daydreamtravellog

[daydreamtravellog]

One of the more frequent load-bearing coconuts* in video games is the player character themselves: some quirk or limitation of the game engine requires that the player character must always be on screen, or at least loaded into the current map.

Most of the time, this isn't a problem, because when would you ever not want the player character to be present? There's one specific scenario where it becomes an issue, though, and that's when all of the following are true:

Your game uses in-engine cutscenes

At least some of those cutscenes occur on a different map from wherever the player character is located at the time that they're triggered (and the player character is not present for them)

Some limitation (e.g., of the game engine, of your targeted minimum system requirements, etc.) precludes loading multiple maps at the same time

Together this creates a problem: you need to load a map on which the player character is not present in order to run the cutscene, but the player character is load-bearing.

There are a variety of ways to solve this, but the customary approach is to make a note of the player character's current position, teleport them to the map on which the cutscene occurs, lock out their controls, turn them invisible, run the cutscene, then teleport them back to their former location when it's done. The upshot is that in every cutscene in which the player character ostensibly is not present, they're actually lurking invisibly in the background.

All this leads to what is possibly my favourite load-bearing coconut bug ever: Final Fantasy VII's disc 2 Midgar skip.

Basically, after you defeat one particular disc 2 boss, there's a multi-part cutscene where the action cuts to a conference room overlooking the battle; one of the NPCs present then calls another NPC on their cell phone, and the viewpoint jumps to that NPC's location (a mad science lab). The conference room map is used only in cutcenes, but the latter map, the mad science lab, is one the player can visit later.

Now here's the trick: for unknown reasons, that mid-cutscene jump to a different map re-enables the player character's controls. You're still invisible, and none of the NPCs present can be interacted with (i.e., because they're totally scripted); however, since the map on which the back half of the cutscene takes place is one you can visit later in the game, a bunch of non-cutscene assets get loaded along with it, presumably because it never occurred to the developers to disable them – critically including a boss fight trigger zone. This trigger is unconditional, since the only time this map can be visited legitimately, the fight is meant to occur.

This means that if you know what you're doing, it's completely possible to walk the invisible player character into that boss fight trigger during the cutscene. In spite of its other limitations, the game engine handles this without complaint, and play continues exactly as though you'd reached that boss fight legitimately, thereby skipping half the disc. From the player's perspective, it appears as though holding the joystick in a specific direction causes the cutscene to be interrupted mid-sentence by an inexplicable, out-of-context boss fight.

All because Cloud Strife is a coconut.

* To anticipate the inevitable well-actually, yes, I'm aware that the Team Fortress 2 coconut is a myth; somebody took a real phenomenon and falsely attributed it to a popular game for clicks, and now we're stuck with the term. If you don't like it, complain to whoever is in charge of how language works!

[daydreamtravellog]

[daydreamtravellog]

WIZLORDS! - Third Country Press

Welcome back! It's been awhile, huh?

WIZLORDS! is a... peculiar GM-less game made by Third Country Press, which can be found here.

This game is not solo, nor does it have much in the way of character creation, so let's just jump right into it.

In this game, three or more players take on the role of wizards. Wizards powerful enough to casually warp reality on a whim. These wizards are members of the grand council, ruling over the realm.

Unfortunately, all of you are, without exception, insane. Now would be a good time to discuss character creation.

To play this game you will need:

3+ Players

1d20 - overall, not per player.

(Optionally) Character Sheet

(Optionally) Something to keep score with

There aren't an official character sheet and scorekeeping system, but this game is very complicated mechanically.

To make your character:

Come up with an ostentatious name. You are an eccentric wizard noble, after all.

As previously mentioned, you are insane. This manifests as you obsessions. You have a relatively harmless, somewhat risky, and incredibly dangerous obsessions. These are worth 1, 2, and 3 points, respectively. Keep these to yourself.

Congratulations, you are now a wizards!

From here, you and your eccentric fellow council members will get down to business. Over the course of seven days, you will deal with problems plaguing your realm, determined by rolling the d20.

Each Wizlord will then come up with their proposal for solving the problem, engage in debate (limited to 5 minutes for the sake of fairness and time), and put it to a vote. The winner is the one with the majority vote, and they get 3 points. Rinse and repeat 6 more times, and whoever is has the most points is named the HIGH WIZLORD, and is to be showered with praise by the other players.

This gets especially interesting when each player's secret obsessions are thrown into the mix. Even if you aren't the one who made the original proposal, you can make an amendment, supporting the proposal while attempting to incorporate your obsession. If you manage to slip in your obsession, you get points based on the grade of obsession, as I mentioned above.

It's a pretty simple game, the whole document is only two pages long, and the second page is entirely devoted to the list of issues that you roll the d20 for. My impression of this game is that it sounds like a lot of fun if you like roleplay and improv, especially with how silly and weird the game is meant to be. This is definitely a game that you could play on a whim, requiring basically no setup and very little time spent on character creation. I'd definitely love to give it a try sometime!

This game doesn't really fit the format of this blog very well, but I still really wanted to talk about it! I feel like this one doesn't have a lot of substance though, despite the length of time since my last post, so I will be working on the next post shortly.

Until next time, I bid you adieu, and we will meet again when there is a new tale to be told...

[daydreamtravellog]

Probably shouldn't have made this poll a week long lol, I don't think there are enough people around here to justify that, but I wanted it to be longer than a day and I don't know if you can set a custom duration.

I dunno when my next post will be exactly, but I thought it might be fun to make a poll for the next game I play!

I wanna preserve a little hint of mystery, which is why I didn't name the games specifically.

* If this option wins it'll actually be the second next, because the actual next one is an Alone on a Journey hack which overlaps with that option of the poll

P.S.: I should mention that the next game from the bottom of my itch.io collection will be a sort of character creation + discussion mix. This is because character creation is pretty simple, and thus won't really amount to a full post by itself

[daydreamtravellog]

I dunno when my next post will be exactly, but I thought it might be fun to make a poll for the next game I play!

I wanna preserve a little hint of mystery, which is why I didn't name the games specifically.

* If this option wins it'll actually be the second next, because the actual next one is an Alone on a Journey hack which overlaps with that option of the poll

P.S.: I should mention that the next game from the bottom of my itch.io collection will be a sort of character creation + discussion mix. This is because character creation is pretty simple, and thus won't really amount to a full post by itself

[daydreamtravellog]

Alone Among The Stars - Takuma Okada

Shall we embark on our first adventure?

Alone Among the Stars was published alongside two other games in Alone On A Journey, which you can find here, and it was originally published separately for free here.

This is a solo journaling game in which you, as a solitary adventurer, discover new planets and the many unique features each one has.

To play this game, you will need:

A standard deck of 52 playing cards (minus the Jokers)

A d6

Something to write with (this instructions imply something physical, like a pencil and small journal, but I just used a Google Doc)

To discover a new planet, roll the d6 and draw that number of cards, placing them facedown. I arranged them like this:

Lucky me, a full six! Seems we'll have lots to explore on this planet...

Speaking of which, lets see what we find first! Roll the d6 to determine how you come across this discovery, and draw a card to determine what that discovery is.

I rolled a two this time, which means it was 'arduous to get to'. A card with the Spade suit indicates a 'Natural Phenomena', and the rank of King means that this discovery was 'floating in the air'.

With that determined, write a short description of the discovery, and your reaction to finding it. (Note - You do not have to format it in the way that I did going forward, I just did it this way to sort of simulate an entry or report in the ship's log.)

Observation: Spotted in the distance after disembarking. The terrain is very uneven and rocky, making travel difficult despite the lowered gravity. There appeared to be stones of very sizes above the ground, with roots or vines of some kind connecting them to the ground. 

Remarks: “This is such a bizarre planet! I thought they were some bizarre plant life from a distance, but that’s not it… It seems like without these roots, these rocks would just float away! They’re like natural balloons! I wonder what causes this kind of thing to happen?”

With that, lets see what we find next...

Another 2, another 'arduous to get to' discovery. The Diamond suit indicates 'Living Beings', and the rank of 2 means that this discovery was seen 'under the light of the moon(s)'.

Observation: Even the lowered gravity didn’t make ascending a tall tree to investigate easy. Once I was high enough, I could see that the glowing mass was a swarm of insects, glowing as if in response to the shine of this planet’s many moons.

Remarks: “There are so many moons in the sky here, the nights are extraordinary! I noticed a bunch of little glowing things flitting through the air above me, so I climbed up a tree to get a better look. I tell ya, you'd think lower gravity would make some physical activities easier, but a tall tree is a tall tree, no matter what force the world is pulling you down with. Anyway, when I got up there, I found that they were these weird insects. They reminded me of those iridescent beetles back on Earth, except these were bioluminescent! It was like watching gemstones dance through the air, it was lovely...”

And again...

Finally, a different roll! A four indicates that 'you come upon it suddenly'. The Diamond suit once again indicates 'Living Beings', but this time, the rank of Ace means that this discovery was found 'in a field taller than you'.

Observation: There is some kind of creature living in the tall grasses, but I didn’t get a good look at it. Whatever they are, they are very fast, and flatten the grass in their path. Remarks: “Whoa, there’s something really fast here! I was trying to make my way through this field of grass that was so tall it stood over my head, when suddenly I heard something moving around in the grass... All I really make out was a purplish blur, though. From above, the trampled grass almost looks like crop circles. I wonder why… A byproduct of how they move in pursuit of prey, perhaps?"

Between arduous terrain and mysterious creatures, traversing this planet certainly isn't easy, but at least it isn't dangerous!

A 5 indicates that 'you spot it as you are resting'. The Heart suit indicates 'Ruins', and the rank of 4 means that I spotted it 'in a steep canyon'.

Observation: There was a small river running though the bottom of a canyon, perfect for taking a short rest. However, while there I noticed a series of markings that couldn’t have been natural. The carvings of an ancient people, perhaps?

Remarks: “This looks interesting… I just sat down to take a breather in this canyon, and then I noticed something on the other side of the stream. There appears to be some kind of writing carved into the opposite wall of the canyon. Unfortunately, I have no idea what it says, and there are no pictures that may illustrate its meaning…”

Between the floating stones and deep canyons, this place seems pretty rocky, doesn't it? It also has trees and tall, lush fields... Maybe this is a mountainous planet?

A 6 indicates that 'you spot it as you are resting' as well, so it seems my break isn't over just yet. The Spade suit indicates another bit of 'Natural Phenomena', and a rank of 3 means that I spotted it 'by a gentle river'.

Observations: I decided my rest wasn’t over, so I sat back down for a little while longer. By some twist of fate, this allowed me to find yet another interesting sight. Light glimmering in my eyes from the edge of the stream. Prismatic bubbles began to rise from the surface of the water, catching the light in beautiful ways.

Remarks: “This planet never rests, eh? I sat down beneath the ancient texts to rest for a little longer, and suddenly there was light shining in my eyes! I opened my eyes, and bubbles were rising from the water’s surface! As they floated up, they caught the light, and… wow. Y’know how soap bubbles have the iridescent, rainbowy film to ‘em when you look closely? This was like that, cranked up to 11. I sat for a while and watched the balls of rainbow rise into the sky.”

Why do these strange phenomena happen? It's fun how this game can give you a small glimpse into an entirely new world.

Onto our final discovery of the day...

A discovery similar to the first, but not exactly. A 2 indicates that this one was yet another 'arduous to get to' discovery. The Diamond suit means that was have found another 'Ruin", and the rank of King means that it was 'floating in the air'.

Observation: Climbing some vines to a rock like the ones I found earlier, but much larger in size, I found an entire building atop the floating rock! It seems like the ancient people who used to live here were able to use this bizarre phenomena to their advantage…

Remarks: “More of the floating, vine-bound rocks! This one was huuuuge, though! I couldn’t resist the curiosity, and that bit me in the ass… climbing ain’t fun, I’ll say that much. At least my effort was rewarded, because I found an old house! Its in ruins, of course, but Im impressed by the ingenuity of the people that used to live here! I wonder if this would allow them to move their buildings by moving the vines, almost like a parade balloon…”

Having exhausted all of our cards, that means we just have one thing left to do: give this new planet a name! I'm not the best with coming up with names, so I'll leave this one up to Fantasy Name Generators...

This is where our adventure will conclude for now, as we blast off from the newly-dubbed 'Aihri', taking off into the stars once more.

You can continue by rolling your d6 again and drawing more cards to discover another planet, but for my first time this one took me awhile, so we'll close the book on planet-hopping for now.

I will mention that the instructions say "If you want to remember your travels, save the journal. If the memories bring you pain, burn it."

... I wrote all of this directly onto Tumblr via my laptop, so let's hope these memories never sour.

That's all from me! I hope you enjoyed this peaceful adventure, and who knows what's in store for the future? I hope this first post doesn't feel too rough, but please feel free to let me know if there is anything I can improve upon to make it a better experience!

Until next time, I bid you adieu, and we will meet again when there is a new tale to be told...

[daydreamtravellog]

Someone should kill me so that I stop reblogging on the wrong damn blog.

[daydreamtravellog]

Welcome, Welcome!

There are countless stories that have yet to be written into being, and it's up to me to tell them.

In less flowery language, I have many, many TTRPGs at my disposal, and the prospects of playing them are... unlikely, to say the least.

So instead, I have set out on my own to play them all. Most of them are in my itch.io library, though there are a few that I own physically or digitally. I got a lot of them from bundles, so there are a number of them that I'm not really interested in. Maybe I'll look into them someday, but they really weren't the vibe I was going for.

Does that mean that this will be a short and easy venture through a handful of games that have piqued my interest?

...Not in the goddamn slightest.

Here's the plan. There will be three main types of posts here:

Solo Games - For any Solo/Journaling games, I will play the game, and post my experience here.

Non-Solo Games - Since it's hard to play multiplayer games with no friends, I will instead go through the character creation process, and post the character here. That means both the mechanical aspects of the character sheet (stats, equipment, etc.) and the flavor details (appearance, personality, backstory, etc.)

Unplayed Games - For any games on the list that I decide not to play or that don't really fit in with either of the other types of posts, I will still do my best to talk about them. If it isn't my cup of tea, maybe it'll be yours?

The purpose of this isn't to review all of the games, but instead to familiarize myself with more systems, as well as to exercise my creative abilities. This blog will serve to document my experience and progress.

These will vary wildly in tone and genre/content, so I thought I'd leave you all with some teasers for just a few of the many things to come~