brownie-starlight - Tumblr blog

[brownie-starlight]

in the Caverns, there's only Twilight...

New Clangen blog, coming soon!!

Following DuskClan and DawnClan, a pair of Clans that live entirely underground, in a world where glowing crystals cast the Caverns in eternal twilight. Custom chimera monsters! Elemental seasonal birds! Tons and tons and tons of speculative worldbuilding! Two Clans = more drama! @dawnclan-duskclan worldbuilding framework to be added soon! I hope to have everything functional by the end of the month <3

To do list: - moon 2: 5/9 scenes - cover art pages: 1.5/4 - format maps, Nightbeastiary, glossary - sprite banners + dividers - custom theme?

[brownie-starlight]

Such a wonderful name!!! I had to do a doodle for them ;-; Gorse- is top 10 prefixes tbh

Gorsevulture is an 86 moon old ebony cat with amber ears and a half white face. They are a nurturer. They have pale blue eyes, scars on their chest and snaggle teeth. They are faithful.

[brownie-starlight]

pspspsps another catgen blog dropped and yall should go check them out O.O

These two cuties!! I know it's probably implied that this is a Romance Couple, but wouldn't it be interesting if the trope twisted and they were like. Accidental parent/child?

MountainClan loses an apprentice, a little Frostpaw, after an avalanche takes them away. They're assumed dead but they miraculously are relatively unharmed. Bolt finds said apprentice, basically spends two moons healing them and teaching them. When the ice thaws enough that they can bring Frostpaw back to MountainClan, Bolt has all but adopted this child--he knows they want to stay with their Clan, but he is their Dad and he is Not Leaving.

=o I'd love to request a cat. How about some words? Icy, windswept, reflection, zap.

Bolt is a cat who has lived in and around clans all his life, but never the same clans. He sometimes found clans he enjoyed the company of, but he always made it clear he’d never stay. Well… That was until he met Frostbreeze, a cat who belonged to a clan in the Skyreach mountains. These mountains are larger than any mountain he’d seen, and so are the cats. Frostbreeze, a cat he could almost see himself in, was the one safe place he’d actually found in life. After he discovered this, he realized he had never really looked for safety and comfort, and decided that would be changing now.

Bolt is a yellow tabby tom, with sky-blue eyes and many scars. He is average size, but his claws are large, and his paws seem like they had grown just to fit them.

Frostbreeze is a gorgeous silver tabby cat with long, flowing fur, and a large frame. This cat has brilliant green eyes, with a sparkle of warmth in them at almost all times. This cat is prone to matting.

[brownie-starlight]

Throwing my two cents onto this because I get this question a lot too and this is a very good answer to it.

(long, oops)

Clangen is a great storytelling tool: it has tons of random events (the relationship and thought bubbles are particularly helpful to set the tone of a scene) and is awesome as a dice-rolling tool as it has partial successes baked into the system.

There are a few things to note, though. First, there are only a limited number of things that can happen. There are a LOT, but the list is still finite. If you've ever played a Clan over a few hundred moons, you'll also see that a lot of the more interesting events are very rare, while the day-to-day of the Clan is filled with the same few patrols and interactions every moon.

I think the key to telling a successful story through Clangen is to not be afraid of changing events to make the story arc better. Flavor is the easy stuff: making large dog encounters into mutated cave creatures, or rogues ambushes into border skirmishes with a hostile Clan. Anything to provide some variety will be immensely helpful to the longevity of a project. Pick something that's in the scope of your world and the current plotlines and it will feel good.

It's a little harder to change major events, but those can also be the most rewarding: instead of a cat incidentally breaking a leg falling from a cliff during a moon event, what if you put them in the scene where a patrol fights a dog and the injury happens there? Suddenly the "your cats stay at a distance" result has higher stakes if one of the cats is caught out of position.

Knowing the basics of file editing is also a must, in my eyes. There are simply events that happen that make no sense within the narrative you're trying to tell. Giving cats you've developed into antagonists negative relationships and traits can also nudge the game into giving you interesting events on a random timer, making it fun for both you and the readers as you never quite know when they'll pop up.

Second, Clangen is great at coming up with new threats and long-term plots, but it will never resolve them. The events chosen are (mostly) random--just because you get a rogue ambush this moon does not increase the chances of seeing one next moon. Even if you win five fights in a row versus the rogues, the game will keep sending them at you. It's up to you, as a storyteller, to create a satisfying narrative arc for these events and conclude them when the time feels right to do so.

You can go pretty far by just asking some questions: what is the Clan's greatest threats right now? How can this character's relationship events and thought bubble help direct this scene? Why did this patrol succeed/fail?

The default flavortexts are quite good and can give direction, as can your generated character's traits, skills, and relationships with others, but ultimately it's up to you to make what is essentially a flow chart and a bunch of dice rolls into something that makes sense narratively.

I also totally recommend starting with a generic, plotless Clan and sticking close to the game's results first, and once you're good with that, then try and branch out and make challenge Clans or stories with the generator.

I'm curious: how do you convert clan gen prompts into the events within RippleClan? I imagine things like kits and scars are easy, but what about like what happened to Carnationspeckle? Was she lost in game from a two leg event but you switched it to the Witch Hunters? Or did you make it up entirely for the story?

I have a clan in the works I want to turn into an art/writing Clan Gen blog but I'm worried I'll never be able to come up with anything haha

Okay, I’ll dive into Carnationspeckle as a starting example.

Oilstripe and Carnationspeckle went on a hunting patrol in Moon 55. They went to the human settlement to hunt and returned successfully. I wrote this down in my notes and noted that I could loop it in with the Witch Hunters.

When the time came to write the scene, I realized it would be more exciting if I held Carnationspeckle hostage, so I did just that and sent her home in Moon 57 after I ran a border patrol with Weedfoot and the others seen in the event.

The big thing with playing Clangen is looking at what the game gives you and deciding how to build from there. I take extensive notes when I play through a moon, noting down potential plot points and my personal elaboration on canon events. This is where the idea of Lemmy and the Witch Hunters came from! Mosspounce kept meeting a kittypet/rogue by the border, and eventually Lemmy was born!

The key to Clangen stories is noting down recurring elements. Are there a few characters you like to focus on, or that have had a lot happen to them lately? Is there a random relationship note you want to build on?

[brownie-starlight]

Today's goal: comparative (and superlative) statements.

I think I like the path I took? I'm trying to stay as loyal to the original choices as possible, so I left comparing objects simple: just add the comparative particle ([mo], for now), what quality you're comparing, (say, softness [afiwang]) and then list your nouns in order of least to most ([rob], [faf])

"Urr'rr mo afiwang rob faf wigryyr" [Feel (compare) softness rock, fur they-have] "Fur is softer than rock." "Mo afiwang Faelnki gryyr." [(compare) softness Dreamtooth I-have] "I'm softer than Dreamtooth (self-evident)"

[brownie-starlight]

New project: sneak peek

I fell into @bonefall's Clanmew rabbit hole. I really shouldn't be starting any more projects, but it's so, so hard to resist where there's a good Conlang right in front of me ;-;

It will be a sci-fi adventure: five scouts are given one year to explore a new sector of the generation-ship and set up a viable camp for a future Clan to call home.

The catch: all the dialogue will be written in Clanmew.

“Faelnki, ife pos kenkinmew arramoer urrpnyarkenkag.” [name, preknowledge for den-kit warren we(inc)-neg-construct(fut)] “Dreamtooth, you already know we can’t construct the nursery from a rabbit warren.” “Pi boe wayeeb-om-eebwang wigryyr.” [see very short-and-small-quality small-they-contain] “It’s far too short and small for that.”

I don't know how long it will take me to get a finished product out. Maybe weeks? Maybe months? I want to have it (mostly) done before I start putting anything up, so the project isn't on hiatus forever (like some of my Clangen projects end up...). So it might be a while! But I'll probably scatter some teasers under the tag #SFSageClan as I do the translations!

I will be using Clangen as a GM of sorts to pilot random events and dictate successes and failures, but the content itself will be heavily altered to fit the cats' tasks and the advanced technology they have available to them. I intend to write for 12 moons/turns.

And of course, I still gotta learn how Clanmew works. And probably create a LOT of words along the way... but I really, really want an excuse to work with a OSV conlang hehe

[brownie-starlight]

these all look awesome! And once you get one good rec, it looks like most of them start linking to each other, so thanks for a good starting point! I never would have been able to find these on my own

Looking for non-comic Clangen content!!

Maybe tumblr isn't the best place to be looking, and I'm glad the Clangen corner has so many amazing artists, but I'd love to see if anyone has a different take on Clangen content outside of a comic or youtube speedpaint format.

[brownie-starlight]

Looking for non-comic Clangen content!!

Maybe tumblr isn't the best place to be looking, and I'm glad the Clangen corner has so many amazing artists, but I'd love to see if anyone has a different take on Clangen content outside of a comic or youtube speedpaint format.

[brownie-starlight]

Making v-tuber cats for my pals. Featuring here now: Ashwind!

Believe it or not, we’ll be recording and posting our game. It’ll be the last arc of the story (I think) so that’ll be a funny time frame choice… And probably insane. But, ah well! I just want people to see how the game is played.

If you’re interested, stayed tuned! It’ll be awhile before that comes out.

[brownie-starlight]

IvyClan 1000 Moons

800 moons of IvyClan's history (imgur link below the cut, still only in half quality but it's readable?)

KEY: Pink - mates Purple - not mates green - blood kits (first litter is lightest, later litters are darker green) grey - adopted kits The smaller cats connected to adopted litters by green lines are the blood parent/donor of the litter, mostly added for genetic tracking reasons. Some cats have a colored highlight, these cats jump across the tree.

This is absolutely my magnum opus of Clangen projects I swear. I dumped so many hours into rearranging this tree so everything would fit.

About half-way down the tree is the Great Extinction: I went from 60+ cats in many family lines to only 15 cats in two family lines. It was a scary time, but IvyClan bounced back and is now stronger than ever!

Here's to another thousand moons! PS: if you want to play the worst game of i-spy, try and find some of my favorite cats! Sunshatter, Meadowtail, Badgerholly, Fishleaf, Drykite, Lilyslash and Bouldercurl!

pspspspsps I can't believe I put this on the sideblog WHOOP

[brownie-starlight]

Officially launched the first sideblog @brownie-gives-cats !! I really missed playing all those old forum games (who else remembers the create-a-cats, name raters, poll stories ect) and so I thought I'd see if the format works well on tumblr =o

Please please please request cats I'm addicted to making them

[brownie-starlight]

oi

I don't know what I'm doing or how formatting works, but I'd like to use this place to store some of my worldbuilding projects and generally network with this side of fandom so.

I'm figuring out how sideblogs work now to sort things easier.