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bleedandevolve · 6 years

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Monsters and Men vs Bleed and Evolve: Why change?

I’ve spoken a lot about Monsters and Men, our previous forum and name, and I realized I should have made an entry like this sooner. Basically, I want to address what’s with all the change and why.

I’ve already covered some topics, like how enemies are starting to become their own mechanic instead of having to stat out new characters, essentially, every time you want to beat something up. How starting gear got a bit of a change with the pokemon zodiac, and other things as well. I’ll try not to re-cover those topics here.

Story time!

When I started Monsters and Men, it was because I fell in love with tabletop rpgs and had no one to play them with. My cousin, who was the only Dungeon Master I knew, decided he hated running games and abruptly stopped. I turned to the internet, but knew I wanted something specific, that I didn’t want to reinvent my old forum Chasing Our Spirits, because when I look back on it, it felt like a colossal failure to me. I wanted something similar though. I wanted to take pokemon and “ruin” it so to speak, then mash it together with tabletops. Pokemon has always been my biggest love of any sort of fandom, ever since I was very, very young, and Pokemon Yellow came out. I got a Gameboy Color just for that, and it took me hours to figure out how to leave the first house because I was a dumb kid. I sobbed when the batteries died in my Gameboy and I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t play anymore. I watched the Pokemon anime whenever I could, I even went so far as to demand the Pokemon mac and cheese shapes over any other kind of shapes (the shapes are the best tasting and you won’t convince me otherwise).

I joined a few other pokemon roleplays after Chasing Our Spirits was closed down, and realized it still wasn’t fitting what I needed. That eventually spurred me into making my own again. I tried to delve into the world of tabletop rpgs, of which I was completely new to. A lot of my cousin’s rpgs were improvised on the spot, with little to no mechanical involvement. Anywho, I contacted my old friend Amissa, who I knew from back when I started this whole mess, with a little rp in a pokemon collectible's roleplay section on their forums. The roleplay was Shadow over Alleos, which I also consider a disaster, but it did teach me a few things.

We started working on what would become Monsters and Men. She had more experience than me with tabletops at this point, but I spearheaded the mechanics, thinking that I could get by with what research I did on FATE and Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying System.

Oh how wrong I was.

It became abundantly clear to me immediately after we opened in beta that we weren’t attracting people who wanted to tell a story where dice played a role. They wanted to “win” the roleplay, and quickly broke my system to make themselves very powerful. Being young and naive, it took me a while to figure out how to put my foot down and start trying to fix things, not to mention my social anxiety making it difficult for me in general. But slowly, I kept trying to fix things, and improve them. Members largely came and went, though we had a few who stuck by our side (thank you guys, you have no idea how much that meant to me).

But I still felt like I was only band-aid fixing everything. I didn’t know enough about tabletops to really fix the system in a way that wasn’t tedious to use (our later system) or completely easy to break (our earlier system). While the later system made things harder and more threatening, the fact that you had to go through useless skills to make better ones and then drop the old useless ones actually made zero sense and I don’t know why I kept running with it.

In addition, I had the luxury of seeing a few sites try to mimic my system and watched how the system fared there. I kept coming to the same conclusion though: something needs to change. A lot of things need to change.

Let me show you the problems I had and how I’m addressing them:

Problem: Skills are tedious to use because so many of them are garbage. Solution: Revamp the skill system entirely. I’ll go over how we almost completely changed skills at a later date when I’m sure I have more of it figured out, and more testing is done, but suffice it to say, I launched myself into research. I started backing rpg manuals on Kickstarter, I asked for them for Christmas, I went out and bought them and began to hoard them. I read them cover to cover, things ranging from Pathfinder to Dungeon World to Fireborn. I’m still in this process, making sure that I’m not missing anything, to make sure that things are ready to go and hopefully in better shape this time when we re-open.

The problem with the old system was that skills had to be “Generalized”, then you could “branch” a skill when it reached a certain rank to “Specialized” which could do more cool things, and then “Unique/Expertise” which could do the best stuff, but you had to level all of those skills individually. Instead of being useful, it just created a step ladder of skills that you never came back down from.

Problem: Enemies take forever to stat up and it makes combat slow to a crawl and makes people (like me) not want to post ever. Solution: At first, my solution was that I was going to improve the skill system. However, when I figured one out that I liked, I ran into the issue that it would be impossible to do without a second person. And impossible to automate, even if I paid the big bucks to someone to develop it for Xenforo. Not to mention paying them to maintain it through updates! So then it clicked, as I said in the last entry...Why did the two systems have to be the same? Who said? Well, they were wrong. I’ll give you guys an update on the new enemy system soon, I promise!

Problem: Equipment is either too powerful, or not powerful enough. Solution: Tear it up and start anew. I’ve been through so many different equipment systems I can’t even remember a lot of them. But the one I have right now I’m pretty satisfied with. I hate to say it again, but stay tuned! I’ll go over the new system soon. Problem: Pokedex (and wiki pages in general) pages were all over the place. Solution: Fuck it, make a new wiki. Start fresh. (Noticing a pattern in how I solve these issues?) It will, of course, suck to move all of that information over, but we’re changing so much to begin with that it’s not even worth trying to fix up the old wiki. Problem: Lore is all over the place, or not covering things that people need. Solution: Hand it to our local lore nerd lorekeeper Aurora. She’s extremely passionate about the setting of Bleed and Evolve, and I trust her completely with it. We have a pretty great connection when it comes to what we want out of the world of Cimmeria, and I know she’ll give it her all. I really want Cimmeria to feel like a living, breathing world you can immerse yourself into and be completely taken away. Did you ever want to know how much metal and what kind of metal 100 scrap traditionally is? Weight included? We got you covered.

Problem: There’s no good way to restrict certain types of characters (escaped pokemorphs, ect). Solution: Meta currency, my friends. Separate from scrap, which is in-game currency, the meta currency “Diamonds” will be gained from different activities, like being a Storyteller. Diamonds can be exchanged for access to a rare character type, like an escaped pokemorph. Problem: Quests are very same-y and boring. Solution: Change the system! You can see what I did in an earlier entry, but the short answer is that the whole system needed to be gutted. We had it automated on Monsters and Men, but I would trade it in a heartbeat for what it is now. What’s the bottom line answer to the question I asked in the title? We changed because I hated the direction we were going. We changed because it wasn’t working, it was time for something new. And we changed because I knew more this time around. There are so many different reasons why we rebranded as Bleed and Evolve, but one of them was because I wanted to shed some of the problems Monsters and Men had. Not to forget about them, but to start anew. We needed to make way for something better.

On that note, I think I’m going to stop this entry here. Stay tuned for more Developer Diaries, possibly one tomorrow as an update to The Enemy Turn! - Thief

#pokemon roleplay #dark pokemon #pokemon rp #tabletop rp #pokemon tabletop #gritty pokemon #bleedandevolve #forum rp #forum roleplay

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survivormetaverse · 3 years

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Episode 2 - "Fuck I’m on the cursed tribe" ~Moth

a lil sad to see my girl, Bri, go, but that just makes us one person closer to the goal >:3

dennis is very sneaky. we all had a tribe call and he said he'd come later but he was actually doing the hunt challenge. like that's totally fair, it's just even afterward he acted as if he was not really focusing on it either. im going to play the game assuming he has something, just in case.

GAME AND GAME SHOW ARE DIFFERENT DSJKLFHASJDJFH no but this was hella fun pls let's do it again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX3Fs7lDDQk&list=PLrsCGcojtF16jvLW49C4855pUlLWI9pnn

Dhsjdjsjskksks. First tribal done. We just finished the taboo challenge ... A good bonding experience with my tribe. However, I have a feeling we lost. 😂😂😂😂😂😂 The fact that I was the guesser. Rip.

I filmed confessionals but my internet got disconnected hahaha so that's neat. Hopefully there will be youtube videos here soon, but new update Jodi and I are in alliances with Dennis and brayden separately which I think would be hilarious if they were also in am alliance together. And it will be funny it my internet is still out for the challenge tomorrow since I'm the guesser 😆 whoops

So this is the beginning of round 2 and here are my thoughts. Might purposely not be helpful in the taboo challenge lol but i have to do it in a way that doesn't show im throwing it? tbh i say this now but when i start playing the urge to win comes in ugh but i just wanna vote one of these people out. I also took a stroll through the wiki page for this org and i love that some of these people (esp brayden and amy) have played before and their stats are there like yassss give me ammunition yassss!!!! anywho i dont care if we win or lose tomorrow i think i set myself up nicely within the tribe and i still really dont think any of these people won the hunt challenge on my tribe but again who knowssss. if we lose the logic would probably be go for josh or ginny aka the least active people buttt i dont think so like i don't wanna go the boring route. i need to keep josh close to get to merge with him we have friends on the other tribeeeeeee so i need them to survive and i need him and i to survive till we swap or merge to link up. im also trying to win a hunt challenge but my god y'all have me fucked up!!!!!!!!! i guess we shall see what happens tomorrowwwwww

It was nice sitting the challenge out, I'm busy tomorrow and the fact that they could complete it is good for me. Also, if we lose, nobody can blame me for the loss. Only drawback is it appears to me some people can be getting close by bonding over funny things in a game. I have to go back and see who may be close, I don't think I'm next on the chopping block, but I'm definitely not in control. To me, I do not need to be number one on this tribe, I just need to survive the next tribal and hopefully make it to the swap at 14 or 15.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm_dmPuwzzI&list=PLrsCGcojtF16jvLW49C4855pUlLWI9pnn&index=2 anotha one dj khaled

HEY SO KIND OF A LOT OF DEVELOPMENTS TO MY GAME we didn't lose first challenge!! thats great. whatever. no tribal. I've been trying to connect with fellow tribemates but overall we're all pretty quiet. I did have a small 30 minute call with Jay where we kinda connected on somewhat of a game level. I kinda get the vibe that he may not fully trust me or he might see my as a threat, but I want to work with him. I also really like Anastasia and Elle, I think I can connect with them more on a more genuine level. Perfect scenario for me would be setting up a trio alliance of Me + Elle + Anastasia, and then having Jay on the side as my actual #1. idk if I can pull that off, but that was my plan heading into round 2 BUT. AS ROUND 2 STARTED, MY GAY ASS WON THE HUNT CHALLENGE. AMAZING. idk HOW I managed it because like?? I finished and found the hidden link within like 20 minutes? Statistically very unlikely BUT I'm so glad I did it. I WON A SAFETY WITHOUT POWER. It's kinda like a hidden immunity idol, except slightly worse because I can't actually partake in tribal at all. we went ahead and competed in the Taboo challenge last night and boy it was kinda rough. We lost a LOTTA points because we kept accidentally saying forbidden words (I lost us 2 points, woops). But we ended up with a semi decent score. Elle did an amazing job guessing. I really hope we can pull this out. SO YEAH SORRY THATS KIND OF A LOT. OVERALL I FEEL LIKE IM IN A DECENT POSITION, WAY BETTER NOW THAT I HAVE A SWP. I wanna further my position in the game with some allies now. That's my next biggest goal. toodles!!!

So I've figured out that Amy is a comp beast based on us discussing our old seasons and how she did in those: she always talks down her abilities because she's worried she's being painted as a big challenge threat, but I don't think she realizes that doesn't matter to me at all. Ultimately, I think she needed to be at tonight's challenge more than me, so I decided it's ok to sit out since I'm sitting out only because somebody has to, not because I don't want to play. In tribal challenges, it means she'll help keep us winning tribal immunity, and further down the line, if anything, I'll be using her as my "Ken" and if she wins everything, it'll keep immunity away from people I want out.

I think I did much better in Taboo than I did in endurance, so I'm happy about that. Hopefully my performance this round can help me redeem myself with my tribemates.

Today in the fools tribe: no one is talking

Holy crap we won yet again this is such a great feeling just like last season :)

Fuck I’m on the cursed tribe this round This time I think I’m on the majority alliance, which is a great place to be. So hopefully everything goes as planned tomorrow

https://youtu.be/fszNKUHjB_8

So! We did the Taboo challenge and got second place, probs wouldve got first if we didnt get deductions but also we did so good so whatever 😂. I definitely kinda pushed for us to do the challenge last night bc it's Dylan's birthday and I didn't want to have to like, be anywhere specifically today 😅. But yeah we did super good and now I'm gonna go talk to ppl bc I've been gone all day lol

Bye I hate it here.

SO. Here’s the rundown: We lost. Again. Pushing for Shaad to go. Moth, Jared, and Danny all agree with him going. So far I’m getting good vibes with everyone. Danny says he gets along with Jared well and doesn’t talk to Moth that much. Plus, Jared, Moth and I have that little alliance. Jared and I also get along well. Worried for Moth as she doesn’t seem to message a lot. This tribal... I’m feeling safe. I might even make an alliance with Jared, Danny and I. Worst case scenario for next challenge we lose and Moth goes.

Yay we won again! Anyways, Dennis messaged me tonight talking about how everybody else knows each other from playing Stings games before. He said he checked the series wiki and got freaked out and told me that we're two newbies amongst vets. While he's telling the truth, I'm actually not too panicked because 1) I actually checked out the wiki before he told me about it and 2) I have pretty decent relationship with Amy to incentivize her to keep me around. I worked tightly with Amy for the specific reason that I knew she'll have others to work with, and for her to keep me as a loyal number. I also know that she was runner up of another series and she already recognizes the target on her, so I doubt she wants to risk me putting a bigger one. WOW FOR ONCE I'M NOT THE FLAMING TARGET I LIKE THIS

Round 1 updates: https://youtu.be/5nhSsLNcnZ0 https://youtu.be/S5-0Yw93wc0

Round two rambles: https://youtu.be/CuwgF9IVmUM

So, tbh I've done some research about some previous seasons and I noticed Moth and Jessica have played together before. Moth still has not talked to me but Jessica has been overly friendly. I know they have a group message with Jared and I know he can be the split vote between what happens in our tribal tomorrow. Jared claims he has voted for Moth but we will truly see tomorrow. But honestly, if he chooses us, then Jessica is next unless the tribe swap or merge has happened.

Also with that research, I've peeped there's other connections in other tribes from previous games so this is gonna be interesting.

I chose Jared to work with mostly because I see he can play strategy.

Fools tribe is bad at playing games. And its perfect for me because I am safe but i am wishing for drama bcs its fun. rn we are doing small talk and being so nice to each other. I think we will form an alliance officially soon but i am too awkward or like i dont know how to say it or bring it up.

WHY! DOES! MY! TRIBE! KEEP! WINNING!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am trying to go the fuck to tribal council but noooo we have to beast all the other tribes yet again. Like a swap is probably coming soon and with my fuckin luck I am gonna get swap screwed like they are gonna look at me from the phantoms and be like yeahhhh theyve been winning lets get his ass out. i would love to lose this next one so the sees look stronger. if phantoms go to tribal I know I''m safe (anything can happen but I set myself up well), and thats all I care about. Jodi and I started to really talk about the vets who are playing this season, and we just realized that we're the only newbies on our tribe. like wow. The fantasy would be to get to merge and have a numbers advantage of newbies against these vets, or make the vets eat their own idk. Lots of thinkin lots of thinkinnnnn. I have been strolling through the wiki page some more and mapping out potential connections from previous seasons. The casting directors work hard but i work harder

https://youtu.be/gsDJIiGiqHE

https://youtu.be/V1ku4_-w0SY

Roses are red We’re on day six Fools tribe worse at challenges than a bag of dead bricks

That im one of the strongest competitors on my tribe, Dennis feels like he is on the outs, but that connects us so i can pull him in as an ally.

It’s been a tricky round

~~~

Edgic:

Power Rankings:

Phantom

Jodi: Jodi remains at the top of the tribe for much of the same reason as last round. Now, she is even in two alliances with no one wanting to come for her nor do they see her as playing both alliances. Hopefully Jodi’s quick alliance making and constant worrying will help strengthen her defenses in the later rounds to come when people will be looking at her more closely.

Amy: Amy is still playing that stellar UTR game. No one seems to register her as a threat despite their access to the wiki and her performance in the challenge. Her social game is just too strong. Additionally, her greater willingness to work with Dennis than Jodi’s willingness to work with him may provide some good allies for Amy if she ever wants to distance herself from Jodi.

Brayden: Brayden rises in the rankings from last round as he has become more closely aligned with Amy and Jodi. The trio seem to see themselves as the only “active” ones on their tribe and are very quick to bond. Additionally, unlike Dennis, Brayden is not viewed with suspicion by either Jodi or Amy. They definitely feel more like a core alliance than they did with Dennis. Furthermore, Brayden is poised to get the people he wants gone out of this game. He is targeting Josh and Dennis which are good targets, especially the latter. All it takes is for Brayden to push a little for Dennis and I am sure the two girls will take the bait. Finally, Brayden’s connection with Ginnifer is very beneficial since he seems to be the only one willing to work with her at the moment. This gives him a very easy ally and Ginnifer doesn’t have much of a choice besides working closely with him. It is certainly an easy number for Brayden if he ever wanted to backstab Jodi or Amy in the future.

Josh: What lands Josh here is that he performed well in the challenge and is easy to like. Interacting with Josh on calls is always a pleasure. However, by not being part of that main trio, he is in danger of being voted out on a whim. Despite that, he seems to be, in my eyes, the least likely out of the bottom 3 to be voted out. Additionally, there is paranoia around people’s “experience” with ORGs surrounding these bottom 3 from others (despite the fact that the top 3 is composed of 2 people with ORG experience). Josh gets this heat the least.

Dennis: Dennis is in real danger if this tribe goes to tribal council. If Brayden pushes hard enough, Jodi can be easily swayed into turning on Dennis. He needs to back off with the strategy talk and just be more social. What saves him from last is that he is in that alliance with Jodi and Amy. This might make Jodi hesitant about targeting Dennis so soon as she may see him as a number. Additionally, Amy does seem keen on keeping Dennis around for a little while which would help his longevity. Hopefully Dennis can realize people’s perceptions of him before it is too late considering that he gives great confessionals and is one of my favorite players this season.

Ginnifer: Ginnifer may be on the bottom, but she definitely has a chance at avoiding being voted out. Most talk around Ginny is about how she is hard to socialize with, but I am sure, when the strategic game starts becoming more important, she can navigate out of this position. After all, she does have Brayden advocating for her which can definitely help. She would need to push for Dennis if she wants to survive until the swap at this point.

Fools

Jared: He takes the number 1 spot on this tribe as he is working with both “sides.” He is serving as the perfect double agent for Danny and Shaad. Additionally, he is making the smart move of getting rid of an obvious duo wherein he was the third wheel of that alliance. He has a great strategic mind on his shoulders, but is it too early for him to show that off? Regardless, he has earned this top spot by avoiding the target cleanly and betraying his allies perfectly. Jared is definitely a contender for the winner spot as he has shown some excellent gameplay these past two rounds.

Danny: Danny has done well in avoiding the target this round as well. He seems to be more sociable and active than Shaad which is the main reason that he is not the one getting Jessica’s and Moth’s vote. Additionally, he was the one that brought Jessica’s and Moth’s pre-existing relationship to Jared’s attention which caused this flip to happen in the first place. Finally, Danny made an excellent move by pairing himself with Jared as this duo could be something fearsome to go up against in the future. The cards are being laid out for a force to be reckoned with and I am excited to see what Danny will do in the future.

Shaad: It is hard to tell if Shaad did anything himself to avoid being voted out, but, regardless, he did something right by aligning with Danny and Jared instead of ratting to Jessica and Moth. In fact, even if he does rat, he will still land himself at number 3. He is not going to get voted out here, and has an established alliance moving forward. And now that he is putting more focus on the game, I am happily anticipating what he can accomplish now.

Jessica: Jessica is being blindsided tonight. However, at the very least, she is not the one going. Her performance in challenges have helped her avoid the target for the time being. Here we can see that the boys weren’t inactive, they were just inactive with her which spells doom for Jessica if this tribe goes to tribal council again. Unfortunately, the boys found out about her prior connection with Moth. The only thing Jessica could have done was to distance herself from Moth at the beginning of the game, but that seemed unlikely since people were inactive with her. I hope Jessica is able to survive until a swap because it would be devastating to see her go so early.

Moth: There is nothing Moth did that landed them here. It was just an unfortunate circumstance wherein they are targeted because of a prior connection. Additionally, I doubt Moth is going to see this coming.

S.E.E.S.

Colin: With an advantage in his hands and him being the most popular bachelor on his tribe, Colin is quick to make allies and his allies like it that way. It feels as if everyone wants to ally with Colin. His activity in the earlier stages of the game have definitely born fruit.

Elle: Similar to Colin, everyone wants to work with Elle. Her social game is just that strong. Nothing much else to say besides what I said before, but the challenge definitely helped raise Elle’s standings in the tribe.

Anastasia: Similar to last round. Nothing much to say.

Jay: He is keeping out of the spotlight which is good.

Babs: No developments. Still viewed in the same way though has noticeably been less unhinged in the tribe chat.

Jennifer: Still the same as last time: seemingly inactive and might be targeted for it.

#episode #episodes

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