Tag: long post

Cityverse Christmas

You know who loves the Holiday Season?

Marian.

Marian heads the committee in charge of decorating the city for the holidays. Lights, shiny things, a giant Christmas tree, a huge and fancy menorah, anything and everything to make the city as festive as it can be. She dresses up in red and green with white trim and bakes far too much gingerbread and goes nuts.
Hana, Gabe and Discord while supportive, do not share Marian’s same enthusiasms. Discord wears ugly sweaters for her, Hana dresses up like a Christmas angel, and Gabe is happy to hang mistletoe around the house.

Decorating the city also allows Marian to make sure the less fortunate are taken care of. She volunteers a lot of her holiday time to the homeless and helps out with various charities.

Piperit’s birthday is on Christmas (though this is something he tells no one) and despite spending much of his time looking like a walking candy cane; he has never been much of a fan. Regardless, he is still happy to feature Holiday literature (of all holidays) and welcomes certified Santas and elves to read to the children in the library.
Doyle makes extra money dressing as an elf and reading to children. Doyle also spends his holiday drinking too much eggnog.

Benign spirits flock to churches around the Holidays, and Amber tends to visit with them. She sits quietly in the back and prays; December is very much a month of steady prayer for her.

Hope does extra volunteer work during December, mostly in soup kitchens and the like. She finds there is no reason not to help if you can during such times, and the bees require less attention in the winter. She exchanges gifts with Hestus on Christmas proper.

Single dad Sherwood spoils his daughter rotten during the Holidays and the two of them spend much of their time out in the snow at the park. Few look down upon the genuine fun Sherwood and Robin bring about, and many of the local children (and some adults) have joined in their fun.

Tabor and his family prefer a quiet Holiday season at home. They cozy up by the fire and watch movies or play games. The kids come and go as they please, of course, but Tabor prefers to admire winter without challenging the frosty season with his poor luck.

Wocky loves the season (and all holidays involved) but tends to get a little frustrated if asked to do things like dress as an elf. She takes some offense (considering her dwarfism) and few ask her to do so twice. She will, however, dress in tacky sweaters and sing carols. She’s the one playing holiday music twenty-four hours a day seven days a week starting on November first. She buys passive aggressive gifts for Fal every year.
Pax actually knits her own tacky sweaters (who doesn’t love a tacky holiday sweater?) and give them to people as gifts. All of Quinn’s sweaters have a different animal on them and some of them have become obscure and silly (like an aardvark in a santa hat).

Prism celebrates the Winter Solstice, usually by herself. She finds the rest of the holidays to be charming, but distances herself from the celebrations of others in favor of some reflective solitude. Due to the magical properties of a Solstice and the danger it occasionally contains in regard to magical beings, she makes sure she always has a gun handy; though the vampires seem to have learned not to test her too much after that one incident…

hyperionnebulae:

summoner-starlight:

hyperionnebulae:

summoner-starlight:

So Project: Spark is a game about making games

It’s incredibly cute and absolutely wonderful

I’m making a game about Scant

You are what?! Really?! Omg! That’s exciting! How can I help?

Well I might need help thinking of an adventure for Scant to go on

As of right now I can make him run around this little world I made and throw acorns at goblins. That’s all I’ve gotten done though.

That’s pretty great. He also likes to make friends (and give people presents). He could be running from large creatures who want to eat him (he’s difficult to catch). In D&D he has a climb check like nobodies business so make him climb up things like trees, rope, rock piles, etc. Dex is also pretty high (imagine him driving a small car lol). Trampoline tricks. maybe he could grab a large leap and paraglide. What are you looking for?

Well I want to make a platformer (because he seems the sort that would do well in a platformer) so some sort of….explore, collect, complete objective? While defending yourself against enemies?

He can triple jump which makes it easy to climb things, I might increase his speed just a bit (though he’s very quick as is).

What I’m really lacking is a goal, I suppose. Save the princess, get the maguffin, defeat the big bad….something like that. Gotta have a motivation!

Cityverse: The Police Department

The City’s police department is led by Chief Xanthe whose connection to the local politicians is deep. He knows he is the law and such is a power he exercises with great pride. Essentially, if you want to get anything done in the city you have to be on good terms with Police Chief Xanthe (which, in some cases also means being on good terms with Fal).

Xanthe has been seen on occasion with Esial, a regular volunteer at the Fire Department (and a stripper at club HEX). The relationship between the two is kept out of the public eye (but they’re totally dating).

Crime in the city is low, but that’s because Xanthe makes sure his force is on top of things and lets next to nothing slide. There’s little room for sob stories or misunderstandings out in the city.

Asherah Felin is a detective who takes her police duties seriously but is much more relaxed than the Chief. While Xanthe wants arrests, Ashe wants answers and to make sure the city feels as safe from the police as from criminals. She would never say it out loud, but she finds Xanthe to be a bit petty and would label him as corrupt if it wouldn’t cost her her job.

Sherwood, while not a licensed officer of the law, dresses up and occasionally performs vigilante work at night. Ashe, to keep her friend out of trouble (and alive) accompanies him when she can. Xanthe is suspicious of her, but can’t get any solid evidence to get her fired. She’s also one of his best detectives.

The last notable member (so far) of the police force is Officer Scarlet. She’s quite the scamp (inside joke) and seems the sort to get into a lot of trouble herself, but she’s a good officer. She has an eat, sleep, work mentality and spends much of her free time in the doughnut shop (the stereotype doesn’t bother her).

The department occasionally brings in Amber to assist with a case. She is sometimes able to contact any spirits involved to get better information. Xanthe and Ashe think it’s a lot of hocus pocus, but cannot argue with Amber’s track record. Scarlet couldn’t be more pleased. Amber doesn’t do this often, however, though she doesn’t voice why. She simply spends some time staring at Xanthe.

pretty-trolls:

 

image

Indeed dearie, indeed, you must be able to take care of yourself in this cruel cruel world. Ah, Pip, nice to meet you dear, I am Treoth (Truth) 

As for your question, ah, no, I am no jade, but I can see you are a rather adorable indigo blood yourself. Tell me, why is some one so young traveling so far this way hm?

< >,x,< > aww shucks, oh well.

> You didn’t think it would be that easy did you?

< ^,x,^ > oh yeah! i’m taking a trip across alternia looking for rainbow drinkers. i’ve been preparing for sweeps…okay maybe for a sweep, but still.

< ?,x,? > what about you miss Truth? 

Let’s Talk About Exalted: Mini talk – Names

I feel like I haven’t talked about my favorite tabletop RPG universe in a while so let’s muse for a bit on names in the Exalted Universe.

What’s in a name? In Exalted, quite a lot!

Names in Creation vary between names that are a bit more typical (first name, last name with the surname being a family name), to something a bit different (first name only, known by but a single name), to names that sound more like titles.

Out on the Blessed Isle, the home of the Realm many more people are likely to have a typical first name/last name thing going on. This is because if you are part of a Dynastic house, it is an honor to wear such a name. It should be kept in mind that such names, when said aloud, follow something more akin to use of names in Japan where the last name is put first and is used for much of the addressing. Many patricians who are not part of a Dynastic house may have only a single name.

Thing become more complicated from here.

Names, as we know, have meanings. In Exalted it is not uncommon for a character’s name to match an aspect about them (which in many fictional universes might be considered unrealistic). In Creation there is a sort of magic that some mortals can perform known as Thurmaturgy. One of these thurmaturgies is often used at the birth of a child and gives a glimpse to their future fate, allowing for the better choosing of a name. This is also where many of the title names come from.

Of course, such a thing is not always available and so normal naming conventions (it sounds nice, it means something to me, etc apply).

A good rule of thumb when choosing a title name is to keep it short. The only characters (in my opinion) who should have particularly long title names are Abyssals. In the case of naming your Abyssal, please have fun and make the name as long as you want because those names are hilarious.

Some names of my own Exalted characters are:

Hope Forged in Flame
Cynis Mayumi
Mnemon Fei-Lin
Harmony of the Storm
Hawks Flight
Red Sand Angel
Sherwood Princeton Forrest (Forrest implicating he is a bastard child)
Tabor Hazard (Meaning: Hazardous Misfortune)
Phineas Sieler
Dulcie
Through the Fire and the Flames
The Scorned Lover Clad in Lustrous Silks
Bedlam
Havoc
Azure Sparks
Meadow Breeze

Name some Exalts and have fun with it

Okay Hold Up

I’m about to get really defensive about my job.

That post regarding the Shiny Gengar has been floating around and people are absolutely shitting on Gamestop and it needs to stop. The practices of some employees at certain stores is trashy, that I will admit, and for no reason should you be charged for this code however, do not vilify Gamestop.

Recently I was promoted to Senior Game Advisor at my local Gamestop, unlike may other businesses in my area as well as back in Rochester, Gamestop took a chance and hired me during their Holiday Season last year. I didn’t know if I wanted to work for them as tumblr had painted quite the nasty picture, but it would look good on my resume to show experience from that side of the Game Design and Development field.

I expressed these thoughts to my Boss after my interview. I told him about what I had heard. He explained that there are a lot of people who take advantage of the system and aren’t in it for the customer but that wasn’t how he worked at our store. My experiences in this Gamestop have been absolutely wonderful and everyday I make sure someone leaves with a smile and a good deal.

Want Smash bros? We don’t have it. Know who does? Target down the street. I pointed people up there because it was important to me that they get to play. A few weeks ago a man came in with a defective controller he had bought pre-owned. He had come back twice with controllers that didn’t work and he wanted a specific model. I repriced a new one so he knew he wouldn’t have to spend the gas to come back again. I make sure people walk out with special edition cases (like the metal ones) if I can help it. I scour boxes for books for people who like them but can’t find them in their pre-owned games. We ran out of X & Y codes for our last promotion, we have everyone who asked for it after that point Nintendo’s number.

We have like, 4 Gengar cards left and you can bet I am going to do the same thing when we run out.

Even if I have to do things all by myself I’m going to try and change the way people think about Gamestop. It’s not a bad place. Sure, the corporate office doesn’t seem to understand things like giving us room to work or making sure we have enough payroll to get everything done, but we still work as hard as we can to make sure people have fun.

This all being said, if a Gamestop employee tells you you need a preorder before you can have this code, either show them the poster or ask for their manager. Pushing for reserves is no excuse to pull this bull on you. If it’s the manager doing it, leave and call Nintendo. Unless you’re being rude there’s no reason not to treat you with respect.

Top 5 things you HATE to have happen in an RPG gaming session.

This is even harder because HATE isn’t a thing I usually feel too strongly.

1) Sessions that feel too short. An rpg session is a lot like League for me: if I don’t feel like I have accomplished anything, I didn’t enjoy myself. Unlike League, RPGs can last as long as I need them to for this to happen and I’m much more aware of smaller accomplishments. This is especially awful if my character is really torn up over something because it becomes harder to recognize small accomplishments. When I get pissy over Exalted not happening or if I’m not satisfied with a session this is usually why. (It would kind of be like if you didn’t get any experience after a session of Dungeon World).

2) Glossing over my interests. Nick did this. He did it at least 3 times. He got me really invested in something and then just kind of ignored it without any explanation. He was very good at giving me the illusion that I was important but he had a hard time following through. If I do something, especially something ‘trivial’ like send a letter to my Mentor because I’m starting to question how I feel about the world I better get a response or a damn good reason as to why I didn’t  get one. This also refers to giving me what I want without making me feel like I’ve earned it; especially in cases where earning it is the important part. Marian might have gotten her kid back, but she hasn’t truly made up for her mistakes like she wanted. She hasn’t really done anything, she just got lucky. Let me dump my blood sweat and tears into something and let moments where I do that matter.

3) Forced bonding. My character will not change to like yours. They will not change to hate yours either. These are things that have to be earned. Connections have to be earned. My biggest problem with Dungeon World is the bonds because I don’t like or understand them. Conceptually they make sense? Like, they give you a party connection and that’s cool. But they come with a caveat of needing to be resolvable and that bothers me. I don’t want a relationship that can really be…resolved. There’s always room to explore that. I am specifically avoiding abilities that would sound cool because I don’t know how to make good bonds and I actually specifically avoided getting rid of Amber’s bond with Arthur because it would mean I needed a new one. Fate does this to a slightly lesser degree with aspects (I hate hate hate making aspects. There I said it.). It makes everything feel a little less…organic. Exalted does it with intimacies but at least those are fairly simple and I am generally in control of those. If I’m having one forced on me GSP makes sure we talk it over (and usually we have talked things over beforehand) and that way it’s easier to deal with.

4) People who give up. I know I’ve rehashed this FATE story into oblivion by this point, but this is the best representation I can think of of what I mean. Calvin and I got into an in game argument (social combat) over how time travel (and potentially general magic) worked. Doyle was an idiot. He wasn’t well educated, he drank a lot of booze and he was super obnoxious; but I was happy to play to his advantages (his social advantages) in this argument even though it didn’t make a lot of sense. People do that, they argue things that don’t make sense because they’re ignorant or just plain stupid. Calvin was losing the argument and he got mad about it, but instead of trying to find a way to shift things in his favor he got mad and gave up. If I am arguing with you do not give up. Don’t do it. I hate nothing more than that because I’m looking for a concession or for you to prove me wrong. One of us should walk away wither completely convinced or with something to think about. If we have a conflict please try to settle it because that is 1000x more interesting than you just walking away. It’s also much more satisfying.

5) Forever Unresolved (Character) Plot. Those are all capitalized and I’m going to say it’s due to their importance because I’m too lazy to go back and fix it. I don’t like things left unanswered. I don’t like opportunities lost to the ether (without very good cause). I really don’t like plots that just seem to disappear without consequence. I’m also a huge fan of character growth and watching characters change over time with things that happen, but I’m kind of weird about resolution. One of the reasons I was as distressed as I was about Matra’s death (I’m sorry I said I would shut up if you made cookies but this needs to be explained) is that it meant she could no longer have any resolution. It happened off screen and kind of came out of nowhere and it is going to bug me forever. It is especially going to bug me forever because I did come up with a last ditch plan to pseudo-resolve things from Marian’s point of view but they fell through before they could really get started (which is no ones fault these are just facts). A big big reason I declare that I want my character deaths to be Just or Heroic is because that allows for the resolution I really need. There needs to be a moment with last words. There needs to be a reflection on things past. There are other ways that plot can go unresolved, this is just the big one for me.

A lot of these seem like DM things but they can be perpetrated just as well by other players. Bleh, this was a lot of negative stuff I need to go look at pictures of Kittens.

Top five things you LOVE for a DM to do in an RPG you’re playing/have played.

This is difficult and these are in no particular order.
These also reflect things I really need to have an investment and are things that most of my DMs have managed to accomplish, for only through experiencing these things have I discovered what I like and enjoy.

1) Make me feel important. I want to have a stake in the world. I want to know I’m playing this because I’m fulfilling some fantasy of getting to be awesome. Even if that stake is my character’s parents just being proud of them. I want the world to occasionally revolve around me and to feel like I’m making an impact. 

2) Give me someone to hate. Okay, a bad guy doesn’t have to be completely one dimensional but please throw an NPC into the mix that I can despise without feeling bad about it. If you’re going to make a bad guy relatable, at least give me situations where my character can no longer justify their actions. Of course, I want to like the character too. One of the reasons Discord is my favorite character is because I really appreciated his wit and charm, I thought he was funny and crafty but I also loathed him because everything came with a catch and he pulled one too many blocks off of Sherwood’s Jenga tower and I appreciated that.

3) Give me a chance to really be someone. Let me make decisions and feel feelings. Let me make mistakes but let me have moments where I can do something about it. People are complex and that should be reflected let me be complex. Give me a purpose behind all these die rolls that’s bigger than ‘I kill an orc’. Let me be cool and dumb and cheesy. Let me be especially cheesy.

4) I might hate you for it, but rip my heart out. Don’t do it all the time, do this sparingly, but just…throw it out there occasionally. Sometimes I want to hate my DM. Sometimes I want to just curl up and be sad about fictional characters. I like a little bit of angst and it helps a character grow. HOWEVER! If you’re going to rip my heart out you have to allow for my character to deal with that. If they blame themselves you have to find a way to let them try to fix things. Let them have a chance to make up for their mistakes. Let them try to fix their world. I’ve found that sometimes a DM is so focused on the joy they receive from tearing out my heart that they don’t let me try to pick it back up. Of course, don’t just give it back to me either. I need to earn it. There’s a balance here that is hard to pull off.

5) Talk to me about the game outside of the game. Asking me questions about the universe you have thrown me into and acting like you want my thoughts and feelings and opinions makes me so happy. Getting the chance to help shape the world from the outside is awesome and I really enjoy that. If there is anything that greensunprincess and somewhere-in-the-dungeon are good at it is getting my feedback and allowing me to make decisions about the world (even on a tiny level). GSP asks me about theories surrounding mysteries in Exalted and has actually changed things when my theories were more interesting than what she had in mind. Dungeon World does this with its actual mechanics but it’s SitD’s enthusiasm about that aspect that really gets me excited.

I guess all in all it’s important for a world with actual people in it to be present. Goals, feelings, consequences, etc all need to be present. I’m here for the experience, not just the numbers and so far my DMs have been fairly good at catering to that.

Question: I am tempted to write up Agent 703 as a cityverse inhabitant. This presents two problems. First, I know names are a little vague, but 703 basically picked a different name every mission. Do I just pick a favourite, or is he somehow known literally as 703? Second, vampires and werewolves and fey all seem to coexist. What is the cityverse’s stance on genetically modified cyborg octopi? (I’d also be tempted to bring in his lover, but that presents separate issues. Er….Tabor hasn’t gotten arrested, right?)

somewhere-in-the-dungeon

Names in Cityverse reflect normal names. Hope Forged in Flame is Hope Smith (lol) and Harmony of the Storm becomes Harmony Storm. Nicknames or codenames are acceptable however. I can imagine your agent picking names as he likes/needs them. Just expect suspicion if people that know different names meet.

Fae, Therianthropes, Vampires, Demons, and Angels all exist within the bounds of cityverse but they do their best to remain hidden and appear to be unassuming. There’s a guise of normality that is trying to be maintained, and humans still make up most of the population of the universe at large. Distinctive non-humans like Blake or the merfolk, those who cannot make themselves appear to be more human, often face social stigma and can run into other problems involving their appearance. Ghosts and Spirits have similar issues.
The government of Cityverse may make claims that these creatures are equal, but there are levels of distrust and fear resulting from not fully understanding these non-human creatures.

Robots, Cyborgs, and androids are a slightly different matter. Three known fully functional Androids exist; different upgrades of a similar model. This ‘Alice’ series are the remains of their lost creator and none have yet matched their level of humanity and intelligence in a robot. Cyborgs, on the other hand, while uncommon are not unheard of. They do face social stigma regarding visible parts that explores the same area of fear of the unknown that the non-humans face; though to a lesser degree. Most Cyborgs, however, are still mostly human in appearance. A cyborg octopus would be…interesting.

Lastly, between combinations of Science and Magic, Cityverse is slightly more advanced. Slightly here indicates things things we could potentially do now that involve a possible medium-high failure rate and unforeseen consequences; such as using two eggs to create a baby. The advancement in Cityverse makes these things more reasonable to attempt, closer to being perfected.

Tabor has been arrested a few times, though not recently. His record is all from high school.