The first half was like, “man, this might be getting a little too spicy for me” and then the second half was like “oh! OH! Oh no!” Very good! I’m not sure what the context was, but gosh.
4 Likes
Feel better soon. It’s always on the week off, isn’t it? If one is going to get sick, at least the sickness could do one the favour of giving one an excuse to skip work.
No! No! Bad Anna, BAD! Health first, any other considerations later. BAD! Don’t make me roll up the newspaper!
6 Likes
@Anna_B sorry to hear you’re sick, and solidarity - I’ve been ill for the last couple of days and it’s really knocked me sideways.
I have been making a reminder list for when I start coding and writing a new project. Most of the reminders are a bit spoilery/specific or make more sense to me than they would to others but this is one of them:
Not immensely groundbreaking but helpful to remember!
I’ve been making a lot of design and plot decisions over the last 5 weeks or so, and am trying to carry my intentions through as I start writing rather than making grand plans and forgetting them. I’ve made a collection of pillars for guidance which the reminder point above reflects; when I share more about the project I will probably share them too, to see whether my intentions and the work are aligned!
Also: I treated myself to a new fountain pen and it’s SO nice to write with 
13 Likes
I’ve mostly been engaged in very functional code this month, trying to get the hub area for my Shadowrun game up and running, so I don’t have too much to post for the mid-month update. But I have knocked out a few Codex entries. Here’s the one for “Drones in Japan”:
Codex: Drones in Japan
Shiawase Publicity Announcement for their New Personal Drones Line.
How cute is too cute? Here at Shiawase, we know that there can only be one answer to that question. Personal drones can never be too cute.
That’s why focus groups have found our class-beating Poochbot 3000 to be 3.86% more kawaii than the premium products of our closest competitor. That’s why Oishii Kitty 36b has been such a smash-hit among Japan’s favorite celebrities. And that’s why your kids are pestering you constantly to get the latest and best Shiawase PD models year on year.
Here’s a short selection from our fall catalog.
Detective Doggo Model 32b: This sleuth-themed caniform ground drone is always on the case. With better-than-real synthesized fur and an expansive library of growls, barks and yelps, not to mention his adorable Sherlock Holmes-themed deerstalker hat, Detective Doggo will solve all the clues to how to melt your heart. And an added bonus—if you ever mislay your Shiawase-branded commlink, Detective Doggo will get on the case and track it down for you, wherever it may be. Want to be the envy of all your co-workers? With Detective Doggo, it’s elementary. Sleuthing has never been so adorable!
Spacecat 6000: It’s one small step for man, one giant leap for catkind! Spacecat 6000 comes with an adorable Shiawase-branded space-suit costume, and hoverjets allowing her to simulate weightlessness in any environment. This intrepid galactic explorer attracts admiration wherever she goes. To infinity and meow-ond!
Yuko the Magic Dragon 3b: Yuko is a delightful baby green dragon themed aerial drone that could even melt the heart of the great Ryumyo-sama himself! With perfectly-molded scales, anatomically accurate wings and a sweet and curious personality, once Yuko has got his claws into your heart, he’ll never let go. He can even emit realistic AR fireballs! (Not real fireballs, though. We learned our lessons from the troubled launch of model 3a).
8 Likes
[pops out of gopher hole] hi
Though I didn’t finish my goal, February was still ridiculously productive. I finished Gloria and Ziya’s dates. Right now I’m working on the date the player can invite a LI on. The previous dates are all ones that the LI invites the player to attend.
For the support thread survey, I’ve played tabletop games for years at this point. It’s a fantastic storytelling venue to learn from, and to test and tease out concepts. I think I’ve said this elsewhere, but Moonrise’s Ishara is a cleric character from Dungeons & Dragons who I didn’t want to let go of when the game ended. Playing highly political games was invaluable to me writing a political game with an original political system. In the Witch’s Necklace I knew I wanted a jewel thief character…but I have 0 idea how (or desire to) steal jewels. Then I remembered that hey, our Vampire characters stole jewels once. Instead of tackling the problem as myself, I tackled the problem like I was a powerful player character given a quest. The change in mindset got the words and plot flowing wonderfully.
One day I hope to GM a Vampire: the Masquerade game with my friends. I’ve made some preparations to do an adaptation of the Thinned Blood questline in Bloodlines. 
I’m sure I’ll grow even more as a storyteller.
Instead of an excerpt, I offer this video of a group foraging mesquite beans. I’m fascinated and entertained.
8 Likes
Feel better soon!
This topic is relevant to my interests
Hello, Spacecat, how do you feel about having a gun installed and serving as a rotodrone without the roto part? Sounds like a meowlion nuyen idea, you say? Why, I bet it does!
What I’m hearing you say is that it should be relatively easy to retrofit a flamethrower into one of these things.
5 Likes
I’ve been working on a project for the past few weeks, I’m finally to the stage where I feel comfortable actually starting to write the story but I have absolutely no clue what to make the opening sequence. 
Any advice on that? I have been filling my dome with so much world building that actually trying to sit down to write content makes my head spin a little.
If you are curious about the project: Interest Check Thread - #5544 by Phenrex
6 Likes
Opening with a fight scene is always (mostly), a good idea! It brings the reader straight into the action, and you can potentially introduce the antagonist right off the bat.
I tend to have a specific scene that I always start a new story with. that I tweak to the specifications of the story, so that I can stop worrying about the how, and start focusing on the actual story. For me, I always have the MC start on a train, going to their destination. (Yes, I’m a train nerd, get over it. Look up the N700S model Shinkansen, it’s cool as hell.)
6 Likes
What if it’s a training fight?
2 Likes
That would work too. Could be a good way to introduce a mentor character, or an ally.
2 Likes
I was thinking more along the lines of opening with the perspective of Lilium moments before they got stripped [of their powers, not clothes ] or of their recovery, or the chaos surrounding the leak of what happened to them. But still feel kinda lost so honestly 
. I am just stewing RN 
2 Likes
Like the one in Final Fantasy VIII? And Seifer does side with the enemy later on, it’s no surprise since he’s a jerk to Squall since the beginning.
2 Likes
It definitely doesn’t feel like it’s been a month since the last excerpt sharing session, but then my grasp on time is tenuous at best.
@Eiwynn I enjoyed this. Needle-nosed pliers are a very vivid image, I’ve always thought they seemed like a really dangerous tool and here’s the proof!
@Leinco I’m always a fan of vengeance as a character motivation, interested to see this tie into the existing WIP 
@Schliemannsghost I’ve been known to spend hours reading codex entries or world anvil pages, so I always love to see them. Somehow cute drones feel far more sinister to me.
As for my own excerpt this month, I have a chunk from my character creation process - in this the player has just been dropped into an interview with Lord/Lady Croft, an agent of Royal Intelligence. I’m still not sure how I feel about this approach to character creation, but I wanted something that would provide a little bit of backstory along with each potential skill (of which there are six).
Excerpt inside
“Perhaps we could start with your greatest strength?” $!{croftTitle} Croft flashes a wry smile. “A most stereotypical interview question, certainly, but an important one I feel.”
*choice
#My greatest strength has always been Close Combat
*set closecombat 3
*set skillExceptionalChosen “cc”
Close combat was where you excelled even before you joined the army.
*if (aristo)
No noble scion would ever be allowed to avoid at least some lessons in the art of fencing, and you found that many of the skills transferred over. Though the brutal brawls you encountered on the continent were far less elegant, there was no reason not to demonstrate your superiority there as well.
*goto s0001l36
*else
On the streets of London Below, not a day went by without some sort of brutal street brawl. Avoiding them wasn’t always easy, so you saw no reason not to learn how to handle yourself. How to take a punch and how to throw one were lessons you picked up far earlier than mathematics or physical sciences, and it came in very handy indeed on the battlefield.
*goto s0001l36
*label s0001l36
There was a particularly nasty incident, early on in the expedition, where you found yourself briefly isolated from your men whilst on patrol. You had only stepped just out of sight when a great hulking brute of a man burst from the bushes with murderous intent. There was no room for negotiation with the man you later learned was a German partisan, and there was certainly no time to properly load and aim your rifle.
You remember struggling for balance for a moment, the shock almost doing your enemy’s work for him as you stumbled backwards before your instincts kicked in. Then your surprise was swept away, and you neatly sidestepped his attempt to tackle you to the ground, tripping him as he charged past you. There was no time to draw your revolver, no way you could have fixed your bayonet as you were supposed to. No, this one you settled the old fashioned way, leaping atop the man and grabbing a fistful of his hair. Driving his face hard into a tree root over and over, until bone crunched and movement stopped.
By the time your men had even noticed you’d dropped out of sight, your attacker lay dead. Even the veteran sergeant that had been sent out with you was impressed by the swift brutality with which you’d despatched him.
*goto skillExceptionalEnd
#My greatest strength has always been Ranged Combat
*set rangedCombat 3
*set skillExceptionalChosen “rc”
*if (aristo)
You attended more than a few hunting trips in your youth. The countryside has always been the domain of the aristocracy, and even the minor houses such as your own would be expected by their peers to make several ventures a year out into the fields and forests to pick off deer and foxes. It gave you the experience you needed to stand out when the army began to train you.
There were some habits that the instructors had to train you out of, as there were no servants to reload for you, and man sized targets came with a few psychological differences that a mere fox did not. Still, by the time your training was done you were considered one of the best shots with rifle or pistol to have passed through in some years.
*goto s0001l37
*else
Firearms were something you never had a chance to handle before you joined the army. Not because they weren’t available, as the local constabulary would have wished. No, there were a number of assorted rifles and pistols of all kinds easily purchased if you knew who to ask, but your family was never involved in the sort of dealing that would have let you get your hands on one.
It was several days into your training when you held a rifle for the first time. Your first shots certainly weren’t anything to write home about. There was no immediately impressing the instructors, not for a commoner’s son. What you managed was continuous improvement, driven by what your instructors called a natural talent. Each day you held that rifle it felt more comfortable in your hands, and each shot went closer and closer to where you wanted it to land.
*goto s0001l37
*label s0001l37
When you reached the continent, things were no different. Few in the expeditionary force could match you at long range, nor could they manage your consistency in a protracted firefight.
You recall a particularly tricky situation, in which a company of Albion’s finest were forced to assault some earthen fortification hastily thrown together by a group of local militia that had managed to get their hands on an old cannon that they were using to shred your lines on every approach. Faced with such overwhelming fire, and unable to assault the earthworks without being torn to pieces by grapeshot, your senior officers were about to call a retreat.
It was then that you calmly leant out from behind a tree and began to pick off the cannon crew without a hint of difficulty. Every eight seconds, like clockwork, you drove a bullet through a gap in the fortification and straight through the head of any militiaman that dared attempt to reload the gun that had proven such a threat. With their largest advantage gone, it wasn’t too much longer before the militia was driven from their position and forced to surrender. Your commanding officers credited you personally with the victory.
*goto skillExceptionalEnd
#My greatest strength has always been Perception
*set perception 3
*set skillExceptionalChosen “per”
*if (aristo)
You found yourself included on many hunting trips in your youth. The countryside has always been the domain of the aristocracy, and even the minor houses such as your own would be expected by their peers to make several ventures a year out into the fields and forests to pick off deer and foxes.
Your talent did not, however, lie in the act of taking the shot. No, you found yourself excelling at other things. You could spot an animal at far great a distance than others on the hunt, or pick out the tracks of a specific animal amongst the dozens around a small pond. Your family leant on these abilities to excel at the art of the hunt and it stood you in good stead amongst your peers.
*goto s0001l40
*else
There was always something to see in London Below. A commoner’s child such as yourself would often be expected to devote some of their time to the art of scavenging. Sometimes for food, sometimes for valuables discarded by the aristocrats of the city Above.
You quickly demonstrated an ability to spot the tiniest glimmer of gold in the muck and debris that so often littered the streets. You could make out any urban dwelling animal in the gloom, and track them back to their nest to put somewhat questionable meats on the table for dinner. These talents made life just a little easier for your family.
*goto s0001l40
*label s0001l40
Once you reached the army, this skill proved to be just as valued to your instructors as it had been to your family. You learned how to spot the signs of an ambush from a greater distance, how to pick out the best route across a patch of difficult terrain, and how to track and hunt men instead of animals.
It was your eyes that spotted an ambush by a unit of some Germanic militia, alerting your commanding officer to the hidden troops and cannon ahead that would have devastated your small unit. Thanks to your ability, you were able to spring a trap of your own on the unsuspecting militia and drive them away with minimal casualties.
*goto skillExceptionalEnd
4 Likes
@Leinco – thank you for your honest and heartfelt words of kindness in your feedback.
Regarding your excerpt … I felt Ethan to be a powerful empath/telepath? so he is an interesting character. I think it will be easier to follow in-game, at least for me, because i am not a fast codereader
@Rinnegato – no worries.
@Anna_B – i feel your changes for wp2 make sense. I hope you start feeling better
@Hannah_Minger – Thank you for the rundown on your reactions… it is an effective way to provide feedback in a fun way and I am happy to see them all 
@HannahPS – I can read your handwriting … Was this note written with your new fountain pen? also, I hope you are feeling better too.
@Schliemannsghost – these have a different “flavor” than the first store (the one hidden behind the convenience store) and I like these nuanced details. Even in something simple as item lists, your passion shows through.
@NMCannon – thank you for sharing how your tabletop experience helped you write better!
@Blunderbutts – I agree. You also get to see gardening shears and an iconic letter opener in use if you play your choices the right way
I like story creations better than pure stat creations more often than not, so i look forward to seeing more down the road
9 Likes
Now working on my HG bit by bit. I’m starting with the codex so that players will be equipped with sufficient knowledge about the world where the story takes place in.
5 Likes
I’m working with literally program code, so I’m not sure that “writing” even applies anymore.
3 Likes
So far, so good. My most recent chapter didn’t exactly set the world on fire, but the feedback I have received has been mostly positive. One of my beta readers referred to it as my ‘best piece yet, in terms of emotional imagery and fecundity’. Not exactly sure what fecundity means, but it sounds like fungus so I’m assuming it means it’s growing on them. It also sounds like fecal, but I’m choosing not to interpret it that way.
I love DMing. It’s one of my true passions. I love telling a shared story, and making other people feel like heroes. Been doing it for years now, though I don’t currently have a party. When I did, I would spend upwards of 28 hours a week meticulously preparing a session that would last around 5-7 hours. I was consistently blessed with great players that took notes and paid great attention to the lore. I could craft elaborate scenarios that tied into their backstory and gave them immense amounts of freedom while still telling a story. And yet, save basic worldbuilding elements, I personally don’t feel it helped me write a CYOA whatsoever.
There’s a certain freedom and element of reactivity DMing has that writing lacks. I can create scenarios or problems, and trust the players to come up with solutions. Or come up with solutions on the fly and make it seem like I had it planned out the whole time. I can hear my players discussing what stands out to them in real time, and alter the session to suit their interests. I don’t need to write out so many dialogue options, because they’ll come up with their own. There’s simply no point in trying to consider each and every outcome beforehand, because the players will always come up with something you didn’t expect. You can’t rely on them reading the blood stained message down the trap-filled hall, for example, because they decided to buy pickaxes and tunnel past it. You’ve created a magical forest temple that has major backstory revelations? Well they’ve decided to go to the mountains. Oh, and I would be remiss to neglect the fickle dice. The dice allow even me to be consistently surprised by the directions the story takes. When they roll, I have no ideas what’s going to happen next. I’m on the edge of my seat.
For writing, I find it to naturally be far more rigid. It’s difficult to come up with plot beats on the fly, and the plotting needs to be more meticulous. That’s not to say I didn’t plan out plot beats while DMing, but as I said there were limitations to what could be done.
I missed the 15th because I was celebrating the Ides of March, but maybe I could still post an excerpt anyway? I promise I won’t miss again.
7 Likes
Post your excerpts at anytime … I have the 15th as a date for those of us that use deadlines to help keep themselves on track.
3 Likes
Did you stab an emperor? 
Potential resource, though I dunno how much of it is applicable to CoGs, unless you want to swipe some lyrics for a song a character is listening: copyright free lovesong
Apparently, all StreamBeats songs are copyright free, so if you need recent songs for your work, maybe one of them will be of use (still, if you use one, give the proper credit in the text or the acknowledgments section or whatever; don’t be one of THOSE people)
4 Likes
The discussion about chosen ones in another topic got me nostalgic, so I did some digging and found the old prophecy of my story. Or half of it, anyway, I don’t seem to have the other half written in any files I have handy, so I constructed the rest from memory. Also this is a quick and mostly direct translation, so please excuse me the lack of proper rhythm and rhymes.
Ancient prophecy (literally, it's over a decade old)
When the sky lights aflame
And the darkness falls
When the sounds of bloody war
Ring on the shore
When from the western borders
Reaches like an arrow
The message to the eastern edges
It is time to be swift:
A man emerges from a flaming pie
And prince turns against king
Led by purple eagles
From the ruins rises hope
To the enslaved world
The youngest scion of perished bloodline
Will become new king
Still wishing I could make a game of that story, but I have no idea how. It has way too many main characters.
6 Likes