyone was worried, and that “Dedue and Felix in particular didn’t know didn’t know what to do with themselves”... aww...

- Sylvain/Ingrid’s A support is also very cute (and bantery) -- I just love the Lions dynamics!! -- and features Sylvain mentioning he really enjoys watching Ingrid eat, which I HAVE to mention because the Felix/Dimitri dining hall dialogue has Dimitri also talk about how he loves to watch Felix eat. the Sylvgrid / Dimilix parallels are back! :D

- I am less enamored with the Mercedes/Annette A support... I suppose that their relationship, while cute, has always struck me as a bit forced and shallow compared to the myriad of other pre-established relationships in 3H, and unfortunately Hopes doesn’t change that at all. (I have a sneaking suspicion their A support was hit by some censorship again, though.)

- also it seems my hunch about Ingrid no longer blaming Duscur for Glenn’s death in Hopes was right, that’s an Academy phase-only thing -- Dimitri’s support with her actually addresses some very interesting things, including why Dimitri didn’t just tell Ingrid that it wasn’t people from Duscur who killed Glenn... but Ingrid acknowledges that she probably wouldn’t have listened to him even if he had.

Ingrid also admits that now that she no longer hates the people of Duscur, she instead feels so ashamed of herself that she doesn’t really know how to act around them (which I sort of noticed in the base camp dialogue she had with a Duscur soldier earlier? like, she was nice and polite, but came across as slightly awkward)... which reads as surprisingly... real? I very much think this is something actual irl people who were raised to be racist but who want to do better struggle with, too. and yes -- this just means they’re being racist in a different way, but being able to acknowledge that fact means you can actually start to address it

... so tl;dr I liked the support, it was good :D

[electronicdelusionstarlight]

I downloaded skyrim again to play this weekend, I remember you having a lot of mods, do you have any recomendations?(i already installed ordinator btw)

Ok, uh, top of my head mind you, don't have my computer and nexus account at hand for now I'm probably giving a more detailed answer later.

First off, remember to get the "Downgrader" patch for Skyrim otherwise you're stuck with AE, which limits your SKSE plug ins choice, some of which are indispensable by now to make the game functional at a large amount of mods (I am around 1.3K mods as of now and it works like a charm honestly).

So, as you mentioned with Ordinator, there's Enai Sion whole package of Overhauls. It's fairly extensive, but does have a couple flaws people usually complain about, mostly about the author being kind of a dick and doesn't really handle criticism well, but also an abundance of random "summons" effects for some of his mods (like, a couple perks of Ordinator are literally all about summoning random creatures on battle start).

In case you want something less extensive and whose author is less of a dick, there's SimonMagus overhauls, usually put as a direct counterweight to the Enai Sion overhauls. It's more "vanilla" friendly tho.

So, for gameplay mods I think it depends on what your character is set up as. There's the usual basic shit of course, UESP, RaceMenu, SkyUI etc, SKSE and all.

There's SPID, which is a SKSE plug in, which will distribute spells, weapons and armours from mods to NPCs. It's needed to make the game far more varied.

Immersive Creatures, Weapons and Armours for some variety of course.

I unfortunately can't remember all my spell mods right now. There's colourful magic which gives you not just spells but also a lot of powerful bosses to fight.

There's a bunch of packs by Mihail that give you more monsters in the game, divided by type (Dwemer, Undead etc). You will need to ZEdit them into a fused ESP tho since they are all ESPs. Otherwise there's the Monster Mash which does the same but it's less fucked with creatures. You can have both but mind you if you do you'll have duplicate monsters, no issues for the game but it will clutter your game with monsters.

Quest mods lets see... The Vicn Trilogy is obviously a must, Vigilant, Glenmoril and Unslaad, then there's Forgotten City (it even got a standalone game on Steam now), Clockwork for a horror mod, then there's... I guess Project AHO if you can handle the slavery apologia, Beyond Skyrim Bruma tho it's still unfinished, Beyond Rich has some major edge in it if you can handle it (like, straight up sex violence and forced birth shit).

They recently released a "Defeat" mod based on the nemesis system from shadow of mordor which turns enemies who kill you into nemesises that get stronger and gain titles and names.

Followers wise there's Khash, Inigo, Lucien, Mharphin if you can handle the Stanley Parable like plot.

Cringe Mods there's Ambriel and Dragon Break, they are really bad but you can have a laugh at it.

Rigmor of Bruma/Cyrodil is also bad but it's more boring honestly. Tho it does have some charm and some really cool characters like Dave the Werewolf or Rose, the issue is everything involving Rigmor tho.

Can't think much else, will add to it later probably tho.

[calipersandtongs]

The Universal NPC’s Homeworld

I’m still piecing together the storyline for my next video. Initially I was going to create some kind of compilation video with funny clips from past videos since I recently hit 5000 subscribers on YouTube (if you’re subscribed to my channel thanks for subscribing! 😊) So I wanted to do something a bit different before moving onto my next game NPC video since it’s a milestone. Also I was going to start building the NPC museum I mentioned in my last video. 

So if you plan on watching the video I’ll probably be covering everything here in that video anyway. Also I posted some of this on twitter before yesterday. I just felt like rambling about my ideas and mods I’m looking at lol.

Somehow this morphed from museum though to ‘dream world where Rod Humble’s computer stash is really located.’ So I started building this as a subhood for Blightgate. It’s called z_¦¦S•e•¦¦D••¦o¦¦••N¦¦ªa••¦¦¦• based on the Sedona hood which was scrapped by Maxis at some point in development but still has the hood template + references in game files + a flythrough.) I wanted to use a glitch text editor to make some weird looking names for all the lots but The Sims 2 can’t display that text so I just kind of used random characters that would show up instead. 

There’s a train station lot (which I downloaded from mts a while ago called Simton Railway Station it’s actually a really great lot outside of what I’m using it for right now haha.) Then I found this awesome effects collection by Sophie-David so I could actually have trains running through! 

When I was working on my Don Lothario Machinima I realised that lots placed close to the edge of the world in Strangetown have this kind of fading effect where they disappear into the sky. This was pretty great for Vidcund’s dream sequence but also in this case allowed me to have the train kind of floating off.

So there’s a kind of backrooms maze type lot I’m working on too here and one of the rooms is kind of an gnome room. So I was looking through more of Sophie-David's mods because they have some more magical effects I haven’t added yet but I think would look cool. And then I noticed they had a mod called ‘Gnome of Protection’ which is so funny and has lots of uses(including summoning a gnome guardian that intercepts burglars, repo-men and Mrs Crumplebottom,) but it also can stop Sims from stealing the Gnomes to quote:

“Basegame gnomes may still be stolen, but potential perpetrators will typically be distracted to come and admire the Gnome of Protection instead of committing gnome theft. As a side effect, these Sims will gain just enough Niceness points to prevent them from stealing gnomes in the future."

haha love that so much. I was having an issue with Sims stealing the gnomes in the gnome room lol so I might have to add one of those instead of just locking the door which is less interesting. 

The entrance (will be adding more effects/changing some things later):

I’m trying to find ways to incorporate more Blightgate characters into the storyline too and obviously Victor is still technically on a mission to find Rod Humble’s computer source to become a full member of the Shadow crime family since Rod keeps escaping him. I remembered that I actually have a more minor character who lives with her friends who actually came to Blightgate in the hope of setting up a museum so this seems like the perfect time to cover that household. I’ve said this before but I headcannon the universal NPC’s as being cryptid type beings that can travel between worlds. So they kind of come from a magical location in the game files and aren’t rooted in any of the neighbourhoods regular Sims live in. Well besides the ones that have temporarily moved into spaces in my game like Mrs Crumplebottom lives in Blightgate for now.

[michajawkan]

@hfarash replied to your post “You there! Tell me about one of your imaginary gay...”:

Okay yeah, that's fair, "gay girls" does kind of cover your entire wheelhouse. Pick one based on a tabletop game that isn't D&D or Lancer

​Hi I fell asleep and then got distracted but I'm awake and un-distracted so good morning I'm using this as an excuse to talk about one of my Double Cross characters bc I don't have a lot of opportunities for that okay here we go-

Okay, so, her name is Velvet, she's an interplanetary rover and a Renegade being (talked about before here) (tl;dr: the setting's superpower juice can infect things beyond humans, including robotics, and non-human things it infects can disguise themselves as humans) the basic concept came from people humanizing electronics and especially like, the specific way they do it for the ones designed to explore space (bc it's one of the few times it comes off as genuinely sweet and not weird), and as with all things that I find kind of neat, I made a character about it;

SO, a lot of character creation in Double Cross has the option to use random tables to roll or pick from and while most elements can just be done freestyle if you want, I like the tables, so a lot of this next bit is gonna talk about me interpreting said tables because I think it was fun-

First up is actually something that doesn't come from a table, which is work and cover, work is what the character does and it affects their stats and skill and etc, and cover is what they appear to be normally, like your work could be "vigilante" while your cover was "businessman", for a completely random example- So, Velvet is a Renegade being so her Work is that she's a Renegade Being (C) and her cover is that she's an information broker, because she comes installed with wifi and also picked up a some secrets by being an advanced piece of robotics built to explore space

Then for the next bit there's Origin, Experience, Encounter, Awakening, and Impulse, the former three are to set up connections with other people bc themes and etc and the latter two describe how you came into contact with the Renegade and your primary feeling when you go sicko mode for whatever reason

So for Origin she gets "Watched from Above" which suggests "Protector" as the relevant person, so, because she's exploring distant planets, "Above" becomes "down on Earth" with the protector being a member of the operating staff, Experience is "Harsh Environment" and you'd think that'd be space, and it kind of is part of it, but I'm also using it to describe the environment she returns to, and the "Ally" it suggests as the connection is going to be a small animal (I haven't actually decided specifically what bc I haven't done any art yet but my first thought is a lab rat but I'm also compelled by maybe a squirrel or a small bird)

Now Encounter is an interesting one bc this table actually directs you to specific NPCs with full profiles, for that one I ended up rolling Admiration for the student council president who's hardworking and super nice and cute and everyone likes her and yeah I'll take that free yuri--

Awakening is one that I had a lot of fun with bc the only mechanical effect is that it dictates a portion of the stat that indicates how active your Renegade is by default and I was having a hard time choosing between Anger and Yearning, but then I noticed that they have the exact same value mechanically, so I decided the answer is both-

and then Impulse is, well, an impulse your character has when they lose control because themes, mechanics, etc-- her's isn't esp interesting bc it's Hatred, which is just an extension of her awakening being Anger-

Okay this is taking too long and I'm getting embarrassed so the last segment is what she's actually capable of doing with her abilities so I'll make this slightly quicker maybe idk I'm trying--

All the powers in this game are divided into one of 13 syndromes and you get to pick between 1-3 of them, Velvet has 2 and they're Black Dog (control over electricity and by extension machinery, electronics, magnetism, cybernetics, etc) and Morpheus (creation and manipulation of items, a lot of its abilities are equipment upgrades and pulling new gear out of thin air)

The former was obviously necessary bc she's a robot so ofc she has a bunch of the cybernetic powers but then for Morpheus I actually just picked that one specifically for one of their RP-only powers, Component Analysis

y'know, bc she's a rover, it'd be weird if she couldn't identify materials-

[todayimgonnaplay]

Today I'm Gonna Play: Red Dead Redemption 2

To be honest, I'm a GTA fan (yes I'm also excited for 6). I had 0 intention of ever playing the Red Dead series as I'm not into the Wild West, but I copped it on a whim a few years ago. Did this game change my mind about the setting? Let's find out. Spoiler: It kind of did.

This game is massive. Like REALLY massive. Both in the game world, mechanics and even the storage space. There's so much to do that you could either get excited by it all and want to try everything out, or get overwhelmed. I initially felt the former and then the latter after the novelty wore out, which made me focus on story mode after the first 10 hours of my playthrough or so. I also went on and off with this game due to performance issues but got it fixed down the lane. But anyways, this world is definitely a lot more alive than I expected. The biggest feature that got me was that you could interact with NPCs. Greet them, antagonize them, defuse the situation or rile it up even more.. I can't think of any other game that does that. And what surprised me even more were the random events. I enjoyed doing them in GTA V since a couple of the dialogue were just absolutely nuts, but RDR 2 takes it up a notch in a different way. Your actions ACTUALLY have consequences. I've had NPCs remember me for saving them, or see their life turned around (didn't experiment with being a jerk to them) which made them feel like real people. I've been in situations where it was too late to get to them, and all I was left with was a brutal, grim silence and a sense of mourning. I still remember when I was crossing by a mountain during the night, and came across a man being attacked by a wolf from afar. He was screaming in a foreign language (assuming Spanish), and I tried to aim at the wolf, but I was too late. That moment has been haunting me since then. Another great aspect is probably the elephant in the room, the story. Admittedly with my lack of interest in this kind of setting, I wasn't too hooked in the beginning. Didn't care much about the characters or even the protagonist. I'm so happy to say I was proven wrong by the second half when everything started to pick up. I don't think I've seen a better protagonist than Arthur Morgan, nor did I realize the significance of his journey and how much of an impact he can make around him based on what you do. Rockstar somehow managed to create an anti-hero so ruthless (in terms of what he does) yet so emotional. He's a great example of being imperfect, but yet tries to be better with any means possible. Arthur is one of those protagonists that I would remember for a long time, like a friend. However, I do have some nitpicks about the game. As detailed and impressive this game is, it does have some complex controls. For PC players, playing this on keyboard would be an absolute nightmare with the amount of actions in this game (but if you do play this on keyboard comfortably, hats off to you!). It seems like a game that's better designed for controllers. Even apart from multiple controls, there were times where the controls themselves were a little rough. Many times I've accidentally knocked over someone simply because the game couldn't stop me in time, or I take about 5 seconds to try to do something specific with my horse because I'm not lined up properly to trigger the action. It's a bit of a weird downgrade from previous Rockstar games.

And although this game enourages you to take it slow, there were times where I just really wanted to get to my destination asap. As much as the game is beautiful, it does give a bit of a sensory overload at times. In cases like this you would normally use fast travel, but this is only restricted to travelling from your camp (which is your base). So if you're in the middle of nowhere and far from your camp, good luck.

Nevertheless, this was the type of game that had me thinking a lot after playing. I also admittedly cried for an entire week, and no game or piece of media in general has made me cry for that long. I think it's worth trying it out even if cowboys or that particular time period are not your thing. You might end up liking it, or not. And they're both okay.

[apple-pecan]

Star Ocean: The Second Story R (2023)

for years star ocean has been a very strange JRPG series to get into. it's a series that peaked in it's second entry, but still somehow managed to survive despite it's glory days being long behind it; it's the JRPG equivalent of the simpsons! but now, finally after all these years, star ocean has been made good again. and they did it by... remaking the entry that peaked the series. but don't write it off just because it's a remake... because it has managed to completely eclipse the original and become the new best entry in the series' 27 year long history.

if you haven't played a star ocean before, think of the tales series from namco, but with more emphasis on decision making, item crafting, and character growth. in fact, this series was developed by triAce, which consists of the team that made tales of phantasia. the combat is not turn based but consists of action gameplay. you run around in battle arenas with three other party members and beat up all the enemies in a sort of similar fashion to a beat em up or fighting game. it's pretty fun, although by the end of the game it kind of becomes button mashy once you have all the best abilities; in this game, equipment, items and stats matter more than reflexes.

second story is a PS1 game from 1998 that i always liked quite a lot, and this remake does what the best kinds of remakes do and made the original completely irrelevant. THIS is the definitive version of the game. there's no stupid plot changes that plague the FF7 remake; the plot remains exactly the same, and while it's not the most deep or amazing plot out there, it has some fun likable characters (except leon) that you'll love to spend time with. in fact, spending time with party members (similar to social links in persona) affects the ending of the game you get. there are 99 possible endings, good fucking luck getting them all.

the graphics are obviously awesome, but they've made so many quality of life changes that make the best star ocean even better. you can now see enemies on the screen instead of random encounters. you can actually see during item creation the success rate and what items you can or have made. you can craft multiple items at once if you have the resources. you can fast travel out of dungeons if your supplies are dwindling or if you need to by items.

all good stuff, but the things that made the original so unique are all kept! you can still compose music that grants special effects to the party as long as the music is playing. you can still wear a thief glove and pickpocket any npc in the game, even your own party members. you can still request the aid of birds to go back to town and buy stuff for you if you don't feel like leaving the dungeon. you can still ride on the back of a giant bunny and zoom all over the overworld. the original had so many crazy things you can do and you can still do all of it just fine in this remake, alleviating my fears.

i could go on, but long story short, this is now the gold standard for JRPG remakes, and if any dev wants to attempt one, just study this game and see what it does right. if anyone wants to attempt to get into this series, this is the perfect place to start (although it might make all the other games inferior after playing it). this could very well be the best JRPG that comes out this year, unless the mario rpg remake that also comes out this month manages to dethrone it. can square enix beat square enix? only time will tell!

9/10

NOTE: if they remake star ocean 3 next, can they remove the fucking shitty ass minigame near the beginning of the game where you ride on a giant turtle, and navigate a labyrinthine series of railroad tracks where you find the right path by trial and error, and have to manage it's stress levels or else it collapses in the middle and you have to do the fucking dumb mindless minigame all over again!?!?!??!?!?!?!!?!?!?! thanks

[open-hearth-rpg]

Cards (Generative): Great RPG Mechanics #RPGMechanics

Prologue

One of the great tragedies of moving to online play has been making certain ttrpg elements more challenging. There’s the obvious: not being able to fully see & grok other players’ body language and the tactile element of a shared table with books & sheets in your hand. But there are also system elements made difficult like maps and shared dice rolling. While these particular issues had been solved by various VTTs and apps, there’s a cost in ease. For me it’s more work to assemble an electronic map and tokens than to grab stuff off the shelf. 

Cards in rpgs are a tougher issue for online play. There have been apps to manage standard playing decks, but unique ones present more of a challenge. I’ve played quite a bit with the Roll20 app– and it works for some purposes but not for others. And, even with the ability to make unique electronic decks, you still don’t have the tactility– the sense of holding, shuffling, and managing your cards. The various board game simulators have aimed to replicate this, with varying success.

On Cards

Cards in tabletop rpg play usually have three possible functions: reference, generation, and resolution. I’ll talk about their place as a heightened randomizer tomorrow. Today I want to cover the cool ways in which they’re used to create worlds and set things up. 

The earliest memory I have of someone doing this was an old-school player who picked up D&D in the mid-1970s as a college student. He ran a campaign where he would do a tarot reading and then based on that modify your stats, give you a family background, and assign you traits. It was simultaneously exciting and disempowering. 

I had that in mind years later when I sketched out a tarot for our ongoing fantasy world. I mocked up cards and wrote up meanings for the whole deck, based on the history we developed. Eventually I used that as a prompt system for generating NPCs. You would draw three cards and then sketch out a character based on those elements. 

That’s not unlike the approach taken by The Story Engine. It’s both a writing and a roleplay tool. The original one is a collection of prompts, which is interesting and probably a useful tool for doing in-depth session planning. But I’m more intrigued by The Deck of Worlds. This offers set of world-building elements and prompts. You stack and build up details on the tiles, creating an interesting picture. It’s beautifully put together. 

Likewise we’ve seen a variety of cards as tiles used for generating random dungeons and wilderness areas. I can imagine a Hexcrawl done like this, letting the GM create the terrain as they go. I’m certain those are already out there. These generators make use of the strength of cards: the richness of information possible on them. They’re a step forward from the classic random roleplaying tables. 

With cards, instead of a simple prompt, you can easily add more text, sub-tables, and graphical information. You elevate the randomizer. If you want to increase utility, you can use both sides or have the orientation of the cards impact the results. It’s a great way to bring tables to life– but does have the disadvantage of a more serious investment of energy. There’s a big difference between a multicolumn, one-page table and a version of that table done as a deck of cards. Speaking as someone who has accumulated a lot of RPG reference cards, I can attest that the space and storage component can become an issue– beyond the question of how many times you’ll actually need to use the deck…

But two recent games build the use of cards directly into the set up in an interesting way. Alice is Missing uses cards to establish the world. It’s clever because of how the cards to impart information and keep the play silent. You have character, clue, suspect, and location cards. The particular combination of those dramatically affects the story being told: what & when those appear. 

Likewise Zombie World offers an cool approach to using cards as building blocks. A checklist card of elements guides the collaborative creation of the PCs’ enclave. But more interesting is the random set up which frames the whole game. Players are dealt four cards: 1 Past, 2 Present, and 1 Trauma. The first and the last of these they can look at, but are kept facedown. From the Present cards, describing who their character is now, each player picks one and turns it face up, discarding the other.

The decks are substantial for these– expanded by a couple of supplements. Based on the mix of their three cards players come up with character details and background. After introductions another set of cards is dealt out between players. This describes a relationship between the two of them. They then negotiate and work out the details. Once play actually begins, one of the goal each player has is to hit their trigger and reveal their Past and Trauma cards. 

I love the way the use of the cards reinforces the themes of play. Character creation is super fast– you can set up and get to playing in 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the group. That’s the kind of energy you want going into a horror game like this. Zombie games lean into “we are our own worst enemies,” and the hidden elements of characters reinforce that. Characters are rich, but they are also disposable. If you die early, generating a new character is the work of a few moments. The cards also factor into resolution, but I’ll come to that tomorrow. 

For a time Magpie had a sci-fi version of the Zombie World system on their docket. That seems to be in limbo now– perhaps the form factor of ZW didn’t do as well as they hoped or perhaps the success of the Avatar rpg washed everything else away. It’s too bad because right now, with the success of Among Us, a sci-fi take on these mechanics could be awesome.

[rottenbrainstuff]

BG3: The Party + random notes

And the big conclusion to the big fight: a big old party.

(dark urge spoilers)

Time to party with all my friends! There was a tiefling there I didn’t recognize, and apparently it’s because if any of the tieflings scheduled to be at the party die for any reason, there is a new back-up NPC there to take their place. So she was there instead of Alfira. 🥲🥲🥲 Sigh. I read online that if you’re playing durge, Alfira isn’t supposed to be replaced, and instead Lakrissa will mention she’s worried about Alfira… I would have preferred that (cause no one mentioned Alfira going missing at all) and I’m not sure why that didn’t trigger in my game.

Found a suspicious lady sneaking around in the grass???? She teleported away???? Doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of info about her online???? Guess I will find out more later????

What a cute party, everyone having a good time: Ikaron loosening up and having a pint, the three siblings still arguing, Bex totally smashed and trying to convince Danis to go into the bushes with her. I feel like if people don’t even like the cute tiefling kids, then everyone must just hate Rolan, who is always super annoying? I love Rolan though, silly idiot. I really wish I could follow these guys all to Baldur’s Gate and make sure they get there safely. Unfortunately it seems like I’m going to find some of them dead on the road as the game goes on no matter what I do, and… well. I’m not going to think about that right now - just going to enjoy the cute party.

It seems I’ve done something that’s glitched Gale or made him mad at me. All the companions propositioned me at the party, even ones I have politely rejected before, but not Gale. I had no dialogue options with him at all, he only told me to go and enjoy the party. Guess I really broke the guy’s heart when I told him that I only wanted to be friends. Sorry man. (another funny bug - Wyll is supposed to be off away from the party standing by the water. But sometimes he won’t be by the water, he’ll be at his regular tent, but he’ll still have the “I hoped you wouldn’t notice I had left” dialogue)

Apparently in early access, Zevlor lights magic lights in the sky, one for every life you saved today. Dang. Why did that get cut? That sounds beautiful? Man I just love Zevlor. Poor old guy can’t relax even at the party. (Honestly, if he was a romance option I think I’d be chasing him… sorry Astarion. It’s the shame, it’s the shame. I smell it like I’m a shark and it’s blood in the water. Give me a sad old character with shame and I’m there) I’m sure everything will go great for him from here on out and nothing sad will happen at all!!! :) :) :) :)

After the party scene, I got the second Guardian dream. DESPITE what you will read online, where the information seems to all be either guessing (incorrectly) or else based on the early access, I can confidently confirm that the second guardian dream is triggered after you free Halsin and talk to him about your tadpole. …and then my friend also playing this game, who has a really bad memory, swears up and down that they had a third guardian dream while they were at the goblin camp, but can’t remember what triggered it or what it was about. I could barely find info online about the second dream at all, I have no hope of finding anything about the third, but it seems so far that the dreams are triggered by concrete game events.

I might have mentioned this before but I am *REALLY* loving the little details in the books I find. I know there’s so many of them so there’s a tendency to skim them, but if you can force yourself to actually read each one, some of them are very funny or very interesting, and some include clever little easter egg tidbits. I LOVE how in conversations with Halsin, he mentions he wishes he had some books to read, and you can say that you keep finding a million books. I am collecting every single book I find and keeping them all in the chest I stole from Kagha, hehe.

Lastly, in my incidental looking up of things, I continue to see the most rancid takes and people complaining about the weirdest things. Like the fragile straight men crying that they need a filter in the game to protect them from male characters hitting on them. Or people complaining that the game is all just pointless combat, because these people are picking the most aggressive dialogue options then wondering why every NPC is aggressive. Or people saying you can’t blame the druids for being protective of their grove - yeah right, so protective they won’t even lift a finger to defend it from an invading goblin army, so protective they can’t even crack open their door to let in one single lost and scared child. On top of everything else they did that pissed me off.

The latest bizarre thing I read is complaining about how on a durge run, Alfira’s death shouldn’t be mandatory, or how the mandatory durge kills shouldn’t break your oaths if you’re a paladin.

Like. Guys, why are you even playing a durge run if you don’t like the durge story? This game has a narrative, it isn’t just a collection of “x action causes you to receive y effect.” The point of Alfira’s death is that it’s supposed to be senseless and devastating. If you are playing a good paladin, it absolutely SHOULD break your oaths and that should be something you have to deal with. That…. That conflict is supposed to be the entire bloody point of playing a resisting durge character. It’s what makes the story so interesting and gripping. If this stuff was optional it wouldn’t be as devastating. If you don’t like it, you can 100% play a different character. Why on earth play durge if you don’t like the durge story??? The game warns you at character creation that there will be consequences. Why… why would you complain when you run into those consequences?... I don’t get it.

Next up: just tying up all the loose ends before I am ready to explore the underdark. Gotta fight that gnoll nest, gotta do Ethel’s hut, gotta clear out the goblins leftover in the camp. SO looking forward to the underdark area.

[willing-but-not-able]

I'm only making this one because I'm actually writing a story about a group of highschoolers who live in a city where crime is in the very air they breathe (if anyone's curious I might talk about it on my main blog).

So naturally I'm always interested in mafia/organized crime (not doing it btw).

But, those Grand Mafia ads are hilariously stupid and it really makes me wanna have a game that has ridiculous options in a setting like that.

I might not be able to find it, but one if my favorite ads is when the Lv. 10 thug has a choice to help a woman lying beside a trash can or to turn hee in for an x amount reward. He turns her in and after she gets out (or is never put in prison) she finds him and has her men beat the guy up.

These options are so stupid and honestly... I kind of like how stupid they are.

So, what I came up with is more or less what it shows in the fake ad. You start in some random seed with a certain amount of funds, infamy, and allies.

I can't think of a world where this game has just one goal for you to reach, so I feel having the players pick what they want to do would be better.

For ex. Let's say you wanted to become the cities most infamous gang. Your random seed would start you off with some weapons, no allies, and a decent amount of funds.

You can do whatever you want from here.

Wanna attack a big time leader? Go ahead.

Think you can just rob a bank? It wouldn't hurt to try.

Maybe you just wanna sit back and wait for someone to ask for help. Well, there's that option too.

I would imagine the "evil" options being something like stealing the hard work of another NPC.

In the end, however you reach your goal is up to you. It might take a day or it might take a month.

Random events could would also take place and it would range anywhere between getting 1 mill from a heist to you getting ratted out by someone.

I also want to associate some form or risk-reward system or a reckless vs. calculated option. Some options would be safer to pick with a lower payout, but help in the long run, while the risky options have a higher reward output and less advantage long term.

Honestly, it'd also be a nice way to teach people about decision making and how impulsive choices can sometimes backfire hard.

It sounds like players would make the most ridiculous choices and I would love to see something like this lol.

Now I wanna give a typical playthrough in case anything I said doesn't make sense (that's entirely possible)

You start the game, make your character, give them a certain set of stats, and you're dropped into your seed.

From here, you're given a list of goals. Most infamous crime leader, owner of 20 different fancy sports cars, billionaire, private island owner, etc... (Some I thought of are more serious, so I'm not gonna put them, but I'm sure any true crime lovers can take a guess.)

With your goal picked it's up to you to make it happen.

During anything you do, there's a chance for random events to take place that can alter the your success. Almost all decisions you make will happen, but there's a chance (I'd say around 10%) that something unexpected can happen.

So, you keep playing until you meet your goal. Sometimes you can be set back for miles or you can get a huge boost in whatever you choose.

I had a similar idea with those King's choice games, and it would more or less be the same. Especially the ones that say you can pick how to raise your child.

I just imagine you adopt a child thinking your spouse will see you as some Mother Teresa and then you just neglect to raise the child properly and the kid snitches on you making becoming a monarch 20x harder 😭

I'm a big fan of choice based games as well as visual novels, so I'm sure this would be a funny asf game to play.

Check out the Hero Wars one I did also.

But, thanks for reading if you got this far!