#storyteller system

[nealflitherland]

Since folks seemed to enjoy my general tips for the World of Darkness, I thought I’d get a little more specific with my latest list of suggestions. So if you’ve been looking for tips on bringing across the beautiful madness of Changeling, consider these!

#Changeling #The Lost #World of Darkness #Chronicles of Darkness #list #TTRPG #gaming #RPG #fae #fey #STing #Storyteller System

[ribstongrowback]

the real tragedy with 1d4chan being dead is that we lost the goncharov fangame that /tg/ made. 4chan is our sworn enemy i know but i gotta hand it to em, that game was the most genius use of the storyteller system i had ever been given to read, and it was a massive influence on my writing as a game designer.

#unreality #goncharov 1973 #ttrpg #storyteller system

[plotandelegy]

Crafting Future From Ruins: A Writer's Guide to Designing Post-Apocalyptic Technology

Photo: Standard License- Adobe Stock

Crafting post-apocalyptic tech involves blending creativity and realism. This is a guide to help you invent tech for your post-apocalyptic world:

Tinker, Tailor, Writer, Spy: Start with modern tech. Take it apart (conceptually or literally if you're feeling adventurous). Using the basics, think of how your character might put it back together with limited tools and resources.

Master the Fundamentals: Understand the basic principles underlying the tech you're working with. Physics, chemistry, and biology can be your best friends. This understanding can guide your character's resourceful innovations.

Embrace the Scrapyard: The world around you has potential tech components. Appliances, vehicles, infrastructure - how could these be deconstructed and repurposed? Your characters will need to use what's at hand.

Cherishing Old Wisdom: Pre-apocalypse books and manuals are the new internet. A character with access to this knowledge could become a vital asset in tech-building.

Indigo Everly

#writing #writing tips #creative writing #writing inspiration #fiction writing #fantasy writing #world building #character development #magic systems #fantasy tropes #post apocalyptic #dystopian writing #survival stories #wasteland adventures #creativewriting #storytelling #writing advice #writingcommunity #narrative structure #writingtips

[perplexingly]

Yay after 2 years of playing ttrpg on a semi-weekly basis, my group finally came across the main plot !!

#Also we're all only lvl 3 #And this pace it'll take another 6 years to finish this game haha #It's very cool though the system is called Shadow of the Demon Lord #And our GM is a great storyteller

[analogconstruct]

systems that make comics about their systemhood (or even fictional systems) have a special place in my heart

#unsigned #plural #plurality #pluralgang #plural system #we are artistic and if we had good storytelling skills as well we could tell system stories in comic format!!! omg!!! #so yea we admire it

[messenger-cloudcat]

how do unscripted minecraft smps continue to have better symbolism and poetic irony than most mainstream shows?

#from the life series and jimmys canary curse #to the dsmp three canon life system and how lmanberg was no exception #to the qsmp and the parallels between characters how have no idea what the others are doing #there is so much more #but im just gdvcuyqwgdiaw #mc roleplay will always be one of my favourite forms of storytelling #along with dnd #bc honestly what is mc roleplay but a big game of dnd #dsmp #qsmp #life series #secret life #third life

[i-love-your-light]

burrows end ep1 is SO GOOD god im sorry but i really can't imagine the audacity of some ppl watching a 2 minute trailer for a season of Dimension 20 that hasn't come out yet and confidently saying "i know better than any of the experts involved in making it and i think they should've used a different system for this game"

like i can't even IMAGINE being aabria and logging on after the trailer for something i worked really hard on dropped and seeing a bunch of people being like 'ugh dnd was such a bad choice of system' when they had SEEN NONE OF THE SHOW??!!?! how would you know???

anyway, everything she does is literally perfect and SO immediately captivating. she is both generous and awe-inspiring in her command of the table and it is an honor to even get to watch her do what she does at all!!!! literally blessed with the presence of a ttrpg and storytelling goddess and some of y'all have the audacity to complain. couldn't be me though!

#also like.... idk do ppl give this same energy to the white man dms?? i think not #like yeah different systems are great! #but i think what makes D20 special is all the ways that they take the system everyone knows best and show you #all the possibilities you can achieve with it #idk my personal opinion but i think if you say dnd is a bad storytelling system u simply lack creativity #know the rules so you can break them baby! #anyway #needed to rant about this somewhere #dimension 20 #burrow's end #aabria iyengar

[cerebralabyss]

02-18-2024

unusual headspace happeningz

- 🎀

#plural system #plural art #plural artist #system art #plurality #art #digital art #sketch #comic #illustration #original art #storytelling #my art #crbrl reffy #crbrl sys.diary

[bluberimufim]

Love it when I go hunting for a SVSSS fic and I see one where the plot summary says something like "Shen Yuan is gonna stay as far away from the plot as possible!!" and then I scroll up to the tags and this is the first thing I see

#environmental storytelling #good job SY 👍 #svsss #scum villains self saving system #fanfic #ao3 #not writing

[halloweentual]

gaming will make you go man i miss the pathologic 2 barter mechanic

#this probably isn't even that rare it's just i haven't played a game with a barter system like that since pathologic 2 #like i just think different items having different values to different npc groups is fun #you can apply strategy to trading now!!! and also environmental storytelling #i just like it okay #me@me: shut up #pathologic

[nealflitherland]

The first in a connected series of stories for Jacoby in my ongoing Changeling: The Lost supplements. When a fellow Summer Courtier named Wolfe comes asking for help, Jacoby drives a hard bargain. Though he gets Wolfe out of the city, what cost is the ogre really going to have to pay for meddling in an ongoing feud with one of Autumn’s biggest power players?

#Changeling #The Lost #World of Darkness #Chronicles of Darkness #TTRPG #audio drama #short story #flash fiction #YouTube #White Wolf #Onyx Path #Azukail Games #Storyteller System

[easternmind]

- Lessons in Japanese Game Design #3 -

Aside from what is easily one of the most stylish presentations in a videogame from the 1990s, one of Front Mission 3′s truly remarkable features consists of an in-game internet browser running within a simulated operating system. Expanding on the concept first rehearsed by Squaresoft in the second entry of the series, this massive component of the game can be accessed during breaks between missions, offering the player access to a number of pages for government entities, enterprises or other institutions. Access to additional websites is permitted as the game progresses.

This inventive solution offers unparalleled insight into the fictional universe of the game, in that it paints a very granular image of a futuristic society, its economy, geopolitical environment and zeitgeist. The information contained in these pages comes in the form of of bulletin boards, institutional updates, press releases, top secret data volumes, or the occasionally amusing curiosity. The user interface itself permits some degree of customisation, such as the option to disable the startup animation - itself a gorgeous visual relic that one hardly tires of watching - or changing the wallpaper pattern. Certain websites will also provide the option to download content, including images which can be set as said wallpaper. Other resources require secure access via the insertion of a password. Moreover, the player will have access to an email inbox to both read and send messages as may be relevant to advance onto the next stage.

Make-believe computer front-ends in video games were no novelty by the year 1999. Several sci-fi adventure, role-playing or action games allowed access to often very believable GUIs for the purpose of, for instance, retrieving precious clues or, say, disabling security locks. Aside from Front Mission 2, Final Fantasy VIII fans will likely remember the exciting Balamb Garden Network terminal. Kowloon's Gate's unforgettable Kownloonet terminals gave access to an email inbox, an all-important database and various other quotidian curiosities that helped fleshing out its mystic sci-fi narrative. The Japanese were privileged to have a complete version of Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere with access to an in-game encyclopedia the player could browse, as well as additional story elements told through email exchanges between the characters. 

That same year, the western Tactical RPG sensation from the West, Jagged Alliance 2, dabbled in this idea. Only three short years later, CyberConnect2′s singular .hack series was designed around the idea of a MMORPG that plays offline, allowing for countless interactions with non-playable characters which simulate messaging formats of the era. Other notable examples include the 2chan boards in Steins;Gate or, inescapably, the passionate love letter to web 1.0 that is Hypnospace Outlaw.

Generally, all of the aforementioned titles are either entirely dedicated on a similar concept, or merely resorted to it as a secondary, amusing distraction. Front Mission 3 pioneered the use of this device as a storytelling technique. No other game of the time, at least to my knowledge, had dedicated so much of its resources to producing a credible replica of design and functionality of the internet as it once existed.

#front mission 3 #squaresoft #the internet #lessons in japanese game design #storytelling #operating systems within games #internet within games

[virsancte]

tfw you thought you're gonna destroy your future father in law at simbles after playing it for months with a kid you used to babysit but he's somehow unbeatable at every board game

#simblr #ts4 legacy #valentine gen 4 #i was busy taking screenshots of chestnut ridge and didnt even know they were playing it autonomously !! #so cute #the storytelling with it is crazy because devin literally got a bad vibe from luca (chemistry system mod) #so luca trying to show off his nerdy side and make himself appear more like a Regular Person not Luca Valentine is very cute TO ME. #poor baby devin playing his guitar at sunset in the markets had no clue he would one day be (possibly) marrying into the richest #family in windenburg #saying possibly bc erm you cant speak in absolutes...

[hauntedmoors]

the funny thing about the sanderson drama is that I think it could be fixed if somebody sat him down and explained to him very slowly that television production involves hundreds of creatives and that no single creative is going to be offered the absolute authority to execute their vision despite their (perhaps self-supposed) superior expertise. it's a collaborative project, not a fucking dictatorship or an individualistic exercise in creating art. and that it's not even his fucking book series.

#he won'ttttt shut up about his stupid expertise on magic systems my guy worldbuilding is a *tool* used for storytelling not a juvenile #exercise in coming up with the most creative fake science system. but okay. there's a reason your books are bad. and your advice is so #insufferable if not completely incorrect. it's an ego problem! #text #even jeff vandermeer has beef with this guy... and that is funny to me. #wheel of time #brandon

[plural-swag-competition]

Reminder that it's possible to bring y'all's blorbos up without bringing others down. This includes fellow voters. And a reminder that every entry deserves to be on this bracket.

#moon knight #marc spector #steven grant #jake lockley #marvel comics #ace attorney #ace attorney spirit of justice #uendo toneido #patches #kisegawa #owen #the storyteller system #polls #tournament poll

[prototypelq]

The Most Unreliable Narrator I Have Ever Seen

soooooo I had a Cyberpunk-obsessed phase pass recently, and this time Johhny Silverhand's character caught my eye. His story, more specifically, and how... inconsistent he seems, depending on each source.

In the game, Johhny acts like a bastard for most of the game. He panic-rages on his first meeting with V, throws many threats around, but is later beaten into the background with the blocker pills Misty gave to V. Even Johnny's friends' are well, they react Loudly to his return. Y'know, make it known his presence alone provokes a lot of anger from them.

Even during his first appearance, when V gets thrown into Silverhand's memories of his SAMURAI concert, the only real thing V recalls is the all-consuming rage that he felt, which he tried to shout out through the microphone, but it never felt like enough.

And doesn't this sound weird then, that the only thing Johnny does throughout the game after that first meeting is help V out? He learns about the Smasher guy hideout at the docks (he does that through dubious means but that's Johnny for you), he helps V out when the seizures become worse, he calmly agrees to Any decision V makes, despite V clearly Not being in any real state to oppose him in the finale of the game, he plans the whole thing with "Alt" so V can get his body back at Johnny's own expense, from the beginning, and he doubles down on that claim at the end of the game.

Do you see the dissonance? The egoist rockerboy that admitted to using his friends to getting what he wants, and the downright self-sacrificing hero and a friend that is Johnny at the end of the game? People change, sure, but this divide is very massive and too sudden, so I wanted to dig into that. And what I've stumbled upon, with the help of canon Cyberpunk materials like the Red sourcebook (or, more specifically, LayedBackGamers' reading of the canon books and his lore videos on different topics), is that

Johhny Silverhand from Cyberpunk 2077 is the Most Unreliable Narrator I've Ever Seen.

Count with me here:

Johhny's personality in general. No matter what your interpretation of him his, it's impossible to ignore that Johhny is very much a people person and he exploits that knowledge and charisma to suit his own goals. If you choose to trust him, then you might have already been played.

2) Johhny has been alone, only his lovely self for 50+ years inside the Arasaka chip. Don't ask me how he is still even remotely sane, I haven't got a clue (hopefully the time as a construct without outside stimulation flies differently and he hasn't felt those 50 years in real time). The thing to mention here, however, is that, being alone with your thoughts and emotions for a long time, having nothing else for entertainment, is a great opportunity to rewrite your own memory of events or emotions you've felt.

3) Lack of a body. The aforementioned constant rage, that was the dominant emotion is Johnny's life (before Alt, at least, if Never Fade Away is anything to go by, and I mean, that's literally a love ballad), is a symptom of his PTSD from his too-young years serving in the corpo war, same as his signature silver hand. I'm not a specialist here, but I do know PTSD, especially for war veterans, is a physiological illness just as much as it is a mental one. Johnny's body literally had trouble living normally after that experience, and knowing this bastard - he never managed to treat that. Existing as a personality construct frees him from the many bonuses of being corporeal, but it also free him from the physiological side of PTSD. His day-to-day existence is fundamentally different from that of the Johnny Silverhand that the world knew 50 years ago, so yes, as a 'time traveler' or a source of information and comparison about the 70's and 20's of cyberpunk world Johhny is not a good source.

4) The chip with Johnny is literary inside the head of another person. The characters in game question, multiple times, just which decisions is V making on his own, and which of them might be Johnny's doing. Not consciously, no, but V and Johnny are clearly not your simple neighbours. They are not your 'close friends that start subconsciously copying each other' too. It is quite possible that the chip with Johhny is adapting to the 'hardware' it is running on, so it is specifically implementing parts of V's personality into Johnny, to minimize the 'friction' between the personality and the body it is supposed to inhabit. Everyone say hi to existential horror)

5) How does Soulkiller ever work? Is there data on how much the resulting engram actually resembles the person it tried to copy? How did the process of copying Johnny go? I can answer the last one - very badly.

Death of Johnny is told in excruciating detail in the Cyberpunk sourcebooks. Johnny died on the floor of Arasaka tower, torn in two by a shotgun blast from Smasher. There is no information on how much time it takes Soulkiller to create the engram from the brain, but it better have finished doing that before Johnny's brain started dying from a lack of blood and oxygen, and he clearly didn't have much time either, considering bisection is not the best for bodily fluid preservation, so it's a wonder the engram even works properly. Plus, during the initial heist to steal the chip with Johnny, the chip was damaged further before the idiots decided to stick an unknown harddrive into their heads to preserve it. Basically, it's nothing short of a miracle, that engram-Johnny is actually a whole damn person, that he can function, think and feel properly (well, as much as Johnny can do those things)

It is very sad that V can't talk to Johnny about this, as the man does blame himself over things he hasn't even done, and he had done enough emotional damage to himself and people around him without that kind of burden on top of it.

6) Johnny's memories are literally false. The attentive reader had to pick this up in my previous point - didn't Johnny die in the hands of Arasaka after they interrogated him? Nope. Nope, and I can say that confidently because,

(drumroll please)

Cyberpunk tabletop sourcebooks! Mike Pondsmith, the creator of the Cyberpunk universe and the TTRP series of games, has worked closely with CDPR writers during the production of the 2077. He oversaw everything, and he says that 2077 is in the same cyberpunk universe too, it's not an 'alternate reality' or anything.

Johnny Silverhand died while trying to buy time for his friends to escape, from a shotgun shot from Adam Smasher. That's it, he died on that floor, there was noone to interrogate, no rooftop helicopter he ran for.

The sequence of 'memories' we see from Johnny's POV in the game is a mishmash of two different assaults on the Arasaka towers, yes towers there were two of them. There is a great video explaining all the small and Major details Johnny's version of events got wrong, because we have the sourcebooks and the text inside. You may accuse me of holding a 'holy canon' argument ... and well, yeah, this is kind of holy knowledge, as it was written for gamemasters.

Still, some of the things in Johnny's version are Major, and while the media certainly covered the whole story extensively with corpo propaganda (oh, btw, Johnny didn't bomb anything, he probably didn't even know there was a nuke involved, he is literally just a scapegoat), there are some holes that a citizen of this world might know and wish to poke. The aforementioned Two Arasaka towers, or the absence of the legendary solo Morgan Blackhand from Johnny's story. Interestingly enough, there is a radiostation of Maximum Mike in-game, who is actually just pretty much Mike Pondsmith, and he does propose a couple of questions the 'official' version of the attack doesn't cover (like, where would a rockerboy even get a nuke, he might have been popular, but that's not just something you find without military contracts, and that means corporations). Another thing is that since Arasaka owns Soulkiller and has had the engram for a couple of decades, it is quite possible they are the ones responsible for messing with Johnny's memories.

So uh, yeah, Johnny is the Most Unrealible Narrator I have ever seen. Johnny of 2077 is most certainly not the Johnny of 2020's, but this might be a good thing. Maybe the 'real' 2020's Silverhand could never have made the progress the engram did, or become such a good friend and companion for V, or maybe he could have done those things too. We'll never know. I really love this story anyway.

#thanks for reading #johnny totally deserves a second chance at life after this why cant he and johnny show alt the finger and delta out of there #so v could live out his days and then johnny would take over #on the other hand johnny is a great example that being an engram is not the end so maybe v could come back in some sort of form later #after giving alt the finger #btw thats not alt either that's probably just an ai that caught little wind of actual alt and just calls itself her #also alt herself might be alive but that story is WEIRD so no idea #cyberpunk lore is great i had an amazing time listening to it and discovering new things #mike pondsmith is also amazing heard a cyberpunk red campaign he mastered and listening to him has been a blast he is a true storyteller #cyberpunk 2077 #cyberpunk red #legends of night city #mike pondsmith #johnny silverhand #phantom liberty #this is the first and last time I praise cdpr after that back to hate for the ps4 version of the game i go #and for refusing to update the game for that platform and for not releasing the dlc for it and for upping the system reqs even higher #ill live to see actual 2077 before I get access to hardware that can run that shit #btw existential horror enjoyers I sure do hope you have heard of SOMA ))) #oh i also dont think johnny was that bad in life either like he was bad but rogue and kerry are clearly happy to have him back so the game #must've shown just a very low time for him he had to be a good friend to earn that kind of loyalty still could behave like a bastard tho