#but that's in terms of mechanics. your reason can be story-based too

[danielnelsen]

ok here's a poll:

feel free to explain why in the tags!

[yanderes-galore]

@montygatorshusband said: "My idea was Yandere Glamrock Freddy who gets really attached to a mechanic (reader). Since Freddy had his whole thing with Bonnie, and Bonnie got destroyed, he becomes obsessed with keeping the reader safe. So, Freddy stalks them through their Fazwatch (Which he disguised as an innocent gift). He gets really anxious whenever the reader takes off the watch or even the reader getting a small paper cut. So, Freddy decides to kidnap the reader so they can always be right next to him. In fact, whenever he has to leave, he puts the reader in his chest cavity so they can be *really*be together forever and ever."

A/N: Sure! I love writing Mechanic darlings when it comes to FNAF stories :)

Yandere! Glamrock Freddy with Mechanic! Darling

Pairing: Platonic/Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Grief/Trauma, Fear of loss, Stalking, Paranoia, Overprotective, Manipulation, Kidnapping, Delusional behavior, Major character death, Forced companionship.

Honestly I've always thought Glamrock Freddy is naturally overprotective of you as a yandere.

However I've never considered the loss of Glamrock Bonnie being the reason behind it.

I really like the idea, actually.

After all, Freddy was very close with Bonnie based on his voicelines.

I personally see them as close friends but either way you can tell they were close.

The fact Freddy lost him would have definitely affected him to the point he's scared to share that same connection with anyone else.

It's unknown what truly happened to Bonnie and Freddy would be scared you'd get hurt.

The Pizzaplex has its own dangers and anything can happen.

Bonnie was an animatronic, you're a human mechanic.

You are even more in danger in Freddy's eyes.

Freddy is the naturally friendly type.

Every human, STAFF or child, is usually met with a friendly greeting.

Freddy would get attached to you rather fast, especially as a mechanic.

You help him get ready for shows and often check him over for damage or corrupted upgrades.

He feels you care for him... so he cares for you too.

Which brings up previous feelings about Bonnie.

Along with an overwhelming fear of losing you like the rabbit.

Freddy would definitely slip you a Fazwatch as a gift.

He's so kind to you and plays it off like a small gift for your bond.

Why are you refusing? This is on him!

Even if you say no he'll clip it to your wrist with a smile.

The Fazwatch allows him to communicate with you and allows him to find your position.

It's a gift, yes, but it also doubles as a way to calm his own worries.

For the most part you tolerate his little gift and keep it on during work hours.

Freddy would definitely panic a bit when you take off the watch.

Even when you work on other animatronics you can feel the watch vibrate as Freddy tries to contact you.

He watches your location like a hawk and is never too far from you.

Even if you take it off before you leave or to not get it messy, Freddy frantically rants about it to you.

You have no idea why he's so worried?

Freddy has shown he's capable to determine when a human isn't feeling well.

He would also be very attentive to when you were hurt.

Even if it's as small as a paper cut he asks what happened.

After that he's dragging you to a first-aid station to have you patched up.

The potential dangers of the Pizzaplex are something he thinks of a lot.

With mechanic work you could get shocked, lose a limb, be gutted...

Oh he hates thinking of that.

Reminds him too much of Bonnie.

His worry may indeed take over to the point he feels you shouldn't go home anymore.

It would take a long while but maybe Freddy feels he can keep you safe here.

He's delusional enough to think you'd be happy in his room, all safe and looked after by him.

In terms of the chest cavity thing I feel it would be a hard fit for an adult.

However, if he can manage it, he'd definitely use his chest cavity to carry you around with him at all times.

For the most part he keeps you in his room and out of sight.

Maybe even gags you to prevent you from screaming....

He hates the idea of restraints or gags but... anything to keep you safe.

Then when there's a performance needing to be done, you'll come along!

If he can fit you, that is.

Maybe he'll even find a way to make it soundproof!

He thinks he's making you happy and doesn't see how wrong his actions are.

Freddy just doesn't want to lose you like a certain bunny...

Could you really blame him for being so afraid?

"I'm keeping you safe, aren't I?"

[theminecraftbee]

smallishona au mechanics

or, i finally figured out the in-universe mechanics of this persona au! plus some generalized persona mechanics that people may not otherwise know if they don't play persona.

basic premise: the basic premise of this is not based off of any specific persona game, but synthesized from the basic premise of persona 3/4/5. in those games, a group of teenagers discover they have the power of persona, a sort of almost jojo-stand like ability to summon a representation of themselves to fight against shadows, monsters formed from the collective unconsciousness of humanity. they then must travel to another world (broadly, the collective unconscious, although this world has somewhat different mechanics and names in each game), fight shadows, find out why that world is encroaching on our own world, and save humanity from the problems caused by this other world. this normally ends in them fighting god. it is a jrpg and a smt spinoff, after all.

in this SPECIFIC plot, it goes as follows: the 'vanished' is a term referring to people who mysteriously go missing in the middle of their normal routine. this always happens when they are alone, but it can happen at times that are supernatural. these vanishings are being caused when these people, for some reason or another, slip into a realm called 'altered space' and are killed by the shadows there. in order to get to the root of these vanishings, joel and the party must travel through altered space, fight shadows, rescue the trapped people, and determine what's really causing all of this.

joel must do this while also dealing with high school, because, as the protagonist, his powers get stronger the stronger his bonds with other people. these powers--the power to have more than one persona and fuse personas, amongst other things--are the root of many of joel's woes, as the Bit of this au is that joel is the world's most reluctant persona protagonist.

(the more detailed explanations under the cut this gets LONG.)

altered space and the vanished: the manifestation of the collective unconscious that our heroes must travel through in this story. joel (and many others) perceive it as a place you get to by following evil, non-blue butterflies, but interestingly, other people perceive how to reach it differently. the space manifests as a massive, seemingly endless sea of poppies, some of which are wilting and dying. this field is broken up by seemingly collapsed buildings, and while shadows and vanished can be found in the field, more powerful shadows (and more notable people) can only be found inside the buildings.

it is incredibly difficult not to fall asleep inside altered space, and only people with personas are safe from that effect. still, even with a persona, being inside altered space causes a person to grow exhausted much faster than they would in the normal world. the other side of this, however, is that it is nearly impossible to summon a persona in the real world; in altered space, it only takes focusing on your heart and the scar from the first time you summoned it. in the real world you'd probably at LEAST have to stab yourself again.

there is a time limit to save anyone who has become trapped in altered space; if they spend too long there, they will fall permanently asleep and lose themselves forever. this time limit changes depending on who the specific Vanished is, but can be kept track of using the weather (sorry i am stealing persona 4 for this). when the weather gets unusually frigid for the time of year, it is too late to save any vanished in altered space. anyone there must be saved before that.

certain vanished--those with particularly strong feelings of abandonment and loneliness--can warp the buildings they find their way into around themselves. as such, the buildings inside altered space that the vanished are found in can vary wildly, and often reflect the hearts of those inside of them.

indeed, as you may have noted: the vanished, as a rule, are people who feel so alone, they manage to literally lose their grip on reality. a running theme in this au is playing DIRECTLY into the ongoing moral of persona of "you can't do it alone" by saying "in fact, people who are too alone will vanish, since they don't see themselves as 'existing' to other people". as the plot goes on and altered space and the shadows grow more powerful, the amount of loneliness needed to trigger this gets lower and lower, but that's the general theme here. surprise, idiots, the solution was to not be individualists in the first place!

hm. i wonder if this is relevant to our main cast in any way. wink wink.

(persona is not subtle. one of my first impressions of this series was a guy awakening his ultimate persona, satan, and using it to shoot god with a gun. i cannot express enough how unsubtle i can be with the theming here.)

personas and the powers of those who wield them: while personas are the manifestation of someone's heart, they are also a LITTLE bit their own beings. this only comes up occasionally in the persona series, but it will come up sometimes here too, so keep this in mind. another thing that is relevant about personas is that, while in some games this is a subtle element and in some games this is in your face, personas are also the shadow of the wielder. the only difference between a persona and a shadow is that a persona-user has, at least to some level, managed to master their own shadow. however, established in... all three persona games actually but ESPECIALLY in persona 3... is the fact that losing control of yourself can cause you to lose control of your persona to tragic consequences. keep this in mind for later.

personas, since they're also sort of shadows and definitely also manifestations of the collective unconsciousness, take the form of legendary/mythological figures. notably, all of joel's team's personas take the form of "legendary lovers" for their first forms. i say 'first forms', because it is possible for a persona to further evolve, normally at a moment of emotional catharsis for the wielder, when they truly master themselves. this is known as an 'ultimate persona', and its normally stronger than the base form.

in my own au, a persona can initially be awakened only in altered space, and only by someone who is determined not to give in and be forgotten. that person must stab themselves as part of their conviction, although this only happens once; from then on, they can summon their persona through their sense of self, manifesting from the scar from that stab wound, as long as they are in altered space.

a persona's powers work at their maximum level inside of altered space. however, in my au where i can be as self-indulgent as i want, a persona-user CAN technically summon their persona in the real world, it would just take either a moment of supreme will and/or probably stabbing themselves again. additionally, a persona-user's stats start to manifest in the real world as well, ESPECIALLY their HP and SP, since those stats are not inherently tied to the persona itself (thanks, wild cards, for proving this for me). persona-users, as a result, tend to be far more durable than a normal human and have far more energy... although this is a bit of boiling a frog, and it takes a while for them to notice this isn't just a 'fighting shadows' thing. additionally, their abilities also tend to stick with them in small ways in the real world. however, no matter what world they are in, a persona's abilities only work at full power on other persona-users and shadows. maybe this is because a shadow is best at affecting another shadow, and powers inherently born of the unreal/the collective unconscious do not affect the real easily...?

joel is a wild card. unlike a normal persona user, he can switch personas, unlocking new ones both in battle in altered space and by fusing them in the velvet room. these personas also get stronger via his bonds with others. this will all get its own section below.

finally, all persona-users in this world have experienced intense loneliness or isolation of their own at some point; the main difference between them and a vanished is whether or not they managed to grasp themselves despite this isolation. in joel's case, this was because a dam overspilled, collapsed, and destroyed his hometown after the person who was meant to be monitoring it vanished without anyone noticing. each of the other members of the party also have their own relationship with isolation that is explored in the plot and their social links. just awakening to a persona, after all, isn't enough to solve that, and it's important to try to master it in yourself. or else, well... i did say that an out-of-control persona ends tragically.

the velvet room and joel as wild card: as i just said, joel is a wild card/fool. unlike the rest of his team, he will only unlock his ultimate persona at the end of the game, after he has finished traveling through all the tarot and self-actualizing. however, he has a VERY IMPORTANT role: he can switch personas at will, adapting to the situation in order to best use his personas for both combat and bonding with other people. he is the protagonist. he hates this. that is the Bit.

in order to swap between more personas than the number he has room for (normally between eight and sixteen, depending on what level the protagonist is), as well as to fuse personas together to make stronger ones, joel has the assistance of a place called the velvet room. the velvet room is common to every persona game, although it changes form depending on the guest. broadly, it is a mysterious, entirely blue room that exists in a pocket within the collective unconsciousness, between dreams and reality, and can MOSTLY only be accessed by wild cards. (i know that's not how it works exactly in personas 1 and 2, bear with me, we are working off of 3/4/5 logic.) to joel specifically, it takes the form of a yacht traveling across an endless sea of souls.

in every persona game, it is mastered by igor, although igor does not directly describe himself as the master of anything. this mysterious long-nosed man, a servant of another god called philemon that we Will Not Get Into Here He's Mostly Not Relevant, has the power to fuse personas together. he's kind of a creepy-looking and sounding old man, but it's worth noting that igor himself has the protagonist's best interests at heart. igor and his assistant are also the people who tend to know the most about the mechanics of being a persona protagonist, and assist the protagonist in this regard.

assistant? yes! igor has an assistant; in this au it is jimmy. they are always almost white-blonde and have yellow eyes, and wear an entirely blue uniform. they refer to igor as their 'master', all consider each other siblings, are different for each protagonist, and all seem to consider igor someone kind who they appreciate. the assistant has a few roles. the first is to keep track of the compendium, allowing the protagonist to summon any persona they've had in the past for a certain amount of money. the second is to assist the protagonist in their journey and emotional growth. the third is to have a LOT of goofy jokes about not really understanding the human world and i love all of them dearly. these assistants are also definitely not human, but they are often social links themselves, suggesting they might at least have a soul.

in this au, jimmy is joel's hanged man social link. jimmy both tries to help joel understand stuff like "you have to bond with people" and how personas work to some extent, but also is largely discovering himself and the human world through joel. i have Plans for this, it's cute.

only joel can see or access the velvet room, which manifests as a glowing blue door in the entrance to altered space and also in a back alleyway in the real world. to others, he appears to space out or fall asleep standing up when he accesses the velvet room, and attempting to point out that glowing blue door, or even the very real key joel possesses for that door, is futile. rip him.

social links: i've mentioned these a few times; these are the means by which bonds make joel stronger. social links are relationships with people in the real world, represented by tarot cards. joel has a social link for every tarot except for the world, which is reserved for him at the end of his journey. these social links are their own storylines, some tied to the main story, and some separate things that mostly build on themselves that joel has to help with. they 'level up' as joel spends time with these people and grows closer with them.

as one of these special bonds gets stronger, joel gets new abilities. the most baseline of these abilities is the ability to get stronger personas through fusion; growing his bonds directly makes joel stronger in battle as a result. additionally, though, i have decided i like that persona 4/5 also offers mechanical benefits beyond that. as joel levels up his social links with his party members, for example, those party members grow as people and get stronger persona abilities. as joel levels up his social links with non-party members, he may gain things like discounts on gear, new abilities of his own, or general ways to smooth his way in altered space. a maximized social link unlocks the ultimate persona of that tarot, which is incredibly useful.

the bonds you make in the real world help chain you to reality, and in turn, help make you stronger outside of it. hold on to them, wild card. you'll need them.

joel is aware of what tarot each social link is, and diegetically hears the gameplay voice telling him they've leveled up. additionally, he inherently has the knowledge that when he has a persona that matches a person's arcana, he is inherently somewhat more likeable to them and will be able to bond easier. i am sure this will never get to his head at all.

the team/school rescue committee: it existed before joel came around, in a thing i'm stealing from persona 3! grian was the first to summon a persona, and joe hills, a teacher at the school who knows more about this than most people do, managed to find him and start training him. scar joined as well later, but they've been on their own and barely treading water re: saving people from shadows. joel joining enables them to finally start going on the offensive.

as a team, they're... trying. they aren't very cohesive early on, but they're working on it. its awfully lucky that they have a LITTLE guidance and aren't figuring all of this out on their own, although even joe doesn't have a clue why a bunch of the stuff they face works the specific way it does.

their eventual goal is to figure out what the root cause of people starting to fall into altered space is, and stop it.

additional mechanics i didn't have another heading to put under: there's a persona mechanic called "social stats"; they are somewhat different every game, but they represent social skills joel levels up by doing... esoteric things at the best of times, lol. he will have five stats here, which i mostly won't bring up except when it's funny. those stats are charm/courage/academics/kindness/proficiency. in persona games these stats are largely relevant as ways to unlock certain social links and dialogue options, but they're important to max out, so... have fun visiting zedaph's terrifying stir fry stand and taking bizarre odd jobs, joel!

i. do not want to get into skill cards. they exist alright, and beef is the guy who can duplicate/create them. that is all i wish to get into at the moment.

tfc owns an antique shop, because i like persona 3's antique shop mechanics. here, he can make unique weapons/skill cards/items that can be used in battle by using rare materials from altered space. he seems to have vague knowledge of some persona mechanics, although weirdly, they don't exactly line up with how joel's own persona mechanics work. wonder how that happened...?

stuff from altered space can come out to real space. cleo is willing to fence this stuff, although joel has Questions about how she sells some of it for him. well, whatever. it's a good source of money, a thing he is unfortunately always running out of these days, on account of needing to buy everyone weapons and armor. actually, this feels like a scam on cleo's part, given she's ALSO his main source for that. goddammit.

and that's... basically all the base "game mechanics" of this au! i think that's everything that's relevant for now i hope everyone enjoys it!

[ddwcaph-game]

NP Mechanic Update!

I totally wasn't expecting the results on the last poll, so here's an update about the changes I'm doing to the NP system!

Overall, I'm happy with how the NP choices turned out, but I wasn't really satisfied with how you gained NP/Max NP per chapter. I wanted it to be a precious resource, but even without the "threat" of potential consequences later, it seemed too restrictive considering the limited amount you get.

But with the new difficulty settings, I figured out a new system that I'm more happy with. Here are the major changes:

You will now recover 1 NP* whenever you make a choice that has a notification

You now gain +1 Max NP for every 2,500 EXP** gained (this makes getting EXP actually meaningful)

Beginning with the school bus scene: If you don't have enough NP for a choice, you can take a "loan" of up to 99 NP

When you are below 0 NP, you will gain the 🤯 [Headache!!!] Status Effect (this means MC will always be below 0 NP after the school bus scene to serve as a tutorial)

You can't take any more NP loans while you have a headache, and the penalties are equal to the amount of NP you're missing (-50 NP means -50% All Stats and EXP)

You will no longer gain Max NP when completing a chapter

You still gain NP for completing a chapter, but the amount you gain is now based on your Max NP (this means the amount will be more consistent since it will no longer be based on the difference between your current NP and Max NP)

All quests now reward Max NP

Easier difficulty will now give less EXP, and Harder difficulty will give more EXP (since it didn't make sense the other way around)

*This amount is based on the difficulty you selected.

** This amount is also based on the difficulty, but even with Easy Difficulty giving less EXP, you should still gain more Max NP overall (and vice versa)

Being able to slowly recover NP during the chapter means you can now feel less guilty when picking choices with a lower NP cost, although I'll have to adjust some of the NP costs so you still need to think about what to spend it on.

The new loan feature will hopefully make higher-cost NP choices more accessible, while also giving it more of a risk vs. reward mechanic. Is a short-term advantage or changing the story branch worth an EXP and All Stats Penalty for the rest of the chapter? This also makes it less frustrating if you are a few NP short of a choice you wanted to make.

My only problem with this, is that it'll now be awkward and clunky to check for your current NP amount since you have to check the stats screen every time... but I can't really do anything about that. I could add it to the notifications, but they're cluttered enough already. Just another reason to make me more excited to develop the VN, I guess. Hehe.

Anyway, I'm just about done coding the new changes, so I'm almost back to writing actual scenes again! What do you all think? Lemme know your thoughts!

[talenlee]

4e: Spooky Heritages

Sometimes when you’re considering a way to make a character, the kind of thing you might need for say, a Halloween season short campaign designed to give everyone an excuse to sit around, tell a story, throw some dice and fight some things, you’re looking for a way to bring in something spooky. Something that isn’t going to show up in the normal births registry, something that’s going to obviously set the tone of a situation apart from the conventional Dwarf-Elf-Human-Yawn collection that’s been tumbling down the narrative staircase since Tolkein first middled the earths.

What if you want to play a monster?

I did an article on making Horror campaign characters a few years ago. Here’s a revisit to the concept space!

Art Source

Glossary Note: Conventionally, the term used in D&D for this mechanical package is race. This is the typical term, and in most conversations about this game system, the term you’re going to wind up using is race. For backwards compatibility and searchability, I am including this passage here. The term I use for this player option is heritage.

The Shade

You ever have that thing where you have like, a junky toy, and then one day you get a brand new version of the same toy, or the second version and you forget you ever owned the original one? The Shade is a dead human, back from the dead, that sacrificed its vitality to become part of the Shadowfell, which 3e longtooths will recognise as the Negative Energy Plane. Basically, a Shade is a Human full of spooky juice, and their reward for being a living undead is, uh,

Garbage.

The Shade gives up a healing surge and in exchange gets training in stealth, access to a pool of (bad) utility powers, and an at-will power that lets you set up hiding, which sounds like maybe it’d have some use then you find out it’s a standard action, meaning that odds are good you’ll not be able to use that stealth. Going into hiding every other turn means, functionally, whatever you’re using that stealth for is cut in half, and there are just better ways to try and make sure you can hide.

It’s a shame, too, because at its heart, what Shade feels like it should be, it doesn’t really have the means to deliver on. A shade feels like it should be insubstantial in some way, ethereal, at least based on the name. There should be something missing in the Shade, but in the case of this player option, the thing that’s missing is ‘a good reason to use it.’

Still, it’s a place to start. The vibes are a thing you can poach and put onto a different mechanical package. There’s even an example of this whole suite being outmoded in this very article! Oh no, not the next one, the next one is about scary frog people.

Art Source

The Bullywug

I’m a firm believer that in any arrangement of three, you do need to have one complete carry. It’s easy to list trios of things that can be spooky in 4th edition D&D, limiting yourself to the ‘good’ stuff that stands out. But there’s something to be said for reaching into the genuinely monstrous when that requires looking at something that pretty unequivocally sucks.

The Bullywug is a heritage that needs a rework, but seems unlikely to get one because nobody cares. The actual base heritage is from the Monster Manual rather than any kind of other sourcebook, and that means it was designed to not just be less appealing than the Player’s Handbook heritages, but also never supported thereafter because nobody cares.

The Bullywug has an ability that diminishes the ability of others to use healing surges around the Bullywug character. This sucks not because it affects your allies (who use healing surges) but instead because it doesn’t really affect your enemies (who don’t). Essentially, the Bullywug is a creature that wants to deliver on the fantasy of being a scary river monster toad beast, but also doesn’t give you any good reason to play it.

Which is a shame! It’s a shame because this is an otherwise unattended place for player heritages! If you’re running 4th edition D&D, and want to make sure people have good creepy/horror options, consider giving the Bullywug a look and goosing it. I’d particularly recommend adding some variety of swim speed, and really, the aura could be something as blanket as a -2 penalty to saving throws, and while that represents a unique form of a player character option, it isn’t something that works to do anything amazing on its own.

Nonetheless, you can have a big wide mouth and terrifying tongue so you can sing appropriately horrifyingly it’s beginning to look a lot like fish-men…

Revenant

Art Source

The Revenant is something of a cadillac in the heritage options for 4th edition spooksters, in that it is both a good flavour and a good mechanical package that delivers on that flavour. It’s pretty nice when you get that lineup and don’t have to deal with a good mechanical package whose flavour sucks (the Dwarf), or a heritage whose flavour rules but the mechanics are a complete crater (really, the Hengeyokai is our biggest offender here).

In the case of the Revenant, you are a dead person. Back from the dead to avenge yourself, or someone else, Crow style. The way this works is a sort of mechanical layering; the Revenant chooses what heritage they were when they were alive, and then they get the Revenant baseline but can use feats and other options from that former heritage. They can even pick up the heritage powers of that heritage, with feats, which is especially cool as an obvious ‘oh well yeah’ kind of choice.

The Revenant adds Living Undead to their types, they get a nice utility power (Dark Reaping isn’t amazing but it is useful for every archetype), and then something truly ‘weird’ in that they can still act while ‘dying’ through the power Unnatural Vitality. This power seems really amazing in its context – being able to do half-actions while ‘dying’ is pretty cool! – it has to run headlong into the problem of how rarely people spend much time dying compared to being alive. The niche application of it (setting aside funny build options involving drowning yourself), are such that you get to play your Revenant in a very cool, spooky way, knowing that you have the backup of Not Immediately Dying, but it’s also not likely to come up in any situation where it isn’t a reasonably fair thing.

Thing is, even if it only comes up once, the point where a baddie hits you, drops you to 0 hp, and you don’t die, and then continue fighting for three more rounds, and if you save you can keep going, and then if you crit suddenly you’re back in the fight while people around you go: Wait, didn’t we kill you, what the hell is happening here?

… that’s going to last.

That’s going to be a good, spooky memory.

Conclusion

There are more options, more places to go. Don’t be surprised if next year we’re doing this again, as we steadily work through every heritage and slowly but steadily presenting ways to be a Horror Character using each one.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[orrianreaper]

GW2 people - Pitch me YOUR idea for an Expansion!

What's the theme, where are we going, what lore threads are we picking up on, what's the story premise, what mechanics do you think it could have.

I love spitballing ideas when I'm talking with friends so I'm posing the question To Everyone because I know everyone has some pet concepts floating around. As self-indulgent as you'd like, as unrealistic as you like, just throw ideas around, I wanna hear them!

The One I think I have the most rounded ideas for would be an Underwater Expansion. Picking up on the threat of whatever is terrorising the deep oceans, having some exploration of the Largos and bringing back in the Quaggan and the Krait maybe!

I love the sort of depths we get in maps like Frostgorge sound, and underwater combat has badly needed a rework and a tune up - there's loads of skills which straight up don't work and break entire builds underwater, and this would be a perfect excuse to try bring it up to speed. Maybe even make the underwater weapon sets function on land, to satisfy those who're after more weapons. You could make the maps a mix of true underwater and perhaps giant air bubble caves so you still had some land exploration even in maps otherwise set deep under the ocean. A map meta split with land phases and water phases. Additionally as personal bias wish, I'd love map event/meta design more like HoT. A map-wide Story with a few chains with specifically Build into the actual true Meta. I also simply love the idea of having a bunch of enemy designs based of the ocean and the abyss, there's so much incredible inspiration and interesting marine life. and biomes too! Give me a hydrothermal vent section in one of the maps, hell underwater 'water' in the form of brine pool 'quicksand'.

The Turtle might get some more use out of it's underwater, and skimmer would absolutely get spotlight as a skyscale isn't going to get you too far here - hell maybe even some speedy new underwater mount could be a fun addition to the roster.

I can see a plot being around trying to work with the Largos, The 'Terror of the Deep' being a danger and learning from them about how to survive the hostile environment and also convince them work with you to Hunt the 'Terror'. Maybe you come to the area of the ocean with the Quaggans and it's convincing the Largos to take them seriously as allies against whatever you're fighting? A quaggan companion character would be really fun, and you could easily bring back Sayeh al' Rajihd from the personal story given Largos involvement. I think not only would it be something very different in terms of the maps, which granted quite a few people might not like (thalassophobia reasons, or general Dislike of Water Gameplay reasons), but I think a rework of the underwater mechanics would benefit a bunch of places and it's something that really doesn't get touched outside of base game and maybe like, the Leviathans in EoD. There's so much neat creature design inspiriation swimming around out there, and I know so many people love the largos and even if not playable getting to see more of them could be neat! Also - it'd finally make all those legendary full people happy. A Legendary Aquabreather :P.

And a new suite of legendary underwater weapons since the G1 set. (and not themed pretty please make them all Unique.)

[multitrackdrifting]

LobCorp Recommended Mod Guide (One-step install modpacks now linked below 1 for QoL but close to vanilla, and one to smooth over the progression curve/reduce grind)

As someone who played LobCorp vanilla (and strongly adovcate aganist it unmodded even for the theme of the story) these are my mod recommendations. I don't have the time to actually test these but these are what I think would help a lot of people play this game.

Basemod is a mod management platform that allows LobCorp to be modded - and because the game has a lot of jank that don't really speak to the game's actual difficulty curve a lot of it is worth modding out or adjusting even if you don't want to reduce the difficulty bad QoL is not an actual difficulty curve so some of the time you spend in this game is a result of jank and not actual mechanical depth or challenges. More below.

Original Basemod 5.1.1 guide (explains in simple terms how to install it in 2nd paragraph, unlinked mods are in here. This is the most popular mod guide afaik). A lot of the mods are translated/adapted from the forum DC Inside from the original BM creator abcdcode. Basemod 5.2 (unofficial) guide (maybe check this if some older ver. mods don't work) NexusMods (for most English mods that might help).

Make the game playable [QOL Focused, does not actually functionally change anything about the game's actual mechanics] (the game will still be hard as nails but without the jank that should be in the game):

Infinite Rerolls (95% of lategame difficulty is being trolled by RNG, if you don't want to use this mod, you can hit "return to menu" in the vanilla game to retry from last day without repo rewinding). [Checked]

Employee Group Select (the base game makes it really hard to micro departments unless you really like RTS) [Broken For Me]

Detailed Work-Related Stats (see discrete success chances as opposed to vague wording). [Checked]

Work Macro (holding Shift Auto-repeats work, great for mindlessly farming when all ordeals for a day are over). [Checked]

Agent List (Hitting TAB shows department select as opposed to an ordeal being required to do this). [Checked]

Shield Health Viewer (Shields actually show how much mitigation is remaining, notably absent from vanilla). [Checked]

Agent Recustomization (no longer costs 1 LOB to make your OCs or friends). [OLD] Have not found a working version.

Make the game approachable for all to enjoy [Removing constraints but still keeping MOST difficulty in but respecting your time because the game is absurdly grindy]:

Full-Time Employees (Your units remain if you go back to day 1) <== super good if you dont want to re-grind units every time you rewind. This means yo uwon't have to go through the bs of re-farming stats and can focus solely on gear-farm & doing the story while optimizing your Abno picks with infinite rerolls). [checked]

Overtime Pay (stat-grinding now gives extra points) [checked]

Instant Stat Gains (don't have to end a day to get rewarded with stat increases) [arguably a QoL mod too not gamebreaking]

Rewarding Ordeals (boosted EGO gift odds and stat growths after ordeals killed) [untested]

Extra Justice Attribute (justice now scales DPS) [works somewhat]

Increase Max EGO to 5 (reduces the re-roll grinding substantially) [Checked]

Speedup (increase game speed to 5 if you want) [OLD]

Suppress Leveling (suppressions actually give XP for combat). [Unsure but it seems to work for me]

Sticky Agents (agents no longer wander back & forth, caution this may make certain animation dodges very precise but will more often than not be helpful if you hate the wandering idle anims). [Checked]

Better Central Command Architecture (this department just has a bad layout imo) [Checked]

Flatten the curve to make the game reasonable [I just want to read the cutscenes but still play the game]:

Unsure if Super Agents works because it is old but if it does you will basically be invulnerable to ordeals/suppressions [OLD, replies seem to suggest it doesn't work but worth a try].

"Casual Mode Mod", a 2023 mod that makes daily energy lower and substantially reduces meltdowns to cut down the time of the grind. +100% exp rate, and LOB rewards increase. This mod alone doesn't make the game free but it cuts down the bizarrely high time requirement to play LobCorp which is one of the most substantial barriers to entry. (I'm about to beat it at around 150h). Combine this with the red and green mods and you'll basically have a great time.

Guaranteed Gifts (abno gifts will 100% trigger)

Overlapping Gifts (gifts no longer are 1 per slot)

There are mods to boost stats and EGOs, I suggest you find working ones on Reddit or NM.

I recommend looking around on Nexus Mods or even on reddit for other useful mod recommendations, but be careful, some mods will spoil you. The ones I suggested and recommended here do not contain any - but some on Nexus Mods definitely will.

If any mods don't work please check the Nexus Mods link for any similar mods that are from 2020, the 2019 ones seem to not be working as consistently or at all.

I can't attest that all the mods listed play nicely with each other but please give them a try if you find the base game too daunting, trust me, I went through the grinder and vanilla is fundamentally missing the green mods I listed here at the very least. The ones in the 1st document indicate which Basemod versions and above it will work with so if you have compatibility troubles just use the google doc that is first.

STEAM VISUAL GUIDE FOR MOD INSTALLATION:

The TL;DR for installing Basemod into the "Basemods" folder is that you need to make sure every mod has its own dedicated folder if the download itself doesn't come with one. This is an example layout where none of the mods have files outside of the folders they have dedicated to them. If they don't have an included folder, just name it after whatever the dll file is so you can tell what's in there. It will work nonetheless.

I have added the tag #lobcorpguide to make this post easier to find if it updates since tumblr hates proper-clickthroughs now. So you can find the updated details.

One-click installations (drag the files to the steam installation location and drop the minside the folder called LobotomyCorp_Data).

QoL only & Progression focused. Let me know if it works! The guide/readme file is in the "Basemods" with an s folder along with each mod. I explain what each does, and you can delete or add more at your leisure to that folder, just make sure it has a dedicated folder for each specific mod.

[the-rat-wins]

Does this frog make you feel calm?! Or perhaps like you have been mildly poisoned with henbane?

Please enjoy these extra notes regarding things that appear in my Shameless Big Bang fic Last Night at the Verona Grand Hotel, in order of appearance. Also now listed in the work endnotes on AO3 (but without the pictures).

This post contains lots of spoilers for the fic.

The train that Mickey takes from Chicago to Los Angeles is an Amtrak route called the Southwest Chief.

Mickey reads Treasure Island as a reference to Loftec’s fic Take this waltz.

The green popsicle is Melona.

I went for fictionalized geography around where exactly the hotel is, but the descriptions of the view on the drive up are based on pictures of Los Liones Trail.

The Verona Grand is, of course, inspired by the early years of the Chateau Marmont, but also crossed with a creepy old hotel I’ve stayed at in Colorado. The name is a reference to the setting of Romeo and Juliet plus the Neptune Grand from Veronica Mars (for that sunshine noir energy).

The Mark of Zorro (1920): Full disclaimer, unlike Mickey, I didn’t watch the whole thing (I didn’t have the good incentive of looking for my crush), but the moments I referenced are here and here.

(About ten years ago, I went to an outdoor movie screening that had been advertised as The Mask of Zorro but turned out to be The Mark of Zorro; after about 30 minutes, we all gave up and went home. Sorry, Douglas Fairbanks! We wanted Antonio.)

Hunter’s name is a reference to 1950s actor Tab Hunter, who came out as gay in 2005. (One of his long-term relationships was with Anthony Perkins of Psycho fame, after they met at the Chateau Marmont.)

KY Jelly has been around since the early 1900s (!). Here’s some of the vintage packaging. We’ll just assume Mickey was distracted and didn’t look too closely at the tube (or thought it was pretentiously packaged hipster lube; thanks for that idea, Deanna!).

Mickey calls Davie “Nurse Ratched” as a reference to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; the actress who played her in the original movie, Louise Fletcher, played Frank’s mother in season 2 of Shameless.

Nerve pills: These are fictionalized (I don’t know how well they worked or what they tasted like; probably not nice!) but they’re based on Carter’s Little Nervine Pills, the active ingredient of which was extract of hyoscyamus, which (if my Googling is correct) is henbane. Henbane is quite toxic and can cause hallucinations. It was commonly associated with witchcraft, since ointment made with it could cause people to see things and feel like they were flying. Never change, early 20th century medicine.

Another one of the compounds in henbane is scopolamine, which can be used to treat motion sickness. This worked well for my purposes because I had decided that the sickness Ian and Mickey experience when they stay in the wrong time is a cousin to motion sickness (if traveling through space too fast can make you feel sick, why not traveling through time?).

The concept of quantum entanglement is the other one in my mind when I think about what “connects” them each to their own time, but don’t ask me any follow-up questions on that, because honestly I’m not great at physics and I don’t totally understand it. Storytelling-wise, I just like the idea of things being connected to each other on a submolecular level. I refer to this in Two of Your Earth Minutes, as well, for the same reason.

Mickey also makes a reference to the idea of the observer effect. (Lotta quantum mechanics in this dang ghost story!!)

The new movie Ian is going to audition for is A Woman of Paris, directed by Charlie Chaplin.

I think he would have gotten it, don't you?

[regicidal-defenestration]

fRankenstein Tier List 2.0

Featuring all the adaptations, reimaginings, and "inspired by"s that's I've experienced so far and remembered about. Rankings are based on faithfulness to the original text, how much I enjoyed them, and my own capricious wills

Described and explained below the cut:

(F)rankenstein Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818 book) by Mary Shelley Arguably the best adaptation of any source material is the original thing itself, but I'm not a philosopher

It's (A)live!!!! Frankenstein from the Royal Ballet Follows the source material possibly too closely, leading to a dull first act, but more than makes up for it with an Insane finale. Steven McRae as the Creature was phenomenal

Young Frankenstein (1974 film) Fun film and really good parody. They gave Frankenstein bottom surgery

Frankenstein (2015 album) by the Mechanisms Banger lyrics great song I love it when two characters are trapped in a spiral of their own making

(B)ack from the grave The Monsters We Deserve (2018 book) by Marcus Sedgewick Read it in one sitting and it thoroughly rattled my brain. Takes both the plot and the physical book Frankenstein and makes it about the responsibilities (or lack thereof) of creation

Lisa Frankenstein (2024 film) 52% on Rotten Tomatoes because nobody understands camp. It's fun it's gothic it's romantic I cannot recommend it enough. Honestly the only reason it's not higher is that I have to at least pretend to think about how these follow the original book

(C) what's on the slab Rock Horrors both stage (1973) and screen (1975), as well as Re-Animator (1985 film) and Bride of Re-Animator (1990) Very much not adaptations but undeniably heavily influenced by. I'll call them both fun*, note the asterisk, if you've seen either you know the parts I refer to in each

Secret Abilities and the Diary of a Teenage Frankenstein (2018 album) by, funnily enough, Secret Abilities Not convinced anyone in this band can carry a tune but that's neither here nor there. I really liked the idea of a choose-your-own-adventure album and their songs are fun! SNITCHES GET STITCHES is a delightful song about loving someone so much you'd sew yourself together with them to never be parted.

Young Frankenstein (2007 musical) Not necessarily a good musical, nevertheless a fantastic night out to watch it

Un(D)ead Frankenstein (1931 film) Look okay okay I know how influential it is I know it's rich me, renowned bad taste haver, putting it so low, but in adaptation terms it's not good and in film enjoyment terms I didn't. They fucked up the Creature's legacy :(

Poor Things (1992 book) by Alasdair Gray I feel a bit bad putting this so low, because on a technical level it is very well done, I just feel entirely middling towards it

?, ? Frankissstein: A Love Story (2019 book) by Jeanette Winterson. Still haven't re-read it, still don't remember anything about it. Storygraph assures me I gave it 3 stars on 1 October 2019, which could _frank_ly (ha!) mean anything

[familiaralien]

Giant monster tamer megathread

Decided for the sake of education and my own neurodiversity to make a post including every video game series or stand alone title I know of that focuses on creature capturing competitions that isn't Pokemon.

One big exception: the game has to be a reasonably playable state. So no games that are effectively or literally lost media (like Micromon) or games that only playable state is currently a short demo (like Bestieball). With that in mind here we go:

Digimon

This one is pretty obvious. While more of a multimedia franchise it has tons of games to its IP. The one that probably would appeal most to Pokenerds is Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth and its sequel as they're turned based RPGs with a monster capture mechanic.

Monster Rancher

Another one I think a lot of folks have heard about or least millennials would remember. I haven't personally played any of these titles myself but from what I gather they're raising sims with tournament combat. For a while their availability was mostly limited to emulation but Monster Rancher 1 and 2 have been ported to modern systems like the Switch.

Yo-kai Watch

A mid 2010s franchise that had a whole lot of initial success in Japan. Its an RPG series that doesn't take itself very seriously with cute and goofy monster design based on the Japanese folklore creatures called... well yokai. Has real time combat instead of turn based and more luck based capturing mechanics than Pokemon.

Palworld

Brand new game that's only in its alpha release as of now. Its effectively a parody of Pokemon where you're stuck trying to survive in the wilderness so you must build a base and farm resources to survive. Game did have some initial controversy due to some of its designs stepping a little TOO close to being outright ripoffs of existing designs. Also you can capture and enslave humans which may not vibe with some folks.

Temtem

Basically Pokemon meets a MMO lite. The game can be played mostly as single player campaign but does unfortunately still require a constant internet connection. Battles are turned based but 2 versus 2.

Shin Megami Tensei

What could be consider the original monster tamer game. The series is aimed at a somewhat older audience and the plots tend to be more philosophical then like "gotta be the best *insert title here* ever". Focuses a lot on fusing monsters as well as trying to convince them to join you. You actually battle alongside your monsters.

Dragon Quest Monsters

Monster Capturing mechanics do exist in the mainline DQ games as well (at least since DQ5 I think?) but its these games have them as the main gameplay. Much like SMT it focuses on fusing monsters as one of the main ways to expand your library off available species.

Nexomon

Franchise that started its life as a mobile game but has since gotten ports to other systems. Its very similar to Pokemon in terms of creature designs and combat but the worldbuilding is quite different as is its tone being a lot more comedic.

Coromon

Indie game with visuals similar to Pokemon Black and White. Its story was originally kinda so-so and its ending pretty abrupt but its since gotten a free patch that smoothed that out quite a bit. Also has a sorta unique "shiny" system where alternate colors are associated with higher potential which can actually be altered once. Also has a built in randomizer and "nuzlocke" mode.

Cassette Beasts

A pretty recent indie game. Unlike all the others you don't capture or hatch monsters but rather record them to transform into them yourself. Battles are always between you and a companion which there are multiple to befriend throughout your journey (including a dog!). Has some really interesting quirks with its type chart that adds a lot of extra depth. Will soon be releasing a mutiplayer update for anyone that's into that kind of thing.

Monster Crown

A game with visual based on the Gameboy era. It has some pretty fascinating breeding mechanics and a somewhat darker tone than Pokemon. WARNING: DO NOT GET THE SWITCH PORT! For whatever reason its especially glitchy and I have genuinely gotten entire save files ruined by game breaking bugs (such as my player character getting stuck in walls or clipping out of a bounds). As far as I'm aware the PC version is not nearly as much as a mess though.

Monster Sanctuary

Monster collecting meets metroidvania. Has a really fun skill tree type move learning system that allows for quite a bit of strategy. Also the monster designs are way less Pokemon and more inspired by traditional roleplay monsters (so there's like Goblins and stuff). My only gripe with the game is how you get monsters involves getting specific scores in battle which makes getting 1 of each monster way more tedious than it needed to be.

Fossil Fighters

Franchise is maybe dead since there hasn't been a new entry in it since the 3DS but its still easy enough to these games. Anyway this series involve reviving dinosaurs (and some other ancient animals) into new lifeforms called vivosaur and using them in 3 on 3 combat. Vivosaurs are obtained with a fossil digging minigame which is kinda neat.

Spectrobes

Another franchise that's been pretty dead for a while (it last entry was on the Wii). Spectrobes has a more sci fi like setting with its monsters being aliens you revive from fossils. Combat is real time and you participate alongside a couple of your monsters. I'm btw describing only the first game because I haven't played either sequel!

Evocreo

Mobile only monster game with a style similar to Pokemon Black and White not unlike Coromon mentioned above. Has a lot of focus on split path evolution. The devs are apparently going to release a sequel soon but its been in development hell for years so I'll come back and edit this if that actually happens.

Monster Hunter Stories

I have not played nor watched gameplay of this one so I can't really describe it that deeply all I know is its a spinoff of Monster Hunter involving befriending and using the titular monsters in combat.

Telefang

Its sad this game series is most famous for being badly translated and repackaged as a Pokemon game. Anyway these are Japanese only titles though fan translations exist. The gimmick of this game is that you call monsters up on your cellphone to get them over to participate in combat. This series this sprout out when cellphones were consider newfangled and hip so it makes sense.

Anode Heart

Pretty sure this one is PC only. Takes some inspiration from the Digimon World games and is semi open world. Sadly this one I don't know much about outside of that though it does have a free demo on Steam for anyone that wants to try it for themselves.

Ooblets

Extremely wholesome monster catching and farming game. Battles are actually dancing competitions instead of violent confrontations and monsters are recruited simply by beating them in a fight. Thing is monsters will only fight you if you offer them their favourite food so that's where strategy comes in.

Moonstone Island

I know very little about this one except its also a monster catching and farming game. I've heard that its really good though and I believe its PC only right now but has a planned Switch port.

Timenet

Probably the most obscure ass monster tamer on this entire list. This is a Japanese exclusive set of Gameboy games featuring very cute monster designs... and Hello Kitty. Yes Sanrio made a monster tamer back in the late 90s. I only learned this even existed after scrolling down a comment section on a random YouTube video.

Abomi Nation

I'm mostly excluding roguelike games due to most having nothing but battles an 0 plot but this one does actually has a story! You play as the actual monster as you make your way through somewhat randomly generated maps with lots of other randomized elements. The game allows for a lot of customization including turning off permadeath if you're not a fan of that. The visual style is a bit crude but its still a pretty cute game.

Jade Concoon

Another somewhat obscure entry but at least this one got an English release. Anyway its an old RPG for the PSX with monster capturing and a very fascinating monster fusing mechanic that uses an algorithm to determine the appearance of the fusion. The player character can also participate in battle and the plot is very complex. The game also has a sequel on the PS2 but I know even less about that one.

Robopon

Now if you thought Palworld was bordering on some copyright infringement this game is basically nothing but "Pokemon but the designs are robots". Still worth bringing up I think!

Ni No Kuni

Not sure how I got to mentioning several obscure titles and somehow didn't mention something that really isn't. Ni No Kuni is real time battles between you and 2 party members. You can both battle as the actual human characters or switch into a monster. Wrath of the White Witch's visual style in particular is very whimsical and even has some animated cutscene done by Studio Ghibli. I haven't played any other game in the franchise.

Siralim

I haven't played any entry in this series yet (there's apparently 4 games + a spinoff) but from reading up on the most recent entry these are basically procedurally generated dungeon crawlers with an insane level of depth. The story is apparently not that great but the games themselves apparently also make fun of it so it seems its an intentional dev choice. Battles are 6 on 6 and there's over 1000 monsters to collect.

Disc Creatures

A monster tamer with a visual style similar to the Gameboy and Gameboy Color. It has 3 on 3 combat. Impressively I'm pretty sure it was developed by just one person in the RPG Maker engine (I'm honestly surprised this is the first indie game made with ya know... an engine meant for turned based RPGs).

Monster Harvest

A Dungeon crawler mixed with farming. Its a bit shorter than anything else I've mentioned here and its a bit glitchy but its a cute little game worth picking up on sale at the least. Notably also only about a 1/3 of the monster in the game are combative with the rest being either used for farming resources or as mounts.

Loomian Legacy

A Roblox monster tamer.... yes there's 2 of those in this (I could even have added 3 but I think one is in still a pretty early state). Pretty sure this started as a Pokemon fangame and become its own thing later. It has your typical 1 on 1 turn based combat and all that. I think its free to play and there's like several hours of content on it so maybe worth a gander.

Tales of Tonorio

Pretty sure this is the same basic deal as Loomian (Roblox game, started as a Pokemon fan game, etc etc) though its has its own world building and creature designs since I'm pretty sure its made by a completely different team.

So yeah that's all of them I can think of right now. If I learn of others and/or there's new releases I may expand this.

PS: There is almost certainly numerous typoes in this. This post is way longer than anything else I've ever made on Tumblr so I can't be arse to fix them you're just going to have to deal!

[nirerhyz]

Something I think doesn't get discussed often on the subject of Fable is the Knothole Island DLC. I feel that that DLC is so well designed on a variety of levels, and it seems like a lot of people worked very hard to create something special.

The overworld of Knothole island is SO interesting and unique, featuring a weather system that completely changes the landscape of the island at various points, making exploring the island itself extraordinarily fun and rewarding when you finally figure out how to reach an item that wasn't previously accessible. The changing weather is also refreshing since it's not seen elsewhere in the game (maybe with a few exceptions? I'm thinking about westcliff after Barnum's restoration, but I could be wrong and it could just be raining the whole time - lmk if there's any other instances of weather in a (fable 2) biome changing that I'm forgetting?)

The dungeons are also particularly fun, and feel like they give you a nice break from the feel of ordinary Fable 2 content. Often when I'm in the mood to go back and play this game, one of the things that first comes to mind is the Storm Shrine... not for any particular reason, I just think it's a really well structured experience. They do a great job of keeping the overall feel of the game and not making the new areas feel too jarring in terms of art style or overall aesthetic... often times DLC content is very recognizable as add-on content because it doesn't fit with the core game (Shivering Isles comes to mind). The designs of these dungeons feel unique, and make use of core fable 2 mechanics in ways that make them feel refreshing and interesting.

(The story is spread out over 3 installments that become accessible at various points in the Fable 2 timeline, meaning you don't get too burnt out on DLC content and can return to regular game content after completing 1/3 of the DLC. also great design.)

I wish I could speak more on the actual level design of Knothole Island (both dungeons and overworld) but I just don't have enough knowledge of the mechanics of that to speak about it... (feel free to add on if you know something about this aspect of game design, lol)

It also adds a ton of fun items, including some easter eggs, but especially cosmetic items which are not strictly necessary for enjoying the game. They're entirely an enhancement to the experience of the game so players who don't have the DLC aren't missing out. Not to mention the Box of Secrets, an entirely new type of item trade mechanic. (a really stupid niche thing I love is when a DLC gives your character a pair of stupid sunglasses to wear. the Solar Shielding Spectacles and Professor's Spectacles in the Witcher 3 my beloved)

Overall I just feel like it's a really good example of a quality DLC. It doesn't add an insanely large area or huge, time-sink amounts of gameplay, but it iterates on the base Fable 2 design and mechanics and makes something that's a very fun, worthwhile addition to the game. There's also enough depth to the content that is there so that it rewards you for spending more time on it, depending on your preference for how thoroughly you want to explore or be a completionist.

(Traitor's Keep in Fable 3 is also good but I personally didn't find it as memorable... it had a more ambitious plot, though. love the Milton reference.)

[blackstarchanx3new]

I just binge read all of FSR in one sitting and GODDDDD THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT 11 YEAR OLD ME CRAVED WHEN HE FIRST READ FOUR SWORDS... Thank you for all your hard work!!

Sorry I ended up rambling.

It's so funny to me people who liked FS for years enjoy it considering I got into it back in March/April. XD (Read Akira's other works as a kid but as far as I know the first time I ever picked up FS was cause I got it as an early B-day gift.)

I really wanted to make smth that felt like a sequel.

The tone is much darker but I think that fits considering Link's older and the reason behind the split is, depressing lmfao. Diving into the mentality and how it affects on the wielder of the four sword has been fun.

My biggest question was "How did Link cope with his adventure" how would ANYONE go back to normal after being torn into 4 parts?

How did the four sword mechanics REALLY WORK?

I love media analysis and I've got SO MUCH TO SAY about the OG Four Sword manga I really wanna make a video essay on it one day just because I have a LOT of takes. A lot of outside of the box ones I guess considering nobody's really tackling the stuff I wanna see. (To not get too deep into it: fan FS content doesn't appeal to me 99% of the time, OOC shit/ONLY focusing on vidow and not doing them justice when focused on, tend to be the main issues to me in a lot of fan work. That genuinely was a huge part in what spurred me to make FSR I think hah. There's a HUGE untapped gap in FS manga fan content around an idea for a sequel/the four heroes TOGETHER despite...ya know. the messaging of the manga, in general while NOT having an "Anti vidow" bitterness behind it, at least imo.)

So I did it myself haha.

Really in a way SU future is the only thing I can think of as a comparison in terms of the idea of it? XD (Yes the Link fusion monstrosity was based on the force gem fusions/mini clusters/Learning with Pibby just as a fun fact.)

I'm glad I'm expanding on stuff people want to see from the OG story tho. It's really a project that's seen in the way I want it to. (Which, hasn't been the case for some of my past comics oomf. TTuTT')

Smth I've been enjoying thinking and planning for is just making characters who never got to speak to each other 1 on 1 talk more. XD We were robbed of more volumes of FS and I'll stand by that.

Dark Link was a huge curve ball as he was BARELY In the OG draft, and he actually replaced Vaati in the scene he first appeared in. XD Which is why his dialogue is kinda OFF compared to his other appearances. I'm kinda flabbergasted I basically snuck an OC into the mix and people like him lmao. It's hilarious.

Anyways I got derailed and blabed that's a lot of words to say:

I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's been fun so far. XD I'm excited to get even deeper into the story.

[alienssstufff]

Hello! Could you tell me more about Charlie being a heart player in your Homestuck AU? I'm really interested to see your thought process ahuu (P.S. LOVE YOUR ART IT'S ADORABLE!!! 💖💫)

Sure! I've already spoken about him HERE though consider this current ask as a deeper dive now that we know more about him.

SLIME AND THE HEART ASPECT

To define: the Heart aspect concerns itself with identity and emotional intuition, and how one views themselves. Ironically enough Heart concerns with the mind itself in contrast to its opposite the Mind that deals with rational thinking, and the persona that one consciously puts on for the world. Wwhwh which is why I like comparing q!Slime (heart-player) and q!Quackity (mind-player) so much because while they are in ways similar, their places of concern are very different.

"They simply want to understand the one thing we all are stuck with for our entire lives, i.e. our own minds." -- Hiveswap Extended Zodiac

About Slime he's a very emotionally driven person with everything he does he puts his all into it, and those motivations often originate from how he feels about the situation. Big examples being HIS love for his daughter, HIS resentment for his wife back during the trial, and while these motivations involve other people. If it weren't for any outside intervention, a lot of the decisions he makes are absolute, thinking if he were to do things like kill the other eggs out of love and sacrifice q!Mariana because he couldn't forgive what she did, not to mention send HIMSELF into eggxile because he hates himself - that these solutions were his only way out. His determination is both his strength and his flaw in the sense his thinking can be so clouded by the one emotion - and that's what makes him such a Heart-player.

"Forging an identity is extremely important to the Heart-bound, and every decision and action goes toward building a coherent narrative of their own story." - Hiveswap Extended Zodiac

A/N: these next parts as go more in depth about Slime and relationships with other people with a dash of classpect lingo in there. The answer is above you, you do not need to read anything below ToT [ more undercut ]

Other than his emotions, identity (like Heart-players do) to Slime's character is also very important when thinking about him and the problems that stem from his self-image. It is the reason why Gegg exists to Slime as this separate entity - similar to what splinters are to Dirk Strider, Gegg is a division of Slime. I've spoken about Gegg and Slime's roles in under THIS thread, an extract:

Gegg is not only a coping mechanism but the part of him that still wishes to be loved- and when he is it’s addicting but it comes at a price for his honesty (and his literal voice). When he is Gegg there is a unique way he carries himself - he’s confident, ambitious, and a little silly the kind of thing that draws everyone near and he does so because he’s new. Charlie has messed up so many times he feels like a lost cause, and becoming Gegg exists as his second shot at life crime-free. Gegg is the part of Slime that embodies his desires, and Charlie is the part that represents what he believes he needs…. Or smth like that.

SLIME AND THE HEIR CLASS

(debunk) Alternatively Slime could also be a Prince of Heart (one that destroys the self) though based on peer review on that classpect's goals, I feel pinning Slime's goal as 'destroying heart' is a little too morbid for his story. Mind, you being a Prince of Heart isn't completely a BAD thing - I just don't feel destruction of heart is neither the right message or answer for Slime's problems. Furthermore, Slime does not ghost his opposing aspect (Mind) like the prince class usually does, Slime is NOT a rational thinker -- he is moved by the heart more than anything. A/N: 'ghosting' in classpect terms means to appear as the player's opposing aspect on surface level. Eg from the surface Dirk elicits Mind characteristics when in reality he is Heart. (LOL I just learnt what this was today)

Which leads to Slime's association as an Heir of Heart instead. This is the ability to invite the manipulation of the heart, and in other words quite literally become their aspect (yknow typical Slimecicle PC behaviour).

Slime being an Heir of Heart means he is easily swayed by his emotion as it changes constantly to new situations like from the Trial, to Eggxile, to the Elections and so on. He is also very empathetic to others and it is the way that he cares about them is what influences the choices he makes based on what HE thinks is best for the situation NOT because someone else told him to.

Notes from outside sources: "An Heir of Heart would have an amazingly well developed sense of compassion and empathy, and in fact may find it hard not to empathize with even the most evil and hurtful of people." -dahniwitchoflight This part connects especially to his friendship with Quackity (both of them), that while he was suspicious of his intentions throughout the debate Slime still sympathises with Quackity because he is his friend and the history they share goes too deep to abandon (psycho4psycho solidarity). Same goes for Slime and q!Foolish during the election debates. He doesn't hold any grudges for him when he understands that his apprehension stems from fear (something Slime has felt many times before).

"ASURA: The Heir of Heart is naturally protected by their splinters. The Heir’s splinters would exist as unruly spirit-like guardians who look out for them. In times of need the Heir can make physical manifestations of their splinters" - creative-classpect I absolutely love this take on splinters and heirs! Especially with Gegg in a way he to Slime acts as a guardian Slime will turn to him on the defensive. Honestly the ideal relationship between Slime and Gegg we might not ever see u_u

"The Heir of Heart is one who inspires change in the emotions and souls of others. They cause people’s emotional state to change for the better. Bringing out good emotions and allowing people to express their inner and true selves." - classpector

Looking more into Gegg's story during the Election arc we see examples of this power through his debates. His speeches inspiring change and consolation amongst other candidate runners to rally against the Federation. Yet at the same time these speeches can evoke fear, bringing out their true nature - like Foolish trying to shoot him, ElQuackity despite being a political rival instinctually diving to protect Gegg, influence on q!BBH to push through his paranoia and support Gegg while he was still in the running thus making that care package. Gegg was able to inspire those around him, and in the long run inspire Slime to one day love and accept every part of himself.

DAPDUO and Psicologoier Therapy Session: An interaction I think often about being the interaction between Slime and q!Roier (Melissa) during the therapy session with Quackity and how well it represents the difference in interactions between two Heart-players (Heir and Witch) and also how well it's a juxtaposition on where these two characters are in life despite having the same aspect. [You can read about q!Roier's classpect HERE]

QUACKITY: Well maybe her (Melissa) more than anybody can understand us. SLIME: Melissa, do you ever think feel like you wanna be someone else? MELISSA: No :3 SLIME: Do you ever wish that you could ever get a fresh start? MELISSA: No ^_^ SLIME: Do you ever think you could be sexy Peter Griffin? I do... MELISSA: Nope! x]c SLIME: Do you ever feel like everyone hates you - because everyone like tells you that they hate you no matter who you try to be it's always wrong? MELISSA: Hm actually! Nope! :D

On one hand for personas such as Melissa, Roier is very attuned to them and works alongside them - whilst with Slime and Gegg it was a constant struggle to maintain control and cooperation until the very end as there were characteristics in both Gegg and Slime that Slime was struggling to accept.

SLIME: WELL MY HOUSE WAS ALREADY ROBBED. I GOT ROBBED OF A DAUGHTER. SO NOW I TRY TO FIND MEANING IN ANYWAY I CAN AND RIGHT NOW THATS FUCKING GEGG. SO IM SORRY IF IM NOT THE SON YOU WANTED ME TO BE!

SLIME: Everyone hates me. Every single person on the server I tried I tried and they all hate Gegg.

Oh shit and also:

SLIME: But... What if there's a chance Gegg really could make a friend, and that takes it away? QUACKITY: Gegg has one friend already - Quackity. SLIME: Then Gegg... Will help the friend that loves Gegg.

Evidence that as a Heir of Heart Slime's emotions can be easily swayed. This comes up again after the QSMP Dinner with ElQuackity showing the difference between the motivations between someone of Heart and someone of Mind who recognises the vulnerability of Heart.

I'm sure there's more things to unpack with that session, not just for Slime but for Quackity and Roier as well and 100% recommend watching it for yourself. Grabbed these from the QuackitytooVODS channel and the session starts at the 1:01:50 mark.

Did an analysis on Dapduo in THIS ask which while doesn't reference classpects it alludes to their dynamic as Heart and Mind.

If you made it this far: congratulations. I'm so sorry.

[eldritchtouched]

I was watching Josh Strife Plays talking about the original King's Field and one thing he repeatedly mentions are various mechanics that are still found within Soulslikes and it hit me- the game design of Elden Ring and From's other Soulslikes are actually designed like dungeon crawlers. I think it's accurate to say that Elden Ring isn't really designed as an open world for this reason, too.

King's Field was designed kind of like some old TSR D&D adventure modules, where it was more about going into a dungeon or tomb or whatever, killing what's inside, and looting it for treasure. Which might explain the murderhobo aspect being so baked into Soulslikes, because that style of old modules were very light on story. It's a very 'video gamey' kind of style in the sense of it feeling artificial, and is in contrast to how most open world RPGs actually get designed.

Given all the choke points in Elden Ring's design, and some of the missing things in its design, along with just how vestigial the crafting system is (big open world games tend to have fairly complex crafting systems if they include crafting, like the potions of the Witcher series, or the Elder Scrolls' alchemy systems), and the quest design stuff being a holdover from the earlier smaller-scale Soulslikes, that it's not designed like an open world.

The design ethos of open worlds is more about making a verisimilitude of 'this is a place you could actively go to that functions as an actual place in the day-to-day.' This includes how large-scale locations like provinces and continents will have farms and livestock and game, or how cities will have appropriate infrastructure based on what is going on with said city, along with having a bunch of characters who aren't actively trying to kill you but not necessarily being plot-important. There can be dungeon crawling in open world games, such as the Elder Scrolls series, but the dungeon crawl's design is limited to the dungeons, not applied to the whole world. Importantly, dungeon crawlers or dungeons tend to feel eerie and fairly dead, because it isn't designed to feel like a place you could live in long-term.

(This is probably why people are so disappointed by the catacombs' designs and repetitiveness. They're assuming the catacombs are supposed to be the dungeon crawls because they were told Elden Ring is an open world game... but the catacombs are more accurately like small side paths in a dungeon crawler.)

And this is an issue because of how it impacts things like gameplay and story and their intertwining. This also has weird implications for the narrative and design.

Ultimately, it's hard to tell a story about power and society in a dungeon-crawler's design ethos, because the assumed baseline of everything is just... being a murderhobo. Only a few characters are actually able to be treated as full people at all, with everyone else being fodder for your blade because it's either you or them. This is in contrast to open worlds generally having a much larger ratio of characters who are full characters you can actually talk to without it ending in murder, or third parties, compared to people you may end up killing.

In the case of a dungeon crawler's violence, it either comes across as an entirely accidental theme, or else a deeply cynical one, if there's any assumption of a message or theme. And that would be that the only power that exists is violence, and that there's no real mutual power/banding together/etc. except as it relates to violence.

[nikethestatue]

So one thing that is important and never brought up enough is when you just focus on Sarah as a writer and human is that in all of her books, she has NEVER rewritten a losing virginity scene

NEVER

I can’t remember if she explicitly stated somewhere that she won’t, but after 10 years of reading her books that is something she’s never done, which as a romance writer HAS to be intentional. She’s written people fucking in the sky while flying, but the few times someone is losing their virginity it’s always been a fade to black or brief mentions of it but not the actual full scene.

The closest we get is “-and gave him everything she had.” Which was her first published sex scene, and “so Lorcan did.” Both in ToG. Justice for Elorcan😔🙏🏻

I 100% people should respect that authors can have boundaries too, like that can be a heavy topic for people! Especially for women who often have their literal worth tied to their virginity. EVEN IN HER BOOKS Mor and Lysandra 1. suffer consequences for losing it on her own terms or 2. have hers be auctioned off AT 17🤢

She’s a sex positive author, and yes this post sounds like I’m basing a characters worth on if they’ve had sex so I’m sorry I swear that’s not what I’m doing BUT THEY’RE CHARACTERS. SHE MADE UP. Not that being a virgin is a bad thing because it’s not. She just has a pattern for smut and even if we exclude the no virginity scenes I’m so sorry to the other ship BUUUUT having one of the 3 men who are in positions of power and have basically unlimited access to characters who’ve been SA’d, do people really think Sarah would make THAT a foundation of an entire ROMANCE BOOK AS IF THAT’S NOT A COMPLETE ABUSE OF POWER? If Rhys or any member of the inner circle, ESPECIALLY MOR(!) don’t kill Az if he did that, I’m sure his MOTHER or the other priestesses would. Could you imagine being a priestess and finding out your trainer and one of the few men you have contact with is trying to get his dick wet with one of your sisters? How violating that would be, no matter how professional he’d behave like Cassian during training? Thought Cassian and Nesta are a completely different circumstance, even if g and az were mates. They’d lose all of the Valkyrie’s and any sense of safety with the night court.

And to those doubting Elain getting a book, why would Sarah throw in that Elain lost her virginity off page? Entirely pointless, ESPECIALLY for a character viewed as a prude UNLESS she is laying the ground work for her future main character in a series where people fuck. A LOT. That’s literally Sarah’s pattern as a writer, hence one of the reasons we saw Nesta use sex as a coping mechanism and why Cassian didn’t take her v card, which I think started in frost and starlight off page BEFORE Nesta’s book.

Plus homie can’t even stand to visit Illyria bc of how they treat women, how people think Az would go after someone under his care who he literally rescued is genuinely terrifying???

Or that she’d force a Elain to be with a man who makes her uncomfortable no matter how likeable he is because someone/something/a-big-ass-pot decided for her at literally the worst moment in her life? Choice is so important to her as a writer

And again no one’s worth is based on their sexual history, whether it’s consensual or not because only you define yourself, which is one of the main messages she’s always had. And while these are characters are on a page, to whoever reads this you are a real person and your story is worth telling. (I know this is a sensitive topic and I’m trying so hard not to offend anyone and you don’t have to post it I am just so confused. Like yes people who’ve experienced such things like myself can and do still have sex, but if she -the writer- BARELY touches on Rhys’s assault during sex with Feyre, not even his own pov, or Nesta with Tomas or even Lidia, WHY would she go from zero to 10000 and write g’s sex scene who is a virgin.)

Who knows, maybe one day she’d write her story, but I’m sorry to say not starting out without her having sex before it starts.

The funny thing is that she said exactly that--she doesnt write virginity scenes because she doesn't like the power imbalance.

Especially since she tends to have these massive age gaps. But then she always gives actual magical power to the women to balance the age thing out.

I don't know why people don't understand how bad it would look. Especially given Azriel's mother's history, where she had no autonomy, and was made to be a virtual slave to the lord. No one is saying that that's Azriel obviously, but it would be a terrible breach of trust and could only be viewed as predatory. What I don't understand is that the same people screech that Rhys assaulted Feyre UTM (I categorically do not think that he did, but that's beside the point) but at the same time they feel that a Gwynriel relationship would be appropriate. Oh, well what if they are mates! Mate bonds aren't a ticket to do whatever the hell one wants, under any circumstances.

Azriel getting it on with a priestess from the Library is just not appropriate under any conditions. Especially with one who needs to ask Clotho for permission to go to a sleepover with Nesta and Emerie in the same building she lives in.

[retphienix]

You know, they weren't kidding on the random gamefaq thread.

Dragonlord is a huge pushover compared to the color orb quest boss.

Kinda wish I could easily just go rematch that guy with this team instead since it'd be a more fitting send off, but hey, there's still some very real appeal to this being the closing chapter in my Caravan Heart playthrough :)

The Dragonlord is like The guy for DQ, so it has that appeal for sure.

I do think it's funny how pathetic he is here when the color orb boss was properly scaled to be a real heavy hitter :P

I'd ALMOST go so far as to assume they realize they messed that up what with the entire preamble being that he's reawakening "too early"; Like in universe you can say that's why he's weak, but if I were to be sincere here I'd wager that's just meant to be meta meant to write off that he's here at all- not an explanation for his strength.

Though it could be Meta Meta and it was the devs saying "We didn't have enough time to rework the DL to be a challenge, our bads" but I really doubt that lol

Anywho, Caravan Hearts is Mid.

Early game is far too slow for no good reason.

Innovations on the formula often fail to positively impact the gameplay loop, instead slowing things down or being CONCEPTUALLY (caravan party) positive but PHYSICALLY lacking (no real options in main game, too much RNG to stay invested post game- not to mention their impact is lacking compared to the monsters themselves).

Base story game is overall "fine"- to me personally it was very "Basic RPG going through the motions" overall, it had some nice moments like collecting beautiful things being rather non-linear (aside from the ending) but overall it was "Here's your small sandbox, play in it then beat this tower/dungeon/boss to get to the next sandbox" which is Fine but it's also kind of the vibe I feel DQ usually presents itself as- and then surprises you by doing things Exceptionally well or by surprising you with a twist that beats your expectations- not here. It's JUST the paint by numbers RPG stuff.

Color quest is much more fun! It's also majorly flawed lol it feels designed from the bottom up to be a drawn out lengthy grind for max/min players in terms of mechanics (caravan members mostly) but gameplay wise it's thankfully not so harsh in what it demands of you, no "2 billion damage" boss fights or anything- even the final boss, while strong, is SUPER reasonable despite the mechanics of the post game implying "This is where you grind forever to get maxed stats and true recruits".

The color quest is way more fun than base game because the little dungeons are entertaining, the frequency of mini-bosses is a big plus on the gameplay, and you're pretty much just fighting nonstop. Mostly.

Because the main flaw of the color quest is the backtracking - it's just not fun or well handled. The quest does not burn you on it if you just want to win, but if you want to max stuff- oh buddy. You better get a true sage ASAP. But if you just want to win it's annoying but "fine", still the biggest flaw because you really do spend like 30% of your time in ports and then 70% having actual fun in dungeons, that's still not a great ratio.

Dragonlord was fun. EZPZ but I had fun- the dungeon has relatively fun fights in it and while it is actually VERY tiny if you go the right way, there are a couple wrong directions that trick you back to the entrance, it's simple and TINY but it's nice.

Beyond this there are from what I gather spirit fights for unique hearts and I can continue the color orbs forever I think. So if I was enjoying the grind for recruits (No thank you) I have endless content to smash into for stats I suppose. Kinda neat :)

Hmm. Already did more lengthy closing thoughts in prior posts.

Have a random thought instead:

Did you know that some people consider features being REMOVED from the prior releases to be a positive feature in this game?

Like they listed "Removed Personalities" as a POSITIVE feature in this game versus the prior two, because they emphasized "Having complete and direct control" as a positive- some people just don't get the appeal of the DWM personality + order passive combat system :P

Overall, I had fun. I don't know if I expressed that well in my random posts but I wasn't exactly keeping the most in-depth tabs on my playthrough so it probably slipped through the cracks.

The game is Not one I'd ever recommend since it doesn't fit my tastes on the formula- DWM and DWM 2 fucking rule and this is a GBA RPG I'll probably never touch again so go figure- but this was very neat, I guess is the word for it.

It was neat playing the black sheep of the series- one mostly known that way for its lack of a translation than for its quality- but one I'd wager probably deserves it on quality >:)

But it's neat!

It's different, it's trying to mash some mainline DQ ideas into the side series, it gave DQM an entirely new framing device- one "similar" (traveler gates and dressers are involved) but WAY different than the prior 2, and way different than Joker 1 (and probably the other Jokers). You're still from a different world, but it's not a watabou waraubou story- it's just- you go to the monster world and help out, also the monster world is DISTINCTLY the dragon quest world instead of being a weird dragon quest monsters island "world" with "Great" kingdoms duking it out and training in traveler gates-

This Is Different And That's Kinda Neat! :)

Not a fan or anything, but I don't hate it, it's neat :)