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rodpupo2 · 3 years

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Research: Project Finish

Tim Sale

Tim Sale is a famous comic book artist, who had worked in several titles along with the writer Jeff Loeb, including Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, Daredevil, and many others.

Tim Sale was born in may of 1956, in New York, where he studied visual arts, spent a good time of his life in Seattle, and today he lives in California.

For some years he drew his art privately, only to please himself. When he found himself working at a fast food in his late twenties, however, he decided to try to sell some of his work. This led to an association with Thives’ World Graphics, a fantasy anthology series, where he illustrated stories.

What most marks his work is the dramatic aspect that he manages to obtain in the characterization of his characters and in the scenarios he creates, making the stories unique and immortalizing the characters.

The union of Sale’s art with Loeb’s engaging narrative has become the perfect marriage for mysterious plots.

One of the most striking characters worked by Sale was Batman, which he drew “The Long Halloween”, “Dark Victory” and “Halloween”. He was able to fully transfigure the dark aura of Gotham and his Dark Knight. He also worked with Superman in the saga “ Superman for All Seasons”.

Both of The Long Halloween and For All Seasons are what is known as “Year one” comics. These works take their heroes back in time to their earliest days of crime fighters.

His main tool is watercolor, which he uses with mastery. Sale's palette of colors is something really impressive, always drawing and painting his characters very delicately, and calmly. His style is very cartoonish, although this does not diminish his art in any way, on the contrary, his style is very unique and characteristic.

Pedro Franz

Is a Brazilian comic book artist, who was born in Santa Catarina and has a degree in design.

He has been publishing several comic books and participating in exhibitions in Brazil and abroad. As an illustrator, he has published works several magazines and books, and regularly collaborates with the Piauí magazine. As a graphic designer, he is a contributor to the Par (Ent) Esis platform. He has comics translated and published in English and Spanish, and has good international recognition, thanks to his publications.

But what is most impressive in Pedro's art, perhaps is his intensive use of colors. Mixing various shades of different colors, mixing different compositions. In addition to sometimes using characters from pop culture, with his elaborate style.

Despite liking traditional comics, he has always published and worked for national publishers, often with authorial works.

Perhaps his best known work, which was even published in the United States is the comic “Suburbia”.

Suburbia tells the story of Conceição, a girls daughter of enslaved rural workers, who flees to Rio de Janeiro in the early 1990s. In the city, Conceição begins to work as a cleaner and to get involved in the world of funk, slums and poverty.

His drawings are extremely surreal, not exactly following a traditional way of making comics, with several images spread across the page, with different shapes and sizes, with extremely strong colors, mainly valuing blue, purple, yellow and red, as his main colors.

Richard Corben

Richard Corben was one of the contributors of elevating the comics to the category of Art, and of its unparalleled style of great influence among many current artists.

Richard Vance Corben was born in Missouri, United States on October 1940, in a family of farmers in the middle west ( where he started reading comics), and lived in Kansas City. There he studied Fine Arts, got married, had a girl and started working in local cinematography animation company. At the same time, he started to create and publish some underground fanzines. From the begging it was clear that he was interested in science fiction, eroticism, and total rejection of institutions ( the Army, the Church, etc), mixed with a lot of humor.

At a young age, Corben was an aficionado of bodybuilding, just like everyone who was interested in a persons aesthetics. The first character that he created, was Rowlf, a dog who took on a human form. In the beginning of the 1970s he amplified his work ( and his fame) in some underground magazines. And in 1971 he started working for the Heavy Metal publisher where he created one of his most famous characters, Den a large muscular man, who was always naked, and always after some adventure.

Corben has a very particular style, with unsettling mixture of caricatured, often satirical grotesque and intense,convincing realism. Never before had such wildly cartoonish worlds proved so convincing.

Also he can handle an exponentially higher standard because of his ability to use colour to show the effect of light on whatever he’s depicting. The way that he mixes light and colors in certain panels to differentiate those elements from each other, is something to admire.

Corben worked in a few mainstream comics, he always preferred to work with authorial works or working in specific themes like fantasy and science fiction comics and not so much on superheroes.

But probably the most famous mainstream comic that ever worked was the character Hellboy, along with writer Mike Mignola.

Hellboy is a series of comics that has a lot of mysticism, Norse mythology, horror and monsters. Something Corben certainly agreed to do, without thinking twice.

Richard Corben is one of my favorite artists, with a style that is perhaps not as realistic as an Alex Ross for example, but the humor and beauty that he puts in his characters is very unique.

Corben died on December 2, 2020, leaving a great legacy, for the world of comics and arts, with a very unique style and extremely stunning worlds.

Charlie Allard

Charlie Adlard is a British comic book artist, who have worked on the comic industry for over 25 years. He spent the majority of his time since 2003 working in The Walking Dead along side with writer Robert Kirkman , until the last issue on 2019 He started reading comics when he was very young, and he said that he was very lucky to have influences of American comics and the more high art, such as Asterix and Tin Tin. He was fascinated by European comic books artists like Moebius, Alberto Uderzo and Herge. He started his career as many British artists and writers, working on 2000 AD, with characters such as Judge Dredd, Armitage and eventually Savage. In the United States he started working with the X Files, Astronauts in trouble, and of course The Walking Dead. Adlard started in The Walking Dead from issue 7, and brought a slightly different style, from the previous artist. Adlard's art is very cartoonish, but the universe of The Walking Dead still doesn't get silly because of it. Quite the opposite, the dirt and rot that Adlerd puts on his characters and the world, only sustains what a horrible world it is to live in. Many readers complain about Adlard's style, being very simple, that his characters are very similar, and sometimes it is difficult to identify them. But I believe that although his style does not vary much, when it comes time to show a horde of zombies, a devastated city, people feeling despair, and extremely disturbing scenes, Adlard manages to excel. Adlard's main tool is ink. All The Walking Dead magazines are in black and white, and he manages to give a lot of depth to the scenarios and characters using only a few ink stains. Today Adlard is doing some comics, mainly for DC, but says that he does not intend to work with Kirkman and zombies again, because he wants to explore other themes, and to innovate his drawing skills.

Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid was one of the most important and well known figures in contemporary architecture and design. With a singular trajectory, marked by a versatile, bold and out of the box style, she was the first woman to receive Pritzker Prize for architecture and was also the only female representative honored by the Royal Institute of British Architects with a golden medal. Zaha Hadid was born in Iraq, more precisely in the city of Halloween, in Bagdá, in the year 1950. Her family was of high class, her father being an important politician and her mother an artist. Still young, she traveled and studied in other places of the world, like London and Switzerland, but it was in her native land the she got her first formation, when she graduated in mathematics. At the age of 22, in 1972, she enrolled in one of the most famous independent schools of architecture in London, and there she gave the starting point to her career by studying and creating an important connection with the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, a figure that encouraged her and opened the doors for opportunities. Later in the 1980s, Zaha Hadid decided to open her own office. This, Zaha Hadid Architects was born, which made her name and talent recognized worldwide. Known for her works with futuristic lines, clean and pure forms, as well as the fragmentation of architectural design. Her projects and discussions raise issues that put architecture and its future to the test. This is because the architect seeks in her works to interrelate design, architecture and urbanism. I knew Hadid and some of her works, but it was the recommendation of my teacher Lauren, that I should look for this architect. As my project takes place in the future, she recommended that I look at some works by Zaha Hadid to get inspiration when creating the scenario for the comic. I find it very interesting how her works have this futuristic aesthetic , because it reminds me of science fiction films like Blade Runner with those skyscrapers and buildings with different shapes and sizes that are extremely imaginative that could only exist in films. With unique works and projects, famous for their exuberance, futuristic elements, curves, non linear shapes, distortions and fragmentations, Hadid inspired and generated fascination both for her constructions around the world.

Syd Mead

Syd Mead was a designer, best known for working on films such as Aliens, Blade Runner, Tron and Star trek. Mead was born in Minnesota, United States, on July of 1933, but five years later he moved to a second house in the western of United States prior to graduating from High School in Colorado in 1951. Some years later, he did the Art Center School in Los Angeles, where he graduated with great distinction in 1959. He was immediately recruited by the Ford Motor Company. At Ford he worked in the advanced styling department, creating futuristic concept car designs. But his imagination went beyond cars and he began to imagine clothes, helmets, buildings and scenery from hyper advanced civilization. After Ford, he also worked in other big companies like Chrysler, Sony and Phillips. After that he started migrating to the concept art world of movies. Mead is really important for generation of writers of science fiction, because many of them were influenced by Mead’s colorful paintings. Mead never wrote a novel or short story. He imagined the future in his mind and turned that imagination into illustrations. In 1979 he designed the extraterrestrial spaceship for the first film “Star Trek” in the cinema. Ridley Scott called Mead to design the buildings and flying cars of the futuristic Los Angeles “Blade Runner” in 1982. In 1986 he was hired to design the space station and vehicles of the movie Aliens directed by James Cameron. Almost at the same time, the designer created the electronic world of “Tron” for Disney studios. The same ones who hired him in 2014 to design the futuristic city of “Tomorrowland”. Mead died in 2019 after three years of lymphoma, he was 86 years old. He was a great influence for many designers and science fiction writers and illustrators, due for his creative worlds and automobiles , Elon Musk quotes Mead as one of his major influences, on visions of the automotive future and design in general.

Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson

Transmetropolitan is a comic written by the British writer Warren Ellis and the American illustrator Darick Robertson, published by the Vertigo label, and falls within the cyberpunk genre, and the problems that rampant technology will cause us.

Throughout the 60 issues of Transmetropolitan, Ellis and Robertson build a chaotic and brilliantly alive future, presenting a sci-fi society with a peculiar mix of elements of cyberpunk, political dystopias, bioengineering and transhumanism, sexuality, economics and much more.

In a dystopia, in a not so distant future, the journalist Spider Jerusalem is isolated for fiver years in a hut in the forest, but he has to return to the city to earn some money.

Throughout the comic, amid a nihilistic aura that humanity has no salvation, the author- Warren Ellis - criticizes the consumerism and futility. The illustrations, of Darick Robertson, is full of excesses as the environment should be, a brand of the style of the 1990s.

The search for the truth is the central theme of this work, and in the midst of all this we found ourselves in a investigative odyssey that involves the lowest scum of that society ( thieves, murderers and rapists) until reaches the highest of the scum ( the presidency).

This background allows the work to touch on the most profound social themes, and without fear of saying what needs to be criticized, this is where Transmetropolitan shines, and provoke deep reflections on issues such as racism, the influence of media, the power of religions, the education, and many other themes.

In short, Transmetropolitan dissects and criticizes everything, it points out the flaws, the lies and the hypocrisy of each one. It’s a study about the problems of democratic society in the 21th century.

Jon Mcnaught

Jon Mcnaught was born in 1985, London, England. He work with drawing comics, and work as an illustrator, printmaker and lecturer. After spending several years on the Falkland Islands during his childhood, which will inspire his second book, Pebble island. The book pass years after the war, where he tries to recreate his childhood, with aspects of his curiosity, when he was exploring abandon bunkers, where it was just part of landscape, or somewhere where he could play. His work has essentially been landscape print-making (often situated in the city), but with quite simple intention of capturing the sense of space, light, time etc. His work is mostly about that, places that he was interested in depicting, and trying to reproduce the visual. He want the characters to feel like elements of a landscape or an environment ( he preferes to focus more on the background, than the characters itself). But usually he uses figures and postures to suggest expressions rather than close ups showing facial features. What I like about Mcnaught's work is that they are simple designs, but the colors are very vivid. The way he constructs the scenarios is very invective, because it doesn’t need to be extremely detailed, he just needs a few lines to show what he is talking about.

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iridescenceoflove · 4 years

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picture me (just like this) - Chapter 2/2

Still for @lnc2 (I know it's no longer strictly Marichat, but I don't think you mind some Ladynoir). :D

AO3 + FFN

Summary: Chat Noir’s finished Ladybug’s gift.

She didn't forget about the photos.

(Or what they meant to him.)

Chat Noir on his part hadn't uttered a single word about the project or any plans for a gift exchange to Ladybug—unlike his usual M.O. of telling her anything and everything under the sun that didn't possibly have to do with identities—so she easily deduced that it was indeed supposed to be a top-secret surprise for herself. Of course, that wasn't exactly a possibility at this point. (Not that Chat had to know such.)

He did, however, try and show Marinette the finished product, and whilst it was extremely tempting to agree, she'd forced herself to impose some sense of curtailment on her eagerness in the end. So instead, she'd insisted on waiting until Ladybug saw it, as it would be more special and intimate for her to be the first one to see it before anyone else. She'd figured she already technically ruined her own surprise, so the least she could do was wait and keep as much suspense as she could—even if there was a desperate desire to just sneak a little peek.

(But he'd sounded so giddy over the phone about it; so she could be patient for him.)

That didn't mean she arrived to patrols without bated breath and searching eyes. According to Tikki, her patience sucked.

Eventually, he showed up one evening with the precious little cargo tucked underneath one arm, and she had to contain the urge to squeal and make grabby-hands.

"What's that?" she blurted as his boots touched the rooftop.

According to Tikki, her acting skills sucked too.

Chat made a show of glancing down confusedly. "You mean this?" He gave it a little shake.

"Yeah, is it a gift?"

Tikki may have been somewhat right.

Chat didn't seem to notice though. "Maybe. Maybe not," he wheedled, rocking on his heels.

"Well, it sure looks like a gift to me," she huffed, impatiently crossing her arms.

"Somebody is the curious cat tonight."

"And unlike you, I deserve my satisfaction," she sniffed primly.

"And someone's not going to deserve her gift instead," he taunted.

"Told you!" she grinned, putting forth her hands expectantly.

"You did not!" he retorted, yanking back the present against his chest. "You were just being nosy."

"Was not."

"Were too."

"I don't see how I was being nosy when it's my present."

"But you didn't know that at first."

She scowled. "I had a feeling."

"How?" he pouted.

"Uhh," she stammered. "Well, who else would you be carrying a gift for?"

"Ah ah ah, I think," Chat declared, hiding the present from her line of sight behind his back, "you just don't want to admit you like my presents. And didn't want this to be for anybody else."

"Pffft," she scoffed, waving a hand, "sure, the diamond earrings and Chanel bag were some nice momentos, but they're a little flashy."

And extremely expensive. And the nicest things she owned that had to stay tucked away in her closet because he refused any of her vetoes, and she couldn't be seen with them without raised eyebrows and questions; but she did admire them from time to time. They were sweet gifts nonetheless.

"Alas, she has specific taste," Chat said, inching the gift back out into view.

Her eyes automatically followed the movement of it. "Please," she blinked very kindly up at him.

He sighed. "Who am I to resist the wiles of my Lady." He dropped the gift into her hands with a flourish.

She grinned triumphantly, appraising the book-shaped object covered in her favorite shade of pink and black polka dotted wrapping paper, topped off with a cute little white bow in the middle.

"I will warn you," Chat informed, astoundingly shy all of the sudden, "it's no diamonds or Versace; in fact, I sort of made it, so it's definitely nothing amazing—"

"Don't be silly—I bet it's one of your best gifts yet," she winked, slipping a finger under one of the folds on the backside.

She was pretty sure it could look like a three-year old did it and she would love it still.

Encased in the wrapping was a simple black leather book with the title Adventures of LB and CN and a yin and yang symbol in the corner.

"Uh, I actually was able to commission Nathaniel to do a little edit of the yin and yang symbol to fit our themes...since, you know, we're like yin and yang?"

She nodded, smiling as she softly grazed a finger over the area.

Flipping open the book, there was the dedication on the first page:

For My Lady, My Partner, My Best Friend

She was certain her cheeks couldn't stretch any further.

The first few photos were definitely from the beginning of their partnership. Like their first fist bump, first pose for the press, and one of their first selfies even—they all were lined against the pages, showcasing the novelty and surrealness that encompassed the first couple of weeks. She shook her head in amazement. Even as it felt so long ago, it was as if it were just yesterday she opened that little box of change and responsibility.

It was clear as she continued that Chat had arranged them in a linear-timeline, as the photos became newer and more comfortable. The photos he had first shown her that night in her room were peppered amongst others she noted, and there were quite a few more photos in between. If she were more courageous and self-disciplined, she would ask him to tell her what they meant to him again. And if she were honest enough with herself, she really wanted him to answer the same way he had that night, just so she could see that sparkle in his eye again—honest, hopeful, yearning, all in a way that made her feel warm and funny inside. He'd talk all night if she'd ask, and she would sit beside him and listen just because she could.

By the time she was about halfway through, more photos including other members of the team started popping up. Viperion and Pegasus posing ridiculously back-to-back, Carapace atop Chat's shoulders, Rena pranking Kim with an illusion, there was even a picture of Queen Bee cracking a reluctant grin and peace sign—they all were moments that somehow got captured. Some of the group photos had little descriptions underneath or beside the photos, like, "Goofing around with our buddies—the gargoyles," or "Ice cream and hang with the gang." Some were left by themselves, with little decals matching their respective kwami-animal theme sprinkled throughout.

"I actually got some of these photos from them," Chat said as she landed on a selfie of Viperion and Ryuko. "I mentioned to Rena what I was doing, so she offered to have herself and the others send some photos as a contribution."

If anything, the thought of her team each pitching in some of their own photos was even more touching, and her cheeks were already aching from all the smiling she was doing.

"That was nice of them."

It truly surprised her—the amount of pictures that had been taken and printed so she could relive them all, each photo recalling each moment with clarity and affection.

But to finish it off, at the very end was a photo of her and Chat sitting on a rooftop, her head on his shoulder and their backs to the camera as the sun set; two figures against the fevered oranges and yellows of the sky, side by side. Underneath read—

Ladybug,

No matter what happens, I hope you can look back upon this with fond memories and remember some of the best times. Because my best times are when I'm with you. So here's to all the memories—even good and bad—and many more that will stand the end of time, just like us. You and me, against the world.

Your Partner, Chat Noir

By the time she got to the ending line, it was becoming too blurry. She swiped a knuckle under her eye, not wanting to risk a single teardrop lest it mar the precious page.

"Oh my god, you're crying! I messed up, didn't I— I'm sorry, this—"

She effectively cut off his rambling worries as she threw her arms around him, hugging him fiercely. "You didn't mess up a thing. I love this."

"You do?"

She fervently nodded her head against his shoulder as she laughed, the ends of his hair at the nape of his neck tickling her cheek. "I do. This is amazing."

"On par with Versace?"

"Better," she corrected, running a hand over the front cover reverently. "This is the best gift ever, Chat." She already knew its rightful place where it belonged; nestled in between the two dried roses in the box tucked in the secret corner of her closet.

He grinned, looking simultaneously shy and pleased as he stood before her. "Well, I thought you could use something that'd bring a smile to your face."

'And—and she just looked so happy, so carefree, standing under her umbrella in the rain with a smile that could turn any cloud in the sky away as she explained. I couldn't help but take a photo, because I knew then that as long as I know her, I'd always try to get her to look like that. Happy.'

"You make me happy."

The words slipped past her lips, unbidden, honest, and completely unchecked; but she wouldn't take back the words for anything.

"I do?" he blinked, voice colored with surprise and wonder, as if any foresight to insert the usual flair of charismatic self-assuredness into his tone disappeared.

And maybe, that was why it only felt right to be honest: "Of course! I—I may not say it often enough...but you're my partner. My best friend. You've always made me happy."

Because when he'd noticed she was feeling down, he'd taken the time and effort to make something special for her, just to try and cheer her up. And sometimes, she really wondered why she drew that line for herself, and when it had become so blurred. Especially when he looked at her like that as she held what she knew was going to be one of her most treasured possessions for the rest of her life.

It turned out she didn't have to ask again. "It goes both ways, My Lady; you make me the happiest Chat around." It was said with earnest veracity—the same veracity he'd wielded when talking about her on her chaise that night—eyes sparkling and honest, his smile hopeful and yearning. A photo wasn't necessary when her brain already committed that look to her memory.

She stepped forward. "Well," she said, before stretching onto tiptoes so her lips could meet the smooth curve of his right cheek. "Thank you again, Chat Noir. I'll cherish this forever." She pulled back, the tips of their noses barely grazing— "And the book."

Smiling, she launched off the rooftop, a blushing open-mouthed Chat Noir in her wake. As she landed on the facing building, she slid her yo-yo open and pressed the camera icon, giggling as the yo-yo audibly clicked.

This was definitely a memory for the books.

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tirednotflirting · 4 years

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hold on to the memories, they will hold on to you (and i will hold on to you)

part two to but we were something, don’t you think so?

because I actually cannot stand leaving something too open ended. enjoy.

and if you want it, check it out on ao3 here

It’s a freezing cold, early Tuesday morning when Luke sees Ashton for the first time since the almost (but not quite) meeting at the stoplight at the edge of campus.

(This time it’s been 5 months and 4 days since he last saw Ashton. Back then his hair was longer and his attire was hardly weather appropriate. Luke had been paralyzed by memories and a thousand different what if possibilities, none of which had come true.)

It had been quite a hectic morning up to that point. Luke’s alarm had failed to go off (again) and it's the last day he’ll be meeting for his Advanced Linear Algebra course and it’s pretty vital that he make it to that lecture so he knows what to focus on for the final they’re having the next week. He rushes around the apartment, cursing Calum silently for not waking him. He knows it isn’t his roommate’s responsibility to keep track of Luke’s oversleeping habit but they’ve been living together for two years now and Luke has definitely had to wake Calum up to get to exams on time before.

He rushes through an augmented version of his morning routine, quickly brushing his teeth and shoving a beanie over his bedhead curls, momentarily thankful for the cold that required something to cover his ears. He trips over himself as he pulls on a pair of jeans while shoving his textbooks and journals into his backpack. On his way out the door, Luke hastily locks it since he isn’t sure if Calum ended up back in his bedroom the night before or if he stayed with Michael again. He skips waiting for the elevator to race down the stairs and out the front door of his complex.

He’s finished running the first block when he feels his phone buzz and he’s already winded so he figures stopping for a quick second to check the message (likely one from Calum if he is home to ask why Luke slammed the front door) wouldn’t hurt. Only the notification wasn’t a text, it was an email from Luke’s professor.

My wife and I caught some bug over the weekend so class today will be canceled. I am sad to miss our last meeting but please feel free to come with any questions to my extended office hours later this week. Attached is the concept guide for the final I planned to go over today. Happy studying.

Luke takes a deep breath in through the nose and imagines the air he can see from the cold after exhaling to be all of the anger he feels at having to rush through the apartment for nothing. He considers for a moment just turning around and getting in some more rest since his next class isn’t until 3. But he’s got the study guide now and he is (unfortunately) awake, so he starts toward the university still but figures he can reward himself for not going back home with a coffee from the shop just off campus.

Though tired still, Luke walks briskly to the shop since he had only grabbed his cardigan that he leaves hanging by the door since he couldn’t be bothered to hunt around for his coat. Especially so because he’s pretty sure it may still be in the back of Michael’s car anyway. He doesn’t live too far from campus though so soon enough, he’s pushing against the door to enter the warm shop.

He’s always loved this place. The exposed brick and odd collection of thrift store comfy chairs and tables make the shop look like a scene out of a TV show about college or something and Luke lives for any cheesy college experience he can get. He especially loves it there in the winter, when he knows he can step inside with a bright red nose and immediately be enveloped with a cinnamon scented warmth that the chain places could only ever dream of achieving.

He steps to the counter and orders one of the seasonal lattes to have in a mug rather than a to go cup and after providing his name and paying the kind, blushing girl at the register, he turns to find a spot to cozy up in for the next few hours.

And that’s when he locks eyes with Ashton.

His hair is shorter and red now, like the color on a candy cane but deeper and it matches the blush currently spread across his cheeks. He’s at one of the bigger tables, surrounded by several textbooks and journals. His glasses sit on the edge of his nose, threatening to fall onto the pages in front of him. The dark sweater he has on is the kind that makes his hazel eyes appear a bit darker around the edges.

Luke’s attention is briefly drawn away from him when he hears his name called from the counter and he jumps just slightly and before quickly turning to go get the mug, he swears he sees a smirk play at the edges of Ashton’s lips.

He reaches the counter and thanks the barista and when he turns back, Ashton is standing right in front of him and it takes everything in Luke to not drop the mug of sugary coffee. His momentary observation about Ashton’s eyes is emphasized further now that they stand only a couple feet away from one another, the closest they’ve been physically in nearly 18 months.

“Would you like to join me at my table?” Ashton asks, the words coming out quick but with a tone of hesitation, as though his brain was fighting against his lips on whether or not to ask.

Luke had imagined a moment almost exactly like this a million different ways. Only recently had he given up on the idea of ever running into him again, of being asked to join him for a meeting that would become another big, Hollywood produced moment in Luke’s memory. However, in every one of those fantasies that Luke had allowed to play out in his mind, he had failed to factor in what it would feel like to hear the forgotten voice of a lost love. He felt like he had been betrayed by his own memories because the voice he had been hearing as he tried to sleep wasn’t the exact tone or depth of what he had just heard again.

After a moment, Luke releases the breath he hadn’t even realized he had been holding in as he speaks just one word. “Yes.”

He follows Ashton back to the table, letting his bag fall off his shoulder to gently land at the floor and sets his mug down a safe distance from the big, scary law textbooks Ashton has opened up on the table. He takes a seat but keeps his feet tucked below his chair, worried that any direct physical contact might cause a forest fire or something. “Are you already studying for the bar then?”

Ashton’s brows shoot up as he takes his place on the opposite side of the table. “Oh, um yes,” he nods quickly, a faint blush still painted on his cheeks. “I’m taking the exam at the beginning of June but I haven’t taken a look at some of this stuff in ages, you know?”

Luke nods slowly, remembering the times they would lie in bed together after Ashton had been accepted to their university’s law program and Luke would run his fingers up and down his back while listening to Ashton speak excitedly about far off exams and internships. He had told him all about it because Luke was supposed to be there, cheering him on while he read and interpreted case files. A lot had changed.

He’s pulling his textbook out of his bag and setting it on the table while trying to think of more to say when Ashton speaks first. “Linear Algebra? Were you able to get into Henderson’s course? I know you always talked about him like he was a rock star during registration week.”

Luke’s throat feels dry and he’s wondering if this is all maybe actually a dream. Like maybe he’ll wake up in a few minutes to the alarm he thought he missed this morning and this is all just his subconscious playing a really cruel joke on him. “Yeah, our last lecture was meant to be this morning but he’s sick and,” Luke pauses for a moment and takes another deep breath and sip of his drink and realizes he cannot make small talk with someone who used to be his entire world. “Ashton, what’s going on?”

Ashton licks his lips before opening his mouth as though to respond but Luke cuts him off. “You dumped me with no warning at all because you were worried about making his law thing work and now you’re inviting me to sit with you while you study for the bar and my head is spinning.”

“I miss you.”

“Wha-”

“And I know that’s bullshit and I know it's been like a year and a half and I know that I saw you in the summer and I didn’t say anything and that was probably the worst thing I’ve ever done,” he speaks quickly, something like panic at the edge of his words. “I let my insecurity get the best of me. I convinced myself I wasn’t going to be good enough at this and that I would have to spend all my time working on all of this and that I wouldn’t have enough time left to treat you the way you deserve to be treated. I was so scared of us turning into an afterthought in my mind.”

“So rather than talking to me you just ended it so we wouldn’t have to be a thought at all?” Luke scoffs.

“I wanted to give you the world. I wanted you to be my world. Nothing less than that seemed worthy. And if I wasn’t going to be able to give that to you, I didn’t want to keep you from the possibility of finding someone who could.”

“Damn it, Ashton,” Luke shakes his head and checks around for people looking to make sure his volume is controlled. “All I wanted was you. Fuck, all I want is you.”

“Even now?” the red headed boy whispers, his eyes just a touch glossy. “Even after July?”

Luke feels a burning at his eyes and immediately blames the cold wind, despite being inside for nearly 15 minutes now. “July ripped my heart apart in a way that I had never felt before. And in a way, I think it was what I needed. Like, it had a sense of finality to it. And I’ve been doing better. But that doesn’t change the fact that I would turn the entire world upside down for you. For us.”

They’re both quiet for a few minutes after that. Luke takes a few more sips of his drink and watches the steam rise from the mug in between each one. Eventually he looks past the steam to where Ashton sits as he takes Luke in. Like he’s trying to see into his thoughts. Eventually he clears his throat and runs a hand through the red tousled curls.

“When I saw you in July, I didn’t say anything because I felt like nothing I could say to you would fix anything. That my trying to fix anything would be like trying to get the toothpaste back in the tube, ya know? But when I got home, I called my therapist and I just told her everything. I had never talked to her about us before because I was too scared of being judged. And when I told her that she told me it was pretty possible that the way I ended things was for the same reason. And so all semester I was trying to find a way to run into you again. And I guess the universe picked for that to happen today.”

“I just wanted to support you. Just wanted to love you,” Luke shakes his head, a sad smile pulling delicately at his cheeks.

“And I was so scared to let you.”

“Would you let me now?” Luke asks and hopes there’s less desperation in his voice than what he senses there to be. “Would you let me take care of you a bit? In the way you always did for me?”

Hesitantly, Ashton lifts his arm from where it’s been resting at this side and reaches a hand out over the papers taking up his half of the tablespace. “I’d love nothing more.”

Luke reaches a hand up and intertwines their fingers while his gaze stays locked with Ashton’s. He lets out a breathy giggle when Ashton moves to rub his thumb in small patterns on Luke’s palm, the blonde’s eyes dropping to where they rest. The hazel eyed boy smiles. “I know this conversation isn’t over and we really do have a lot of ground to cover. But I don’t ever want to go another day without making you laugh.”

Luke’s eyes widen, wondering if Ashton felt the weight of his words in the same way Luke did. But then he looks up from their hands to Ashton’s face again, only to find him nodding with understanding. Slowly, he lets his feet drop from where they’ve pulled below his chair and he feels his boots knock against Ashton’s. Neither make a move to change the position though. Luke bites his lip briefly in thought before replying. “I feel exactly the same.”

The rest of the morning and early afternoon are spent catching up in a way that should have felt strange, given that they were describing their day to day life to someone who they used to start and end every single one with. But it felt easy and it felt right and Ashton had been correct that they needed to sit down and talk through the hard stuff but there was always tomorrow (and every day after that). When it finally got to the time Luke needed to make his way over to the math department for his next class, Ashton offers to walk with him. As they continue conversation on their walk across the campus, Luke can’t help but notice how the whole scene feels like watching an old, beloved movie after not seeing it for a few years. Everything feels so familiar but there’s a new meaning to it, one that couldn’t be seen the first time around.

When they reach the doors to the building, they stop just before the steps, their hands still tangled together between them. “Would you let me make you dinner tonight? I’ve got the stuff for that pasta thing you always liked and a bottle of red?”

Luke smirks and lifts a brow, teasingly. “You drink red wine? Proper law student now, huh?” Ashton rolls his eyes but squeezes his palm against Luke’s. “But yes, that sounds nice. What’s the gate code?”

“Still the same.”

Luke lets out a laugh. “I’m sorry, you kept your gate code as your ex’s birthday?”

Ashton shrugs, a grin spreading across his own cheeks. “Listen, I knew I would never forget the code that way.”

Luke blushes, the whole day finally feeling real with that response because it was such an Ashton thing to do. Maybe they did still know each other. “I’ll see you later, Ash.”

“See you soon, Luke.”

They part ways then and Luke makes his way up the steps. He’s just about to reach for the door when something buried deep his mind tells him to turn around. And when he does, their eyes lock again and small matching smiles pull at their lips. And now Luke knows, he never has to worry about Ashton not looking back again.

#lashton #lashton fic #when i wrote this first part all of the comments on ao3 were like 'bUT WHY DID THEY BREAK UP???'#and the club were all like 'hc where are they now'#and then this morning i was drinking coffee in my shower bc hangover and then i only got out bc i wanted to start this #and 4 hours later here we are :)

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gloriousgardendonut · 6 years

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Walking the Ridgeway, my own way - one woman and her pup

Genesis 13:17 Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.

Whilst camping I met a man who originated from Zimbabwe. He told me a story of how he had applied to become a British citizen many years previous after fleeing his own country for fear of persecution. At the time there was a mix up and due to his own misinterpretation of a letter regarding his application he thought he had been denied citizenship. He was a Christian and prayed to God for help. Whilst doing so he came across the above quote from Genesis. On reading it he decided to take it literally and walked from Aberdeen to Lands End in the hope that God would help him in his predicament. On his return from his walk someone explained to him that the letter was actually saying he could stay in England and due to language difficulties he had misinterpreted it. He explained to me how he was overjoyed and had enjoyed walking all over the British Isles ever since. He also believed that God had rewarded him as in Genesis. Interestingly, this conversation took place on our campsite the morning of the England versus Sweden game in the World Cup. Having our camper van adorned with England flags he had asked about them and we chatted about how we'd be watching the game later in the local pub. Later in the day he and his wife arrived unexpectedly in the pub and joined us in cheering England on to victory, he said it had been another wonderful experience for him as he'd never watched football in a pub before. But I diversify, my reason for this bit of blog is to share my thoughts on the recent National Trail I completed. My reason for walking wasn't concerned with religion but rather a personal challenge I set myself for the Gap Year to do something by myself (without other humans). Of course my lovely new pooch came with me to keep me company. As it turned out the walk gave me plenty of thinking time and possibly helped me to see 'the light' in relation to many things on a personal level. I'm sure if people were able to walk everyday, heads and minds would be much clearer and mental health difficulties would be less than they currently are. I might add that having a dog as well helps my mental health enormously so recommend it to anyone. So 'The Walk' - The Ridgeway National Trail - 87 miles from Overton Hill to Ivanhoe Beacon, an ancient trackway used since prehistoric times and passing through The Wessex Downs, The Chilterns, secluded valleys and remote woodlands of Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Recommended completion time 6-7 days, recommended average daily mileage 14-15 miles, recommended direction West to East. But hang on……recommendations are all well and good but what about the unexpected! For one the unexpected heatwave in England with the highest temperatures since 1976. Then add to that a 15 month old pup that flits from Duracell high power mode (crazy, spinning, jumping) to flat battery mode (puppy nap, refuses to move) at regular intervals through the day. Then finally, start and finish points along the route miles from our pre booked accommodation and in the middle of nowhere. So with these factors in the mix the 14-15 miles per day was the first criteria to be abandoned, replaced on good days with 7am starts we were able to achieve 10-11 miles and on others with later starts maybe 6-7 miles. The heat was usually above 30 degrees by 11am so afternoon walking was not an option for the puppy. Also the puppy got really tired every 2-3 days so we had to include a couple of rest days for him to recover, but is was good for me as well and usually meant we were raring to go the day after. The other big issue was the M40 or more precisely accommodation we'd booked to the west or east of this. We'd booked a log cabin on a smallholding near to the start of the walk and hoped we could do more of the walk than we did by the time we had to move to our next accommodation - a campsite near the end. As it turned out we still had 40 miles to go (still in the middle) when we had to leave the cabin and go to the campsite. This meant we either needed to return east each day (40 miles first day, 30 miles second day and so on). This would mean taking up valuable pre-lunch walking time and not getting too far before we had to stop because of the heat. So I had an 'ingenious' idea instead of driving back 40 miles, we could pop down the road to Ivanhoe Beacon and start walking backwards, well back to the middle not actually backwards. This would mean we maximised more early morning walking time. Not the traditional way of walking a linear route, but who cares, we were being adaptable to circumstances and we still eventually walked the whole 87 miles and were probably unique in being the only women and pup do do the route that way……EVER!! We took celebratory pictures at the top of the Beacon (the official end), then celebrated with a pub lunch, knowing we still had 40 miles to do and knowing our excuse for a pub lunch was a fraud! So what did I see along the way, well the obvious on any national trail is lots of fauna and flora. One of the Ridgeways distinctive characters is chalk, created tens of millions of years ago by the coalescing of dead seashells and mud, it is the stuff you walk on throughout the walk sometimes bright and shiny under foot sometimes buried just under the surface in field and woods. A famous site along the Ridgeway is the chalk horse on the hillside, you can't actually see it from the Ridgeway, but if you go into the valley you can. Apparently the chalk is permeable and in wetter weather can become very sticky under foot, not a problem for us with the heatwave, rather the glare off its surface probably enhanced the suntan and made us feel even hotter. In the west there is much grassland and pasture, whereas the east was heavily wooded with beech trees, the replacement for the ancient oaks cut down during deforestation many years ago. Interesting and much to the dismay of the puppy, there is little water along the Ridgeway. The chalk soaks it up and so there are no rivers or streams until you get to the middle and hit the Thames at Goring Gap. Unfortunately whilst you can see the Thames for a few miles along this part of the route, there's little opportunity to actually dip your toes in it. We arrived there on a particularly scorching day and found only one place along the bank that was low enough for the pup to enjoy a paddle. In fact he smelt it first and flew down the path so fast to dive in I thought he was chasing something and went into a little panic. The last thing he chased was a sheep in the lakes, not to hurt it but to play with it. He was only 10 months old, it was a scary moment filled with thoughts of an angry farmer reaching for his gun and shooting my new baby dead, alas he returned unharmed, smiling and having no idea of the danger he had just been in. So water lacking we had to take extra supplies in the pack to avoid dehydration. As well as chalk there is stone and at the start of the walk is Britain's largest henge at Avebury. There is a misconception that henge are circles of standing stones like the famous Stonehenge, but this is untrue, they are in fact enclosures, with banks and ditches with opposing entrances. The one in Avebury is spectacular and would have been more so back in the day when more of the chalk was exposed creating a brilliant white circle around the henge. Another place I visited along the route was Waylands Smithy a Neolithic burial chamber enclosed by huge Sarsen stones dating back to 2800BC, wow….that's old. Whilst there in the middle of nowhere and thinking I was on my own, a woman appeared behind one of the stones, after a sharp intake of breath I decided she looked 'of this world' and although she did not acknowledge me (strange), she seemed harmless standing there hugging the stone. Waiting for her to leave, me and the pup did a few modern day selfies and once she'd left I decided to hug the stone too, well when in Rome…… of course it just felt like a cold hard stone with no special powers but to me amazing all the same as it had been sat there putting up with stone huggers for over 5000 years. Talking of strange things along the Ridgeway, as mentioned the east of the way has a lot of woodland…..'if you go down to the woods today, you're in for a big surprise'……… One evening whilst relaxing and partaking of a little vino after a fine days walk along the next section of the way, Simon decided to tell me that he had spoken to a chap that day whilst out cycling. He had told the chap about mine and the pups walk and the chap said he'd done the Ridgeway himself and had a jolly good time of it, until the day he did the Grim's Ditch bit! My eyes widened and my heart quickened as I reluctantly asked for more information. Apparently, according to Simon, the chap had found the place dark, overgrown and difficult under foot with old and gnarled tree stumps, he'd stumbled through feeling increasingly uneasy and a little chilled in his bones. On hearing this I immediately grabbed my guide book and scoured the pages to find this place, my god, there it was 2 miles of it in the middle of the the next days route. I remember swilling an extra glass of rosé before bed and telling myself to put those thoughts of ghosts and superstition out of my head. After a restless night we rose to glorious sunshine and a renewed sense of not believing in ghosts. We set off and within a few miles I became very aware that we were entering Grim's Ditch, my mantra being 'I am a big girl, independent and adventurous, the sun is shining, my dog has big teeth, there is nothing to fear'. All was quiet, it was narrow, a little overgrown meaning I got stung by nettles and kept tripping up over the gnarled tree stumps, did I feel uneasy? A little, it was long, seemed to be never ending, I remembered I was in the middle of nowhere, alone, an easy target, who was Grim anyway? what was he?……………..then suddenly footsteps, heavy, right behind me, my heart leaped, I turned, the chill entering my body, eyes wide I spotted him, right behind me……………the local jogger, 10 stone wet in bright yellow silky shorts. We exchanged hellos and he ran on and I sighed with relief. For the rest of the walk I felt no further fear, in fact the woods became my favourite place on the route, a retreat from the blistering heat, quiet and peaceful. The puppy loved it there too, running and exploring to his heart's content. So then there was the fauna - the animals. I love animals, except COWS, I fear cows, I avoid cows, I have run for my life to escape them and I know they are killers - Google it, you'll find cows have turned on there own farmers and trampled them to death. So when I start any walk I think 'will there be cows?' Normally I have Simon with me on walks in the countryside, he's adept at speaking to the cows and shooing them away whilst I do a large detour around the field they are in. Also he believes the branch he usually picks up before speaking to the cows will protect him, which is good for him. But on the Ridgeway I didn't have my protector. What I did have was an unpredictable dog. Previous I'd had Barney, a tricolour Collie not dissimilar looking to a dairy calf and often the main attraction for curious cows thinking I'd stolen one of their gang, hence my fear was tripled over the 15 years I had him walking with me. Alas no longer with us, I now had this other new dog and was unsure how cows would react to him and him to them, remember he's chased sheep recently. I decided he would always be on the lead when we went anywhere near animals until I knew him better, this left me vulnerable if the cows liked the look of him and wanted to come over. Advice is to let the dog go if you are chased, I wasn't sure I could do that. Anyhow a stroke of amazing good luck, there are very few cows along the Ridgeway, in fact we came across only 2 different herds, one we easily managed to avoid as they were at the other end of the field. The second lot was more difficult, a huge herd bang in the middle of the field we had to cross. On entering this particular field of cows I could see the way marker and kissing gate directly opposite me and beyond the mad staring eyes of Patch and buddies in the middle of the field. Patch is the name I give to the scariest cow in the herd, the one that has a black patch over one eye and makes it known with its killer stare that you've been spotted as soon as you enter the field. Practically choking the pup with the shortest lead possible we detoured round the edge of the field at speed (walking fast, stooping low and avoiding eye contact), all the time observing with military precision all parts of the fence that we could hurl ourselves over in an emergency. We made it to the kissing gate and with sudden lack of dexterity and jelly like fingers we eventually managed to get the gate open and dived through it to safety. Patch and his cronies didn't move an inch and continued to chew the cud waiting for the next fools to pass by. As well as cows there were sheep, chickens, squirrels, pheasants, the odd deer, birds (red kites everywhere) and lots more including horses. This area has a lot of Gallops, this was something I'd not seen before, it's fields with brushwood hurdles for training race horses, the area has many racing stables and most famously the gallops at Lambourn Downs next to the Ridgeway. In fact the Ridgeway in many places is a Byway, meaning it is open to cyclists and horse riders as well as walkers. I walked the Ridgeway at the end of June, it was on the whole really quiet, I saw few people besides the stone hugger, Grim the jogger and a few others, not sure if it is busier at other times. I did bump into one lady out walking her dogs, she told me she had lived on the Ridgeway for many years and in recent years she had seen less and less people completing the trail, she thought it may be because people had started walking abroad. As our dogs played together we chatted about this and that, then she told me she had lost one of her own dogs the day before, it was ill and had to be put to sleep, the lady cried, I knew just how she felt I'd done exactly the same things a few a months before, a few days after I lost Barney and cried on the first person I saw out on my walk. I comforted her and told her about Barney and we cried together for a brief moment. Eventually we went our separate ways, I didn't ask her name, she didn't ask mine and we'll never meet again but it was one of those moments in time when out of the blue you are able to share something special and find comfort in a total stranger. Later in my walk I felt I needed to give a different stranger a very wide berth. I was pottering along in the sound of nature when I suddenly heard music, as I proceeded it got louder and I could make out that it was some kind of dance music, it seemed odd as there was no housing for miles just fields and tracks. As I turned a corner I saw a large vehicle, it looked like a large mobile home but the whole back end was open like it had been cut open with a tin opener and was now a platform at the back. On the platform was various furniture including a settee and an old tin bath. All around the van were trinkets and boxes of stuff, the music was very loud now and there was odours and a tinge of smoke coming from the van, but I couldn't see in past the beaded curtain spread across the opening. It resembled a den of iniquity and thought it best to sneak past unnoticed, but then the pup started barking at the van, I hurried on not wanting to disturb whoever was inside and briefly wondered what I'd do if someone came out and invited me in, alas they didn't do so that particular story never happened. All in all this walk was fabulous. There's loads more to enjoy than I've talked about here and I'd definitely recommend people to do it. The Ridgeway is fairly low level and without the heat and a young pup you could if you’re a seasoned walker do more mileage and complete it within a week. I'd recommend booking accommodation along the way or as you go, although you'd need to plan that carefully as some parts are quite remote and it would mean extra walking into the villages to get to accommodation. You could probably wild camp quite easily although it's illegal - but maybe avoid Grim's Ditch unless you are one of those ghost hunter people! On a personal level I feel my confidence has grown and that whilst not always wanting to do things alone I know now that I can and at the same time enjoy it as well. Of course having the pup means I'm not really alone, a dog makes you feel safe, makes you laugh, keeps you company and can be the thing that gets you chatting to other walkers. Also having a taxi service (Simon Preston) to pick me up and drop me off also meant I wasn't alone and didn't have the hassle of carrying all my stuff with me or massaging my own weary feet. On a practical level as the walk can be remote supplies are essentials as there's no local Mickey D's or Ice cream van. I put glucose tabs in my drinks and took lots of drinks for me and the pup. A sandwich suffices but I also took bananas and malt loaf to snack on and obviously the puppy needed food which he supplemented with his own snacks of sheep poo and discarded tissues. As I was on my own I made sure my phone was charged and took a power pack to top up the charge if it ran low, this proved a god send one day when Simon couldn't find me and I needed to give him extra information and my phone ran out of charge, without the extra power I would have been unable to direct him to me. Walking gear, well it was 30 degrees, whilst a bikini would have been nice I opted for shorts, t-shirts, walking boots and a hat. I had a jacket in my pack but didn't get it out once in the 10 days of walking. Confession - I wore the same shorts everyday as they were so comfortable and had big pockets. I also just whipped my shorts down without a care when I needed a pee, no point in finding a bush as no one was around! And finally maps, although the Ridgeway is really well signposted there were still a couple of occasions where it wasn't clear and I had to work things out. Having the trail guidebook was good as well as they give you lots of extra information and things to look out for along the route which you might otherwise miss. So special thanks go to Simon Preston for all the encouragement as well as nightly foot massages, endless cups of tea and being able to actually find me up tracks in the middle of nowhere. Thanks too to my pup for being the best friend and showing me what a great walking companion he is going to make. And thoughts to my beautiful Barney who was missed every day of the walk, but who gave me my previous 15 years of walking adventures and good times. Without these my horizon of possibilities would be less.

'A horizon of possibilities means the entire spectrum of beliefs, practices and experiences that are open before a particular society, given its ecological, technological and cultural limitations. Each society and each individual usually explores only a tiny fraction of their horizons of possibilities' Sapiens - A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari.

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entergamingxp · 4 years

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Forgotten Stories is an Amazing Skyrim Mod, and You Should Play It

May 26, 2020 1:00 PM EST

Sometimes, you find a mod that defies expectations and becomes a worthy game in its own right. Enderal: Forgotten Stories is one such mod.

Enderal: Forgotten Stories is a total conversion mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Developed by a dedicated team of German modders by the name of SureAI, the first version of Enderal was released back in 2016. The updated Forgotten Stories expansion from 2019 saw a number of additions to quests and content, as well as a standalone release on Steam. It’s the definitive and complete version of the tale, and is worth playing again if you’ve only dabbled in the original previously.

This mod completely replaces the landmass and setting of Skyrim with an original one, and overhauls most of the gameplay systems as well. Skyrim’s general DNA is still inevitably present in movement and systems, but the way it works is wholly redone. It is less the freeform “do whatever you want” simulator that Skyrim quickly becomes; Enderal is instead a focused, story-driven RPG with a splash of open-world content that better utilizes the space. There’s less reliance on scaling enemies, and more on not reaching into areas beyond your means, as the story will nudge you there when you’re ready.

That story, world, the characters contained within, and the full span of Enderal’s adventure? Those are so fantastically realized that it feels disingenuous to call Enderal a mere mod. It easily transcends the boundaries of Skyrim, overcoming many of the gameplay issues and lacking elements of its source material. Having finished it recently, I now find myself thinking of Enderal not as just a Skyrim mod, nor even its own standalone game and RPG.

I now think of Enderal: Forgotten Stories as one of the best video games I’ve ever played.

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Since Enderal hasn’t left my mind for long since completing it, I feel that it’s important to I write this down and share it. I want to talk a bit about Enderal’s design and gameplay systems. I’ll cover a little about the story and characters (in non-spoiler terms), as well as how emotionally devastating its ending is. And finally, I’ll briefly touch on the many ways it shines a light on all of Skyrim’s greatest weaknesses. I’ve come to develop a more negative view of Bethesda’s most recent mainline Elder Scrolls foray, and Enderal has helped me put all of that into words.

In the interim, I urge you to go and check out Enderal: Forgotten Stories at your earliest convenience if any of this has sounded slightly appealing to you. It’s comprehensive enough to have its own standalone Steam page and installer, with many Skyrim mods that are considered “mandatory” baked into it already. In fact, it’s comprehensive enough to have its own mods also! Go there now, pick it up, and see for yourself. This is something special, and the SureAI team deserves the attention and spotlight.

Skyrim: New Vegas

Enderal takes absolutely no time in laying its cards on the table for you. The opening scene is a gorgeous, sun-baked vista of a lush garden near sunset. It’s idyllic, pushing the graphics of both the base game and the included ENBoost and graphical mods to the max. It’s also very clearly wrong, with something uncanny about the whole scene lurking just below the surface. A quick glance around the place will see that uncertainty grow, with the culmination of that scene making it crystal clear. I won’t spoil specifics; once again, I urge you to check it out, and the introduction alone should demonstrate that you’re in for a ride.

More cutscenes and important setup will follow, including character creation. The first area or two play out like a tutorial, helpful both for newcomers and those familiar with the workings of Skyrim. All throughout, the placing of story elements and themes has begun, and seeing that all eventually culminate more than makes up for its “slow” start. More importantly, you’ll get through the first scripted dungeon and be greeted by a sun-swept vista not unlike the one from the intro. This game is utterly gorgeous. The continent of Enderal beckons forth.

Mechanically, the game might be a little bit off-putting for Skyrim veterans. That’s not to say it isn’t good; Enderal simply does away with the learn-by-doing skill system for something more focused. Killing creatures and completing quests give experience, and experience thresholds grant you a level-up. You’ll choose health, magicka, or stamina and get a selection of points with which to invest into specific skills. You can’t just plug these points straight into your skills, though.

“It feels disingenuous to call Enderal a mere mod.”

Memory points are your big talent/perk purchases, which are applied through a much fancier in-game version of the Skyrim perks. It’s not just opening a menu and clicking a constellation: here, you meditate to reach a bizarre shrine in your mind, where physical stones reflecting the perk trees are represented to interact with. In addition to the passive powers here, you’ll unlock talents which function like dragon Shouts. These have individual cooldowns rather than global ones though, so mixing and matching them in combat is far more useful than Skyrim‘s counterparts.

For general skill levels, you need to acquire and study a learning book of the appropriate skill and quality. Doing so increases that skill by 1. Want to get One-Handed from 15 to 16? You’ll have to scavenge or buy a One-Handed learning book of the apprentice difficulty. To get beyond 25, you’ll need an adept book, and so on. Skills have been split between learning and crafting, with the latter being less directly tied into combat trees (Alchemy, Enchanting, Lockpicking and such).

This means that you cannot master everything in a single playthrough like you might in Skyrim. Builds become important, and swapping to a new combat style on a whim requires some investment. This would probably not go down well in Skyrim; open exploration carries that game, and diversity in one’s playstyle can alleviate a sense of repetition after long sessions. Enderal wants you to think about your build and develop a roleplay attachment to your avatar, instead. As you’ll see from the heavier story focus, that becomes increasingly clear as you play.

Experience also becomes a premium resource. Enderal isn’t as large as Skyrim, but it’s far more curated. Leveled lists and scaling rewards are barely a factor here, and bandits won’t suddenly find late-game armor. Completing side quests and exploring where you can now helps you progress your build. Given that the game can be pretty difficult in the early hours, that’s a good mindset to embrace. Exploring is a good idea, right up until you cross a boundary you probably shouldn’t have and get completely murdered.

“Enderal feels to Skyrim as Fallout: New Vegas did to Fallout 3.”

There’s further incentives for exploring carefully as well, with rare pickups that can grant bonus experience or even permanently increase your carry capacity. Set items now exist and are quite powerful when combined, and rare crafting schematics or learning books are scattered across the land. The fact that everything feels hand-designed instead of just generated en masse helps the world seem more real. Thus, when the plight of the story starts to ramp up and affect the continent I’d grown attached to, I felt it all the more from seeing it myself.

Still, even with all the benefits for exploring, Enderal is a comparatively more linear game than its source. Modern Elder Scrolls games are happy to let you wander off the beaten path for a hundred hours and ignore the main story entirely. That’s not at all encouraged for Enderal; in fact, unlike Skyrim, you are seriously missing out if you don’t engage with the main quest. Major biomes of Enderal’s landmass are gated off by the challenge they represent. You can go there and try to survive, but generally the main story will introduce you to it once you’ve progressed far enough to be ready.

In this way, Enderal feels to Skyrim as Fallout: New Vegas did to Fallout 3. Obsidian’s Fallout foray was more linear and focused than its predecessor’s open-world jaunt around post-apocalyptic Washington, D.C.; wandering too far would get you torn apart by Deathclaws. This lack of freedom was exchanged for much sharper writing, a better plot, and more narrative options and choice. Enderal feels as if it’s done much the same to Skyrim, and given how fantastic the story and characters are, it’s a trade I’d make a million times over.

The Adventures of Jespar (featuring the Player Character)

Leaving the tutorial dungeon brings you to a secluded valley within Enderal proper. There’s a few treasures and hidden secrets to be found there, but eventually you will have to follow the path that leads beyond. That one path will see you encounter a couple of apothecary NPCs, who explain a little more about the world you’re in.

Attempting to leave will see you overcome with Arcane Fever; this is both a story point, and one of Enderal’s new gameplay mechanics. It functions similarly to Fallout’s radiation, increasing when exposed to magically dense areas. Most importantly, Arcane Fever is exacerbated by using magical healing and potions. No longer can you just open your inventory and chug twenty potions to heal up, as this’ll quickly raise your Fever. Get too high and you’ll start having negative side effects, and at 100% you die outright. Food items don’t heal much in combat either, but out of combat? You’ll get a satiated buff that will regenerate your health over time, so you still want to stay fed. It’s a clever little way of balancing Enderal’s combat and making it less absurd than Skyrim.

Nonetheless, you find out about this system shortly after the apothecary conversation ends. It’s here that you’ll meet Jespar Dal’Varek, one of the major NPCs of the game. He leads you into the main story quest for Enderal, but he’ll also take the time to chat you with if you want to ask questions. By the end of that first segment of the game, I was ready to follow him anywhere. Jespar is one of the more well-written and constructed NPC companions I’ve had the pleasure of encountering in video games. He’s a very easy-going sort and it’s clear why they introduce you to him first, but the cynical and anti-idealist side of him comes to the fore if you start asking.

In fact, there will be side quests and conversations entirely focused on getting to know some of the side characters better. These were usually highlights in my playthrough, which should give you an indication of the quality of these characters. In Jespar’s case, this is further strengthened by such fantastic voice acting that you’d almost forget this was a free mod. In fact, his voice actor Ben Britton has springboarded into the industry off his work here. Small wonder that Jespar is the focus character in the writer’s spin-off novel (the audiobook is also voiced by Ben).

“By the end of that first segment of the game, I was ready to follow Jespar anywhere.”

Jespar might be the first and most prominent, but he is far from the only character worth remembering in Enderal. Throughout the main quest lines, you’ll be introduced to a slew of primary characters, many of which have just as much depth as him. The interactions of these characters both with you and each other really sell the narrative being told, and it was very easy to grow attached to them (or to loathe them, as the situation demands).

I cannot stress how strong the writing for Enderal truly is. It’s not just the characters either; the entire game world is incredibly well designed and presented. The continent is built on a religious caste-based society with heavy stratification, and you’ll have the opportunity to investigate and interact with each level of it. You’ll argue the pros and cons of religiosity, discuss the nature of life, death and reality, or dive into a magic system which literally plucks aspects from alternate timelines in order to function. Whether through its world-building, characters, or overall narrative, I found myself hopelessly drawn in by Enderal and wanted more.

All throughout, the main quest runs through the bulk of the continent and takes you to appropriately leveled zones when the time comes. Each arc of the quest finds new ways to introduce spectacle, to develop the characters, and to ramp up the stakes and scope of the plot. There’s sections that are presented with better tension and horror than most horror games can manage. New difficulties will arise, characters will be hurt or even killed, and victories will be tempered with losses. Before I knew it, I’d been playing for over a hundred hours and had fully cleared the map; that’s something I’d never care to bother with in Skyrim.

Very quickly, you’ll realize just how big the implications of the story are, and this will continue without letting up until the conclusion of the game. And that conclusion is something else. There’s a sense of uncertainty and tension throughout the entire story, and neither the characters nor the player are ever quite sure that what they’re doing is the correct answer. Like everything else, this will build up to a finale that was so brilliantly handled and emotionally charged that I was reeling for days afterwards.

Finding the right words to describe it all without delving into spoilers is a difficult task. Much as I’d love to do so and start gushing in fantastic detail, that’s not the point of this editorial. Besides, it’s really something that I would rather people experience firsthand. Suffice it to say that Enderal’s writing and story is excellent, with quality that holds true until the very end. I expect that I’ll be thinking of some of the climactic moments for a long time to come. It really is that fantastic a tale.

“This will build up to a finale that was so brilliantly handled and emotionally charged that I was reeling for days afterwards.”

I have to take a moment to credit the sound, also. Enderal: Forgotten Stories might be a free mod, but it has an excellent and fully original soundtrack composed by Marvin Kopp. It’s so strong that I’ve been using it as background music while writing this piece, and will probably do so for future writing sessions. It also is fully voice acted, with absolutely fantastic voice direction. Not every actor is as professional as another, and there’s a couple of outliers that really hurt to listen to in the cities and side quests. But the primary cast deliver some fantastic performances, and most seem to have at least one scene that catapulted them from good to exceptional. All of the sound really helps carry the narrative that much further into greatness.

It’s not without flaw, of course. The pacing is generally good, but there is one quest near the end of the game that comes across as quite rushed. An important detail for the plot is revealed, and then immediately an NPC blurts ahead three steps in rapid succession. It was such a sudden guess about what was happening that it felt like random speculation, yet it was completely accurate. I suspect this was to get things in position for the finale without compromising that sequence, so it’s forgivable. Even so, the good far outweighs what little bad I could muster. Enderal is a story worth experiencing, and I’m genuinely glad I did so.

The Post-Enderal Lens on Elder Scrolls

It’s probably quite obvious at this point, so let’s address the elephant in the room: I don’t particularly like Skyrim.

That statement is usually enough to tank a game writer’s credibility given its reputation and scores, but hear me out. It wasn’t a case where I hated the game on purpose and refused to touch it from there. Skyrim took up a good hundred hours of my time, and even more once mods (besides Enderal) entered the scene. I completed the main quest and all the major faction quests, played through the DLC, and tried numerous different builds. There was a fun enough experience to be had, but I won’t lie and say I didn’t enjoy my time with it.

The problems that I have with Skyrim emerged only after time and reflection. My first Elder Scrolls game was Morrowind, and it is still possibly my absolute favorite game ever. Skyrim was unlikely to live up to that completely, but it still falls short in almost every metric. I replayed Morrowind in full a few months ago, and I only came away from that slow, ancient game loving it even more than previously. Nostalgia is not what pushes that game ahead of its follow ups in my eyes: it’s the richly detailed and exotic world, the flexible design, and the many guilds and factions to dive into that make Morrowind so strong. We will probably never get another game quite like it.

When I think back to Skyrim, I don’t think of any of that. I think of going off on random adventures and losing myself in the wilderness for a few hours. I’ll accumulate gear, get stronger, tick off increasingly more quest markers from my list, and just continue going through the motions. Bethesda’s approach nowadays seems less about making high quality content, and instead making more content. Whenever Skyrim has the opportunity to provide depth or meaning, it comes away lacking. The gameplay is more action than RPG when compared to its predecessors, but the mechanics are lackluster and simplistic.

Most don’t even seem to bother with Skyrim‘s main quest, though I pushed through and completed it. Still, barely any aspect of it really stands out in my mind or impressed me. By contrast, the main questline in Morrowind is the highlight; so too is the main quest line in Enderal. So many moments of Skyrim that could’ve been something more end up feeling like yet another item crossed off the list. I could go back now and still probably play it for tens of hours if I wanted, and I’d probably enjoy it. But if I wanted depth, I’d only find an ocean-sized puddle. For all its vaunted freedom to play it as you want, that’s all Skyrim can ever offer you, no matter what else you might desire from it.

Enderal: Forgotten Stories felt incredibly refreshing to me as a result. It took all the potential of Skyrim’s size, condensed it into a large but focused story, amped up the presentation and mechanics, and proceeded to deliver one of the best experiences I’ve had from any RPG I’ve played. If ever there was a game that nearly elicited the same sense of wonder I got from Morrowind, it would be Enderal, not Skyrim.

Morrowind isn’t the only titan of RPGs I’ve had the pleasure of playing recently, either. In the last year, I’ve sought to play or replay many of the titans of PC RPGs. I grew up with the likes of Baldur’s Gate 2 and Planescape: Torment, and I revisited them recently with fondness. Contemporary RPGs like NieR: Automata, The Witcher 3, and even Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringers all have stirred strong responses in me. Yet even amongst all these heavy hitters, Enderal left such an imprint on me that it absolutely deserves to be discussed and compared alongside them.

“If ever there was a game that nearly elicited the same sense of wonder I got from Morrowind, it would be Enderal, not Skyrim.”

The Elder Scrolls 6 is a long ways off, and the last few showings of Bethesda’s games have been less than spectacular. I have no real anticipation for what’s to come from them. When you consider what a German modding team managed to make with that framework and deliver it for free, it just cements that feeling all the more. Instead of looking to that distant horizon, I’m instead prepping to go back and visit SureAI’s earlier works. Enderal isn’t their first game; they made a similar mod for Oblivion called Nehrim, set in the same world and apparently of equal quality. Nehrim is getting its own stand-alone Steam release in June, and there is no game I’m looking forward to more than it right now.

If you happen to like RPGs, I heartily urge you to go check out Enderal: Forgotten Stories. Regardless of whether or not you think highly of Skyrim, there’s a really incredible experience here that is a worthy game in its own right. You don’t even need to install Skyrim to run it, just own it. Even if you have to buy the unlisted original edition of Skyrim to play, since it doesn’t run on the Special Edition, you should still consider it. Believe me when I say that it’s worth it.

May 26, 2020 1:00 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/05/forgotten-stories-is-an-amazing-skyrim-mod-and-you-should-play-it/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=forgotten-stories-is-an-amazing-skyrim-mod-and-you-should-play-it

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whirofinvention-blog · 5 years

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The Penultimate Week

Everyone has their own preferred way to play Magic. This is true at kitchen tables where people may love to play their elf or discard decks and is just as true at the Pro Tour where you have players who almost always play control (Guillaume Wafo-Tapa and Shota Yasooka) or jam black-green decks whenever they can (Willy Edel and Reid Duke). When a new player starts the game, something pulls them in (maybe the art or your friend plays or maybe the gameplay itself), but after they are drawn into the game, something else usually keeps them playing and for a lot of people that thing is finding a gameplay style that they love.

In general, there is nothing wrong with having a preference in how you play the game. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. If you love vintage and playing Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst and Lodestone Golem off of your Mishra's Workshop, that's great. At the same time, if you keep bringing your vintage deck to your friend's casual kitchen table where they are playing rat tribal, then you are crossing the line into doing something that is a little uncool. This is the reason why format restrictions exist in a conceptual sense. The playing field is theoretically leveled by giving people restrictions on what cards they can use.

The existence of formats enters people into a tacit contract where they understand what other people are capable of doing and saying they are alright with them doing that since in theory both decks have the capacity to do powerful things. Wires get crossed every now and then which is unfortunate. A ten year old may show up to a modern tournament with a pile of unsleeved 6-drops and get stomped, but hopefully the community will make some effort to point that kid towards what will be better for him. Outside of those situations, everyone should be on approximately the same page about what their decks should be trying to do. The bigger the card pool, the more obvious this becomes. Standard players have to understand that Teferi, Goblin Chainwhirler, and Hydroid Krasis exist. Modern players deal with Arcbound Raver, Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Primeval Titan. Legacy players have turn 1 Griselbrands and Force of Wills. Experienced players go into the format knowing these options are on the table.

Since I started playing at my LGS, I have made it pretty clear what my preferences have been in constructed formats. Traditional creature based strategies are not my go to decks in any format. In standard, I have played UW Cycling (zero main deck creatures), UR Paradoxical Storm (4 main deck creatures), and Esper Dovin's Acuity (zero main deck creatures). In modern I have exclusively played Lantern and Whir Prison since they began running modern events in March. Though I have played creature decks at times, I acknowledge that my weakness as a player is in knowing when to be the aggressor in creature mirrors. My strengths tend to be knowing how to block my opponent from having a line to victory with creatures. If I go to a Standard Showdown and my opponents are all on green black and are consistently losing to my Teferi, then they need to understand their deck choice might not line up against mine. Both decks can be powerful, but paper beats rock in this scenario.

My modern deck choices have been contentious at the shop. The owner of the store as well as one of the regulars have given me a lot of grief for my deck choices. They complain about how Ensnaring Bridge and Chalice of the Void are not fun cards. At the same time, they have built decks in a format where those cards exist and are relevant considerations for deck building. Maybe they represent less than 3 percent of the meta, but there are plenty of modern decks that only represent a small percentage of the meta. Even ignoring the metagame percentages, artifact strategies as a whole are always somewhere in the meta, so it isn’t like they have no ways to interact with me post-board. People are aware the option to play an artifact deck of some sort is out there. I just happen to be playing a traditionally un-fun version of one of those decks.

Two weeks ago, I promised the store owner that I would bring a deck playing zero copies of Ensnaring Bridge in the 75 to FNM. This past weekend was that FNM, and I kept my promise. Instead of bringing Ensnaring Bridges, I brought Ad Nauseam for my first run at a tournament. The list was pretty close to a stock list with a few exceptions. Rather than running 3 Spoils of the Vault, I cut 1 to run a Mystical Teachings. Also my mana base is a travesty because I do not own any Gemstone Mines or enough Seachrome Coasts, so I ran additional City of Brass. If I can pick up the lands I will change things around. The Teachings are going to stay in the deck until I actually have the opportunity to cast it.

The meta at the shop is extremely small and inconsistent. Ad Nauseam as a deck has pretty polarizing matchups. Decks that can disrupt you with tax effects, discard and counter magic are hard matchups. Decks looking to play linear games are good matchups more often than not. The decks I have personally seen at events over the past month that present problems for me are: Grixis Death's Shadow, Bant Spirits, Jund and 8-Rack. Other than that the rest of the decks struggle to interact with Ad Nauseam, but there are still decks that can beat it. Turn 3 Karn is still great on the play. If you falter even a little, Burn will Bolt you to death. Bogles can race you and sometimes forces you to go for a Laboratory Maniac win which is susceptible to Path.

So, here is a quick little tournament report followed by my initial thoughts on the deck and the tournament in general

Round 1, Bant Spirits

Sitting down, I knew I was not going to have an easy round 1. The player is one of the ones who has complained about my normal deck choice despite playing a Jund deck half the time that runs like 12 different ways to kill a Bridge post-board. This week he was on his Spirits deck rather than his Jund deck. Game 1 started out with me suspending a Lotus Bloom and him starting on a Hierarch. For the next few turns I played lands and cantrips while he played lords and Spirits. Eventually, he had a large enough Mausoleum Wanderer and a big enough board presence that I could not realistically win. Game 2 we started racing again with me suspending turn 1 and him having the Hierarch. I played a turn 2 Prism while he played a turn 2 Thalia. Luckily for me I had an Echoing Truth in hand. I resolved a turn 3 Phyrexian Unlife and on turn 4 resolved the Bloom and bounced his Thalia on end step. On my next upkeep, I killed him with Pact backup. Unfortunately game 3 was pretty one sided. He had Thalia, Stony Silence, two Mausoleum Wanderers and a Lord. It became clear to me I could not resolve my spells before he killed me. For my first match with the deck, I felt good to have taken it to game 3, especially since the matchup is far from easy.

Round 2, Green Devotion

This was the shop owner. Though I have never heard him talk negatively about people who netdeck, he is a brewer. When his brews aren't good he complains. When his brews are popular, he stops playing the format. In standard, he stopped playing his Sultai Muldrotha deck when Sultai became a real deck. Modern is not his format, but he has built three decks (UB Tempo, a weird Tron Charge Counter deck, and Mono Green). The first

2 are pretty odd but the devotion deck is pretty close to what you would expect from any big green deck. His win conditions are playing massive Genesis Hydras early to find Garrk, Primal Hunters to draw his deck and find more threats. After this he usually either plays an Ulamog or Banefires you for lethal.

Game 1 started out pretty rough for me. He played a Utopia Sprawl on his first turn and on his second turn played a second Sprawl and an Eternal Witness for a fetch. By the end of his 3rd turn he had an 8/8 Genesis Hydra, multiple creatures and a Garruk Wildspeaker. Oh and he had drawn 8 cards off of a Garruk, Primal Hunter. In the interim, I had just cantripped and played a Phyrexian Unlife. On his fourth turn, he tried to Primal Command my Unlife which I had to Pact. I then went down to 0 life while having only 3 lands in play. On my upkeep, I tap two lands and exile three Simian Spirit Guides to Ad Nauseam for all of my deck besides two cards. I Angel's Grace, play a land and discard. For some reason my opponent scooped without attacking after assuming I had a second Angel's Grace and not understanding how it interacted with Unlife. Normally, I would scoop in these situations since my opponent had the win on board, but he was tilting pretty intensely and complaining about how I enjoy Magic. We will get back to this in a bit. Game two was a quick one where I won on turn 4. Nothing else to really say about it.

Round 3, BR Discard

The other brewer in the shop is a friend of mine. All of his decks are strange, but they are usually pretty cool. Definitely not close to tier 1, but they have game against pretty much everything if the draws line up. Game 1 was a turn 4 win with no interaction. Game 2 I cannot really recall much besides keeping a hand with Leyline. After I played the Leyline, it became quickly apparent that it didn't do anything. He did a bunch of looting early and made a large lineup of Zombies via Zombie Infestation and Shadow of the Grave. He was able to blow up my Lotus Bloom on upkeep to keep me from going off in my main phase (though I didn’t draw the Angel’s Grace I would have needed) and killed me on his turn 5 with tokens. Game 3 I mulliganed and kept a 1-lander with a scry land, Serum Visions, and half of the combo. I scryed to the bottom off my mulligan, then scryed to the bottom again off the land. Turn 2, I whiffed in my draw step and off the cantrip. The turn before I was about to go for the win off of a couple of Pentad Prisms and lands, my opponent cast Burning Inquiry leaving me with nothing in hand besides a Pact of Negation and two lands. After that, he Anceint Grudged my Lotus Bloom, and there was really no line where I could stay alive long enough to draw the combo pieces I needed. If I had found my second land in the top four cards of my library, I think the game was easily mind, but you can’t always get there. C’est la vie.

In the end, I went 1-2, but still got 3rd. The spirits player was the only 3-0 and Devotion got 2nd at 2-1. Everyone else in the 6-person event went 1-2, and I just had the best breakers.

Briefly, I want to talk about the second round and how game one ended. If you are going to bring a brew into a well established format, even one as diverse as modern, you cannot expect to win every match you play. The axis your deck operates on might not be well-suited to fight the deck you are playing against. That was the exact case of the second round of the tournament. Barring a timely Primal Command or a turn 3 Ulamog, there is not a way for him to interact with me most of the time. In game 1, he had a fast enough start that he was going to win, and I was put in a position where I had to make desperate plays to stay alive. The issue was how he chose to handle what I was doing. Instead of taking time to try and figure out what exactly was going on, he opted to start insulting the deck and me for how I like to play Magic. When he said, "Why can't you just play the game? Why do you hate real Magic and do shit like this?" it does not make me want to scoop to him. It makes me want to play it out. At no point did I obfuscate any information about how my deck worked or how cards interacted. He just tilted so intensely that he didn’t care about what was happening. After two years I know him well enough to not take this stuff personally, but he was being an ass, so I took the win and felt fine about it.

Overall the event went about as well as I could expect since I am new with the deck. Both of the games I lost, I do not think I could have played differently in a meaningful enough way to change the outcomes. My Sleight of Hands were easy choices, and there was no point where I scry-ed and wished the card was in my hand later. The draws didn’t line up for me. The deck was great. Right now my goal is to keep getting better at modern and let the wins follow organically from that.

I don't plan on changing my playstyle anytime soon, but I will be bringing Hardened Scales to their last Modern event until the summer. I'm not bringing it because they are begging me to; instead, I am bringing it because I want reps with the deck. Besides, if I win with it, I am sure someone will become just as tilted as if I had put them into a lantern-lock. Oh well.

#magic #magic the gathering #modern magic #ad nauseam

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ciathyzareposts · 5 years

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Fantasyland 2041: Won! (with Summary and Rating)

Does that mean Guinevere is real?! Or have I just carried a robot out of the park?

Fantasyland 2041

United States

Crystalware (developer and original publisher); Epyx (later publisher)

Released in 1981 for Apple II and Atari 800

Date Started: 9 October 2019

Date Finished: 19 October 2019

Total Hours: 9

Difficulty: Hard (4/5)

Final Rating: (to come later)

Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)

Summary:

Fantasyland 2041 is an epic adventure on non-epic hardware: a long, difficult game with primitive graphics and mechanics. Set in a Westworld-like future of holograms and animatronics, guests proceed through a series of adventure scenarios–Congoland, Arabian Adventure, King Arthur, Olympus, Captain Nemo, and Dante’s Inferno–and back again. Along the way, they must find certain items to rescue Lancelot or Guinevere from hell. They must also manage food and inventory, fight hostile parties, and solve a few light inventory puzzles. The interface is top-down, which often conflicts mentally with what looks like first-person graphics. The game’s scope and intent are admirable, but ultimately it’s too annoying and boring for the graphics, sound, and mechanical complexity of the era.

******

The manual to Fantasyland 2041 takes pains to emphasize the length and difficulty of the adventure.

[Y[ou may conclude that it is impossible to ever finish or win this game. We had to make it pretty tough. The average adventurer will probably never see the Throne of Lucifer or make it past the gates to the Underworld. We hope that just the experience of a single adventure will be sufficiently entertaining to satisfy our most critical hobbyists.

I can sympathize. Players expected, as they do now, to get a certain amount of playing time out of a $40.00 purchase. Arcade games satisfied that time minimum by being repeatable, but for adventure games and RPGs, a lot of the mystery was gone after you won for the first time. Thus, the developer had to prolong that time. Eventually, they would do that with bigger worlds and more game detail, but those weren’t options in the early years of the microcomputer. (Less because of technology and more because of a lack of innovative templates.) So instead, they prolonged the games by just making them hard. Permadeath was a common solution. Fantasyland goes a different direction by allowing you to save anywhere but almost always rolling the dice against you.

There’s a seed of a good game in Fantasyland 2041, and part of me wishes John Bell had waited several years and then developed it under the influence of, say, the Ultima series. I would have like to experience it with more complex commands, more thoughtful puzzles, interesting NPCs, and tactical combat. Instead, game design is as primitive as the world it inhabits, involving a lot of trial and error before the player learns enough to make a successful winning run.

As we covered in the first entry, exploring the land is a very linear process. The Hall of Heroes leads to Congoland, which leads to the Arabian Adventure, which leads to King Arthur. These first three lands are all quite similar.

Each one has individual enemies visible on-screen who chase you around the map and attack you. In Congoland, these are tigers and gorillas. In the Arabian Adventure, they’re samurai. In King Arthur, they’re Modred and the Black Knight.

I’m not sure I remember this part of Le Morte D’Arthur.

Each has packs of enemies who can attack randomly at any moment (while you’re standing still or moving) but are not seen on-screen. Across the three lands, these progressed from headhunters and Zulu warriors to Turks and scorpions to knights and archers.

Each has physical features that are dangerous to bump into, running the risk of losing equipment or companions. These include swamps, logs, mountain crevices, fallen logs, and cliffs.

Each has random environmental effects (earthquakes, sandstorms) that have the same effect.

Each has treasure chests to find and loot, and villages where you can buy and sell goods and companions.

Each has a special spellcasting enemy–witch doctors, genies, and sorcerers–who are necessary to have in your party to “solve” the area.

Each culminates at a door to the next world, where you must use the magic of one of your spellcasters to progress.

Each land is made of blocks of roughly 8 x 8. It’s tough to count exactly because the screens continually scroll. Each block can have a particular type of terrain. The manual organizes these blocks into named sections (“Jungles,” “the Desert,” “Baghdad,” “Stonehenge”) and gives you clues about what you need to accomplish there.

King Arthur’s world changed the rules a bit by allowing parties of knights and archers to join you when you (G)reet them rather than attack. This sounds like a good idea, but the most difficult feature of the game is keeping all your companions fed. You can only carry a maximum of 255 of any item, including rations, and every companion eats a meal roughly two game minutes. If you somehow get 100 companions in your party, you have at most about five minutes before they start to starve to You can barely move between all the death notices and the need to constantly stop and drop equipment, so once characters start starving, it’s basically a reload.

I don’t remember why this was here.

Thus, resource issues discourage you from developing a large party, particularly since enemy parties just scale to your size anyway. However, the “individual” enemies on each map–Modred and the Black Knight on King Arthur’s map–all have high strength and need a large party to successfully counter, particularly if you want to minimize the chance that they’ll kill your spellcasters. Thus, you have to find the balance between logistical annoyance and combat effectiveness.

King Arthur’s realm features a dragon’s lair, with the dragon guarding the sword Excalibur. The dragon has 50,000 strength, which can only be countered by a very large party. To defeat the dragon, I hung out near his lair, let hundreds of companions join me, killed him, grabbed Excalibur, and then dropped the companions. Having Excalibur among my equipment made the rest of the game a lot easier.

Fighting a dragon to get Excalibur.

There’s also a second artifact to find in King Arthur’s territory: a Ring of Power. The manual makes a big deal about the importance of Rings of Power, but I only ever found two, and as far as I could tell, they just sat in my inventory. I never employed them. Also in King Arthur’s realm: Holy Grails (plural!) show up in treasure chests and can be sold for a lot of money.

King Arthur’s world culminates in Merlin’s Labyrinth, another maze. Getting past Merlin involves using one of the magic items you’ve acquired from the witch doctor, sorcerer, or genie. Once he’s gone, you can progress to Olympus.

I’ll pause here to note that (U)sing items is one of the more annoying parts of the game. Every time you hit the command, you have to scroll through multiple inventory pages before you get to the place you enter the item’s number. Since the “B” key also scrolls through inventory, the developers should have had “U” just take you right to the number, in case you already remembered it. A lot of items, like scrolls, feel like they should be useable but are not.

Inventory eventually gets very unwieldy.

The Olympus level changes the rules. You begin at Olympus itself, a town where you can buy and sell goods. You must buy the ship Argos, which appears off the “coast” to the west. To get to the ship, you have to buy a longboat and (U)se it at the edge of the Olympus screen. Once you’re on the Argos, you need a sail, an anchor, and oars to operate it. You have to (U)se the anchor to lift it, and after that you can either row with oars, which allows you to go any direction but consumes more food, or sail with the winds, which is a little harder to master.

Sailing away from Olympus.

The level is populated with numerous islands. I couldn’t figure out how to land on the Isle of Delos to the west. A northwest island had the Cyclops, who carried 2,000 gold pieces. A northeast island had the sorceress Circe, who carried the second Ring of Power. Finally, an eastern island, Thera, had the portal to the next land. I should mention that we get the only complex sound on this level, with a cycling shhhhh suggesting waves.

The Argos waits offshore while the party picks up the Ring of Power from the slain Circe.

There was a lot of inventory shuffling because to enter Captain Nemo’s world, you need a submarine, which you can purchase in Olympus, but it’s enormously heavy, so you need people without equipment to bear the weight. Once you choose to enter the submarine, however, your companion and inventory maximums drop precipitously, and you have to jettison a lot of people and stuff.

Handling logistics for boarding the submarine.

Captain Nemo’s world is all underwater, and running the submarine into any object causes it to fall apart. I think you can fix it with “spare parts,” but I had neglected to purchase any of these, so any time I accidentally rammed into a coral reef, I had to reload. There are treasure chests that you can send divers with diving suits out to retrieve, but only at certain depths. I found the whole level frustrating and thus wasn’t unhappy when I found Atlantis in the northwest corner and immediately transitioned to the final level.

I never figured out anything to do in the City of Eelmen.

Dante’s Inferno takes place among brimstone pits and rows of demons who just stand there until you run into them, at which point they kill your companions. The City of Dis in the northwest is the first place to buy and sell equipment and companions since Olympus. Demons and Nosferatu attack as you explore, although I found that around a dozen knights plus Excalibur made short work of them.

At least they make me feel “welcome.”

Rivers of fire funnel you to the north, where you have to use a plank (sold in Dis) to cross an abyss. Finally, in the northwest corner, you find Lancelot or Guinevere being guarded by Lucifer. As long as you have the two Rings of Power and a Signet Ring from Camelot (the manual warns you to buy it), he or she will come along with you immediately.

All I did was walk up to him. This felt anti-climactic.

At that point–much to my furor–you have to reverse your steps and make your way all the way back to the beginning, traversing each of the lands in reverse order. That took longer than it should have because I had gotten rid of a lot of the items needed for the ship and submarine, thinking I wouldn’t need them again.

Returning to the entrance gives you a brief message that “You made it back with Guinevere” and then a “Final Score” screen that summarizes your wealth, experience, and time. The screen encouraged early players to send their disks to Crystalware for a chance to win $1000, with the winner chosen from the highest scorer to solve the game before 1 December 1981.

201 days?! How do people take that much time off work in the future?

One outstanding mystery concerns, well, “The Great Mystery.” This is what the manual has to say about it:

To win the prize, you must solve the Great Mystery and beat out your competitors in treasure and courage . . . The mystery is unlike any of the others. It is not an anagram nor is it found anywhere on the disk in basic or machine language . . . At the end of the game, if you make it, you will be prompted to send your disk in if you wish to enter the contest. Do not try to make a copy to send in; it must be the original. At our plant, we have a huge score board, with a list of all the fantasylanders and their achievements. The person to solve the mystery and score the highest will be awarded a trophy and receive $1,000 in cash.

So there’s supposedly some Great Mystery that you have to solve to win the prize–but it’s not the same thing as winning the game by finding Lancelot or Guinevere, which you presumably have to do, too. More important, the instructions only mention sending in the disk. How will the developers know that someone has solved the Great Mystery, too? Is it somehow recorded on the disk? Did they assume players would know enough to include a separate note? What did they mean when they say the mystery “is unlike any of the others”? Any of the other what?

A re-read of the manual produces few clues. There are poems that suggest using the rings or perhaps scrolls on the “666” of King Solomon’s Temple, but nothing I try works. Messages just tell me that those items are “already in use.” I’ve inspected the disks, and I can’t find any text related to a bigger mystery, but then again the manual itself warned me that wouldn’t work.

Here’s a scene from Dante’s Inferno. I have no idea what’s going on, or who that guy in the center is. Touching any of the figures around him causes your companions to die. Maybe this had something to do with the Great Mystery?

Fantasyland 2041 isn’t much of an RPG. It lacks any character development (I don’t think the “experience” statistic does anything for you during the game) or personal inventory, and combat is as simple as a game of War. I give it an 18 on the GIMLET, with the best scores (3s) in coencounters and inventory. I still don’t know the purpose of half the stuff you can pick up. I don’t believe I ever used a rope, a shovel, a spotlight, citrus fruit (I assume it was there to stave of scurvy, but no one ever ate it), quinine, a compass, a magic carpet, a box of sand, mushrooms, a lute, squid ink, a wooden stake, or half a dozen other items that didn’t seem to be weapons, armor, or treasure.

We also leave the game with some out-of-game mysteries as well. Why did John Bell announce in the manual that this would be his last great fantasy? What happened to him and Patricia Bell after 1982, when the last Crystalware title was published? How did it morph into Crystalware Defense and Nanotechnology of the 2010s, and what did Bell do in the meantime?

I’ve been exposed to three Crystalware games at this point, and all of them are similar in their interfaces, mechanics, and suggestions that something deeper is happening beneath the game’s surface. I have four more on my list and will probably be a bit less forgiving about their statuses as RPGs under my rules. Nonetheless, it was fun to see another example of a developer who, in the area of five-and-a-quarter-inch floppy disks, dared to dream big.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/fantasyland-2041-won-with-summary-and-rating/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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aurelliocheek · 5 years

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Bob Bates: “Ask Ms. Ovenhausen about the book”

Industry veteran Bob Bates talks about how to design puzzles and write for text adventures.

Bob Bates is one of the most influential developers of the computer games industry and a true living legend. In this interview, we talk to him about his love for puzzles and text adventures.

Gunnar Lott: We’re going to talk about text adventures. Let’s start with Infocom, who were kings of the genre in the 80s. How did you perceive Infocom, what kind of company were they? Bob Bates: Before I knew them, I had played several of their games. I actually started a company to compete with Infocom. They were one of the biggest game publishers in the industry at the time. All of their games were in the top 5 of the sales charts, one hit right after another. I was going to start a company to compete with them and called the company Challenge, Inc. The reason I called it Challenge was… “If you think an Infocom game is hard, wait until you play a Challenge game:“ I was going to make really, really hard puzzle games. Of course, it turns out that that was exactly the wrong strategy for games at the time. Games were getting simpler and simpler. They were still too hard. You can argue that they’re still too hard today. People are sometimes frustrated with them. I perceived Infocom as the kings, and I went into business to compete with them. But, instead of competing with Infocom, soon started making games for them. I became their only outside developer. Challenge landed a development agreement with Infocom to make three games, which were called The Immortal Legends. The plan was to make a Sherlock Holmes game, then a King Arthur game, then a Robin Hood game. The Robin Hood game never got made, but Sherlock and Arthur both came out.

Gunnar Lott: Tell me a little bit about how it was to work with their engine. Was it like programming? Bob Bates: It is very much like programming. Their engine was called ZIL, which I think stands for the Zork Implementation Language. That was a LISP-like language. It was written in something called MDL, and MDL was written in itself. It was very technically confusing to me. But they had this engine, and you actually had to program. You had to be a programmer in order to create these games.

Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels (released 1987) and Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur (released 1989) were the first games Bob Bates developed for Infocom.

Gunnar Lott: Programming is one thing. Writing is another. You had writing experience, but you didn’t have puzzle building experience, how did this come about? Did they help you? Did they have a guide? Bob Bates: Not really, I had, of course, played their games, so I knew what I was about. I knew that I needed puzzles, and I come from a game playing family, a very puzzle oriented family. I knew what the game had to look like in that sense, and I started to work with this world that had already been created by Arthur Conan Doyle, the world of Sherlock Holmes. My job was really to come up with a story and a set of puzzles that would make sense within that world. One of the things that made Infocom games so great was they cared an enormous amount about detail and getting things right. They had a testing group who were very challenging to the authors, who would say „hey, you’ve written that the sun came up at eight o’clock. But we’ve checked the almanac, and on that day it actually came at 8:06.“ THAT level of detail. One of the interesting things in Sherlock was that I had a puzzle that involved the Thames River and tides going up and down. There was something that you needed to get, and you could only get it at high tide. From a game point of view, you can’t ask a player to wait around 12 hours, just sitting, wait, wait, wait, wait. I wanted to cheat on the time of the tide and just have it come at a time that was convenient for the player. That was just a huge argument with Infocom. I remember going back and forth on it with their head tester. Eventually, we got permission from the London Times to create a feelie, to recreate a page from their newspaper from that date, in that year. We put in tides tables as kind of copy protection. You had to look at the tide tables to know when the high tide was, and then go there at the right time. That was what it was like to work with them, from a testing point of view.

Gunnar Lott: When Sherlock came out in 1987, it was already relatively late in the history of Infocom. In 85 and 86 there raged the great Parser wars, where every company seemed to make incremental modifications to the Parser, the part of the game that understands what the player types in. Everybody, especially Trillium and Synapse, prided themselves on having the best Parser. Was this really an issue for gamers or even somebody who’s in the field? Or is this something that the press had overblown? Bob Bates: No, it was important. You remember Colossal Cave? That game had what was called a two token parser. You had a verb and a noun: “hit ball”, “take clock”, “go north:“ Infocom had a three token parser, which meant that you could have a preposition, an object, and an indirect object. Instead of “hit ball”, you could have “hit ball with bat:“ You wouldn’t think that that makes a big difference, but it does, and especially in terms of puzzle solving. Because what you get is the use of objects in ways that might not be obvious. If you have a window and a hammer, and you have a two token parser, you’ve got “open window” or maybe even just “use hammer:“ But with a three token parser, you could say “throw hammer through window:“ So using the hammer as a weight, as a heavy object as opposed to something to drive a nail. Looking at the things that were in your inventory, and realizing that this object could be used in a non-obvious way, that was really important in the development of puzzle games, and it’s still important today. In the puzzles I design today, sometimes you’ve got something that you’ve been carrying around, and you’ve probably used it once for some obvious thing, but then you come upon a situation where there’s no obvious solution. Then you realize, oh, this thing not only does this, but it can also do that. All of that springs from having a good parser. Infocom also did a lot of work in trying to make things easier for the player. We took that work a lot further later on with Legend and still further today. Look at things like “it:“ If you see an open door, your next command might be close it. Figuring out what the player meant by “it” was actually kind of hard. It’s usually the last noun referred to, but it’s not always the last noun referred to. We spent a lot of time trying to make things easier for the player to type, because back then not everybody typed. Typing was a huge barrier to games, it’s much less of a barrier today, because everybody is on computers and phones, and texting, and everything. Imagine you walk into a room, and there’s a woman standing there, and the player types “talk to her:“ Having the game understand “her” is kind of a big deal. Instead of saying “talk to woman” and “ask woman about this”, you can see that making it more natural for the player to interact with the game is important. Those parser wars, the back and forth thing, that was all about making it easier for the player to play the game and not have to fight the parser, not have to guess the exact word, the exact verb. I’m probably getting ahead of myself a little bit, but even today, one of the things that I do in testing is I get the transcripts of the people who play the game, and I go through them line by line, and anytime I see an input that didn’t work because the parser didn’t understand it I go, ooh, I know what he was trying to do, I need to make that work. The more I do that, the more natural it becomes for players to be able to play.

Timesquest was published in 1991 and is an non-linear puzzle game about time travel.

Gunnar Lott: I have played many text adventure games, even sophisticated ones, and I never, ever used commands like, “get everything except the broom:“ I always found it easier and faster to type the exact thing that I see in the description to make sure that I’m not doing it wrong. I also never liked questions. Even the “her” and the “it”, I think, people tend not to use. Bob Bates: They don’t know that they’re doing it, but they do. It’s sort of an unconscious thing. When you’re in the flow of a game, you do find yourself using convenient words, especially because, often they’re really short. Instead of saying, “>ask Mrs. Ovenhausen about the book”, you can say, “>ask her about the book”, or just “>ask about the book”, or even “>a book”, (“a” being a keyboard shortcut for “ask about”). All of these innovations are meant to make it easy for players of all sorts to play. Now, when you talk about questions, questions are really hard. They’re hard to parse, and they’re hard to know what to do with. My understanding is that those are usually based on keywords, rather than actually understanding the input. The program is looking for a keyword and a question mark and assumes the player has asked a question about the keyword. That’s different than parsing an input where you know precisely what the command is. We do have something crude like “ask George about Fred” or “ask Mary about the book:“ But look at “ask Mary when the concert will start”, that’s a really complicated sentence. It’s got way more than three tokens. “Ask Mary about schedule”, “ask Mary about concert”, there are lots of ways to let the player get that information, but you don’t want to create the impression that you have completely free form inputs. I try to steer the player towards command inputs because that’s where they’re going to be the happiest. This may change in the years to come, as we start to get things like Siri and Alexa, and that’s very exciting technology, where they are able to understand free form questions. I think of that as the future. It’s not quite here, it’s not in my current games, but it could be one day.

Gunnar Lott: You can’t really have the parser understand too complicated things because the player then assumes that it’ll understand everything? Bob Bates: Right, and another problem there is the amount of content that you can create as a game maker. When you give the illusion that you can ask or talk about anything, then the player is inevitably going to be disappointed when they discover that that’s not true. So if you can really flesh out the world that you’re creating and say, within these walls, within the confines of this game, you’ve got an enormous amount of freedom. But here’s where the wall is, if you cross over that wall, if you go to other side of that wall, you’re not going to find anything there, so don’t bother. That’s one of the reasons why, for example, default responses are sometimes useful. As a game player, when I would type “north”, and the game would say “you can’t go that way” then I thought that a horrible answer. I swore to myself that when I became a game maker, I would never use such a generic answer. I would have the game say ”the crowd blocks your path” or ”there’s a bunch of stones that are falling across the path:“ But what happens in a puzzle game is that people say, oh, so this is a puzzle. I need to figure out how to get through all those people, or how to move the stones. I’m going to say, pick up the stones and move the stones, and break the stones and find a wheelbarrow, and do all sorts of things when there’s nothing there. So the benefit of “you can’t go that way” is that it communicates that there is a barrier. A barrier that it is pointless to cross: Don’t spend your time there. So there’s an art to the creation of the world and creating the limits of the world, so that the player knows the play space and that where he’s going to have fun as opposed to things that he should avoid.

Gunnar Lott: I understand that there were the brilliant minds of the time doing work on parsers, making it easier for players, trying to perfect the technology and then… graphics came along. Already your second game had artworks in it, didn’t it? Bob Bates: Yes. So my first game Sherlock was completely text. My second game, the King Arthur game, had graphics in it. Arthur: Quest for Excalibur even was Macworld’s “Graphic Adventure game of the year” in the year that it came out, which is just so funny. But it was a big deal when suddenly pictures started to appear in games.

Gunnar Lott: How did you perceive that change? You must have seen it coming, obviously. Bob Bates: It was a blessing and a curse. I can’t draw. So I would sit down with an artist and describe the spaces I had thought up. The artists would ask me to sketch it out, and I would make a little stick figure, like the kind of house that a three-year-old would draw. It’s a line straight up, a line straight across, a line straight down and then a little triangle line on top, and I’d say that’s about as good as I can get it. So working with artists to bring the spaces to life was interesting, it was hard, but the spaces were evocative. Suddenly it brought another dimension to the game that hadn’t been there. That was interesting, it was cool, and people liked it. But as a game developer, as a game writer it was a nightmare because the artist would create, say, a feasting hall, and of course they put some torches on the wall, and they put a big table there, and maybe hang a shield there and have some rafters. All of a sudden, there are all these objects which you have to handle as you realize that the player is going to try and interact with them. If I’m writing the text description of that hall, I can evoke the atmosphere of the hall without using objects. I could say, you’re in a large space that reminds you of feasting halls and Beowulf or something like that, and there’s nothing there for the player to grab onto, except the objects that I might want to mention, where I would say, at the head table is a Viking seated with a goblet in his hand. Now you’ve got a Viking, you’ve got a goblet, you’ve got a table. All right, I can deal with those as a coder. I can deal with those as a game designer. When the artist creates that space and puts a fire in the corner, and a fireplace and smoke coming out, and rafters in the roof, and paving stones on the floor, suddenly, as a game maker, you have multiplied the number of objects that you have to deal with. And they’re not even important. The player might really try and interact with the paving stones on the floor, and you have to acknowledge that they’re there. You can’t say you don’t see any paving stones here, because clearly, you do. That was the beginning of a huge problem for the industry that eventually led to the death of classic adventure games, as we knew them at the time. Brian Moriarty had a famous line which was: “You can only create what you can afford to show, and you can’t afford to show anything.” Because artists are expensive, especially as we move into the modern era, anything you want to do in the game calls for an animator, a 2D modeler, a 3D modeler, all sorts of texture artists and specialists. Between two thirds and three quarters of any modern game development staff are artists. That’s how modern games are.

The game engine of Eric the Unready uses an interactive fiction style interface. A graphical display of the player’s location and viewpoint is provided in a window. Other windows can feature a point-and-click interface, including a listing of the player’s inventory and a command list with multiple-choices menus.

Gunnar Lott: Is that taking part of the creative control away from the writer? Bob Bates: It makes a bigger job for the writer, depending on the style of game that you’re talking about now. If you’re talking about a puzzle game, anything that you’re looking at, anything that you can see is kind of fair game for the player to try and interact with. That means that you have a lot more work than if you’re doing a straight up text adventure.

Gunnar Lott: There was some breed of games that used art only as eye candy. Some of Magnetic Scrolls’ work was like that. It was kinda implicitly stated that you couldn’t interact with everything in the art. Bob Bates: Then the question is, why is it there? One of the things we did at Legend, when we had a room, and there’s somebody in the room, we thought we had to show the person in the room. If the person leaves the room, then we had to show the person not in the room. We had a base picture upon which will we put different sprites depending on state changes. It was really, really hard to figure out how to give the player a good experience alongside of these pictures. There’s no doubt that the pictures enhance the experience, but it’s a different experience. If you look at the history of our industry, what people are calling progress over the last 20 years is really just ever increasing sophistication of graphical representations. You can look across all different genres, and see that game types were set many, many years ago, and it’s rare to find an innovation that radically changes something. Really what we’ve been looking at is better pictures through time. People love that. That’s okay. But that’s what it is.

Gunnar Lott: Bob, many thanks for your thoughts.

This Interview was first published in longform as a podcast episode of Stay Forever.

Bob Bates Game Designer & independent consultant for various publishers

Bob Bates is an award-winning developer who has worked on more than 45 games that have sold over 6 million units and won over 70 industry awards, including two Adventure Game of the Year Awards. For more information, visit Bates’ personal website www.bobbates.com

Gunnar Lott Founder & Head of PR, Visibility Communications

Gunnar Lott is a veteran in games journalism, a podcaster and the owner of a boutique PR agency in Berlin. www.stayforever.de / www.visi.bi

The post Bob Bates: “Ask Ms. Ovenhausen about the book” appeared first on Making Games.

Bob Bates: “Ask Ms. Ovenhausen about the book” published first on https://leolarsonblog.tumblr.com/

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martechadvisor-blog · 5 years

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Running Marketing Campaigns with Attribution and Accountability

Why is attribution and accountability so challenging for marketers, and what are the best tools to ensure both to drive optimal marketing outcomes? Tim White, himself a marketer and the CMO of People.ai gives us the dual perspective – as a practitioner and as the CMO of a revenue intelligence platform.

Few themes have been more divisive across marketing, sales and management communities than the question of attribution; especially in the increasingly complex world of B2B marketing. The more people you ask, the more definitions and explanations of attribution you are going to get. Over the last few years, access to data and solutions to help process that data has become more abundant than ever. Access to better data, coupled with an increased need to show a return on investment for all marketing activities, has led marketers to obsess over attribution and due credit for various marketing or sales initiatives; and Revenue Intelligence has become central to scaling up successful initiatives. People.ai, a platform that claims to drive ‘revenue intelligence across all go-to-market teams’ has been vocal about the need to drive accountability, insight, performance and efficiency across core revenue facing teams. We caught up with Tim White, the CMO of People.ai to better understand the complexity of attribution in the digital age. Here are edited excerpts from our conversation around attribution and accountability, where he shares his perspective with both hats: as a marketing practitioner and as the CMO of a revenue-intelligence platform.

To set the context Tim, how do you define attribution?

Marketing attribution is either the origin of, or the influence towards a specific deal, sale, or desired action.

To measure it, marketers look at all of a prospect or user’s “touch points” and analyze the results using several different measurement models including multi-touch, first/last touch, linear, time-decay, u-shaped (position-based), weighted, or even custom.

Given all of these models, which attribution model should a marketer choose?

While every marketer has their preferred measurement model, it all comes down to what type of product or service you’re selling, your sales cycle, your access to data, and the story/insights you’re looking to gain from the model.

In essence, the attribution model you choose to measure your marketing effectiveness is defined more by the business and less by the marketer.

Using AI-based technology, such as People.ai, to assist in matching the right sales and marketing activities to the right sales opportunity makes it easier to determine where credit should be attributed once the deal is closed-won.

Also Read: AI is your superpower

As a marketer, what has been your biggest challenge with attribution?

While there are countless challenges with attribution, there are two major issues that all attribution models face: external and offline influence.

While it would be nice to think that your buyer's journey is a linear path consisting of only digital trackable elements such as ads, emails, and landing pages, it’s most likely not that simple. Touchpoints occur both online and offline, on multiple devices, across multiple platforms, sometimes in parallel and almost always in real-time.

The idea of a ‘cookie’ following you around until you see the thank you page is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Marketers need to find ways to weave programmatic digital efforts with offline sales activities in order to offer cohesive brand messaging throughout the buyer’s journey - and obviously that complicates attribution.

What are the nuances with attribution in the B2B Marketing context?

While there are similar tactics used for both B2B and B2C marketing, the amount of sales team involvement typically increases dramatically with a B2B product or service. This increase of involvement is great for increasing the velocity of sales; but complicates attribution.

For example, so much of attribution relies on what information is entered into your CRM. If your sales team suffers from low CRM adoption, their activities from marketing events like conferences, webinar follow-up, and other events will simply be missing in the CRM. This missing data can cause marketing events to appear to suffer from low ROI, when in fact they might be a great touch point for prospects, and the sales team is simply not logging their meetings, calls, and emails into the CRM.

What are some typical mistakes marketers make regarding attribution?

There are two mistakes that marketers typically make regarding attribution.

First, marketers tend to trust their dashboards, when they should be questioning everything. After every deal, whether it’s won or lost, we take a look at every touchpoint and see if the reporting from our current attribution model matches what actually happened.

Second, be able to tell a story. The whole idea behind attribution is to determine what’s working and structure future investments accordingly. Without a story of what’s working and what’s not working, you can’t make intelligent business decisions and measure your marketing and sales effectiveness.

As a marketer, what has been your biggest challenge in working with your sales counterparts?

At the end of the day, in the B2B world, your fate is tied to that of the sales team. If they can’t move deals through the funnel and eventually close deals, there’s no point adding more leads to the top of the funnel.

The biggest challenge for marketers is typically holding the sales team accountable for follow up after running a marketing campaign. Without the help of our People.ai Campaign 360 marketing tool to help review the follow-up (or lack thereof) weekly with our sales team, I’d be chasing down sales reps and digging through campaign sales activity reports.

How does technology, like People.ai, solve for both attribution and accountability?

With the industry’s leading activity capturing capabilities, AI-based opportunity and account matching, and contact data enrichment, People.ai unlocks the sales team’s productivity and empowers marketers with accurate data for reliable attribution.

Coupled with a suite of tools such as People.ai’s AI for Marketing solution called “Campaign 360,” marketers are equipped with unprecedented insights into their sales team’s activities in regards to a specific marketing campaign.

Now when they run a campaign, they can truly hold sales teams accountable by not just asking about their sales efforts, but closely monitoring the outcomes from those efforts.

As we wrap up, I ask Tim about the one lesson he’s learnt as a marketer. Unsurprisingly, he tells me “Always look for data to backup and justify your ideas and theories.”. I’ll bet you’ve heard that one before! The difference is that as the demand for efficiency, speed, and personalization increases; so does the data itself. As Tim puts it, “Without the help of AI-based tools and solutions, sales and marketing teams will be overwhelmed by mountains of indecipherable data. AI-based tools and solutions will find their way into more industries, verticals, and organizations. Marketers will need to look for innovative ways to leverage these new tools to not to get left in the dust.”

More about Tim White, Director of Marketing at People.ai

With over 12+ years of sales and marketing experience, Tim is a recognized full funnel marketer that strikes the balance between a “real-talk” realist and an industry visionary. He is responsible for strategic demand generation marketing activities including digital, SEO, SEM, marketing automation, and customer acquisition.

About People.ai

People.ai helps sales, marketing, and customer success teams uncover every revenue opportunity from every customer. Companies like New Relic, Tanium, Lyft, Okta, and Mulesoft choose People.ai to capture all customer contacts, activity, and engagement to drive actionable insights across all enterprise revenue. Founded in 2016 and based in San Francisco, People.ai is backed by Y Combinator and Silicon Valley's top investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

This article was first appeared on MarTech Advisor

#martech #marketing #technology #business #cmo

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gaiatheorist · 6 years

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DWP- Dealing With Paranoia.

I have different coping strategies to a lot of people. When I engaged with the outside world more, there was an air of bravado to me, a carefully nurtured appearance of being carefree. There was nothing I couldn’t deal with, I ‘thought on my feet’, and saw through whatever chaos or calamity was happening, to pinpoint a logical, or at least acceptable pathway. In some ways it was innate, just how my mind functions, to triage a situation or potential future situation, map-out possible outcomes and risks, and razor-sharp, whittle down to the preferred outcome with minimal risks attached.

It was a useful skill to have in my previous employment, the ability to brush the dirt from the knees of my trousers after attending a first-aid incident, then distract or divert a student who was behaving inappropriately, before meeting with yet another parent who wanted to shout at someone about some policy or other being “Paffetic!” Some days we’d have a fire alarm, or a dead pigeon to deal with, or the brilliance of a “Dog in the playground!” I miss “Dog in the playground!” incidents.

It’s also a useful skill to have in terms of working around my brain injuries, the constant background rattle of risk assessment for every task, however mundane, keeps me mostly-safe. (You don’t have to fall off the toilet many times before you figure out a strategy to reduce the risk of it happening again, nobody wants to have to phone an ambulance with their trousers around their ankles.)

The flip-side is the anxiety over all of the ‘What if?’ outcomes. Mostly it’s just background noise, “What if I fall over?” “I won’t fall over if I use the furniture as hand-rails when the vertigo-thing is bad.” “What if the fatigue hits early, and I forget to do something important?” “Do the important things early in the day, the less-important things can be rolled over to tomorrow if needed.” Most of my functional deficits are manageable, with some adaptations, I manage day-to-day because I over-think everything, and have contingency plans for everything within my control.

It’s the things beyond my control that are the most difficult to deal with, the ‘unknowns’ that are entirely dependent on other people or agencies. Right now, I’m dealing with more unknowns than I’m comfortable with, DWP, Student Finance, and the NHS are my current ‘sea of troubles’, and I have Thalassophobia. It’s not the NHS’s fault that they’re stretched beyond capacity, but they are in part responsible for the precarious state I’m in now. If there had been more capacity for appropriate guidance when I was discharged from hospital following the brain haemorrhage, I probably wouldn’t be where I am now. There wasn’t, and I am. I had my monitoring brain scan last week, and I ‘should’ have the results within 2 weeks. I won’t, I’ll have to chase it, at the same time as trying to rescue my son’s Student Finance, and feeling like DWP have me on an electronic tag for the ‘crime’ of needing state support while I try to sort out my health.

Universal Credit, “Rolling six benefits into one!”, except it isn’t really. Despite numerous objections to the scheme, the government are carrying on regardless with the roll-out. The flagship has no lifeboats at all, but the band is playing on, the captain charging ahead, while the crew focus only on their discreet tasks. “That’s not my department, sorry.” The current phase of roll-out is transferring current claimants onto ‘Full Service’, the new, all-electronic system. How thoroughly modern, to cut out the pointless ‘time-sheet’ my work coach used to insist I present to her, to evidence what I was doing to actively seek employment. (That’s just my personal niggle, everything I was doing was hand-written in my note-pad, and then typed up into the ‘homework sheet’ for the coach to initial. If this system kills me, the note-pad will be on my desk. The evidence was already online, every task logged on the ‘Universal Jobmatch’ website, I was effectively not just duplicating, but triplicating the data, as back-up. ‘Just in case’, like the time my printer wouldn’t work, and my coach had to look up her password to log onto the system, rather than allow my handwritten notes.)

If I wanted to be kind, I’d say there are ‘teething problems’ with the roll-out of the new system. The guidance for work coaches on transfer-claims is 19 pages long, all very linear-flow-charts, it’s not the lines that are bothering me, it’s what’s between them. My work coach gave me a sheet of paper in June, “Universal Jobmatch is being phased out, but you already have a CV, don’t you? You don’t need to do anything yet.” Then, at my last appointment, last month, she advised that the ‘live’ service was being replaced by the ‘full service’, but she hadn’t been on the training for it, she had to call over a colleague to ask what would happen next. “You’ll get a message when you need to come in for an appointment with your ID.” (The same ID as I presented a year and a half ago, that they already have on their systems, but I suppose it’s a fraud-prevention strategy.)

I didn’t get ‘a message’, on September 26th, two brown envelopes landed on my doormat, I skimmed them very briefly, and put them on my ‘do that tomorrow’ pile, because my anxiety was already ramped up high about the horrible brain scan I had booked on the 29th. Without going into too much technical terminology, one letter isn’t dated, and says ‘get ready to switch’, and that ‘we will write to you and tell you when you need to switch and how.’ That’s the UC491. In the same post came the UC492, the ‘call to action’, which stated “If you don’t complete all the activities to switch to the online claim by 3/10/2018, your payments may stop and your claim may be closed.” Info-sheet, with no actual information on it, and ‘first warning’, in the same post. (The UC492 is dated September 19th, second-class post, I didn’t receive it until the 26th, or read it properly until the 27th. Six days to register, input all the details they already have, book, and attend an appointment. I’m female, but I’m not Doctor Who, and two of the six days were already tied up with the brain scan. The scans always knock me sideways the following day, the sensory issues from my brain injuries are not conducive to being trapped in a noisy metal tube, and then getting home on public transport with a whopper of a headache, and exacerbated sensory over-stimulus.)

I panicked. Initially that I’d be called for my appointment on the same day as my scan, and incur a sanction for refusing to cancel the scan to attend the appointment. Working around that, one of the ‘commitments’ I’m currently obliged to fulfil is ‘seek and follow medical advice’, the particular scanner they use for my brain is a very expensive MRA machine, cancelling that scan would inconvenience the NHS, and there would be an additional wait for a new appointment.

I typed in the link from the letter. Which didn’t work the first time I tried it, I’d probably made a typo, cold hands, and eyes that sometimes go a bit ‘off’, I frequently hit the key to the right of the one I’m aiming for. (They have my email address, and mobile number, they could have sent the link electronically.) I eventually got ‘in’ to the site, and, after a bit of searching around, found the right link-out from there. Then my laptop crashed, full black-screen meltdown, so I had to restart it. It took me four hours to complete the forms, part of that is my disability, but I’d already side-researched, and the system times-out after an unspecified period of inactivity. Taking my fatigued eyes away from the screen for six minutes in every hour wasn’t an option. (Yes, there’s a ‘save’ feature, but I was panicking. The inference that if I failed to complete the activities, my benefit ‘may’ be stopped was enough to tip me into major anxiety.) I thought I’d finished it all, when I was presented with another layer, ‘VERIFY’, where I entered my contact details, bank details, and had to take a photograph of the front and back of my provisional driving licence, along with a photograph of my actual face. (Which probably doesn’t look like the photo on my driving licence, it’s 8 years old, and I’ve had a stroke since then.) That all seems as dodgy as hell to me, I wouldn’t hand over my bank details and photographs of my driving licence to a real person, but the system said I needed to do it to complete the online application, so I did it.

The ‘VERIFY’ thing couldn’t be completed, it’ll either be my stroke-y face, or my inability to hold my phone completely still for photographs. All of the faffing about with ‘VERIFY’ meant that the transfer-application had timed-out, and bounced me back to the start-screen. Four hours, gone, and I didn’t have another four hours of functionality in me to do it all again. I had to ‘phone the helpline’, as per the on-screen guidance. I hate telephone conversations, I can’t read the non-verbal cues, and I never trust the person on the other end of the line to record what I’ve said accurately, if I say it accurately in the first place. I have verbal aphasia, sometimes I can’t find the ‘right’ word, so substitute one quickly, and hope it’s not too far out of context. There’s a very slim probability of me using the ‘wrong’ word, and triggering fraud procedures, because my brain doesn’t work properly all of the time. ‘Kenneth’ was able to confirm that my transfer details had saved, and I didn’t have the capacity to go off on a rant about the details already being in the system. Between 10.57, and 11.21, he repeatedly assured me that I shouldn’t worry, and that the deadline on the letter, of 3/10/18 was ‘more of an incentive, really.’ Kenneth didn’t have access to the parts of the system that hold the records on my ‘limited capacity for work’, and the UC branch of DWP don’t communicate with the PIP branch, who have all of the medical evidence and details of the functional impairments my disabilities cause. Kenneth booked me a ‘Personal Security Number and evidence’ appointment, and, when he asked the standard question about ‘any accessibility needs’, I explained that an appointment earlier in the day, rather than later would reduce the risk of my cognitive fatigue having an impact.

“Right, Kenneth, I have brain injuries, so I’m going to read back everything you’ve asked me to do, to make sure I have it all right?”

(Attend this place, at this time on this date, and provide these pieces of evidence of identity, is that everything?)

“Ah, no, not this Friday, next Friday.”

“That’s why I read it back to you. Next Friday is outside the timescale stated on the letter.”

“Ah, don’t worry about that, you’ve made the appointment, and it’s in the system, you just have to attend it now.”

I did worry. The letter had stated that the online transfer had to be completed, and the appointment booked AND attended, with appropriate evidence, by 3/10/18, and Kenneth had booked me an appointment on 5/10/18. Kenneth had also told me to take my bank card, driving licence and tenancy agreement, and to get a mini-statement from an ATM as evidence that I had access to that bank account. “Is that everything?” “Yes, that’s everything.” That wasn’t everything. I could be kind, and say that the system is new, and staff are navigating their way around it, but Kenneth didn’t tell me I’d need to provide ‘two months of rent statements or bank statements.’ (Like anyone has a physical ‘rent book’ anymore?)

On the Monday, as I’d spoken to Kenneth on the Thursday, my email pinged, confirming the appointment. I skimmed it on my phone, and didn’t notice that the time had changed, from 10.50, to 15.30, I was still fuzzy from the brain scan. On the Tuesday, my email pinged again, “You need to read a message in your Universal Credit online journal. Sign into your account today.” ‘Today’ is going to present an issue for me if they send messages later in the day, I’m not fully functional in the afternoon and evening, there’s a much higher probability of cognitive slips. It wasn’t a ‘message’, it was another list of tasks to complete, including ‘preparing for work activities.’, and some equal opportunities monitoring stuff. (Interesting that they wanted a definition of my gender and sexual orientation, but there was no field for disability.)

I noticed the change of time for the appointment, and entered a query online, requesting confirmation as to whether the appointment was 10.50, 15.30, or both. It took over 24 hours for an agent to respond, and he still wasn’t answering my question. I pressed for clarification, stating that the anxiety about potential ‘failed to attend’ processes was impacting on me. He confirmed that it was just the 15.30 appointment. As much as my son ‘hates’ the world-swerve to having to fact-check everything, I hate the way these systems are making me paranoid, I’m developing obsessive over-checking behaviours, because if I’m marked as ‘failed to attend’, DWP can stop my payments.

Yesterday, fatigued after the sensory overload of going for my ‘flu jab, I checked my email. (Conscientious to the end, I’ve never had the ‘flu immunisation before, but, single-and-disabled, if I catch the ‘flu, I won’t be able to feed myself, or manage my medication, I’m a potential cost to the NHS or social care.) There had been an email from DWP while I was walking back from the immunisation, and I must have been in an area with no signal, because it hadn’t ‘pinged.’ An operative at the local job centre had sent a message asking if I could attend an appointment at 12.00. Instead? As well? I still don’t know, because I’ve replied in the ‘online journal’, and had no response as yet. I even went so far as trying to telephone the job centre to query it, mindful that I might not notice an electronic response late in the day. I tried, I Google-searched for the Job Centre telephone number, which is now on 0345 number, not a standard one. That defaults you to an automated message, advising that all Universal Credit queries must now be handled online. I tried the Universal Credit full service transfer telephone number, same message, everything is online once your application is in.

Some DWP departments only ‘allow’ you to change an appointment twice, there’s the ‘without good reason’ qualifier, and I’m very, VERY good at reasons. Technically, that appointment has now been set for three different times, so I could be on a ‘second warning’, after the first ‘call to action’. I haven’t requested any of the changes, and I haven’t been obstructive, only stating in one message that I had requested an earlier appointment rather than a late one in my original communication, as my ‘reasonable adjustment.’

I need to reserve enough functional cognitive capacity to work around systems that aren’t working, and, in spite of my disabilities and circumstances, I’m one of the ‘lucky’ ones. I know how to use a computer, and I have a relatively stable broadband connection. Some people aren’t as adept with tech. Some people won’t open the initial letters, because brown envelopes are never good news. Some people won’t have the functional literacy skills to understand the letters. (The ‘call to action’ tasks are in a margin-block, away from the main body of the letter, and the potential consequences are on a second page, the formatting of the letter does look as if the first page contains all the information, it doesn’t.) After the ‘charitable’ gesture of making the helpline a free-phone number last year, this government has proven that to be an Indian gift. Acknowledging that some claimants would be in such abject hardship that they couldn’t afford phone-credit, or to keep their land-line connected, and then making the next phase of the roll-out completely electronic. “Just pop into the Job Centre, you can use our computers!”, if it took me four hours, I dread to think how long it’s going to take hunt-and-peck typists.

I have a paranoia-loop about my ‘claim’, there’s a streak of righteous indignation that DWP already have all of my information, and I didn’t ask for a new system to complicate matters, but I need to be very careful how I word that to DWP staff, lest I’m seen to be obstructive. If DWP don’t like the look of my ‘evidence’ of rent, they’ll delay the claim, they did the first time, it was 9 weeks between my initial claim and them finalising the ‘housing element’ that doesn’t actually cover my rent. The point they had issue with at the time was clarified, and I know how to work around it again, but I shouldn’t have to, they already have it on record once. If they decide to play hard-ball on the ‘housing element’, I can technically cover my rent, by topping-up with my PIP disability benefit. I shouldn’t have to, that payment is intended to cover the additional costs to me of living with complex disabilities, it’s not for DWP to use as a non-refundable overdraft facility, while my documents sit in a drawer somewhere, until I chase progress.

I have a little money in the bank, some people won’t. I have additional funds coming in from my PIP, some people don’t have that safety net. I am paranoid that DWP are going to ‘sanction’ my payments on technicalities that I have no control over, technicalities that are deliberately worked into the fabric of their systems, a safety-net that’s more holes than substance. October should have been the start of me addressing my on-going, complex and permanent health issues, with my son back at uni, the PIP awarded, and the ‘limited capacity for work’ notice applied to my UC commitment. Instead of allowing me to focus on my health, as the initial step to being able to work in the future, DWP are exacerbating the mental health issues, and compounding the cognitive components of my brain injuries.

I’ll have a clearer idea of where I stand after Friday. I’ll attend the 12.00 appointment, ‘acting on last instruction given’, and clarify then whether the 15.30 still stands or not. (Good luck to DWP if they try to suggest that attending two appointments means I’m fully capable of any/all employment, none of my ‘points’ on the PIP award were for mobility or planning, I over-plan.) What I need to NOT do is sit in this chair any longer, ‘just in case’ I miss an email from DWP, that’s a maladaptive coping mechanism. I need to eat, and sort out some mundane housekeeping, AND I think I’m a bit foggy after my ‘flu jab, which isn’t helping. The Marionette PM has stated that she wants a society ‘for everyone’, but not all ‘everyones’ are equal. Some people will fall through the gaps in the systems, collective collateral, who will likely be dismissed as ‘scroungers’ by elements of the press. I won’t fall through, because I’m paranoid, and then the NHS will be left to address the paranoia that the DWP has created and compounded.

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swipestream · 6 years

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Ghosts of Dathomir Review

Fantasy Flight Games Ghosts of Dathomir Product Page

Fantasy Flight has been producing Star Wars RPG material since the introduction of Edge of the Empire in 2013. In that time, they have produced seven standalone hardcover adventures, spread out over each of the Star Wars RPG lines. If you are interested in some of my previous reviews of the FFG Star Wars RPG line, you can find reviews here: What Do I Know About Reviews? Fantasy Flight Star Wars

This brings us to the most recently released Fantasy Flight Star Wars adventure, Ghosts of Dathomir. This adventure is for the Force and Destiny line, so it focuses on Force sensitive player characters and things that would utilize the Force as a theme.

The Mists of Dathomir’s History

Many of the adventures and sourcebooks in FFG’s Star Wars lines touch on what is now Legends material, as well as incorporating the most recent material being produced in the canon movies, novels, comics, and television shows.

Dathomir and the Nightsisters have been around in Star Wars circles since The Courtship of Princess Leia, published in 1994. At that point in time, the Witches of Dathomir were split much like the Jedi and the Sith, with the Nightsisters being the dark side representatives. Throughout Legends continuity, the witches of Dathomir were utilized in many places right up to the end of the previous extended universe.

In canon stories, they first appear in the Clone Wars television series, and from a canon standpoint, only the Nightsisters exist. Canon Nightsisters, however, are a little less clear cut than their Legends counterparts—sources such as the novel Dark Disciple make it clear that the Nightsisters will use the dark side of the Force, but they still consider it dangerous. Giving in to the dark side, as the Sith do, is something to be avoided.

When the lore on Dathomir is utilized in this adventure, it seems to lean heavily on the canon version of the witches, with only the Nightsisters referenced. The history of the planet, when events outside of the adventure are mentioned, sticks with events as they unfolded in canon sources such as the Clone Wars animated series.

The Ritual of the Book

Ghosts of Dathomir maintains the standard structure for the Fantasy Flight Star Wars RPG adventures. It is a hardcover book that clocks in at 96 pages. The book starts with a one page “crawl” summarizing the adventure, and the final page of the book is an ad for other FFG Star Wars products.

The production values of Fantasy Flight’s books are always high, and this one is no exception. Each chapter has a two-page spread summarizing a potential action scene for that chapter, and there are numerous half and quarter page illustrations. There are a few repurposed pictures from other Fantasy Flight products (such as a few illustrations of Stormtroopers), but most of the art is specific to this adventure, portraying NPCs and locations detailed within the book itself.

Fantasy Flight Games Ghosts of Dathomir Product Page

Never Tell Me the Odds

This review touches upon a few plot points for the adventure. As such, there may be a few spoilers scattered throughout. If you don’t want to stumble across any spoilers, you may want to skip the in-depth look at the various sections of the book.

Introduction

The adventure opens with the single page of fiction that Fantasy Flight uses to kick off their products, detailing an event that sets up the starting point of the adventure. From there, we have an adventure overview, which explains some of the backstory leading into the adventure. We have a list of important NPCs, and an adventure summary, explaining how each chapter is intended to unfold. There is a section on game preparation, as well as a new Force Power tied to the main villain of the story.

One aspect of the backstory that I really liked was the idea of a mega-corporation sending floating cities to various planets that they are strip mining to oversee the process. Inhabitants of the planet causing the floating city to crash is a suitably epic event to have occur. This feels very Star Wars in scale, and yet isn’t something we have explicitly seen previously.

The new Force Power is something introduced in Chronicles of the Gatekeeper. I like these, because they illustrate that the Force Power trees are just a means by which one tradition may learn to use the Force, not the only “true” way to progress within a limited set of pre-determined powers.

This power tree allows a character to generate fear in opponents, eventually allowing them to feed off that fear to regain strain. At the highest levels of mastery, a practitioner can use fear to cause an opponent to take actions they wouldn’t normally take. It’s a nice villainous power tree, but one that will potentially cause a lot of Conflict for any PC that starts to learn it.

As in Chronicles of the Gatekeeper, there are numbers that indicate at what point in the adventure the PCs can start to learn different levels of this power tree. Specific events that trigger in certain episodes allow the power to be accessed and advanced, if the PCs choose to do so.

Episode I: Inquiring Minds

The adventure starts with the PCs attempting to track down an artifact that is rumored to have a connection to the Jedi or the Sith, and starts them on Toydaria, looking for an art dealer that is going to auction off the artifact.

As they look for the shop, depending on the skills they are using to find the place, they may be able to find out some ancillary information that may clue them in on the wider story of what is going on surrounding the dealer and his shop, but there aren’t really any stakes. It is essentially having the PCs land on the planet and then make several checks until they can narrow down where the shop is located.

Eventually the PCs will find out that the shop owner and the artifact have been taken by thugs, and they have the chance to either beat up or bribe the local thugs for information on where he’s being held. Upon arriving at the estate, they can poke around for more clues to the greater context of what is going on. They are detected and fight the kidnappers in their attempt to recover their prize. The villain of the adventure shows up, but only long enough for them to see her and potentially figure out what that crazy circular lightsaber on her back means.

The initial searching for the shop feels like a very cold open to a Star Wars adventure. It also feels like there are a few other missed opportunities.

The initial encounter in the shop could have been comedic gold if they had fleshed out the encounter in more detail—a protocol droid leading cleaning droids to defend the household is just begging for its own chart of potential mishaps using the narrative dice symbols.

There is the feeling of balancing risk versus reward as the PCs explore the estate where the NPC and artifact are being held, risking discovery as they do more research and pick up more clues—unfortunately, the only explicit “timer” on the PCs being discovered is that eventually, they will fail a stealth check when moving around.

Some of the information the PCs might gain from a successful roll when looking around is a false lead for what is really going on—I would much rather hand the PCs a false lead than force them to “spend” a success on learning it. That just feels a little dishonest from the GM side of things.

Episode II: Deadly Visions

Fantasy Flight Games Ghosts of Dathomir Product Page

In this chapter, the PCs get pressed into service to find another NPC that will allow them to find out more backstory for the adventure. They also start having Force visions triggered by the artifact that they recovered. Eventually they get an idea of where their final destination might be, and they are pointed towards a place where they can research that location before heading out.

The PCs head into the wilderness on Toydaria to help recover the person that owned the artifact before the art dealer, and between the wilderness encounters and a run in with Imperials, potentially debilitating Force visions start to kick in.

I really like that the Force visions are keyed to the characters’ emotional weaknesses, as well as being divided between those that are likely to appear to light leaning Force users versus dark side using Force users—I wish that the visions themselves more explicitly stated what the PCs should be taking away from them.

It’s fine for visions to be vague, but if the clue is in one sentence out of the five provided in the description, that’s the difference between “I don’t know why the blue bottle is significant,” and “wait, there was a blue bottle in my vision? I don’t even remember you reading that.”

As presented, the PCs have their ship impounded by a Hutt until they recover the previous owner of the artifact, but there is also an ISB agent involved. The ISB agent is looking for the villain of the story, but is utilized mainly to go after the PCs as an added complication.

I think it might have been more interesting to have options where either the crime lord or the ISB agent impounded the ship and pressed the PCs into service, instead of forcing a more linear resolution of this chapter. Moral quandaries are part of what sets Force and Destiny apart from the other Star Wars lines, so what better way to introduce one than to have them work with the Empire against another Force sensitive?

Episode III: Echoes of the Past

Fantasy Flight Games Ghost of Dathomir Product Page

Between the visions and the clues provided by the NPC in the previous chapter, the PCs should be able to determine that the resolution for this story is on Dathomir, the planet where the main villain is from—she was a Nightsister recruited by an Imperial Inquisitor, who then killed her master and went rogue. It is also the planet of origin for the artifact.

Because Dathomir doesn’t have many modern settlements on it, the GM is instructed to have the PCs look around for a while to find the final resting place of the crystal mass where the villain is going.

There are some modular encounters that take place either in the ruins above the crash site, or in the underground location the PCs are trying to find. There isn’t a set number of these that should be used, and there is no mechanical trigger for any of them, they are just included as examples of encounters the PCs could have.

Eventually the PCs will find the villain, who has begun to learn how to control the greater crystal mass to boost her powers, and she will have Nightbrother guards to help her in this final confrontation. Then she literally summons illusory ghosts of Nightsisters with the stone to help her attack the PCs.

I’m still a little confused about the chain of events here, even after taking notes and reading several sections multiple times.

The villain wanted both shards that broke off a larger crystal mass on Dathomir, but after attempting to get the shard that the PCs have in the first chapter, she decides she only needs the one she has always had. She then proceeds to go to her own home planet, which she always knew was the origin of the crystal?

The NPC Nightsisters that live nearby are “neutral” but “positively disposed” towards the villain, because she took the crystal away, and its influence faded—but she’s bringing it back, so why be positively disposed towards her?

The Nightbrothers that show up in the final act also seem to be thinly drawn—the villain used to be a Nightsister, so they decide to follow her.

While the text instructs the GM to make sure the PCs feel that the search takes a while, and they are told to resolve this with only a few rolls, there aren’t really any tools provided to increase the stakes of searching.

There are some good seeds in this section that I wish had been utilized more. Instead of just giving up and taking her one shard, the villain could have taunted the PCs into coming to Dathomir to either join her or try to take her shard, so she could ambush them and gain theirs.

Side Note: How Much Dathomir is in Ghosts of Dathomir?

If you are a fan of Dathomir and the Nightsisters, this adventure may not have as much content as you were expecting. The crystal mass that produces the artifacts that put the story in motion aren’t tied to any Legends or canon lore on the Nightsisters or Dathomir. This mysterious mass could have sprung up on just about any planet.

Fans think of a lot of things that are synonymous with Dathomir. The Nightsisters with their energy bows. Zombies. Giant rancors. In this adventure, only the Nightbrothers show up, justified in that they are following a (former) Nightsister. There is a brief mention of negotiating with the local tribe to get them on the PCs side, but they have no statistics, and no Nightsister NPC is named or given any personality traits in this adventure.

The Force is My Ally

The floating factory cities of the mega-corporation are a great visual that could be used as a recurring theme in a campaign. The main villain has a great backstory, being tied to both the Nightsisters and the Inquisitors, and she is made more interesting by the fact that she is also on the run from the Empire. The Force power tree is a great inclusion for GMs to use with NPCs, or to dangle in front of PCs to tempt their moral fiber. The structure of having visions keyed to emotional weaknesses and dark or light side leanings is a great tool. Modular encounters are always good to drop into other adventures where appropriate. It wouldn’t take much to repurpose elements of this adventure for use in an Edge of the Empire game.

There are some useful tools in this adventure that might appeal to you if you are a Star Wars RPG completest, but if you are looking for a good Force and Destiny adventure, Chronicles of the Gatekeeper holds together better than this one, and if you are interested in the potential Dathomir lore, it is only superficially addressed in this adventure.

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I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing

While the motivation for some of the primary NPCs makes sense, the secondary NPCs in the adventure seem to exist just to move the plot forward. False leads that should just be given to the PCs, for them to accept or scrutinize, are handed out as part of their successes for some tasks. The clues that exist in the adventure to explain the backstory of what happened may never come together. The clues are very discreet from one another, and may not be obvious, meaning there could be a lot of wasted backstory in this adventure.

The actual plot structure feels a little rushed, especially at the end of Episode II and going into Episode III. Its linear, but the main villain just drops everything to do the next thing on her list because it’s time for the next episode. It’s clear that Dathomir, as a setting, is intended to be a selling point, but the climax of the story could have happened on almost any planet where the GM wanted to have the crystal mass show up.

Tenuous Recommendation—The product has positive aspects, but buyers may want to make sure the positive aspects align with their tastes before moving this up their list of what to purchase next.

The two main issues with the product are that it adheres to a much more “traditional” structure for designing an RPG adventure that doesn’t take advantage of the unique aspects of the FFG system, and that there are areas that were not developed in the space allowed, which may have made the overall adventure better. Specifically, the ISB agent hunting the main villain and the nearby village of Nightsisters needed more information to make them matter.

What did you think of the review? Agree? Disagree? Is there anything I might have missed? Please let me know in the comments. Additionally, feel free to let me know what kinds of reviews you would like to see in the future, and thanks for your time!

Ghosts of Dathomir Review published first on http://ift.tt/2zdiasi

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trishgibsontx · 6 years

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general updates: my recent workshop, my partnership with a MD/pediatrician, & more

photo by Pia Oyarzun, Nassau, Bahamas

this past weekend I held my first public workshop (I say public, because in the past I have done a few small private group things, intent on staying beneath the radar for anything group). the entire group was — amazing. my initial concern with doing a larger public workshop was the same as it has always been: how do I quantify, and how do I help others quantify, what exactly they are receiving? — in terms of both information, and “energy”. well, this group needed no follow-up explanation at all. here is why.

first of all, everyone was familiar with my writings. this was important, firstly, because I articulate that which is mostly intangible. I do my best to explain the intangible THROUGH MY EXPERIENCE and my experience with others, versus reading about it and then summing up 3rd party thoughts. I am as real as possible about the unexplainable realms that we live in, because I am acutely aware of the skeptical mindset that accompanies them. nevermind many of my earlier experiences on this planet that were “other”, the experiences that I have with others in my sessions that ARE other are shared by two conscious parties, and that adds credibility. so, going back to the workshop, it was my first time at the rodeo where it was not an intense one-on-one that I would then measure specifically and know what could be placebo or affected by another party. but, what is as close to fact as can be measured in this group setting, is that the same “symptoms” were reported before, during and after the event by each and every person, at some stage in the 24-48 hours accompanying it before and after. right in line with what I always interpret and then hear from folks I work with. basically, my work across the board, as experienced by another person, follows a particular model no matter who, when, or how many of the “who” there are working with me. the familiarity that each person had with my writings did assist them in understanding what it was they were feeling, might be feeling or would be feeling, which was palpable in feeling regardless of my explanation. but the context for such did help and does help. it’s like an equation. at the end of the day, the intangible realms and intangible “energy” work has little context for fact, proof or science — and I would like for that to change. I am contributing to that change, actively, every chance I have.

we dialogued about many different things during the workshop. as I usually am during my one-on-one sessions, I was blown away by the individual power, love, openness, intelligence and honor of each person who attended. and as usual, no one was a tree-hugging hippy or drifter without a “normal” or somewhat conventional life by way of education, pursuit of a goal, and a sound mind. we got specific about many of the topics I cover in my blog and eBooklets. there was a natural course and flow to the 7-8 hour conversation. and, I am not a “prep” person. I struggle with outlining some kind of speech and dropping it onto a group of people without an organic calling for such (conversely, this is where my upcoming book will become important for those who have never even heard the phrase “energy work” before). I have personally lived and witnessed every topic that was discussed at the event, so what kind of “prep” could I really do except be present and channel for each question and theme that came through? the space that we were in was incredible, and they happen to have state of the art equipment for vibroacoustic therapies that is used by holistic doctors. this was an excellent addition to the long event, because people could pop into a sound healing bed for 15minute attunements whenever they felt like it.

I am excited to do more events, larger events, such as this one. everyone received a summary of notes from the event, despite the fact that it was a conglomeration of everything I have already written about — because the fact of the matter is, topics expand and new legs of information or refining information arises when new and additional people are involved in the experience and conversation. as per today, I think we are all processing the bottom lines from the event — physiologically across the board! I enjoyed writing the event notes as they pertained to the specific group I had.

it has long been my desire to partner with medical professionals and respected and achieved persons in traditional medicine and science, because society accepts what they have to say far easier than they will even consider what I have to say. a piece of paper still means a lot these days. and, the experience that a medical doctor or scientist has after a decade or more of clinical schooling is surely to be respected and admired! when I have worked with these professionals because they have come to me for help, I find that the only thing left to do is “turn on” their left side — their intuitive side, the side that their strict schooling and professional environment has worked to shut down because it does not provide substantial evidence. well, right now, across the board, we are seeing a bridge due to our tiny planet’s position through time and space (in the universe, in the galaxy) and how THAT position is changing. this bridge is my tagline: bridging the gap between medical & spiritual ™. my desire to blend these two worlds began when I dropped my psych degree many years ago. now, I am actively blending the two. so when I pair with a talented individual in science or medicine, it is like the left side of a body and right side of a body coming together to create something completely cohesive. we can fill gaps that have never been filled before, both logistically and tangibly.

I am beyond excited to announce my partnership with a traditional, clinical doctor whom I have known now for a very special period of time through my own work in healing and bridging the gap. there have been a range of individuals over the years, who have approached me for partnerships — some in medicine, some in other fields. but the thing with that is, everything has to be in line and feel in line to move forward with such a huge initiative and investment of time between people. timing is key. same page is key. and while technically this partnership of my practice with traditional medicine could have taken place 5 years ago, the gestation period that has landed that partnership where it is now and with who it is now was super important. also, people were super not ready! I saw and felt across the board with the many industries I work with that they were not ready. most people I work with are still afraid or timid about telling their peers or coworkers of their experience with me. and on that note, every month that ticks by, I see more and more people ready. until this partnership is up and running, I feel like I have to be cagey around the details, but in a nutshell it will support and cater to hypersensitive and often misdiagnosed young people on our planet. it will cater to our future. it will cater to what is ready to hear and feel and integrate something beyond traditional medicine, but taking into account the studies and confines of traditional medicine as well. oh boy!

on the note of people finally being “ready” to accept the formerly unacceptable or “unseeable” in life until very recently, other imminent game-changing partnerships that have come my way as they relate to integrating my healing modality and “facts” about the unseen (as they relate to each of us physically, emotionally and psychologically) are ready for lift-off. I will again be somewhat elusive about the particulars until they are publicly announced (being careful with legality, basically), but I’m so excited about this that I had to include it as an update. what this looks like is my idea and platform for incorporating the woo-woo in the most linear and conservative environments on our planet to maximize output and, by default, increase awareness and measure of “other” in a way that would have been impossible to do 10 years ago in a particular industry because — we simply were not ready. just like we were not ready to put a man on the moon until a certain time, and we were not ready to discover other continents until a certain time, and we were not ready to accept certain technology until a certain time. it. is. all. changing. now.

I am looking at re-branding across the board, and will eventually be making some changes (names of stuff, how I use my name) as they pertain to trademarking various initiatives. so, if you have been reading my blog for a while or tuning into my social media and you see changes, that’s why.

as for my personal offerings to others, I have considered something new and random — doing 90min pop-up healings at different locations which I feel support my longer-term initiatives. again, I could have been the “reiki” person at xyz hotel or xyz business years ago, but I could not see the value as it would relate to my specific way of working and measuring. since my traditional general one-one-one sessions (which are about 6-8 hours in person, and encompass at least a month of remote healing sessions, written correspondence and conversations) are extremely few and far between now, I will be offering a less in-depth pop up day here and there. perhaps as early as this week. I will book as best I can, on a limited basis due to how many hours there are in one day. these pop-up sessions will mimic my traditional style of working with someone, but will not include the time or follow-up associated with what has been as of late in my sessions. I will pop my next pop-up on this blog, and include specific booking instructions. please follow the specific instructions included in my blog for an appointment (as referenced here) or workshop. I will do more events/talks, too. at this time, I want to engage in as many new ways as possible, with communities that are on par with my modality and understanding of eastern meets western integrative healing and psychology as it relates to the body, mind and spirit. I will still offer super luxury sessions on a very limited basis, and my timing with those is specific because there are still foundations I am building and do not want to lose focus with (taking on a super luxury session would be all-consuming) in terms of bridging conventional medicine and linear environments that are desperate for “other” whether they realize it or not.

thank you for reading this stream of consciousness update! the momentum has kept me up with excitement very late at night, nearly all nights for the past week.

The post general updates: my recent workshop, my partnership with a MD/pediatrician, & more appeared first on The Medical Intuitive Blog: Healing Elaine.

from Trisha Gibson http://www.themedicalintuitiveblog.com/2017/10/30/general-updates-recent-workshop-partnership-mdpediatrician/

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