#rpg advocate is cool

[nintendoduo]

Playing the Super Nintendo's Forgotten Home-Made RPGs of the '90s (Part 1)

Did you know that the Super Nintendo housing a family of tiny spiders in your closet is also technically a device for creating RPGs? (As in role-playing games; sorry, everyone who imagined their SNES shooting out rocket-propelled grenades.) This is thanks to RPG Maker: Super Dante and RPG Maker 2, the two SNES-compatible installments in the long-running series of games about making games. Although neither made it outside Japan, in 1998 a group called KanjiHack released their own English translation for RM2 and encouraged players to send in their creations, to be showcased in an extremely 1998-looking website called The Fantasy Maker's Vault.

How did that go? Well, four months later, KanjiHack announced they were fed up with receiving hundreds of half-baked, poorly-formatted games and were deleting all but the ones that were actually finished, which left them with exactly... one game. Shortly after that, the makers of RPG Maker submitted something of their own: a cease-and-desist letter. KanjiHack promptly shut down, and all those user-made SNES RPGs were forgotten forever. Or, well, until now.

Thanks to some digging on archive.org and a visit to an all-German Discord (shout out to Spatzenfärber at the RMArchiv & Makerpendium server!), we were able to find eleven English-language home-made SNES RPGs from the '90s. While playing through all of those historical artifacts across two livestreams, we were witness to things you wouldn't normally encounter in games with the Nintendo Seal of Quality, like crude jokes, ham-fisted attempts at social commentary, misspellings, underage substance abuse, and, of course, some weirdly horny stuff. Here's part one of our attempt to summarize each game, for posterity.

Note: These games can be downloaded at archive.org or rmarchiv.de (or archive.org’s archived version of rmarchiv.de, if it goes offline again).

Note 2: If Tumblr won't let you read the article without logging in (or keeps breaking the images), you can read it at Dreamwidth.

"Atonement" by RPG Advocate (05-08-1998)

Original description: A young girl sets out to establish friendly relations with an old enemy.

Right off the bat, the earliest game uploaded to the Vault (and, apparently, the oldest surviving RPG Maker user game ever) starts with a girl being told to strut her stuff in front of "important dignitaries" in order to improve her kingdom's trade relations. Emphasis on relations. The protagonist is Maia, an image-obsessed young princess who spends so long doing her make up in the opening cutscene that we seriously thought game had crashed.

It really dosen't, Maia.

Maia is told to go see her father, the king, who needs someone to travel to the neighboring nation of Yatari and prevent a war. Since all the dignitaries present decline to do it for various reasons (one guy says he's "allergic to Yatari food"), Maia volunteers to go there and "smooth things over." The way this is presented almost makes it sound like the start of a 16-bit porno. Fueling that impression is the fact that, if you snoop around the king's library, you'll find a flyer directing you to a website hosting what sure looks like erotic Final Fantasy VI fan fiction (we didn't read enough of it to find out for sure).

But, for better or worse, you never get to that part. After fighting some generic monsters in a field, you reach the city of Meese, which can be thought of as a sort of social commentary on recent changes in industry and commerce. We know this because as soon as you step in, someone comes up to you and says:

In Meese, Maia finds overpriced item shops on one side of town and people begging for money and complaining about the busted sewage system on the other (wonder what that's supposed to be commentary for?). There's also a guy who gives you a random series of directions with no context, which suggests this town might have a mental health problem, too. While on the poor side, Maia has to fight off a pack of "gangstas," who are represented as four-armed swordsmen wearing robes because this game has no "guy with baggy pants and du rag holding a machine gun" sprite.

Maia finds out that there's been a rockslide just outside of town, which means that in order to progress you have to retrieve some dynamite from a warehouse. Unfortunately, that warehouse also happens to be the place where this town stores all of its monsters and RPG enemies. Before going in, a dick named Kyle (such a far-out fantasy name) joins your party without asking because "a pretty lady like you" has no business going there alone. This game would be 1998's GOTY if you could just kick Kyle in the nads and leave him there, but sadly you're given no choice but to put up with his ass.

(Thank goodness this game's graphics aren't detailed enough to make it obvious if one of the characters has a boner.)

The "warehouse" turns out to be big dungeon that has to be navigated in a specific order, otherwise you activate the "security system" and get kicked back to the beginning. Once you figure out that you need to follow the directions that random guy in the town gave you (sorry for doubting your mental state, random guy) the main problem becomes that this poorly-kept building is infested with an enemy type called "TURD." You can't take two steps without stepping on a turd. As if dealing with Kyle wasn't bad enough.

Early on in the dungeon, you get a glimpse of a treasure chest at the other side of a wall. After a while fighting turds and other enemies, you can reach that chest, open it, and find your reward for all that effort: poison gas. Now, on top of all the turds and Kyle, you're also poisoned, which means you'll be taking damage with every other step and the dungeon will be unwinnable unless you're playing in dev mode and have infinite health. Even so, the screen-flashing "poison" effect is so annoying that you'll wish you could die. Hope you made a save state before spending the past half hour punching turds!

Three floors into this deadly, no doubt foul-smelling dungeon, you run into a human character who's just chilling there. It turns out he's the brother of a beggar who asked you for money in the town. If you gave the beggar money, his bro, who apparently has magic powers, will completely restore your HP and MP, remove any "bad status," and even let you save your game. We didn't feel like making a new save and replaying the entire dungeon to find out what happens if you cheap out, but RPG genre conventions lead us to assume that he turns into some sort of muscular demon who deals 9999 damage.

After that, you finally reach the dungeon's boss: a blue guy named "Medulla" who spouts gibberish words at you (presumably meaning "What did you do to my precious turd collection?!"). If you best him, he drops the dynamite you came here to collect and, at last, you get to clear the way out of the town! And then...

...nothing happens. There's no exit behind the "rocks" (which actually looked remarkably like barrels). In fact, if you use dev mode to get to the other side of this town in the overworld map, it's all empty. This is as far as RPG Advocate made the game. You got your hands dirty, in the worst possible sense, for nothing.

According to his Makerpendium wiki page (WARNING: German), RPG Advocate was a polarizing figure in the community who on the one hand helped translate various RPG Maker titles, but on the other was kind of a dick (was Kyle a self-insert character?). It seems that this SNES demo evolved into a PC game called Phylomortis: Atonement Gaiden, which later got two sequels called Psychopoltical Drama Phylomortis II: Triumvirate of Dystopia and Phylomortis: Avant Garde. Based on the gameplay available on YouTube, they are about as intelligible as their titles suggest. But Maia is in them, so we're glad to know she eventually made it out of that shitty town.

"Daxara" by Adol (05-16-198)

Original description: Geren travels from Castle Harmony to learn of the origin of appearing monsters who are robbing the world's Shards in order to end it.

Like 40% of RPG Maker games from this era, this one starts with a knight being told he has to go talk to the king, who is a kind man. We know this because not one but two people tell you "The king is a kind man," though they're both within the king's earshot so there's a chance they're only saying that to avoid being shackled in a dungeon.

King Kind tells you that someone has attacked a shrine for unknown reasons, so you need to go there and find out what the hell. As you leave the castle, some lady named Sarah says she heard about your mission and asks to come along with you, because she's just very passionate about shrine-related crimes, we guess. If you say "Yes," she joins your party. If you say "No," she also joins your party, but first she says "You're such a funny guy!" Way to be a Kyle, Sarah.

Once you reach the shrine, you run into enemies like "Thing," which look exactly like red turds (please consult a physician if this happens to you), and "Batling," which suck. That's their power: they suck.

There are a few chests around the shrine, some of which contain an item called "fluid" that you probably shouldn't be touching with your bare hands. Soon, you reach the end of shrine and find the mysterious attacker: it's some sort of dog-person called "?" who says you're too late, because his minions have already stolen the Shard that was in this shrine and will use it to "destroy this pitiful world!" Oh no! If only you hadn't been delayed by Sarah... is she an agent of "?"?

Anyway, once you fight dog-person "?" he suddenly becomes a fish-person called "Sinister." We are already witnessing the fabric of reality disintegrating due to his meddling with the kind king's shrine Shard.

If you manage to defeat Sinister ? the Dog-Fish-Person, he drops some more fluid (ewww) and some flesh that you're supposed to show the king as proof that you killed him. Does the king distrust you so much that he forces you to carry around the decomposing flesh of his enemies as proof? That's very unkind of him. The worst part is that once you get back to the king, he doesn't even acknowledge all the bloody flesh you brought him. Instead, he sends you to another town to deliver a note to some sort of mythical being named "Colin."

That sounds like a pretty urgent mission. So, naturally, as soon as you reach the other town, you get distracted by side missions. For instance, one guy tells you that "strange things" have taken over his basement, which is bad because that's where he keeps all of his coffins. If you agree to go into the coffin collector's basement, he says "You won't regret this!" Then you go down and instantly get ambushed by sworded skeletons that can kill you with one blow.

So that was a lie.

Once you decide to move on with the game, you can talk to Colin, who tells you that the rest of your epic adventure awaits on the other side of a door and gives you an item called "Colinkey." You might think you can use the Colinkey to open the Colindoor, but nope. You can't do shit. This is where the game unceremoniously ends: with a closed door and the disquieting certainty that you will never know what's on the other side. (Unless you check with dev move, in which case you learn that it's "some unfinished maps.")

"Forever..." by Kypdev (05-17-1998)

Original description: A boy heads off on a series of quests.

In this one, they don't even have to tell you to go talk to the king. Your character, Kyp, wakes up in his bed saying "Damnit! I am late!" and you instinctively know that the thing he's late for is going to talk to the king. Note that Kyp is so manly that he sleeps in his armor.

Before leaving the house, you can talk to your family: your mom, who tells you to dress warmly for your mission (I'm wearing clothes over an armor, mom), your dad, who wishes he could join you but says his adventuring days are over, your cat and dog, who bark and meow at you respectively, and your baby sibling, who magically vanishes as soon as your mom exits the room.

There's a church next to your house, and if you go in (maybe to seek solace for the sudden disappearance of your little brother or sister) the minister will confess to you that he isn't really religious. He's just in it for those sweet minister bucks and the tax-exempt status.

There's also a bar, and if you enter it you'll find that your dad has gone there to drown his sorrows and is already shitfaced. Now you have to live with the shame of being related to such a freaking lightweight.

The most sordid part of all this is that if you talk to the bartender, he'll tell you to "have a drink," even though everyone knows that alcoholism has a genetic component. Also, uh, doesn't the game's description refer to Kyp as a "boy"? He's just very bulky on account of carrying an armor around all day.

Anyway, after fighting generic monsters in a field, you reach the castle and... hmm, what was it you were supposed to do here? Let's see if anyone around can remind you:

Something tells us we're supposed to talk to the queen. Once you do, she says "Please talk to the king," so you do that too, since she asked nicely. The king, in turn, asks: "Wilst thou aid my kingdom and bring peace?" If you say "No" (maybe you'd rather investigate the case of the magical disappearing baby), he tells you to "Leave mine eyes, coward!" but he must be suffering from dementia because if you talk to him again, he'll greet you like the first time and ask the same thing. If you say "Yes," he tells you to... talk to the queen.

Kinda feel like we're getting jerked around here.

The queen informs you that thy task, should thy choose to accept it, is to rescue their daughter from a rogue knight. To begin the quest, she asks you to go search in a specific tombstone in the castle's cemetery, which would suggest that perhaps we're a bit too late to save the princess. But, before doing that, let's see what the diverse cast of characters has to say now:

After maximizing your luck stat, you go check out that tombstone the queen mentioned, which is actually the entrance to an underground passage leading to the island where the princessnapper lives in a tower. Upon climbing the tower you get to confront the evil Misaka, who laughs at you and calls you a child. Yeah, a booze-drinking, armor-wearing child who's about to kick your ass.

Misaka doesn't take being defeated by a muscular little boy very well. In fact, he's so embarrassed that he makes like a baby and vanishes.

The princess, Dana, is so thankful for being rescued that she magnanimously announces she's joining you on your quest. Wait, wasn't your quest to rescue her? That's not so magnanimous then. By the way, if you get tired walking up and down the tower, for merely 1G you and Dana can curl up inside a talking pot that somehow serves as an inn. A tempting offer, but we passed on the chance to spend the night together Chavo del Ocho style.

So, what's the game gonna be about now that you retrieved the princess? Nothing, because once you go back through the underground passage, you get a message saying "end of beta," followed by RPG Maker 2's default end credits sequence. We can find no evidence of Kypdev developing any further versions of this game, or any game. He's just Kyp now, presumably.

Did you know you can only insert 30 images in a Tumblr post? We didn't until now, so... to be continued in another post, which will hopefully take less than 26 years this time.

[niofo]

after completing the game twice, i have some thoughts on the ending

overall i enjoyed it, and the whole game is way better plotted than inquisition, but i have some issues, and one of those issues is solas. i mentioned before that i neither like nor dislike him, he's a character i don't really care much about in big part bcos of how much of post inquisition lore is centered around him and i just really got bored with his presence. still, i did all the memories and the like, bcos i like to 100% the game. i don't really have anything against them in particular, and discussing what we saw with the team was cool. what i have issue with is it looks like the whole memories and mythal plot was just to give the players option to redeem solas? which i don't really get.

like don't get me wrong, i like that there is this option, it's an rpg, but it's weird to me that collecting his memories and getting mythal's thing is only relevant to this path? through this memories and overall context we learned that he turned against the spirits he allied against, his agent that got blighed, his general felassan, and his beloved mythal. we don't just know that he's a god of lies and that he turned against the inquisition, but long list of similar situations. why the only way this matters is when we want to help him? why would my rook, who knows all of this now and said multiple times that he doesn't trust solas, now when solas suddenly turns around and praises his team, can only say "wow, thanks, bro" and not "what the hell are you scheming by trying to be nice all of sudden".

i'm not saying that rook should successfully prevent the whole fade prison thing, but it did felt like rook who never for a moment trusted solas was more of an afterthought, even though we have two (very well done) options of stabbing him, and only one to play nice. idk, i feel like it's just a lot of little things compiling, like the fact that my inquisitor, who vowed to stop solas, is now suddenly advocating for giving him a chance. he would absolutely not, and it's one of the very few options we actually can input in the game!

there were elements when we could very vocally distrust solas and those were well done, i liked them, but there were others when this line of characterization just faltered and we didn't get the chance to voice out suspicion. and the fact that learning about his previous betrayals didn't matter in the end, was one of them.

[marshvlovestv]

Ahh, it’s been like two months and I’m over halfway through the next ten, and I still haven’t finished ranking these ten games. Adding Let’s Playing to the mix has certainly confused the pace of the Bag of Games process, but I still want to keep up with it!

1. The Case of the Golden Idol - I played the DLC yesterday and that’s really what made me realize oh crap I need to do this ranking. This is the good shit right here, a fun story told through a series of bite-sized logic puzzles. Absolutely one of the best detective games I’ve ever played, right up there with Paradise Killer.

2. Pentiment - This game is a beautiful tapestry, totally devoted to its artistry, its historic faithfulness, its rich world, its intriguing mystery, its roleplaying potential and its interesting social mechanics. I’m very much a person who just enjoys choosing dialogue options for the sake of choosing them and doesn’t really care if they actually make an impact, but when they do make a tangible impact? That’s the icing on the cake.

3. Citizen Sleeper - We’re still up in S-tier, baby! Such a unique and incredibly written take on the RPG. I love games where I have to make tough decisions!

4. The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow - My brother played this one too. I was just talking about it with him and the ending was, let’s say, controversial between the two of us. I liked it fine. As my first ever completed Let’s Play, I can imagine this game will remain special to me for a long time.

5. Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion - Silly and delightful and very upsetting. This is literally the only piece of media that should be allowed to incorporate COVID into its story for the next, like, twenty years.

6. JUMPGRID - A cool little rhythm-action-arcadey thing? It never had a chance at the top half of the list with the five superb games already mentioned, but it’s still blood-pumping fun.

7. Genesis Noir - It dragged on a little longer than I would have liked, to the point where I actually got a little tired of pointing and clicking, can you even imagine? But ooh, this game is still brimming with style and interesting ideas.

8. Memoir En Code: Reissue - I am forever an advocate for game developers making weird little personal projects like this! I probably won’t go out of my way to play them but! If you put them in a big itch.io bundle! I will absolutely play your short autobiographical games and have a hoot of a time!

9. Epiphany City - I don’t mind that this is a game more oriented towards kids. A lot of the puzzles were fun and creative despite being simple! But the graphics were ugly, the controls were clunky, and the story was cheesy and dumb, and I don’t think family-friendliness excuses any of that.

10. Verdant Skies - Definitely one of those instances where this could be a fantastic entry into a genre for all that I know, but I do not enjoy that genre so it doesn’t really matter.

[autisticgirliesbracket]

SLARPERS TO ME!!!!! Advocating for submissions for zinnia super lesbian animal rpg, a lesbian written as neurotypical, and also a cool dragon (beloved by autism havers everywhere)

this ^!!

[savevsfacemelt]

Post-game Musings - Heart

Back in December, when talking about Scum & Villainy, I said that I was also running a slightly intermittent game of Heart.

Well, 'slightly' became 'very', and 'intermittent' became 'sporadic', and faced with the campaign continuing to not happen for the next few months, I decided last week to pull the plug. It's a bummer, but that's how 90% of RPG campaigns end - not with a bang, or even a whimper, but the nagging whine of incompatible schedules and commitments slowly grinding into each other just below the waterline.

...but what the heck is Heart, anyway?

--

Heart's great: This game? This game fuckin' rules. It throws wonderfully evocative classes (Wizards made of bees! Train paladins! Debt priests! The Crow, from the movie The Crow!) into a nightmare world of meat dungeons, subterranean moons, gangster druids, blooddrenched angels, electronic hells and interdimensional subways. The art's great, the writing's great, the setting's crammed full of evocative ideas, and the system... reads slightly better than it plays, and the exploration subsystem needs clearer explanations for how to make it work at the table, but it's still pretty bloody good. If the opportunity comes up to run/play Heart again, I'll do it in a, well, heartbeat.

Meaty beaty big and bouncy: The strongest element of Heart are beats, which are the core of both its experience system and its approach to GMing. At the end of a session, each player picks two beats - events, consequences or choices - that they would like to happen (or at least start happening) to their character. These range from the minor ('kick someone off a roof') to the major (''convert an important NPC to your cause') to the extreme ('take final revenge upon your secret master'), and the character gets a corresponding minor/major/extreme power-up when the beat is fulfilled. The GM's job is then to set up all those beats in the next session - and that's how you design scenarios and sessions. No maps, no scripts, no big plans, but a focus on giving the players what they want while building on what came before.

Planning is my heroin: I, of course, fucked that up immediately. Not by pre-planning a big story arc or dropping in railroad tracks, but by getting caught up in the coolness of every character. I wanted to see where they would end up, which meant I started getting ideas about where they'd end up, which meant I planned (rough) arcs for each character and dropped hints and foreshadowing and plot threads for players to follow those arcs. And my ideas are good! The players seemed to like them! But they're my ideas, and I struggle to put my ideas to one side even when a game pushes the players' ideas to the forefront, or to let myself take a reactive GMing role rather than actively driving things. The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle - me riffing on player inputs, the players riffing on mine, everyone being happy - and maybe that's how the game would have turned out in the end, who knows.

Everyone's busy again: Look, I'm not saying pandemic lockdowns were a good thing, but at least they meant everyone was home, bored and desperate for online interaction on a Thursday night. It was a good time for gaming - I think I was running 4 games a fortnight (via Zoom) at one point. But that's over now, and folks have a lot of things on their plates again, and I'm back to competing with things like jobs and children and sex for attention again, and I tend to lose those competitions.

Am I advocating for another pandemic? Yes No. But sigh.

--

What else is happening in gaming land?

I tried to get a Lancer campaign off the ground, but I have a limited number of friends interested in a tactical-combat-focused RPG, and most of them were busy, so I'm putting that off until autumn.

I've just started running facilitating guiding a Wanderhome game, and it's got lots of promise, but it's a challenge in some ways. A game with no conflict, no plot and little-to-no external drama? Just vibes? That's not my strong suit - but then again, it's been a long time since I had to learn new gaming skills, so I’m into it.

And I should (fingers crossed) be running a one-shot, maybe even a 3-shot, of Achtung! Cthulhu next month. That'll be fun.

Nothing is more fun than shooting Nazis.

[zimmbzon]

One of the things I consistently LOVE about Izzy is that she asks questions if she doesn’t know something, and she doesn’t pretend to be able to do something that she finds difficult. It lets the viewer know that not knowing stuff is not socially bad. We all don’t know stuff and it’s cool to just ask. It okay to not be confident with maths under pressure. That’s another not knowing stuff situation.

She models advocating for herself, she models open honest curiosity. And yes, she does seem to feel a little vulnerable when she goes this, BUT SHE KEEPS DOING IT ANYWAY

Izzy, more than anyone else I have seen on d20, consistently shows us that you don’t have to be perfect at maths or dnd to be an incredibly valuable member of the team. And by doing so she opens the door to many who would have shied away from ttrpgs because of these things.

RPGs are for everyone.

The *audacity* of Izzy to just list out numbers and wait for other people to do the math. Truly no one is doing it like her.

[productsreviewings]

Welcome! This column is a part of a sequence the place Tom's Information workers members share what they're taking part in and having fun with proper now, with the aim of serving to you discover nice video games you have missed. Be sure you try our earlier entry, the place we discuss Hello-Fi Rush.Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot appears totally incomprehensible to anybody who hasn't learn or watched Akira Toriyama's beloved sequence. Who're these dozen characters? Why can everybody fly? Who's the inexperienced man? How a lot hair gel do you suppose these guys use? I can't, in good religion, advocate the sport to a normal viewers in a strong motion/RPG temper. I am unable to even promise that DBZ followers will prefer it, contemplating they've heard this specific story a thousand occasions earlier than, and the "high-octane martial arts battle" to "countless cutscenes" ratio is not favorable.And but, it is the one recreation I've wished to play persistently for the previous two weeks and counting.Since October, I really feel like I've performed nothing however nice video games. Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope was nice. Bayonetta 3 was nice. God of Battle: Ragnarok was nice. Marvel's Midnight Solar was nice. Cyberpunk 2077, which I lastly received round to taking part in final month, was significantly cool. After 5 months of nice video games, I've come to the unlucky conclusion that nice video games are boring. And when an awesome recreation cannot ship, a reasonably good recreation steps up.Dragon Rock(Picture credit score: Bandai Namco Leisure Inc.)If you have not learn our Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot assessment, this is the brief model: It is a semi-open-world motion/RPG the place you play by your complete story from DBZ's unique manga/anime run. You management the sequence protagonist Goku, in addition to a handful of different characters as they fly by massive ranges, struggle enemies in real-time battles, acquire tons of assets, cook dinner stat-boosting meals, full aspect quests, chat with aspect characters, and So disclaimer in the event you already personal the DBZ video games, this may not change your thoughts. However there's strong fight and character customization, and it is enjoyable to completely discover some areas that the anime solely hints at.The sport debuted again in 2019 and just lately obtained a current-gen replace for PS5 and Xbox Collection X. As such, it boasts higher graphics, smoother body charges and sooner load occasions than earlier than. With the replace patch sparking renewed curiosity in Kakaro, I believed it was time to present a full assessment of the sport, and I hope to get it down as soon as I am completed writing.Nonetheless, because it typically occurs, actual life performed havoc with my plans. With out going into the gory particulars, I am at the moment recovering from two completely different surgical procedures, and as any wholesome affected person can attest, not feeling 100% has a sluggish and regular impact in your psychological state. All of the sudden, I did not need to immerse myself in an awesome journey or grasp a sophisticated gameplay system. Though I am not proud to confess it, I really feel far more like button-mashing by a well-known story, with a lot of vivid colours and flashy results alongside the best way. I wished to see a bunch of numbers after minimal effort on my half, and zoned out when the cutscenes began dragging on too lengthy.Briefly, I wished a pleasant recreation. And that is precisely what Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is.Superb recreation in protection(Picture credit score: Bandai Namco Leisure Inc.)In 2018, I discovered myself speaking to a buddy of mine about what video games we have been taking part in. It was the top of the yr, so we had an absolute plethora of fantastic titles to select from. Was I taking part in God of Battle? Or learn Lifeless Redemption 2? Or Spider-Man? Or Murderer's Creed Odyssey? Or Shadow of the Tomb Raider?No, I replied

bluntly; I used to be taking part in Dragon Ball Xenoverse, one other light-weight motion/RPG that exists primarily for fanservice functions. It wasn't one of the best recreation obtainable on the time; Heck, it wasn't even one of the best Dragon Ball recreation.He replied that I had chosen an excellent recreation, and that they have been typically one of the best type of video games.Fairly good video games, he argued, don't have any expectation of survival. They are not an enormous a part of essential discourse, and followers do not endlessly argue whether or not they're true masterpieces or overrated fad fodder. Nobody makes use of them to justify the pointless console wars. You do not have to suppose deeply in regards to the controller when it is in your hand. They're the online game equal of pizza: good, satisfying fare that does not problem your style buds in any manner, however virtually by no means permits you to down.Simply as there isn't a common definition of an awesome recreation, there isn't a common definition of an awesome recreation. However I believe most individuals will know one after they see one. These are "video game-y" video video games, for lack of a greater phrase, whose sole operate is to entertain you whilst you play them. Age of Empires IV is a good recreation; SpellForce III is a reasonably good recreation. Ring of Elden is a good recreation; Mad Max is an excellent recreation. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a good recreation; Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is a wonderful recreation.Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is not increasing my cultural horizons, or interrogating my sensibilities, or exhibiting me one thing I've by no means seen earlier than in a online game. However when actual life will get me down I smile. It is most likely too highfalutin to say that the sport is medicinal. However it lifted my spirits when a deep, weighty recreation would most likely make me really feel extra considerate and introspective.Similar to you'll be able to't eat pizza for each meal, you'll be able to't play excellent video games and nothing. Some video games ought to problem us, whether or not it is when it comes to gameplay or story or construction. However I am glad that even because the gaming medium evolves and matures, there's nonetheless a spot for titles like Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. And in the event you're in want of an emotional pick-me-up, you would possibly as nicely be proud of it.In the present day's Finest Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot Offers

[thefinalboss387]

Bowser Appreciation Post!!

Right, so, I need to talk about why this big dumb turtle dragon is my #1 absolute favorite character of all time. This gets pretty personal - I feel like any discussion about why a character is your favorite ever needs to be personal - but I felt the need to get it out there. If it brings fellow Bowser superfans my way, even better! I require all the friendships!

I’ve always had a love for villain characters, even as a very small child. I’m 35 now, I was born in 1987, so I’m old and have a lot of nostalgia for older stuff. As a child, I loved Lord Zedd from Power Rangers, Jafar from Aladdin, Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget, Frieza and Cell from Dragon Ball Z... my entire life, if it had a villain, you can bet that villain was probably my favorite character.

My mom was pretty young when she had me. She was a gamer, and had an NES when I was a baby. Some of my earliest memories involve playing old NES games with my mom. So, naturally, as I played the early Mario games, Bowser was my favorite. Yet, as a child, I was terrified of boss battles, which is ironic because now they are usually my favorite part of any video game.

Yet, because it was Bowser, I had to fight him myself. Somewhere in some old family photo album, there exists pictures of me at different (young) ages, smiling in front of a TV screen depicting the final Bowser boss battles in Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and Super Mario 64. It became something of a childhood tradition; I got to the final Bowser boss fight, I had a picture taken to memorialize the occasion.

Back then, there wasn’t much characterization in video games - the characters were little sprites without much life or personality to them. Bowser would pop up, you would fight him, you would win, the end. He was this big, scary, final boss threat... and that’s all he really was. Still, he looked cool, he was a villain, and that was enough for me to love him!

He wasn’t my favorite character, by any means. No, for most of my life, that honor went to Jafar from Aladdin. I watched that movie - the animated 1992 one - so many times as a kid that I can literally recite the entire film from memory. And don’t get me wrong, Jafar is still very high on my list of favorite characters of all time. But what made me boost Bowser up to that number one spot?

Well... As I grew up, so too did Bowser. Each game he appeared in was just another chapter in his long, storied history. We got to see him as a baby in the Yoshi games, we saw him in so many different types of battles and situations, he freakin’ goes Go-Karting and plays Tennis with his enemies, the RPG games gave him a more humorous, silly side to his personality that eventually even started carrying over to the main games. He’s the scary final boss, sure, but... he’s also kind of dumb and lovable?

A few years back, I got a job working with kids. I fell into the job almost by accident, but was immediately taken aback at how much I loved the job. In all my previous customer service jobs, I only ever saw the worst of humanity. Customers complaining and cheating to get any price reduction or refund they possibly could. Managers that didn’t give a shit about their staff, milking them dry and draining every ounce of their souls. Coworkers who constantly backstabbed and shit-talked each other. Greed and money were the bottom line for everyone, no matter who got harmed or inconvenienced along the way. Working with kids showed me the best of humanity - compassion, family, togetherness, empathy, unconditional love, celebrating other peoples’ victories and strengths. Even on my bad days, there is some little moment with the kids to cherish and hold onto.

I take my role as a mentor to these kids very seriously. A lot of what I do at work is talk to them, make them comfortable, get them to open up, talk them through their problems and help them become better people, advocate for them, etc. I care about the kids, and take great pride in what I do. I had a pretty rough, traumatic childhood (fights with Bowser not included in the traumatic parts), and there’s no better way to battle your own inner demons than by helping children beat theirs.

One day, I was playing Mario Kart with the kiddos at work (best job ever). I picked Bowser, as I often do. He is the villain, after all. The kids noticed that I liked Bowser, and they all began debating among themselves which child was which Koopaling to my Bowser. They argued over which of them was my favorite, because the favorite clearly NEEDS to be Bowser Jr. The one with the craziest hair HAD to be Ludwig. The funniest one HAD to be Lemmy. etc etc

It was then that it kind of hit me.... Bowser’s a family man. I mean, I always knew that, of course. Even as early as Super Mario Bros. 3 in 1990, he had the Koopalings as his mini-bosses. He had that adorable Parental Controls video for the Switch, showing how much he cared for Bowser Jr. Even his Yoshi appearances as a baby had Kamek as his caretaker and father figure, a role that continues on even into Bowser’s adult “life”. He has people that care about him and love him, despite how big and scary and one-dimensional he initially seems.

But it was right then, playing Mario Kart with a bunch of kids that I care about and have mentor relationships with, kids that were arguing which Koopaling they were, that I began to identify with Bowser. This scary, intimidating final boss figure has been in my life for longer than I can even remember, I have the childhood pictures to prove it, and he is a dad. Not only that, but a good one.

I’m not even mad about Bowser Jr. being retconned to “his ONLY son”, because to me it means that the Koopalings flocked to him for some other reason, or he took them in and/or adopted them. Regardless of the nature of their relationship, he has several child lieutenants that, for whatever reason, follow and adore him. Like me, Bowser has children in his life that he cares about, and that are not biologically his own.

Once this flood of realization hit me... that was all it took for me to LOVE the Koopa King.

The love was always there, I think. How could it not be?? When he wants to be intimidating, he is freaking terrifying - look no further than Bowser’s Fury. When he takes a break from being the main villain of a game, he’s a lovable, goofy tsundere with too high an opinion of himself. His lava castle aesthetic is so dramatic and extra. His battle music is always amazing.

I just never quite realized the impact he had on my life, or how much he mattered to me, until a bunch of kids started arguing over which Koopaling they were.

Imagine the surprise and humor on my mom’s face when I, a 35-year-old man, told her that the only thing I want for Christmas is a giant Lego set of Bowser.

[ravenadottir]

what do you think the characters would be doing after the show/how would they be using their platform? for example, i think lottie would be using hers to give people astrology readings and stuff and i think the season 3 mc would be sooo problematic online

ok but you know what? definitely! s3 mc would be causing the stir she wanted to in the villa and couldn't. i'm almost certain she would be raging and saying absurd things to get attention, something like gabby hana you know? BIG YIKES.

one thing is certain... all of them (purposely or not) would be making thirst traps... and definitely supporting masks and registering to vote. so that's a certainty for almost all of them.

lottie. witchtok constantly. not necessarily giving readings but she would be an apologist and majority on that tag. her instagram would be split into two accounts: one for her personal endeavours like thirst traps and *looks of the day*, and a second for her brand as a makeup artist/personal stylist. cause i think that would be so fucking cool! lottie knows how to perpetuate her personal brand and would use social media for that as well. here's some edits i did in the past to explain it better. i headcanon a collab with elisa for wigs that they would both wear on social media, so that's something i really like! plus, advocating for women's rights, especially when a male politician says something dumb, so you know, EVERY SINGLE DAY.

bobby. in the middle of the pandemic? can't help thinking he would be doing some humorous videos, but in my head they're not the funny type. just some cringey ones... don't get me wrong, but bobby is only funny when he's not trying to, and in social media he strikes me as the type that not only makes videos but also puts the towel over his head to play a girl, so that's probably the majority of his content. some food of course, and DEFINITELY some *cute* selfies that he knows it works as thirst traps. i think he talks about registering to vote and blm, but doesn't give his opinion on anything else, politics wise. here's bobby's feed for the rest.

gary. i'm not thrilled to inform that gary would be thirst trapping all the time. now that he's relatively famous there's no reason why not posting those pics and videos. between tik tok trends to show off his muscles, and instagram to... well, do that exact same thing, he might take some time to show nan and the soup kitchen, but overall... thirst traps. possibly being blunt about masks and registering but his content is very closed off. also, he will get a dog and encourage people to adopt. there's a lot of pranks on dicky and vice versa, so that's something i thought for his social media, just couldn't find a good faceclaim that has a variety of pics.

lucas. mostly bringing awareness about covid and the use of masks, probably pointing it out a couple of political disputes, and definitely advising people to be careful about their votes all around the world. i like to think he's a huge advocate for legalization of a certain practice that women have to beg to have (you know the one), and i think he knows exactly how to make a thirst trap without making one. stop asian hate and blm carrds present, and often giving his followers the incentive to donate. DEFINITELY 'look of the day' for at least the weekend, and lots and lots of landscape from the places he's been visiting or wishing to.

henrik. he's everywhere and he takes his phone to talk about it. no doubt henrik is having the time of his life by travelling alone, or with his wife, and doing lives at all times. i think you would see him doing lives in the middle of the night, or watching the sunset/sunrise with his followers, besides making his *questionable* forest foraging and recipes. survival videos? MOST LIKELY THAN YOU THINK. here's his social media, where i covered mostly of what his relationship would like on instagram. (heavily based off "beyond the hill").

carl. the amount of rpg on his stories? immaculate. chess? you bet! lots and lots of carl's launchings for his company, which does have a separate account but he can't quite separate himself from it and it shows on his feed. his relationship would be discreetly displayed with cryptic captions since he's not so sentimental. here's his feed with some personal things he would be encouraged to post and boost that confidence of his.

anon that asked for more hannah stuff, this is for you:

hannah. i have one for her because i do like her aesthetic. don't mind the faceclaim, it was the only one i could find in so many situations. horses, books, some *cute* selfies, travelling pics and more. on tiktok definitely booktok, no doubt about it. she might do a lot of the "telling the story of my book as a story time" trend to promote it and say "technically it's real life."

elisa. it's all about branding and she knows how to do it well! some influencers might not get political because of how they can be perceived but i think elisa doesn't give a flying fuck about that. she talks often about blm and vaccines on her stories. i get a jackie aina vibe from her when talking about brands that support/encourage dark skin models and influencers, so that's a plus. she will give shit to a makeup brand that doesn't care for shade range and won't hide her feelings about it. here's her usual feed, with looks and tours (that i'm certain she would do a lot). i also think she'll eventually cave and have a brand of wigs, clothes and makeup, AS SHE SHOULD.

hope. there's no question about her activism on social media and i like to imagine she would be speaking up against anti-vaxxers and racism, mostly. just like yewande, she would probably talk about every time she felt the show might've favoured people that don't look like her. we would be getting the hot tea on everything since she's so honest. there's also lots of looks and promoting her friends' products because she supports them so much. priya's clothing line, elisa x lottie collab, etc. here's the feed i made for her a while ago.

chelsea. she might not be that deep into politics but she'll talk about covid and how people should be more careful about it, "wearing all these cute masks my babes lozza made for us!". LOTS of *look of the day* and tours on the spaces she decorates, besides the behind the scenes of parties and weddings (of ex-islanders) that i know she would throw. her feed also includes her closet, supporting her friends' endeavours and promoting them, besides some random mug collection shots and FOR SURE a pug selfie with mc.

priya. there's not much to say except for the occasional thirst trap (with those amazing thigh, ffs she should), lots of vaccine warnings, definitely political anecdotes and her clothing brand. i love to think she would have an actual boutique once things get settled after covid, and she would use social media to promote every line. her feed consists mostly of her travelling, designs, supporting the girls and her photoshoots.

kassam. lots and lots of backstage photos and that *prickly* way of demanding people to use their brains and wear a mask, besides getting the vaccine. in studio or just before the stage, selfies with a clothing line with his logo and definitely pics with islanders he didn't get to meet but is now friends with. during covid he would be using his lives to play for his followers, like lots of dj's and musicians i've seen doing on reddit and tiktok, probably called "late night music" or something like that. encouraging followers to donate for causes as well.

noah. not so huge on social media, might be the most discrete of them all. there would be lots and lots of pictures of the mornings before he opens the library, because i sincerely think he would keep his job. not the most outspoken about certain matters but carrds like the blm's and 'stop asian hate''s are on all of his bio's. i do like to imagine him taking selfies with the boys from the show, like ibrahim. he would be so present in noah's feed it's not even funny. the casual "cute unintentional" thirst trap too. family photos from ages ago and lots of his siblings as well. he does love to write long captions for whenever he posts his girlfriend. one thing though, during the first few months on the outside, he wouldn't be so present, afraid of facing the bashing on him if he got with mc in the show. that could be a reason for him to stay away until people "forget" about it.

marisol. SO - MANY - SUITS - SELFIES it makes me cry happy tears. between advocating for women's rights in a more technical way, she would definitely be using her platform to also talk about lgbtq+, especially after the realization she had during her journey. lots and lots of activism about those things, and i think she would be doing a fine job. definitely promoting the girls' products/services and an occasional thirst trap with a braless suit look.

rocco. covidiot. (i just wanted to use this nickname one more time). he might get a hard time from followers and villa buddies because of his stance on vaccines. i just hope he reads some articles instead of sharing bibity-bobity-bullshit on facebook and instagram. there's lots of vaccine memes on his comment sections no matter what he posts though. it's gonna take a while for the public to move on.

[inicsperience]

Why I think Twitter is the best Social Media yet.

I've advocated for people to join twitter for only forever. I see literally no downside to being on the platform, apart from maybe if you decide you're the kind of person that wants to engage with political opinions on it. Here's what I'll give away in this one though. If you've had an account for a while, and dont know how to get kickstarted OR If you dont have an account, and just dont see the value in it yet - I'll tell how to get started, and what you gotta do to get started.

Ready for them tips? Yes? Cool, let's go. 🦅

1. Don't engage with politics. 🦺

I know politics has the tendency to really rile us up, but more than being either an echo chamber, or a place to garner hate, I dont think Social Media changes anything much. Unless you're someone aiding people in some way at the time of a political crisis, dont bother. I get it, we all "talk about" all of our political stances, but in Chet Faker's most famous words, "Talk is Cheap my darling"

2. Make friends. 👯‍♀️

After having been confined to our homes for the last three years, there's reasons why the "Creator Economy" has boomed right at this very moment, but that's something to ponder about in a different article. Focus on wanting to find people you connect with - whether it's someone who wrote about the background they come from, or how they grew a mailing list - and that's your pain point, go looking for those people. At the WORST you know what'll happen - they won't engage with you. Imagine that. It's not even half as bad as irl, where you can be ridiculed for saying or believing something, you can LITERALLY hide behind your screen. And as someone who has a small following - you have absolutely nothing to lose.

3. There's never enough content. 🗺

In business and in content creation, there is LITERALLY never enough content. No matter what you say, nothing is ever SO ORIGINAL that it has never been thought before. So stop it with your stupid imposter syndrome, and get to it - just start sharing, if nothing else, you'll find some friends you really, really vibe with. If you're feeling shy about creating your own content - here's a thing none of you think, even your favourite creators, aren't making NOVEL content, it's just packaged differently.

4. Package differently.

Things aren't new - but guess what, you can do them differently! I'm no Harry Dry, so I won't be able to give you a product by product comparison, but I think I know at least 10 examples in the back of my mind, if I think hard enough - of products that have changed our landscape, simply because they were different. Think about it - ClubPenguin & Polly Pocket paved the way for today's Gather Town & RPGs probably(gamers dont come @ me, I a noob). Hi5 paved the way for Facebook & Orkut, Myspace paved the way for literally all of streaming & the creator economy. But with things diversifying so much, there is literally no end to differenciation - so maybe you're good at illustrations, maybe you're good at writing, maybe you're great at treating people like they're people - there's a nook for everyone.

5. Finding your nook, corner, niche, tribe.

In simple words - do things YOU like to do. Don't stress so much about needing to find an "audience" that you forget to have fun, that's purely the magic of not having to run a business off of your own personal twitter. Whether this means sharing the music you love, or writing about what your favourite musicians love, or diving down the rabbithole of people who write about psychological triggers in marketing, the niches are endless - but go looking for them. If you cant find them, I'll drop a list of some of my favourite creators at the end of this, and maybe that'll help

6. Help/Aid someone.

That's human speak for what we call "Adding Value" in twitter speak, but essentially you want to be saying something that people might derive some kind of value from - there are more than ENOUGH creators who do this on the platform. Sometimes even different aspects of the same topic, other times adding to someone else's content. Maybe you noticed something or a connection only a small subset might've, but what's stopping you from sharing that There is absolutely 0 reason for something like your own opinion to limit you this way.

Those are I think the 6 main tips to Twitter tbh - but if you find you need to learn how to navigate twitter, you're in luck! Click through! And if you're looking for some of my favourite creators on the platform, you're in EXTRA luck there too. Here's a list.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Combat Wheelchairs

The Heroes Without Limits project was created by disability advocate Sara Thompson, "producing and streaming real play tabletop games with an all-disabled/chronically ill/neurodivergent cast and crew." Thompson's work also includes creating homebrew RPG add-ons "roleplay and address disability" in your own games. A recent addition is the Combat Wheelchair, rules for integrating wheelchair using adventurers into your Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition games: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ysDrH2vqKz6NSGkf3_0WX5tV-Ch_t_N_ The chair comes with its own attacks and added capabilities - like being able to fix a weapon in place on it and ramming/tyre striking your adversaries, or high-speed descents on sloped terrain. The docs also come with a new character class, "The Paralympian." Combat Wheelchairs' obvious, manifest coolness has not prevented gatekeeping yum-yukkers from raising spurious objections to them, and these are addressed in the homebrew rules. But far more interesting than Combat Wheelchairs' detractors are its boosters, who have unleashed a torrent of delightful and creative new media building on Thompson's work.

I am most impressed with sculptor Russ Charles and character designer Thomas Lishman's Combat Wheelchair miniatures for Strata Minis, which the company has christened "Dungeons and Diversity." https://strataminiatures.com/shop/?store-page=Dungeons-and-Diversity-c57880798 There are 4 minis in all, available for preorder now as either STL files (£5/ea) or resin/metal 3D prints (£15/ea) with a ship-date of Sept 21 and 25% of proceeds donated to https://www.ehlers-danlos.org/.

[loopy777]

RE: WIPs game: do I even want to know what Dicebenders is is it another scam how many times are the Gaang gonna get arrested for scamming

No, this time it's me scamming people. XD The dice in question are the RPG Dungeons & Dragons kind.

For a while I was doing a screencap webcomic in the style of "DM of the Rings" and "Darths & Droids" with another creative fan named Captain Boomerang. I was the scriptwriter and selected the screenshots for each panel, and Capt-BA would assemble the comics and improve my scripts (a process that did frustrate me a little, as I felt locked out of the revision process, but I did like the results. I just felt like I wasn't holding up my end of the partnership a bit). I wrote a story bible explaining the characters and storytelling rules, planned out the adaptation of the entire AtLA premiere, and had less detailed plans for the rest of the series, but we only got 6 comics in before Capt-BA went on a trip and never returned to the internet. I did manage to re-establish contact with her long enough to get permission to continue the comic, but the problem is that I have no image-editing skills whatsoever.

If I could find comic-making software that I know would do what I want and be easy to use, I wouldn't mind dropping some money on it, but everything I've looked at is trying to do lots of things I don't need. I only want a way to import existing pictures into comic grids, and then easily add dialogue bubbles. That's it. But the stuff I've found is more about image-editing than comic assembly, and it takes me an hour to put together a dialogue bubble that looks good. So I have 3 scripts that were never produced, which along with the planning docs are what's in that WIP folder, and I don't ever see myself going beyond that.

Besides, someone else already managed to complete something like this, and while I'm not a fan, I don't need to be. At this point, Dicebenders is dead. I'm glad I tried it, and it's a shame it didn't work out, but I'm happy with the other projects I've done instead.

I am squatting on an empty Tumblr for it, though.

Anyway, to share something new, here's the first section of the Story Bible I wrote to make sure Capt-BA and I were on the same page in terms of characterization. The rest of the bible details the plotlines for full series.

AVATAR: THE LAST DICEBENDER

BIBLE

Premise- A small group of players attempt to run a fantasy martial arts RPG that winds up essentially becoming the Avatar saga, or something very close. The main point of the series is comedy, based mostly on ridiculous links between Avatar and RPG's. Sometimes the humor will be in the vast difference between what happens in the comic, and what happens in the cartoon with the same screenshots. Other times, the funny will come from the unexpected ways they converge.

SPIRITUAL PREDECESSORS

DM of the Rings- The original, and my personal favorite. It's a good showcase of how to run a single quest together, while using narrative jumps to skip to the good bits.

Darths & Droids- A similar project, this stands out from its predecessor in two main ways. The players and GM are more friendly with each other, and are more or less having fun with each other. There is also a running, coherent storyline in both the game and in the lives of the players.

Benders & Brawlers- This is actually an existing attempt to do Darths & Droids with Avatar. This is helpful as an example of what we DON'T want to do, retell the Avatar story in a completely straightforward manner, with RPG players behind the characters.

CHARACTERS

None of the characters will be given real names. The players shall always be referred to by their character names, although this can be done in a teasing, ironic manner. When the characters are speaking, their dialogue bubble must always be attached to an image of the character.

The Gamemaster- The GM is a female in her early teens. She is a geek, and a bit of a social outcast for it. Nevertheless, she's trying to make that work for her, although she's not quite mature enough to make it happen yet. She has just discovered RPG's, and in her enthusiasm has gone all out in starting her own campaign. The only problem is that she doesn't know how to recruit players, so she ropes her best friend and little brother into playing with her. This is the GM's first campaign, so she'll a little in over her head. She knows the mechanics of play, and what she's supposed to be doing as GM, but doesn't have the fine skill in crafting an engaging RPG experience. Still, she wants to do her best, is willing to learn, and has a positive attitude about the whole thing. The GM has a strong crush on the Sokka player, but the only way she can express it is by having all the female NPC's flirt with the Sokka character.

Katara- Female in early teens, and the GM's best friend. Katara's player was friends with the GM from when they were both in grammar school, so while they have grown up into wildly different personality types, they are fully loyal to each other. Katara is popular, and outgoing, and doesn't care or know about geek stuff at all. She's only playing the game because the GM begged her to. At first, Katara is clueless about RPG's, and frequently questions or ridicules the mechanics of the game. She never quite gets into the idea of role-playing, but quickly takes to the idea of meta-gaming. She'll have her character act like a righteous do-gooder, because completing missions and fighting bad guys earns XP. She hoards items that will boost her stats. She'll advocate abandoning a mission/plot if it doesn't pay out enough rewards. Katara's player also can tend towards trying to Mary Sue her character, but this is inconsistent and usually shot down by everyone else.

Aang- Male in junior high, and the GM's little brother. He plays simply because his sister has cajoled him into it, and there are hints that he's getting some kind of reward or payment for it. He abuses his position by forcing the GM to give him what he wants in the game, even if it breaks the rules- access to the restricted Airbender class, the ability to bend all four elements, overloaded stats, an Avatar State that protects him from dying, a magic super flying cow ride, etc. However, it's important to note that Aang's player isn't a jerk. He's just immature, and like all kids, just always goes for what he wants via the easiest path, and doesn't realize that he may be causing trouble or hurting feelings. He's enthusiastic about trying out this RPG thing, but he has trouble coming up with any action beyond attacking or retreating. He's also hyper aware that the GM and Katara are girls. He is too old for cootie concerns, but thinks that girls are fundamentally different creatures with their own incomprehensible concerns. Having a big sister, he doesn't find this a big deal, just part of life. Aang's player is too young to be a geek. He likes cartoons and sports and fantasy and school-dramas. He also tends to follow whatever his sister likes.

Sokka- Male in late teens. This guy is your quintessential RPG player. He has is own top-quality dice, he's played campaigns and systems of all kinds, and knows the tropes of the hobby cold. He's a huge geek for all things geeky, but roleplay is easily his favorite. He's a social outcast, but he's made friends among his fellow geeks, and thinks life is just fine. Sokka's player joins when he meets the GM at the comic/games shop they both frequent. The GM was buying some sourcebooks and material to support the fantasy martial arts game she's running, and Sokka noticed, asked about it, liked what he heard, and got permission to join the game. What Sokka doesn't realize, because he is a geek and neither has experience with it or realizes it's even possible, is that the GM is sweet on him. This manifests in the character Sokka's canon luck with the ladies, only kicked up a notch. *Every single* female NPC flirts with him, whether it's appropriate or not. Sometimes player Sokka notices and tries to roleplay it, and sometimes he's just plain confused. Sokka has a few quirks. His best set of dice are his Lucky Red Dice, which always roll high when he needs it, but have been tested and proven to be fair dice. He also mandates that every character he plays use a boomerang; he was turned into a geek by the first video game he ever played, a Legend of Zelda title, and his favorite weapon from those games are the boomerang. Each of his characters has a unique, named boomerang.

Zuko- The GM's favorite NPC. She created him to be a compelling, dramatic character, with a complicated back story, moral struggles, badass loner personality, angst about his existence, a darkly noble quality, and a cool scar. The GM intended Katara to get to know Zuko, for her to try to woo him away from the side of evil, and perhaps to even have a romance with him. The PC's, however, couldn't care less about him. To them, he's just another mini-boss, and the fact that most of his character development is happening "off screen" means they don't realize that he's recruitable. A frequent gag is Zuko delivering a stirring monologue while no one pays attention.

Iroh- Background NPC. The GM tries to use him to give (ignored) hints to the players.

Toph- (tentative) A male munchkin gamer who picked a long list of weaknesses in order to get superbending. Toph's player is a friend of Sokka's player, brought in after an "incident" with his old group, and causes some initial resentment in the group when tries to show the n00bs how its done. Cowing Toph's player is a major victory for the GM.

Momo- NPC, but maybe make him a talking sidekick who gives the players hints when the GM is really exasperated?

Azula- the GM's best favorite villain. Azula is the GM unleashed, letting her take out frustrations on the players in both combat and harsh taunting. Eventually the GM comes to like the character so much, she retcons mental health issues into the character's backstory, and has her pet NPC, Zuko, spare her.

[naerwenia]

A Moment of Quiet Reflection

A short moment from the life of Eshka Kith’lya, a Bothan doctor and a representative for The Sword of Truth, a former rebel group turned into a political party after a war. Based on a Star Wars RPG campaign I’m part of.

--------------

Eshka was lounging on the uncomfortable Imperial-design chair in Avalon, trying to relax, trying to forget everything for a second. Captain Selina Katarn was having her second of forgetting, purging some memories from her mind with alcohol, just like Eshka did most of the time. Today, she had stuff to do, yet not enough to keep her mind from wandering. Five years had gone by in a blink of an eye, the war was over, there was a republic now, and her side had won, everything was like what she fought for, yet there was an emptiness in her. There was no way to pinpoint if it was the five years she lost while in the Dark Cluster, or if it was the sudden calmness in the Galaxy. Maybe it was the fact she didn’t know what had happened to most of Flying Brick’s crew, or that she was now the Commander of the Wraith Fleet, someone with responsibility and authority. No matter how skilled she was at commanding, Eshka was still a doctor first and foremost. She had a card that said so, it had her whole name on it! Eshka Kith’lya, Imperial Medical Academy graduate, medical license, issued in Coruscant. Kith’lya… She tried to remember anyone with the same name, yet came up with hazy voices and even hazier memories of some Bothans that may have been her parents, or her relative who she had called in the middle of the night out of nowhere, curious, but had realized immediately that it was a mistake, she didn’t want to be in touch with them, she didn’t know them. There was no need for her to mix them in her life. They were better off knowing nothing of her. She was better off not having feelings for her family, relatives, and clan. She was better off not knowing or feeling anything that might put others in danger, even her former enemy (maybe they were still enemies, maybe not, there was no way to know with Mr. Valden) had chosen to keep her safe seemingly. 

Eshka sighed loudly, but not anywhere close to loud enough to wake Captain Katarn. Selina had lost her pride and joy, twice, now permanently. First when Bob took it with Eshka in it (it must have been a mistake, an accident), now in an unavoidable collision to kill a god. She lost Flying Brick with it’s crew, then had to find a way back home from the Dark Cluster, but without her ship, who was she? Was she still a captain? What was her home, where was it? Eshka asked them in her mind, maybe in part to ask the same questions of herself. She was the representative of Sword of Truth, she had helped them win the war against Aries V2, even if only by providing intelligence. Yet now she didn’t know what the Sword of Truth represented. They had been there to rebuild the galactic senate, working with the remnants of the Imperium and the Hutt Coalition to establish a working alliance, all things Eshka appreciated, but she didn’t know if this was what she wanted. Actually being a senator and not a rebel escalating riots to revolutions would be weird. Helping people to establish local governments to take care of their communities was what she was good at, not actual politics. She was an orator, an agitator. She advocated equality and more grassroots decision making, and while representative democracy might be a good start, she wasn’t ready for it, and she couldn’t say why. The change was so sudden for her, even if it wasn’t for most of the Galaxy, and she felt like she had to change herself to make sure she could continue her mission. Others in the Wraith Fleet relied on her to be the moral backbone of the group. 

Who was she? Where did she belong? How fucked was she? Was there a way back? Gree’s used a different way of travelling through galaxies and time, it had helped Wraith back from the Dark Cluster, maybe there was a way to go back so she could just be a doctor. A nurse would be fine too, so she didn’t have to run away anymore. There was a simple way of life, the life Grambo the Hutt had chosen for her. All she had to do was be the best in her field, to be his eyes and ears when he needed them in Coruscant. The thought somehow filled her with even more emptiness and hollow sadness. There was nothing there, no feelings any way. Just hollowness. She finally realized she had lived there mostly on autopilot. Wake up, go to work, get back home, have a drink, go to sleep. Sometimes there were parties or balls and she had to go find the important faces, flirt, drink, make promises, and listen. Observe and try to fit in. Never make a scene, but have everyone remember you. A slight feeling of fondness was there, a flash of a memory, something long forgotten, yet tangible she could almost touch. Twinkling lights, clinking of crystal glasses, smell of champagne and expensive perfumes, music filling the hall, the feel of light, red chiffon on her tense skin, unsure expression on her face that soon turned to a smile, a sweet smile only for the one who had taken her hand in theirs. A soft, cooling wind, far away stars looking down on her, laughter and music fading into the distance, her heart beating faster, as she remembered how scared she was, how Mr. Babe had angrily grabbed her wrist and dragged her away. She didn’t understand why, only knowing she had to be more careful.

There was something cruel in the fact she knew how to use the names of others’ to get what she wanted. Grambo the Hutt, The Imperial Medical Academy, Sword of Truth… But her own name was meaningless. No one knew it, sometimes she forgot it herself in favour of the names of others. Then she only represented that group, she wasn’t herself, only an extension of the group, but now she was the face of the Wraith Fleet, and she was one of those who made the squadron, not just an extension. This was what she advocated for, yet Eshka felt uncomfortable. Individuals being equal, everyone having a voice that was heard, freedom to be who they are. It’s what she believed, fought for, and when they achieved a sort of unity, Eshka’s vision lacked the next step, the road to keeping up the new status quo, helping other planets structure their governments to be more democratic, and hearing out the complaints and wishes of people all around the Galaxy, striving to better the life of all. But to achieve this, Eshka had to take her place, to command and influence. Others believed in her, they had faith in her abilities, so why was it so hard for her to see herself doing that? Maybe it was the fact she was still in debt to a Hutt, and not only in money, but in spirit too. He had made her. Grambo had given her life. The Hutt had given her everything she could have asked for; education, place in high society, luxury, security. Gratitude wasn’t enough to describe her feelings for him, yet she had thrown it all away one night, and there was no way back, no matter how she pleaded. That door was now closed, she couldn’t go back, so she kept running, making decisions on the whim. This wasn’t the way she wanted to live, yet it felt like the only way. Fear kept her running, afraid to stop and see where she had ended up. 

At the moment she had slowed down to look around. There was Selina, Avalon, a game table Dei was so fond of, the smell of a ship where too many people had to spend a lot of time together, the feel of steel under Eshka’s fingers. The holopad was on a chair next to her, still downloading some files related to the news of the last five years. Rest of the crew were out, looking for parts for a droid and commissioning a blueprint for a new ship, something she still couldn’t quite wrap her head around. A new ship just for their crew, and it was built just for them from the ground up (and higher). There were things to do, Eshka thought, and picked up the holopad to occupy her mind once again.

[rpgmgames]

January’s Featured Game: Roji's Room

DEVELOPER(S): Spicy Roll ENGINE: RPG Maker MV GENRE: RPG, Adventure, Mystery WARNINGS: Shifts in consciousness, Spooky, Strong language SUMMARY: Roji's Room is a turned base RPG about lucid dreaming, consciousness, emotions, friendships, meditation, wholesome, sleep paralysis, and adventure. You play as Jae who is an avid lucid dreamer, he wakes up in a room with no memory. You sleep and enter a dream world full of many entities that view their world as the real world. You meet Roji who is the key to solving what makes this dream world different from any other dream.

Download the teaser demo here! Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! *Jaies: Hello this is Jude S. (Jaies) and I’m the lead composer for Roji’s Room! I’ve always loved making video game music, and following indie projects, and now I get to pair that love with a really great game. It’s a dream come true! I hope everyone enjoys the music and the game (: *Spicyroll: Greetings! This is Jaeroll the game developer for Roji's Room! For now I am mostly working alone with the game along with Jude who composes the music. I am a intro/extrovert who is in love with life and its inhabitants. I am a registered nurse and a Reiki master. I love meditating , yoga, anime, JRPGs, indie games, crystals and music. I have been dabbling with rpg maker since 2006 with RPGMaker XP. Making so many projects but not completing them haha. I am grateful for the indiedev and rpgmaker community met so many awesome people through this development.

What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially? *Spicyroll: Roji's Room is an experiment for self discovery there will be many choices and activities that the player will be doing. It might be risky but my goal is not only to benefit the characters in the game but also the player themselves. Meditation, actions, emotions, wholesomeness. Display the rewards to practicing self love and the outcomes to not. I am a strong advocate to self love, I would love to deliver inspiration to people to practice more self love for themselves. I hope the game can invoke such emotions. But as the story its a mystery involving a boy who is a master at lucid dreaming but lost his memories. He was able to enter a dream world that is in disorder because the moderator lost it's body and is only a brain. The brain is Roji, its your quest to help retrieve the body and restore order to this special dream. While hopefully restoring the memories of Jae. Meeting many dream entities along the way your choices are really important. What inspired me is the many years of playing RPGs, and creating projects that was very surface and generic. I love art, creation and the helping of others.

How long have you been working on your project? *Spicyroll: It's been a good year (:

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Spicyroll: Many games like Moon remix RPG, Undertale, Mother 3, Nino kuni. Artists Bryan lee O maley, Rebecca Sugar, many more. I love the aspect of alternatives to fighting in RPGs. Wholesome.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *Spicyroll: Yes there were many, sometimes just like many other developers you would get dev block or whatever. Burnt out for overworking and what not. Fear of people not liking the concept. Also a big one is the the limitations of rpgmaker, however I am grateful to the engine because just as an artist its easy to use. How I worked on it was giving time to myself, self love, doing other things other than game dev where it sparked that flame. Staying positive and interacting with other game devs. Playing story driven games.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Spicyroll: Many aspects! It was going to be REALLY spiritual and concepts were thrown onto you to "wake you up" However I realized it would be very jarring to people who aren't open to such concepts so I thought I should make it gradual. Current one is much more simple and I feel like more organized.

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? *Spicyroll: Well my team is basically just me, I have many friends who produce music but most of them just wanted to chip in one song or two. I found an amazing composer online and built a cool friendship with him. I like working alone in terms of directing but I would be open to members. I just have the fear of butting heads and what not.

What is the best part of developing a game? *Spicyroll: The BEST part of developing a game is just creating something in general and to share in a interactive medium of your tastes of music and design. My most favorite is in hopes of invoking emotions for the player to release to help them in their daily lives.

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *Spicyroll: I have played many RPGMaker games most are on this list, the big ones Oneshot, Lisa, To The Moon. I realized the limitations of the engine but just remains grateful to be able to create a functional game with little knowledge of coding. Shout out to them plugin creators!

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Spicyroll: Although majority of the characters haven't been introduced in development, I relate to the main character. The name is a self insert but the character himself is at his core wanting to empathize with entities and connect. Its up to the player who is the guide to flesh those out or go a different route.

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Spicyroll: I actually dont have any regrets, I am just grateful to the whole process cause everything negative was a learning experience (:

Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Spicyroll: TAs of now I would leave it as it is and if characters are likable maybe some side stories?

What do you most look forward to now that you have finished the game? *Spicyroll: I look forward to the many smiles and emotions players give while playing the game. Also just art in general characters in many different mediums of art. I would hope that any concept or action can help the person in their waking life.

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Spicyroll: It would have to be the engine, I know that sometimes errors will occur and hinder the process of completion. But it will work out ^^

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Spicyroll: Practice self care for yourself, you only have one body, mind and soul. If you practice those things and better yourself you can bring your best self to work on this project. Its sometimes unavoidable due to habits but when you realize that overworking yourself doesn't do any good to yourself or the project you can evolve into higher conceptualization? Also make the game YOU want, like as a love letter to yourself (:

Question from last month's featured dev @grimmshollow: What tricks do you use to make playtesting/debugging easier? *Spicyroll: Tricks? Uhhhh keeping save points and such around? Having your friends play your game with unbias so you can get the whole picture. Which cuts out time doing final edits at the last min of release.

We mods would like to thank Spicy Roll 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 Roji's Room if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum

[longgonegays]

LGG’s Long Gone Days Chapter 1 (pre-update) Review

A year in the making!

PREFACE

In April 2018, I played through Long Gone Days for the second time. I had more of a critical eye after my first run through, and I wanted to write down my impressions. However, I got incredibly busy and wasn’t able to publish my initial reactions. As of now, I have played through the story a third time, alternating endings all the way, and even though the game is getting a MAJOR update probably soon, I figured I might as well post my thoughts and suggestions here!

SPOILERS BELOW

THE GOOD STUFF

Let me start off by saying that the art is phenomenal. I’ve loved it ever since the first demo was released in 2016, and it’s honestly one of the best looking RPGs I’ve played in a long, long time. The characters are interesting and have lots of room for growth, the music is atmospheric and cool, the devs are responsive, the story is unique, and the community is new and exciting! There’s so many good things. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve shared this game with. One of my friends even backed the indiegogo along with me!

As with any up-and-coming Early Access title, there’s bound to be mistakes or mechanics that could be optimized better. I’ve found many things that have the potential to make a greater impact on the player if done a little differently. However, I am no video game developer, so if any of my suggestions on the technical side are impossible, just know it’s not my intention to make the team do 500 more hours of work. :P

LET’S GET INTO IT!

There are different categories of issue. They will be sorted chronologically and marked as CONSISTENCY, GAMEPLAY, LANGUAGE, STORY, or TYPO.

TYPO: A pretty crucial one! The directions tell you to press X to shoot the drones in the tutorial, but when pressed, X does nothing. Z is the correct key.

CONSISTENCY: There should be a period after the word "half". All other notes at this point end in complete sentences, so it feels strange to not end the same way.

CONSISTENCY: The lowercase b in "Power bar" should be "Power Bar" since it appears that way in the Consumables menu, and it is properly capitalized when another one is picked up later on.

STORY: It's a little strange that the Shooting Range Clerk can fix a broken elevator card. I would've never related the quest to him; I actually didn't solve it the first time because I didn't think talking to the clerk was worth it. Unless there's a briefly explained in-story reason for him knowing how to fix them, another NPC beside him or even a sign with something akin to "Repair" in the description would give the quest direction more of a hint. (Just as an aside, it would be neat to return to the Kitchen Clerk and discuss what you saw thanks to the fixed card!)

TYPO: The description should read "has run out of batteries" and not "has ran". It would read "ran" if it were simple past tense (The watch ran out of batteries), but not when it's the past participle (anything with has/have). 

LANGUAGE: You could say "The following series of exercises only take five minutes at the time...", meaning it would only take 5 minutes to do them on the field, but it may flow better with the way the phrase is most commonly used, "...only take five minutes at a time", or just shortening it to "...only take five minutes."

TYPO: Instead of "Why are we hiding for?" it should either be "What are we hiding for?" or "Why are we hiding?"

TYPO: The real hut code is 07734, but afterwards, it states in both the Quest List and the Notes that it is 007734, which is incorrect.

CONSISTENCY: The Quests for Kaliningrad are available in the menu a little early. You have access to them before you get to the stone bridge on the right and fight The Core soldiers for the first time. The player hasn’t even met Ivan at this point.

TYPO: This is the beginning of the quest. "Found" should be "Find" since we haven't actually found her sister yet.

TYPO: “Forget” should be "I almost forgot", since "I told you I'd bring cake" is past tense.

GAMEPLAY: The "find the items" prompt only appears AFTER you collect the first item for Gleb's mother. Before that, it's just "convince the mother to go to Gleb's house". It would make more sense for the description to switch immediately to "Find the items" after she tells you which items she needs. (Sidenote: If someone accidentally clicks through the dialogue too fast, they'll have no idea what they're looking for. It may help to list Flower Pot, Painting, and Toy to show what items are needed.)

CONSISTENCY: Any time you talk to a group of two people, it's the same dialogue. It sets up the expectation that I'd just get the same words over and over no matter which person I talked to or in which order. HOWEVER, in Pay It Forward, the dialogue differs depending on which woman you talk to in the Residential District. You MUST talk to the lady on the left. I couldn't figure out how to solve this quest the first time because I didn't know who to look for (I thought I had seen all NPC dialogue since I already talked to the lady on the right). This is a minor gripe in the grand scheme of things, but I felt like I had to mention it.

STORY: Pay It Forward ends with you giving Anton the Conduct Pass. Yuliya (Downhearted Lady's Sister)'s dialogue doesn't change after progress reaches 100%, and she'll keep telling you to talk to the Residential District woman. A change in dialogue could help emphasize the fact that the quest is COMPLETE and no further action is needed on the player's part, just like the Business-Savvy Woman's dialogue changes after completion of the same quest.

TYPO: Just past participle again! "An uprising has began" should be "An uprising has begun".

TYPO: In the battle before you meet up with Ivan and Adair, an 's' should be added to make "Aggressive Soldier". I posted this one on the Bug Report forums a while ago, so I’m guessing it’ll probably be fixed in the next update.

GAMEPLAY: Maybe give a warning that Adair's going to heal you after the battle? I used a ton of my food for the first playthrough because I anticipated more fighting. Perhaps include some dialogue of Adair saying something like "I'll heal you properly after we fight the soldiers inside of the house." It would save some people from using too many of their resources too early and wasting them.

TYPO: "Why are you standing here for?" should be "Why are you standing here?" or the correct phrase, "What are you standing here for?"

GENERAL SUGGESTIONS

GAMEPLAY: You mentioned planning to implement the option to switch control keys, which is great. I think the second most popular suggestion is to Toggle Shift (and add Right Shift) instead of having to hold it down every time you want to run. Both will save a lot of fingers!

STORY: Instead of “[Enemy] has fainted” you can put "[Enemy] is down". It is ambiguous yet straightforward if you really want to avoid the word "dead". The fact that the Gun Drones “faint” as well seems questionable. Using “down” or “has been downed” would eliminate the strange phrasing and make a little more sense.

GAMEPLAY: More information in the Kaliningrad Quest descriptions! In Pay It Forward, it would be good to specify within the description that the sister has red pants. In Searching for the Cure, noting the location of the pharmacy would help, even if it just mentions heading North. In Animal Rescue, tell the player to head East to find the Animal Advocate; add a sign for the Residential District! In The Lost Girl, include Lynn's hints about a sandy / dirt-filled location. The very first time I ran around starting these quests, it was incredibly confusing trying to navigate the map effectively and remember which direction things were. Especially when the descriptions are so vague; you have to remember a lot of tiny details only referenced in the Quest Start dialogue, and there's no guarantee the player will recall all of them if they're solving a bunch of quests at a time. Small hints can go a long way.

GAMEPLAY: All quests appear to be able to be completed as soon as you enter the area. However, it would make things INFINITELY easier if they were sorted in "Not Started", "In Progress", and "Completed" tabs. It's a bit of a hassle to scroll through and find which quests you're working on, especially since they aren't sorted chronologically or alphabetically. Additionally, "Locked" quests could be greyed out ones that cannot be completed anymore or ones that cannot be started at that point in the story. Some organization would be nice!

GAMEPLAY / STORY: After playing the game, my friend had this to say: "One thing I would like to see more game-mechanics-wise is the option of using stealthier methods of taking down enemies. For example, when you can sneak around the gun drone in Kaliningrad nighttime, have it so you can utilize your high vantage point (the rooftop) to snipe down enemies and avoid direct conflict."

I absolutely agree that Sniper Mode should be used more. It only makes sense. Why charge into battle with a long-range weapon? Even if Rourke has other methods of fighting, wouldn't he want to prevent close-quarters situations in the first place? That guy even has his back turned! Ambush opportunities are not used effectively.

LANGUAGE: A LOT of the dialogue could use more contractions. For example, at the beginning, Lynn saying "They are here!" would take longer rather than "They're here!", and she'd probably want to get the information across to Rourke faster. This isn't a necessary fix, as everything is readable without contractions, and some characters may just have a tendency to speak like that, but it would make the dialogue seem more realistic and flow more naturally for most of the cases.

CONCLUSION. . .

Long Gone Days is a wonderful game. I would recommend that everyone at least play the first 30 minutes, because it is definitely something else. I still get very emotional at certain points, like that scene with the Civilian Fighter where they first speak in Russian but then try to sound things out in English, finally telling Rourke "We are counting on you. Good luck." It gets me EVERY TIME. It's such a good and powerful moment, couldn't stop half smiling half tearing up when I read it the first time. The text speed and how it was presented was really effective.

I loved the Boss fight as well! The fact that the morale boosting events were saved for the very end of that chapter made it much more impactful than the consistent battle-to-battle challenges in the demo. During my first playthrough, I had to stop myself from letting the Lieutenant use his Attack because of how freakin' COOL the art and animation looked! Everyone’s cut-ins are great!

Unsolicited Advice-Giving Soldier is also hilarious, and I think sprinkling that kind of humor in is very important in a game like this. :P

Overall, I love this game. I really want it to grow. It’s a lot of fun to talk and theorize about, and Chapters 2 and 3 should have no shortage of conversation material. With a bit of polish, Chapter 1 could be an even more effective introduction to the dangers the Kaliningrad Squad will have to endure in the future!

Thank you for reading! I’m looking forward to the full release!

[falcophoenix]

For real talk though

I am a Geno fan, and I do want him in Smash. What all the entertaining memes and comics don't really get across is "why".

I sincerely believe in him as a character. He's an important character both in his game of origin and for what he represents around it. He was powerful, he was cool and optimistic. He was something unique and interesting in the very first Mario RPG game, a flagship game for both future Mario RPG titles and a first JRPG for many players of the time.

Geno is very important and means a lot to many people, and even Sakurai advocates for him. I sincerely hope Sakurai can fulfill his desire and ours by finding a way to include Geno in some meaningful way.