#i’ve always imagined a divide between the game character and the player but it’s almost always on my mind now | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

snaxpo · 3 years

Text

fuck it bugsnax/s4m au notes

alternate title: i’m at that point in liking something where i have to combine it with everything else i’ve liked previously and today i’m making that everyone else’s problem.

- base premise is a lil different! instead of being a journalist who was invited personally to the island by the expedition leader, you (or FK if you consider them a separate character from the player) are tasked with investigating the habitat, a budding commune on snaktooth island that may or may not be devolving into a cult. there’s just one teeny tiny problem - the commune’s leader and also your main suspect, boris habit, has been missing for weeks by the time you arrive.

- now it’s a matter of gaining the inhabitants’ trust/getting them to come back to the habitat while hunting and subduing the bugsnax, who seem increasingly eager to launch themselves at inhabitants at quite literally dangerous speeds, in a battle of wits to keep your newfound companions fed while documenting the strange creatures. and of course, the question of just what happened to boris habit still lingers in the air. think like... talentless nana where the protag pretends to be all cute and unassuming (complete with flower motifs!) but really they’re there on Super Secret Spy Business. but of course there’s less murder.

- oddly the bugsnax seem to have only become more aggressive after his disappearance. i’m sure it’s nothing.

- yes everyone is still a grumpus

- there isn’t really an interview “mechanic” so much as it is a Lot of cozying up to everybody in pursuit of whatever information you can find on habit/potential group rituals/events that led to his disappearance; you get it by bits and pieces rather than a single structured interview. there is of course a lot more interactions between characters than there is in s4m’s base game bc thats like 60% of the appeal of bugsnax and i would be a fool not to think of it.

- time for ideas for specific characters! kamal is the vice-mayor of the habitat and has been habit’s right-hand grump for as long as any of the inhabitants can remember, despite their relationship becoming increasingly strained ever since their arrival on the island, and especially before habit’s disappearance. i imagine you still find him passed out but instead of collapsing from starvation he’s like "please.... toothpaste... a breath mint.... some pepto bismol. i’ve been able to taste my own breath for weeks." has been trying to divide his time between looking after the habitat and looking for habit himself (and also his best friend wallus) but the dispersal of the habitat has left him a tad Demoralized, to say the least.

- i feel like trencil would play a wambus-adjacent role in the sense that he's the one taking care of the sauce plants and also one of the first townspeople you meet. you convince to come back with you not necessarily bc he'd be able to continue farming in town but bc he would probably have an easier time looking for his daughter if he got some sleep first (but only if you look for her in his stead)

- gillis is like. a wannabe chandlo. makes you capture a bunch of snax that he Says he's gonna use to get stronger but eventually you find out he's been releasing them or keeping them in like lil makeshift pet houses bc he always takes one look at their big googly eyes and turns to mush. but EVERYONE'S eating them so naturally if they find out he's not they're gonna think he's some kinda wuss so he just pretends.

- dallas keeps asking for sweet n colorful bugsnax to give to mirphy to impress her (sweetieflies, instabugs, etc etc.) but by some streak of bad luck they always end up being her least favorite. he tries to see if Maybe he can use them to make some new bugsnak-exclusive pigments, but like in canon they always end up turning into mush before he can get very far. mirphy meanwhile is far more interested in preserving them for a potential display, but similar to dallas, she never gets very far.

- i imagine the kid habiticians are like. a roving band of semi-feral children bc if anyone's gonna keep them in town it's definitely not kamal.

- i wanna do something with wallus SO BAD like you find him somewhere up in frosted peak but i have no idea what he would even DO its fucking killing me

- those are all the ideas i have For Now; s4m has more characters than bugsnax so there’s a lot to be done w/ them lmao. if i think of any more i’ll probably put it in another post or if anybody wants to spitball with me....... 👀

- and now we get to The Big Guns: habit.

- he was fun to work on w/ this au mostly bc despite being the rough equivalent of lizbert he’s a way different type of flawed leader than her; where liz is responsible to the point of martyring herself without a second thought and not thinking to delegate any tasks to the other snaxburg residents, which is what ultimately causes them to fall apart once she disappears, habit's deal is that he wants the position and appearance of an authority figure because it'll keep him safe, but he kind of sucks at taking responsibility for anything he does wrong because he’s spent most of his life acting according to what other people (namely his family) expect of him and being met with a negative reception no matter what, so he doesn’t really believe he has power over anything, including his own actions, despite being such a control freak for most of his own game. so his arc would need something that’s kind of antithetical to what liz had, wouldn’t it?

- so what i got so far is that au habit was tryin to covertly start a bugsnax cult bc he sees being asborbed by the snax as a sort of ascension and was eventually planning to have everyone be absorbed; it’s important to note however that bc information on bugsnax is so obscure he doesn’t actually 100% know how absorption works so tl;dr: habit became the bugsnax monarch willingly and then 5 seconds later he was like "oh no wait this fucking sucks. what have i done. shit. fuck."

- unable to cope with the realization that he was once again forced to act in accordance to someone (or in this case something) else's desires, he shuts down emotionally, becoming an empty husk of a grumpus while the bugsnax above run rampant thanks to the extra fuel and absolutely no restrictions until the Big Climax when habit is finally moved to take back control of the snax and by proxy Take Some Fucking Responsibility for knowingly luring people to cthulhu island. however this does leave the obvious question of if he was such an empty shell for most of the game why didn’t they just. eat him.

- the answer i eventually landed on was that his self-preservation instincts were still kicking on a subconscious level and during the aforementioned climax he eventually realizes that he does not in fact want to die, he just doesn’t want to keep living the way he is now (as part of an ancient hivemind beyond his understanding) or the way he was before (you know.)

- also fun fact: i was thinking about what his monarch body would be based off of bc the snakdragon, while cool as shit, didn’t feel right for him, and then i remembered that blooming onions exist. i imagine he’s in the middle acting as the flower’s “stigma”

- as for endings i’m thinking like. in the neutral ending kamal joins habit but its left ambiguous whether or not they'll ever be able to leave the island or if this is even a permanent solution (call that the paw in unloveable paw ending). in the good ending you bust habit outta his queen body after fending off enough bugsnax together and it’s super gross bc the undersnax as a whole is super gross but hey at least everyone’s leaving alive. i don’t know what a bad ending entails except most if not all of the cast is dead and habit is left alone on the island surrounded by reminders of his spectacular failure.

- hell i can even think of a sequel hook for the good ending like in canon bugsnax; some time after the ending/credits you ask habit just Where did he get the information on bugsnax that led to him being like “you could make a religion out of this” and the screen fades to black before you hear his answer. there.

- its almost midnight.

#text post #bugsnax #smile for me #smile for me game #s4m #bugsnax spoilers #au

60 notes · View notes

theholycovenantrpg · 3 years

Photo

CONGRATULATIONS, LIA! YOU’VE BEEN ACCEPTED FOR THE ROLE OF RAUM.

Admin Jen: Where do I even begin, Lia? Where do I even begin. Your app caught me by the heart the exact same way that Raum has gone on to covet and capture hearts of her own. I think she’s an easy character to undermine when you consider her underlying sentimentality, but you brought her to life in her viciousness and softness alike without letting one of them overshadow the other, and it’s exactly what I’ve envisioned for Raum. Your writing sample in particular was an utter joy to read, as it perfectly showcased that duality, and not only that but it also captured so many crucial aspects of Raum, all tied together in one amazing, heart-wrenching scene. Please continue breaking my heart with her -- I’m begging. Please create and send in your account, review the information on our CHECKLIST, and follow everyone on the FOLLOW LIST. Welcome to the Holy Land!

OUT OF CHARACTER

ALIAS | lia

AGE | twenty-two

PRONOUNS | she/her

ACTIVITY LEVEL | i’m a full time graduate student, so tuesdays and thursdays i’ll most likely be completely absent. other than that, expect me to pop in throughout the week. i can get kind of distracted ngl thx adhd

TIMEZONE | pst

TRIGGERS | REMOVED

HOW DID YOU FIND THE GROUP? | i think i know the admins from somewhere i don’t rlly remember tho

IN CHARACTER

CHARACTER | raum, raym, räum — "space, room, chamber"

there is no grandiose tale to accompany raum's arrival in hell. there had been no rise and no fall— her state of existence could only be likened to tabula rasa, a blank slate, wholly unaffected by a past that was just out of reach. the sum of her existence had been hell and hell alone.

lucifer and lucifer alone. he would never fail to remind her of this. the ceaseless parading of this fact, the whispers, the chilling reminders— all in his attempts to compel her into compliance— and appreciation. perhaps he once sought a more extraordinary use for her. perhaps he'd fallen victim to his own ego, an ego so inordinate that it left nearly every crevice and corner of hell untouched. perhaps he'd convinced himself that raum, empty and unaffected, could be fashioned into the quintessential soldier. re-education was often half the battle, so was raum not the ideal starting point?

while raum held no memories of her prior existence, she'd grown to understand that it was not emptiness that festered inside of her, but absence. she was aware of the memories that she lacked. the knowledge that something was being withheld from raum made all the difference. it gave her something to chase. it allowed her something to fixate on and covet. she knew something had been stolen from her. she was not the vacant expanse that she'd been made out to be.

this was before it all. before heaven. before samael. before eve. before caphriel.

raum— who could lay no claim to an origin, no family, surname, or inheritance— had silently been offered a choice in who she would serve first and foremost— lucifer or herself?

it was easy to choose herself. if she had nothing at all, she had herself and the lack that existed within her. this much she knew, and what she would carry as lucifer banished her to the outskirts of hell to keep guard. finally— raum discovered something akin to recognition.

the darkness, the chasm where hell stopped and nothing began— would be an inscrutability that she recognized within herself. for the first time, raum would come to see the darkness as a possibility— as potential. she'd been a canvas stripped away of its imagery, painted over to be made blank, but the job had been executed poorly, and traces of what once existed in bits and fragments just outside of her reach.

raum, who possessed no right of her own, would invoke her abilities to lay claim to the belongings of others. she began filling herself, the unoccupied room, with any or everything— as long as it was not hers. soon, she would make a collection out of borrowed memories, jewels, and hearts. even the slightest pang of jealously drove raum to action.

yet, what use was filling an empty room with items that don't belong to you? items that don't have that same familiarity or ownership that comes with the rightful acquisition of something. and most of all— she could never figure out how to obtain what she coveted most of all. the things should could not have became what she desired most.

identity. belonging. purpose. history.

—nevermind that, though. damien had anointed her in the flames of the new testament. he’d deemed her his vice of envy, and breathed purpose into her hallowed existence. but what of her past? what of the demon who would swallow heaven in its entirety, even if it devoured her in return?

WHAT DREW YOU TO THIS CHARACTER? | where do i even start?!?!? raum was the first character i fell head over heels for. even as i considered different possibilities, i always found myself right back on raum’s bio. she’s absolutely chaotic to her core, and i adore her all the more for it. from the contempt that took hold of her the moment reached hell, to her almost neverending pursuit of what she believes is owed to her. lucifer had done something unforgivable— and that was stripping her of her personhood. this created a gaping chasm, one she would silently resent him for even in his absence. what i find so fascinating about raum is how young of a demon she is how she deals with the insatiable longing festering within her— how jealously and greed exists in every aspect of her world— even in in her relationships with the few beings that she cares about. she is unapologetic of her possessiveness. she is unafraid to make what she wants known, and unafraid to pursue what she wants. she is fiercely loyal, and it is not easy to gain her trust. while some people wear their hearts on their sleeves, raum cuts a piece of it out for every person she comes to love— if they first offer her a piece of their heart in return. she possesses a passion that’s unmatched, emotions that are not regulated nor fully understood. i would love to bring this agent of chaos to the dash.

WHAT FUTURE PLOTS DID YOU HAVE IN MIND FOR THIS CHARACTER? |

from eden / few mortals have captured raum’s attention in the way that evangeline trame has. she is one of the several beings raum covets, and the only other mortal who'd successfully ensnared her attentions— with the first one being eve. nonetheless, raum wants more than anything for. evangeline to become one of her agents of chaos. she reminds the woman that they share more common ground than she may have liked. she also has a sneaking suspicion that the woman might be eve— this is a dynamic i'm very excited to see play out. will it be a game of cat and mouse? cat and cat? she promises evangeline everything she's ever wanted, but how much trust can evangeline put into the jealous demon? how can she prevent herself from falling victim to raum's tempestuous envy? raum is careful not to underestimate a powerful woman, and i'm excited to see how raum's pursuit of evangeline plays out.

to be alone / samael had been the first being raum intertwined her existence with as. though it is samael who is her foundation— it is caphriel who is her mirror. she shares raum’s deep, inexplicable yearning for something they’d been denied access too, even if they couldn’t be anymore different in that regard. nonetheless, raum would like more than anything than for caphriel to belong to her— in the way samael has professed his belonging. when raum realizes that caphriel has changed him in ways she does not understand, when she realizes that something shared between them, something she is inevitably left out of… well, will derail her sense of self, as dramatic as that is. this is a triangle of chaos that i am excited to explore. will raum succumb to her jealousy, doing everything in her power to drive them apart? or will she come to accept their acquaintance for what it is— embrace it even? this is something i would discuss and plot further with the players, but i’m quite excited for it!

someone new / i want raum to gradually unravel the threads of her existence, but at a cost. what if raum were to discover that her past was not grand in the way that she desires if it does not fufill the emptiness permeating through her? this will be fun to play out on the dash, because there’s no telling when and how a memory will be triggered within her. i saw this as something that would occur sporadically, but eventually i imagine raum growing weary of the unintelligible fragments. she’s already pursued heaven, and who’s to say that she won’t search for answers in other places? perhaps she’ll seek out the priestess for the hundred eyed god, orias, or even caphriel. there’s no telling the lengths she will go to discover herself, and i am excited to play this out, especially as she grows increasingly restless and desperate in her attempts.

ARE YOU COMFORTABLE WITH KILLING OFF YOUR CHARACTER? | yes. my only stipulation is that she learns the truth of her existence beforehand.

IN DEPTH

DRIVING CHARACTER MOTIVATION | the very absence that raum seeks to eradicate is the entity that operates her in her every waking moment. she wants more than anything to grow into her newly ordained role as vice of envy, but she cannot forsake her past and propel herself to the future like she truly desires. having been so close to heaven once, and now being so far, has only caused her fixation with the angels, and their potential associated tenfold. it is important that the distinction between admiration and fixation are made. between longing coveting. it is not love or hope raum sees when hers eyes linger on an angel for a moment too long. it is some parts greed, and every part jealously. they had what she did not— an entire world that was made without her in mind. what was not to want about that? raum’s adoration in heaven lies in her attraction to what is not hers. the farther the divide between her and the objects of her affection, the more she yearns for it. she is the vice of envy after all— and not an inch of the world will be left unaffected by her plundering.

Character Traits |

DEVOTED, PASSIONATE, INQUISITIVE

VINDICTIVE, POSSESSIVE, VOLATILE

In-Character Para Sample | TW DEATH

his hand did not leave the caress of her cheek as he met her forehead with a pillowy kiss. he could feel the entirety of her face turn upwards in delight— a faint blush now visible across her face. eye contact was barely broken, if only for a few moments as if they could not bear the sight of the world without confirmation that the other was there. delight and laughter capitulated through him as she recalled a fond joke, or perhaps a silly memory involving the two of them. nothing else mattered in that moment. not the drizzling rain, or the worn umbrella that was doing a half-assed job at shielding them. nothing mattered when love swelled their entire beings.

raum watched with a curious expression at first. she was familiarizing herself further with the couple seated directly across from her, through a hardened, yet almost inviting gaze. perhaps raum had not been friendly, but there was something about her curiosity that roused something recognizable in others. perhaps this is why the woman’s eyes lingered on raum’s a moment too long. or perhaps it had been her staring at them for an extended period of time.

he plants a kiss to her damp palm.

as she routinely twists the rings that line her each and every finger, raum can feel the curiosity gradually drain from her body, leaving something far darker in its wake. lazily, it begins to expand in her veins— outstretching itself like a lazy feline— finding comfort in the absence that occupied her every edge and crevice. it then begins to suffocate nearly every inch of her, twisting her heart and mind— her stomach now heavy and knotted. she draws the cup shakily to pouting, and downturned lips, eyes never drawing themselves away from the couple now in a loving embrace.

there was no pulling away now, no denying the familiar covetousness that blistered her heart. invisible, excess envy brimmed at each of her edges. soon, raum’s envy would become no longer just a raum problem…

unblinking, she watched as the stranger told a story she could only make out parts of, as she began to center her envy in her core. nothing else in that moment occupied the chasm of her mind. not heaven. not samael. not her eve. not hell. not damien, lucifer— or even caphriel. not the sweat that began pooling at her temples, not the smudging of her lipstick on the brim of the coffee cup.

it was her and her alone.

her heart, more specifically. raum could sense the goodness within her, the unbridled and unpolluted love. the woman had been sure of herself in ways that she was not. she’d been sure of herself and sure of her love— something raum could never begin to understand. she had been a being created for chaos— not a human free to pursue their heart’s desires. in that very moment, that woman possessed everything raum did not have. her grip on the coffee cup tightened, her lacquered hand offering no mercy to the now empty, suffocating coffee cup. had they’d ever been doubtful in their love? it did not appear so. how foolish of them to put so much stock into something as temporary and fickle as human affections.

but why had it been them? why had raum not been her? her body hummed faintly with something terrible, something wicked— something undetected by the naked human eye.why had that not been her? why had what they had not been hers? questions of why occupied her mind. questions she could no control, questions that threatened to burst from her at any moment. if she’d been human, her heart would’ve surely exploded. no other thoughts allowed her a clear exit from this newest fixation. it would take action to free her from this condition, from this longing that threatened to drive her to the brink of destruction. it would consume her if she did not consume it. if she did not feed it. and raum was never one to be consumed by another.

as the coffee cup drifted from her palms, and as raum’s eyes drifted shut, she relinquished all control momentarily to her greed…

it was if raum momentarily exited her body and into the body of the woman. she felt everything she felt, even her subtle resistance, but she knew better than to get caught up in the inner workings of a mortal. that was how she tended to lose focus, and suffer the loss of an object. it did not take long to find her vivacious heart. raum wondered if the people she stole from truly understood what was occurring while it happened. she wondered if they truly understood that they’d fallen victim to the vice of envy. how much every object meant to her, despite how disposable she’d treated the people she’d acquired them from.

she’d uncovered her heart. a heart the woman had no intention of parting with, but whose intentions and needs fell on deaf ears. there was only one way to escape raum when she’d reached this point. diverting her focus or utter resistance was difficult for the mere, average mortal. even with all the love in the woman’s heart, even with her not being ready to let go of the man before her, she lost her will to fight at every moment. death had come for her, in ways she did not yet understand, but perhaps she would soon. her love had not been enough to save her. his love had not been enough to save her.

there’d been no blood in raum’s acquisition, no visible marks left in her wake— only a woman now motionless in the man who’d once caressed her cheeks arms. his pleas, his panic, his perplexion all meant nothing. deep, wounded sobs wracked the entirety of his body, while a foggy, almost drunken haze settled within raum.

her love had not been enough. the temporary high had settled into a residual no. her love had not been enough. it was never enough because it had not her love to have.

disappointment ushered through her veins. one of the stranger’s sobs had been particularly earth-shattering— not enough to draw attention from the empty expanse, but enough for raum’s eyes to flicker from the shadow that caressed her.

had she ever known that sense of loss? she had no way of knowing whether or not she’d been familiar with an unexpected loss. he’d now resorted to attempting to carry her body around the perimeter, searching for someone— anyone to restore his lost love. he paraded his lover around for a white flag— completely unaware that she’d was the most recent victim to the vice of envy. little had he known, but his pleas were no longer falling upon deaf ears.

raum, finally rising from the shadows, approached the pleading man, who now was on the floor attempting to resuscitate his love. it was not pity she felt in that moment. if she ever did feel pity, it was immediately replaced with something more rotten, and she could feel the envy bubble within her once more. she was tired, but not exhausted enough for one more acquisition.

she longed to feel the sense of loss he felt. the recognition that existed in his loss— one that was not present in her lack. though she’d lost her memories, it was difficult to mourn when being unable to pinpoint exactly what she wanted to mourn. how she longed for her sadness to be given direction. how she longed to have a specific entity to pour her grief into.

she drew closer to the man, lowering herself to his level, with his sobs eventually quieting as he met her gaze.

i can make it all go away.

he was silent for several minutes before turning back to raum with a face sullied by grief. he would accept her offer.

part of her wondered if he wholly understood what he was agreeing to. if he truly understood the entity that hummed before him.

a cold palm extended itself, meeting the outline of his chest, and moments later, he would collapse alongside his love, his heart now entirely in raum’s possession.

if only he understood that her love would have never been enough, she thinks as she wearily rises to her feet, beginning the trek back home, leaving the bodies to be discovered by someone unexpected.

samael would not believe her when she told him of the two hearts she’d stolen.

Extras |

(NO GRAVE CAN HOLD MY BODY DOWN / I’LL CRAWL HOME TO HER) » SAMAEL

in the beginning, there had been raum and raum alone. of course, there’d been lucifer, but she held little regard for her reviver. she had no intention of regarding him as her creator. even when being faced with the illegible chasm of her mind. there was purpose in the absence he continued to instill in her. if she could not remember a life before him— then that meant life was meaningless before him, for what use did she have of a life she knew nothing about? an intangible world that she only knew existed because of the lack it left her with— an emptiness she’d grown so familiar with. it was the void that never abandoned her; it was the absence she learned and grew to understand. it was lucifer’s omission that she could comprehend, far better than raum could even begin to understand another demon, with the shadows coming in a close second. and so, it was never raum and the demons, it was never raum and lucifer because she never belonged to them— not to him. that is why samael would become her fulcrum of time— why she conceptualized her existence as life before him and life with him. before samael, she recalls nothing— nothing of importance for that matter.

there were the angels, but they were not hers, heaven was not hers, and she’d arrived at no real solution in her pursuit. what she could not have quickly took a back burner to what she was able to acquire. freshly fallen, with an unmistakable sense of shared loss, it would still take raum several months before she eventually materialized as more than a shadow in samael’s vicinity. inquisitorial to an almost meddlesome degree, she had no way of knowing her scrutiny would warp into something more— into something entirely separate from her fixation with heaven. it was with samael that raum would come to understand what it meant to belong to another being. before him, raum only knew what it meant to covet the possessions of others, whether it be material goods, or a sense of wholeness she could not achieve. she knew how to conquer and consume, but not how to give— never how to belong.

she would joke about stealing his heart, or possibly an eye or two, and samael would remind her how fruitless this pursuit would be, a complete and utter waste of energy when he already belonged to her in his entirety. although, she was free to knock herself out, idiomatically and literally, as that would require a significant amount of her powers, causing an energy shift that made her tired to a humanlike degree. raum would roll her eyes in what had become routine between them, and her stubborn silence would become reminder enough that she belonged to him.

EVANGELINE » (HONEY, YOU'RE FAMILIAR, LIKE MY MIRROR YEARS AGO)

from eden did eve's aura rise, and in the crevices of raum's mind she would remain, sheathed in the carefully constructed shadows where memories once ventured. the universe offered her glimpses of something otherworldly— a being so splendid that raum could not comprehend them in her current condition. raum was first met with her divine fragments as she maneuvered through the dark pockets of the mortal realm. was it by chance that raum focused her sights on evangeline? or had their encounter been woven into the stars, as decreed by the cosmos? or was it because everyone who'd been in their way was now dead? no longer was lucifer or god there to regulate their memories for their selfish gains.

raum knew this— evangeline knew this too. something shared passed between them as their eyes joined. it took only a split second for her to decide against taking anything from her familiar. so much had been taken from them already; she could not bear to see evangeline parting with anything else. not before finding what she was in search of, at least. raum needed the mortal woman as whole as possible— if she wanted to stand a fighting chance at discovering who she really was— whether she’d really been eve. her eve. with each encounter that followed, the mutual ground seemed to increase tenfold. in evangeline, raum recognized a profound chasm; insatiable covetousness left in place of her memories. a desire for something that could not be acquired on a quick whim, something not satisfied with material or capital gain. what raum promised was identity. recognition. this is what she continued to make known to her, through their sporadic encounters— though raum was always cautious about the practiced amount of distance she set forth between them. it allowed her the upper hand, but patience and discipline had never been her strong suits. the more she comes across evangeline, the greater her fixation becomes— as does the urge to unearth what's been kept from her for all these centuries.

what could it possibly be that neither of us were meant to see? evangeline asks as raum's eyes drink in her bronze visage, reeling in her fascination to momentarily ponder a potential response for the mortal's question. i can't give you a specific reasoning unfortunately, raum utters as she frustratingly scans the fragments of her memories for the 1000th time. but why has always been fairly obvious to me. the knowledge we possessed posed a threat to their power structures. and two powerful men couldn't have that, now could they? a triumphant smirk coasts across raum's curious expression. nevermind them though. most kings get their heads cut off in due time.

pintrest: https://www.pinterest.com/BLACKISMS/r-a-u-m/

#accepted #accepted: raum

2 notes · View notes

pomegranate-salad · 5 years

Text

Seeds of thought : DIE #1

Been a while, uh ? I missed you too. But before we start, we have to adress the horrible, no-good, terribly misguided elephant in the room : I am currently working on solutions to keep posting my work outside of tumblr before it pulls the carpet from under us, but nothing concrete yet. As soon as I have my new internet home, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, I’ll keep posting here. If all else fails, I’ll migrate on the Wicdiv Discord server. I’m Pom there too.

Alright ?

Alright.

Let’s do this.

IS THIS THE REAL LIFE ? IS THIS JUST FANTASY ?

Metaphors are like elections : the quickest way to ruin one is to call it early.

Even now as I’m doing this write-up, I am kind of hesitant : do I actually want to pick apart this debut, or do I want to let the rest of the comic do it for me ? There has to be some equivalent of a love bubble for art, this fleeting period before you get one of those “oh… that’s where they’re going with this” moments, before potentiality unravels into concreteness, before, like in the garden of Destiny, you look behind you and only see one path leading to where you are despite seeing so many crossroads ahead.

That’s why, paradoxically, beginnings are also the most liberating moment to write about stories, because there is a round 100% chance that you will get it wrong. The further the story goes, the least margin of error you have, and you find yourself in a situation where you HAVE to get it right, because you actually have a chance to get it right. But now ? I do not know what DIE wants to say. Not yet. If I did, there would be no point for me in reading it, and if we all did, there would be no point for them to write it. Of course, even on first read, I feel like I might know what the master word is – just like wicdiv’s was “Death”, DIE’s is “Time”, which is nothing else than the slowest sort of death – but this master word is, at best, a key without a lock. The door is further down the path.

So let’s talk about DIE – not to decrypt it, not to crack it open, not to judge it even, but maybe simply to enjoy it.

The first thing DIE is, is a voice. It emerges from the intricately painted pages in its concrete boxes of black circled with red, in a way that you almost resent it from breaking the perfection of the page, what with its eye-grabbing crude colours. Unsurprisingly, given Cowles’ always excellent work, the content of the text soon comes to match perfectly this first impression. Dominic, our narrator, is dark, jaded, and he knows how to grab his audience. But on the other hand, he’s never being all that smart and elaborate. He’s a big box of black. Even his own hindsight, the way he looks at his younger self with this mixture of indulgence and pity, is nothing that original or ground-breaking : it’s basically the way any adult might look at their own self-important teenage persona. And of course, nothing about that persona is really gone : Dominic, as an adult narrator, is still the self-important, quiet kid with just enough self-hate to balance out feeling better than everyone else half the time.

In fact, every main character in this first issue is the sketch of their own teenage stereotype, whose attributes are listed out by Dominic on our introduction page. There’s a transparent parallel between that page and the spread a couple pages later where each character introduces their game persona. Dominic’s description is just as much of a character sheet as the ones they hand out to Sol. And by way of that parallel, there’s of course the one between the cast’s game personas and their real life personas : the character they are playing, half-consciously, half-unconsciously, just enough to believe it, just enough to call it their identity. This was already a theme in Wicdiv, and it’s not surprise it shows up again here. Between the characters’ former selves, their current adult selves, and their RPG avatar, DIE sets up a game of mirrors, almost daring us to find the real Dominic – or is it Ash ? – the real Angela, the real Isabelle.

Does fantasy escapism allow you to be someone else, or does it do the opposite, and brings you closer to yourself than you’ll ever be in real life ? That’s a question asked by the text, but also by the art. Now there’s nothing I could say that wouldn’t undersell just how gorgeous Hans’ art is, but for all its merits, it’s actually its one limitation that hit me the hardest : its inability to evoke the mundane. The issue is pretty clearly divided between a flashback portion in sepia hues, the real present in bleak red, blue and black, and the fantasy world with its warm tones. The first two parts are designed to come in contrast with the third one, but for all the supposed triviality of those scenes compared to the fantasy world, nothing in the way those parts are designed resonate as ordinary. Everything is bathed in light in such a way that everything always seems to be moving, from the complex hues of the evening skies, to the shadows on the characters’ faces. The smiles are big and toothy, the eyes are either glimmering or deep and sunken. At every moment, everything in the art works to indicates that something is happening, something big. Hans’ art is out of this world, in a very literal sense : it is somehow unfit to depict our reality. And so when we finally move to the fantasy world, it’s as if pieces finally fall to their righteous place and the world is finally set right side up. Everything about the way DIE depicts our reality feels deeply unreal. And because meta is never far when Gillen is writing, this probably says something about the way we think of comic books, and all escapist media.

The entire issue is building up to that fall back into the fantasy world – to the point that I thought they’d make us stew even longer for it – but we’re not the only ones intently waiting for something that, from the very beginning of the comic, is ineluctable : the characters, too, were waiting. They were waiting surrounded by characters who feel like NPC – we never even see the full face of Dominic’s wife – waiting while marrying women who look like their high school boner and having jobs serving as constant reminders of their past. They were waiting to the point that the first sign they get of the fantasy world of their youth, they immediately all show up to the reunion, and play around something they should know damn well is going to drag them back to it.

That’s not to say any of them “wants” to go back, per se ; such is the nature of trauma, that you want to get away from it as it prevents you from totally moving on either. DIE’s characters are stuck in that in-between, as if none of them had ever really left the fantasy world – and by extension, their teenage years.

This is also why I’ve been uneasy with the reviews of DIE out there linking its storyline to “nostalgia” ; for something to be about nostalgia, that thing has to, you know, be over. But none of the characters is even close to being done playing the game they were playing in their youth. And that for the fantasy murder game as well as for the game they played in reality, the game everyone plays. As teenagers, they push each other around about elitist fantasy books. As adults, they pretend not to know what “woke” means. The codes switch, but the game is still the same. Maturity can be a persona, too. They lie. They deflect. They follow their character sheet. And that’s fantasy for grown-ups.

That’s not to say that these characters aren’t genuine – as I’ve said, it might be precisely because they’re constantly playing that we can get a better picture of who they are – or that we can’t connect with them. In fact, one of the many feats of this first issue is how immediately touching each of these characters is, both in their efforts toward pretend and genuineness. Well, with the one exception of the character who both seems the most dedicated to the game and the only one who doesn’t seem to be playing at all. Even as a teenager at the beginning of the story, Solomon is that one kid who seems uncomfortably comfortable in his role as the star his friends revolve around, vying for his attention. When he drags his former friends back into the game, is he looking for revenge, or has his world simply become boring without the rest of his party to move the story along ? This is where I should mention that the tabletop RPG hobby is one that is completely foreign to me – it’s just not my scene. And I think part of the reason why is that I’m too fundamentally selfish in that regard to share my imagination with other people. Playing RPGs implies losing part of your control over your own stories. Again, I have no idea how RPGs are supposed to work, but being both the gamemaster and a player strikes me as a fundamentally selfish move ; the move of someone who expects his friends to play their part perfectly, only giving them the illusion of control. For a RPG-themed fantasy, quite a fitting portending villain.

If I can be honest : I hope he’s our villain. I hope there isn’t some dark lore that’s manipulated all of them, and that it’s really just the story of how some teenage bullshit got gloriously out of hand. DIE’s premise is a simple one, just like Wicdiv’s premise was a simple one. But two hundred and a half plot twists later, it can be hard to remember just how fucking awful people can be to each other even when they’re not under the influence of some millennia-old force working in the shadows. I hope we never learn where the dice come from. I hope we never get an entire arc explaining how the fantasy world came to be. I hope it remains just as inexplicable as real life is, with its posture, its pretending, its own unreality, its game you can never, ever stop playing.

And that’s DIE so far. I loved it. How does it compare to the first time I’ve read Wicdiv ? Beats me. The first time I’ve read Wicdiv, I majorly skimmed through it thinking it wasn’t for me – just like comics weren’t for me in general - until maybe issue #11, when I finally slowed down and started again from the beginning. First impressions. I was wrong about Wicdiv, many times, and there is definitely ways in which I am and will be deeply wrong about DIE. And I like that. So join me, if you will, in future write-ups of DIE, where we can be wrong, be surprised, be amazed, be disappointed also, and have ourselves a party.

#diecomic #seeds of thought

66 notes · View notes

noblecrumpet-dorkvision · 6 years

Text

Balancing Homebrew Classes

I get a lot of questions about homebrewing so I decided to make a big ole list of things to look at when making a subclass or even a class for D&D 5e. I've learned a lot from making my own brews and getting critique from others and reworking my own work, and I think everyone can benefit from these. As you are going through your finished homebrew, check for these:

image credit: Randy Gallegos

Balance Your Features

Action Economy

Players get several different types of actions each turn: movement, an item interaction, a bonus action, a reaction, and an action. There are several potential problems when it comes to assigning abilities to these different types of actions. On one hand, you could put too many options on one action type. If every feature in a subclass costs one action, the player has potential bonus actions and reactions it isn't using. Also, if this is a subclass, be aware that you are competing with other features of the base class.

A rogue subclass that has a ton of bonus action features won't be able to use them if it's using its Cunning Action every turn. The rogue also has its Uncanny Dodge taking up its reactions. This leaves very few actions to deal with as far as a subclass goes, which is why the book's subclasses either offer passive features or spells (for the trickster).

The competition for actions can also be a good thing, but try to limit it to two distinct options. Players shouldn't have to choose between a hundred options each round when you could give them two choices. In the case of the rogue, "do I use my reaction for this attack of opportunity, or wait in case I need Uncanny Dodge later?" Two very different options for one action that can lead to very different outcomes.

Ability Score Economy

Keep an eye on how many ability scores your class cares about. A good class really should only care about two of them. If you introduce a third one, make sure it's tertiary and does not require as much effort to make it good, yet not breakable if the player ramps up to 20 in that stat. For instance, my Commander fighter subclass during fighter week was really reliant on CHA for a class that needs STR and CON to be good. When this was pointed out to me, I have since reworked the class entirely to not need saving throws, and instead gains a number of uses based on WIS plus a flat number. This means that even a fighter with no WIS still gets to use the abilities, but rewards the player for having a few extra points. Since the features no longer have saves, the player isn't punished for having a low tertiary score.

Compare Similar Mechanics

The most basic way to check your classes is to compare it to other existing mechanics, but some people forget to do this. There are a few classes I made that essentially gave other classes a ranger's animal companion. To do that, I made sure to look at the ranger's companion feature when making those classes.

Compare Average Damage

Compare the damage output against the damage of similar classes. What matters most is damage per round, which you should usually assume takes place over 1 minute. You can use this link to calculate damage per round for fighting classes, as compiled by Kryx. There are some parts of the tables I still don't understand, but in general this is very helpful.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d-9xDdath8kX_v7Rpts9JFIJwIG3X0-dDUtfax14NT0/edit#gid=2091322934

It doesn't contain spellcasters (except for the bladelock) but I have a quick way I judge a caster's damage output. A spellcaster ideally will be frontloading its most powerful spells with some cantrips between. Assume that the class in question casts its highest level damaging spell once followed by a cantrip the next round, then the next-highest level damaging spell the next turn, then a cantrip, etc. until 1 minute (10 rounds) passes. Use the average damage for each spell and cantrip. Add all those averages together and divide by 10 to get the average damage that the character did over that minute. Overall, spellcasters tend to have a higher average damage than fighting classes, but they become balanced thanks to their limited number of slots each day. Simply because a creature has access to Cone of Cold doesn't mean it can cast it every single round. Bear that in mind and compare to existing classes.

Check Drawbacks

Honestly, I dislike drawbacks in homebrews unless it's for a thematic reason. There shouldn't be a downside to something to gain an upside that is far beyond what another similar class could accomplish. Instead, that upside should simply be balanced appropriately for the situation. Drawbacks can always be negated somehow, so make sure they either can't be worked around or ensure the effect is fully balanced. For instance, paying health can simply mean spending hit dice during a rest unless you also reduce their hit point maximum.

I was making a class that gave offerings for magical power, so I had it apply effects similar to a sorcerer's metamagic to their spells in return for a sacrifice of gold each time. However, a player's wealth very much depends on the DM. I ended up using a chart based on a character's average wealth as they leveled based on treasure hoards to help choose how much gold it should cost. In the end, I decided that it should probably cost no more than a typical Potion of Healing but the effect applied to the spell shouldn't be too much more powerful than a sorcerer's abilities. Even if the character did have limitless wealth to use the effect on every spell, it shouldn't be enough to break the game.

image credit: Sandro Rybak

Edit Your Text

Be Concise

Make sure your wording is detailed and specific, and yet short and succinct. Keep an eye out for sentences that could be interpreted in a different way. Ensure the antecedent is clear. I recently noticed a spell I made referred to "creatures on the side of the wall you designate." I meant for the caster to choose a side of the wall, not choose which creatures get affected, but it could have been interpreted both ways. Careful wording helps prevent players from absolutely busting your homebrew.

Being concise also helps overly wordy things become easier to understand. I guarantee that few players will actually read through your entire homebrew if it's too wordy and doesn't get the point across quick. In my future edits of my classes, I have since removed a lot of the different options that were available for things like the Xammux wizard from my wizard week, which wanted to be a hundred different classes complete with evil flesh grafting rules. Distill your class down to its essence.

What also doesn't hurt is summarizing a feature with a sentence before defining the rules, cluing players into why the rules are that way. "A bright streak flashes from your pointing finger to a point you choose within range and then blossoms with a low roar into an explosion of flame." Okay so it deals an area of fire damage. Got it.

Check Syntax

Try to use similar terminology that Wizards uses in their classes. I still sometimes use terminology from 3rd edition because that's what I grew up with. For instance I will sometimes say Handle Animal instead of Animal Handling when referring to the specific skill. Just as well, I often refer to skill checks when they are technically ability checks that just happen to use a skill. I should be saying Strength (Athletics) check, not just an Athletics check. Even though it's easier to say out loud or in-game, and on Tumblr posts I will often do so to make things easier for myself, it's not technically correct. Look at similar existing spells and class features to figure out your wording.

image credit: James Ryman

Test Your Class

Theoretical Stress Test

It is difficult to always run numbers and playtest if you are working mostly by yourself (like me), but there are some intense examples you can test your class against to see if it can be easily integrated into the game. Imagine each of the following for your class:

Imagine the whole party was composed of this class. Would its features still be balanced or is there a way to break them? Has the damage become absurd or awful?

Imagine the class in the ideal party, with a cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard. Have your class replace any one of them and see if the party can still function. If it can't, the class might still need balancing to be useful.

Imagine someone is multiclassing into this class after 5 levels of Fighter, or some other class that grants an Extra Attack by then. Basically, does your class become unbalanced if you give them an extra attack? Keep in mind that 5 levels is still an investment, so it usually won't be a problem, but if the class has an extremely powerful ability that gets even MORE powerful if you can attack more than once in a turn, it might need balancing.

Imagine another class multiclasses by dipping a few levels into your class. While you usually want the class's earliest ability to be their "schtick" that they use very often, you have to make sure it's not so powerful that other classes can become overpowered by taking only 3 or so levels in your class. For instance, during Sorcerer Week I made a swarm hivemind subclass that essentially became a swarm, granting it resistance to physical damage. It made sense flavorfully, but someone pointed out that if a Fighter or other combat class dipped into it, they would suddenly have the resilience of a barbarian for almost no cost, in addition to all those spells. I tried fixing it and left it up but in the book compilation I'm making I actually ended up removing it to replace it with a new class.

Try thinking of other ways to test the limits of the homebrew. Chances are someone out there will want to be able to min-max your class so you have to be ready for anything.

Self-Playtest

While it's unfeasible to playtest every single thing you make in large focus groups with detailed data collection, especially if you are by yourself and make a bunch of it like I do, you can always run through a self-playtest. All you have to do is play the class or mechanic in question in turn order against enemies of an appropriate challenge rating. Use turn order and run through the mechanic precisely as you wrote it. Check what happens if a check is failed OR succeeded to cover all your bases.

For the spells that I make, I will imagine the entire process of the spell from casting to effect (usually more for spells with a duration). Use props for minis if it's easier. This helps the distinctions for "start of turn" and "end of turn" effects become more clear. For instance, if I have a disabling spell that requires an initial save and then give the creature a new save at the start of each of their turns, the creature might fail their initial save but then pass their start-of-turn save, meaning they will never have a single round inhibited by the spell! I might get rid of the initial save or change the recurring saves to happen at the end of the creature's turns, so the creature will at least lose one turn on a failed save.

#dungeons & dragons #homebrew #D&D #custom classes #action economy #playtest #stress test #DnD #D&D 5e #DnD 5e #Noblecrumpet #Dorkvision

975 notes · View notes

gascon-en-exil · 6 years

Text

I Liked Fates Before It Was Cool!: Revelation Part 2

Prologue

Opening Chapters

Revelation Part 1

Chapters 13-19, in which everyone’s going to Valla even though half of them suck.

Chapter 13

Hey look, Hoshidan scum!

Ok, meme comedy done. This is in my opinion the first really strong chapter of Revelation, with satisfying gameplay, escalation of the threat posed by Valla, and some good character development. It’s an utter tragedy that it takes place against the literal backdrop of Cyrkensia’s ruined opera house, but I can (mostly) live with the destruction of my favorite setting in Fates when it’s so effective at getting results. Azura still gets to sing here after a fashion, and although there’s no cutscene to go with it the results of this particular show do a good job of subtly foreshadowing that Azura and Mikoto use similar pacifying magic from the same source.

After Kaden and Keaton are done lampshading why the party always runs into shapeshifters in Cyrkensia, it’s time for Corrin to step between Xander and Ryoma as they left them back in Chapter 6 - at each other’s throats in a conflict ultimately engineered by Anankos. It’s a good demonstration of what the war between the two nations would look like without Corrin’s intervention, and the crown princes’ characters logically follow from their behavior as antagonists in the other routes. Xander is resolved that Corrin is a traitor and merits only death, whereas Ryoma is more hesitant to accept Corrin’s choice and, unlike in Conquest, willing to listen to their stated motivations when he’s not on the verge of death. Ryoma’s mellower outlook may be attributed, oddly enough, to the strong intimation that he’s got something going on with Scarlet, something I completely forgot about until I replayed this chapter. I don’t blame myself for doing so; in an Avatar free-for-all dating game romances between the other playable characters are naturally going to get short shrift in the story, and it doesn’t help that Birthright doesn’t suggest this relationship at all even though it’s the one route where both characters to survive to the end. And...yeah, there’s that part, but that’s for a bit later. It’s interesting to imagine how the different circumstances of Revelation could have encouraged Ryoma and Scarlet to grow closer in Revelation than they do in Birthright, though realistically it probably just boils down to Corrin not being there for most of their time together.

In any case, Ryoma shares what he knows about the Rainbow Sage - odd how the fourth person to visit the Sage is still Xander on this route when in the others it’s unsurprisingly the opposing older brother - and Corrin and co. are off to follow the path of Conquest 10 and 11. At least there’s no sequence-breaking teleport books this time.

Chapter 14

This time I’m not focusing on the cutaway to Garon and co., because his obvious gloating has reached such alarmingly stupid levels that I have nothing more to say about it. The payoff, such as it is, to that plot thread is still a few chapters away anyway...as is the appearance of Iago and Hans, who have yet to do much of anything on this route and yet get to appear as bosses at a plot-critical moment. Boo.

Let’s talk about unit balancing instead. Elise shows up with her she’s-legal-we-swear panty shot, and one look at the stats of her and her retainers showcases another glaring problem with the gameplay of Revelation. From this point onward, there’s really no point in training any of the numerous unpromoted units the game throws at you, because there’s no time to raise them up to par unless you do a lot of grinding. This is one instance where Revelation’s similarities to FE10 are more superficial than they first appear, because

1) when compared to just one route of Fates Radiant Dawn is a much longer game, and in fact at 43 chapters still holds the record for the longest individual story campaign in the series. Revelation’s pacing and design suffers terribly from the requirement that it cover the same number of chapters as the other routes.

2) Radiant Dawn also has a massive roster (second largest in the series behind New Mystery) with several units who come behind the level curve, but they’re spread across the course of the game rather than lumped into a span of a few chapters. Examples vary from earlygame recruits just a bit behind (Meg) to underwhelming midgame units (Kyza and Lyre) to a bonus run Est type in lategame (Pelleas).

3) and most notably, units in FE10 are divided into separate armies with different resource pools until lategame. While the balancing between those is infamously unequal, this setup almost requires that you train more units than you’ll ultimately be sending into endgame, giving even the lesser ones a small chance to shine.

I imagine that the design philosophy behind Revelation is that the player would be expected to spend a lot of time grinding on this route to get its numerous unique supports and raise a much larger army. It seems intended for a slower pace, particularly as this also helps with building up the castle base when you’ve got duplicates of most buildings to upgrade. I still don’t care for it though, because I don’t feel like taking that extra time to raise an oversized army and because some of the recruitments continue to be unexplained in story. Why would two border guards join in the invasion of a foreign port? Revelation doesn’t know or care, but it’ll make you run your new underleveled healer to both sides of this large map to recruit them regardless. At least Elise is mounted....

Chapter 15

Seriously, look at this. These two join in the same chapter, what the hell. This isn’t even mentioning that these are also some pretty random recruitments. Shura is awfully nonchalant on hearing that Corrin got his revenge for him, and Nyx has no more reason to be here than she did in Conquest 9. With her it really feels like the writers had a great (if highly fetishistic) concept for a character and came up with a plausible backstory only to find that there was no way to fit her into the plot, so...here she is. On a related note, Nyx is the only first generation character other than Gunter to outright not appear in one route, and at least there’s an explanation for Gunter’s absence in Birthright. Her presence really is just that random.

Before doing the write-up for this chapter I read back over what I’d written for the Sevenfold Sanctuary in the other routes. The gameplay of the Revelation iteration offers nothing really to speak of, lacking either Conquest’s class and skill-themed rooms or Birthright’s power jump. The Rainbow Sage uses an alternate old man sprite initially to make it less obvious that he’s repeating the same trick he pulled in Birthright, but his exposition at the end is worth the trolling for finally confirming that he is indeed a dragon and giving us the obligatory Fire Emblem name drop. Fates’s cosmology reveals itself to borrow mostly from Jugdral of all places, though I’ve never yet seen anyone try to piece together the scattered hints of worldbuilding to link the twelve dragons of the two settings. I’m certainly not going to attempt it, because even with divine weapons and draconic-blooded families in the mix there’s remarkably little to conclude definitively that the First Dragons of Fates are/were the dragons that appeared to Jugdral’s Crusaders. My pet theory aligns it a bit more with Tellius because of certain other observations about Fates’s setting and because something is going to have to connect the dragon laguz to the rest of the series’s lore eventually.

Chapter 16 + 17

I’ve been pretty down on Revelation thus far, and at first I was fully prepared to rip into these two chapters in similar fashion...and then I finished playing through them and changed my mind. If I had to pick one moment from FE14 to represent in miniature the beautiful mess that is this game, with all its inventive concepts and missed potential, its stirring emotional moments and lazy copouts, I would choose these chapters. In spite of everything they nail the very best of what Fates offers on an emotional level, and as a midgame climax they land almost as well as the Branch of Fate lands as an establishing moment.

And yet there’s so much wrong with them! Hans and Iago have never been flatter or more inconsequential antagonists; note that before this point in Revelation they’ve done nothing aside from knock Gunter off a bridge and use an illusion to piss off the Wind Tribe. The Ryoma/Scarlet angle is abruptly dialed back to the friend zone, presumably to make it okay for the Avatar to bone them, while Hinoka abruptly joins in the action after having been forgotten about for eleven(!) chapters bar one throwaway mention in Chapter 13. Xander and Leo’s apparent betrayal of Nohr has little bite to it even from Iago as Garon might as well not exist by this point, and their retainers fail so hard as backup I almost always just send them to a corner to wait out the battle. Speaking of which, the trend of underleveled units reaches its zenith, here where maybe four of the eleven units obtained in these chapters can reasonably be used without grinding after this point. It’s even worse than the torrent of garbage units the Archanea games throw at you, because at least those sometimes come with nice stuff in their inventories (hence the “Free Silvers” tier jokingly used on some of the DS tier lists back when those were popular). And to cap it all off the ticking timer that’s been running from Chapter 7 up until this moment, of the skies over Hoshido and Nohr switching as the moment that the portal to Valla will close, makes no sense either (meteoro)logically or narratively except to add unneeded urgency and entice a few of the characters to the Canyon. For that matter, since Revelation appears to take place in the same time frame as the other two routes it’s baffling that this bizarre bit of worldbuilding goes unmentioned in them. Wouldn’t it be kind of a big deal for Nohr to get a normal sky every few decades, and for Hoshido to get a bad one?

But somehow despite all that when the Nohrian brothers show up in Chapter 17 and the music switches to “A Dark Fall” (quick aside, but one thing I love about Fates as a whole is its soundtrack) I fully got what the developers were going for, and to see all the royals finally interacting with each other - something sorely missing from Chapter 6, if you recall - and calling a truce to face whatever awaits them in Valla together just sealed that feeling. The Hoshidan and Nohrian contrast to these two chapters followed by a scene of Corrin’s families united for the first time really sells the main draw of Revelation, even if for some of them the buildup to that moment was rushed (Takumi, Camilla) or just not there at all (Hinoka). Yeah, it comes with the distinct aroma of Avatar-centered plotting like everything else on this route - as Ryoma actually points out in Chapter 16, funnily enough - but even though some of the particulars are undercooked and most of the circumstances are downright silly I can completely get on board with this group of people in this moment banding together to, uh, jump off a bridge before an interdimensional portal closes because the sky is changing color and...ugh, never mind.

Chapter 18

I will say this for Valla: I really enjoy its visual style, a sort of supernaturally-ruined pastoral idyll that resembles nothing like the world above. It also helps that it’s not tied directly to any real-world cultures like Hoshido and Nohr are, and its nods to Middle Eastern, Indian, and exclusively in localization (I think?) Greek cultures come across in the series’s more typically understated fashion. Of course that otherworldly quality lends itself to more frustrating map mechanics, so it’s not entirely a positive. This one isn’t so bad provided you’re fielding a bunch of royals to activate all the Dragon Veins - and really, it’s not as though the player needs another excuse to use them to the exclusion of almost everyone else.

But of course the big moment of this chapter is Scarlet’s death. The bit with the flower is a painfully obvious hint to recall when it comes time for the reveal of her killer, but nevertheless the sequence does well despite that and some awkward staging with battle models. What doesn’t work quite as well is the reintroduction of the Ryoma/Scarlet angle just to add more punch to her death...completely ignoring the possibility that Corrin might be married to either of them (and Scarlet just undergone what had to have been one of the most hyper-accelerated pregnancies in all of fiction, if you want to be really sadistic). Because of their earlier buildup this may be the most egregious example of Fates needing to ignore its own support mechanics for the sake of the main plot. In any case, if Corrin didn’t shack up with one of them the scene after the chapter is pretty solid. I consider it comparable to Lilith’s death scenes on the other routes, since she also dies taking a hit for Corrin, but as the circumstances are less random and Scarlet actually gets most of her characterization outside DLC it’s much more effective overall.

Chapter 19

Enter the strange child with the oversized forehead. At least it’s not immediately obvious that’s he’s evil, I guess?

It’s interesting to note that the Valla chapters are structured almost as a route unto themselves, having to establish a new set of characters previously unseen in Revelation and not seen at all in the other routes. Although in terms of gameplay they function more like an extended endgame in the vein of Radiant Dawn’s Tower of Guidance, bizarre architecture and all. I’ll be talking more about Anthony and Arete and the others later on, but I wanted to note the setup for when I talk about it in the next post.

The intro to this chapter also delves into a bit more of Fates’s cosmology, specifically its deified dragons. Xander asks what only Iago thought to question in Conquest, namely why Garon would worship Anankos and not the Dusk Dragon, only to get the obvious but still technically necessary reveal of Garon’s true nature. I do like that the First Dragons are vague enough in their presentation that I could believe either that the Dawn and Dusk Dragons are just different interpretations of Anankos or that they’re all separate entities. As I recall however this is somewhat muted by the knowledge that the emotional payoff re: Garon is going to be rather muted when it finally happens, so this really is just more vague worldbuilding.

Oh, right, the chapter. It’s Conquest 15 with a bigger party and entirely too many items drops on the optional path. Why the developers think the player needed so many items thrown at them in a game with no durability and a route with no shortage of funds I’ll never know.

Next time: Revelation Chapter 20 - Endgame

#Fire Emblem #Fire Emblem Fates #Fire Emblem Revelation #FE14

26 notes · View notes

pdchronicles · 6 years

Text

Over the past 24 hours, I've seen just about every human reaction imaginable to the events that transpired in World of Warcraft. There's a lot of emotion out there right now, and it's manifesting in many different ways. After having time to process things myself, I want to get a few things off my chest that are independent of the most common arguments that have been going back and forth: bad writing, and player character reactions. These things are worth debating, of course, but I'm leaving that to others for now. The following is going to be on a much more personal level. I'm going to explain what WoW, and what gaming in general, means to me, and what it does for me.

To me, playing games and creating stories is a way to escape and to help me imagine what sort of person I would like to be if I was strong enough. I like to think that I'm a good person, but I also understand that I'm no paragon, either. I make mistakes, I sometimes act badly due to flaring emotions, and I'm still learning how to be a human being. Playing fictional characters in video games allows me to put myself in exaggerated and fantastical situations and try to figure out how I would react. To quote Overwatch in a way, they allow me to see the world as it could be.

The world, and especially the United States where I live, feels very divided right now. There are a lot of scary things that are happening. A lot of the time, it feels like things are regressing into a state that was worse than it was just a few years ago. And quite often, it feels like it's only going to get worse. During these times of uncertainty and uneasiness, it becomes even more difficult to be kind. Fear is a terrible motivator. In life, you are rarely faced with a choice that is easy. You rarely see a clear, correct answer to a problem. And even when the answer seems so perfectly clear to you, you're dismayed to see that there are people who think exactly the opposite, and you just can't understand how that's possible. I'm faced with this latter problem every day. I wonder to myself, HOW can my government think that it should be illegal for a gay couple to adopt a child? HOW can so many white people hate people of color? HOW can so many people be okay with putting children in cages? HOW can so many people who claim to follow the teachings of a peaceful, loving man support a man who does nothing but lie and cheat? And so on. And so forth. Ad infinitum.

The thing that makes all of this so frightening is that I don't know when, assuming if, this will ever get any better. I'm faced with the possibility that it will only get worse. I try to limit my exposure to these kinds of things, but it's impossible to fully put them out of mind these days.

This brings me back to video games. I started playing World of Warcraft in 2004 when I was still very much in the closet. I didn't come out to my parents until 2010. When I was first introduced to WoW by a friend, I related to the Horde on a personal level. I always felt like I was a misfit and that I didn't belong in the world in which I lived. I felt like the world didn't accept me. I was immediately drawn to the plight of the Darkspear Trolls, because they, too, lived in a world that didn't accept them. They were constantly being forced out of their homes, first from Darkspear Island, and then from the Echo Isles. They were hunted down and killed simply for being who they were. It didn't matter if they were the savages that the other races assumed them to be or not. Then, they found a home, and refuge, in the Horde. It goes without saying that this resonated with me, and has always resonated with me in the 14 years since.

The high point came at the conclusion of Mists of Pandaria when Vol'jin was named Warchief. Now, this group of outcasts that I had fallen in love with a decade ago were now leaders. Not only were they accepted into the Horde, they were stronger within it. They could be heroes. (Just for one day.)

A lot of players are comparing what's happening in the game today to what happened during the Darkspear Rebellion. I don't think these two events could be any more different, and I'll explain why. The Darkspear Rebellion was presented to us as a story about the Horde having to overthrow a leader who had gone too far. We knew that we, as a player, would have the opportunity to rise up, say no, and fight to preserve the Horde that we joined so many years ago. More generically, we were given the opportunity to be a hero in our story.

We have been given no such agency in the War of Thorns. We have no assurance that this isn't what the Horde has now become. We are given no opportunity to say NO, even if doing so doesn’t change what happens. The story of Battle for Azeroth has been presented to us as the Horde versus the Alliance. During the announcement, and forever since, it has been presented as the faction war expansion. This has been told to us over and over again, from the announcement, to the box art, to the short stories, to the cinematics, to the Before the Storm novel, to the main War Campaign story that makes up the main story of the expansion, to Warfronts, to Island Expeditions, to War Mode. We are sent to Zandalar to secure the Zandalari Navy for the Dark Lady. Every new feature, every new story element, every new zone has been presented to us in the context of the faction war. Sylvanas has been constantly doing things that are unquestionably evil ever since she was made Warchief, and there has been almost no resistance or argument to it. Certainly not enough to avoid painting the Horde in a very negative light.

And this is my most grievous complaint about the current state of WoW's story. For the last day, it has made me feel the same emotions that I feel about the real world, and that is unbelievably depressing. Perhaps the current state of things in the world is WHY this story is being told now. Maybe it's a product of its time. For me, though, it has taken my escape from the uncertainty and the depressing things in the world, and has begun to mirror them. One can't look at the communities reaction and not see a parallel between how the Horde and Alliance are treating each other and how liberals and conservatives are treating each other. One can’t look at Sylvanas doing terrible things and how no one seems capable or willing to resist her, and not see the similarity to one other such leader.

One argument seems to be that, well, of course Sylvanas is evil and of course she's going to be resisted and of course we're going to heroically save the day. And yes, of course that's probably going to happen in one way or the other. Here's the thing, though. I'm sure you've heard it said before that the journey is more important than the destination. I believe that fully. I’m perfectly fine with a story having low points. But, as I mentioned before, there has been very little resistance to Sylvanas' actions and no promise that BfA is anything more than a faction war. It doesn't matter if everyone believes it's more than just a faction war. I have played the beta, and even on Zandalar everything that you're tasked with doing is in the name of the Dark Lady. It's still business as usual. So here it is:

It doesn't matter if the payoff is fulfilling when the journey feels bad.

This is my main point. Right now, it feels bad to be Horde. It feels bad to be a part of a faction that follows Sylvanas and doesn't, at least in some way, resist her evil ways. It feels bad to still be following her orders without even a hint of rebellion even on Zandalar. It feels bad not knowing if we will ever get the opportunity to tell her no. I would much rather have just a little bit of the destination spoiled for me in order to make the journey much more enjoyable and fulfilling.

Some people might be able to trust Blizzard enough that they can assume it's going to be all right, and enjoy playing the expansion until things get better. I do not have that level of trust, not after my favorite character was unceremoniously killed by a nameless demon, and then named a genocidal maniac intent on destroying all life as his successor. No, I cannot trust them to tell me a good story.

So, my conclusions? Until I know that the destination will be worth it, I will wait before I set myself on the journey. I'm not a miserable, bitter man. I haven't ruled out the possiblity that there will be some epic uprising within the Horde against Sylvanas. I'm not ignoring the fact that Saurfang eventually deserts his post. Or that the Horde druids of the Cenarion Circle were sent to Silithus by Sylvanas, which conveniently makes them unable to protest her actions in Darnassus. Or that Baine shows up in Zandalar to keep an eye on what's going on. These might be small hints at something bigger. But it's not enough. It's not NEAR enough. When Garrosh attempted to assassinate Vol'jin, the consequences were IMMEDIATE. We LEAPT at that assassin and we killed his ass before he could even confirm he'd finished Vol'jin off. It was immediately established that Vol'jin was going off to plan something, and that we'd be involved. It felt amazing.

I understand that if things like that had happened in War of Thorns, it would feel too much the same, and that's boring. Sure, I get that. Here's the thing, though. If Blizzard didn't want that, then here's a sort of controversial opinion: They shouldn't have made Sylvanas Warchief. Here's another controversial opinion: Sylvanas didn't need to be Warchief in order to do any of the things she has done since becoming Warchief.

But, here we are. This is where they've taken the story, and I find that unfortunate. I hope it get better, I really do. And if it does, I'll be right there with the rest of you to enjoy it. Until then, I hope everyone else finds their own fun with it. I'll be around, waiting in the wings, being a hero elsewhere until my time comes around again.

#world of warcraft #spoilers

8 notes · View notes

ardenttheories · 6 years

Note

I'd like to hear your thoughts on cherub biology or at least the philosophical implications of having a clearly good side and clearly bad side especially in relation to Calliope and Caliborn who have been heavily influenced by human interaction

From what I can see, and what makes most sense to me, the Cherub will always be a Lord/Muse hybrid. Potentially, these titles are exclusive to the Cherubs - even more potentially, they will always be a Time and a Space player. From the actual biology I’ve read up on, the traits of each Cherub personality is directly passed on by the parents, with the male taking on the traits of the loser (hence, Caliborn is directly like his father) and the female taking on the traits of the winner (and similarly, Calliope is almost exactly like her mother). They are fused in personality immediately after being hatched, but quickly separate into their split personalities after pupation - at which point, their sole purpose for existence is to battle with one another until one of them snuffs the other out, to take complete control of their once-shared body.

The species is entirely a solitary one. They only ever come together to mate, and then immediately part ways or die during it; the children are left to fend for themselves, and in all honesty Calliope and Caliborn even talking to humans is a complete anomaly for their kind. The good half is always terrified that they will be hurt by others the way their other self hurt them; the bad half has no desire for socialisation, except for to destroy. What this means for two Cherubs to have been socialised even to such a minor extent is something we likely will never know. We don’t have enough information on Cherubs to know anything beyond that Caliborn forces himself to predominate Calliope prematurely - something we can tell since all mature Cherubs are meant to have wings, yet Lord English does not - and that they were never truly meant to play the game. SBURB and its universal counterparts are only meant to be played by those, it seems, who have gone through the ectobiological process, yet we know that Caliborn and Calliope were born naturally. I would say tentatively posit that perhaps Calliope and Caliborn are ruined as Cherubs due to their interactions with other characters, as well as with Gamzee’s influence; he’s the reason, it seems, that they are stuck in their tiny room in the first place, and why they even have access to humans via the console they talk to the alpha kids on. For an asocial species, this isn’t exactly prime reasoning. They never should have played SBURB in the first place - but doing so would mean absolutely no chance of Lord English specifically targeting the SBURB players, or in being the terrifying end boss that he is… so this may be why they’re so atypical.

As for what it’s like to be struck so definitely down the middle, again, we have to remember that Calliope and Caliborn are premature. Caliborn forces his success well before they should - and even Muse Calliope, I believe, mentions that she had to get a quick one in on Caliborn, possibly implying that she is a premature predomination, too. Considering they take on their traits from their parents, and considering that one side is perfectly good while the other is awfully evil, I would have to assume that the end result is… pretty much what we see in comic. A cruel, vicious side continuously attempting to destroy everything it possibly can, particularly that which it sees as weak, while the other side acts as something of a protector, trying its best to stop the evil side. I don’t think it would have too huge of an impact on anything else besides this; the struggle between each personality, that fight for dominance striven by “I’m going to destroy everything!” “Not if I stop you!”. You essentially have a fragrant killer and a desperate hero (or questionably, victim) attempting to stop the destruction from getting out of hand.

They are unstable, unbalanced. One side refuses to destroy; the other refuses to protect. It’s why, at the end of it all, when it comes to mating, they try to find that which most perfectly fills the void left behind by the personality lost to predomination. Regardless of whether or not they liked the other personality, we have to remember that they are part of a whole; a split consciousness made so due to the way Cherubs need to breed and need to live (they are a vastly spaced species and incredibly volatile, even those who seem to be “good”; someone who is unsplit, who can act both ways in moderation, will not survive), will struggle to feel complete after losing what is essentially half of their being. It is all or nothing for Cherubs, and I believe that is why they are so rare, so volatile, and so dangerous. It is definitely akin to having your personality split into extremes, only for one side to come out on top; if your sadness wins, then you will be sad for the rest of your life, regardless of what happens. It will be who you are, your reaction to everything - you will have no other choice but to act that way, because that will be all that’s left.

It’s honestly a lot easier on the Cherubs considering it’s only a good/bad split. They still get to retain a lot of what allows them to have personalities, just that the actions those personalities cause them to take may be a bit more towards the extreme morally.

As for biology… they’re snakes, at least at birth and during mating, so I’d like to think they’re based a lot on that. I’ve read somewhere that they canonically have exoskeletons, which I must admit is not my favourite idea. As young, I like to imagine them as bony, thin creatures with very little strength at all, something that puts them on a level playing field and requires them to have at least some degree of working together to ensure that they actually manage to feed themselves. The head is one giant skull, at which point I am torn between the idea that they have soft, retractable flesh around the mouth to allow for talking, or if they have thin flesh that almost directly merges into the gum of the teeth to keep the skull shape unhindered, and speech is just… something that happens. Might be one of those things that they, as almost-godly beings, are able to communicate in a different way - or that they have one hell of an accent when speaking. Both are equally as interesting. The skin simply conforms to the shape of the bones - especially around areas like the arms and legs - leaving them fairly brittle and weak. As they grow, however, and particularly after predomination, I would like to imagine that they begin to strengthen; they grow vastly in size, they gain significant amounts of muscle, filling out in a way they simply could not before. New nutrients and the energy gained from devouring planets/solar energy allows them to form a tougher skin, something more akin to a carapace, with only the skull retaining that thin skin. Considering both a male and female share a body, and that the male (as in Caliborn/Calliope’s father’s case) can be the one fertilised with eggs, I think it’s fairly certain that, like trolls, they have both sets of genitalia, and considering they just ditch the egg to raise itself, I think we can also firmly rule out the idea of Cherubs having breasts, too. I’m not entirely too sure why there’d be a male-female divide in a species like this, then, besides the males being more muscular. If the males were always bad and the females always good, then it would definitely make sense, but males and females don’t 100% seem to have this divide; it all depends on which gender lays the egg as to which child takes on the personality of which parent. That might be the, very watery, reasoning, then; to determine which part of the child is inherently good and which is inherently bad.

#long post//#homestuck analysis #Anonymous #homestuck biology

18 notes · View notes

azuretreecreeper · 7 years

Text

Rambles about the ‘new’ characters in FE:Echoes

I am not tagging this post because I don’t want to flood fire emblem echoes tag with spoilers. Below contains my thoughts on Berkut & Rinea, Fernand, Faye & Conrad, divided into three sections. The post is pretty long (1200+ words).

My English is crappy but my love for the game is true. Spoilers alert: Content below contains massive spoilers for the main game and minor (and vague) spoilers for the DLC.

First of all I want to confess that I've never played Gaiden. But I think I can still analyze the importance (or lack of importance) of the ‘new’ characters by imagining how the story would play out without them.

Let me start with Berkut and Rinea. Upon first glance, I thought although they gave Berkut loads of scenes he didn’t add much to the story, also I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t dig deeper into the ‘noble/elite vs commoner’ topic, not to mention Rinea has almost no significance to the story (such a waste of her beauty, lol). But later it dawned on me that they really did add a very important layer to the plot. It was their existence that truly showed Duma’s ideal society was much flawed.

We can easily see the down side of Mila giving human too much freedom and comfort. What about Duma’s society? Duma and the Duma faithfuls are the ‘villains’, true, but that has nothing to do with Duma being too strict or encouraging human to strive for power, it was simply because Duma was mad. Rigelians invaded Zofia and killed dozens of people, but the one responsible for this is Rudolf and later on you found out that he did this out of no selfish reason and was instead planning for a ‘brighter’ future for all human. Let’s set aside Rudolf’s approach and logic, just judging from his motive, he is not all that bad. So really, there was no STRONG evidence to show that Duma’s education was ‘terribly wrong’. Not until we see what Berkut has become.

Berkut is a typical ‘Duma educated’ person. His tragedy happened because (A) Berkut himself only cares about power; (He built his self worthiness upon power possessing and in the end he abandoned his pride and his love to gain power) (B) Rudolf was also ‘goal oriented’ (Rudolf didn’t show a loving side for his nephew in game. It seems that getting rid of the gods is the thing he cares the most. To some extent, he was being cruel to both Berkut and Alm). All in all, Berkut’s story shows that ‘being more powerful’ should not be the only thing human care about thus proves Duma’s theory has its own problem just like Mila’s.

So, although Berkut is nowhere near a likable person to me (nor am I disgusted by him, I just feel sorry for this tragic guy and his beautiful Rinea), I want to defend him on his importance.

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

Next, Fernand. Where do I start…

Maybe I read too much into it, but I thought Fernand was added because they wanted to add another dimension to the plot, that is to raise a discussion about the relationship between nobles and commoners. It is an interesting topic and there’s a potential to make the discussion ‘deep’.

Throughout the history of OUR world we can see the ‘commoners’ sometimes can really be foolish, selfish and easily manipulated. (The elites/nobles are no better, or worse in many cases, but horrible in different ways.) Commoners’ drives are usually more down to earth while ‘Upper classes’ men’s are often more ‘ideal’. (This is actually shown in game: Tobin did not fight for dreams or honors at first, only for money, Gray can sometimes be a bit vulgar and Faye’s only in because of Alm.) Being too ‘down to earth’ can leads to being short sighted while being too ideal means disregarding reality (and could lead to disastrous failure). It’s never as simple as ‘let’s all treat each other equally and be friends’. Classes would always exists therefore differences would always exists and that leads to conflict cycles. It would be very interesting to see how the characters deal with this.

The main game did not grant me a discussion on this topic in Fernand related plots. We (Alms) as commoners (or so we believed) only see a pathetic man being a jerk to us and our friends, betrayed our country and later admitted that his misfortune was his own fault and he was only seized and blinded by his rage and grief (nothing related to commoners being commoners, he just wanted to blame SOMEONE for his loss).

Luckily we have the DLC ‘Rise of the deliverance’ which I personally think discussed about this topic a bit more (especially in the last battle ‘siege of Zofia castle’ and Clive’s support with Python).

Back to Fernand. What the game gave me instead is his friendship with Clive, Clair and Mathilda. His relationship with Clive and Mathilda was so cliché that it’s almost CLASSIC and actually blends in well with Gaiden’s plot. Although they hinted on Fernand’s feeling towards Mathilda, the focus was on his friendship with Clive. Echoes tried so hard to emphasize this friendship, a bit too hard perhaps, which made me feel like they want me to ship them (Uh…not really. But just saying, they have two exclusive CGs and Fernand even died in Clive’s arm…). That aside, they did well with the friendship part and Fernand’s last words actually made me a bit sad.

‘You were always too nice for your own good. Always so…quick to pardon me… Along the way. I…I forgot how to ask for forgiveness…’ No Fernand, don’t do this.

Overall Fernand in the main game did not really add much content to the story, but he’s okay as he did add in some feelings. The DLC did great in expanding the topic he was meant to bring in; also the DLC completed the characterization of him and made him a much more relatable character (to me, even a little likable).

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

Last, Faye and Conrad.

I feel like their importance is more on the side of being usable units. Plotwise, I would say they have no importance at all. Maybe Conrad’s background adds a little more information about this world, but that’s quite trivial.

I think Faye and Conrad serve the same purpose, which is to add a character that is deeply affectionate to one of the main characters. The game makers wanted two characters to be by the main characters’ side showering the main characters with love, yet they don’t want these characters to be considered potential romantic interests to the main characters. For Faye, she knows in the beginning Alm loves Celica and Alm rejected her directly in their support. For Conrad, he is Celica’s brother so of course they will not be in a romantic relationship (don’t remind me of how incesty fire emblem has always been…).

I’m not sure why they added these two characters. Maybe they think for the players having friends at your side is not good enough? You’ve got to have someone who loves you more than friends do by your side? No idea at all.

Comparing to Berkut and Fernand, Faye and Conrad are better people (maybe much better, as they are on the ‘good’ side after all). I wouldn’t say Faye has got nothing other than a crush for Alm or Conrad’s purpose to exist was to make Celica happy, because that’s simply not true, albeit they don’t show much other than their affections for the main characters. But indeed they are not very interesting characters to me. Faye is a strong unit though.

5 notes · View notes

ciathyzareposts · 4 years

Text

Game 352: Dungeons of Avalon II: The Island of Darkness (1992)

This screen is the same in both the German and English versions.

Dungeons of Avalon II: The Island of Darkness

Germany Zeret (developer); published by CompuTec Verlag (German) and Amiga Mania (English) Released in 1992 for the Amiga

Date Started: 7 January 2020

It was over three years ago that I played the frustrating Dungeons of Avalon (1991), which exceeded the typical diskmag game (a game that was distributed via an electronic magazine) in technical quality. But I wasn’t able to win it, first because the final battle was unbelievably hard–I can’t imagine anyone winning it “straight”–and second because even when I cheated to win the final battle, I couldn’t get any flag to trip to show me the endgame screens. Said screens did exist in the game, as attested by the various files.

So the ending was a bit of a downer, but the gameplay experience until then was very good, and we find the same experience in Dungeons of Avalon II. As far as I can tell, the game mechanics, graphics, and sound haven’t changed at all between the two versions. The only thing that’s changed is the layout of the dungeon and the ostensible reason for being there.

The German version supplies the backstory.

The games look a lot like Dungeon Master and indeed follow some Dungeon Master protocols when it comes to door switches and navigation puzzles. In everything else, however, they are much more products of the Wizardry lineage. In particular, enemies can’t be seen in the environment–you just stumble upon them–and combat is run by having each character specify an action and then watching as they execute in conjunction with the enemies’ actions. In their use of grotesque graphics and ambient sound, the Avalon games arguably exceed the best commercial Wizardry derivatives of the era.

I had expected to import characters between the games, so I was glad to see that the sequel starts things over with a new party. It takes place 49 years after the defeat of the Dark Lord in the first game. Avalon has become an empire and expanded to the sea and beyond. On one of its islands, evil has befallen the city of Isla. Monsters have appeared out of nowhere, overwhelming the trading port and slaughtering the city guards. The mayor, Roa, has written to the king for help. The king has dispatched several parties of soldiers and mages to the city, but none have returned. Finally, in desperation, he organizes one more small party, hoping they can succeed where the others failed.

The backstory specifies that “five heroes were chosen . . . two fighters and three magicians,” which conflicts with the fact that you can create a party of six and you’re not in any way limited by class. The races and classes haven’t changed. Races are human (mensch), elf, half-elf (halb-elf), dwarf (zwerg), troll, “gnom,” “lizzard” (echse), and “stembär,” the last an homage to music composer Rudolf Stember. Classes are fighter (krieger), thief (dieb), knight (ritter), hunter (jäger), monk (mönch), magician (magier), healer (heiler), and wizard (hexer), the last four equipped with spellbooks as well as melee weapons.

Creating a new character.

Once you specify race and class during creation, the game automatically rolls for intelligence, dexterity, wisdom, luck, strength, and constitution, modified by race. You can spend a lot of time re-rolling, but these attributes increase between 2 and 11 points per level anyway. Character portraits are automatic based on class and always seem to look human. All are male.

Even though I didn’t play with them–I never do–I noted that the default party starts at Level 3, which puts them at a major advantage over a party that you create yourself.

I went with:

Armin, a human knight

Fomorus, a troll fighter

Ferry, a half-elf thief

Jolson, a dwarf monk

Aurion, an elf magician

Taliesin, a lizzard wizard

I had a tough time getting things started. There are multiple German and English versions of the game on the web, some “patched” in some way, others not. I started with a WHDLoad version of the English edition, but halfway through Level 1 I ran into some problems–the same problems that a period reviewer found when he tried to play the game. It essentially had to do with the wrong encounters showing up in the wrong squares, making it impossible to pass those squares.

The shopowner is proud of his limited wares.

I couldn’t find any English version in which that problem had been repaired, so I switched to a “patched” German version (although I don’t know if that’s one of the things it patched), which meant starting over with new characters and losing a couple of hours of progress. Fortunately, the game is not that text-heavy, and I can read a lot of it without needing a translator, thanks to previous German RPG experience. Also, a lot of the text is in English even in the German version, including the title.

Not only is this encounter in the wrong place, he doesn’t actually give you a key.

There are 10 levels of 32 x 32 to explore (with worm-tunnel walls), divided into two structures: the dungeon and the Tower of Roa. (The first game had 50 x 50 levels, but fewer of them.) A menu town with a shop, a temple, and a training guild sits outside.

Exploration is not entirely “open,” but it’s less linear than the typical dungeon crawler. Each level has multiple sections, some disconnected from the others, and at any given moment you’re probably looking for at least three keys, objects, puzzle solutions, or other necessities to uncover different areas.

You have to check all walls for these little floor buttons. Pressing them removes the wall.

The levels also wrap, which always disappoints me. Wrapping dungeon levels give you a momentary navigation pause, but they otherwise offer little extra challenge to justify tearing the player out of any sensible reality.

My map of Level 2 of the main dungeon. Note the north/south wrap on column 6.

The levels are full of the types of light puzzles I remember from the first game. Small grates at the bottom threshold of the walls indicate secret doors; sometimes you have a dozen of these in a sequence. Other secret doors are revealed by pressure plates or wall switches. There are teleporters, traps, spinners, magic barriers, and occasional “ice floors” that send you careening down long hallways with no ability to stop. Fortunately, a group of spells keep you oriented and solve most of the navigation issues, including “Vogelblick” (“Birds’ View”) “Magier Auge” (“Magic Eye”), and “Falkenfeder” (“Levitation”).

The game’s automap is quite good, though not enough that I could rely on it exclusively.

Combats occur at fixed locations (with no respawning), but most have random compositions. Sometimes, you lose to two groups of three zombies, reload, and face a single skeleton on your second try. You don’t see the enemies themselves in the environment, but there are very feint blue lines on the tiles where a fixed combat is going to occur; whether this is intentional or some kind of side-effect of the game’s coding is unknown. Fighting follows a Wizardry model in which only the first three characters can attack in melee range. You specify actions for each character and watch them execute (threaded with the enemies’ actions) all at once. One nice thing is a “quick combat” option that just runs through the actions without narrating the results. At the end of combat (whether you win or flee), you get a little summary of who did and took how much damage, and how experience and gold were allocated. The only other game I remember ever offering such a feature is the German Legend of Faerghail (1990).

Combat options when attacking a “pest baby” include attacking, using an object, casting a spell, and defend.

The game strikes a good balance in difficulty. It allows you to save anywhere, but you can only camp (to recover health and magic points) on rare fixed squares that have an emblem with the letter “C.” You have to keep spell points in reserve to handle the occasional blindness, poison, disease, or petrification.

Final statistics after a battle with an “invisible.”

There’s been some nice ambient sound–creaks and groans and moaning wind as you explore the dungeon corridors. Unfortunately, it’s a bit repetitive and can’t be turned off independently from the music, which is well composed but (as always with me) unwelcome. Thus, I have been playing mostly in silence.

Perhaps the best part of the game is the grotesque monster portraits and other unusual graphics. The graphics are credited jointly to Hakan Akbiyik, Frank Matzke, and Klaus Ehrhardt. I’ve checked out their individual portfolios and don’t see anything quite the same as the Avalon games, so I’m not sure who to credit.

The authors’ conception of a “zombie.”

This dragon wants a “dragon stone.”

This “voodoo man” might be considered a little “questionable” today.

Unfortunately, the game has a lot of negative points, too:

1. I don’t care for the controls much. Too much depends on the mouse. You can move with the arrow keys but not activate doors or switches. Number keys open the characteristics of the characters, but you then have to use the mouse to switch to inventories or exit. When you’re given numbered commands on the screen, you can’t activate them with the number keys–you have to click on them. Things like that add up.

2. As with its predecessor, characters in Dungeons of Avalon II start hitting their level caps with two or three game levels left to go.

3. There might as well have been no economy. After you equip your characters at the beginning, the only thing to spend money on is the occasional temple healing and leveling up. For your first 4 or 5 character levels, you’re chronically under-funded and almost always waiting for enough gold to advance half your party. Pretty soon, the situation reverses and you have tens of thousands of gold pieces.

If you don’t get diseased or killed much, money doesn’t have a purpose.

4. It’s too goddamned long, particularly where the encounters leave you no reason to fight once you’ve hit the level cap except that all the encounters are fixed. A diskmag dungeon crawler of this skill would have been perfect at 12-16 hours. Instead, I think it’s going to come very near to 40.

As the game begins, you can enter either the dungeon on Level 0 or the Tower of Roa on Level 5. But the part of the Tower that you enter takes you only a short distance before you run into either locked doors or an encounter with a giant named “Argha” who wants you to bring him a dragon to grant passage.

You thus have to explore a while in the main dungeon. The game follows European hotel tradition by designating the first floor “0” and the second floor “1.” Level 0 is full of long, snaky corridors with a lot of false walls that have to be opened with switches. In the far southern corridor is a teleporter that takes you to a central area with four pressure plates (and four camping squares), the combinations of which determine which corridors are open at which times. The pressure plate is preceded by message squares that say “BEAM ME UP SCOTTY” in the German version but misspell “BEAM” as “BAEM” in the English version.

The northern half of the level is suggested as a “jail” with numerous cells curving off the main corridor, most hosting fixed combats. A guardian blocks the way to this area until you give him a letter of invitation, which is found in a treasure chest to the southeast.

Monsters on Level 0 are mostly giant turtles and giant frogs, neither of which has any special attacks. They ease you nicely into the combat system.

A freaky-looking turtle.

Two of the “cells” have special encounters. A dragon is looking for a “dragon stone” for some reason. A group of thieves offers to trade a key for their freedom, although I neglected to write down what I had to do to achieve their freedom. Their key ends up opening the “map rooms” in the Tower of Roa, allowing some further progression on its first level.

Some thieves complain about being locked up.

A teleporter brings the party to a long north/south corridor that leads to the stairs to Level 1. There, things get more complicated. A small, winding corridor leads you immediately to the stairs to Level 2, which you must nearly fully explore before you find stairs back up to Level 1.

The main part of Level 1 is presented as a rectangular hallway with six crypts jutting to the east and west. The crypts belong to royalty of ages past–kings and queens and princes of Avalon, Isodor, and the Isle Rachon. A couple of them are answers to later puzzles that otherwise block progress. One of the kings is given as the king of “ZD and CT,” which is I assume a reference to Zeret and CompuTec.

Zouth Dakota and Connecticut?

In a chest deep in the level, you find the first truly good equipment. Until then, you’ve mostly been stuck with the stuff you bought at the beginning, plus perhaps a few scrolls, potions, and regular missile weapons for the rear characters. Here, you find Arc’s Helmet and Ara’s Armour, Arc and Ara being heroes of ages gone. Mysteriously, you also find a few treasure chests that go into your inventory as whole chests. I’ve tried everything, and I don’t think there’s any way to open them. I think maybe you’re just expected to sell them whole.

What am I supposed to do with these damned chests?

I’ll stop there so I have something to talk about next time. I poured hours into this game over the weekend, hoping to finish it for a single entry, but it was to no avail. Cross your fingers and hope I can win this one.

Time so far: 24 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-352-dungeons-of-avalon-ii-the-island-of-darkness-1992/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

0 notes

junker-town · 7 years

Text

I’m a Falcons fan. Not even 28-3 can break me.

Losing Super Bowl 51 was the bottom. Nothing will ever hurt that bad again.

28-34: 2nd and Goal, James White 2 yard touchdown run, Patriots win in OT

I decided the confetti would not touch me. That was the line I drew; that was the one indignity I refused as an Atlanta Falcons fan. The bags released from the NRG Stadium ceiling the second the review of White’s touchdown was upheld and I started hopping along empty seats, around and through Patriots fans, abandoning the sight of what had happened as fast as damn possible. This manic exit was probably the most athletic feat of my adult life.

The dry heaving started as soon as I got to the concourse. I couldn’t actually vomit -- I hadn’t eaten in seven hours, first because of nerves and then because I didn’t want to miss a single play of this, our coronation! But just in case I stood over one of those trash cans with the recycling dividers on the lid.

I started to gag again.

“Ooooh, oh baby. Baby, you gonna be OK,” a beer lady closing down her kiosk said.

This was the same area in which, two hours prior, I had solicited a high-five from an on-duty Texas Ranger after Tevin Coleman scored Atlanta’s fourth touchdown. This stupefying extension of my white privilege not only didn’t earn me a taser or handcuffs, but the high-fived law enforcement office responded “Man, y’all sure are laying the damn wood,” with a smile.

I wanted so badly to vomit, hoping that would stop the pain in my stomach. If one of the three Budweisers or the $9 bottle of Dasani came up, I decided I could spit it through either the “plastic” or “landfill” holes on the bin.

A stranger in an Alge Crumpler jersey stopped to look at me while he lit a cigarette inside the building.

“Hey man,” he said. “Cursed. We are fucking cursed.”

28-28: Two point conversion, Tom Brady pass to Danny Amendola

Atlanta fans are not cursed. No one is. A sports curse is a stupid, lazy way to explain away the failings of millionaire strangers you’re embarrassed to be emotionally invested in.

Besides, I don’t think Atlanta Falcons fans are allowed to claim a curse. Curses are pacifiers for shitty performing teams who have national appeal, and almost every conversation I’ve had with strangers about the Falcons -- my favorite team in any sport for my entire life -- inevitably arrives at the same question, even after I explain I’m from Georgia: Why the Falcons?

About that: I’m not explaining that anymore, why I care so much about the Falcons I was gagging into a trash can. No one asks people why they vomit in The Meadowlands.

My family is from Georgia; half from Macon crackers and half from Roswell WASPs. That’s it. That’s why I’m a Falcons fan. I don’t have to justify shit to you, Tampa homeowner in a Steelers jersey.

Here’s where we skip the four paragraphs about ennui and Southern pro sports franchises. And we aren’t going to paint a picture of Atlanta based on an out-of-towner’s gross miscalculation that the city is a cultureless void of white collar migrants and no local identity just because you’re scared of humidity and trap music. But there is a fantastic aquarium, you should try to visit that if you get a chance.

28-26: 2nd and Goal, James White 1-yard touchdown run

I shouldn’t care, but it’s hard to ignore that certain fan bases’ misery earns them some kind of certification for national acceptance. For instance, we pause to reflect on the Buffalo Bills losing four consecutive Super Bowls. Woe is the long winter of that city’s Loyal. True. Fans.

Buffalo’s is an “existential pain” and not a joke, because Buffalo is the kind of place a sports columnist can go 20 inches to nowhere with tripe about the hope inside of workaday Springsteen characters roaming the cheap seats. You know, in the America that used to be great, except America actually sucked as much then too, which is why all those people moved South to take jobs.

Now -- If you’re the Houston Oilers, lol, you’re not a city yearning to rally around a championship: Oh no. You’re just some assholes who blew a 34-point postseason lead back when Matt Ryan was 7 years old.

If most people laugh at the idea of an Atlanta Falcons fan base, surely no one is going to respect how bitter a Falcons fan still feels after February 5. But knowing that actually helps, at least for me. The only thing worse than being made to feel like your fandom is somehow invalid in comparison to a Green Bay or Pittsburgh is humping a Super Bowl loss for sympathy points from media and other fans.

The NFL has enough problems without creating its own Cubs fans.

28-20: Two point conversion, James White 1-yard run

The Atlanta Falcons blew a 25-point lead in the Super Bowl. At some point in the proceeding seven months realizing that fact felt slightly less than devastating. That’s it. That’s all the misery you’ll get from me.

As a fan I have chosen to survive this, and not out of some attempt at altruism. Nah. I’m still here, still signed up for 16 games and God-knows-what-else-come-January because it’s all house money now, and forever: I’ve seen the absolute worst thing that could happen in a game to my team. Ever.

Not Eugene Robinson. Not Brett Favre. Not Bobby Petrino. Not Bad Newz Kennels. Not marrying into a Saints family. Not getting my ass whipped by Washington fans on a school bus in Virginia in 1992 for wearing my team’s Starter jacket.

Imagine knowing that your fandom has found absolute bottom. Imagine knowing nothing else can hurt you as much as it already has.

28-18: 2nd and 2, Tom Brady touchdown pass to Danny Amendola

This might actually be the most watchable, most enjoyable Falcons team in the history of the franchise. And in 51 years that’s not as bold a statement as it should be, so it’s even that much more enticing to watch.

A few months ago a college head coach described Dan Quinn’s Seattle-Atlanta defense to me: “I mean, don’t write it like this because it’s not appropriate anymore, but we love it because they can trick you just enough put a ball carrier out in space to flat knock you the fuck out. On purpose.”

I know my silent admiration for that quote is the root of what might end the violent sport of football entirely, but I am a weak person who loses moral calibration every time Keanu Neal tattoos someone.

Go back and watch that Seattle Super Bowl over Denver. If you don’t like defense, if you were weaned on Steve Spurrier or Bill Walsh, go watch that game again. Watch the things a defense can do when it wants to be fluid and graceful and not the 1985 Bears.

In the space between talking about New England, our fan base has managed to develop excitement about the young players designed to overcome the fourth-quarter evaporation that allowed* the Patriot comeback.

(*The preceding statement, however tacitly, technically acknowledges that Super Bowl 51 was not the entire fault of former offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. However, it is still the unwavering belief of this writer that Mr. Shanahan should at some point in the near future go fuck himself forever.)

28-12: 4th and Goal, Stephen Gostkowski 33 Yd Field Goal

Julio Jones glides just off the ground. All the time: He even glides when he’s run blocking, when he went in motion in the damn backfield to pull safeties away from a touchdown run by Devonta Freeman in the Super Bowl.

Julio Jones is a 6’3, 220-pound, living action verb whose default setting is “General Lee, midair” and sometimes when I’m having a bad day I watch this play on repeat, because ahahahahahahaha there’s no league policy against using a Kaiju at wideout:

youtube

When I watch that clip it occurs to me that my fixation on winning a Super Bowl might cause me to miss the joy of watching what will almost certainly be one of the genuinely fun NFL offenses of the last decade.

Some people ruin their fandom trying to sort their quarterbacks or defenses in the pantheon of greatness. My failing has always been the reduction of every single moment to a binary: Championship / No Championship. That’s always been it. As a fan I have never stopped to appreciate the single moments of satisfaction along the way.

28-9: 2nd and Goal, Tom Brady touchdown pass to James White

I love that Deion Sanders is still the greatest cornerback in history, even if he went to San Francisco. I love Jerry Glanville. I love the Grits Blitz. I love “Big Ben Right.” I love that Michael Vick ran 46 yards for a touchdown in overtime and scared the ever-loving shit out of White America for a decade. Hell, I still love Michael Vick, and I adopted a pit bull and named it after Matt Ryan. I love breaking Minnesota’s soul in 1998 to repay the Twins in 1991. I love Dan Reeves. I love MC Hammer. I love the “Dirty Bird.” None of these things, built over 36 years of my life, were context for what happened vs. New England.

If you met a Falcons fan in a sports bar tomorrow and you couldn’t rile them about the Super Bowl and they still expressed genuine excitement for the 2017 season, you would be terrified of what would be an obvious sociopath. This is the kind of fan I have to be now to keep going. The guy you don’t want to fight in that sports bar because you know they wouldn’t just swing a few times, they’d bite you in the face.

I will bite you in the face. At no point in this Godforsaken experience of losing a 25-point lead in the Super Bowl have I stopped loving the things about this lampooned, derided sports team that makes a grown man dry heave in anger.

If that’s true, if Super Bowl 51 can’t separate me from this stupid team, then I will surely die with them. Because nothing can be worse.

I seriously think we’re going to win the Super Bowl this year.

28-3

0 notes