#sidequest quest

[tahri-nhupuju]

Oh sure people love Holepix, and Firmalbert, and Alaimbert of the Spiked Butt

But where is the love for Dadfort of Knot???

[blorbologist]

Y'know, I think I figured out why the Hells still feel like a new low-level party to me, even though they're level 13 and almost 100 episodes in.

I don't quite think it's the lack of conversations, or the fact half the party's plot hooks are big ties to past campaigns - though that definitely plays a part.

... Bell's Hells still primarily rely on quest givers.

Most of their goals are given to them and do not feel organic to the party, and constantly remind us that the Hells are pretty much never the most powerful people in the room. Which is usually something you see with a low-level party.

NPCs offering jobs is not a bad thing; it's a very common plot hook. Matt has been extremely skilled with using NPC quest givers in those two campaigns. Not only do they provide an obvious plot thread, but they can put the party in the path of others (say, the Nein running into the Iron Shepherds while doing a job for the Gentleman and everything that came of that). And the Hells had a solid start with it too - Eshteross was an excellent quest giver!

The problem is that Bell's Hells have never really not had a quest giver.

Maybe it's a byproduct of the more plot-heavy structure of this campaign? But while prior parties have felt like they decided on their course of action and what they prioritized, Bell's Hells feels less like level 13 (13! Level 13!) experienced adventurers and more like an MMO group clicking on the exclamation point over an NPC's head. Where does the plot demand we go next? Who do we report back to?

They're level 13.

At level 13, Vox Machina had just defeated a necromantic city-state to clear their name and Percy's conscience. And, you know, the Conclave just destroyed Emon. No one was explicitly telling the group to gather Vestiges and save the world (though Matt guided them there), and they were usually among the most powerful people in the room. They chose which Vestiges to prioritize, which dragons to tackle when, even if the over-all plot was pretty clear.

At level 13, the Mighty Nein were celebrating Traveler Con (another PC goal, I'll note) after brokering peace between two nations, accidentally becoming pirates and heroes of the Dynasty. The Nein regularly chose what to do based on personal goals, not grand ones. Though definitely smaller fish than Vox Machina at this level, they were very independent and gaining solid political clout.

While we're at it: level 13 is one level lower than the Ring of Brass, who had a huge amount of sway over Avalir. They ended the world, and also saved it, while in the grand scheme of things being only a smidge more powerful than Bell's Hells are now.

Can you really see the Hells wielding that amount of influence, when they're constantly being told what to do next?

The god-eater might be unleashed, so Bell's Hells have no time to do anything but what is asked of them. No time for therapy unless stolen from Feywild time, no travel on foot and late-night watches. They haven't even had time to grieve FCG. Percy was grieved in the middle of the Conclave arc. Molly was grieved when half the party was still in irons.

Matt is in the very unfortunate spot of not being able to give the Hells the same agency as the other two parties. Not only because of the world-ending plot introduced so early on; they are surrounded by characters they know (and the cast knows) are stronger and wiser than them - the familiarity of the past PCs and NPCs is to their disadvantage.

Why would the party reasonably ignore Keyleth's task that will help save the world and go off on a romp? Why would the cast when they know well Keyleth has to be sensible and with the best intentions in mind? The stakes are just too high.

It means that the Hells still feel like they're running errands instead of pursuing their own destiny. Their accomplishments are diminished as just being parts of a to-do list, and any stakes feel padded by several level 20 PCs/NPCs standing 5 steps away ready to catch them.

This isn't Bell's Hell's fault, nor is it Matt's. It could be amended, I think, if the Hells are really left to their own devices for a long period of time without support and shortcuts (like during the party split)... which would be really tricky to pull off at this point in the campaign.

They're level 13. They're big fish, but they're stuck in a pond full of friendly sharks, so they don't feel big at all.

[a2zillustration]

"Bog goblin" felt like something you'd yell at a fae creature and Croissant took that personally

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[hellspawnmotel]

terranigma, a cool game

[ghostwithacoffee]

Mothy and Destined One discuss the next steps in their journey.

just a little doodle of them while I try to figure out their designs, hopefully I'll get a character sheet made up for her soon

[mistress-light]

Wait, why did people not like Forspoken? I'm out of the loop!

Forspoken was ruined by chuds of the internet, due to one clip on Twitter on which a lot of people based their opinions on, sadly. A bandwagon of hate followed.

And as for me? At first, I was thrown off by the marketing. But, the atmosphere and characters really pulled me in back from when I first saw the reveal trailer.

It contains heavy themes like suicide, loneliness, abandonment issues and the fear of hurting people, so best not get involved anymore (That's Frey's beginning character arc in a very big nuttshell). I found it to be such a heart-wrenching and heartwarming story.

And don't get me wrong, the game has some genuine flaws. But most was improved upon with patches later on. And with the dlc (In Tanta We Trust) the devs really improved and poured their love out for this IP, which ended on a cliffhanger for a sequel.... which will probably never see the day of light.

What makes me salty is that most peeps now play it (due to it being free on Playstation Plus) and are like: "this game is actually good?! Why the hate?" Are likely the same that hated on it because it was popular to do so, because cool chud channel told them so, instead of forming their own opinions.

[moonpaw]

the more i play rejuvenation the more i'm just so. baffled and appreciative at the makers of this game because. there's so much work into it. i have well over 100 hours into this game that's been pure storyline without having to do any grinding and its just? there's so much love into this game and they did it for FREE

[oensible]

Here's a little behind the scenes on my shrambling empire. This is what my NHL66 stats look like as of the NHL Christmas break.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with NHL66, they have two systems: 1) (the important one for our purposes) their betting simulator where you start out with $1k and can bet up to 3% of your current balance on each match that day, and 2) predictions is where you just assign up to four points based on how confident you are in your favored team for each match.

edit: just realized this looks long af in the tag lol, continued under the cut

I always just bet the max on the Sharks and make smaller bets on a handful of my other, less floppy teams that are playing that day to hopefully subsidize some of the losses when the Sharks lose :P (which is often). As you can see, this strategy has a net loss of $142.62, putting me at a balance of $857.38 at time of this post! I have been at a net loss ever since pretty much the start of the season, except for a few days when I had a net gain from the massive windfall of the SJS@NJD lobster shutout ($80.01 return on a $29 bet) and also a lot of Columbus wins.

I don't care about prediction stats at all because the leaderboard isn't important to me, just the shrambling empire bit. I still do them because I love to click on buttons and I always put 4/4 predictions on all available matches (which is usually only like half of them for some reason), since prediction points are unlimited and I don't have to conserve funds for the Sharks like I do with the betting simulator. I included them here because I think it's really funny that my prediction stats aren't too shabby; I've guessed 50.42% of 357 points correctly lol. Anyways, I don't care about prediction stats, BUT I do think it's kind of funny to see the disparity between that and how badly I'm doing in the betting front due to my shrambling.

In conclusion: sports gambling is further confirmed to not be a sustainable way to make money lol, and real life shrambling would be equivalent to actively pouring money into a bottomless pit 👍 would not recommend!

[stolas-bgw]

Play the Sidequests You Coward

Final Fantasy XVI is a litmus test for the patience gamers have for a story and worldbuilding.

FFXVI has got it's issues, it's combat is a bit over-reliant on the power of the dominant moves and is a little brain dead. It's crafitng system is... clearly forced in? Like the game did not NEED a crafting system and would probably be exactly the same without it. Late game the combat effects begin to obscure the screen and meld together so it gets to be a little difficult to tell what's going on.

That being said, the one and most common critique of FFXVI as being "objectively bad" are the sidequests. A critique I wholly disagree with and, to be honest, am sick and tired of hearing. When I see a reviewer critique the side quests as being boring and tearing away from the experience of the game, all I hear is "I didn't watch the cutscenes."

These quests are not just "collect 3 nuts, get shitty XP, and move on." These quests are world building and story fleshing out events. Some of the best stories are tucked away in these "fetch quests." These stories make the main quest feel MORE EPIC, MORE IMPACTFUL, not less.

As some have pointed out, CBUIII, the team that made FFXIV, clearly took their design for side quests from XIV and put it inot XVI. Except that's not true. They didn't take the structure for it's side quests, they took the structure from their main quests. FFXIV's main quest is filled with "go fetch 3 things," "go talk to X people," "hold my hand and give me a guided tour of X area." And to some people, these quests are "pointless filler." But to the people who are actually invested in FFXIV's story, you know these quests are ESSENTIAL to making the story as emotionally ressonant as it is.

The same is true for the sidequests in FFXVI. These quests feel as though they SHOULD be mandatory, not optional. But because FFXVI is a more mass-appealing game, CBUIII knew that not everyone would have the patience for dealing with these seemingly mundane issues. It was the correct move to make these sidequests. But they are anything but side content.

The sidequests are not boring fetchquests that give shit xp. They are story quests that flesh out the world of Valisthea, the people of the world, and Clive as a character. They show you why Clive fights for the right to live and die as you choose, they give the message of the game texture and depth. The main quests WORKS on it's own, but the side quests really elevate it, if you give them the time of day.

These are incredibly well written, emotionally resonant, and important missions that I am sick and tired for being compared to "shitty MMO quests." This isn't WoW where you help a random guy kill 40 boars and you never see them again. You getting that food to those people MATTER. Those people needed someone like them to reach out to them, or they may have had a much harder time integrating into a new life. Clive needed to see how horrible the world could be through the eyes of a child raised by a corrupt system. CLIVE would give a shit about the people who work for him and help them out when he can. He would want to LEARN about the people who are risking their lives day in and day out to help make their vision become reality.

Can some of the side quests feel boring? Sure. But that's kind of the point. These quests are grounded in reality and tedioum of life. Not nearly as much as in FFXIV, but still enough that it DOES test your patience and appreciation of the story and world. If you don't like that, that's ok it's why it's side content. But these quests ARE NOT MMO fetch quests. They matter and make the story better for existing.

[puppmeo]

My favorite thing to do in an open world game that gives you quest pins is to do anything except the quests

[alepresser]

Hey hello?

Do you know Side Quested, the webcomic created by me and @kbspangler ?

It's a crazy-bananas Fantasy RomCom with magic, dragons, a pink-goth super strong princess that didn't need rescue, an unfortunate librarian in training, and much more nonsense!

Read for free at https://sidequested.com !

[tahri-nhupuju]

What is with the quest names in this game sometimes???

[misspoetree]

The Great KinnPorsche Fashion Showdown: 24 HOURS SIDEQUESTS (II)

The (not so uniform) bodyguard uniform -

[demento-mori]

Alright im gonna do. Im gonna try and get every possible quack that I can get in one loop.

[smalltimidbean]

I finally finished Bugsnax

[aces-to-apples]

Xenk Yendar doesn't traffic in colloquialisms because he's so old he doesn't know any anymore