#[i love vampyr its one of my favorite games but]

[syrips]

What are your fave canon-divergent Strahd headcanons? And/or what lore changes has a DM made in your CoS campaign that you really liked?

ooh ty for the ask! 🧡🧡

im not sure if my stuff is canon-divergent or compliant because its a mix of potential-canon or random things that could be explained with lore but either way!!-

obviously potential spoilers and l o n g !

thank you for the ask, i kinda rambled but i enjoyed writing it all hehee; i swear these are my favs, didnt realize i have so many

headcanonish list and cos dm list below:

Headcanon-ish(?) list in no specific order:

strahd can invent, alternate, or customize spells

strahd passively charms people (requiring a DC save) without realizing it

strahd 4th wall breaks constantly; anything the DM knows, strahd knows

alek gwilym was the first sacrifice in strahd's ritual, not tatyana or sergei

during the ritual, alek, sergei, and tatyana's physical bodies were all taken by the mists; they can/have reincarnated many times, similar to tatyana, but are usually lost/unaware because strahd only focuses on tatyana

strahd genuinely wants a family, but attempts in desperately unhinged ways (necromancy/kidnapping/adopting)

good-aligned strahd exists, because evil-aligned tatyanas also exist

strahd's tome/i, strahd books have an unintentional charm on the reader (in an in-game sense)

all visual depictions/art/portrayals of strahd are legitimate (in an in-game sense), we just view strahd differently, and draw/see him in our perspective

all versions/campaigns of strahd are canonical, because strahd's soul also got split with tatyana's, albeit in a different 4th wall way

strahd's birthday is in june

strahd was/is neurodivergent

strahd has empathy/sympathy and suffers from his actions, yet is torn between his desires, passion, and desperation

strahd does love, but he views 'love' as synonymous with 'passion'; in his eyes, his actions are justified because the more intense/passionate he is, the more he is expressing his love

alek, sergei, and tatyana all love strahd (in the 'normal' way), but are unable to fully understand how his mind/brain works

alek, rahadin, and strahd's consorts/partners are ones closest to understanding/loving strahd

strahd converting the consorts to vampires allow them to experience love in the same way strahd does - as passion; this is also why he is so adamant in wanting to convert tatyana or just try to help her understand in his bizarre ways

rahadin existed pre-vampire strahd, but strahd wrote about alek because he was closer to alek than rahadin

strahd's father was abusive/strict to strahd; strahd is attracted to people who act opposite to his father

~~~~~

CoS/DM list (im the DM but some of these i love when other DMs do too):

everyone strahd pursues, romances, or charms are adults

for pcs, all (good/neutral/evil) npcs are romanceable without the consequence of death

campaign's 'soft cap' is 20, with boons

strahd's abilities/CR level up with the party

Vampyr is a legitimate entity/creature, that can be fought or haggled with

you do not need to kill/defeat strahd to 'beat' CoS; 'beating' CoS just means making it out of barovia or 'unlocking' access to enter other domains

can communicate/interact with other domains/darklords via spells/magic items

classic DM move of 'tome of strahd is DMified i, strahd 1 and/or 2'

players can play multiple PCs, but only one PC is able to interact in combat (unless a player is missing/unable to make the session)

classic DM move of tatyana PCs

(my favorite one:) CoS+, aka repeatable CoS games where we develop the story/lore/events based on previous CoS games (although its not really just CoS anymore but ravenloft campaigns)

#syrips DM stuff #random syrips theory #ask syrips anything #cos spoilers #ravenloft #curse of strahd spoilers #ravenloft spoilers

[transsexualunderground]

So I got tagged in a WIP game by @lswro2-222!

"RULES: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPS." Not doin' that last bit. I don't know that many people. Anyone reading may do this if they'd care to.

Note that I'll be naming my sub-WIPS here as well, since I tend to accumulate some in a big ol' doc. Some are individual though. I'll also put current lore documents and trivia lists in here too, for sake of... uh, why not. Without further ado...

THE TTTE OC TIMELINE GETS REMADE AGAIN (CURRENT VER)

Lancaster Family Lore

Forsythia Without Nicolas / Nicolas Without Forsythia

A Verbal Description of the UHR Route

SYCORAX IN: DAY OF THE DIESELS

The Noble Art of Having a Good Grumble (mostly not WIP anymore but I love excuses to talk about it)

Next are all things under "TTTE/RWS Fanbooks / Fanbooks + Engine Canon Fanstories, Chronological "Publishing" Order." All include Forewords but I'm not counting those.

wesley book/Wesley The Show Engine [rewrite to be placed here when finished]:

Wesley’s First Impression

What It Means to be Wesley

Story Title C (Re-write of Wesley’s Rough Run)

The Plate

Forsythia the Rambunctious Engine:

Tales From Before

Arrival Troubles

A Run Along the Skarloey Railway

Tricks & Trucks

More Wesley & Forsythia:

The Little Waterfowl

[In which passengers do not refrain… from singing the damn humoresque. AKA forsythia and nicolas clown on wesley with his least favorite song ever at the time. so does thomas. idk what the moral is here]

Ice on the Rails

[Another Forsythia and Nicolas one]

The Scrapyard Engine:

Wesley And The Scrapyards [Extract Douglas]

Whatever Happens Next

A Horrible Place

A Scrapyard Finale

The Scrapyard Engine No Longer:

A Railway Beginning

A Name Fit for the Fat Controller's Railway [Extract Donald and Douglas? Switch for Bill and Ben because that’d be funny right?]

The One Where We Flesh Out The Wesley and Clara Mentor and Mentee Dynamic (establishes “…what if i don’t see you” conflict) (maybe some “I’m a bit surprised you care this much about it, too, Wesley” from Clara)

Clara Pulls the Post

[something] Engines:

Wesley and the 17 Classes (WIP)

Clara The Really Fucking Strong Engine, Jesus Christ, Man (Working Title)

James and Clara

Bertram the “Old Warrior” Engine:

Scrap Deal

Bertram and the Mines

Toby's Discovery

Shit Goes Nuts With Trucks

Heritage Railway Engines:

[Prudence One]

[Sycorax One, possible transition to both being at works and maybe also just the full story of Sycorax getting their name]

[Prudence Antics]

[More collective antics?]

More Heritage Railway Engines:

Sycorax's Masterwork

Elias the _ Engine:

Elias's Tender [Combine with Gordon and the Eel)

[To be titled. It’s a sad one.]

Elias's Return

Elias and the Eels [the one where Elias gets his eels back]

Engines After Dark

The Bitch Incident

May They Smelt

The One About Funnels and Couplings

Engines Nowadays:

Placeholder 1

Placeholder 2

Placeholder 3

Placeholder 4

And finally, my one non-TTTE WIP...

Red Moonshine: The Uses of Blood in Alchemical Processes (and its Impacts on Vampyres)

That's all.

#ttte fanfic #ttte oc #i am NOT tagging all my ocs #secondman says #secondman storytelling #ttte #thomas the tank engine #thomas and friends #thomas & friends #railway series #the railway series #rws

[heatkerlon]

Samorost 1 download

Well yeah, I did get that impression from reading what the crew has to say on a bunch of stuff on the forums, especially since that whole SAVE KQ9 thing, it's all gone to their heads. I once posted that I didnt like the shadows and flame effects and the entire thread was taken off and the forum threatened with a lawsuit. Add that with the fact that the teams more bored people surf the web for posts like this one and then try to shut down sites that even hint the game might stink. many TSL people were either fired or quit due to issues with the team. Just know there was an original kq9 project worked on called "It takes two to tangle" and. nothing was wrong with kq7!!! it was like kq4!! just new! I loved the art style in kq7 it was like vampyre story without being as dark!įor more facts based on this subject lemme know in pm. I have alot of info that I cant discuss or TSL might come here and tell telltale to shut down the forum. They literally raped stole and pillaged to get where they are, and are a bunch of kid jerks unlike telltales awesome crew.Īnyway its a personal inside view. Stay awaaaay from César Bittar and the TSL project. Without causing a massive war just know even Scott Murphy who was backing TSL is now. shrewd and dont care about anyone or anything but themselves. Sorry I have to say this right now but the TSL crew. As you switch between the databases to uncover new details, an extensive sci-fi story unfolds. As the plot develops, you acquire accompanying information by accessing eleven additional databases - for example a historical archive, military files or social backgrounds. The story of the boy Peter Devore, his incredible discovery and the mysterious portal are told by an AI named Homer, who reconstructs it piece by piece out of database fragments. Portal is a unique attempt of creating and adapting a novel specifically for the computer. The answer must lie deep in its database. Between the decaying remnants of civilization, you discover a terminal for Worldnet, the global network that recorded all human activities. Where are all the humans? Upon returning from your 100 year voyage in the milky way, you find earth empty and abandoned. One of my all time favorites is Portal from Acitvision on the Amiga, although not a typical point and click adventure. Generally if you don't have a nice local store you might want to buy new stuff via Amazon and old stuff via eBay. I don't have so much time to dig them all out now but here are two links which might help you: Only played the Runaways and well nothing to get excited about.Īnd and and.there are so many. I didn't like part one and never played part two but others say that Dreamfall is much better. The bigger the number the worse they got. Part 1 is one of the best adventures ever made! The others are good to okayish. TTG helped out on the concept of Ankh 1, right? If you buy Ankh then watch out for the gold version as this package contains both, Ankh 1 Special Edition and Ankh 2. O Ankh 1+2 (Ankh 1 is also available for osx and linux (ported by ), Ankh 2 will be ported too.)

#Samorost 1 download

[contractterminvted]

it's munday time!: 3 5 12-14

Question for Mun // accepting

@chaosandprotectors

03. Are there any particular aus or plots that you’d really like to write?

Hmmmm there’s an AU/Verse idea I’ve been toying with for a bit. For some reason I really want a Vampyr verse for Rafe and just have interactions between him and McCullum just seem like a “fun” time. 

I also would love a thread with Elena, just for fun. I’d love for her and Rafe to interact. 

Oh and of course, some angsty post-canon Sam & Rafe in one of my “rafe lives” verses. owo

05. What is the most difficult thing about writing your current muse?

Being able to keep him as a 3 dimentional character. With a muse like Rafe, or villains in general, I think it’s easier to just make them full batshit crazy/evil. While that is fun to do depending on the verse, Rafe’s not always like that. He does have feelings. And juggling with his feelings is hard sometimes. Like how much can I do before it starts to look too out of character? 

But if i’m being honest, the most difficult part about writing him is that he’s a canon muse and i’m constantly second guessing myself if i’m doing him justice. My previous muse was the complete opposite of him, an OC and a total ray of sunshine.  ngl tho, i am having more fun with Rafe than i ever did with my oc 

12. Have you roleplayed anywhere other than tumblr?

Yes! I have RPed through WhatsApp with a group of friends. Just a bunch of fantasy-themed OCs, nothing too serious, it was just a pass-time in college that worked as a prequel for our tabletop rpg campaign! 

13. Who are five of your favorite characters? (In the rp community or otherwise)

Handsome Jack (Borderlands 2); Yennefer of Vengerberg (The Witcher books & games); Rafe Adler (Uncharted 4); Zevran Arainai (Dragon Age Origins); Geoffrey McCullum (Vampyr). 

14. What are five of your favorite ships? (In the rp community or otherwise)

Rafe/Sam (Uncharted 4); Corvo/The Outsider (Dishonored); Jonathan/Geoffrey (Vampyr); Geralt/Yennefer (The Witcher books & games); Crowley/Aziraphale (Good Omens).

#chaosandprotectors #I GUESS I'M FEELING GENEROUS TODAY // answers #WOO SUCCESS HAS MANY FATHERS // mun #.ooc #[i listed fave charas and ships in general not rpc only] #[i love vampyr its one of my favorite games but] #[its rpc scares me] #[hel? what more plots you want?] #[A N G S T] #[oh and vampires]

[livingwithhorrors]

Two Games I find Beautiful and under appropriated are Murdered: Soul Suspect and Vampyr.

Both feel very short and quick ended sadly and not nearly enough side missions in my opinion.

Where Murdered: Soul Suspect has many flaws, I was still invested and loved the look and many of the underdeveloped ideas.

One being the very underdeveloped use of possession. You can posses people but have little control. Were as in a tight spot you are able to posses and control cats.

Sadly this feature is very basic and doesn’t go far in a whole. You are limited to areas and have little interaction as a cat.

Upon first play I found I figured out who the villain was instantly, though still enjoyed the progression and finding out more.

Side quests were merely item/lore hunts. Though I enjoyed the urban legend lore given, I wish there had been more to the side quests. Even the lore affecting the game visually. Upon finishing a lore I would have loved to have seen it visibly present in the game like an Easter egg.

Though there are moments put in that are quite fun to see. Like ghosts in the graveyard trying to be seen on camera while people are reporting. The game taking place in Salem Massachusetts and tying in the history of the witch trials as part of the story line. Interacting with other ghosts and solving not just your own murder.

Buildings being ghosts themselves. As only memories of what used to be built or tragic events such as fires taking place in the past.

Sadly after release the game developers went out of business and no possible DLC or sequel was made.

It still is one of my favorites for story and visuals, though lacking in game play quality at times and ends a bit open ended and no roaming after.

Vampyr on the other hand I knew about for some time before release. I had heard of it years before it was made and only in early development.

The game is visually beautiful in its art styles used to tell the story, designs of characters and surroundings in all.

It plays better then Murdered: Soul Suspect greatly, coming out four years after the other in 2018.

Sadly it still suffers lack of extra quests and never received DLC. A sequel I have yet to hear about being made.

Where the other was in the US in Salem of present of 2014, Vampyr takes place in the UK during the Spanish Influenza of 1918. You play as a newly turned vampire while is also a doctor.

You have choices that you can make that affect the games ending and your relationship with others through out the game.

You can play pacifist, neutral or just balls the wall evil.

I’d compare the fighting similar to the Dishonored games where you have powers and skills to attack, sneak and destroy.

I felt the ending was rather fast when it came to the end and wished there had been more.

The game ending makes it so you are unable to really play again unless you saved before hand. I greatly hated I wasn’t given a choose to explore and get anything I missed. Same as Murdered: Soul Suspect. A feature I truly hate in a game.

Still the story and visuals are amazing and the game play is a great deal more fun in regards to Murdered: Soul Suspect.

The lore is similar yet different to that of classic vampires. Eldritch like beings created the vampires of the world. One being is looking to take over the earth, why our main character is turned and sent out to stop it.

There are different species of vampires through out the play through and you are even given choices to turn others as well. Through spit or hope to help, it either can turn out well or very badly in the end.

I can only hope for a sequel, but have my doubts.

#murdered soul suspect #vampyr #Video games #horror #ghost #ghosts #vampire #vampires #Youtube

[palidoozy-art]

The more I think about your recent post about the changes you made to Strahd, the more I wonder about those changes you made to the others mentioned (Rahadin, Van Richten, Ireena, etc). I'd absolutely love to hear what adjustments you made as you already shared some stellar ideas already. Like the Tome? -Chef kiss- Amazing.

Oh mannn I do love talking about my campaign. I changed a lot with them. Again, weirdly enough, I think Strahd wound up being the most like his original incarnation. I could talk forever about the changes I made so I'll try to be brief haha. IT STILL WON'T BE BRIEF.

Obvious CoS spoilers below

IREENA - I thought it was weird that the picture they gave her makes her look like such a badass, and then the module just kind of writes her as a damsel in distress to either get kidnapped or pulled into water or dumped somewhere. To me, she's like, the second most important character in CoS -- and the book literally gives you less direction to roleplay her than her brother. Furthermore, reading her ending actually legit made me mad.

So I said fuck all that. Ireena in my game was a 19-year old girl who grew and developed over the course of the campaign. Several of my players actually said they thought of her as "the main character," just because she experienced a lot of character growth and development, going from a sheltered meek teenager to someone who can fight and assert herself. The biggest change I made to her though was that I very specifically did not just want her to be "Tatyana with memory loss." Ireena is a unique individual who happens to be partially made out of Tatyana's soul. While she shares many similarities with Tatyana, they're separate people, and part of what Ireena has to grapple with is how to live up to that. She's in the post-campaign because of that distinction -- while Sergei offered her to join him, she declined, because she wants to experience life past her twenties. I didn't get to play it out because we were kind of rushing towards the end, but I honestly envisioned a scene where she talks to the portrait of Tatyana, apologizing to her because she knows she's being selfish remaining alive.

This also brings up a unique problem in the post campaign. If Ireena dies, she ceases to exist and may not be able to be resurrected. When her soul leaves her body, it's Tatyana's again. Ireena very much wants to live. Tatyana doesn't. A resurrection has to be made with the consent of the soul, and if Tatyana declines, Ireena's just... gone. Forever.

Related: because I wasn't sure what my players would ask, and Rahadin would absolutely know this information -- there have been 18 incarnations of Tatyana, including the original. I actually have a timeline of when they were all born and how they died. The curse manifests in that they always die or are killed before their 25th birthday. If Strahd attempts to marry them, they lose their minds and throw themselves off of the same balcony the original Tatyana jumped off of during the ceremony. Strahd can never have Tatyana. Vampyr will ensure of that.

But yeah, essentially: Ireena gained actual class levels; she wasn't just Tatyana with memory loss; she traveled with the party for 90% of the campaign and wasn't just a macguffin to be kidnapped/take to places; and I removed any of the "Sergei takes her into water/the sky and you never see her again" endings because I absolutely hated those.

VAN RICHTEN - Van Richten I tweaked a lot from his original incarnation. First, I started him off as Lawful Neutral. No, game, I know you tell me he's Lawful Good, but I'm gonna have to disagree with you that "training a racist tiger to genocide an ethnic camp" falls under the spectrum of Lawful Good. Second, I changed him from cleric to artificer (alchemist). I somehow just got the impression the dude was a godless man, and so he felt more fitting to be a man of science rather than a man of the church. Third, since I wasn't sure the other dread domains were ever going to be brought into 5e I moved him out of Darkon and into another world from the outside.

His backstory was also tied more into Strahd and the campaign in general, as well as the Dark Powers. About 30 years ago, he went into the mists with his own adventuring party (that included Escher) to try to rescue his kidnapped son, Erasmus. He found his son half-turned and begging him for death. Killing him, Van Richten hunted down the Vistani woman (Ezmerelda's mother) who sold the man, and in a rage strangled her to death. This gave him a curse. Ezmerelda witnessed it happen.

He went on a warpath against vampire spawn and vistani alike, until Strahd proposed a deal to Escher. Escher lured the group to a familiar dinner date with Strahd... only for Strahd to murder all of them, including Van Richten. Van Richten was approached by a dark power -- Vaund the Evasive, and given the option to return to life in exchange for the promise that Van Richten would eventually return to Amber Temple and free him. He took it, waking up outside of Barovia. From there he became famed vampire-hunter-book-author, until in his early 50's he decided it was time to seek vengeance and fulfill his promise. He brought in his hat of disguise, came up with an alibi, and headed into Barovia as Rictavio the Great.

He was absolutely played as a much more morally grey character at the start (the party's first encounter with him rather than Rictavio was him literally torturing a dude). He softened over the course of the campaign as he grew attached to the party, until finally reaching a point in the post-campaign where he's considered Lawful Good

Also: Ezmerelda was treated more or less as his adoptive daughter. She absolutely argued against this every single time, but he even slipped up and referred to her as his daughter on a few tense occasions.

RAHADIN - Rahadin I adjusted a lot, too. A LOOOOOOT. Strahd being comically evil makes sense -- the dude is a darklord, that kind of comes with the territory. With Rahadin, I wanted him to have more motivations to his actions, because the base game actually suggests that the dude is actually capable of caring. In the base game, you can find him at Amber Temple, trying to "petition the dark god into releasing his master from his torment." He screams in grief if he finds Strahd dead. Furthermore it felt like the game glosses over the fact that the dude was adopted as Barov's son. It doesn't bother addressing how Rahadin felt about Sergei, who would in theory be his other brother. I thought a number of things suggested in his backstory were interesting, but not expanded upon in the base game. So I took it upon myself to do so.

I changed how dusk elf society was built, which affected the three major dusk elf characters. It worked off of a pretty brutal caste system, with three kings at the top overseeing all of it. Rahadin was born in a lower caste, but actually brought into the warrior caste after a member of royalty was intrigued by his stature. Rahadin worked as a general, but grew frustrated by the inefficiencies of the caste system and its inequality. He started attempting to use his influence to petition other members of nobility into changing or loosening the strict system.

Patrina caught wind of this, and viewing it as a threat to her lifestyle + viewing it as an easy way to gain brownie points with those above her... tattled on him to the three kings, spinning what he was doing as treason. Rahadin was arrested and subsequently tortured. They attempted to execute him on a breaking wheel, breaking his bones against the spokes and leaving him in the town square as an example. He wound up escaping, crawling his way out of town until he was subsequently rescued by a group of human monks. The event pretty much broke him, morally. He went to Barov soon after and sold his people out, taking a personal hand in helping annihilate the dusk elves and conquering their land. Barov was so impressed by the man's loyalty that he adopted him as his son.

Part of this was done to make a connection as to why the hell Rahadin just absolutely fuckin' hates Patrina so much (since that definitely got played up during the campaign). When thinking of Rahadin's motivations, I tried to come at it from the angle that this man was evil... but legitimately cared deeply about Strahd, Sergei, and Tatyana. He was devestated from the events of the wedding, but saw Strahd's return as a second chance. As the lone surviving witness from the wedding, he desperately wanted to help the three of them. But his own blind loyalty to Strahd and his broken moral compass prevented him from doing so.

One of my favorite little additions was a sidequest I offered to the players (they wanted to redeem Rahadin). They were requested by him to retrieve (well, "not destroy or sell") one of his most precious belongings in his office. When they get there... it turns out it's a birthday card and a worn-out old amulet from Sergei and Tatyana that he's kept after all these years. They got Ireena to read the letter to him, to help him keep going after Strahd's death.

anyway i could ramble on about changes forever but i don't want this post to get too long haha. i have. many feelings. over this campaign. maybe at some point I'll do a separate post with some of the others.

i also kinda wanna do a comic of an event from Rahadin's backstory for my players but we'll see, I might deem it "too stupid."

#palidoozy rambles #curse of strahd #curse of strahd spoilers #cos #cos spoilers #WARNING IT LONG #I HAVE MANY FEELINGS ABOUT THESE THREE CHARACTERS

[marcopantry]

I have the urge to send you all of the asks hnnng- ALRIGHT HOW ABOUT 11, 15, 16, 17, 20 <3

Hiiii!! Hello friend!!! AHH MUSIC MY BELOVED!!

This got a little long 😳 ("Little" he says! Hah!) I simply couldn't contain myself..

☆ 11. A song that makes you wanna dance.

I have an entire playlist for this, but! Rapid fire! Venus by Bananarama, Don't Wanna Fall in Love by Jane Child, The Cult of Dionysus by The Orion Experience, Maneater by Nelly Furtado, Weird Science by Oingo Boingo, Bad Guy by The interrupters, Hung Up by Madonna.

☆ 15. A song from one of your favorite artists

I Think I'm Paranoid by Garbage ♡ (xoxo muwah! muwah!)

Little Lies You're Told by Joywave, I love the albums Content and Possession. Obsession by them is such a mood btw, pretty sure it's in my adhd playlist. Strangelove by Depeche Mode I Was Just a Kid by Nothing But Thieves :] Private Life by Oingo Boingo ♡

☆ 16. A song from an artist you barely know

You'd Be Paranoid Too by Waterparks, think it was the first song I heard by them. Doctor! Doctor! by Thompson Twins, despite liking some of their songs I know fuck all about them. He's Funny That Way by Love Is A Drag Archie, Marry Me by Flyte BOOGIE by BROCKHAMPTON

☆ 17. A song from a video game or show/movie

Twisted Tango, from the Vampyr OST, positively obsessed. Reign from Yakuza 0 Block Head Boy from Yakuza Kiwami 2 MachineGun Kiss from Yakuza 4, 'cause I'm a sap For Fallout I'm choosing stuff they've commissioned or made, rather than bought the rights too: The Courier Walks Slowly + The Doctor Is In + New Vegas Valley from Fallout: New Vegas (the game has an amazing atmosphere!) Baby It's Just You + Train Train from Fallout 4 And Of the People, for the People, it's hopeful yet melancholic. Gotta be honest, no idea what Fallout would be without Inon Zur. Deadman's Gun from Red Dead Redemption Mountain Hymn from Red Dead Redemption 2  :'T The Norwegian series, Post Mortem: ingen dør på skarnes (A show that I never actually finished, I need to fix that), has a good soundtrack but I feel like they're all so short.

☆ 20. A song without lyrics

Immediate thought; Saltillo, right away. Though I wasn't sure if sample audio counted as lyrics- so They All Do It The Same Its a little reminiscent of the OFF game. Or Remember Me? By Saltillo as well. Second thought; NIN, Leaving Hope There's also; I'm Jim Morrison, I'm dead by Mogwai Background Noise by Trent Reznor (I know he's from NIN shhh) And I HAVE to mention Theme of Laura by Akira Yamaoka, I'm bound by law. As you can perhaps see, I'm a big fan of mood builders and atmosphere! Though for purely sentimental value, Watching The Boats With My Dad by Buckethead. It's connected to a very fond memory of mine, and as I don't have a lot of those, I deeply cherish it.

💌

Thank you so much for the ask!! It was a blast to answer!! 💕💕

#rav #ask.txt #this was a lot to link so let me know if anything is wrong! #yellow #m: c-ookie

[gamergirl-niffler]

Dulce mea! 💖 Revenge!!! ⚔️ For game ask: 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 11, 15, 17, 18, 19, 22 & 25

Video Game Asks

Pffftttt sweetheart ♥ you make me laugh!

1. Favorite game from the last 5 years?

It's definitely a Red Dead Redemption 2. For this game, I bought my first ever console and I don't regret it.

I love the story, I love the world and the characters!

Even if I finished the game I still love to return to it just to mess around!

2. Most nostalgic game?

Hmm...

It's really hard to pick one... when I think about the 'most nostalgic game' I think about a few...

But reaching deep into my memory I need to say... Super Mario Bros

I remember we had this knock-off console... with all those hacked cartridges that had 1000000 games on it. I often played it by myself (Failing at games) or I was the "proud" player 2 when my bro wanted to play or I just watched.

4. Game that deserves a remaster?

Well... I would say GTA SA.... but it was done already... badly...

Honestly? I'd love to see a remaster (GOOD ONE) of the first Assassin's Creed game. Just imagine! The first game looking like Valhalla with similar mechanics... that would be WOW!

6. Favorite genre?

This is really hard to tell. I like many games. As long as the story and characters are good!

But I think I will say... Action-adventure.

Yup, Action-adventure games.

7. Least favorite genre?

I am not a big fan of RTS games...

planing stuff is not my thing, I want to DO things, like NOW!

11. Favorite voice actor from a game?

I mean... c'mon... we all know who I love...

and it's honestly the only voice actor I know from more than just a one role XDDD

15. Current console or consoles?

My current console is PS4 500GB + 2T portable drive

17. Place from a game that you’d like to visit?

There are sooo many interesting places that it's hard to pick...

I think I would love to visit Libertalia from Uncharted 4...

with Sam 😏😏

18. Place from a game that you’d like to live in?

I would gladly live in Ravensthorpe from AC Valhalla. It just has its charm and c'mon... Eivor 💖

19. Ridiculous crossover that would never happen but would be super fun?

Hmm... Maybe... Uncharted & Tomb Raider... that would be amazing!

22. Games you want to play?

Vampyr

Until Dawn

Peaky Blinders: Mastermind

25. What power-up or ability would you want IRL?

Pet Eagle... I mean it! amount of stuff you could see! Just like in AC!

Here you go sweetheart ♥ I at least answered 😘

#Niffleranswer #Gaming ask #Video Game Asks #ask meme

[aschen-kiln]

Character Tag 10 favorite female characters

I was tagged by @ellanainthetardis​ !

Rules: List your 10 favorite female characters, one per fandom, then tag 10 people. Well, i won’t tag 10 people, because i don’t interact with that much people here. 

Mass Effect – Liara T’Soni

« Embrace eternity. »

She went from pure and naive to cold-hearted bitch before becoming a little mix of both that gave me life when i was younger. She remains my favorite LI of the whole saga (including Andromeda) and, even when she is not romanced, Liara is one of the most loyal friend Shepard could have. Plus, she is lethal. And blue. What’s not to love. 

Game of Thrones –  Sansa Stark

« I am a Stark. Yes, I can be brave. »

This fandom gives so much good characters, it was hard to choose, but Sansa won. She was everything i dislike in a character : shallow, oblivious and stupid. But this girl has hidden dephts : she is compassionate, resilient, actually freaking smart, and she manages to keep her empathy despite everything she goes through. She has the best development, both in books and in show (even if i don’t like her line about the little bird she’d still be without Joffrey/Ramsey/Baelish - that’s bullshit). And she is my Queen.

Game of Thrones – Cersei Lannister

« Look at me. Look at my face ; it’s the last thing you’ll see before you die. »

OKAY I CHEATED SO WHAT ? What are you going to do ? Nothing, that’s what. So ! EVIL QUEEN AT ITS FINEST. There are not that much well written evil character but THIS ONE is one of them. She deserved an end as epic as her life so, i’m not going to continue in this line of thoughts BUT. You know. What I mean. Fuck you D&D. Love you, Cersei. You rock.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Willow Rosenberg

« The magick i used is very powerful. I am very powerful. And maybe it’s not such a good idea for you to piss me off. »

When I was a little girl, I wanted to be like Willow. She is a witch, you see, and i wanted so badly to be a witch myself. She has the most magnificent hair, she is smart, and beautiful, and so freaking powerful, guys. She could have become an arrogant bitch or stayed a discreet nobody, but no, she became the badass sidekick to the most badass Slayer, and she still manages to stay deeply human, with her failures and her weaknesses. Her heart is made of the purest gold, and she has balls of steel : being the first lesbian character in a show targeting teenagers, at that time (90’/2000) had to be difficult, but she showed the world that it was okay to be different, and that being different did not mean being less. Her love story with Tara was, is and will remain one of the most beautiful in this show (and i do love Buffy/Spike). Plus DARK WILLOW. And you CAN’T tell me Vampyr!Willow did not give you the hots. I will call you liars. 

Charmed –  Piper Halliwell

« Sometimes, the best thing you can do is take a step back a give yourself a chance to breathe. »

While the war was raging between Prue and Phoebe and then Pheobe and Paige for Best Halliwell Sister, my heart always went to Piper. Firstly because she was discreet, level-headed and a hard-working girl, and I respect that. Plus, she is a cook, guys, and i love eating, so it was a match made in heaven. AND, last but not least, she is a witch. I love witches guys. I want to be a witch. I want to be THIS witch, most specifically. Anyway, her powers are both destructive and defensive – honestly, SHE CAN LITERALLY MANIPULATE MOLECULES GUYS - she is the true head and the heart of this family, she has her own club, a devoted husband who loves her so much it is almost painful to watch and adorable children. And she does all of this without becoming crazy. I stan.

Star Wars – Leia Organa

« Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper ? »

Princess/General Organa, everyone. I don’t even have to explain myself, do I ? That woman does not take shit from anyone and slap back with all her might. We gotta respect that. Make way for the queen.

Ewilan’s Quest / Ewilan’s Worlds – Ellana Caldin

« Il y a deux réponses à cette question, comme à toutes les questions : celle du savant et celle du poète. »

Ellana is a secondary character from a french saga, and the primary character of her own trilogy, written by late Pierre Bottero. She is an icon of feminism. She is an assassin and a thief, yes, but a Marchombre is so much more than that, it is actually difficult to describe it. You have to read it to understand. Even if the whole story is too manichean for my taste, now, Ellana remains the best character. She does not bow to the laws of men, and her honor is paramount. Her honor, her word and, most of all, her freedom. 

Jane Austen – Elizabeth Bennett

« I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine. »

Here is a woman who values mind over beauty, consistence over money, love over security. If Ellana was my role model as a pre-teen, Elizabeth was my absolute goal at 15. She is witty, prideful but can accept it when she is wrong, and no matter how society views her, she remains true to herself. And that’s what makes Darcy fall in love with her. Yes, guys. Here is a woman who literally headbutted him and, as he fell on his ass, he also fell in love. Yes. You can’t change my mind on this.

Harry Potter – Minerva McGonagall

« Have a biscuit, Potter. »

Not only is Minerva powerful, brilliant, just and fair and loyal to a fault, she is also SNARKY. Plus, come on, she transforms into a cat. Ans she chew Umbridge on a daily basis. That’s a true hero if you ask me. All hail the true headmistress of Hogwarts !

Friends – Monica Geller Bing

« But we only ordered one ! »

She is beautiful, down to earth, completely insane but still manages to be the most reasonable of the six. She is a cook. I love eating. That’s a match. She married Chandler, i wanted to marry him too, so there’s that. AND she kick Ross regularly. Let’s be honest, we all want to kick his ass.

#i have been tagged #once again #This took so much time #i cheat and i regret nothing

[drunkontiamaria]

Simmer - ‘Get to Know’

by @cupcakegnome

I was tagged by @greenfooddog​ :) ________________________________________

Your name: Tia

Languages you speak: English, I would love to learn Japanese though Are you a mermaid: Unfortunately not 

Your play style: I usually have about 30000 saves that I say I’ll go back to but never do. I recently cleaned out my saves in the hope I’ll focus on my legacy family that this blog is for. I enjoy building and decorating but I am bad at it imo, i rarely make sims, and my favourite part is just the menial living. Your selfsim picture:

Shes not the best but here we are. I used her to start this legacy along with a simself of my boyfriend :)

Stories or gameplay, builds, lookbooks, edits or cc: I mostly do game play, I am new to the storytelling aspect, publicly anyway. i do enjoy building and i use a bit of CC but mostly script mods. Your favourite age state: Probably Teen. My least favourite is baby. Your favourite season: Spring. I can plant lots of things for my sims.

Your favourite holiday: Harvestfest. How was your day: Not too bad, just an average day.

Your favourite career: I wouldnt really say I had a favourite but I do tend to put sims in the tech career a lot. Your favourite aspiration: Fabulously wealthy, I love the free money you can get out of it when you have completed the money aspirations. Your favourite EP, SP or GP: I think it would be University from 4. 3 would have to be Supernatural. I haven’t really played with EPs in 1 and 2. How old is your simblr: I scrapped my old one which was about a year old. and made this fresh one, which is only a few weeks old. Have you woohooed: Well i mean.. i have a son. Your favourite skill: I use gardening the most outside of necessary skills. I think its really fun to manage a little garden. The size of your mods folder: 20.4 MB Your 3 favourite mods: MCCC, Basemental (Alcohol always, sometimes i add the drugs into it), and Zero’s University cost mod that alters how much uni costs to make it more realistic. Your interests (other than sims): Gaming, reading, watching random shows on netflix. I used to draw. I really enjoy cooking. Your favorite sim (picture if possible): 

This is Clara. I made her to test out mermaids when i got Island living. She is a fairly plain and basic sim but i think shes the favourite out of all I’ve made.

Which Sims games you have played (including mobile games): TS1 on PS2,   TS2,    TS3,   TS3 on PS3,  TS4,  TS4 on PS4,  TS2 Castaway on PC&PS2&Wii,   TS2Pets on Wii&PS2,   TSMedieval,    Sims Mobile,    TSFreeplay Propose a crazy scheme: Yeesh I don’t know. Best part of simblr: Seeing everyone’s stories, sims, and builds. I adore watching creativity thrive. Worst part of simblr: Its tumblr. Some weird shit goes on here. What other games you play: A LOT. I am and have always been a huge gamer. Right now my main games are League of Legends, Vampyr, Breath of the Wild, and ARK. Other websites or accounts (origin, twitter etc..): Origin: drunkontiamaria  Twitter: x_tiajade_x (I dont really use Twitter though. Steam: drunkontiamaria      Discord: drunkontiamaria#8128

Are you single: Nah

Tagging, with of course no obligation: Any of my fellow Simblrs can do it :)

[snatcherwes]

OCtober 3rd: Feast

OCtober Challenge by @oc-growth-and-development!

Author’s notes: So this ended up being way longer than I intended but I didn’t feel happy with the set up until I fleshed it way out like I did so that’s how we ended up with 2,414 words. I’m actually not super upset with this one either even though I know it’s kinda rushed. I don’t love the ending but I needed to get it done and it’s not completely awful so /shrug. Anyway, here’s another Vitale and Luke piece. It’s much darker than the previous one and has a handful of warnings coming along with it. I take a lot of how I do my vampires from VTMB and Vampyr because they’re two of my all time favorite games so if you’ve played them, some things might seem familiar.

Warnings: There are mentions of blood and semi-detailed torture and death in this. It’s not too bad but it is about a vampire so proceed with caution if you’re easily squeamish!

Word count: 2,414

When Vitale finally came through, it was to a rush of cold water being poured over his head and a throaty chuckle ringing through his ears. He desperately gasped, shaking his head vigorously in an attempt to throw off the wash of cold clinging to him. Doing so gave him an intense bout of vertigo as his head began to throb. When he made the move to push back his sopping wet hair, he found that his arms were secured tightly behind his back with thick, heavy chains. The vampire frantically squirmed, achieving nothing but heavy nausea and throbbing aches. He defeatedly settled, allowing his eyes to finally adjust to the dimly lit view before him.

He was sat on the stone floor of what appeared to be a basement. His bindings were connected to a thick hook that had been drilled into the brick wall behind him. Beside him on either side were vacant sections of wall that served the same purpose as the one keeping him tethered. He tried to see further into the darkness of the basement but his exhaustion and nausea were doing a number on his vision and ability to focus on any more than his immediate surroundings. He could do little more than glance up at the man that he assumed was his captor.

“Wakey wakey, little tick,” the man spat, gripping Vitale by the chin with a calloused hand in order to lift the vampire’s head. “Have a good nap, did ya’?”

The man was somewhere around six feet tall and built like a brick wall. His broad shoulders and wide chest conveyed the strength that he had been using to all but crush Vitale’s jaw. He was littered in scars from head to toe and had appeared to have an improperly healed broken nose at one point in time. His appearance gave little indication as to what his abilities were, appearing outwardly like a human—albeit a strong one. That fact unsettled Vitale for he had no idea what he was up against.

When Vitale didn’t give an answer to the mocking question, the man shoved the vampire’s face down with a snarl, gruffly laughing when his prisoner struggled to right himself.

“C’mon, I know ya’ can speak,” the man said, roughly nudging VItale in the side with a heavy boot. 

Again, the vampire remained quiet, trying to call upon any memories that would shine light on where he was and why. He vaguely remembered gearing up and preparing for something that night, failing to remember what exactly it was. There was an agitating feeling of anxiety attached to a specific factor that he couldn’t quite recall, something he knew he needed to remember above all else. 

With a harsher kick to his side delivered by his captor, Vitale felt a searing pain that traveled up his spine to the nape of his neck, causing him to cry out and double over. 

“Aw, did that hurt?” The man let out another throaty chuckle, kneeling down to mockingly pat Vitale on the shoulder. “Amazing what a silver-tipped stake to the back can do to a little tick like yourself.” Vitale shivered, attempting to right himself once more and squirm away from the man’s heavy hand. Silver-tipped stake? 

With that, his memories began to return. He had been out on what was supposed to be a simple recon mission of a recently developed Resistance outpost. There was supposed to only be a small presence of guards and the surveillance was to be done at a distance. Vitale had positioned himself at the southern side of the outpost, observing a handful of guards file in and out of the building, unloading various supplies from vehicles parked just outside the gate. This went on for almost three hours with no issue whatsoever and he was ready to call it a night, return to base, and begin formulating a future course of action. However, as he stood from his concealed position, he remembered feeling an intensely sharp pain ripping through his spine and a rough hand quickly covering his mouth, silencing his scream. He wished that he had the foresight to bite the hand, but it would not have made much difference considering that the pain had caused him to pass out shortly after. 

Without warning, the man suddenly yanked Vitale to his feet by the chain binding his arms. He appeared to have unhooked the vampire from the fastener on the wall and intended to move him. With a shove, he lead Vitale through the basement and towards a set of stairs, up through a door and out into a yard. He tried to count just how many different guards he passed on his way out, but it became increasingly difficult with each step. 

Being forced to walk led Vitale to realize just how exhausted he was. He had no way to tell how long he’d been held captive; therefore, he had no way to tell just how much time had passed since he last fed. Clearly, it was enough to render him close to useless considering how his eyelids felt impossibly heavy and he needed to be up-righted several times on the journey up the stairs and out to the yard. 

“Since ya’ don’t wanna’ talk and I’ve got little patience tonight,” the man spoke, bringing Vitale around the building to a smaller portion of the yard serving as an alleyway. “I’ve got another idea.”

Vitale vaguely noticed a motionless mass laying in the dirt before him, surrounded by a handful of guards, but before he could figure out just what it was, a swift kick to the back of his knees sent him down onto the dirt. He could do little but lift his head, willing his eyes to focus on the mass before him. 

It looked as though a large, dirty blanket had been draped over the figure’s body, completely stretched out on the sides and pinned into the dirt with spikes. He could faintly hear labored breathing that matched the rhythm of the figure’s visibly shallow breaths. 

It became very clear all too fast just exactly who the figure was when Vitale’s captor gripped the mop of filthy blond hair atop its head and yanked upwards. “Look familiar?” 

Vitale met painfully familiar honey-colored eyes, his focus sharpening immediately as he recognized the figure to be Luke. He was on his stomach, his arms barely visible beneath the blanket. His face was bruised and beat, his left eye swollen and his lips speckled with blood. He looked absolutely filthy, as if he had been left in the dirt for days. A strained whimper fell from Luke’s lips as the hand gripping his hair yanked again before letting his head fall back to the ground. 

“Unlucky for him, he woke up first,” the man explained, standing up and circling the blanket atop Luke. When he began to drive one of the spikes deeper into the dirt, Luke let out a pained shout and Vitale quickly realized that it wasn’t a blanket covering his friend. Those were his wings. 

Vitale started to thrash at the realization, trying and failing to free himself from the chains binding him. Trying to free himself so that he could free Luke. Trying to do anything to make it possible to help his friend. “Stop!”

Turning his head to glance at the vampire, the man laughed. “That wasn’t so hard, was it? And to think, we had to pin this one here like a bug to even get a sound from ‘im.” 

“Please, stop,” Vitale pleaded, keeping his gaze glued to his friend. He could feel desperation swelling up inside of him, his gut burning from having not fed and anger for his tortured friend. His teeth chattered and he swallowed hard, his throat painfully dry as he croaked, “What do you want?”

“Oh, now ya’ wanna’ play, huh?” The man smirked, reaching down to pluck a feather from Luke’s wings. The Shape Shifter flinched as he felt the man’s fingers grip the quill and tug. “I think I’m having more fun with this.”

Again, the man knelt down further to Luke’s level, placing his hand atop the spike he recently pushed deeper. Vitale started to thrash again, struggling even harder to free himself, causing one of the lingering guards to hold the chains secure. 

“Aw, ain’t that cute,” the man snickered, directing the question to Luke as he knelt further to meet his eyes. When Luke responded by weakly spitting blood in his direction, the man growled, straightened up and roughly yanked the spike, causing it to tear further through the wing. 

Luke let out a terrible scream and it was becoming increasingly difficult for the guard restraining Vitale to still him. Their captor took notice, abandoning his torture of Luke to momentarily assist the guard. With a swift kick to the side of his head, Vitale went down hard and stilled completely, appearing to be knocked unconscious by the blow. 

Luke gasped, immediately starting to visibly panic but being able to do little more than weakly flail in the dirt. The man chuckled at his handiwork, turning his attention back to Luke. “Well, that’s that.”

When the fear and panic in Luke’s face was quickly replaced with confusion, the man mirrored it and followed his line of sight back to the vampire. “Still with us then?”

Vitale began to stir and tremble, almost convulsing in the dirt as the man that had been previously holding him readied to grab the chains once more. The vampire’s eyes shot open and there was little time for anyone to react before he snarled loudly, bearing a mouth full of shark-like teeth and snapped the chains binding him with little more than a stretch of his arms. He quickly got to his feet and wasted little time in tearing the terrifyingly sharp claws that once were his hands through the stomach of the man who attempted to restrain him. 

He turned his attention onto the main captor with frightening speed, his previously normal black irises replaced with blood red, the pitch black sclera unsettlingly highlighting them. The number of teeth in his mouth seemed impossible, all sharpened to a dangerous point. The blood of the man writhing at his feet dripped from his claws onto the dirt and the smell of it plus the fear in the air was driving him further into his frenzy.

“You’re fucked,” Luke mumbled with a pained laugh. Before their captor could even bark out a command to his men, Vitale was at his throat, burying his fangs into skin and pinning him still with claws deep in his arms. As he drained the man, Vitale payed little mind to the bullets that began pelting him as the remaining men covered him with panicked gunfire. 

The blood pleasantly coursed through him, and when he could feel the man’s heart settle almost to a complete stop, he tore himself from his throat and watched his unfocused eyes shift into panic as the last of his energy withered away. Dropping the limp body to the dirt, he turned his attention towards the closet guard and repeated the monstrous process.

Vitale tore through the small militia with ease, his heightened senses and drive for blood making him virtually unstoppable. If he was of the mind to laugh, he would have as the remaining guards pumped out bullet after bullet, trying and failing to do as much as slow him down. However, it was impossible. A frenzied vampire was an incredibly fast, extremely strong, and immeasurably dangerous creature, ferocious and merciless. Not only had the lack of blood driven Vitale over the edge, but the fear and helplessness of seeing his friend tortured plus having taken his own beatings eventually awoken the sleeping beast inside him. 

It wasn’t long until the entire yard was littered with the bloodless bodies of numerous Resistance guards. Vitale could feel himself winding down from his ravenous feast, slowly regaining his control as he ripped the throat out of the final guard attempting to stop him. Some had managed to flee the massacre and the outpost entirely and lucky for them, the vampire’s main concern was his still-pinned friend. They could be found later.

“Remind me not to piss you off,” were Luke’s first words to his friend as he knelt down to the first wing. Vitale didn’t respond, quickly meeting Luke’s gaze as he gently gripped the spike. The Shape Shifter nodded and braced himself for the pain, hissing loudly as the metal was pulled free. Instinctively, Luke drew his wing closer to his body, moaning in pain as it refused to fold properly.

“I’m sorry,” Vitale mumbled quietly, dropping the bloodied spike before moving along to the other wing. This one posed a bigger challenge due to how deep it was driven into the dirt but after a moment, the vampire finally tore it free, wincing at Luke’s pained shout. He apologized again as he tried to help fold the wing back. It wouldn’t budge and Luke’s grunts of pain sounded too awful to his ears to continue any further. Instead, Vitale helped Luke to his feet, holding him steady as his torn wings threatened to tilt him over like dead weight. “I’m so sorry for all of this, I—”

“Stop, just...” Luke interrupted, sighing and shaking his head as he trailed off. He then suddenly pulled Vitale into a weak but undeniably emotional hug, not caring about the blood or dirt caking them both. He squeezed the vampire as tight as he could, resting his head on Vitale’s shoulder. “Just get us home, Vitti.”

And that he could do. There was a lot to be said between the two, unnecessary apologies and tears shed over just how worried they had both felt, but all of that would be saved for after they were cleaned and patched up. That didn’t stop the both of them from worrying over each other profusely on the way back, Vitale insisting he carry Luke after having to stop to rest several times along the journey back and Luke declined each time, citing that Vitale had taken a harsh beating himself and needed to keep what little strength he had left. 

“I will have plenty of time to regain my strength once we get back because I can guarantee you that Terion will not let either of us set foot outside the base for at least a month.”

#OCtober challenge #OC: Vitale #OC: Luke #Supernatural Story: Part 2 #OC tag #wes writes #this is not proofread yet but i just want to get it posted so sorry about that!

[zoegmiller]

Just wishing you a good day. (Also, I wish you weren’t right about ‘all Cthulhu games being middling by design’. I halfway wonder if it’s because the protagonist is always some Extremely Average White Dude who’s just SO AGHAST at all the horror, like, imagine our lives were secretly at the mercy of detestable, merciless, incomprehensible forces beyond our power to stop! WHAT UNIMAGINABLE MONSTROSITY. Or: story where Cthulhu is just a giant metaphor for capitalism and/or imperialism, please. :| )

yeah! haha, i usually shy away from comments like that because they get people mad at you, but i’m glad it struck a chord with you. it sucks that any video game like that is going to be of sufficiently big budget that it basically precludes anything but a personality-free white dude (i mean it’s funny that the featureless main dude in Call of Cthulhu is not only the same voice actor as the main dude from Vampyr, but also a dead ringer for THAT game’s featureless main dude?). and the most damning thing about it is, y’know, that Call of Cthulhu clearly was not a BIG budget game, it’s literally anything with *a* budget seems destined to be squeezed through that play doh fun forms mold and your only modifier is “alcoholic?” like... imagine... if people... who dealt with horror every day...

damn, son. like, you know what i mean. D:

because i have *read* decent takes on Lovecraft mythos elsewhere that actually grapples with the racism/sexism/everything-ism inherent to the original texts, but it’s only been novels and short stories. off the top of my head i thought Winter Tide was decent, and the Ballad of Black Tom is a phenomenal retelling of The Terror at Red Hook, one of Lovecraft’s most famously racist stories.

all that said, i’d die to play a game with even one iota of character. setting aside that any sort of mystery/detectivey game is my favorite genre despite the fact that almost all mystery/detectivey games outside of like... Phoenix Wright... basically only test your powers of deduction so far as “well did you press the clue labeled Clue #1 before you pressed the clue labeled Clue #2???”--its own extreme disappointment--i would happily press Clue #1 and Clue #2 til the cows came home if i could do so while playing like a hot detective lady or something......

oh yea i just remembered this all came about because there’s a single scene in the game where you go to some rich art lady’s house to talk about her dead husband and..... the hot mob boss opens the door.... and i’m like.... please... put your squeaky leather gloves around my neck cat.... to hide the dark... secret of your.... forbidden love affair... you’re asoh hot ahahah.... 😳💦

like i said in the tweet legit i was motivated to do fan-fic of this completely unremarkable game in that moment. i mean “sad lesbians in clandestine affair” is my jam.

BUT ALSO. what would be the point if it weren’t also “sad lesbians in clandestine affair hiding away from the horrors of unreality that are sadly more terrestrial and less existentially threatening than the horrors of REGULAR reality :<

fuckers

i’m really mad this morning :> thanks for reaching out!! it flatters me that you took the time :)

[mattonious]

What is your favorite color? What are your weekend plans? Favorite song(s)? Gotta book you'd recommend? Do you eat ice cream? If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Favorite video game/series? Were you a horse kid?

aahhh thank you so much for all these asks gosh aahhhhh

favorite color is currently purple!! it fluctuates between purple, pink, light blue, and orange!

this coming weekend i’m probs just gonna go to the library to get the hell out of the house and away from my dad and just play more ff14 shadowbringers - found out streaming the game from my gaming pc to my laptop has WAY better performance, rather than playing it directly from my laptop

Flamboyant by Dorain Electra, the entire Pirates of the Caribbean discography, pop songs from the 80s/90s, lady gaga’s early stuff, Queen, Undertale, Nier: automata - i can go on forever lol

I CAN’T RECOMMEND WARM BODIES HIGH ENOUGH - like yeah its a cornball retelling of Romeo+Juliet but with a zombie as Romeo, but the writing is just so sweet and charming and its just a very enjoyable read. i also highly recommend Skulduggery Pleasant! ive only ever read the first book tho but i remember it being absolutely fantastic and fun!

HELL YEAH I EAT ICE CREAM love me some regular chocolate, cookies and cream, cake batter, and cookie dough!

it would probably just be frosted flakes cuz if im not eating my mom’s food that she cooks for the family im eating frosted flakes akjsfbakjfssf

FF12, FF14, Bayonetta, the Yakuza series, Left 4 Dead, Nier: Automata, Kingdom Hearts, RE4, Evil Within 2, Sonic Adventure 2, Undertale, Fatal Frame series, Vampyre The Masquerade: Bloodlines, Bloodborne, and Deadly Premonition!

KJASBFAKJFS NO I WAS NOT i was the cat kid honestly asfjbaskjf

#Anonymous

[krupnick]

NAME!  Red. HEIGHT!  5′1″. NATIONALITY!  American. FAVORITE  FRUITS!  White peaches. Kiwis. Yellow woodsorrels and Honeysuckles. Pomegranates, altho I adore them.. test my patience too much and lead to everything looking like bloody murder as a result. FAVORITE  SEASONS!  Fall.. EVEN THOUGH THAT DOESN’T EXIST HERE ANYMORE. FAVORITE  SCENTS!  SWEET SPICES... Autumn Spice(tm) and Apple Cinnamon spices. Vanilla. Fresh-off-the-skillet beef fajitas. FAVORITE  ANIMALS!  Dogs. Seals. Bats. Capuchins. TEA  /  COFFEE  /  HOT  COCOA!  Sweet peppermint tea. Very sweet and milky coffee. Tonsa marshmallows and a big mug. AVERAGE  HOURS  OF  SLEEP!  Not even the Gods know anymore. 8′) It’s either 6 hours or 13. WHEN  MY  BLOG  WAS  CREATED!  Hooooh, I’m just now realizing I’ve been on Tumblr RP for well over a year omg. WELL, my original blog was created on June 7th, 2017. Piggbackin’ off Milk on this answer bc this blog is a revamp, too! RANDOM   FACT!  A LITTLE FUN FACT FROM THE UNIVERSE: Years back I made a faun oc who is black in color scheme. That’s not the cool part tho, here’s where the neat coincidence is: Later on a month or so, I went to the zoo with my girl and we ended up in a petting zoo section, so we were wandering around mooning over every animal we could find. I split up sometime along the way because I was on a mission To Find Some Goats and Could Not Be Stopped.. and I found one! It was a big ol’ black one with awesome horns and a long tongue it kept lolling around and trilling with. It followed me around and I just circled its enclosure round-n-round until I was pulled away bc I was taking up too much time. That’s just a tiny thing but I thought it was pretty cool. 8)  FAVORITE  FOOD(S)!  Homemade beef stew & tortillas. Beef fajitas. Hot, buttered french bread and chorizo w/eggs & potatos is awesome, too. And cinnamon ice cream. i fkn love cinnamon. FAVORITE  VINE!  this damn thing has played in my head on repeat for months. SEXUALITY!  Lesbian. PRONOUNS!  Female. FAVORITE  BOOK  SERIES!  I’m not much of a reader anymore, but I’d really like to check out the Discworld series. It sounds interesting. FAVORITE  VIDEO  GAMES!  Saints Row. Skyrim. Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Fallout 4. Vampyr. Don’t Starve Together. Far Cry Primal. Red Dead Redemption. Undertale. And I gotta admit, I got a softspot for Slime Rancher bc it’s such a zen game imo. v chill. i’d love dead by daylight and overwatch a lot more if my teammates didn’t frequently drive me nuts. FAVORITE  SUBJECT!  Language Arts. -w- GUYS   OR   GIRLS!  Girls. LAST  TIME  I  CRIED!  Yesterday thanks to L w/Ciel, Claudia and a Twilight Zone episode lmao. i’m a crybaby and i was emotions ‘til I went to sleep. sweet grandmama and her grandbby.. WHAT  I  SHOULD  BE  DOING!  Sleeping.

tagged by: @deathlymemoirs​! thank you, pumpkin. c: <3 tagging : YOINK IT FROM ME IF YOU HAVEN’T DONE IT and feel comfortable talking about yourself.

#✧ │ 𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒆. ( writer. ) #✧ │ 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒔. ( ooc. ) #ok woodsorrels and honeysuckles aren't fruits but.. i love them.

[heymaukarena]

Tagging Game

Tagged by: @terresdebrume

Rules: Answer 21 questions and then tag 21 people (spoiler, I don't).

Sign: Aries

Height: Too short and salty af about it.

Last movie I saw: Megamind! I rewatched it cause its fucking amazing and I love it.

Last thing I googled: A hint for part of the game 'Vampyr' cause I couldn't figure out how to trigger a certain event.

Favorite musician: Aurelio Voltaire, he's amazing and so nice in person. He's been my fave for over 16 years.

Song stuck in my head: It was 'There she is' by Witches, but then I read Matt's answer on his and its baby shark. I'm dying inside.

Other blogs: None that I use.

Do I get asks: very, very rarely.

Blogs following: I follow 347 blogs! I recently slimmed that down a bit.

Amount of sleep: It can be anything from 2 hours to 8, depending on if my insomnia is kicking my ass or not.

Lucky number: I don't have one.

What I’m wearing: A D&D shirt that says 'Beware the smiling DM' and comfy joggers

Dream job: Writer

Dream trip: This is tough, there are so many places I want to see, but I suppose either Iceland, or going back to Ireland because I adore that place.

Favorite food: Pizza. It is my weakness.

Play any instruments: Do things like air guitar count? No? Piss....

Languages: I am not good with languages, although I do want to learn, English is my only one so far.

Random fact: I've currently memorised 118 digits of Pi and I'm still working on that. Also, Yakko's nations of the world.

Describe yourself as aesthetic things: Giggling gleefully as I submerge myself in a vat BLACK 2.0 (you know that comic with the jeans where the character's all 'Siiiiii'? That)

I tag: Honestly just anyone who wants to do this, I'd be delighted to see the answers!

[less-than-hash]

Holes in the Firmament

Every dev I know has at least one dream game - stuff that they'd love to be able to make some day. The more ambitious these get - the more complex or long - the less likely they are to get made. And in a collaborative medium like games, the more people (and the more money!) involved in a project, the less control any given individual has over it.

This isn't intrinsically bad. (It can also be wildly valuable to a project and rewarding personally.)

But we devs still dream of those games we'd make if we had, say, the resources of a two hundred person studio, the backing of a major publisher, and absolute freedom.

Three of mine are behind the cut.

As a note, none of these reflect upcoming Obsidian projects. Nor are they projects Obsidian would likely ever make. They don't fit the studio's brand. Which is why I'm dreaming about them here, and not pitching them internally. 

So, first up!

A Squad-Based 1st-Person Firefighting Game with a Robust Relationship System and a Branching Narrative

I don't understand why there aren't more games about firefighting - though if I had to guess it's largely because making fire look good in-game is extraordinarily difficult. As is making an environment decay over time (though I suspect there are probably some pretty good, easy solutions for this using dev sleight-of-hand).

There are actually a Iot of interactive sim games about firefighting for training purposes. Much like war and flight, firefighting is something best trained without risking real life and limb.

Firefighting appeals to me as a gameplay space because it's actively protective - it's about limiting destruction and saving lives. But it can very easily be modeled with similar gameplay loops to shooters - ultimately both are about emptying rooms of danger - here it's just with water instead of bullets.

I could be water!

In short, firefighters engage in almost unequivocal good. They're heroic. They’re human. They’re flawed. And they brave dangers every day. But our industry basically ignores them.

Firefighting would give us the opportunity to set games in the modern world with people who, during their off hours, experience much more relatable struggles than your average freedom fighter, super spy, or elite soldier - relationship difficulties, debt, children, and the like.

So what would this game actually look and play like? It would likely be mission-based (calls come in of their own accord, after all), make use of movement and environmental hazards (not unlike a cover-based shooter), and have simple companion-direction mechanics similar to the Mass Effect trilogy or Spec Ops: The Line.

(Alternatively, the action could be dialed down a bit to focus on positioning a la Valkyria Chronicles.)

The gameplay would be focused on keeping your squad alive while saving as many people as possible.

Between missions you hang out at the station, or the bar, or at home - or try to balance all three, a la Catherine. You build relationships, helping your squad perform better together. You never recruit anyone, but your companions, your fellow firefighters, can die in missions, altering the narrative in both tone and content.

tl;dr: Mass Effect 2 meets Rescue Me with some dashes of Catherine

Next!

Narrative-Focused Urban Fantasy RPG/Immersive Sim

How does this not exist yet? Where's our Dresden Files or Hellblazer inspired RPGs? Or even The Magicians or Harry Potter, for that matter?

Where my Chilling Adventures of Sabrina RPG?

There's Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines, which, while fantastic, is 13 years old.

While I'm looking forward to Necrobarista, that seems like a pretty tight, focused experience.

We've plenty of games with magicians in fantasy realms or in space - AKA BioWare's entire oeuvre - but few in the AAA space set in the modern world.

Unless you count superhero magicians.

Wait. Did Dr. Strange even get a game? Google suggests no. What’s going on here, videogame industry? Why won’t you suffer a witch to live?!

Honestly, I get to an extent why this is. There's a reason there've been Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse games, but no Mage games, either for Ascension or Awakening. Magic is broad, and often (especially in games) wildly destructive, which can be at odds with a modern setting (or rather what makes a modern setting interesting).

Art by Jason Chan, from Reign of the Exarchs by White Wolf.

But it doesn't have to be.

The flexibility of magic actually allows for a lot of different gameplay styles. You can do straight up first-person action like The Darkness or stealth survival like Last of Us. If I were to adapt Phonogram, a comic I love deeply, you can bet your ass there'd be beatmatch spellcasting.

A lot of gameplay mechanics we take for granted are actually damned-near magical. 

Maps that point you where to go and tell you where your enemies are? 

Dropping from a second story window without difficulty? 

Regenerating health? 

Items that make you smarter, stronger, or more likable? 

Bullet time? 

Rewinding to an earlier point in time to avoid death or a bad decision? 

So that's another question a developer has to answer: if magic comes in so many shades, what color is yours? What are you hoping to accomplish?

For me, the presence of magic in the modern world demands a layer of secrecy that implies other layers of secrets. A modern world in which magic functions immediately deepens. What else lurks out there? Where are the other magicians? How are they using their abilities?

Additionally, magic is surreal. Bend and twist reality, and you're forced to look at it from new angles. If you can tweak people's emotional responses to you, how do you know the relationships around you are real? 

And that's before you realize your dreams literally might come true - especially the nightmares. Is the face in the mirror a reflection, or something sinister and jealous? Is the ghost haunting you your literal past reaching out to reclaim you?

My dream modern magician game is an open-world immersive sim in an urban setting. Drop Prey, Dishonored, or BioShock style gameplay into a sprawling city filled with physics objects ripe for transmutation and NPCs waiting to be enchanted. Add an otherworld accessed by stepping through mirrors (the entire map within is reversed).

It's about what power can accomplish, what justifies its use, and what its limits are.

Populate the world with a few powerful magician NPCs with their own agendas; dozens of NPCs to chat up, learn more about, seduce, and manipulate; and a threat that could consume reality's very soul if someone doesn't step up to deal with it. Shake. Serve.

tl;dr: Dishonored meets Vampyr by way of Hellblazer and Hellboy

And finally!

Friendship Simulator 2019

My favorite parts of the Persona games and Catherine are the things outside of the core gameplay loops. The bits where you're hanging out with your friends, chatting with them, finding out more about them, and guiding and supporting them (or tearing them down).

Or hiding in the toilet to text your significant other.

One of the things I love about Persona 5: Dancing Star Night in Starlight is that the narrative is almost solely in this mode. It's entirely about learning more about your fellow Phantom Thieves.

Lest you think I uncritically and unabashedly love it, P5D has some major narrative problems - it entirely fails to pay off its initial premise, for example, and there's no persistence to the player choices or (player-driven) reactivity within the narrative.

Nor does the way the player "progresses" the narrative make a tremendous amount of sense within the fiction of the world.

Sorry I got distracted.

Point is, from a narrative perspective it's a game about getting to know people better - literally exploring their lives - and then supporting (or undermining, if you're terrible) them.

Similarly, nothing the player says in Persona (or, for the most part, Catherine) has any impact on the game. The player might progress a Social Link more slowly by being an ass to the protagonists' friends, but they'll still increase that Link over time, provided they put time into it.

And I don't want to be dismissive here. Time management is one of the major ways in which the player engages with the Persona games. Outside of combat and maybe monster-training, it's probably the most important mechanic at play. Taking longer to max out a Social Link means you're missing other content and missing opportunities to increase your stats. Or maybe the Social Link doesn't get completed at all. (Sorry, Haru.) Or maybe you’re not powerful enough to overcome the next Shadow in time and your game ends. Those are non-trivial consequences.

But the story of the Social Link, or the story of the game, will never change based on (the vast majority of) the player's interactions with their buddies.

Despite that, the games give the player a lot of freedom as to when (or whether!) they approach those relationships.

On the other end of the spectrum, Life is Strange (and Before the Storm) does a fantastic job of letting the player get to know the characters around Max (and Chloe) and responding logically to the player's choices.

The kid who has a crush on Max (Warren, I think?) remembers what the player promises him and then responds to whether or not the player follows through on it.

If Chloe plays A Game That Absolutely Involves Neither Dungeons Nor Dragons with her friends, they'll refer to it excitedly later and ask her to join in another round.

The TellTale games are also pretty good at this, especially Wolf Among Us, but that'll take me a bit far afield.

What Life is Strange does not provide the player is any control at all over the flow of the narrative. When the player completes a narrative beat within a scene, they're rushed along to the next scene, which is never one of their choosing. There's plenty of flexibility within the relationships (and within many of the smaller subplots), but little within the game's larger structure.

Ultimately, Persona provides little variability, while Life is Strange provides little narrative control.

I want to make a game that grabs the strong aspects of both of these while jettisoning their weaknesses.

(Far, far easier written than done!)

Basically, I want to make a game focused on the exploration of relationships. Where the personalities are the mysteries to unravel, and the interpersonal relationships between characters the dungeons to be navigated. Where the inner demons are the beasts in need of slaying - not through mystically entering the subconscious and doing battle with the Shadow, but through conversation.

I want a game about building a community, a family, and helping it come to support itself.

I think that one essential change that would make this significantly more doable is discarding the larger threats to the characters, especially those supernatural in nature. The relationships among the cast of Persona 4 are propping for the story of the Midnight Channel Murders. Arcadia Bay's pending apocalypse distracts from the relationships that seem to be the actual core story of Life is Strange.

(I find Before the Storm a stronger narrative than the original Life is Strange in large part because it's not being torn in multiple directions.)

Which isn't to say that there can't be threats, obstacles, and dangers. The world presents all manner of difficulties. Most of them requiring far more challenging and interesting solutions than "stick a sword in it."

That's a lot of abstraction, so what would this game actually look and play like?

Well, as I mentioned above, I think the Persona games, esp. Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 already do a fantastic job of providing the player the framework for exploring a space and approaching relationships at their own pace.

Add into this characters that the player can engage with in order to learn more about them (not unlike Vampyr), help with their problems, and build (or break!) relationships with them or others, and you have something of an open-world interpersonal relationship game. 

The narrative of these relationships would change based on the player's actions (both in regard to how they interact with the character and how they deal with (or fail to deal with) the character's problems). So would the player's reputation, which impacts their interactions with other characters.

(The reputation system is actually one of my favorite ideas in Pillars, but I think we sometimes fail to use it to its full potential. I certainly know I do.)

Side note: in this dream game, the relationships I'm describing are not expressed in a systemic way. They're not ranked like Social Links, and they don't have reputation bars like in Dragon Age or Tyranny. It's much more akin to Life is Strange here, with each character containing their own narrative(s) to be navigated.

Over time, you bring some of these characters closer to your protagonist, recruiting a tight-knit circle that helps you face the game's primary conflict. These relationships bounce off of one another. You can never make everyone happy, after all, and some people will never get along. Late game play requires that the player balance these relationships and help forge friendships or avoid catastrophic fallings out.

Yeah, but what is that primary conflict? 

Potentially anything the world could throw at a person. A lot of television shows have provided us a framework we can borrow from. Veronica Mars comes immediately to mind. (Or one of my favorite films, Brick.) Then there's Lost, which is overtly about building communities and relationships in order to survive. The Wire is another possibility. (Imagine playing as a Stringer Bell type trying to build a crew while maintaining relationships with rival crews.)

My point being that we already know what these kinds of stories look like. We just have to be brave enough to make a game that's focused around understanding other people rather than shooting them.

tl;dr: Life is Strange meets Persona, minus the strange and the personas

And that’s three glimpses into my brain. Into my dreams.

You may have noticed a few through lines. I'm pretty clearly interested in making games:

Set in the modern day

That tackle modern, realistic (and I use that term extremely loosely) concerns

That are largely non-violent

With non-linear narratives

That involve exploring the lives and feelings of non-player characters

And give those interpersonal relationships systemic narrative bite

Obviously, the projects I've been involved in recently don't check off every one of those boxes on my wishlist. That's generally how it is, if you're making games with other people.

But if you're very, very lucky, you get the opportunity to work on projects that scratch at least one or two of those itches.

I've been very, very lucky.

Cheers, <3 <3 <#

#gamedev #game design #narrative #relationships #persona #catherine #mass effect #life is strange #prey #dishonored #vampyr #necrobarista