So like, a heretic-burning warrior nun on one side and a handsome nihilist vampire on the other?
Got it.
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Apropos of nothing, Iām currently having trouble with the situation between two of my NPCs: one gets immediately hostile on first sight (well, not letās-fight-hostile, but verbally-judgemental-hostile) the moment they meet this other NPC, for apparently no reason. The problem is, there is a reason - the second NPC irks the first oneās telepathy in some manner the first NPC canāt quite understand - but I canāt quite figure out how to make that seem to make sense, and I have absolutely no idea why I keep doing this to myself.
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Like the telepathic equivalent of static? Or an irksome habit? Though that usually consumes your consciousness.
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I mean that the first NPC usually wears a power limiter, because being constantly surrounded by the thoughts of the full crew of a capital ship gets tiring fast, so theyāre only vaguely aware of what theyāre picking up most times. The second NPC is secretly a space dragon that might even be called an eldritch abomination in disguise, and humans canāt really read their minds, except some vague aura of āIām an apex predator, fear meā, which this NPC is actively reeling in because they donāt actually want people fearing them or cause random passers-by to seizure.
The first NPC subconsciously picks up the tail end on that all, which irks them because theyāre slammed against this mind-wall, and also being intimidated which they donāt like at all because theyāre in the space navy thank you very much, so itās kind of. Iām not sure how to describe it other than āthis person ticks me off for some reasonā?
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Zero.
I jest, but I think HG authors often get so caught up in other CSGs having opposed pair personality stats they assume games need them and donāt stop to consider whether their game needs them.
(Preemptive apology for the opinionated text wall.)
Personally, I think better questions are:
- Why do I want this stat? Why do I want that? Why do I want that?
- What am I trying to accomplish?
- Does the way I envision this stat working actually accomplish that? Is it the simplest, most effective way to accomplish it?
For opposed pair stats in particular:
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Do I need the fidelity of an opposed pair stat?
- Why canāt I use: a counter (extroversion = 7), a categorical stat (extrovert / introvevert / ambivert), or a boolean (extrovert = true)?
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Is it logical?
- Are these things actually opposed; i.e., one is the opportunity cost of the other?
- Do I understand how fairmath percentile stats work and is it a good model for the thing Iām trying to model? If the PC frequently context switches, does it make sense to model this with one Generous/Scrooge stat? If NPCs react to the stat, does it make sense that the way you interact with your sister in private affects how a random shopkeep perceives you?
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Is it interesting?
- Is it unique, or does every game have a Nice/Jerkface slider?
- Does having a Nice/Jerkface slider say something compelling about the tone and/or themes of the game?
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This is very YMMV, but I think opposed pair sliders are at their best when they nod to a core conflict in the story.
Many gamesā personality stats are some variation of Nice/Jerkface, Outgoing/Reserved, Structured/Spontaneous, and Ethical/Unethical. Thereās nothing wrong with these, but usually theyāre flavor text in the vein of āyou said something nice, that was very expected of you!ā at best and āyou canāt successfully be mean to anyone because you picked too many nice choices alreadyā at worst.
Compare that to Fallen Hero: Rebirthās sliders. One of the central themes is rebirth (no surprises there). Can you shed your past, change who you are, and be reborn in the public eye? How far are you willing to go?
Daring/Cautious or Infamy/Obscurity arenāt just measures of how daring or obscure you are, but of how completely you reject your former life, how radical your transformation is. How far are you willing to go? This far. It gives having 20% Ruthlessness or 70% Empathy some real stakes, and therefore meaning beyond being a fun fact on the stats screen.
Iām just a fiend for stakes though. Iād much rather have choices/stats/customization with narrative stakes implications that do nothing else than no-stakes choices/stats/customization with tons of flavor text. A true fake choice that does nothing but mentally establish the PCās answer to the gameās philosophical question does far more for me than 100 fastidious flavor references to the PCās average height.
Probably why thrillers are my favorite genre and slice-of-life my least. And why I generally canāt get invested in romancing NPCs as a B or C story. Lack of stakes ā external, internal, philosophical ā and some other design choices often leave romance feeling like the fishing minigame or D&D combat swoosh of CSGs. (But thatās a text wall for another day.)
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Honestly, I think that sounds incredibly relatable. Havenāt most people encountered someone whose odor, speech, or general manner was personally irksome for nebulous and unfair reasons?
I have a friend I can only have meatspace conversations with from the other side of a sufficiently large piece of furniture due to this exact situation.
Iām deeply un-touchy-feely, but Iāve worked on it enough I can feign normalcy in pretty much all cases except with this friend, who is touchy-feely in a way I find inexplicably aggravating.
Sitting next to her, a typical conversation: (touches upper arm) David, youāre never going to believe (touches lower arm) what happened the other day at the airport! (pats shoulder) I was walking past baggage claim and (grabs hand) get this (taps knee) I ran into (touches elbow)ā¦
Itās just the way she is, and despite her sincere best efforts she canāt stop any more than someone who needs to gesticulate when they talk can stop gesticulating when they talk.
Thank God for wide tables.
(ETA: Sheās really a lovely person, weāre just not very compatible.)
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Oh goodness this is what irks me so much in most āhonest/dishonestā cases! Like, being honest most of the time doesnāt make you incapable of lying! Sure itās a skill that might need practice, but telling a simple lie isnāt that complicated! Even children can do that. Barring magic, I canāt think of any reasons why an adult couldnāt.
Thatās fair. Maybe Iām just tying myself into a pretzel for no reason. Wouldnāt be the first time.
So I have this Engineering LT who just antagonizes the spy for no discernible reason (I mean, they are a spy so that warrants some wariness obviously, but they havenāt actually done anything except asking the shipās captain to hitch a ride because their ship got shot to smithereens), the Security LT whoās worrying about having on board a captive who was sentenced in absentia for mutiny and murdering their shipās crew and has now finally popped up (security worrying about the crew potentially getting murdered at least is reasonable), and the Medical LT who thinks everyone should just loosen up (and collects illegal cybernetics in medbay). Fun times.
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Yeah I did those fanfics as a fun little hobby project. I didnāt really put much effort into it so I understand that it may be a little difficult to read. Plus youād have to already be familiar with the anime to really get it.
Wow thatās amazing! You should totally write them down. Donāt give up!
If you havenāt written anything before I suggest you watch a few YouTube videos of other authors explaining stuff. But there is no greater learning than you just experimenting and writing on your own.
Just jump into it and start writing whatever comes to your mind. You will only get better the more you write and interact with other writers.
Turn the ideas into a story/plot. Create characters to drive the story forward and build an interesting world for the characters to exist in. Donāt worry too much, just write something even if itās just gibberish. Thatās my advice. 
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Iām done.
I just sent in the release candidate version of A Time of Monsters, which means barring the last-minute discovery of any game-breaking bugs, it should be the version that gets released Thursday morning.
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This sounds like an interesting romantic subplot between the two npcsā¦. Sorry, Iām not helping am I.
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Technically: Iām having a setup where the MC is, by player choice, one of the aforementioned LTs (and the other two are ROs). Although whether or not theyāre a telepath is player choice, Iām just mapping the non-MC ones. And the space dragon is also an RO. So you could make it happen, although it would be MC-NPC and not NPC-NPC.
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With the exception of this yearās Halloween Jam (thank you again poison_mara for hosting), I havenāt written fiction in almost two years. Itās difficult to say why I stopped, but I think the main reason was my mind tricked me into thinking I lost interest when in fact I reached a wall that I could not admit was too hard to break. I was pondering these last few days if I should start a new project or continue one of my previous ones. Starting something new would not make sense since it would probably end up on my list of unfinished projects.
The only logical way for me to move forward is to finish one of my older projects. I still have the code base and the design docs, so it should be doable to get back into the right headspace. Once I go through all of the 150k words Iāve already written a few years ago and finish the scene I was working on, Iām going to update the demo and ask the mods to reopen the thread. When I opened the project, I was expecting to dislike what Iād written, but to my surprise, I felt like it had a natural flow to it.
I may be misquoting, but I remember hearing this saying: āPeople overestimate what they can do in a day but underestimate what they can do in a year.ā During the last month I managed to write 20K words for the Jam. With consistency, over the course of a year, that would mean 240K words, which is more than enough to finish the story I started.
But to achieve that, I have to avoid the mistakes Iāve made in the past but also keep doing the things that worked. For me, what seems to have worked very well was separating planning from writing. The most productive periods I had were when I would spend a day just planning out what I wanted to do (plot-wise, character development, etc.) and write the next day. For me at least, these two activities seem to use different parts of the brain. The worst periods I had were when I was stuck due to poor planning and could not pinpoint the exact problem because I was too hung up on actually writing words in the file.
In conclusion, for my 12th of November 6:15 PM resolution (I donāt believe in New Yearās resolutions), I plan to get back into working on one of my older projects and actually finish it.
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Hopping back on the horse that threw ya, huh? Huzzah! Good on past you leaving so many notes and design documents as wellāit will definitely make your present life easier.
When I re-read past writing, sometimes Iām surprised by how good it is. Like, it seems that memory snags more on struggles, so when I go back Iām surprised how good past!Natalie did. The poetry I wrote in junior and secondary school is way better than I remember it being.
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This just makes me wish I/the MC could secretly be a space dragon that might be called an eldritch abomination in disguiseā¦ Why do you always need to have such good ideas, but always on the other side of the aisle? 
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Today Iāve had my medical procedure in hospital (which was a long time coming and very much wanted!) and so far has gone very nearly with the maximum amount of success; Iām feeling groggy but chill and positive, and all the staff have been wonderful. Iām goingto take some time to be less online for a bit while Iām recovering. Take care all 
(I say that, I think itās fairly likely that Iāll get bored while recovering and get more online 
but for the next couple of days Iāll probably be snoozing a fair bit.)
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iām so glad to hear it went well!! i hope the recovery process is as smooth as it can be, too 
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wish you a speedy recovery!!
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I mean, I wanted to write about humanity discovering the space dragons? I might write a game about the Space Dragon War later.
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Okay, but what about space dragons discovering humanity? 
It sounds like theyāre the ones ahead of the curve here 
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Iām not that good in my survival horror game that that story would require and the most material I can think of for that one Iām already using elsewhere, so Iād be bored to boot. Iām trying to write Star Trek with a side of cosmic horror here, not vice versa!
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Had this the other day, was writing a scene and just going through it more because I felt I should write something than I was actually flowing ideas and in the right mindset. Wasnāt enjoying it as I wrote it, and looked at it a few hours later and binned the entire thing
So yeah totally agree
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