#first NPC I ran into at the stable

[ami-chat]

Tears of the Kingdom just keeps surprising me.

[haemosexuality]

about my tav, phynn (who is kind of a self insert):

phynn is a drow that was born in the underdark and raised by a lolth sworn family. after trying several times, she successfully escaped her city when she was 76. since then, she has been moving around a lot- living in areas of the underdark that are very near the surface and dont have many drows (she doesnt mind the deep gnomes and duergar), but mainly in the outskirts of surface cities, including of course Baldur's Gate. it took her almost a decade to get used to the sun

she is a thief, and a very good one. shes had odd jobs here and there but she makes most of her outcome by straight up stealing whatever she can find and then selling it. when shes in big, rich cities like Baldur's Gate, she does a looot of burglary. breaking and entering is like her favorite hobby. she also had to get very good at fighting, both bc of the whole drow thing and bc of all the criminaling

by the start of the game, shes 183 years old, having been living in and around the surface for just over 100 years. in a human au she would be like 24

PERSONALITY AND OTHER FACTS:

her morals are contradicting and alll over the fucking place. that is because i am not good at role-playing and will just do whatever the fuck but in universe is because she was raised by very hardcore lolth worshippers and then spent the next century mostly by herself and getting by by stealing. not a lot of time for things like developing a well established and stable moral code. id say shes chaotic neutral, but with a good heart?

her journey throughout the game at first made her better, she tried to be a good person, and then made her worse because that is a lot of horrible things that happened to her and all her new friends and she is this close to snapping and having a breakdown. also shes killed more people in the last like 4 months than she has in a whole century and that will for sure change a person for the worst. shes become very apathetic and just so goddamn Tired. she didnt sign up for saving the whole world she just wanted this damn tadpole out of her head so she could continue to sell stolen jewelry!!! fucks sake!!

as part of her total off the rails mental breakdown she also became a chronic kleptomaniac. she was a thief before sure but that was just like, her job for her, now its a real compulsion. her raiding everything and everyone she sees and its starting to worry the other companions. this is inspired by me going to GREAT lengths and doing everything i can to steal literally everything i see until i realized i really didnt need to be doing that i have so many shit in my inventory and like 30 thousand gold. then i started feeling bad for these fictional npcs that are not real people and are not important to the story whatsoever because everyone here is so poor i dont need to be stealing but i truly cannot stop. normal behavior

she actually misses some aspects of the underdark. she liked how pretty (and less sunny) it was, and the food. shes not lolth sword but shes not seldarine either, she just kind of doesn't care. obviously shes not a fan of drow culture, but she still gets pretty pissed when surface ppl start talking shit

she is a rogue! she also has some levels of fighter but i just got that for gameplay reasons.

shes dating karlach in denial she doesnt know if she wants to try to convince her to go to hell so she can live, or just accept her wish to let her die. this is inspired by me crying real life tears over this fucking character. also astarion is her bestie they gossip together

not much else to say about her personality shes literally just me if i was given free will to be chaotic insane and kill people

uhm when she met astarion she didnt realize he was a vampire at ALL she assumed he was an albino drow. he ran with it until she woke up to him almost biting her while she slept (canon game event). this is inspired by a comic i saw

APPEARANCE:

eyes: because she was born to a lolth sworn mother her eyes are naturally red. i also gave her cat pupils because that looks cool to me it makes sense that drows would have pupils that can better adjust to lack of/light like that i mean they live underground!! because she is me tho she cant see shit. she used to have glasses but they got lost early in the game in a battle to which she was just blind as fuck and had to be babysat by the other companions. that lasted less than a tenday (dnd week) tho because:

her right eye got Volo'd, and the glass eye volo gives us to replace the one he plucked out is Magic, and not nearsighted! she started covering her left eye with an eyepatch since, because having one eye that can see perfectly and one that cant is awful and confusing. when she doesnt wear the eyepatch, her left eye is always squinting

the glass eye has round pupils, so her pupils are different now too!

she dyes her hair different colors. with the power of Magic and Fantasy Hair Dye. tho her natural hair color is ofc white

has vampire bite scars from astarion. they have an agreement going on where he can feed off of her every few days. people are baffled that its not sexual (astarions traumatized ass included)

she bandages her chest because i cant imagine a worst curse than having to run around and fight and climb mountains with a large chest

[the-average-melli]

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: Arting with Hassel, a Hassel appreciation post

One of the features I enjoyed about Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were the optional classes; many of which were optional. This was a perfect way to include content such as lore for world-building and additional opportunities for interacting with teachers and staff outside of class to give more depth to NPCs without falling into the hand-holding linear formula that Pokémon often fell prey to in previous generations, most notably generation seven with Pokémon Cut Scene Version Pokémon Sun and Moon.

Each of the classes has a purpose insofar as they introduce players to game mechanics, exposition, or general lessons that are simply important in and of themselves. The class that left the best impression on me during my first blind playthrough of Pokémon Violet was the art class because of a single quote from Hassel,

"It is true that one doesn’t need art to survive... But it certainly makes surviving much more enjoyable!"

There are many who think art is a waste of time. Hassel even acknowledges this in his preface to the class: “I imagine that many of you will forget all that you learned in this class once you graduate! After all, you don’t need even a basic understanding of artwork, much less a refined appreciation of beauty, for most exams or jobs.” When you compare it to other classes of the Academy roster like home economics, history, biology, or maths, the art class seems the least useful, doesn’t it? Many today even make fun of people who pursue fine arts because of how “useless” and “impractical” they are compared to other more esteemed choices that almost every parent would prefer a million times over!

The truth of the matter is that those people who are quick to denounce the validity of art or artistic endeavours are the same people who know little about how impactful and infulential art truly is in our daily lives. From the shows we like to watch to the music we like to listen to, art has served humankind as an outlet for self-expression and innovation. There are essential parts of intentionality and the human condition—things that make us humans, human.

Once upon a time I, The Average Melli, encountered many others who not only dismissed the value of arts entirely, but condescended anyone who would want to “waste their time” on something that “wouldn’t benefit society” or “make good money.” One person once said that “schools should stop teaching art altogether to focus more on subjects that students would actually need in life like the sciences or maths.” The person saying this was a Computer Science major who was deeply disappointed by others around them if they decided to become educators or earn a a degree that didn’t relate to STEM fields. This person further mocked others when they suggested that they would “all be working at fast food joints” while they would have a stable and plentiful income. Everybody would want them and they would always have a job, they prided themselves.

At the time, I called them out and didn’t allow them to condescend others over choosing non-STEM paths. What people like this don’t realise is that when someone pursues the arts, how much money they’ll make is not a large factor. Money is nice, but most people who choose to commit to the arts already know they won’t be making a lot of it. The commitment to the arts is instead fueled by an ambition that those who see them wasteful may never understand. The artist isn’t after a thicc paycheck or a Nobel Prize. The artist is someone who unapologetically expresses themselves and their ideas in an authentic way.

Hassel embodies the heart of an artist as a character who ran away from home to chase his own dreams as a pianist instead of succeeding his father as the head of his family of Dragon Tamers. Interactions with him outside of class reveal how persistent his relatives are about getting him to return and how disappointed they are in him for making a life for himself on his own terms, doing what he loves most.  Hassel’s backstory hits home for any person who has ever disappointed others by doing something they love to do, or following their own dreams instead of conforming to the expectations of others.

For some of us, art is more than a hobby or a side-gig. It’s a way to share glimpses of our inner-worlds with other humans through different media be it a song, a story, a video game, a movie, etc. Art is so much more than drawing a pretty picture. When Hassel says

“it is true that one doesn’t need art to survive... But it certainly makes surviving much more enjoyable,”

he’s right. It has no practical use in and of itself, but art makes the world a place worth living in. Art is why some of us are still living today. In the darkest of times, art serves as a safe haven and healthy alternative for coping with the most unfortunate circumstances.

The way I see it, there is a difference between living and being alive. “Alive” is merely an adjective that describes a passive state of existence for a noun; “living” is a verb, an action to be taken by nouns. Human ingenuity and cognition are not guarenteed or propelled by mere existence alone or being thrown into the world by chance. Creating, progressing, engineering, thinking outside of the box--human cognition is driven by action, by living.

We don’t need art. But for many, being able to appreciat the beauty in the world as Hassel encourages in art class makes being alive, mere survival, worth it. It gives some of us a reason to keep going. For many, art is speck of meaning that continues to shine against the nihilistic pessimism of the modern age. Art class isn’t about basic life skills like cooking or financial management, but as Hassel says,

"it is my hope that this class will add even a little bit of color to your lives."

References

Hassel Quotes section on Bulbapedia

I don’t quote it directly, but I am influenced by phenomenology! I recommend Martin Heidegger’s book, Sein und Zeit (Being and Time) in which he discusses at length concepts I’ve alluded to above such as geworfenheit, or being “thrown into the world.”

I also recommend The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt for more on “action” as a defining feature of what makes us human!

[seishun-emergency]

HELLO i heard you say you like pondering bizarre combos of characters and so i am BACK. in honor of one of my friends on discord: thoughts on reichia (rei/chiaki)? or perhaps the rinne/kanata/hiyori dorm? and maybe even ritsukasa?

i also love thinking about new combos of characters. this is why i ended up with a 13 chapter fic in the works for a npc/playable character that have never even been in the same country canonically. but that 1. requires so much context and 2. i dont even know if you know genshin

HELLO WELCOME BACK !!! i Do love pondering bizarre combos it's like a fun brain exercise. a challenge in how well i know each character and also if they've interacted in canon yk. anyways. ritsukasa and rinne/kanata/hiyori first because . well you'll see why i saved chiarei for last. i also know nearly nothing about genshin so unfortunately i probably would not understand your 13 chapter fic but in another world i would like to

ritsukasa - love them. silly guys. knights r all in love with tsukasa and tsukasa is in love with all of them. my ritsukasa chess fic is one of the silliest things ive written and i looove it i think ritsu has too much fun being an absolute Menace to tsukasa and tsukasa keeps getting made the fool of but its ok bc they are in Love

rinne/hiyori/kanata - they are so. god. what a dorm. i dont think they'd be a very stable relationship but they'd be a fun one !!! hiyori and rinne seem like they'd either be flirting or fighting or both and kanata stabilizes them somewhat by just being a calmer and more easygoing guy but honestly. hiyori tomoe the baddest bitch of ensquare and rinne amagi assigned troublemaker at birth would not be stopped by just kanata. unless he like picked them up or somethign i believe him. they would have the best date aesthetics tho hiyori's feed would be pinterest fodder with their date pics

chiarei - SO OKAY. STORY TIME. we're getting into some leo lore here. leore if you will. now when i started the game before i fell into ibara and toriP hell i was chiakiP along with mao and koga (the ryuseitai episode in the anime changed me + meteor impact was the first ! era story i read) (i know.) and i REALLY wanted chiaki's atoz card when that gacha banner was out. i did 110 pulls on the banner and this guy REFUSED to come home.

fast forward to around the start of november. in this time ive gotten my roommate into enstars and between the two of us we have three accounts: my phone, her phone, and her ipad. rei's bday rolls around and my roommate, who really likes rei, decides to do pulls on rei's birthday banner to try and get his initial 5* home.

we do the pulls. we get the rainbow lights. it isn't rei that comes home - it's date plan atoz chiaki. (not even his initial 5*! the specific shuffle unit chiaki that refused to come home for me!)

we do pulls on the collective ipad account, also on rei's birthday banner: date plan atoz chiaki comes home again.

now you can imagine how envious i am at this point. the envy isn't the point of this story though the POINT IS. because of the fact that chiaki came home two separate times on rei's banner i made a joke that chiaki's holding rei's hand and that's why he's on rei's bday banner. and then i kinda ran with it and chiarei is perhaps a rarepair i am Considering. spinning around in my brain like a microwave,

okay onto the actual. commentary. i think chiarei is really fun actually :3 contrasting imagery of demon/villain vs. hero plus also the mutual friends of kanata and kaoru. rei flirting with chiaki because he has a smooth fanservice demon persona to uphold and chiaki getting flustered but then responding earnestly bc he is In Love and then rei getting Even More Flustered back. yeah. holds them in my hands Consider Them

[chibi-kingdom]

Month Summary: May 2024

May 1st - Costume Contest: Halfoween

May 9th - New feature: Arcade debuts

May 11th - Town Loot: Candied Candies

May 11th - Arcade update: prizes rebalanced

May 16th - Arcade update: Summonable NPCs

May 18th - Costume Contest: Casino

May 24th - New Map: Skull Cave Interior

May 24th - New Gacha: Sweet Honey

May 30th - Arcade update: Game Hour / Game Night

We had an exciting and productive May in Chibi Kingdom! We put more hours into Chibi Kingdom in a single month than ever before!

After many months of behind the scenes efforts, we released our first ever Arcade game on May 9th! It proved highly stable and reliable from day one, a huge success for Chibi Kingdom's future! We played it too safe and were overly conservative with the prizes awarded by the Arcade on its initial release, but we wised up and realized our mistake pretty quickly, performing multiple adjustments to the prize formulas over the following week.

A week after the Arcade was released, on May 16th, we updated it with Summonable NPCs! Players could now summon NPCs to their lobbies in order to play solo or to spice up games with their friends. This turned out to be a very popular feature, with many players choosing to enter into the ring with our six NPC characters for Arcade glory.

Two weeks later, we updated the Arcade again, this time launching Game Hour and Game Night. These event hours are intended to help players meet up and play together at specified times, enjoy some variety in scenery in the Arcade, and earn a little extra TC at the same time.

Beyond the Arcade, we had many other exciting events and achievements in May! We released our fourth 2024 Gacha, Sweet Honey on May 24th! Knight and I felt it was too good to end anytime soon, so we gave it an "undetermined" end date for now. Our Kingdom is now buzzing with bees, which makes Knight, an avid bee lover, quite happy!

A month in Chibi Kingdom isn't complete without new loots! We released our Candied Candies loot event on May 11th, just two days after launching the Arcade. Candied Balloons, Candied Jelly Beans, and Candied Chocolate Covered Hearts joined our growing trove of sugary items!

We also ran two separate Costume Contests in May. First a Halfoween Costume Contest on May 1st, and then a Casino Costume Contest on May 18th. We really enjoy Costume Contests, and have intentions to make them a bigger feature in Chibi Kingdom's future. Ease of entry (and operation) will be where we focus our efforts when writing an official Costume Contest feature. We're sure many more players would like to participate, but having to take, upload, and bbcode screenshots is understandably tedious.

Last, but not least, we expanded Chibi Kingdom's explorable terrain with a new map! Knight's Skull Cave Interior opened for public visitation on May 24th! A cozy and secluded dwelling, complete with soft night time glows... and a pit of terror. Knight has expansion plans for his cave's future, but I think he should give me my house first! As a result of the Skull Cave Interior's curvy edges, I decided it was time to upgrade some of our map code. Our old boundary logic, creating borders manually, line by line, was much too tedious for such maps. Instead, I wrote logic to support much more sophisticated boundaries and map interactions... which will be very useful for future features, such as Fishing!

Our May was full of excitement, stress, and adventure! We hope yours was a blast, and perhaps a tad less stressful haha

We intend to keep up this pace of rapid development and laser focus as we strive to build Chibi Kingdom into the joyous world we know it can be! In June, we aim to perform a few more upgrades to the Arcade, then switch gears to general website cleanup and improvements as we prepare to advertise Chibi Kingdom and recruit new players to share our growing world with! Fingers crossed, we can't wait to see what we've achieved at the end of the month!

Thank you all for your tremendous support and encouragement! We're so grateful to have such kind, fun, and supportive players. We appreciate you all so much!

Sincerely, The Chibi Kingdom Team

[juniperberries-canisroot]

To my great disfortune, Blood on the Ice started with my new character. In the daytime.

I thought I had read the quest could only begin at 7pm but I talked to the guard anyway and everything proceeded as normal. UNTIL. I had to go sell the amulet to Calixto.

His house was locked, even after fast forwarding time to 'normal business hours'. Calixto has a master lock on his house, the highest level lock and with perks it can be a bit of a struggle.

However this character is new and only had a level of 26 in Lockpicking. So no perks to make it easier nor does Fenrik's Welcome work on Master locks, just Expert and below. I have lots of lockpicking experience thou so I've gotten better at it from when I first started playing so I thought I could figure it out myself throu sheer will power. And I almost did. It would constantly break RIGHT as it was about to open. 20+ lockpicks later I give up and talk to Viola.

I ended up going back to a numbered hard save and loosing all the progress I made with Blood on the Ice along with the Banish and WaterBreathing enchants I got from the BlackSmith and High Elf later fence lady.

Then I realized that I was doing things slightly out of order so I tried to follow UESP to the T, the detailed walk through not the quick one. I came back to the part where I had to sell the amulet. However Calixto's house was STILL LOCKED.

Since the quest marker is bugged I usually keep it off for the quest, esp cause it won't find me Tova around the city or some other person I need. However UESP mentioned that quest markers will now be over Viola & Calixto, so I turned it on. It showed two markers on my compass, both being outdoors. I went back to the main area where you enter the city/near CandleHearth Hall and GUESS WHO WAS FUCKIN STANDING STILL OUTSIDE LIKE A DUMB PIGEON.

He was just standing there the whole time, and I realized I passed by him and possibly on my first try cause I really only saw the red clothes and figured he was some other NPC. The two times I've done BotI, he was in his shop, like he should be. He even had his normal dialogue about taking a tour. Normally I take the tour for shits and giggles but I was already fed up with this quest and loosing my enchants so I sold him the amulet and proceeded on with the quest.

But wait! There's more!

I always choose to confront the Unliving guy cause it makes things easier with less bugs usually. He tells me his thing, go patrol the Stone quarter tomorrow night blah blah blah. UESP says the market place is usually quiet at that point, not alot of NPCs there. However this time there was, which I found odd. Also, it was still daytime.

I go there and Calixto is standing there now. He's done this before on another save. He stands there until like 2am then the stable lady who he usually kills finally walks by and he attempts to kill her. So I figured he would do the same thing, wait until nighttime for stable hand to walk by. Keep in mind, it is still daytime.

Before I can fast forward time, and I thought he would stand there not moving so I wasn't paying attention, stable hand lady walks by, Calixto goes to stab her, and her screaming catches my attention. I quickly react and land a hit on him but it's not enough to kill him. He runs around and now everyone is in a panic. In the chaos of it all, I accidentally hit Aval Atheron cause the idiot ran infront of me as Calixto ran inside the alchemy shop, and Aval also wears a red tunic, so I confused him for the Butcher.

I run inside the shop, for some reason Quintus, ANOTHER person who wears a red tunic got hit. Because I hit Aval, Valdimar goes to attack him and he ends up dying. Guards come in and Valdimar quickly disposes of them in a blind rage. I'm still tryin to find Calixto cause gods dammit everyone is wearing a red tunic, including Nerelion. I find Calixto cowering in a corner alone in the upstairs room. I kill, loot him and put my weapons away to yield. Another guard comes in and Valdimar kills him as well. Now there's two dead guards, a 3k+ bounty and a dead Butcher. I take out my weapons and put then away infront of Valdimar to try to calm him down. Doesn't work. Another guard comes in.

I run outside, Valdimar and the guard following, take my weapons back out, put them away near the guard and the yield is FINALLY accepted. I pay the bounty, get thrown in some random spot in the city and proceed with this gods forsaken quest.

It sucks that Aval is dead cause he's a pawnbroker merchant and I lost progress, but I am NOT reloading a save just to revive his ass. He shouldn't have ran right infront of me and infront of the entrance to the White Phial where Calixto ran inside. Now his brothers don't like me, one of them will send thugs after me but whatever. I'm not doing this again (that is until one of my other saves experiences it).

After all of this, I don't even know if the stable hand lady is alive. I didn't see her body outside, but I also have yet to see her around the city, at CandleHearth or at the stables. Her house was locked too so she wasn't in it, at the time I checked.

Throu some merchant exploit I did manage to get my Banish Enchant back as well as some new Ebony weapons for Valdimar and I. After he cost me 2k in a bounty. I suppose 1,070 of that is my fault. Idk why it said 70, considering hitting a person gets you 40. It should have been 80 since somehow Quintus got hit but whatever.

You don't even get a good reward for completing the quest.

[eldritchships]

Rained In

Summary: Tension rises when Wyvern and Cypher are briefly stuck together in the shooting range. Author's Note: Original prompt was 'Rain' but then I saw a clip of Cypher appearing in the practice mode as an NPC. Definitely intended to practice writing Wyvern, but I did want to make something for this pairing.

Taglist: @payaso-pastel, @conquerorofalatus, @szayelinx, @knockshear (If you'd like to be put on/taken off the taglist, just ask!)

Rain beat against the roof of the shooting range, promising no end to the current stormy weather. Although the brick and tile muffled the sound of the rain, it was outshined by the repetitive bang of gunfire inside.

Wyvern stood at the bench-like divider, firing at the holographic targets. Each target flickered across the range, appearing and disappearing at random, and Wyvern’s eyes darted between every one of them in each split second before he pulled the trigger. The storm had created a noticeable chill inside the interior building, one that made goosebumps rise along the skin of his exposed arms. Even when he’d made the decision to travel out here, he hadn’t changed out of his usual tight-fitting muscle shirt.

As the points counter ticked upwards, Wyvern heard a snicker behind him. His hackles rose, at first out of alert, but then staying there out of dread when he recognised the voice. Lowering his gun, Wyvern took three slow steps to turn around. His expression set into a scowl. Leaning against the doorway, hat pulled down over his masked brow, stood Cypher. The crystal blue lenses of his mask were watching Wyvern, and despite having no visible expression, he had the demeanour of someone without a single care in the world.

“Can I help you?” Wyvern broke the silence first, squaring his shoulders. Cypher didn’t move, barely shifting to acknowledge he had been spoken to.

“Not at all. I’m impressed with your ferocity. Please, pretend I’m not here.” Cypher waved a hand, both a dismissal and a prompt back towards the shooting range. Despite how casual his response was, it still held a hint of glee. Wyvern snorted. He placed his firearm down on the divider before half-sitting back against the edge of it, crossing his arms against his chest. He gave something of a smirk, although it possibly exposed too much fang to be considered one.

“You like watching people shoot?”

“As much as anyone.” Cypher shrugged, and then turned his head to look outside, “I thought here would be as good a place to get out of the rain as any. I didn’t know anyone else was here.” Wyvern's eyes travelled over Cypher’s form, taking advantage of the fact that the other man’s ever-present gaze was no longer on him. Cypher certainly looked a picture, head tilted back and watching the rainfall. If Wyvern looked closely, he could see the slimmest hint of Cypher’s bared throat, covered by several layers of cloth. It was presented for the taking, and Wyvern’s mind ran wild with ideas of sinking his teeth into it; whether to tear it out, or in an act of passion. He reminded himself to have some restraint. Giving into temptation usually only got him into trouble.

“I have trouble believing that, mate.” Wyvern brought his attention back to the conversation. Cypher lowered his head, unintentionally ending the gorgeous display he had created. His stanced mirrored Wyvern’s; arms loosely crossed, propped against a stable wooden surface, eye contact that didn’t stare and a pseudo-casual tone.

“Believe what you like, Wyvern.” Cypher told him, another chuckle in his words, “Even if I do have cameras watching this place, they aren’t operational right now.” Wyvern blinked at that, twice in quick succession as he rose from the table. Another lopsided smile appeared on his face, and his tongue quickly poked out to wet his lips.

“Just you and me, huh?” He stepped towards Cypher, “Aren’t you worried I might take the opportunity to kill you?” The threat was amusing only to his own ears, and likely sounded like an all-too-gleeful promise of harm to others. He knew Cypher was dangerous, that he gathered any and every piece of information about everyone he came across. On any given day Wyvern had no desire to hurt Cypher at all, but his wealth of knowledge was a threat, even if Wyvern weren’t only concerned about what Cypher had on Wyvern himself.

Wyvern took another step. The distance between them had now been halved. With a simple push, Cypher rose from the doorway, arms dropping to his sides. Wyvern felt those lenses analysing him again.

“You’re a brilliant hunting dog, but you wouldn’t attack me, little dragon.” Cypher spoke with complete certainty, every word delivered even and unshakeable. Wyvern stopped, his entire body startled into pulling rigid. It felt like his chest clenched as Cypher’s nickname repeated itself in his mind. Little dragon.

Wyvern didn’t know how to respond. He hadn’t expected Cypher’s answer. The confusion and conflicting emotions twisted in his stomach, forming into the ugly measure he fell back on when caught unawares; Wyvern immediately went on the defensive.

Surging forward, Wyvern breached the rest of the distance, quickly coming to stand toe-to-toe with Cypher. Cypher didn’t flinch, but he did pull back slightly, keeping some personal space.

“Hunting dog? This dog’s got more than enough power to take care of you.” Wyvern growled. The lingering cold feeling on his skin condensed like thick clouds, passing along his arm and leaving scales in their wake. Reptilian talons extended from Wyvern’s fingernails, talons which he hooked into Cypher’s coat and pulled the man closer. He almost had Cypher pinned against the wall, getting in Cypher’s face as much as possible and trying to force him to be bothered by something.

Cypher’s hands took hold of Wyvern’s wrist, gripping tight and keeping Wyvern there. Wyvern heard him grunt, a soft intake through the teeth. The mask continued to betray nothing. Blue lenses bore into Wyvern’s slate-grey glare.

“You lack precision.” Cypher breathed. Wyvern growled, the sound distinctly more animalistic than a human should have been able to make. Cypher’s head jerked imperceptibly towards the target range, gaze still locked on Wyvern’s. Wyvern dropped him. Whatever condensation remained on his person boiled into his throat, building and building. He spun towards the targets and let loose a deep, guttural roar. The roar burst forward as a sonic blast, a cylinder of ear-piercing sound that destroyed all of the remaining targets and caused the score board to spark and dislodge from its fasteners. The roar shook the entire structure before it finally ended, the last remnants echoing throughout the space.

Wyvern’s jaw clenched shut, chest rising and falling fast with an unfortunately familiar winded feeling. He turned his head to Cypher, who stared first at the splintered technology of the target range, and then at Wyvern.

“I don’t need precision.” Wyvern told him. Taking his gun back and returning it to its holster, Wyvern started towards the doorway. He took Cypher by the shoulder on the way past; his hand had changed back to normal, but he gave an assertive squeeze as he passed by. “Enjoy the rain.” He left the shooting range, leaving Cypher to do as he pleased.

[ydrisdove]

wait I just woke up from my first star stable dream holy fuck

I don’t remember a ton but it was storming like a motherfucker and I had to follow a new npc into a mountain area, she lived in a trailer in the middle of a field. I was riding an Arabian I think. After I followed her up there, the Jorvik rangers came out to search for me cus I’d been missing…? For a few days.

And then there was a birthday party being held down the mountain for me and I went to it but no one knew who I was and someone told me that the cops were coming to arrest James. So I got back on my horse and ran down to the docks (I assume this was my minds version of fort pinta) and found James and was like “bro you gotta come with me man we gotta go incognito” and he was like “fine :/“ and I took him back up to the new npcs trailer and dropped him off there so she could look after him.

It was storming really badly at this point and now the cops were after me so I was hiding out in the mountains but Ydris was searching for me and found me. Then I woke up lmao

[scalpelsister]

Trying to sort out my dnd ocs and this is very hard in re classes and sort of ‘extra’ races- ie I know what they appear as, but the draw to hexblood or aasimar, etc.... as it stands-

Leo, either a rogue (thief, maybe assassin) or a fighter (eldritch knight). Human noble, plan on keeping her that way. Easiest tbh- rogue, unless I need her to be beefed up / tanky.

Taiga, either a grave cleric or an ancients paladin. Biggest issue is race for her- shes been a LOT of races over the years and had many names (started as a water genasi, became a tiefling, ended up as a kenku the one time I played her, now an elf / half elf). I still want to keep her an elf  or half elf, but the debate is if I should hexblood her or not- if she doesn’t get hexblooded, the next character will. BUT Taiga’s entire theme / idea is that she is a follower of The Raven Queen, and tends to be a very devout and loyal person- both to her goddess, but also to her friends and family. If she goes hexblood, I would likely make her a paladin? in which I like her being an elf but stilling having horns (until it grows into a circlet, but yanno), as well as combining the themes of religion and nature- especially guarding death and nature. Also: magic horse compels me because she is somewhat based on my star stable character. The debate here is if adding feywild shit to a raven queen follower is too many cooks in the kitchen, or if its breaking it up just enough to make a unique character (ie, less standard cleric).

Lydia, either a necromancer or spore druid- this entirely depends on if shes hexblood or not. Originally she was an Aasimar, which I still think I like- sort of the corruption of good. Warlock could happen too for her and make it more corruption in a literal sense- undead being the top pick, but she was originally a great old one warlock- not being able to raise dead / animate dead is a bit of a killer though, as the frankenstien aesthetic is key lol. Her entire theme / idea / concept is based both on a lot of gothic horror (as she was originally an npc in the first curse of strahd game I ran), but also on my own fascination with undead and corruption arcs- can necromancers be good? what lines would she be able and willing to cross? at what point does her academic interests make her evil? I am intrigued by making her a hexblood and circle of spores, because a) aesthetic, b) I LOVE spooky undead shit AND spooky fey/nature shit. Also, I think regardless her ‘base’ race or physical appearance is that of a halfling, as the idea of a very small and cute character raising the dead is fun.

I think I am tempted to go with Leo as a human rogue, Taiga as a hexblood paladin, and Lydia as an aasimar necromancer, but I also lowkey wanna talk to more people about it.

[victorluvsalice]

Hey, you know how I tried to restart Fallout 4 properly around my birthday with a new Victor save? Yeah, uh, ran into a few issues with crashes and whatnot and had to start again! Fortunately, after much fiddling and poking and whatnot, I seem to have finally gotten myself a save that’s at least somewhat stable, so this here should be my final Victor Sole Survivor to go through the game with. Allow me to go through some of the pertinent points of my playthrough with you:

Appearance: Yeah, I had to redo him again -- at least this time I’m a bit happier with the eye spacing. He’s always going to look rather weird simply because I’m trying to translate a Tim Burton character into flesh, but I think I did a pretty good job under the circumstances!

...As for his fashion sense, he found the chestpiece and whatnot in a suitcase by Sanctuary, and the hat gives him +1 Intelligence and thus is giving me a bit more experience for his early quests. He’s not here to look good, he’s here to level up.

Stats: I ended up having to tweak his SPECIAL, mostly because I forgot just how many points you get at the beginning, and because I wanted to pivot slightly with how I designed his build. Here’s what he started out with:

Strength: 3

Perception: 3

Endurance: 7

Charisma: 2

Intelligence: 7

Agility: 4

Luck: 2

He’s still a high Endurance/Intelligence build, but I’ve decided that Agility is probably going to be his third “main” stat, because perks like “Moving Target” (harder to hit when you’re sprinting) make sense for him. (I mean, dodging like crazy was how he survived so long against Barkis!) I’ve already boosted it twice -- once with the You’re SPECIAL! book that you can find in Shaun’s room, and once through a level-up. I’ve also boosted his Perception thanks to the bobblehead in the Museum of Freedom. As for perks, he’s currently level 5, so I have the following:

Scrapper Level 1 (scavenge more uncommon components from scrapping things)

Gun Nut Level 1 (basic gun mods)

Armorer Level 1 (basic armor mods)

Given Victor’s whole “thing” in this universe is that he’s something of a tinkerer and good at modding things, this felt appropriate. :p

Mods: Because it’s not recommended to play without them! Certainly not without the fixes. . . Anyway, my complete mod list as of now is below, if you’re curious. I did try to vaguely group them into “these mods are part of the same category and/or go together,” but it’s not perfect. Still, if you see anything you find interesting, feel free to go to the link and check it out!

Fallout 4 Script Extender (https://f4se.silverlock.org/): Allows for script changes, enables certain other mods and serves as my game launcher through Vortex

Achievements Mod Enabler (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/15639): Enables achievements in a modded game; requires manual install (extract files into Fallout 4 folder)

Mod Configuration Menu (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/21497/): Adds a menu for configuring compatible mods; uses F4SE

Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/4598): General bugfixes and small improvements

Crafting Highlight Fix (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/27479): Removes the crafting “highlights” overlay so you can actually see your items while crafting; uses F4SE and requires MCM (to adjust things like how power armor pieces are highlighted)

Elevator Buttons Fix (Contraptions) (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/20664): Fixes floating elevator buttons from Contraptions (buttons can appear miles from the actual control panel)

Rusty Face Fix (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/31028): Fixes the rusty face glitch that may occur with the PC and NPCs (turning faces brown)

Nuka-World Bottle Scenery Fix (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/17853): Fixes the giant bottles that can sometimes spawn in Nuka World instead of the regular-sized models, completely obscuring the game world

No Aggro Impact Landing (Power Armor) (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/9019): Stops friendly characters getting aggroed if you jump from a great height and land near them in Power Armor

Vault 81 Molerat Disease Immunity with Power Armor and Hazmat (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/5646): Stops you getting infected with the Molerat Disease if you're wearing full power armor (chance of infection goes up with each missing piece of armor), or if your companion gets bit; lesser chance of infection if you're wearing a hazmat suit

CryoFreez Fix (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/10000): Fixes the bug where, if an enemy dies as a result of the Cryolater or other cryo-based weapons, they will respawn in a weird “dead” state with no AI

Cattle Feeders Immersively Filled (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/11998): Two files; first adds a filled water trough for brahmin to use, second fills the vanilla feed trough with plants

Worthwhile Caps Stashes (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/23464): Increases the amount of caps in stash and have them contain other junk items; also makes the stash tin itself a junk item

Piper Interview Restored (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/21829): Restores some cut questions post Piper’s interview about your pre-war life

Dumpster Diving (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/33474): Adds new containers to open dumpsters with new and amusing junk to collect

More Grind-Free Game Settings (from Thuggyfied – A Fallout 4 Mod List) (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/41435): Removes the need to get “Local Leader” Rank 2 to make crafting benches; quest markers display from five times further away; followers no longer auto-attack non-hostile Radstags; settlers run to the summoning bell; Jet doesn’t show up in pre-War coolers and containers (just Vault 95); pipe weapons no longer show up in Pre-War safes or trunks; ability to craft a “Jetpack Ring” at the chem station (I mainly got this for the first two items)

Useful Pulse and Cryo Explosives 1.1b (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/24848): Tweaks the cryo grenade’s damage output and fixes the “dead enemy AI respawn bug” for cryo grenades; tweaks how the pulse grenade works, making it affect robots and turrets more strongly and removing damage to organic enemies (though the explosion can still stagger them); also changes the crafting recipes

Wasteland Survival Guide 5 - More Map Markers (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/26367): Changes Wasteland Survival Guide #5 (available in Gorski Cabin) to mark not only Diamond City, but also Goodneighbor, the Glowing Sea, Boston Airport, and Quincy

Strong Back Improved – Weightless Equipped Apparel (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/17361): Improves the “Strong Back” perk to first halve the weight of worn apparel, then make it entirely weightless, and give more carry capacity out of Power Armor

Diamond City Plus (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/19293): Updates Diamond City with new shacks and interiors to the lower stands (including an arcade and a laundry!), along with new NPCs to populate them; also adds a proper farm with brahmin and chickens by the mutfuit plants

Commonwealth Wilderness Overhaul (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/41008): Adds lots of little scenes, objects, and creatures (including rad rabbits, rad chickens, and wolves) to the Commonwealth Wilderness to fill it out and make it more interesting

Nuka World Open Season Extend II -- Assignable Factions - Recruitable NPCs (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/47209): Allows you, post- the “Open Season” quest, to attract settlers to Nuka-World who can then be sent to regular settlements, and populate the parks and main market area with more traders, or various faction NPCs! (So if you really want the Minutemen to hold Nuka World after you gun everybody down, you can use this – though if you want them to come and HELP you gun everybody down, you need a different mod)

Flashy(JoeR) - Advanced Needs 2 - Customizable Survival Mode (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/40440): A customizable “survival mode” that allows you to play with a character who needs to eat, drink, and sleep periodically without necessarily dealing with some of Survival Mode’s other stuff (namely, the lack of fast travel in my case). Comes with expansions for being a playable ghoul, food spoilage, and other activities if you’re into that, and a patch for “Campsite – Simple Wasteland Camping” so you can use the two together.

Sunshine Tidings – No Ghoul and No Corpse (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/47044): Will eventually remove ghoul and human corpses from Sunshine; assigns Professor Goodfeels protected status if he hasn't already been disabled

Croup Manor Waterfront Extended (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/47144): Adds another chunk to Croup Manor's building area so you can actually access the water on the nearby beach for purifiers and whatnot

CWSS Redux V4 – Craftable Working Showers Sinks Baths Toilets Urinals Kitchens Etc (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/14326): Adds craftable, usable bathroom equipment and some kitchen equipment in a separate workshop menu so the Sole Survivor, companions, and settlers can go to the toilet, shower, and have pretty kitchens

Vault-Tec Workshop Overhaul Redux (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/43643): Fixes some errors with the Vault-Tec DLC items for Vault 88 and adds newer, better versions for some other items (e.g., better lights, in three variations depending on computer specs)

Wearable Backpacks and Pouches (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3258): Adds a backpack workbench and a variety of upgradable backpacks to the game (three files – standard, ballistic weave addon, power armor capacity addon)

Campsite – Simple Wasteland Camping (and HD Sleeping Bags) (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/11734): Adds a book to Sanctuary (the root cellar) that allows you to make camping gear at the chem station and set up camp in the Commonwealth whenever you want

The Mobile Mechanic – Portable Workbenches and Junk Scrapping (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/18262/): Allows you to make a portable, customizable workbench for scrapping junk and in-game crafting anywhere

Atelier – Paint and sculpt (Unsupported) (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/36485): Allows you to make and mix paint, paint pictures (for the "Well Rested" XP bonus), and work on a sculpture; also has settler-ready versions to increase happiness in settlements. Unsupported and glitchy ("Well Rested" perk sound will play incessantly if you try to paint, with the animation popping up when you disengage from the easel – keeping this mainly for the look of the thing for Victor’s house)

Fallout Instrument Pack (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/46604): Adds four playable instruments to the game, along with a small (and unfortunately bit glitchy) quest to unlock the ability to craft them; also has two new instrument-themed weapons

New Recipes (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/12276): 60-ish new recipes added into the standard categories, with unique effects and healing (like new teas under Beverages)

Fine Dining (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/33128): Adds a “Fine Dining” section to the cooking menu with six new recipes, with strong effects that require a (reusable) steel plate as well as the food; also adds milk and cheese as items to be found in the world

Culinary Masterpieces – Useful Food (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/16055): Adds a “Culinary Masterpieces” section to the cooking menu with new recipes, and the ability to plant tarberries, hubflower, bloodleaf, and rice (after buying it from the Abernathys)

Apple Trees 3.2 (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/40388): Adds an apple and pear orchard to the game near Vault 111, and a “Fruit Recipes” section to the cooking menu for apple and pear-based food; also you can grow apples and pears for food in settlements

Tales From The Commonwealth (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/8704): Extended quests and companions mod – features new characters, new locations, and new quests across the Commonwealth, along with three new companions (contains additional file for DLC commentary from the new companions)

Tales From The Commonwealth Visual Fixes (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/43974): Patch to fix some of the broken precombines and visual bugs from TFTC

Tales From The Commonwealth – FaceGen Data (For PhysOp or Vanilla) (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/45148): Patch to help provide face generation data for TFTC; vanilla file used

We Are The Minutemen (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/6443): Overhauls the Minutemen, giving Preston a new outfit, making patrols more common and more powerful as you level up, giving you a command table to make Minutemen, and cools down the frequency of radiant quests

Better Companions – No Conflicts (Accuracy Version) (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/24233): Improves companions – in particular, making them more accurate and better at sneaking

Settler and Companion Dialogue Overhaul (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/41785): Increases the variety of companion lines while adventuring; gives certain companions their own radiant quests; gives settlers more variety in what they say to you while visiting settlements (acknowledging you as Minutemen General, complaining less)

Realistic Conversations Fallout 4 (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/32514): Makes conversations between NPCs more realistic, adds variety

Settlers Of The Commonwealth (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/8704): Adds unique new settlers to the Commonwealth that you can recruit

Level 4 Merchants Improved (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/40747): Puts all the level 4 merchants you can find and recruit in the Dugout Inn for easier location; also assigns protected status to certain ones that might otherwise easily die (like the Vault-Tec Rep)

Squirrels of the Commonwealth (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/20027): Adds a variety of (surprisingly tough) squirrels; using the “docile” version that adds Garbage Squirrels but makes most squirrels run away if you shoot them

True Storms – Wasteland Edition (Thunder-Rain-Weather Redone) (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/4472): Improved weather, with more intense thunderstorms and whatnot; also has files for earlier sunsets, compatibility with Far Harbor and Nuka World, and (if you want, I didn’t) more dangerous Far Harbor fogs and Glowing Sea

Atomic Radio (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/8704): New radio station with original radio shows and commercials

Where I Am In The Game: Given Victor’s only level five, you’ve probably guessed I’ve only just started -- and you’d be right! Victor’s about five days into his adventures in the Commonwealth, and has spent that time mainly cleaning up Sanctuary and the Red Rocket, meeting Dogmeat and Preston, killing raiders, and molotoving and machine-gunning a Deathclaw to death. I’ve completed Out of Time and When Freedom Calls for quests, and I’m currently working on Sanctuary before moving onto The First Step. Next playsession, Victor and Codsworth are going to go visit the apple orchard on the other side of Vault 111 and get some apples for everyone! And probably fight a bear! :D What, the gang needs food, and I want to give them more variety than gourds and melons.

What Comes Next: While I hope to actually start the main plot a lot sooner than I did in my original attempt at playing, we’re definitely doing some Minutemen stuff first, plus exploring the general area around Sanctuary so I can pick up that “double meat” magazine. Think of it as Victor getting his hand in as he tries to figure out how to survive in this brave new world.

[renfaires]

Campaign Story Time

I experienced a D&D first today. I killed one of my players...

In the moment, I really hesitated. I ran through the encounter in my head and tried to reason out if there was another option (in terms of behavior for the monsters—but they’re just feral beasts looking for a meal)...there really wasn’t another choice. So two beasts ganged up on the unconscious monk (who had rushed into the fray without thinking) and just mawled her to death. Brutal way to go.

Thing is, I love these characters (what good DM doesn’t have some reverence for their PCs, to craft a whole world for them?) And I particularly love this country bumpkin monk whom I just murdered. I also love my players (we’re all good friends. Many of us, it’s our first TTRPG ever; almost all of us, this is our first extended campaign—playing weekly for 2 years now). It almost broke my heart to see their faces fall when they realized she was dead. Like, I had to explain it to them, in detailed description, and then out of character rulesplain to them how she died because they were just sooo shocked how it happened so quickly. Sure, we have a Warlock, so we’re used to her “dying” (K.O.’d) at least 3 or 4 times per dungeon crawl (😂), but actual death has never happened.

They’re all level 9 and have gotten so used to my DM style (which admittedly pulls punches sometimes in favor of story progression) that they were expecting a softball encounter. After 3 failed navigation/perception/random encounter rolls (all so massively under the DC check); after dismissing several warnings and wandering back to the same dangerous location; after several NPCs described how fucking dangerous the abandoned city they were traveling to was, but they still walked in anyway without a concrete plan; and after rushing into the middle a deadly encounter all by yourself—I couldn’t justify NOT killing her. No more pulling punches; They’re level 9 (as of 2 sessions ago) and two PCs were set up to cast Revivify. So it’s time to put on your big-girl jeans...

But now the challenge was surviving without one of their 2 tanks. And with the warlock struggling almost immediately after a single power shot (😂), Pally had to focus on healing so everyone could stand and run to safety. Good thing they brought the mounts, which could carry the unconscious/dead/paralyzed. And they could outrun the beasts. I guess the other bonus to mounts is that hungry beasts don’t care where their meal comes from. they managed to K.O. A warhorse carting the paralyzed rogue away, forcing the party to turn back and help. In the end, the Paladin and Cleric held off the hoard (managed to kill one even), long enough for the other injured members to “portal” away. Then, both possessing Misty Step or a similar racial ability, they jumped away and let the beasts eat the horse, following their injured party members through the same portal (a place they had explored briefly earlier). But does it stop there?

Nah. Just to REALLY drive home the fact I wasn’t playing, Pally and Cleric jump right into part 2 of the encounter (or rather, the party’s surrender): A band of local survivors/scavengers have the severely-injured warlock, unconscious-but-stable rogue, and dead monk completely surrounded and demand the still-conscious members to surrender. (Ideally, the party would have sought out humanoid survivors to begin with—or at least encountered some scouts when they were searching the district (but failed checks equals beasts. 🤷‍♀️). Anyway, the cleric and paladin know they have mere seconds to save their friend before Revivify is pointless. But they’ve been told not to move. They both go for her anyway. Cleric fails her grapple check and is retrained. Paladin rolls a Nat 20!!! Babs is alive... and then the Paladin (at 2 HP from the previous encounter) is immediately K.O.’d in response. “No magic,” they say. The cleric spouts off a Mass Healing Word before they manage to gag and bond their hands... The rogue mourns the loss of their faithful steed (they’ve had him since like session 15), and the party is carted off to the survivor’s outpost as prisoners.

After all was said and done, I think I walked away from it more affected than my players. Super stressful to empathize with my players’ very real fear and grief at losing someone (we almost had a TPK. The cleric had the most HP, just under half) I wish there was a way to roleplay a d&d death without bringing the mood down (but I’m not sure it’s possible). At least it wasn’t permanent.

And I hope the players learned something. I definitely did (namely, how close to dead they can get without perma-dying 😈)

[dorianwolfforest]

I’m gonna speak on the whole “Changing Syntax to be NB instead of making a new NB character for LGBTQ representation is bad” thing bc I’m... Having emotions.

Let me start off by saying I am Nonbinary and I have identified as such for four years now. Let me continue by saying I fully support the decision SSO has made.

Star Stable Online is not a finished product. You can’t look at it and expect everything to be complete. They’re working on it every week, revisiting old things and transforming them to better suit whatever situation or environment they’ll be put in. If SSO hasn’t completed their game they are allowed to change things, just like any creator is allowed to change their work in progress. SSO just does it very very publicly every week.

When you first start designing a character, that character will not fully be fleshed out. You will go back and forth between so many things, one of which being gender because you learn and grow and you want to add more depth to them or you want them viewed from a different perspective. That’s a normal, healthy thing to do and it’s a good way to create a diverse cast. I’m sure anyone who’s gone through any kind of creative process will know just how long it takes and what a painful process it is to find a complete character.

I went a full year thinking the main character of mine and my ex’s game would be a man, until my ex came out to me as trans and since the character was based on her, we changed the character to also be a transwoman. But since our game hadn’t been released “unfinished�� like SSO is, you wouldn’t see that change. When you see that character, she will always have been trans. Changing someone’s gender is not a situation unique to SSO, you just see it a lot clearer since it’s happening in real time.

Working like SSO is a blessing and a curse. You’re allowed to grow and develop, but you’re not finished and therefor don’t have a way to definitively say “This is the way it is”. You also show every single change to your players and have no way to hide that your previous version of that character was flawed and unfinished, which leaves them open to criticism like this. 

Personally I don’t think they changed Syntax’ gender to get some cheap LGBTQ+ representation, I just genuinely think they found a way to flesh out a pretty basic NPC that is going to become even more important in future updates and they ran with it, just like any game developer would.

Anyway I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m prone to support SSO and I often defend them when I feel like I should so please don’t take my word as any sort of law, since I am incredibly biased.

[ginnyzero]

Completely Harmless Appendix 7

Appendix: Rainbow Week

1.     Rainbow Week/Luck Day/Valentine’s/JoJo Siwa/Red String Trail Ride

Holidays, in my opinions, should be events. My favorite thing the first time I played in Star Stable was around Christmas and we had all these Christmas Quests to decorate the county. Then they took that out and it was blah. So, I wanted to bring that Christmas style feeling back where you’re going around and decorating the county or your area of the county and then you have stuff to do during the actual festival.

You can do holidays one of three ways, you do it like Christmas where there’s a set thing every year. Or you can it so that the holiday has progressive story, so each time it comes around (say Fashion Week) a little more of the story is unlocked and you can only do new story if you’ve progressed through the old. That way you don���t have NPCs talking about current story lines when the new players haven’t gotten that far in the story.

Or, you work your plot into the holidays. And then as the plot progresses, you’ll have more holidays as the years of your plot move forward. However, this requires that you have all of your story and map completed before launching the game. I chose number three for the story because it was convenient writing wise. (For Mystic Riders we go with option one.)

To Rainbow Week in particular, Rainbow Week was something they introduced in 2019 to “replace” the Fortuna Festival, which they only did one or two years. It was supposed to be celebrating friendship? Basically, what happened, was the rainbows crashed and that’s about it. (I am not touching Mica. Nope. Nope.) They might have had the parade with the Bobcats. But there weren’t any quests anymore. The quests were all about setting up the parade route, decorating, and helping Tan make the outfits. Which were cool in a way except the Bobcats were foisting their duties on you because of nails. Maybe they took them out because they’re trying to change the Bobcats story image? I dunno. We older players know the truth.

And then there is Valentine’s Day which also celebrates friendship and love where they have the group race. There used to be quests about making teddy bears and a chocolate and berry cake. Then you had the letters with Derek. They removed those and that was sad. So I put them back in. 

Then there is the Red String Trail Ride which you do in the “spring” and celebrates Friendship. Which was a trail ride with some random events programmed into it. It appropriates (yes, appropriates) the Chinese story about the red string that connects people’s hearts. I’m not really a fan of appropriation. It’s in the game. I can’t really do anything about it.

Lastly, they had Jojo Siwa in the game as a licensing gimmick. She likes rainbows and sings about friendship. They had you find bows in Moorland in order to trade them in for items. I expanded this across the entire county and then also had the player hand out bows in order to spread the news of friendship and love and Jojo Siwa to people in the district so they’d come watch Jojo. (Something that SSO didn’t do.)

I mashed all of these together because they share the same theme to make Rainbow Week more exciting. This meant adding in more musicians and having fun treats, and being able to make crafts for the housing we don’t have yet. (I guess it’s going to come sometime in the next decade.) Fortuna Festival gave clues that these holidays are Club led so that’s why I ran with the clubs doing the festivities. And having things like special crafts, charms for a friendship bracelet and the selfie walls would encourage everyone to travel all over the county to collect things. Plus having things like the treasure hunt and of course, Chaun and his rainbow spices things up.

Instead of having Chaun give random items, I instead gave him a shop so that everyone can get the items they want. The other idea could be to use the same mechanic as the big pumpkins and the goats, and have a lottery system. But I really do prefer shops more.

Brogan is my own invention. (As is Fill-E, the all girl j-pop band.) His game mechanics would be similar to having Spirit in the game. He shows up somewhere in the area after the rainbow crashes and you catch him and he’ll give you a task. That task rewards you with rainbow gold and reputation points until you reach admired with Brogan. Once you reach admired, you can take him to a Chaun and he’ll open a shop for you to exchange your rainbow gold for items with Brogan. His items will be different than Chauns.

And of course, once the decorations go up, they have to come down.

I also included an Art Show for Fort Pinta and a Flea Market for Firgrove. (The Farmer’s Market would continue as usual except it’d be decorated. Same for the Horse Market.) These two areas could have arts and crafts that are rainbow themed and available for the player to purchase again for home decoration or jewelry or clothes, etc and so forth. There could also be special rainbow themed makeup going on at the salons. There could be shops featuring rainbow themed clothes, but they aren’t paying me that much to do that for free.

FOR THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE MY WATERMARK AND CONTACT INFORMATION. THANK YOU. I get it. Some of you might get excited and want to see this stuff in the game, especially the clothes, tack, and pets. However, the only way I want to see this in the game is if I get paid for it. If I see it in the game and I’m not paid for it, there will be hell to pay. You think I’m salty. I’d be angry. Personally, I’m not going to send this info to SSO. If you do, leave my contact information there! Don’t give them any excuses to steal.

Now, I’ll know you haven’t read this note if you leave me comments about how ‘salty’ I am about the game and if I hate it so much I should do something else. I am doing something else. It’s called Mystic Riders MMORPG Project. Mystic Riders however is a very baby phase game. You can check out our plans on the game dev blog. (Skills, Factions, Professions, Crafting, Mini-Games, 25+ horse breeds!) If you know anyone who would be interested and has money or contacts about game making, direct them to the blog.

[princeandreis]

today at dnd:

- it was our last session before everyone leaves for college :( so we were trying to do our “season finale,” as our DM called it

- our favorite npc anja (who is an absolutely batty old woman and also a badass magician) uttered for the first time her now-infamous catchphrase: “oh, crumblemuffins!”

- it was at this point that i established that anja sounds a whole lot like dumbledore from the potter puppet pals videos

- my pc althaea stepped on but failed to stab the same injured kobold twice before finally killing him with produce flame

- at one point our group had to sneak through a corridor so althaea (who’s a bard) played “in the hall of the mountain king” on her kazoo and it made us extra sneaky

- when our party encountered the king kobold althaea was playing “immigrant song” on her kazoo as boss music and consequently failed to hit him with a dart

- we had to walk down a very very long spiral staircase so althaea entertained herself by playing “come on eileen” on her fiddle (many thanks to our DM for allowing meme songs to exist in universe)

- at one point anja ran off, being chased by guards, and yelled “au revoir, little biscuits!”

- another player, a ranger named charlie, revealed that the man he’s been after for so many years burned down his home with his wife and child inside and talked about what people do for love and after a long pause althaea chose that moment to say, “that was a really touching story and everything, but im gay so”

- we escaped the bad guys and ran toward the stables we’d seen with althaea tootling “old town road” on her kazoo (at a very dramatic boss moment i actually ran and grabbed my kazoo and used it and it was very good)

- this exchange happened:

charlie: i have nothing else to live for.

cordelia: yes you do — your friends!

charlie: no — my family.

*everyone starts singing the shire theme*

- our final session literally ended with us all riding off into the sunset

[argothiathedreamer]

Been playing Breath of the Wild and I figured I’d tell you all about my experiences:

-Accidentally jumped into a freezing pond without realizing what the temp was and drowned.

-Tried to see if I could take out a Guardian on the plateau with nothing but bombs and arrows, *spoiler* I COULD NOT and wound up having to book it the fuck over a wall to get away from it. Immediately ran into a bunch of stalkoblins and got annoyed so I ran away from them too.

-Called King Rhoam a bastard under my breath every time I saw him.

-Let the guy at the Dueling Peaks Stable tell me about how to catch a horse while I sat there on the back of a horse I just caught, because I figure I need to make sure the NPCs know their programed lives have some purpose right?

-Game: “There’s a super simple way for you to get over this barracade between you and that shrine beside the Dueling Peaks Stable~” Me: *Climbs an fucking cliff and dives off the top of an waterfall, paragliding down to the shrine with no way of knowing if my stamina will hold out* Game:”... Okay yeah, I mean you could also have just used the power we gave you at the start of the game, but you do you, I guess.” (I made it flawlessly btw, but yeah I didn’t even consider using the freeze ability until I was actually inside the shrine.)

-Caught and tamed 4 horses but only registered 2 (Latin and Shadow), discovered I’m a natural at taming horses since I also ran out and caught Horse #1 (the first horse I didn’t register) in under 2 minutes.

-Climbed all the way around Mt Lanayru from the Hateno side towards the Naydra Snowfields on a quest of my own design unable to actually go up and over the top since it’s too cold, once I got around to the other side however I saw a Lynel AND a Hinox at the bottom and NOPED back to Hateno.

-I have taken a shot at or otherwise tried to kill every single goat I have seen in this game. I don’t know what my vendetta against goats is, but apparently I’m compelled to immediately draw my bow upon sighting one. It’s like an instinct... I have also killed a lot of birds, but like... that’s just business I need drumsticks for cooking stuff. Whatever I’ve got going on with the goats... that feels personal. In my alternate universe past life I must have been a Hylian who got harassed by goats.

-Killed like... 6 Bokoblins at an encampment with a single Bomb Arrow. Pretty proud of that one.

-Drowned like 12 times, not so proud of that one... (I have bad luck with water)

-Cooked so much food I think the NPCs are starting to worry about me.

-Made my way down the entirety of Lanaryu road from west to east, and spent more of it climbing walls to get around enemies who were definitely too strong for me than I did with my feet actually on the ground.

-Went out onto Hyrule Fields, was minding my own business, saving horses from Bokoblins, murdurizing goats, the usual. Then I ALMOST RAN FACE FIRST INTO A FULLY OPERATIONAL GUARDIAN WHO CAME CRAWLING OUT FROM BEHIND A ROCK LIKE A NIGHTMARE SPIDER/OCTOPUS. Made it up a huge rock and out of its sight in record time, proceeded to have a mini meltdown at the top. I don’t think it even noticed me.

-After that I left Hyrule fields and went back towards Lake Hylia, saw Farosh and was sitting there admiring it, while also planning how I was going to deal with the local Bokoblin Tree House of Horrors when BAM! I got struck by lightning. Probably would’ve been my first major death, except I very luckily had like 3 fairies in my pack. Anyhow I got revived and just start running back the way I came hoping I can outrun the storm and get somewhere safe (in the rush I forgot that I could just unequip my metal weapons) ultimately remembered that teleporting was a thing and went back to Dueling Peaks Stables.

-After that I decided the Guardians weren’t all that scary and set off across Hyrule Fields in search of Hestu.

-Rescued Horse #2 (who shall not be registered, but is still my buddy) from a bokoblin and rode him all the way to the Wetland Stable, where I found Hestu!

-More importantly I also found Kass!!!!<3

-Was going to head up to Zora’s Domain and meet Sidon <3 but after trying to head out 3 times in different directions and each time running  into a freaking lightning storm that chased me all the way back to the stables (I am grateful that Horse #2 is FAST AS HELL) I decided it was time to call it quits. Saved in the inn at the stable and put the game away for the night.

-Poor Horse #2′s out in the rain... I feel bad for him, but then again he’s hanging out in a pretty ass, super safe forest... He’s fine... as long as he doesn’t get struck by lightning.

[furvanoctua]

Was a GM for the first time yesterday ^^ It went pretty well. I ran a oneshot in the campaign where I play Melany, which meant she wasn't gonna be in the session, well, not really, so I had her fall sick because her patron was gonna visit her fever dreams. Fun Quickly sketched the two NPCs this oneshot would be revolving around. Haven't had much drawing energy the last week, but I managed to do these rough colour sketches, which was nice.

The two here are brother and sister. The brother, named David, is the oldest and yes, he's a Flameskull now. The sister, named Leila, is a ghost now. I had several ghostly visions that the party got to see their story through as they triggered them.

Their story: The brother was left alone to take care of his sister after their father had been taken away for practicing necromancy. The father had allegedly tried to bring their mother back. The brother did the best he could while continuing his own magic studies, teaching his sister as well, hoping that was their best bet on a stable life. He condemned his father’s studies of necromancy, but then the sister got ill.

No one would help the necromancer’s children and he couldn't pay to have her treated, and despite his best efforts to nurture her himself she grew weaker. In a desperate attempt he went to his father’s studies and used his notes to cast Life Transference on her, but it was a spell he didn't properly understand how to use. It did save her, but took more out of him than he could handle and the necrotic energy tore at his body. In return, he himself fell ill.

Now, the sister in turn tried her best to save him, but he only got worse. Scrambling through his notes out of desperation, she found the father’s pages on necromancy the brother had been hiding. She found the Life Transference spell, but knew she couldn't cast it herself, or if she did, she'd likely die without succeeding to heal her brother. He passed before she was able to do anything.

Struck with grief, she looked for any way to preserve him, stumbling over a ritual that seemed to turn him undead, but keep his mind and memories. Desperate, and willing to do anything to not lose her last family, she did the ritual, but while she understood how to cast it, she had not understood exactly what it did, which was to turn her brother's skull into a Flameskull. Horrified, she took his skull and ran into the mountains, terrified of what would happen if anyone saw what she had done. After all, that’s the kind of thing her father had been taken away for.

She continued to research her brother's and father’s notes for a way to continue preserving his mind, but in a state that didn't leave him a monster. As he was, he was barely himself, only remembering his life vaguely, but it seemed to be in there somewhere, and he seemed to only respond to commands now. In spite of this, when she tried to get her brother's help understanding his research, he refused to tell her anything. One time out of frustration with his defiance she got careless with her words, and that meant the Flameskull burned her. She soon rose as a ghost, not being able to rest before she could help her brother. Now they both haunt a valley in the mountains, continuing the research, stuck in a loop.

The sister’s last words: "Why won't you just help me!? Because it's dad's necromancy studies?! Well, Mr. Holier-than-thou you didn't exactly keep away from it yourself! Look where that got you. You died! And left me all alone! How about you either just remove the stick from up your non-existing ass and help me with this or come up with a better solution where I don't have to live like this! Alone and helpless despite my brother's supposed company!" She turns around and walks off in a huff while mumbling to herself. "It wouldn't be so bad if you were yourself... I don't care about being an outcast, I just want my br-"

It was fun to read this out loud when they triggered a ghostly vision of how she died.