#senaverse solo rpg

[equinoxts2]

Sorry for going quiet this past week! I've had rather a lot of setbacks and facepalm moments in my attempt to set up Kulo Sena again. However, I'm not letting it get me down - and I'm also working on that Senaverse RPG campaign I was asked about a while ago!

The idea: the solo RPG will be posted as a series of interludes in the KS story (or the other way round, depending on which I feel more like doing at any given time) and will follow the younger generations (between Emerging and Blossoming phases) as they find themselves somewhere very unlike the Kulo Sena they know. This also means I don't have to make them as sims in KS proper. Less setup? Sounds good to me!

As for rulesets, I'll be using Mythic Game Master Emulator 2nd Edition and The Adventure Crafter, both published by Word Mill Games, to craft the stories and answer my questions; Victoriana 3rd Edition by Cubicle 7 (with heavily modified magic rules to fit the Senaverse lore) will be my system for character crafting and other dice-rolling situations. It's less of a combat-focused system than some others I found, and also the first RPG I tried playing with my mum. The mechanics will not feature in the actual posts - just the story itself - though I may add a few footnotes about awesome dice rolls and what I was expecting to happen.

I'm character crafting right now, trying to decide which of my young Nuidya the story will focus on. Really looking forward to sharing it with my simblr friends - and also having a Kulo Sena spinoff where the mechanics of the game don't limit the possibilities!

[equinoxts2]

Senaverse Rotations Go Out of Sync

Happy (slightly belated) New Year to all my simblr friends! I've been focusing on my solo RPG over the holidays, since I refuse to build over Christmas, but I'm ready to get back to working on Kulo Sena now!

As part of my attempt to be more true to my own playstyle, I've managed to zap a lot of the stuff I'm not using, but keep including, from my Downloads folder (3t2 traits, and complex Sun&Moon crafting chains, looking at you) so my load times will hopefully be less like sload times. I'm also examining elements of my gameplay that I'm dissatisfied with. One of those aspects is the rotation system, which I've been very strict about keeping in sync since before Kulo Sena was a thing - even though my naturally chaotic, cluttered mind can't handle schedules! It's much too full of roleplaying and worldbuilding stuff to remember anything as trivial as when I have to go to the dentist. (I know where things are, mum. They're in one of those piles on the floor over there.)

So, how can I change my timekeeping style to better suit my preferences? Well... (Quin Standard Ramble incoming!)

As I already mentioned in previous posts, I've been replacing text strings to make certain game terms make more sense to me. I've decided that, instead of having a rotation system, Kulo Sena's story will flow more like... well, a story, which is where my strengths have always been. I am just naturally a rambly narrator.

The replacement term will be arc, and I plan to focus each arc on whatever grabs my attention most in the moment, rather than on whoever happens to be next on the list. I'm going to stop fussing about keeping ages and seasons exactly matched between households, letting there be a few days' variation, and letting some households where nothing much is going on sit out of a few play sessions. As a storyteller first and foremost, nothing's more frustrating than having to break off from an exciting storyline and go play a bunch of nobodies because a week is up!

I'll be tagging my posts by arc name and scene number, rather than by household or rotation or even by sim names. I also plan to make a habit of taking notes at the end of every play session, recapping major events for my scatterbrained self to review later. Another thing I get frustrated with myself for: I can barely remember what happened last rotation when I'm playing, never mind last iteration or anything! (The same applies to what I have for breakfast, and I only ever have one thing for breakfast... ahem. Resident Simblr Scatterbrain signing out now.)

Rotations are out of my game, as of 2025. Arcs are in.

[equinoxts2]

It's official. I am retiring from blogging.

You see, I think Kulo Sena and my TS2 playstyle have outgrown each other. I'm converting the Senaverse into a solo RPG setting, and I'm planning on starting a new hood in TS2 - one that works with, not against, the limitations of the game, while still being escapism and self-expression for me.

Here's the thing: it can't truly be that liberating feeling of getting to do anything I want with my game if I'm sharing my stories. Not while I still suffer from PTSD. I feel like when I share what I do, I'm censoring my own gameplay because "I have a blog!" and although I'm not wanting to be Evil in my game, I do want to create different ways of living for my sims, and I hold back on that when I blog for fear of triggering my readers.

Solo roleplaying, on the other hand, is the best thing I've done as a creative project since before I discovered the TS2 community! So I'm taking a step back from simblr, and from discussing my game with the wider simming community, and I'll be playing solely for me for the foreseeable future.

I wish all my friends and followers the same fulfilment with their own games and projects as I'm starting to discover with my solely personal ones. Take care, all of you, and I might see you around again someday!

[equinoxts2]

Hiatus Announcement

I'm going dormant for a while, because I need to curate a whole different selection of downloads for a completely new hood in a world that is not the long-established Senaverse. It will be more in keeping with what my playstyle and attitude to life is now, trying to manifest love, as opposed to my angsty teen/early twenties self that just wanted to see the 21st century burn.

Additional personal issues under the cut.

I am also grappling with an identity crisis - I've just got used to being Quin, and now I find that I'm constantly calling myself by the name of my solo RPG's main character (and they're not called Quin.) I almost feel like I'm becoming this character and the demons in my head are trying to convince me that I'm going bananas.

In addition, I'm struggling with mixed feelings about my aroace nature - I want to say I'm proud to opt out of all that romance and woohoo nonsense, but there is a part of me that resents it, mostly because (apparently) when I was born, my dad said something about how "no man will ever come near me" and my primally spiritual mindset can't not see that as a curse.

And that's not even mentioning the species dysphoria - I want to love myself and how I look, too, but... I feel like I don't want a gender, or an ethnicity, or even particularly a body, and certainly not a human body. In other words, I don't want to be defined by any neurotypical, heteronormative labels. In my heart, I've always been a little floaty glowy wisp of starlight that embodies universal love. But every time I look in the mirror and see a bearded lady with a very large frame and lingering anger issues from school, I die a little.

So I'm taking time away from simblr, because I need space to work through these problems I'm grappling with, without the bizarre temptation to jump back into blogging and dig my simblr chameleon skin out of storage.

And I am not crazy. Deal with it.

[equinoxts2]

So... I don't know if I'll come back to blogging about Kulo Sena. I'm back to playing TS2, but it's the solo-RPG spinoff hood that I won't be sharing pics or gameplay from, where I'm testing out some of my new ideas. And since that's just for me, it's making me rethink whether I want to share my KS gameplay on simblr.

My reasons for stepping away include: less pressure on my worldbuilding, stoytelling and landscaping skills; reconnecting with what I actually want to do with the Senaverse rather than what I think will get me likes; not having to pause and take screenshots every five seconds, then spend ages sorting and editing them; not feeling obliged to protect particular sims from bad ROS because I downloaded them from a simblr friend.

Maybe one day I will come back to blogging. Maybe not. But for now, I'm hanging up my screenshot program and just playing for me. I'll still be around to like and comment, but don't expect any gameplay updates. There may, however, be a few zany worldbuilding posts now and again - I keep thirteen scrapbooks and counting, some dating back to 2011, full of inspirational screenshots and gameplay ideas I've collected, and who knows, maybe my ideas on how to use game mechanics in a different way will be useful for someone.

[equinoxts2]

Quin's 2024 Simming Goals

It's that time again! In 2024, I would like to:

- Enjoy playing my game! I want to be less of a perfectionist about my builds (when you hate building, being told constantly that your landscaping is beautiful just adds unnecessary pressure) and add a little more levity and whimsy back into Kulo Sena. I want to fall in love with my game again, be kinder to myself and remind myself that I play and create worlds for fun, not to get a zillion likes.

- Spread more love in the community. I intend to like and comment on other simmers' gameplay posts more, for one thing - I know a lot of simmers whose games I love and who don't get as much credit for playing/worldbuilding as they do for CC. I'd also like to send more spontaneous appreciation comments through anon asks. I do that already but you can never have too much random acts of kindness.

- Give more of my sims a chance to take centre stage in storylines. For one thing, I've noticed that male sims don't often get to shine in my game, although I am healing my gender scars (slowly). Also, most of the drama happens in the headwoman's and lorekeepers' households at present, so I'd like to shift the spotlight onto a few of the other sims.

- Still in two minds about whether to share either of my hoods that are not set in the Senaverse: my solo RPG party of characters as I imagine they might be ten years later, and what was originally intended to be a Plants vs. Zombies inspired legacy but is rapidly evolving into its own thing. I like having multiple things to play while I build, and I'm having so much fun with both!

- Remind everyone here, not just myself, that the old cliche "new year, new me" is not always the best logic to follow. Sure, I'll be making some changes in 2024 - shaving my head and growing a full beard, for one thing, and maybe getting a starry sunset tattoo or something - but I'm not doing either just because it's a new year, they're things I want to do for myself anyway. The current me is enough. The same is true of all of you, simblr friends. Love yourselves, because I sure do.

And on that note: Best wishes for the year ahead!

[equinoxts2]

I’m three and a third households into rotation 1 in Kulo Sena, but I’m thinking once again that the setting and TS2 game mechanics have grown apart. I want to reimagine the Senaverse as a TTRPG setting - mostly because the in-game supernatural lifestates, while I love them, don’t mesh well with my idea of how magic works on Juvash. It would feel just as wrong for me to cut them and keep any magical abilities my sims had in headcanon territory as it would to keep shoehorning them in, and I’m not really using most of their abilities in KS anyway.

So here’s the plan: I will give myself permission to start something new, a completely different fantasy world to play and post about in TS2. That’s where I’m going to use most of the ideas I was trying to shove into KS because the CC was there. Kulo Sena will become that RPG setting, and if anyone’s interested in reading the stories of my solo gaming sessions, I’ll post those too.

So, that said, I need some zzzz’s. Thanks to everyone who’s stuck around through all my simming idedntity crisis moments!

[equinoxts2]

Guess who's back?

And just in time for Simblreen too! Sorry, I haven't got any treats for you... unless you count the upcoming return of Kulo Sena!

My dad's on the mend now, and roleplaying stuff is still going well - in fact, I have set up a low-pressure, just-for-me hood featuring my party of original characters, ten years after the events of their current adventure. And that, of course, is making me miss Kulo Sena - I've tried converting it into a RPG setting, but most of my worldbuilding was designed for TS2's limitations and doesn't quite work outside of Sims, and I'm too attached to it to retcon everything.

I've learned a lot about my playstyle through both the solo RPG and its TS2 spinoff - and I'm going to focus on what I actually enjoy in KS, rather than shoehorning everything in because it's there or I might need it. All the pretty, quirky, but not-quite-KS-appropriate things are going to stay in the side hoods. I'll also be zooming in on the lives of the Nuidya sims rather than having the Credence settlers in the mix, because it's less CC and less building.

A few other things I've decided include: - I want to handwave most of the basic survival aspects and focus on the storytelling and worldbuilding side of my game. Sun&Moon sets are amazing and I love the interconnectedness of them, but my style is less "tracking accurate supply chains" and more "there's always fish in the larder unless there's a compelling narrative reason for that not to be the case." - The Nuidya will be switching from hunting and gathering to growing crops. I'm planning on using Maxis crops, because I like the challenge of them and because I'm more into nurturing little plants than watching my sims spear and butcher a boar on screen. Yes, I'm a squeamish vegetarian. Sue me. - I'm not using ACR, because while I do have it in my side hood (which is fun) it doesn't fit KS' culture. I'm also not using Maxis marriage mechanics, just setting spouse flags with Sim Blender or something, so I can come up with my own ceremonies without the rings and arches thing. Basically, I want to make courtship and the weird, incomprehensible-to-Quin romance/woohoo stuff more ritualised and meaningful to my sims.

Finally, I'll be explaining all these changes in canon with a Time Rage of Epic Proportions - time rages being the Senaverse equivalent of "a wizard did it" and a convenient way for me to work glitches into my story. My sims have sheltered through it, and soon they'll emerge and start their life in the brave new Juvash. I'm also going to have more supernaturals, because in most classic fantasy, when there's an epic cataclysm in the past, magic never returns to its former glory - which is just as good a reason as any for it to grow stronger after this! I also want to keep the tone hopeful, so I'll be starting with a sign that all is well, rather than scavenging through ruins or anything grim like that.

And on that note, I'm off to cut downloads. :)