#really Homestuck should have been like. a tabletop setting.

[hypodermicfroggy]

Much like my feelings towards the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Homestuck had the problem of some fantastic art/worldbuilding but absolutely dogshit plot and overall writing. From Hussie basically farming out writing duties to fans who wanted to make it "their" vision, to a complete disregard for doing anything meaningful with all but a handful of the vast cast of characters (or worse, the writers' idea of "meaningful" is to just completely derail said characters), to a plot that just got more and more bloated with higher and higher stakes and nonsense and retcons...

ah well. life is full of wasted potentials, isn't it?

[tomatograter]

Do you have any tips on starting fics? Like thinking of idea's, getting motivation, and thinking up plots and themes?

Think of things you want to read about! The litmus test of anything writing-related to me is if i think it is compelling for myself. Trying to appeal to an outside audience can be very discouraging and counterproductive to getting words out.

I realize not everyone thinks like this, but i believe fics should be no different than other kinds of fiction, so; try to think of a Genre for your story while you're brainstorming it. This could flatten the process. It doesn't have to be set in stone, but ideally, placing what you intend to write as an "action" "adventure" "horror" "western" "dissertation" "comedy" "scifi" "missing scenes" etc etc story can be helpful to develop an atmosphere, further ideas, define what kinds of devices are to be employed and such.

Specially when it comes to fanfic and dealing with prewritten characters (see: dming for tabletop roleplaying games), i also think it is useful to write a story that challenges your characters. Not "i have a setting. I guess the characters will kick it up somehooooooow?". Make it tailor made. Character is afraid of snakes? Throw a fucking naja at them. This is a critical moment, what happens? Whos affected? Why should we care? What are the consequences? That gets your brain running. "Character is very invested in (X)" ok, now crush it. Same questions as before, why should we care? Can you pierce it back together? So on and so forth.

When you're cobbling it together, think of what kinds of situations could make a good contrast to their personality, troubles, weaknesses and a little bit of their strengths. (Balance it out.) It keeps things more engaging and interesting if your character is walking towards something, rather than being limblessly pushed by a series of events.

Being acquainted with the characters you're writing, their ticks, interests and embarassing traits is very helpful here. Play to their tune.

Dont let your scenes be an afterthought. You'll still have to write them after all!!! Not every scene has to be a showstopper, but if you find yourself writing large swatches of text whose only purpose is filling up space and not doing much tonally, emotionally, or character-wise, what is the point? Write things you want to read about. Think of the minutiae. 'How is this meeting/development/conflict different from others ive seen? Is it funnier? Is it unexpected? Is it cute? Is it embarassing - how can i make it evoke something like these traits?'

Write to your/your audience's level. Purple prose is cool, but are you comfortable with it? Does the story call for it? Are you sure you aren't more comfortable with other structures? Homestuck fanfic is neat because it's the fandom where I've seen the most entertaining works utilizing second person, and they can really rock.

Be indulgent. Don't be afraid to be stupid. This is self-explanatory. Keep a little document with all your ideas and dumb thoughts, no matter how messy they are. You'll eventually thank yourself for writing them down and not losing them later. Who cares if you want to write a fairy themed romance set in space? Wait, thats homest

Read other fanfics, sure, but read things that aren't fanfic. A lot of fanworks follow molds that may not be the best to replicate in your own writing. (Remember the "genre" bit from above? This is also helpful here, because then you know what to look for.) Hell, you don't even have to settle down to read all 600 pages of a book. Read opening statements from different authors. Compare and contrast first chapters. Find out what you like and what you dislike re: writing and try to replicate it in the lab. Do you have a story hook? Do these authors have a story hook that made you want to keep reading? How was that applied?

You're not going to write the fucking Mona Lisa on the first draft. Get that concept into your head, make peace with it, there, now you're friends. First drafts suck ass.

First drafts should suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck big smelly turds.

You're not doing it wrong. Try not to be discouraged! Instead, take it as a chance to read over your story and figure out what is not working. Write it again, with improvements. Personally i can't write anything straight through and i know very little people who can without having planned it beforehand - thats another keyword. Loosely planning scenes and a sequence of events showing how things happen is good even if you're improvising most of it, it gives you direction. Even better, sometimes it can help you visualize entire chapters or stories before punching them out. Even better! Crossing out the little blurbs of scenes you've completed and seeing how many are left to go can keep you motivated to finish the whole thing.

Writing is a laborious process, you dont need to make it more mystifying. Most of the magic comes with editing, re-writing, and adjustements.

Also, when you're done writing let it rest. Coming back to a text you think is finished 1-2 days later can be very illuminating, as opposed to posting straight away.

I hope this is useful in some way, and if it isn't, maybe this could be more up to your speed:

(Don't be intimidated by the equation. That was a very optional tip in a runtime of friendlier ones)

This lecture has some engaging tips on quickly snapping up concepts for short stories - your intention may not be writing a short story, but you still can get a kick out of how quickly she can structure them, brainstorming, what is used to give a sense of narrative progress, how to break complex things into bites, etc. Don't be afraid to learn stuff from people who have been doing this for longer than you have, but remember no writing instruction is necessarily universal.

[rpgmgames]

July’s Featured Game: SLARPG

DEVELOPER(S): Bobby "ponett" Schroeder ENGINE: RPGMaker VX Ace  GENRE: RPG, Fantasy SUMMARY: SLARPG is a short, turn-based RPG following the story of Melody Amaranth, a kindhearted but meek transgender fox who’s decided to learn healing magic and become a paladin. She’s joined by her adventurous girlfriend Allison, as well as their friends Claire (a sarcastic, rule-bending witch)(she is also trans) and Jodie (a dependable, somewhat motherly knight). Over the course of the story, our inexperienced heroes will meddle with forces beyond their control and find themselves responsible for the fate of their quaint little hometown. They’ll also fight some spherical frogs, travel to a forgotten land in the sky, befriend a robot or two, and anger the local librarian. But that should go without saying. 

Introduce yourself!  Hi! My name's Bobby "ponett" Schroeder. I have a background mainly in visual art and writing, and I've been working in RPG Maker VX Ace since 2013 after being inspired to try making my own game by Splendidland's masterpiece Megaman Sprite Game. I'd always wanted to go into game development, but this was the first time it felt like it was actually feasible for me to make something fun on my own. By the end of that year I released a much rougher freeware version of SLARPG, originally known as Super Lesbian Horse RPG.

I do most of the work myself, but I have several people helping me with some NPC and enemy design work including my boyfriend Anthony Field (@exclamationpointman on Tumblr) and my friends Thomas Landon (@schloogywoog), Gee (@fattoads), and Thom (@sidewalkwitch). My lead composer is the incredibly talented BEATR!X @neutralnewt) with more music contributed by other friends such as internet pop icon blacksquares (@blacksquares).

What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Bobby: Super Lesbian Animal RPG is primarily about a timid transgender fox named Melody. At age 22 she's sort of coasting along on autopilot with no clear idea of what she wants to do with her life. One day, she and her girlfriend Allison get roped into a new adventuring guild founded by their friends Claire and Jodie. Melody sees this as an opportunity to impress Allison and to make herself useful by becoming a paladin and learning healing magic.

At its heart, the game is about the relationships between four girls in their early 20s. They're all trying to define themselves as people, they all have their own personal baggage, and they all have their own motives for seeing this dinky little adventurer's guild as a life-changing opportunity. And now, thanks to the trouble they get themselves into, they also have to figure out how to be heroes. It's also a game where you can have an anthropomorphic rabbit with a mohawk kiss her girlfriend and then swing a sword made of zircon at a magic tumbleweed

As I said, the game was originally released in a much rougher form under the title Super Lesbian Horse RPG. It started out as a cute, goofy little game where Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic were dating (of course) and went on a bizarre adventure, but it soon turned into a genuine RPG with a more sincere story. It also got much, much more attention than I ever expected. My use of copyrighted characters made the game difficult to distribute, though, and in hindsight I was holding myself back by presenting it as a fangame. So in 2015, I decided to radically overhaul and flesh out the game with a new, expanded cast that I have full creative control over. And now here we are today, with a game that's probably got more new material in it than old, but still hopefully has the same charm if you enjoyed the original.

How long have you been working on your project? *Bobby: Work on the original project lasted the entirety of 2013, with me foolishly releasing the 1.0 version on Christmas 2013 (my 20th birthday—I spent most of the day frantically squashing bugs). I returned to the project in 2015 and have been working on the new version on and off for about two years now.

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Bobby: The humor is definitely inspired in part by Mother and Paper Mario, although my talkative protagonists might make it closer to something like a point-and-click adventure game. I've also always loved really casual comedy that skews towards normal conversation in stuff like Home Movies or Homestuck. Adventure Time has undoubtedly been a big influence, too, as one of my favorite shows, with its "anything goes" fantasy world and colorful cast of characters—but also because of its focus on grounded, introspective character moments in a surreal, fantastical setting

Gameplay-wise, early Final Fantasy titles are a big influence for sure, and I'm trying to take a page out of Zelda's book when it comes to exploration and level design. But tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons are also having an impact on the way I design encounters. I think tabletop games are still the gold standard for RPG battles, because they're often less about stats and repetition and doing what the designer wants you to do and more about improvising a fun story. Of course, an RPG Maker game can't compete with having an actual DM there to run an encounter, but I'm trying to give players lots of fun little "hey, what if I tried this?" moments with unexpected consequences.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them?   *Bobby: Honestly, the big thing for me is always time management. As development continues and my skills improve, I often find myself polishing areas and assets I'd already worked on before. If I didn't force myself to work on new stuff too I'd probably spend three years just polishing Greenridge to a mirror shine.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Bobby: Developing the protagonists further has really broadened my horizons writing-wise. I always wanted the game to have a nice emotional arc on top of all the jokes and surreal dungeons, but over time I've fleshed out Melody, Allison, Claire, and Jodie more and more, making everyone feel less like charicatures and more like real people with relatable motivations. The graphics have also gotten a lot better after several years of pixel art practice, and the level design has gotten less linear.

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don't have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Bobby: It started out as just me. Friends on Tumblr quickly showed interest in contributing designs and music to the game just because they liked the project, and before long a lot of different people were putting their own little mark on the game. Some of my favorite characters in the game have been designed by friends, and I don't know where I'd be without the absolutely phenomenal soundtrack.

What was the best part of developing the game? *Bobby: I love designing characters, and writing in all these little details to make them feel real, and figuring out how they talk to each other, and seeing my audience pick out their favorites. It's a very rewarding process for me. The second best part is getting to listen to the soundtrack and realize "Wow... this is gonna be in a game that I'm making. And it's gonna be SICK."

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Bobby: Without a doubt, Melody. She differs from myself in a lot of major ways, so I wouldn't call her a self-insert, but she was created to give myself the relatable fat bisexual trans girl protagonist with anxiety that no other piece media was ever going to give me. A lot of her insecurities in the game are even loosely inspired by stuff I've been through in real life.

I also have a ton of fun writing the villains, but they're spoilers.

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Bobby: I wish I'd been more consistent about my work ethic in the past. I worked EXTREMELY inconsistently on SLARPG throughout 2015, and I probably could've gotten a lot more done back then. But hey, live and learn.

Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore game's universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Bobby: Oh, I'm absolutely hoping to revisit this world! Part of the reason I'm putting so much effort into revamping a game I already released is so that I can work with this new cast and setting again in the future. I'm not planning too far ahead right now, but I do have some vague ideas for more games I'd like to make in this world, possibly through the eyes of characters other than Melody.

What do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Bobby: I'm looking forward to being able to play some longer games in my backlog without feeling guilty about it, haha. I've been dying to play stuff like The Witcher 3, NieR: Automata, and Final Fantasy XV, but I'm always worried it'll just take time away from my work. It's a wonder I managed to finish Breath of the Wild this year.

Is there something you're afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game?  *Bobby: This answer is gonna be a bummer, but I'm worried about is the harassment I'll have to deal with for putting out a game about LGBT characters. I've already dealt with this on several occasions, although thankfully it hasn't progressed past slur-filled anonymous messages. This toxic state of the gaming community is why I'm currently planning to release the game exclusively on itch.io, rather than exposing myself to Steam's hostile userbase. But it's a story that I think is worth telling, and for every piece of hate mail I get 20 messages from people telling me how excited they are, which is why I haven't given up.

Question from last month's featured dev: Is there any portion of your development that's gotten you outside your comfort zone? *Bobby: I think it's easy to say that most of it has been outside my comfort zone, actually. Working on SLARPG has really pushed the boundaries of what I previously thought I was capable of as an artist. When I first started I literally made a dungeon that was just a straight line with one 90 degree turn because I had no idea what else to do with the canvas. Now I can make dungeons that are actually slightly fun!

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Bobby: Study the games and stories you love, and find out what really makes them tick. Don't just mimic surface level things, but study the mechanical, structural, and thematic elements that make them so memorable. Oh, and don't put too much effort into a fangame if there's even the slightest chance it'll get taken down, haha. Make something original loosely inspired by the things you love instead.

We mods would like to thank Bobby for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved! 

Remember to check out SLARPG if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum 

[the-waste-of-time]

Devblog Guide & PAQ

This whole account is dedicated to a single project that aims to create a Tabletop Roleplaying Game based on the Homestuck universe.

If you’ve read the rest of my posts, you’re probably a little confused about what exactly is going on here. It’s natural; Tumblr is not really the typical go-to for easily-navigable, text-based content. Without further ado, I’d like to address some potentially-asked questions to pre-emptively explain some of this whole dealio.

What is Svrse?

It’s a project I’ve started to make a game about a game within a webcomic. Probably sounds pretty convoluted, but It isn’t as complex as some might think. For those unfamiliar with Homestuck, it’s basically a story about kids that find a game that changes reality, turning it into a space fantasy rpg that destroys the home planet if its players, but gives them a bunch of mystical powers and promises a huge reward at the end. There are two version of the game within Homestuck, one called ‘Sburb' and another called ‘Sgrub’ (played by another species, but that’s irrelevant for the sake of explanation). The name is basically a portmanteau of ‘Sburb’ and ‘Multiverse’, by the way.

Are there other Homestuck RPGs?

Yup. I’ve collected a whole stash of links to attempted RPGs, some more successful than others (expect a post or page on this in the future). This is just the latest attempt to turn Sburb into a pen and paper RPG. There have been many other attempts and the ones with some measure of success have been based on existing rolepalying games, but with an altered ruleset. There are some aspects of Sburb that make it hard to ‘run’ in that medium, which is probably one of the reasons most existing RPGs focus on online roleplaying rather than in-person.

If there are other RPGs already, why create Svrse?

There’s a bunch of reasons. Most of them condense down to design choices, style, content and professionalism 1. Design Most existing games - particularly those designed for online roleplaying, have elements that don’t translate well to the tabletop. This is sometimes due to Sburb itself; for example, the kids in Homestuck don’t meet each other in-person until rather late in the story and mostly rely on dreams and online communication. Most traditional RPGs assume you’re in the same room as each other and working as a team, rather than individually. Another design issue is the evolution of Homestuck and the volume of speculation involved. Because everyone can interpret the webcomic differently, designers generally choose one specific perspective and build the RPG around it - without labelling canonical, semi-canonical and fanfiction content. Svrse is gonna try and address that by making sure people are aware of subjectivity within the setting and having a design that can be modified to fit many alternative universes. That requires a generic, modular base design. 2. Style & Professionalism I will freely admit, I’m a bit of a snob about writing. There’s a particular kind of approach to it that I try to look for and I generally lean towards a mix of really verbose wordage. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Tertiary education, it’s how to write an essay and explain complex stuff to fellow students.The quality of Homestuck RPGs has been extremely variable and not the sort of thing I could really latch on to. Furthermore, the RPGs they’ve been derived from tend to be disagreeable as well. One of the advantages of using a custom game engine is that it also makes it far easier to develop professionally; my dream is to actually be able to take something like this, work on it with What Pumpkin/The Hussmeister (woo, licensing!) and come up with something that can end up on a shelf in your Local Game Store without ludicrous copyright issues. 3. Content I’ll admit it up-front; Homestuck is weird and like a lot of weird things, it’s a real weirdness magnet. Some of the homestuck RPGs I’ve really enjoyed reading during research have been pretty damn odd, either due to their thematic tone, or the author writing-in their own issues into the game, or a variety of other stuff along those lines. Sure, it’s cool to come up with your own setting and tone, but it needs to be segregated from most of the core content, so potential players and GMs can play and run the kind of game they want. That kinda necessitates having multiple game documents, so that’s the sort of approach I’m leaning towards. At this stage, I’m planning for there to be one straightforward document for players, one for the GM - with most, if not all of the spoiler-y content, with an optional third document written as an in-universe guide that can be used to explain the compromises made to Sburb to adapt it for the tabletop.

Huh?

Because reasons.

Ok, but what is with this blog and its posts?

Like I mentioned, Tumblr is an odd place for this kind of project, but it’s the epicentre of the Homestuck community. To make it somewhat navigable, there’s an index that links to important posts. There’s also some tags I’ve used to categorize content. Posts with #svrse tags are obviously related to the RPG in some form. Some of these will have other tags indicating what part of the game they relate to, such as #classpect or #intro (yes, this post is part of the intro). #IC posts are in-universe lore posts by the Waste of Space - these will become part of Book 3 and will be used to frame drier game content, toy around with weird plot shit and have a little bit of fun.

I want to help! Can I help?

Probably! I do intend to keep in control of design and planning right now, but there’s a lot of room for assistance on homestuck lore or RPG design. The best way to help is probably to join the discussion on the Omegaupdate forum thread and chat about game stuff there. I’ll be posting short snippets there and if there’s something in particular I want feedback/advice/help on, odds are I’ll ask for it there.

I have more questions! THIS EXPLAINS NOTHING!

There’s an ask button, mate, no need to textually shout all over the place. As long as your questions are relevant and respectful, you should get a reply. The more people share and question this stuff, the more likely it will eventually be completed. Please be respectful, though. This is a part-time, unpaid venture and not a job of any kind! And with that, I’ll be signing-off. It might be a while before I update this page, due to real-life studies, so until then, welcome to Svrse. You’re in for a wild ride.

[magma-paint]

Back when I was in my senior year of high school I decided to try and write a huge crossover comic called Avatars in which kids at a high school find themselves playing a game together every night in their dreams, all as the video game characters they resemble the most. It was intended to have elements of Homestuck, tabletop games, the respective games each character is matched with, trading card games, and a touch of Coraline, but after I realized I had FAR too many characters to work with and really not that much of a story lined out, I ended up shelving the entire project (Andrew Hussie I’m not).

As of late, I’ve been thinking about going back to it but reworking it with a more manageable cast size and altering some mechanics. What I was thinking about was reworking it to still involve a group of kids and teenagers playing a nightly game in their dreams, but have the story set in the 1930′s and each character’s dream self is a cartoon character from that era (or inspired by the era). The characters still enter the game by means of a mysterious doll they receive, some events require a roll of the dice to determine outcome, and they generally go through a main quest related to the character they play as before realizing they’re part of a much, much bigger quest and learning that the game is far more dangerous than they thought. In addition to cutting back on cast size, I’m considering removing clunky mechanics and story elements like previous players being forever trapped in the game if their session fails, the trading card element (the characters can still use tarot cards or spell cards, but no monster or ally cards will be involved just to keep the story streamlined), pretty much anything I thought would be interesting to include in the previous incarnation but instead ended up bloating it.

So I guess the question is should I revive this fanfic with the proposed changes and if I do should I keep the Avatars title?