Standards since playing Baldur’s Gate 3:

Lust after me so hard you turn into a literal animal

Whittle ducks

Be a 350 year old Wood Elf Druid

Love honey

Time for some more thinky thoughts re: my dread of having to choose between Halsin or Minthara, if the datamined scenario is implemented.

I don't like that this would add more ammunition for the Halsin haters to fire. Halsin dares to exist, and people have a problem with it. He's held at such a ridiculously high standard compared to the other companions.

Not to mention, I personally find it hard to believe that he wouldn't care what horrible fate Minthara would meet should she leave. One of the first things we learn about him is that he took in the refugees, whereas many druids at the Emerald Grove literally want them dead.

His guilt about the Shadowcurse, his relentless pursuit of lifting it - often at his own detriment - his willingness to help the player because they showed him an act of kindness; none of these things indicate a malicious or petty man. So why would this same man insist that Minthara, a victim in her own way, be turned away when she's in need?

(I am aware that Minthara isn't good, and that her brainwashing doesn't excuse whatever evil she committed or wanted to commit, blah blah, don't come at me.)

To expand on that, why is it that Minthara, a character who is clearly much more callous, ruthless, and cruel, be the one willing to compromise? Why does Halsin have to be the bad guy in this scenario? He's clearly able to adapt. He may not LIKE having Minthara in the party, but why threaten to leave if she's not banished?

Why have him swear to help the player, in whatever way he can, suddenly forget that promise, forget the help the player has offered him, because Minthara is suddenly involved? Why make it seem like he's willing to break his word because something makes him uncomfortable, or brings back traumatic memories?

Why make it possible to recruit both of them with legitimate methods to begin with, if we're forced to choose anyway?

It's not like he has to like it if the player insists they both stay. In fact, I would WANT him to stand up for himself, his boundaries, his reasoning, for why he wouldn't want Minthara to stay, while not insisting she be fed to the proverbial wolves.

Why can we get Shadowheart and Lae'Zel to put aside their differences and work together, but not do the same for Halsin and Minthara?

I'm not the writer for either of these characters. I'm just a fan reblogging silly little posts about silly little pixel people. I can't say whether or not something is OOC. But this just doesn't add up to me. Halsin's writing already makes a heel face turn, or is otherwise all over the place, between Act 1 and 3. And I'm not saying adding "flaws" or inconsistencies to his character is a bad thing, or isn't part of writing believable characters.

It just seems unconvincing.

IDK. I probably have more thoughts on this lurking in my brain, but this works for now.

blu i just wanna tell you that your blog FASCINATEs me for some reason. what video games do you like. list

I actually just answered this but for a LONGER list:

Halo. I fucking love Halo. Massive Halo fan. Played it all the time growing up. My favourite is Reach (beat it on LASO) and NOBLE deserved better and I would die for Jorge. Also I might've gotten teary-eyed at the end of the Halo 4 (4 is still my favourite of the mainline games because of the Cortana story and I hate what they did with her in 5). I was that annoying bloke on mic with the fucking birds in the background that everyone yelled at to mute himself. And I never did.

I used Minecraft for pixel art. Also just for building shit. I liked building treehouses.

Animal Crossing on my Switch Lite (no clue where the Switch is).

Stardew Valley on my Switch Lite.

Doom. I played so much fucking Doom. I beat 2016, then beat Eternal on ultra violence over summer break before I left for Australia and never made it to nightmare because FUCK THAT. At one point I played Ancients Gods Part I and II on Jack's nephew's Xbox. I did pretty good for not handling a controller for two years!

World of Warcraft and I was addicted. I mained a Worgen Druid on Alliance and an Orc Shaman on Horde (now she's a Mag'har Orc Shaman but still).

Borderlands. So much fucking Borderlands you have no idea. My favourite is Borderlands 2. KRIEG MAIN, BABY!

All of the Gears of War games but I don't think I finished 5. I don't like Kait, she's kind of annoying. Also Marcus deserved some happiness.

Red Dead Redemption. I played the first game when I was a kid and then the second immediately when it came out and I was hooked. I cried at the horse scene and fuck you if you say you didn't because you're a liar. My favourite thing to do is hunt :]

Used to play Destiny before I went back to Australia but it's been a long while. I have one slot for every class. Main is a human void Warlock, her name is Calliope. I also have an Exo solar Titan named Syna and an Awoken void Hunter named Iris. They all have backstories lmao

Played a lot of Dragon Age back in the day. In Inquisition I played an elf mage Inquisitor. I also always ended up romancing Cullen despite wanting to try other paths? I just... like Cullen I reckon lmao

Mass Effect

Played a lot of Sims when I was younger? I OBSESSED over getting a pet unicorn you have no idea

Played through every Assassin's Creed game up to 4. Four is my favourite.

ENDLESS OCEAN BLUE WORLD ON THE WII. OH MY GOD. I LOVED THIS GAME SO FUCKING MUCH. IT GAVE ME A LOVE FOR THE OCEAN THAT I STILL HAVE TODAY. IF I COULD FIND A WII SOMEWHERE AND GET IT AND PLAY THIS GAME AGAIN I WOULD DO IT IN A FUCKING HEARTBEAT. IT BLEW MY 10-YEAR-OLD MIND AND IT'S THE GAME THAT INTRODUCED ME TO MY LOVE OF TELLING COMPELLING STORIES.

Portal 1 & 2. Gave me a love of puzzle games.

TF2 obviously but I only really played it a few times because I usually have to stick to training sessions on account of actual matches killing my laptop. It's not a gaming laptop and it cannot handle the chaos lmao. I was an okay Sniper main when I actually played with a mouse but normally I use a trackpad which relegates me to Spy (though sometimes I'll boot up a training sesh and chill as Sniper in my little tent for shits and giggles).

I am a GODLY player when it comes to Horizon Zero Dawn. My PS4 no longer works so I haven't gotten a chance to play Forbidden West but if I ever get it you can bet I'm devoting a week to it until I finish it.

Left 4 Dead. My favourite is the second one. I absolutely love Ellis. My dumbcunt with a heart of gold. Morosexual. I love him.

For Honor. I'm a shaman main and her name is Yrsa. :]

WHAT! NO WAY!! TELL ME ABOUT YOUR OCS!

Ok ok lol I have sketches of them all but I don’t have my book

so you saw

kuma, kuma has a shape shifting ability to give her the power strength and abilities of the animal she chooses to change into, she can also communicate with animals. Using her quirk too much causes her to become more animalistic in whatever animal form she is in until she transitions back, when she does she will need a nap. She has the ‘black cat gf’ personality and her hero name is Druid, she’s dating kirishima and met him when the Bakusquad went in a camping trip in the forest she patrols when a villain attacked!

Next we have

Kasumi has a quirk similar to Minas where she can produce toxic substances instead of acid, when these substances are produced depending on how kasumi feels is the intensity and can cause melting if she’s angry enough, she can control it like a water bender with water, creating weapons and being able to just throw is and such she is also immune to her own burns. But a downside is she has to wear a gas mask when she fights because the toxic environment can make her pass out if not careful. it leaks from her eyes giving her a cool drippy affect. She has neon yellow hair and her eyes have toxic symbols in the middle of them. Kasumi ran around protecting her own area in Japan hero’s called the ‘underground’ she met bakugo her bf when she got sent to UA to officially get her hero license after running into the hero’s and explaining what she was doing, they told her to continue she needs to get her license. Bakugou enjoys how feisty is and she never backs down from a fight (Dude I love the way I deigned her hero costume 😩 I gotta show you) her hero name is Toxoplasm

Emiko

Emiko has a floral quirk giving her the ability to grow plants anywhere in a medium radius including her body, she’s runs a flower shop as she never had the heart for hero work! She’s a big softy with a big heart she’s studying psychology as well! She had long brown hair that it typically braided back with flowers in it, honey colored eyes and glasses! If you couldn’t tell I like to use her for my shoto fics when I have one in mind 😂

Kijo

Typically goes by the name Whinny because she has a winter quirk called snow storm this quirk is the total opposite of Dabi’s quirk and when used too much gives her frost burn that riddles her skin in bright blue spots. She can freeze anything within a large radius and give someone frost burn just by touching them. Her favorite way to get information is to freeze a hand and break off fingers :) She finds the league after meeting toga while they both were running from the hero’s, Kijo protected Toga so toga thought she would do well with the team, Kijo after joining has a situation ship with dabi because both of them have trauma and can’t do emotion things well. Kijo has grey eyes and medium length pastel pink hair her and dabi work well together as she cools off his quirk and his quirk keeps her warm. she also flirts hella hard with toga. Civilians call her the winter death

And lastly

Alexandra

Alex is from Scotland has a digital quirk she calls pixelated giving her the ability to move through electricity and the internet, this quirk gives her the option to basically have the internet in her eyes like scanners, she can also take certain things like say a sword from a video game and use it in real life but once it’s damaged it turns into pixels that she can hit towards people, this quirk gives her constant headaches and she cannot shut off the scanners that she calls her eyes. Despite having a hero license she works as a support item tech only using her hero stuff for emergencies her eyes help her figure out the best ways to build or fix items. Her hair is medium length Ruby red that is kept up in in a high pony ponytail she has glasses to help with headaches and her eyes glitch between colors. She met her boyfriend shinsou when she got called to Japan from her home to build gear for the hero’s. She has a very “are you fucking stupid, please leave me alone” (that’s the best way I can describe it) attitude at first but once she warms up she’s a tired goofball who lives off coffee. Her hero name is glitchy. Because of her quirk it’s easy for her to hack into systems and get intel as well… people are scared to leave electronics around her

I have one in the works no name yet with a moon quirk who has a twin with a sun quirk 😩

It makes me so happy to see so many players wanting the original Mage Tower rewards back and railing against FOMO

I am a .... Little upset that I have been advocating for these things for years only to be met with opposition BUT I’ll take a renaissance of people coming on board that FOMO in games is shit design and is only bad for players. 

I earned all of these rewards during my time in WoW, and I have to say I want others to be able to enjoy them as well. The Frost Mage Mage Tower staff is one of the best looking staffs in the game and....you just can’t get it anymore! That’s so messed up. The druid forms look amazing - But sorry. You didn’t play at the correct time so they are gone :(

The whole idea that we have to preserve accomplishments is stupid to me. I work hard on Mythic raids every expansion - but when people can breeze through them years later am I upset? NO! I did it at the time, I have my memories, I did the challenge - Why do I care that Jimmy the paladin came in 6 years later and soloed it? How does that in any way affect me? I am doing other things now. 

The fact that they are bringing it back, with the intent to preserve the challenge means the only "Prestige” and “Accomplishment” tied to the old appearances is that you were playing for the correct chunk of time in this game’s history. And that is incredibly stupid in my opinion for a game we all pay the same sub for. 

Blizzard telling me that it would reduce my accomplishment is bull crap. It will not. The thing that reduces my accomplishment is knowing that the possibility to do it was removed. That players might like an appearance and then find out that it’s just gone for everyone else because they didn’t play at the right time. They had such an easy win in their back pocket and stumbled at the last second. 

FOMO is terrible game design brought to you by capitalism rapidly seeping into every aspect of gaming. It is no longer enough that you purchase a game, or play it on occasion - You need to always be playing. You need to always be buying in. If you’re not you’re going to miss out!!! Don’t want to miss out....right? The sooner gamers collectively realize how this negatively affects them the better..............but a lot of them have bought into the prestige aspect. Because the shiny pixels mean that much to them that they continue to support an entire industry rotting itself from the inside to squeeze them of every dime. 

To be clear: This applies to the MOP and WOD challenge mode appearances as well. Those did NOT need to be removed. As someone who earned them: Bring them back. 

*To be clearer - None of this is as crap as all of the shit they put their employees through or are being sued for. I hope Blizz employees unionize and that Blizz gets the absolute shit sued out of them with some scorched earth on the whole corporates structure they have.  

You got a base, now work out the details. It's a robot, right? What's it made of? How it's powered? Can it express themself, if yes, how? Is it more robotlike, personalitywise? Or perhaps more humane? Wears clothes? Made by a company, some dude in private garage? A different robot? Relationship with creator? Where do they live? How does that affect how they look? Try coming up with your own questions and figure out how they affect the appearance and personality of your creation

im thinking of making him of been made by a shitty dad scientist... his face is blank and he emotes via pixels like on a computer.. and untill he mentally turned into an adult, he had never really been outside. thus, getting a special interest for plants and animals the very first time he saw them. (hes an autistic robot)

creator would be dead because he was building the robot to try and put his brain into it, thus, making the robot technechally a cyborg. but it pulls a steven universe and has the robot be his own person (yeah yeah i know, his backstory is definately still in the first drafts) but hw also doesnt. beleive he is a real person with human emotions. he thinks that he is not a real person essentially and that hes just an AI. and he is very iffy on his own feelings and such. hess more robot-like personalty wise (ie: "excuse me, i my programming is not authorized to do this, but i will try something else for you :)") he sounds like paddington bear and can get exeited at times!

hes suppose to be a character for dnd... maybe a cleric or a druid?

the thing im really struggling with is character design 😔 like. how he looks

Star Stable ideas

As I play less and less SSO, despite still loving my pixel mounts ( and the rangers, I don't want to hear anything about my new favourite NPCs MERCI ! ) and the island, I return more to games I never really stopped playing, just gave them more time, and I noticed lot of things that SSO could put in the game without changing its spirit.

1. Dungeons

I already hear you, noobs "But it's a kids game". Yeah, and ? A very popular kids MMORPG, Wizard101, offers a dungeon system and it's perfectly adapted to younger players, without being annoying for older ones.

How could it fit in SSO ?

By exploiting a very forgotten side of SSO, that they pretend to offer in their website and ads: mysteries. When you hear mysteries, you can understand enigmas. And what could be better than using that thing called a brain, that everyone is granted but almost nobody seem to use in that damn fandom ? Ever heard about games like Professor Layton ? Something like that, with puzzles and enigmas. And something even cooler would be several levels and the opportunity to do it alone or in a group. Each dungeon could be based on a NPC, a lore part or a region and would release more stories. The loot could be exclusive stuff with higher stats giving extra bonuses compared to what you could buy.

Why ?

Because it would be something requiring an actual EFFORT and not only maxing mommy's credit card. And it would mean using your brain, something which is never a bad thing.

2. Special championships

How could it fit in SSO ?

By making championships requiring a certain level or equipment. For example, one based on show jumping and only allowing people who wear proper english riding tack and clothing. It'll be a good way to push people to buy things without making it useless *cough*like magical horses every damn month*cough*

Why ?

Because regular championships are too easy and look more like a clown festival than a real championship. It could fit the RRP as well.

3. Special abilities for the horses

Or how to make your different horses interesting in one lesson.

How could it fit in SSO ?

Let's take an example: the english thoroughbred is known for its speed, right ? So let's say that it could offer a speed bonus ( not something crazy, uh, just a bit faster on long straight lines ). But it wouldn't be simply given when you buy the horse, no, no, you lazy ass. You'd need to complete a quite long training with difficult challenges, it would be something you need to DESERVE, not something you are entitled for nothing. Now that would be a good life lesson.

Why ?

Well, I already said it, more things to do and a good way to make training more useful. Also, it would be a good way to give to each breed the opportunity to shine at its own manner.

4. Making friends

And not with other players, with NPCs.

How could it fit in SSO ?

Simple. Choose, let's say, 5 NPCs in the WHOLE GAME ( not only the ones that the story present like the good ones, it would be boring) and your mission is to befriend them. You'll need to dive into their personalities, their stories, and find HOW to became someone valuable in their eyes. Each NPCs properly befriended could give you access to exclusive items, little stories, secret places and, the best thing possible, they could help you for some missions. Like mercenaries, if you are familiar with other games, you probably see the concept.

Why ?

Because it would be a way to use forgotten poor NPCs who are rotting, waiting for you to notice them. And imagine, calling your whole time favourite for a nice light ride or a mission, it would be great !

5. Magic

Like, we are magic, we do magic. But never when we want. Tired to be like a puppet and don't have any control on your in-game life ? That idea is for you ( I mean the others as well ... ) !

How could it fit in SSO ?

We already have the wand, we could have a magic teacher, like in your favourite magical school. Yeah, I can dream, but we do have TWO castles, one could be a magical school.

Pick your subject, learn, and at the end you earch a special ability to use for some moments.

Why ?

Because it's fun ? And because we're supposed to be in a game full of magic? Do I really need to give you more reasons ?

Anyways, it was my top five ideas for helping this game to not become a more boring one. As you could notice, it doesn't include fighting or killing, even if I'd love to be able to do that in game instead of just clicking for dialogues I don't approve. It's not violent or inappropriate for kids, and it would make SSO a game for every age again. You could be a pink cotton candy druid, a dark witch or a pink witch and a dark druid ? Who you want in fact. You would became more unique, giving more details to your character. And most of all, it would require time and efforts, it would be something that money can't buy for you.

please give me more kl headcanons.😔

OKAY people this got WAY out of hand and i wrote 7 pages of an entire au plotline so uh. sorry everybody but it’s gonna be split into at least a couple different postswe’ll call this CHAPTER 1: (chapter 2 can be found HERE)I roleplay on MMORPGs so you’re gonna have to deal with my self indulgent online roleplaying AU. There will be klance but I have to SET THE STAGE first so bear with me. basically this is just multiplayer online video game roleplaying garbage. on that note, enjoy.

hunk and pidge were the first ones to discover the video game “Voltron.” they dicked around on it just to test out the game controls and perhaps get coding ideas for a game they are trying to create, but they ended up kinda enjoying it. the gameplay has its issues but is overall pretty fluid.

hunk plays a rogue. he has to turn the game volume down sometimes because of the gross gorey noises the game makes when he stabs people. he probably would have rerolled as a different class just to escape the gruesome sound effects, but he really likes being able to enter stealth. he says it makes him feel “safe”

pidge plays a mage. hunk is under the impression that it’s because she wants to play a class with high intelligence points, and pidge doesn’t correct him. but really she just likes the idea of turning her enemies into frogs

shiro is hanging out with matt one day and ends up watching pidge play. he wants to be Hip and Cool so he decides to create a trial account and see if he likes it. turns out, he’s TERRIBLE at the actual gameplay (his computer reflexes are Bad and he keeps dying to basic mechanics on literally every boss fight. matt downloads the game and creates a priest out of pity just to help keep shiro alive while he levels)

“this is demeaning for everyone involved”

“you’re the one who has died seven times now to haxus. literally all you have to do is not stand in the fire. you’re a FULLY ARMORED PALADIN TANK how are you dying so quic—wait a minute. shiro. shiro why are you still wearing your level 1 starting gear.”

however, he finds out that the server they’re playing on has a roleplaying community! he figures he doesnt need swift reflexes to roleplay, so he starts dipping his toe into RP and discovers he really likes it. he enjoys writing stories about his heroic character, and enjoys combining those stories with the stories of other people he meets in the game. it’s like collaborative fantasy fiction writing, and it quickly becomes a passion of his

pidge and matt tease him endlessly for it. hunk is an angel and is very supportive of shiro’s new hobby. he is the only one who will listen to shiro gush about his character. unfortunately when shiro designed the character, he did not have a good grasp on roleplay, so the character is goofy looking and has an overly dramatic backstory involving dragons and a lost royal bloodline. hunk kindly chooses not to comment on it, and instead helps him develop new ideas and plots for his character’s adventures

eventually shiro manages to convince hunk to give RP a try. hunk is very careful and does a lot of research on the Voltron universe lore. he reads all the fanmade wiki pages, roleplaying guides on the game forums, etc., until he feels confident he can create a good character. he does (and eventually goes on to be a popular community figure who hosts huge server events and is friends with literally everyone, but that is several months down the line), and he and shiro begin their roleplaying adventures together

hunk gets Really Into It. fast. like faster than shiro. and he takes it SERIOUSLY; he is a total lore nerd & WILL tell you (in a very gentle, caring tone) if your character’s story/actions do not comply with the game’s established lore

“your character’s outfit is so cool! btw tho, I noticed you mentioned your character was born in the castle of lions—just wanted to let you know, it was actually only rediscovered and unlocked about 10 years ago in the game’s timeline, so it wouldn’t really make work for your character to be born there, since they’re 27 D: but if you want I can help you come up with a different birthplace :)”

keith, lance, and allura had thus far managed to resist the voltron bug. they just aren’t into mmorpg stuff, they insist. single-player games, sure, but open-world multi-player? sounds weird

lance falls first. Hunk hits him with the puppy dog eyes and its all over for him

he creates the most ridiculously beautiful character he can

“i dont care about whether my guy is a freaking dps or not, hunk, i need him to have an ass like a kardashian. WHERE IS THE BUTT SLIDER HUNK. i have a NICE ASS and i want it IMMORTALIZED IN PIXEL FORM”

he does, in fact, end up picking dps. hunk shows him the archer class and he lights up like a christmas tree

“i know you always wanted to bone legolas, so”

“i wanted to BE legolas, not BONE him, HUNK”

“sure lance”

allura falls next. her and lance’s weekly “self-care spa sessions” turn into lance rambling about all the wacky stuff he and hunk and shiro got up to that week, and she eventually cracks under the pressure because she Hates when there’s a new fad and she doesn’t understand it

“and then this guy came up to us and started roleplaying with us in ALL LOWER CASE and shiro and i wanted to d i e but hunk was all ‘nooo he’s just a newbie in need of some pointers’ and then spent the next TWENTY FREAKING MINUTES giving this guy tips and tricks about grammar and punctuation–”

within 2 days she has gotten almost halfway through leveling her new druid healer because she is Determined damn it

coran, allura’s uncle, also begins playing shortly thereafter. allura never says why exactly, but it does seem to be a direct result of her influence somehow. he plays a gunslinger class because he’s “always wanted to be a ‘rooting & tooting cowboy,’ as you call it!”

for whatever reason, he is Very Good at the game, like freakishly skilled. everyone is kind of afraid to question it so they just accept it and move on

he and pidge are really the only ones who are focusing on the actual game content anymore, so they start doing high-level raids together and then begin to gain something of a reputation as a terrifying duo in player-versus-player combat.

keith is resilient. he is a notoriously stubborn boy and no amount of puppy dog eyes from hunk or persuasive lectures from shiro will convince him to step outside his comfort zone

but lance, well. lance knows exactly how to get keith to do what he wants

“i bet you just know my character’s way cooler than yours would be”

“?? no. i literally dont care about your character or anybody else's”

“huh. guess i will just always be better at video games than you”

“are you seriously still trying to hold your killbot phantasm score over my head. you got lucky”

“i am the peerless king of video games–”

“are you listening to yourself. do you actually hear the words coming from your mouth.”

“–undefeated because you are too much of a coward–”

“fuck OFF send me the fucking download link you loudmouth”

keith takes. forever. to design his character.

lance is leaning over the back of keith’s chair, giving outrageous suggestions (and blatant lies) that keith pointedly ignores

“keith. keith if you give him neon orange hair it boosts your speed, did you know that?”

“choosing big ears gives you greater perception stats keith”

“keith listen to me, you gain the ability to breathe underwater if you choose a broken nose—OW, what the hell–”

keith takes SO LONG that eventually lance has to leave for dance lessons and when he gets back keith is only JUST finishing up

turns out he took so long because he wanted to use every resource available in the game to make the character look like a carbon copy of himself. the end result would have been impressive if it wasn’t so eerily accurate

“you’re seriously naming him keith kogane.”

“it’s my name!”

“keith it’s a ROLEPLAYING game. you’re supposed to play a ROLE”

“and my role is keith kogane.”

“that doesnt even fit the naming conventions for the humans in this game! hunk would be having a FIT right now if he was here”

“good thing he’s not”

keith selects the warrior class because, as lance repeatedly and petulantly insists, he is a “boring basic bitch fuckboy”

“im the fuckboy?? thats rich coming from a guy who plays an archer because he has a big fat crush on orlando bloom in a blond wig”

“HUNK is spreading LIES okay I do NOT have a cru–”

“i dont know what you see in him. he’s literally just a white lotor”

“you TAKE THAT BACK”

to be continued :)

Killing two birds with one stone here, doing that muse meme doing the rounds again ( @petit-retardataire   tagged me, thank you <3 ) and doing an introduction blurb to the pixel child I have recently fleshed out.

Name: Amaralis. (Yes she was named after an actress who appeared in the TV version of Sweet Valley High, shhh)

Born 1306AE, about 2 years after the secondborn appeared, making her 19 when the Personal Story starts, and 26 present day.

Headcanons you have for your muse

🌸  She has a guardian spirit in the form of a Druid of the Maguuma. This used to be Marla Fae (GW1 Ranger) who left the physical world shortly after the events of EotN. Marla was one of the druids who helped nurture the sprout that grew into the Pale Tree. She took particular care of Amarilis' pod as it grew. Once Amarilis left the pod, Marla retreated further into the Maguuma. Marla left her with the desire to become a protector of the Grove, to seek out Niamh and become a Warden.

🌸 The Pale Tree had other plans for her and gave her the Wyld Hunt of becomming the Pact Commander. Amarilis did not care for this one bit and set out to purge her Wyld Hunt. Coming into contact with lots of allies and enemies such as the Nightmare Court, the Soundless, the Druids of the Maguuma she finally got it done.  Turns out purging a Wyld Hunt means you almost die. A lot. She returned to the Grove just as Khorren was about to come out of her pod. The Pale Tree intended to give the same Wyld Hunt to Khorren but Amarilis was not about to let that happen, caliming that no Sylvari should take on this burden, it’s too big a task for someone so new to the world. Instead Khorren became Sylvari liaison to the Commander.

Three things that your muse likes doing in their free time:

🌸 Leatheworking. While her own armor is self-grown she's fascinated by the tanning process. She learned the process from some charr that she observed for a few weeks, how they would use every piece of the animal, whether it for weapon, clothing, or food. She would steal things and then sell them on later in her adventures.

🌸 Making guns. She learned the basics while observing charr and likes to spend her time tinkering making her own guns more precise, more stealthy, and more powerful.

🌸 Swimming. She's super happy in water.

Seven people your muse loves/likes:

🌸 Khorren 🌸 Caithe. They've spoken a few times, but Amarilis mostly just adores her from afar. 🌸 Marla, her Druid guide. 🌸 Any tanner or leatherworker she meets. She's always down for learning new things. 🌸 Niamh, the leader of the Wardens 🌸 Mender Aviala 🌸 Mender Serimon

A phobia your muse has:

🌸 Getting another Wyld Hunt. She’s happy being part-time Warden and traveler of Tyria, she finds her own purpose and doesn’t need mystical destiny to guide her.

Tag! You’re it!

OOH EITRIGG DO EITRIGG. AND NATHANOS.

DO YOU HATE ME STASI IS THAT IT?

I’ll do Nate first to get him out of the way.

Opinion: Hope we get to kill him. He is the dictionary definition of obnoxious. I never in my life wanted to kill pixels or hoped so and so character gets to die or be a raid boss but him and Sylvanas sure as hell changed the pacifist in me.

OTP: I mean I could say no but they did the Sylvanas thing anyway.

brOTP: the dude has no friends, change my mind.

Unpopular opinion: I mean..... I think most people actually dislike him so the unpopular opinion would be liking him? Which I do not. So no, no unpopular opinion here. I like his jacket. His aggro range in vanilla was whack. I still have PTSD.

What should’ve / should happen: He should’ve never been written into the game. Oh ok serious answer.  If he gets some bullshit redemption arc or running off and living off the grid arc I will eat my laptop cooler.

Eitrigg

Opinion: Fun fact! Eitrigg is the reason I leveled Kruga as quickly as I did. After I got my hunter and my druid to max level in Legion, I was checking the list of companions to see what I should level next, if I’m interested in any class companions. Bam! Eitrigg for horde warriors. Dusted off Kruga (who took 7 years to get to lvl 66), leveled her to 120, she now owns my life. And it’s all because of Eitrigg. Suffice to say, he is easily in my top 5 favorite WoW characters.

OTP: I wouldn’t say I legit shipped it or maybe I actually did? I don’t rEALLY recall... but my mind sure went places with him and Kruga while out with him for those long long WQ farms and he still throws my mind into the gutter every time I zone into Legion areas and he’s all BATTLELORD and my ovaries are swooning like a delicate Victorian lady

brOTP: would’ve loved if we actually had more onscreen time of him interacting with Saurfang, Garrosh, Nazgrim, etc. BUT we DID get Tirion and Gallywix which yes please these are amazing, the Drustvar quest was brilliant.

Unpopular opinion: I think my entire fact of liking him so much and placing him in top 5 wow characters is unpopular so... yeah. It also seems to be unpopular that I love tired old orcs with a strict code of honor. 

What should’ve / should happen in canon: My number one fear is that since they’re slowly pushing him more and more into the story, they’re planning the same thing they did with Saurfang. Eitrigg is also old. He’s also oldschool. He’s gonna die. I’m sure of it now. Which is why I cannot bring myself to invest into the story anymore. I don’t want to invest all the love that’s left for the setting into him only to have him die too. This happening with Saurfang was painful enough (although with Saurfang there’s the added layer of ‘they seriously had the suicidal character kill himself onscreen’) So yeah I don’t have a “should’ve done this”, “should do this”. I know it’ll end with him dying or being written out and I know I cannot stop it so I’ll just cut my losses and invest in my fan stuffs in which he’s a recurring element. Which is ironic seeing how I don’t think I have a finished drawing of him or anything of the sort. 

Top 5 moments that really defined your time as an RPer.

[This is an incredibly long post. So, feel free to read it or not as you wish. Blessedly, there is no ‘NSFW’ alert associated with it. Brutal, visceral, and sometimes anguish or feelz inducing commentary, but nothing you can’t have up at work or around the (Grand)babies. So, have at!]

#1. - Beyond the terrible graphics of the games at the time, my first real experience RPing happened when i was nineteen. A friend of mine from school had invited me on leave with her (Yes, it was that kind of education) to her home to get away from the boredom and strictness of our vocational training. I said yes, and while we were off at her place (which, also, was in the woods in the middle of nowhere, but in a different state) she introduced me to her Aunt, who was an avid DM. The woman had accumulated just… man. Volumes in binders of faces and forms of men and women - models, actors, singers, you name it - which she had rated from 1 to 20 for the purposes of allowing players to choose their character’s ‘comeliness.’She had it all. The picture books. All of the (2E) D&D books and supplements. She asked how long I’d been roleplaying, and I said I hadn’t. So, she broke it all down for me. Let me choose from an extensive collection of dice and line-by-line explained the mechanics of the game for me.My first character? A dual-classed Drow Fighter/Ranger. She made an NPC Human Paladin and the story for the background to explain the two of them being a battle couple was easy for me to come up with. She loved it. I killed myself with my own bow, and my own arrow, my first time using it. (I rolled a 1.) and she used the NPC to heal/resurrect my dumb Elf. Best introduction to RP I could offer to anyone, and it was mine.#2. - A Co-Worker asked me if I’d ever RP’d before, and I told him about #1 on the list, which had been five? Six years before. He said he would love to have me for a ‘beefy’ Campaign he was putting together, and after negotiating on the terms and times, I agreed. The Campaign was ridiculous. (Not in a bad way.) Just uber powerful creatures all over the place. So, he required every player to be half-something from the Monster Manual.I made up a Half-Halfling/Half-Celestial and made him a Bard/Psion. While we were at work, I rolled his stats (which were INSANELY GOOD.) And he sat and watched. (The stats were so good that one of the other Players, sitting next to the DM, accused me of cheating, and the DM laughed and said I watched them roll *my* dice. Those are their scores. I laughed crazy hard.) That Campaign about three years, and was insanely good fun. I eventually retired my Half-Celesital as an Avatar of Fharlanghn, the God of Travelers. (My Muse was a Psionic Nomad.) And the GM still phones occasionally to ask me to RP him as an influence on current or on-going campaigns.

#3. - My (now ex-) Boyfriend found out that I was an avid RPer in Guild Wars, and asked me to come RP with him (I think he was jealous of my Muse’s in-game Husband) in World of Warcraft. We rolled up a pair of Druids. But, within a week, two things unexpectedly happened. He got bored of his level 5 Druid and ditched me to go back to his level 54 Warlock. AND I levelled up without him looking for herbs, and on my first trip to Darkshore (Like, level 11 or 12?) I witnessed a pitched PvP Battle between a level 56 Night Elf Hunter and a skull icon (later learned, level 60 Raider) Tauren Warrior. I was Resto and started healing the Hunter. At the time, I had no clue what ‘flagging’ was, or that my Muse could be harmed by doing it. I just wanted to help the guy who looked to be putting up a hell of a fight given the disparity between them. (I assumed the Tauren was just a very powerful mob.) The Hunter won the fight, and greeted me ICly. Introduced himself. Thanked me profusely, and since I’d cobbled together an identity for my Druid before my BF and I had stopped playing together, I just rolled with it. The Hunter eventually became the Druid’s Lifemate.#4 -  The next two are more personal, and as you know (Nerd) Last year was absolutely devastating for me. I lost twenty-six writing partners during a significant IRL series of hardships involving losing my health, which cost me my job, which led to me losing my home, all while trying to take care of my kids and maintain a Guild with a massive storyline. 

The vast majority of the Co-Writers i had at the time were just relentless about wanting and needing to be ‘important’ to the storyline, rather than working together with everyone to solve the puzzles that were laid out. And, I was DMing two or more events each month from my cellphone out of a motel my family was paying for for several months. During that time, I lost two important friends who were RRP Partners for Teren. One due to refusal to communicate at all why they had suddenly started getting angry every time I mentioned RP (even when it wasn’t for Teren) and another who literally just… disappeared. Not just from me. From everything. All without explanation. Of the twenty-six acquaintences/Co-Writers who dipped on me during that SL, those are the two that still haunt me the most, and they are the primary reasons I keep my Writing Circle so small. 

Has their continuing influence on me been positive? No. I don’t think so. Not in the long run. But, has it been powerful? Has it shaped the future of my writing and my relationships with others in/out of character and IRL? Unequivocally. 

#5 - Mister Rogers (Teren, wtf are you going with this?) Mister Rogers once said that when something bad would happen, he would get scared. An accident. A fire. Something worse on the news. His Mother would tell him to “look for the people trying to help. There are always people trying to help. Look for the Helpers.”

At the bottom of the abyss for me, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically - there were people, IRL, OOC and IC, who were genuinely trying to help me. Even when I told them I just wanted to wrap up all of our mutual storylines and walk away from writing - not just Roleplaying, but writing stories at all - they did everything they could to help me. Help me figure out what their Muses needed. Help me figure out what my Muses needed. Helped me connect with strangers to tie up story elements that had disappeared with the people who were abandoning the large-scale Campaign that had been running off of my phone for months on end. 

There were at first a couple. Then a few. Then a handful. Now, there’s a little under a dozen people who have made writing possible for me again. Who stuck with me through all of the terrible shit that made even logging in to Teren’s old account an exhausting, heartbreaking slog. Who eventually helped me heal myself with self-care strategies I’d never needed before, and to give some solid foundation to Teren’s storyline so that - even if I couldn’t save all of my Muses - I could save this one. 

At the beginning of the year, I kicked off this blog, still unsure if it would last a month, or if I would walk away from it after all. Two months, three months in, I still didn’t know the answer. What I did know, is that I was (albeit slowly) getting the desire to write again. I was (slowly) feeling the urge to create again. And I was striving to interact on a level that would allow me to leave if the old warning signs started cropping up, without devastating my Co-Writer’s storylines. (Which is a lot of why so much of what Teren does happens in Nishan; which is only a small pocket of Azeroth as a whole.)

To wit, the amazing legacy and continuing tales of Teren Kiden and his life after 01/01/2018 aren’t a product of “A” moment. But, of People. People who recognized that I am a person and not a collection of pixels. People who empathized with the catastrophe my life had become and - instead of disappearing - did what they could. No one had to solve my problems. Most didn’t have to do anything but RP. But they all helped me to recover from the single worst year - IC, OOC, and IRL - of my life with patience, poise, respect and - most extraordinarily - with hearts that were strong enough to let me go, even though they desparately wanted me to keep holding on to our friendships, because that was what I needed most at the time.

[To each of them: @daughterofkiden, @summerbloom-fae, @karrista, @olivia-lovecraft, @news-nerd, @huntsman-hawthorne, @maluraunderchild, @renlavaye, @scassira, @waroftwowolves, @stonestridernerd, @phamguero, @oh-yeah-no @kelladen - you are all such beautiful, understanding, and exceptional people, and I quite literally wouldn’t be here, writing, without you. Thank you so much for your extraordinary strength and exceptional qualities of character. You are more deeply cherished and appreciated than you will ever know.]

Odd Bits of Bitsy - Experimental games made using the Bitsy engine

Bitsy is a game-making tool created by Adam le Doux (https://ledoux.itch.io/bitsy) that enables users to create small, pixel-y virtual worlds. Although primarily used for making, what are in essence, walking simulators with attractive 8-bit graphical leanings, there have been plenty of examples of people making wholly different genres of games within the engine. Here, I will attempt to catalogue a few that I find rather intriguing.

 Time To Dig Out That Ugly Christmas Jumper by jonosandilands

 A hybrid between a maze and what could be described as a “knitting simulator”, Ugly Christmas Jumper has the player knit multiple jumpers whilst text occasionally pops up talking about the patterns you are currently knitting. Perhaps it might be worth making it a Christmas tradition to play this?

 Skeletal DOS Dreams – DISK 1 by *triage

 It’s Windows 95! But in Bitsy! You play as what I can only assume to be a sentient, human personification of a computer mouse and explore the inner workings of a computer whilst being helped along the way by your guide “Decovery”, the computer’s cloud who happens to have a sweet, motherly personality.

 This game has a rather dark undertone to it, the music (a remix of Brian Eno’s Windows 95 sounds), whilst calming, carries a sinister, cold vibe to it that nicely underscores the odder aspects of this game, such as the folders screen, wherein the folders you can interact with contain strings of numbers followed by what appears to be diary entries from someone held captive. “At least they could have painted the walls.”, “I was trapped here for too long.”

 This is also one of the few Bitsy games I’ve played (although there is probably more) that has a 3D-ish section to it, in this game, it’s a digital cave filled with unused remnants of your hard drive who, when spoken to, seem slightly bitter about their abandonment. There’s no exit from the cave other than the way you came, a window at the end of the cave seeming to hint at a glimmer of hope for those who are still dwelling there.

 Overall, if you’re looking for something with a slightly darker vibe to it than most Bitsy games, I recommend this.

 Silence Would Be Better by Cephalopodunk

 You play a radio tuner in this one. Simply use the left and right arrow keys to pick a station and use the up arrow to tune in. Then you can sit back and enjoy the odd and humorous captions that float from the radio’s speakers, including quite a few lampoonings of popular music. (The “Call Me Maybe” parody that you’re occasionally subjected to gave me quite a few chuckles.)

 The interesting thing about this game, other than the concept, is that it was built using both Bitsy and Tracery, a tool primarily used to make bots (among other things. The website does note that it’s been used for games before) and I would love to find out how it was implemented specifically to this game.

  Midnight Dungeon by PixelArtM

 A ZX-Spectrum style roguelike-ish puzzle game where you navigate through a small dungeon to look for treasure. You encounter a couple of enemies (who can’t kill you, so don’t worry) whilst navigating the dungeon for objects to find to aid in your quest for this treasure.

 I loved the colour scheme for this one, in addition to the puzzle aspects. We need more puzzle games in Bitsy.

 BitSnake by Sean S. LeBlanc

 It’s Snake, in Bitsy! Surely I don’t need to explain how to play this one, grab the fruit whilst trying to avoid hitting the walls or backing into yourself, which causes you to become an ouroboros and eat yourself. There’s some rather nice animation on the snake for this one, and the colour palette is pleasing. Worth playing if you want to re-live those memories of playing this on your phone, or... wherever you happened to play it for the first time.

 Stars Below by Sarah Gould

 Extremely pretty cutscene-like poem-game where you only need to use the up and down arrow keys to move and watch the scene emerge before your eyes. I cannot empathise enough how pretty the art is in this, and the music just adds another layer of beauty to it. It’s extremely short and well worth the minute or so it takes to play/watch.

 Amethyst Horologist, Radical Archaeologist by Cephalopodunk

 Another puzzler! This one has you taking the role of the title character as she uses time-travel to find interesting artifacts from the building site of a soon to be opened shopping mall. The different areas were so interesting to explore despite mostly being all the length of one room, and the different characters in each were interesting to talk to, including a rather grim-reaper looking druid who guards the same site in each different era somehow. The game’s sense of humor was great as well.

 Final by Mozz

 Creepypasta in Bitsy form. This short but spooky game tells the tale of a kid and his friend who end up playing a haunted video game. Whilst I couldn’t understand exactly what was happening in front of me as I played, I did feel rather unnerved, the apparent references to the creepypasta “The King Come Down” adding to the creep factor quite a bit. The art style is grim and bleak, with glitchy segments and a scene involving what seems to be ink or water spilling from the TV. I’d recommend checking this if you’re looking for a horror Bitsy game to try.

 Hell by onion

 A rather light-hearted romp through hell, this seriously reminded me of a modern-day comedy equivalent of Dante’s Inferno, only instead of Virgil, you’re guided along by the devil himself, who, unsurprisingly, acts as unhelpful as humanely possible, spewing out dialogue in the tone of a teenager snarking at their parents, which made his every interaction a pleasure to read through. The different classes of sinners gave me some good chuckles a few times, and the minions of hell were surprisingly adorable!

Greetings everyone! 

I was directed by a friend to this thread.Or whatever it is. Never used tumblr before. Anyway I was asked if I had been apart of a guild mentioned. After reading Caloho's post I was a little more than upset. No clue why he would say those things but that is not how it happened in Wolfmane. Sadly I did not take screenshots nor did I think I needed. Even if I did, I wouldn't have kept them this long. This took place spring and summer of last year. But here is my testimony in any case so take it with a grain of salt. 

When I joined I was very impressed. The tribe was well organized and welcoming. I admit I was a little lost at first as far as story and where the tribe was. I remember the characters Brugash and Gahnar. Not so much Dezka or Caloho. Never saw a problem from them. Brugash and Gahnar played large, brutish, wild characters.You know the type that constantly uses growth potions to make themselves huge. Nothing wrong with that. Depending on how you play them. However they became a problem and not just for the leadership. 

I remember we were in Stonetalon. Malaka'jin to be specific. The tribe was moving south due to some disagreement with the Horde. Story line stuff. The first incident happened there. One of their officers Karanga had gone to talk to the character Brugash and he choked her. Something about challenging him. At first I thought it was something planned. Didn't think anything of it. Later I heard it was not planned. There was no OoC communication. Just spontaneous Rp. Kinda of a red flag with me but I reassured myself  that it didn't mean anything. I told myself that was probably a rumor as the guild had this rule that ic actions lead to ic consequences. Something had to have been worked out that I was unaware. I mean something had to happen icly if you choke out the druid leader, right? 

Then came this one character Nokeia or something. Newer member. Played a female Highmountain Tauren and had a baby with her. She told people that it was Gahnar's child and that he had raped her before she joined the tribe. Huge red flag. In my opinion you don't rp that stuff. Not long after that she gets kicked from the guild. I was told she had been trying to get Gahnar kicked and it came to light. I concluded that Gahnar may have not done any of that stuff but I worried. Made me start questioning these members as well as the guild.

As time went on, fights began to take place. Brugash and Gahnar playing their characters had began to start fights with other characters. Even tried to start one with mine. Brugash called her weak and pathetic as he tried to taunt my character. He really came off as one of those people that play big, strong characters for the ego trip. To bully and intimidate. It was unwelcome and I don't care for people that flex their pixel muscles so I just left the role play. But this started becoming a nightly thing. They would come around the role play proceeded to insult and threaten people. It well made the guild's atmosphere hostile and unwelcoming. Activity started to decline. Less and less people were role play or even logging in including myself. And no one really seemed to be doing anything about it. I went to the GM Raton directly to complain about this. 

He seemed really cool and laid back. He listened to what I had to say and spoke to me at length. He said that he had already been trying to work with them both about character development. He wanted to treat them fairly because it was all ic and he hated punishing players for ic stuff despite having the rule about IC actions. I could get trying to treat them fairly but then why have that rule? But at the same time I thought it was impressive that he was trying to work with members like that. Whatever, I thought that if they were working on it then maybe the guild would turn out well for myself and others. It didn't. Nothing changed. 

A couple weeks went by and the fights continued and got worse. So I gave the guild one more chance. Working with members is cool and all but what about us that didn't want this? I didn't join a Kor'Kron guild. I joined a Tauren tribe. So I gave Raton one more chance. I whispered him and again told him my complaints. Raton said that he understood the lack of character development and what was becoming of the guild. He even admitted that he had started thinking about going on break or leaving wow because he was tired of logging in every night to any fight he had to deal with. At the end of the conversation he said that he would get together with his officers and have a meeting about how to handle the situation but he promised it would be resolved. 

Honestly it was too late for me. The tribe had been ruined for me. I started playing other characters and engaged to their story lines. But I logged in occasional. I am not sure what happened but I saw Both of them left and a few of their friends with them. They were not kicked but left while taking half the members that they had not run off with them.

I would be lying if I said I did not feel bad for Wolfmane but they kinda brought it on themselves. The GM was too nice and let these asshats nearly destroy his guild. At the time I thought the guild as done for and that Brugash had turned out to be a guild killer. For the failures and mistakes of Wolfmane, policing role play was not one of them. But I was done. I moved on and stopped paying attention. Anything after that I know nothing about. I highly doubt that Wolfmane did some of those things though. They wouldn't have the spine for it.

 Brugash and Gahnar were attention seeking bullies looking for a good time at the expense of others. Probably to make themselves feel better because they have an inferiority complex. Part of the reason I don't want to say who I am. I do not want to deal with them again. I don't want those two stalking and harassing me or my friends. I see the things people are saying about them and after my experiences and what I witnessed myself, I can believe it. Plus it seems drama has only follows them. I expect to see more in the future. Even without evidence, a continued trail of drama shows there is something  wrong.

As for the GM of Wolfmane, i have only a few things to say to you if you are reading this. I am sorry Raton. I have to be honest. Wolfmane was a great guild with good people running it and in it. You were too nice and let these guys turn your guild into their personal fight club. You and your officers.The leadership of Wolfmane failed it's members and me. Letting those two rampage for months. As great as it is that you all had the determination to picked up your guild out of the muck they dragged it in,letting those two rampage for months. As great as it is that you all had the determination to picked up your guild out of the muck they dragged it in but that means nothing if you did not develop a backbone. Maybe one day I would rejoin the tribe but I hope you learned a lesson from this.

For anyone else reading, again take it with a grain of salt. If you do not believe my testimony then just watch. Drama will follow them.

Lords of Time: You Knew Just What I Was There For

If The Realm has the phrase, “once in a blue moon,” it must mean “quite often.”

            When we last checked in with Major Thom, he was trying to get into the Druid Temple but didn’t know how to determine whether it was a night of a blue moon. It turns out that the game tells you quite explicitly in the text that the moon is blue, so I needed have worried. On the night of the blue moon, at midnight, I burned the four sacred plants in the four braziers, and the way to the temple opened.

The temple started off easy enough. The first level had a little shop and a library. At the shop, I bought a druid cloak. Books in the library confirmed that the world of The Realm is flat, and said that the Druid Book of Life holds the most powerful spells in The Realm and must not fall into the wrong hands. 

On a conference table, I found a memo that indicated that the Council of Druids had declined to help Bessak. “He will have to fight Kruel alone,” it said. Unfortunately, there was no word on where Bessak went after that.

             At first, I thought the game was making an homage to Maurice Sendak, but now I see that it’s “Senoak.”

              The second level of the temple got a lot harder. It was a giant maze with four different entrances, swarming with druids who attacked me with some kind of force lightning. I hoped the druid cloak would disguise me, but it didn’t do anything. I swiftly started to run out of clear and blue potions, which restore health and spell points respectively. Enemies respawn as quickly indoors as they do outdoors, so there’s no way to clear them all and yet fewer ways to run away from them.

             One of the books in the library notes that druids have an inexplicable love for mazes.

        At the same time, another problem became clear. I hadn’t slept since waking up that morning. Since the Druid Temple requires you to stay up until midnight to even enter, you’re bound to run into fatigue problems unless you plan accordingly by staying up the previous night and then sleeping until dusk on the day that you go to open the temple. There are no beds in the temple, and I later confirmed that you can’t open the temple on one day, then go away to sleep, then come back to enter. The door closes while you’re away.

Still, I pushed forward. The second level maze (a book said that druids love mazes) led to a stairway to a third level, where a bunch of twisting corridors–again swarming with hostile druids–led to the shore of an underground lake. Since you can’t swim in this game, the only way I could find to cross the lake was to quaff a green potion, which polymorphs you into a frog. I had two green potions at the time.

            Where’s Baba Yaga when you need her?

           I soon discovered that there were two “exits” from the lake, both leading to small caverns with large spellbooks on pedestals. One cavern was blocked by a wall of fire, but the druid cloak protects against it. The first spellbook had something called “Mascar’s Spell of Protection”; the second had a “Mage Annulment Spell.”

               Getting one of the druid spells on my second visit. I forgot to take a shot on my first.

          Unfortunately, by this point, I was dead on my feet from exhaustion, I had no way to keep fighting the druids, and because I had used both green potions to get to the two chambers, I had no way to get back to the exit. I had to reload a saved game from before entering the temple.

Upon reloading, I had a plan: grind a bit; buy more clear, blue, and green potions; take the rest of the training courses; return in four days and try again. A commenter had said that blue moons occurred on nights 2 and 6, and I had entered the Druid Temple on night 14, so naturally I assumed they came along every 4 days. I planned my return for night 18.

In the next few days, I accomplished most of my list. I spent a little time fighting random enemies and got my experience points over 11,000–the highest value needed for any of the training courses. In Murkvale and Castleguard, I took “Advanced Lockpicking,” “Transformations,” “Advanced Swordplay,” and “Advanced Spellcasting.” With the money I made while grinding, I bought about a dozen of the blue and clear potions. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any place that sold green potions. But I figured I’d try again and perhaps find an exit or some other resource that I missed the first time.

           The final guild course, which requires 11,000 experience.

         Then the blue moon came unexpectedly on night 17. I was nowhere near the temple. To make sure this didn’t happen again, I saved the game and then burned a few days in Castleguard, watching for the next blue moon. It came on night 22, as I would have expected. So I’m not sure why night 17/18 was the one weird departure from the pattern.

Anyway, that gave me four days to screw around, so I decided to revisit some of the mountain locations. I originally set out hoping to find the dragon’s cavern and kill it with dragonsbane, but I couldn’t find it again. I couldn’t even find a cavern of the same shape as the image in my last entry, so it wasn’t just a matter of the dragon not being there. I stopped at the occult shop and sold my wyvern eggs, hoping their absence would stop wyverns from dive-bombing me with rocks, but it didn’t do anything.

But while searching the mountains, I was surprised to find that my lockpicking skill now worked at Lord Dertak’s Holde. (The game map has it as “Dervak,” but all the text in the castle gives it as “Dertak.”) Entering, I found a large dwarven keep of two levels. Among the books in the library and the few NPCs in the tavern, I learned that dwarves are the original inhabitants of The Realm. Humans encroached later, and the dwarves “deeply despise” the human settlements. The dwarven population has been declining for centuries, forcing them to abandon the “island keep.” Dertak, meanwhile, is said to be an amiable dwarf who bears humans no particular ill will. He has been known to grant humans favors in return for gifts. He particularly likes jewels.

             I get some lore from a bartender . . .

. . . and more from a book.

          When I encountered Dertak, he wasn’t impressed by anything I owned, including the several jewels. But the trip was useful for other reasons. A shop in the keep sold enchanted swords and armor, and I had enough to purchase one of each. Moreover, I found both a third green potion and something called “Grorph’s Spell of Exiting,” both of which sounded like they’d solve my problem getting out of the Druid Temple. A couple of skeleton keys led to a winding series of caverns where I found a treasure hoard and something called “Kruel’s Winterblast Spell.”

I still had a couple of days, so I returned to the mines west of Castleguard and employed my pick axe. Sure enough, I found a few generic jewels but also one that the came called out as a particularly large jewel.

          This seems promising.

         When I took the large jewel back to Dertak, he gave me a letter of recommendation for the dwarven high king, whose “holde” is in the mountain range north of Dertak’s. With one day remaining before the blue moon, I went there.

              Dertak is pleased with my offering.

         I had to bribe the guard to get through the first level. On the second level, I ran into some kind of golem who dissolved into mud when I defeated him.

           No idea what this was about.

       The third level had the living quarters of the hold, but unlike Dertak’s, it was swarming with (respawning) hostile dwarves who attacked me. (They’re the same dwarves who attack on the surface.) Fighting my way through them, I reached the dwarven high king, who didn’t seem to mind that I’d made my way to him by slaughtering his subjects. He took the letter and gave me in return a jeweled key that unlocks the door on the abandoned island keep. He then “expelled” me from his hold, which took me back outside automatically instead of forcing me to fight through dwarves. That was nice.

             I think the bodies behind me are evidence of “my own valor.”

           I had just enough time to make it to the Druid Temple–and again through that damned maze–before midnight. I did the ritual again and opened the door. This time, things went a bit easier. I got the two spells from the books and decided to use the exit spell (rather than the third green potion) to get out.

               I really hope I don’t need that somewhere else.

         I checked my statistics and was surprised to find that my “score” had risen from 10 to 110 (out of 190). In one session, I went from 5% game completion to almost 60%.

I returned to Bessak’s keep, thinking he might show up there now that I’d found the spells he wanted from the druids, but he was nowhere to be found. So the only thing I can think to do at this point is to try the island keep.

Before I go, I have to spend some more time complaining about the combat system. It’s not just bad; it’s exhausting. The animated .gif below shows what happens when you stop and pause for just a few seconds.

          The hero makes the mistake of pausing by the riverside.

          Enemies spawn constantly, and stopping to fight one is just an invitation for others to swarm you. You never really “end” combat; you just finally decide to break away. Getting from one place to another becomes an extremely tedious affair.

The combat system itself makes it worse. Victory and defeat are a matter of pixels–in a game where the graphics and controls aren’t quite good enough to find-tune your alignment. And upgrades in equipment don’t seem to make things much easier. I hardly notice a difference between wearing enchanted armor and wearing nothing. All the guild courses, attribute increases, and investments in increasingly-better weapons have only marginally improved upon my character’s performance with a pocket knife at the very beginning of the game.

Offensive spells don’t help much. “Fireball” (which you can equip like a weapon) doesn’t do any better than physical attacks and it’s very hard to aim. (The same is true of missile weapons.) “Pinok’s Paralyzing Spell” (which freezes every enemy on the screen) and “Fistak’s Fear Spell” (which causes them to run away) are theoretically useful but have such a high cost that you can’t rely on them.

         The “Fear” spell sends enemies scurrying away but costs 50 points.

          Still, experimenting with spells for the purposes of writing this entry led to some interesting results. At some point, I collected a spell called “Wyvern Morphing Spell,” which transforms you to a wyvern. It only works outdoors, but it’s probably my key to getting to the island keep, unless I want to rent a raft and paddle it all the way up from the delta. I otherwise don’t know the purpose of renting rafts, though.

“Kruel’s Winterblast Spell” sounds like an offensive combat spell, but instead it’s more akin to Ultima‘s “Armageddon,” turning the whole world to ice. I don’t know when I’ll need such a spell, but it doesn’t seem like something I want to cast randomly.

             The spell froze the sea serpent that was on-screen at the time, but that didn’t stop a wolf from spawning and attacking while I was taking this screen shot.

           The uses of “Grorph’s Spell of Darkness” are equally mysterious–it blankets the area around you in darkness, making it impossible to see. Two others–“Mascar’s Spell of Protection” and “Portal Activation Spell”–never seem to do anything no matter where I use them.

Lords of Time has some decent moments when it comes to exploration and puzzle-solving, unfortunately marred by the enemy and combat systems. I’m ready to enter the home stretch. I just hope that by the end, the game delivers some kind of explanation for its title.

Time so far: 20 hours

****

If anyone has played and gotten anywhere with the 1989 text-RPG hybrid Advanced Xoru, I’d appreciate a line. I thought it would be a quick one, but I’m hopelessly stuck.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/lords-of-time-you-knew-just-what-i-was-there-for/

Game Reporters Had to Be Good At Video Games.

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