#urban quests

[urbanquests]

This blog is part of an ongoing undergraduate architecture thesis. It argues that the act of playing (by all, in all circumstances and, at times, against the wishes of those with power over us) has the ability to disrupt the social and spatial habits of daily life in the city. Anyone is welcome to participate.

how to play

Carry out any quest(s) that you please, in any way that you please. Then, document it - by taking a photo or a short video, by sketching, by writing in words, by recounting it to someone, etc. You don't have to show this material to anyone. If you choose, however, you may submit your documentation to this blog and I will append it to the corresponding quest. Feel free also to cut out the middleman (me) and reblog with your addition.

If you'd like me not to publish your submission to the blog but would still like me to include it as part of my thesis (i.e. for me and my review panel's eyes only), that is also very welcome - just indicate it.

See the archive to view quests en masse.

general guidelines

Play by yourself or with others. Follow local law; be respectful of the natural and built environment as well as others around you. Be safe, conscientious and aware of your impact. When submitting material, take caution: use a pseudonym and make sure that identifying features (of yourself, your peers, and your environment) are left out.

That's all!

[aniseandspearmint]

Urban fantasy idea;

There's been a rash of disappearances in poor neighborhoods in a few large cities.

Large Urban Mimics have adapted and started mimicking cars with the window down, or keys in the ignition, and the local car thief populations are getting hit HARD.

I'm just picturing a couple of guys eyeing up a shiny yellow Kia parked on some old broken down residential alike;

"Nah man, think about it. Why would THIS car be here? It's WAY too nice! And it's a bright color. You know what the news reports said."

"Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Don't wanna end up like Stevie. Or Eddie. Or Amy. Or–"

"yeah, you don't gotta go down the whole list. Let's go."

They leave and the car sits there for a few more minutes and the whole thing makes a kind of juddery motion, and the whole thing slinks off into the empty street, not quite moving right, less like a thing with wheels and more like a thing with lots and lots of little legs.

[anim-ttrpgs]

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000

Super interesting video by Questing Beast about some of the earliest ancestors to what would come to be known as a "tabletop roleplaying game," and the wargaming roots of TTRPGs as a whole.

I, the lead rules writer for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy have been a Warhammer 40,000 player for years, and I love to brag about the way that Eureka as a TTRPG is in touch with its wargaming ancestry, both in ways you would and wouldn’t expect.

Playing Warhammer 40,000 has helped me get a good sense for dice probability, especially with regards to the D6s that Eureka uses, and is one of the things that gave me the idea for how Eureka handles firearms, particularly those with high rates of fire.

In Eureka, one single hit from a bullet is enough to incapacitate a human character, and automatic weapons can fire up to 10 or even 12 bullets in a single action. Each one of these bullets has the potential to be devastating if it hits.

Lots of factors affect the probably of a shot hitting a target, and most of them affect it by making the probability go down. Shooting 1-3 shots in a single turn will be rolled by the standard and highly predictable 2D6 that Eureka normally uses, but beyond that number, D12s are used for each shot, which not only makes the rolling of 4+ shots easier because you can scoop a bunch of D12s up in one hand and throw them all at once without having to keep distinct pairs together, but also makes each individual dice roll swingier, and slightly more likely to be a lower number.

Therefore, just like in real life, automatic weapons increase accuracy by increasing the volume of shots fired, increasing the chance that at least one of them will hit. Because any given 9mm fired is just as deadly as another, whether it’s fired by itself or as part of a large burst.

It was Warhammer 40,000’s mechanics that filter massive numbers of attacks through Accuracy, Wounding, and Armor Saves, when only a few of these attacks need to get through in order to be effective, that helped put me onto this idea.

There is also the fact that, despite primarily being a neo-noir Investigation game, Eureka’s rules also allow for players easily controlling multiple characters at a time and the potential for more militaristic scenarios, with each individual PC being super fragile with simple HP that is super easy to keep track of even across multiple character sheets.

Then, there are quite a few things about Eureka that one might not expect to have come from a wargame.

For one, we get a lot of praise for how each section of the Eureka rulebook is ended with a series of bulletpoints that summarize all the key rules and ideas in the paragraphs above. Well, I got the idea to do that from Warhammer 40,000 rulebooks.

There is also a mechanic in the past few editions of Warhammer 40,000 called “Command Points.” Command Points are a limited resource that can be spent to gain small advantages in the game, such as rerolling a single die, or activating the special abilities of certain units. There is a set of universal Command Point abilities that all factions share, as well as every faction having their own set of Command Point abilities unique only to them.

It is no coincidence that Eureka sports a very similar mechanic. You can find more information about this by reading "Investigation and the Eureka! System" in the Eureka prerelease rulebook, which you can download for free right here, but the short version is that as investigators investigate, they gain Eureka! Points. It can take an awful lot of investigating to gain a single Eureka! Point, which makes them a very scarce resource, but they can be spent on valuable bonuses, such as retroactively un-failing a previously failed Investigation check and getting the clue that would have been obtained from it (We call that a “Eureka! Moment!), or adding an extra D6 to an important roll, increasing the probability of success. Those are just the universal ones, however, that every PC has. Like Command Point abilities in Warhammer 40,000, there’s a set of universal ones, but most of them are exclusive.

Certain Traits unlock other Eureka! Point abilities exclusive to PCs who have those Traits, one of my favorite of which being the Eureka! Point ability that the Final Girl Trait unlocks, which allows spending a Eureka! Point to decrease the probably of success for an aggressive monster’s roll, helping simulate the trope of the “final girl” being able to just barely slip out from the jaws of death due to a sudden stroke of luck.

Another one of my favorites is a set of Eureka! Point abilities unlocked by the monster-exclusive Unkillable Trait. These abilities allow monsters, PC or NPC, to suddenly and unexpectedly return to the narrative after seemingly having been killed by losing all their HP. The more Eureka! Points spent, the sooner more immediately the monster can return.

If any of this sounds interesting to you, you can back our Kickstarter before it ends on May 10th and get a copy on release! We are also doing physical copies now!

Oh, and just one more thing..

Eureka Mention!

If you want to try before you buy, you can download a free demo of the prerelease version from our website or our itch.io page!

If you’re interested in a more updated and improved version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy than the free demo you got from our website, subscribe to our Patreon where we frequently roll our new updates for the prerelease version!

You can also support us on Ko-fi, or by checking out our merchandise!

Join our TTRPG Book Club At the time of writng this, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is the current game being played in the book club, and anyone who wants to participate in discussion, but can’t afford to make a contribution, will be given the most updated prerelease version for free! Plus it’s just a great place to discuss and play new TTRPGs you might not be able to otherwise!

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[thefloofyfurret]

My current Husbandos now

Sasuke (Ganbare Goemon/Mystical Ninja)

Urban Champion (Urban Champion)

Sylvando (Dragon Quest XI)

Gummigoo (The Amazing Digital Circus)

[kuwdora]

The fraught experience of watching TV in a streaming entertainment economy.

I basically watch new TV with the expectation that current season I’m watching is going to be the last. That includes The Witcher Netflix, btw, but other shows, too. I get the feeling we’ve all sort of…come to this conclusion, right? We’re all so jaded because things get cancelled left and right. Nothing is safe. Nothing. :(

We all have to race to watch The Sandman or Shadow and Bone ASAP instead of enjoying a week-to-week drop. It’s exhausting. I don’t like feeling guilty when I don’t have the brain to watch things. I definitely have just streamed stuff in the background and watched it for real later, too.

Star Trek Prodigy on Paramount? Cancelled and pulled from the platform. People who purchased the rest of the season on Amazon never got the episodes because the rights were pulled. Star Trek is the flagship IP!!! And it STILL GOT CANCELLED. Even though it’s beautiful, and fucking brilliant and incredible television and had new episodes in the pipeline.

The other show I’m currently mourning is Moonhaven. I wrote about that show here. It was renewed for a second season! It’s an fascinating, atypical sci-fi TV premise with great leads and interesting worldbuilding and shooting locations in Ireland. And then AMC decided that they were not going to renew it. It’s similar what happened to Avenue 5 on HBO (Ave 5 was more of a Schroedinger’s Cancellation. It’s cancelled except maybe not? But it really is cancelled.)

A League of Their Own? Cancelled. Willow? Cancelled. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance? Sense8???? The list goes on and on. :(

I think for me it was in 2017 or 2018 that I really started internalizing this idea that none of my favorite, amazing shows were going to last. Santa Clarita Diet was axed by Netflix far too soon. Same with Altered Carbon. Those cancellations changed me, yeah…

I follow a lot of WGA writers on twitter and there’s been a lot of discussion happening about the Suits renaissance. Suits aired on the USA Network for 9 years with 16+ episodes/season. It’s been streaming on NBC’s Peacock platform for awhile and now has 8 seasons on Netflix. It’s currently the most-streamed show in Nielson’s history, something like over 2 billion minutes now. people are discovering it for the first time or coming back to it for a very happy rewatch.

This writer sums up the situation perfectly.

I also can’t track down the tweet where a writer was talking to a development executive at Peacock who admitted that they wouldn’t be able to get Suits made today.

Ugly Betty is another show that’s having a similar bump (thanks in part to Barbie, people catching up to how amazing America Ferrara is. Also watch Superstore!!) because people are looking for these longer shows that have character development and the longevity.

The only streaming platform I currently ‘trust’ with my vested TV interests is AppleTV. And I only trust them because I can see what kind of free reign they’re allowing their creatives to do with their shows. They’re specific and bold premises and commitment to characters and themes. Similar to Netflix in the early years. I doubt this will last much longer.

On Apple TV you’ve got incredible psychological thrillers like Severence and Silo happening. The musical comedy Schmiagdoon! too.

Ted Lasso got to have longer episodes and handed over showrunning duties to the lead actor with some questionable creative choices made in those seasons. It still got to complete the show on its own terms. Amazing.

Apple TV also has Mythic Quest which is a unique comedy in the streaming age.

It’s a workplace comedy about a fictionalized video game development company. Picture Ubisoft who also provides video game assets/interstitials for the show among other things. It’s Community meets Always Sunny in Philadelphia (features writers and actors from both). A comedy that examines toxic masculinity in a workplace, completely roasts the girlbloss tropes and the patriarchy. The main characters are really autistic and ADHD coded. The show is completely self-aware (at times painfully so).

But what sets Mythic Quest apart and what tells me Apple TV is letting creatives do their jobs: This show has Bottle Episodes! And flashback episodes that don’t feature any of the primary actors! But the episodes are still relevant to the the themes and character dynamics the show is exploring.

In a hyper-serialized streaming world where executives and product strategists are measuring engagement by minutes watched and how soon they watch, Apple TV is letting these folks make episodes you can watch out of order or skip. But they’re also episodes with high rewatchability. It’s a show with a ton of heart. Apple TV renews Mythic Quest ahead of a season premiere. It renews it for multiple seasons. I’ve found this commitment to the longevity of the show very heartening.

In the past I’ve fallen in love with shows that were irreverent, campy, self-aware comedies. All of these were ABC shows so I can’t even rail against the streaming model. But like Netflix shows they weren’t given enough time to reach a wider audience even though I think some of these definitely have Cult Acclaim by now. I showed up bright an early for most of these and my god. The cancellations stung so much. That pain just accumulated over the years. A precursor of what was to come. :(

Better Off Ted - 2009 show. Another workplace satire that was just ahead of it’s time in the way it showed us the gallows humor of being a cog in the capitalist system. Addressed sexism, racism and classism. Funny as hell. Portia di Rossi knew the fucking assignment and fucked its brains out with her performance. Maz Jobrani was only in like 5 or 6 episodes and he was SO GOOD. I made sure to see every local comedy show I could to see more of him once I saw him in Better off Ted. - currently streaming on Hulu

Galavant - 2014-2016 - a fantasy musical. Monty Python meets Princess Bride. Featuring creators and lyricists who worked on 90s Disney films. So fucking funny and cheeky and heartwarming and silly. The music is so GREAT. All my Witcher and Our Flag Meets Death friends need to check this one out if they need something new-to-them that is witty and light and heartfelt. - also streaming on Hulu

Don’t Trust the B— in Apt 23 - a 2012 show with Krysten Ritter!! Before she was Jessica Jones! This show has eccentric women characters and James van der Beek playing a fictionalized version of himself. This is a show that had so much potential and they aired everything out of order and and and and and and I loved it so much. - Hulu since this is again an ABC show. Vid Rec: Applause by elipie.

Selfie - JOHN CHO AND KAREN GILLAN! John Cho and Karen Gillan in a ROM COM. The screeching wails from fandom when this got cancelled. It was an amazing set-up, amazing chemistry. Funny, quirky. You could see the growth in both of the characters!! And! We Never! Got enough!! - seriously watch this on hulu if you can. John and Karen are AMAZING.

Every first season of Star Trek has been wobbly or had wobbily episodes that didn't work or actors were still getting to know their characters. Every first season. Including new Trek! The X-Files? Even rebooted again? I don’t think it would work. Heck, even if they made second reboot of Battlestar Galactica I’m not sure it’d last. FARSCAPE! Got cancelled! By SyFy! They (like Sense8 and Firefly and a few others) got to have a movie conclusion. But at what narrative cost?? The Expanse got cancelled and uncancelled. The Orville got cancelled and uncancelled. I can't get my hopes up about anything unless I know it's a "limited series" at the onset.

I'm exhausted and sad by the state of the industry. I hope the writers and actors get everything from the studios and we can see a shift back to the previous working models again. Better working conditions and pay and residuals.

So I'll eventually watch A League of Their Own and 1899 and I know I'm going to fucking love every moment that we got to have. And then mourn. And go dig up all the fanfic and vids and art that I can to get my fix.

I think for now I'm gonna join in the Suits rewatch cause I love the humor and the character growth and relationships are fantastic. I don't think I rewatched Suits or Ugly Betty since they aired.

[mangoisms]

you know what i’m thinking about. in the unmasked run in robin 93 where jack figures out tim is robin and does so by breaking tim’s privacy and going through his room and it’s often used as backup that jack was abusive most specifically in fanon spaces where bruce can then be posed as tim’s true father/better than jack and like dgmw it was bad and shitty and he shouldn’t have done it.

but it’s also funny that right before this, in that same issue—#124—it starts off with this terrible sequence of bruce treating tim like shit because he’s lost confidence in himself after accidentally killing (but not permenantly; now it seems that way) johnny warren; bruce’s defense here is tim doesn’t know this factually which i mean is fair, but he calls it an excuse and basically doesn’t address the core of tim’s feelings At All. like. look.

Bruce: This is dangerous business, Robin. No such thing as calling “time out” or “no fair.” Not unless you want those to be your final words, before the cops fish your body out of the Gotham River. Tim: Give me a break, Bruce. You’re Batman. How can I possibly hope to beat you in one-on-one combat? Bruce: I limited myself to using only the fighting styles indigenous to the Indian sub-continent: Kallar Payattu; Verumkai; some Gatka— Tim: So what? You’re Batman! Bruce: Still, you should have held out longer than three minutes. Last winter, you nearly lasted seven.  Tim: Last winter I was still—I mean back then I hadn’t— Bruce: If you have something to tell me, then spit it out. Otherwise I have better ways to waste my time.  Tim: Back then I still hadn’t killed anyone. Bruce: Oh, so it’s that again? How long are you planning to use that crutch? Tim: I— Bruce: For three months, you’ve used that incident to justify slacking off. You show up late for training sessions, or miss them entirely.  Tim: I— Bruce: You're moody, petulant and no longer self-motivated. Anytime Alfred or I aren't actually watching, you stop working. I've about decided you're not fit to continue being Robin. Tim: And that's the real crux of our problem, isn't it? You've lost trust in me. You haven't let me go out on real missions, or patrol on my own, since the Johnny Warren case. Bruce: Cart before the horse, Tim. You lost trust in yourself then, so I stopped giving you the weight you could no longer seem to carry. Tim: Is that true? Alfred, have you seen it, too? Was it me all along? Alfred: When you first came to us, Master Tim, you were so blithe and confident--ready to take on the world. How did my father describe the type? "Ready to charge into hell with no more than a bucket." Don't mind admitting that you seemed a godsend--the one young man who could exorcise the ghost of Jason from these chambers. Bruce: Careful, Alfred. Stick to business. This isn't an encounter session, and no one needs to dredge up ancient history. Alfred: Point taken, sir. My apologies. In any case, Master Tim, you no longer seem to be the same young man who so dazzled us then. Now all of the light has drained out of you, and this noble cause you once desired so much to participate in has instead become a dreadful burden. Bruce: I'll put you back out there the moment you show me that's where you want to be. But if you're going to keep using Warren to continue acting this way, not even knowing if you actually caused his death--well, that excuse is good once more, and once more only. I’ll accept it as the reason you quit. Take a day or two to decide.

like? bruce isnt looking too good here either. at all. anyway. there’s too much i want to say with this but this is already long so. Here

[multistalker]

A skeleton roaming the Swamps will give you access to its caches of artifacts. All he needs in exchange is someone's body: he will ask you for the name of a person who, in your opinion, does not deserve to live. But there is a condition that the trickster will not warn you about: if the victim's soul is lighter than yours, the skeleton will take your body.

[fyeahwebnovels]

The Dream Quest of Henry Sinclair

by Tony Maravilla, aka mitspeiler on tumblr

here on royal road or here on ao3

Finished, first of an ongoing series

Urban Fantasy, Portal Fantasy, Adventure

“The year is 199W and Henry Sinclair is a young magic practitioner on the cusp of entering high school. Before he goes, he must undergo a quest, a coming of age journey to be seen in the eyes of his witch clan. He will journey into the Dreamlands, a world less real than his own, where he will meet fictional characters come to life, Dream Lords, djinni, dinosaurs, and his own dark reflection. Will he make it back home unscathed?”

cover by cinalilli here on tumblr

https://imgur.com/szLYoFG

Some of the characters *are* queer but it does not focus on romance very much, though at least one character is trans.

[mysteryideasgroup]

My NEW MSA X Creepy/Urban Legend Enemy OC

Full Name:

Nicknames: Creepy, Creep, Black Ghost, Glowing Red Eyes Black Ghost, Black and Dark Red Suited Ghost

Gender: Male

Profile pic

Age:

Blood Type:

Occupation:

Actual or Past Occupation:

Favourite Shows/Games: Horror/Comedy/Puzzle/Legend/Fantasy/Mystery

(Legend Quest - La Leyenda/Las Leyendas, Mystery Unsolved, Mystery Solving, Urban Legends, Big Fish Games and Mad Heads Games of Horror Games, Hidden Objects Games of Horror Games, Roblox Horror Games)

Favourite Food: ???

Instrument:

Favourite Animal:

----

Family Members Relatives:

Other Family Members Relatives:

Friends: 

Enemies: 

Species: Human later hybrid Skeleton/Ghost/Skeleghost 

Status: Alive/Active 

Alignment: Bad, (former Good)

Likes:

Dislikes: Everyone has to enter the abandoned hospital,

Hobby:

Goals:

Powers and Abilities:

Skills and Abilities:

Weaknesses:

Fears/Phobias:

Skin Colour: Tan (Human), ___ (Ghost)

Eyes Colour: Brown (Human), Red (Ghost)

Hair Colour: Black (Human) Black with Red (Ghost)

Clothes: Suits Black and Dark Red

Shoes: Black and Dark Red

Accessories: Black and Dark Red Tie

Hair Styles: Shaggy

Eyebrows Styles: Normal

Beard Styles: N/A

Nationality: Mexican

Sexuality: Heterosexual and Straight Allies/Ally later Single

----

For @laurasanchez36

My new msa X lq - La Leyenda/Las Leyendas/Creepy/Urban Legend oc sona enemy villain Creepy

[stimwyrms]

Up high in the sky atop megastructures you’ll never know the purpose of, the Canopy is swarming with predators. You must be quite the predator too, to decide to come here. Or perhaps you’re just foolhardy.

Rain World Locations: Chimney Canopy

credit:

🗼 🌉 🗼

🌉 🌆 🌉

🗼 🌉 🗼

[urbanquests]

[educationaldm]

Story Hook: More than a food fight, restaurant rivalry can be a deadly business.

[thrythlind]

Urban Fantasy Video Game Concept

Time to ponder another video game concept.

Start with a first person sequence, playable prologue, length, maybe five to ten minutes. traveling through a darkened room of classical Greco-Roman columns and old broken statues and deep deep shadows, trying to avoid being spotted by something that you never get a good look at while also trying to get closer to it. Distorted voices, echoing sounds, no visible hands or legs in the character. When they get to the mark, a reflective surface starts to rise up, showing them an indistinct huddled figure hunched over a firelight.

Then wake up.

Third person perspective, focus on the protagonist waking up from the nightmare.

Most likely a specific character. Even if character generation, have a set surname (Greek probably, even if char gen results in a different presented ethnicity) and a non-binary given name (Alex, Morgan, Riley, Bryce, etc)

If character creation, default is a woman. 18-23 range but unspecified. If voiced, maybe six options, two with typical feminine mannerisms, two with typical masculine mannerisms, two without gender-associated mannerisms. Perhaps three voice actors. If tech available and doesn't sound terrible (we're doing a wishlist here so let's go for it.) then ability to pitch the voices up and down. Alternately, all three voice actors do variations of all six scripts.

Back to story.

Have character move around living space (house/apartment?) some basic interaction tutorial. Looking in the mirror (if character creation is present, this would be where that happens... with the lead up being a first-person cutscene of person moving to the mirror and then pulling back to third-person after character creation).

Some environmental storytelling implying college life, maybe something subtle to imply that magic is not unknown in the world... or at least that the protag believes in such things. Brouchures for a fortune teller, books on occult history, etc.

Looking in the mirror trying to shaking off nightmare (maybe more confused than scared). Yawning and leaning in to wash face... close up to see eye shift from human pupils to slitted reptilian and then back again. Blink, pull back, hesitantly wash face go about the rest... shift focus to going out the door and grabbing keys and wallet at the door.

Above sequence also 5-10 minutes (+ possible char gen).

Options - if action happens all in one city, then have a "day-in-the-life" sequence showing some key locations like restaurant, shops, clinic, library, etc. Maybe hub would be the college campus.

If there is a tour section, allow it to be skippable for replays into the first encounter. However, this idea is a pretty set storyline so might be low replayability.

First encounter

The protagonist is somewhere in transit, subway station or the like. Public, but a place they travel through frequently. Gets ambushed by unknown assailants. Human, thugs. Start the fight and pause, give player options:

Option 1 - Fight them off, provides combat skills. Option 2 - Run, provides movement/traversal options. Option 3 - Call for help, provides social skills.

Whichever option is chosen produces an appropriate objective on screen and HUD options leading in that direction. (perhaps mild, immersive HUD elements like in Hellblade where her health and power ups are subtly part of her char model)

All three objectives will probably still provide opportunities to try out basic fighting, traversal, and social skills.

Fighting Option - traversal for tactical advantage, social with police or witnesses after the fight Running Option - social to get someone to open a gate for you, fighting to shove loan thug that appears ahead of you Social Option - running to get to other people, small fight with one loan thug, followed by getting help from onlookers.

Possibly the player can complete any of the three objectives... But the game won't signpost those objectives (like you'll only have an exact count on enemies if you go for fighting option) and the skills you get will make the chosen objective the easiest.

Regardless of how the encounter goes. After basic tutorial of fighting/traversal/social mechanics, have a supernatural event happen. Perhaps a monster attacks. Reactions of any witnesses will determine if this is a world where magic is known but rare or if the protag is just into weird fringe stuff.

At end, the protag's eyes switch to snake-ish eyes again, but don't change back this time.

Cue Act 1 - Trying to learn what's happening to the protag and dodging attacks. Eventually come to the conclusion that the protagonist has inherited a curse and the thugs are part of a cult or secret society that is trying to track down and capture people with said curse. Perhaps from seeking out and talking to experts or tracking down the cult headquarters and either sneaking in to get lore or else beating the head of the local group and getting info from him.

Once again, signposted objectives are based on actions taken or dialogue choices, but other objectives can be completed but aren't made obvious and choices made will add skills to make the signposted objectives easier.

Skills are gained both when completing objectives and when choices signpost an objective.

IE in first encounter, if you choose to look for help, you'll get social skills, but if you get out of the encounter by running, you'll gain a traversal skill. The signposting making it easier to find objectives tied to the choice means that you're less likely to mix and match like this within one objective but is possible.

Supernatural skills come slow and come with changes. In the first supernatural skill in each track it is going to be related to vision and provide a HUD element, perhaps ability to read enemy health (which might also cause hostiles to stand out from neutrals and friendlies) or adding context to dialogue choices or highlighting parts of terrain that can be grabbed for traversal.

Supernatural skills come when encountering supernatural threats.

same pattern though, one skill gained when you choose how you plan to deal with the encounter, one skill gained when you actually complete the encounter. Major encounters only.

Minor encounters can provide skill advance over time but not in a single event. Connect this to achievements. Optional, not particularly connected to either supernatural or mundane. More number boosts or cosmetics (or love interests)

Doing a bunch of traversal stuff to get collectibles will get you traversal bonuses on each collection completion.

Doing social stuff will get you some bonus if you play them through.

Doing combat stuff will also get you bonuses when you hit certain optional milestones.

Traversal stuff could be urban exploration, collectible acquisition, rescuing people from fires or other emergencies, etc.

Combat can be random ambushes from the cult, saving people from muggers, random appearances of monsters, etc.

Social stuff can be romance options, matchmaking (if you don't want romance yourself), a mix (if you want polyamory), normal friend stuff like board game nights, negotiating job stuff, starting a business, dealing with college professors, etc.

Makes for six total skill chains:

Mundane Combat

Mundane Traversal

Mundane Social

Supernatural Combat

Supernatural Traversal

Supernatural Social

Each supernatural skill comes with a physical transformation. In act 1 this is mild.

Supernatural Skill tree is invisible, you see the skills you have, but not what's coming up. Replay and wiki of course would get around this quickly, but build into the feeling of not knowing what's going on with your changes. Also, allows for a mix of plot-relevant skill-gains and leap-frogging the "tree" when narratively convenient.

Maybe about a 3 to 1 ratio, maybe 5 to 1. many Mundane skills vs a few story-important supernatural events.

End Act 1 with character sitting down at night after this revelation and going to bed.

Act 2

prologue, another dream sequence, first person again, hands and feet are visible, Grecian woman, aristocrat, chained to a wall overlooking a rough sea. There's something vast and dangerous in the water, maybe occasional flashes of scales and coils. storm clouds make it hard to see. Play through trying to unchain themselves from the wall. Flashes of smaller figures in the clouds and spray flying around the big monster. Again, no clear image. Player gets free and starts trying to walk down a path. Sudden sound of crashing and what looks to be a massive wall of stone crushing down at them when something rushes by and pulls them up into the sky... last view of fluttering white wings and dream end.

cue the bulk of Act 2, tracking down the cause of the curse.

more encounters with the cult, perhaps more subtle threats, people in high social status. Analyzing why the cult wants people with this curse. What their plans are, getting names, etc. Near the end of Act 2, a supernatural skill will result in the protagonist's hair becoming snakes. Have this essential to final objective (whether the character completes the final "boss" fight via a traversal obstacle course, a social dialogue-tree puzzle, or a traditional boss fight).

Give suggestion that the cult is working for Stheno or Euryale.

Act 3

Act 3 begins with another dream. The player's sitting in front of a fire with partially scaly hands and hearing sounds of motion in the darkness around them. On the initial sound, stand up with a nervous sound and scanning the darkness. Distorted greek dialogue, can't be understood (actual speech but distorted) Keeping the fire between the character and the sound, flickering shadows and light against columns and statues. Then a final sound and turn to see a young Greek man becoming visible as they take a helmet off. They're looking into a reflective shield and have a strange carved blade (the Harpe)... dream ends

Act 3 is the character trying to track down and get to the gorgons that are apparently behind the cult. In the mean time, continue the minor side plots for the minor bonuses.

Tracking down Euryale and/or Stheno and working their way into their home/lair. Reveal... they're NOT behind the cult... and the cult used the protagonist to get through some of the gorgon-only security measures. Last encounter. Again, options are social, traversal, or combat to resolve Act 3. Difficulty in figuring out how to make each of the three equally exciting and make sense... alternately, act 3 could involve all 3 regardless...

End act 3, the cult gains blood from one of the two immortal gorgons (Euryale and Stheno) protagonist escapes. Immortals may or may not escape depending on player choices and level of success.

Revelation... "Your not cursed"

Act 4

Dream sequence, switching perspectives... start as a person with scaled arms and bronze wings, traversal heavy, getting up into a Greek fortress or castle... switch to a young man with a harpe fighting many warriors... switch to a young woman giving a speech to people outside the fortress and rallying support.

Dream ends mid conflict.

The protagonist now has to deal with being a descendant of Medusa, Perseus, and Andromeda.

Also now trying to figure out who is really behind the cult and why they want gorgon blood.

Also, meet cool great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-(many more greats)-aunts Euryale and Stheno.

end act boss is Polydectus who is now an animated statue after Medusa petrified him in the ancient past but he somehow is back to being able to act. Polydectus was given animation by the real main villain... Polydectus is basically a vain, arrogant, petty serial killer. Very smart, certainly a capable lieutenant, but not a true mastermind.

Act 5 prologue should confirm that Perseus/Medusa/Andromeda were a polycule/throuple. Deals with final mastermind... many options:

Athena or Poseidon

Other Greek God

Human seeking immortality

Witch Hunter seeking to create an anti-supernatural plague

???

Overall, I think each Act should be about 1-3 hours for basic story (creating a run time of 5-15 hours... Act 1 and 5 maybe the shortest acts.) With minor subplots maybe can take that to 4-8 hours per act. For a run of 20-40 hours. I know I said low replayability, but possibly having alternative big bads (with alternative minion strategy sets) and alternative side-plot stuff means it might take replays to get 100% completion. Perhaps New Game+ will give more context to the Perseus/Medusa/Anromeda romance.

[meltdownfiftytwo]

Sorry I'm not really moving in any of these screenshots, I usually stop to take them. Anyway a chaos emerald!! Apparently I missed some earlier, as I looked up the locations after this, so should I go back to get them all?

[thefloofyfurret]

My favorite characters in alphabetical order

A - Alcremie (Pokemon)

B - Booboodori (Hebereke)

C - Chillet (Palworld)

D - Dig Dug - (Dig Dug)

E - Elfilin (Kirby)

F - Furret (Pokemon)

G - Gummigoo (The Amazing Digital Circus)

H - Hebe (Hebereke)

I - Impact (Ganbare Goemon)

J - Jennifer (Hebereke) (or Jumpluff Pokemon)

K - Komasan (Yo-Kai Watch) (Or Kido - Zatch-Bell!)

L - Lopmon (Digimon) (Or Little Mac - Captain Rainbow)

M - Minccino (Pokemon)

N - Nick (Captain Rainbow)

O - O-Chan (Hebereke)

P - Pom-Pom (Honkai Star Rail)

Q - Quagsire (Pokemon) (Or Qui Qui - Qui Qui???)

R - Raichu (Pokemon) (Or Rops - Zatch-Bell!)

S - Sasuke (Ganbare Goemon) (Or Sylvando - Dragon Quest XI)

T - Terriermon (Digimon) (Or Takamaru - Captain Rainbow)

U - Urban Champion (Urban Champion)

V - Vanilluxe (Pokemon)

W - Waron (Puzzle and dragons) (Or Wonrei - Zatch-Bell!)

X - Xatu (Pokemon)

Y - Yae (Ganbare Goemon)

Z - Zigzagoon *Galarian* (Pokemon)