Game Mastering: Git Gud

I had the honor of helping a blossoming Dungeon Master (in terms of the popular format Paizo or Wizards of the Coast calls “Dungeons and Dragons,” though in any other platform you could debatably call them a “Game Master”) organize his game in a way that would be most conducive to fun gameplay while promoting a coherent plot. He has been a long time veteran of my games, all the way back when I started in 8th grade (I’ve come… a very long way since then).  He had so many cool ideas for a Drow campaign, but didn’t know how to bring it all together in a way that his players could fluidly follow along but still have freedom like in my games (knuckles to shoulder smugly…).  I can say with pride that I have made players cry on at least six occasions my story weaving has been so powerful (I rarely brag, but that is something I’m fucking PROUD of).  So he asked for my help.  The advice I passed on seemed to really help, and the more I explained it down to technical terms, the more I thought, “Damn, I need to write this shit down.”

So I pass onto you some of my wisdom.

Step One: Identify Your Audience

If you know what kind of players that are going to be running around in your world, you’ll have an idea of what kind of challenges are going to appeal to each of them.  Some examples include:

The Actor: This player loves to roleplay, and thrives in social banters, be it with their Charisma or just to dick around and act in ways they couldn’t in real life.  Expect them to explore every detail of the environment they are in, and also expect to come up with stupid shit they pick up on on the fly (example: “You pass by a woman in the market –” “I approach her.  ‘Hello lady, what are you doing? Who are you? Why do you have that dog? What’s you’re name?  What do you do for a living?'” “…Dude, it’s just a bystander.” “Is she going to be rude to me?” “Sigh… no, her name is… Delilah and she uh… she’s the blacksmith’s wife and uh… her dog is a pitpull named Fluffy.”) This player likes A LOT of attention.  They could literally be any alignment.

The Optimizer: Commonly called a “Rules Lawyer,” this player likes to crank out awesome numbers in combat or skills, and knows every feat and combination of abilities to score modified rolls at least 10 points over what is normal for their level, if not more.  They like “kick-in-the-door” style play and may not roleplay much.  Expect to enforce a “Broken Character” clause on these guys if they get out of hand.  They’ll probably play an alignment that allows them the best leg up, in the Neutral range, sometimes Lawful.

The Socializer: This player is there just because everybody else is and has fun just being in the group.  They may not have the rules memorized or even know them very well so they may need help in character creation or leveling.  Sometimes they fade to the background when their not rolling, doesn’t interject often without prompting and will most likely be the one making dice towers while everyone else is shouting about what would constitute as a +1 morale bonus to their roll.  This player almost always selects Neutral as their alignment.

The Runaway Train: This player will derail you in two seconds if you don’t keep an eye on them.  One minute they’ll be questioning an NPC for an investigation, the next minute they’ll be egging a noble’s house whilst covered in the blood and ash of an unplanned rampage involving indiscriminate arson and murder.  Giving them downtime or solo dialogue is an incredibly risky move that could cost you the rest of that gaming session trying to get the party back on track with your intended story line.  They will almost always be either Chaotic or Evil (often both).  Expect movie quotes and sing alongs to what usually boils down to violent solutions to problems you present that could have just as easily been solved with a simple Diplomacy check.

Step Two: Know Every Aspect of Your World

This is especially important if you have an Actor in your party.  If you’re running a mod, MEMORIZE THAT MAP.  Know every nook and cranny of the city or region you’ll be starting your characters in and expect them to explore.  The more sandbox you make it, the more authentic it feels.  Know what comes next, especially if the Runaway Train gets it in their head that they don’t give two flying fucks about what the rest of the party is supposed to be doing and goes in the complete opposite direction.

Step Three: Motivation

This is why backstory is SO IMPORTANT.  Unless you’re playing strictly “kick-in-the-door” style, the player’s characters are going to need a reason to stick with the main plot you have laid out or I promise you this: they won’t.  Stroke the Actor’s ego by pulling in an aspect of a long lost family in their six page story they wrote about their character.  Get the Socializer out of the background by dangling some sort of carrot in front of them.  Give the Runaway train a reason to keep themselves in check.  Promise numerical bonuses to the Optimizer.  What I often do is ask each player to comprise a three to six item “Wish List,” be it equipment or character development.  If all else fails to move the plot in a desired direction, pull out the list and make one of their desires a reward (given their not level 2 and they have requested the Ruby Rod of Asmodeus).

Three go to’s  I use to ensnare — I MEAN GUIDE — my players can be summed up as follows:

The NPC Pool: Actors love this.  Create a few key NPCs.  Really pound them out, and give them a tie to a character.  Develop a love interest (risky sometimes, but well worth it if you can pull it off), give them a skill the party needs them exclusively for or access to something on their Wish List.  This works best when you can emotionally embed them into the player’s minds, getting them attached.  Then when you need to fuel the story, send the NPC they care about in the direction you want them to follow.  Works every time.  Emotional build up takes a few sessions unless it’s written into a backstory, but if you time it right, you can really pack a wallop with their actions, even a death if you really need to put on the gas.  Pro Tip: NEVER make them all powerful, or the players might think you’re on an ego trip.  If the NPC always outshines the players, they will feel resentment towards them.  Give them a glaring weakness, let them fail or need help and let the players see them make mistakes.  Make them relatable at least on that level.

Insult to Injury: This can even motivate the Socializer so long as their somewhat invested in the success of their character.  This again utilizes the use of an NPC, but from a villainous standpoint.  Identify the antagonist, but as soon as you possibly can, make the party loathe them.  Give them the ability to blackmail, bully and antagonize the character in question as much as possible.  This is the one time it is okay to completely drive a character into the dirt with one caveat: you MUST grant the opportunity for revenge.  Kick them in the ego, shred their pride with a rusty grate and them watch them tear after this villain, eager for the chance to return the justice.  Don’t let the villain get away too many times; allow the players to exact the revenge they so heatedly desire.  If one of them utters, “FUCK this guy!!” in frustration, you have created an effective means to drive them to act in a manner that will thwart this NPC at any cost.  Direct in desired plot direction.

Tangible Reward: The most common thing an Optimizer will whine is, “What’s in it for me?” If that player is being stubborn for stubborn’s sake, offer them something they can’t refuse.  Bust out the Wish List and pick something to be an end goal for them, even if the only reason you can think of to get this goddamned stick in the mud to go to the Ruins of Avandor is “You know that +4 sonic burst blade you wanted?  Well it’s there, so go fucking get it, loser.” If the item in question is too powerful, promise it, but have it turn out to be something else more appropriate for their level, a counterfeit or those wishes they wanted from that lamp being granted by an extraordinarily fickle and sarcastic genie that will twist their words around and make them regret it (though don’t deny them at least a little bit of a bonus.  A reward isn’t genuine if they get dicked in the end.  If you have them chasing the carrot, let them have a bite now and then or they’ll stop chasing it).

Step Three: Choice Branching (ACCOUNT FOR EVERYTHING)

This is by far the most important part of planning as a GM.  Many GMs make the mistake of putting their players in a constant “Railroad,” never giving them the chance to go off in another direction.  This is tinder for a fire that the Runaway Train will ignite in an instant if they get too restless.  Once a tangent is gone off on with no choice branches back, you’ve lost your plot and you’ll have to plan from bare bones and scratch for next session with no build up from previous sessions.

So what do I mean by “choice branches?” Imagine a strait line, point A to point B.  This is the main plot.  But only one choice to follow is frankly put, boring.  Allow different routes to branch off in order to get to point B.  My base line is always three, but could be more, especially if something happens that you haven’t accounted for (in which case you will have to come up with shit on the fly to get things back on track.  If you have Step Two down, this may not be too difficult, but if you don’t have proper motivation in place, kiss your story goodbye).

Say you give three choices to arrive at a common goal, the Main Plot route, deviation C and deviation D.  Three solutions to a problem, usually catered to the play style your players have.  Usually social, combat or sneaky respectively.  Allow all three to get them to point B and let them choose!  This of course, may result in a Tangent, in which case the players continue to branch away from the plot.  If you can’t come around from point E back to the plot, you may have lost control and have to reroute the main plot to follow the Tangent.

This could also be performance based, so the pressure is on to roll well.  If they  fail, it’s not a try, try again until you succeed.  Something happens to send them off in a different branch and the other is forever lost.  This being said… ALWAYS ACCOUNT FOR COMPLETE AND UTTER FAILURE AND OVER THE TOP SUCCESS.  That is, natural 1s and natural 20s.  This makes the players feel like their actions, be it by choice or by roll, have an impact on the immediate story, though the overall plot arc remains intact if you can branch both amazing success and utter defeat back to the Main Plot (perhaps with an extra step if no one can seem to roll over a 9).

This being said, don’t punish for poor rolls too often.  Comedic relief is amazing, especially with spectacular failure.  Pruning player ego so it’s just right is tricky.  Make it too easy all the time and they’ll get cocky.  Make it too hard all the time and they’ll become discouraged.

Finally, create consequences for each branch followed.  Let the Runaway Train deal with the traitorous noble by burning down their house, sure.  But the next day have a bounty out on their head from the Watch and have investigators hounding their steps (even make a new tertiary plot! But beware those Tangents!)

If you found this helpful (or at least entertaining), leave a like and if you request more insight, I’ll happily write more about it!  My schedule got crazy busy with school, so updates might be every two weeks like they’ve been … but I’m throwing around the idea of another review next post.

Peace Out

~DMGhost

AKA synesthesia

featured image by MoulinBleu on Deviantart

Carpe DM House Rules

H’okay! SO! It’s been a crazy two weeks, and my excuse for not updating is a hectic move and an internet transfer that took WAY too long. Truth be told, I’m on vacation in Annapolis, and am loving the sun, the pool, the sites, the food…. everything but the fucking heat/humidity. But that’s what a pool is for!

So this week, I’m very excited to say not only will I be playing in a DnD 4e game, but running a Pathfinder campaign as well. There is hardly a thing in the world that brings me more joy than a good RPG (found more secrets in Undertale, but I gushed enough about it. I literally had NOTHING bad to say about it… I fangurled a little, and I apologize hahaha). So I’ve decided to share my house rule list, which is what I give all my players before the start of a campaign (some lessons have been learned the hard way…). My House Rules are good for any 3.0-.75 campaign, and can easily be adjusted for any platform.

Welcome to Carpe DM

The Dungeons and Dragons Night Extraordinaire

Thank you for joining my game! We have a lot of fun around here, but before we begin, I’d like to go over a few guidelines to make sure we all have a good time and minimize sour sports, hurt feelings or overall bad times.

1.) Submitted For Your Approval

All characters created must be submitted for DM approval prior to game play. This is to ensure that everyone is rolling around the same numbers so no one is drastically over or under powered.

2.) 1/1/1; 20/20/20; 7/7/7

My multiverse has a fickle Lady Luck, and she honors the d20 in strange ways. If you roll three critical successes in a row, congratulations! You gain a 10% experience increase for that gaming session. But beware, should you roll three critical failures in a row, your character implodes, resurrectable under special circumstances determined by the DM. What happens when you roll three sevens in a row? Roll them and find out…

3.) Booya and Fuckoff

I am a generous DM and should you use your wits creatively in game, catch an irrelevant detail, roleplay well or “pull a Grant” (see Carpe DM board 4) I award what are called “Booya” experience points, ranging anywhere between +10 and +500 points a haul. But mind you if you are playing with your phone, being a poor sport, are not prepared, or are generally being an ass I also penalize with “Fuckoff” points, ranging anywhere from -10 to -500 points as well.

4.) “Broken” Characters

We’re here to have fun. And while it is fun to optimize your character to crank out crazy numbers worth of damage, when you outshine the other players so much they pale in comparison and find it unfair to even stand next to you when you roll your dice, I draw the line. Once the party becomes unbalanced to the point where the CR of an encounter becomes impossible to gauge (hopefully before that point), you will be asked to retire that character and reroll one more appropriate to the party’s current level. To help ensure this, I have created a ban list. Currently this includes:

• Psionics

• Synthesis Summoners

• “Pun Pun” (and all derivatives thereof)

• Swordmasters

5.) Character Mulligans

Sometimes a character concept seems cool to start with but as time wears on it becomes clear that the build was not as nifty as you thought it was going to be. In this case if the party has access to in game resurrection means, I allow ONE campaign character mulligan where you may rebuild the class and race of your character up from level one to the current level of the party. To avoid abuse of the mulligan, you may only do this once per campaign, per character. The only exception to this rule is when the DM requests a rebuild under the clause of a “Broken Character.”

6.) Copyright Infringement

I am a writer at heart. A creative soul, otherwise I wouldn’t be a DM with a heavy roleplay element to my games. You play in my world with an understanding that all names, situations and happenings herein may (and probably will) be used in future publications. If you so desire you will be given proper credentials in the work.

7.) Because the “Voice In The Sky” Says So

I understand that there is a lot of material published to make gameplay smooth and easy to understand. Sometimes this is not the case and some reference material needs to be discussed and debated. When a rule comes under fire, or something seems amiss or unfair for any reason (even if a book says otherwise!!) DUNGEON MASTER HAS FINAL SAY. I am a fair deity most of the time, but sometimes things need to happen for sake of convenience, plot or time. If there is ever a dispute that is unclear that the DM is undecided on, it is to be decided on a d% high/low roll that the player in question is to call. Once the call is made, unless the decision causes a serious derailment at a later point in the story, the call remains in effect for the rest of the game.

8.) Showstopper Tokens

Once in a great while a character preforms a great deed that is so impressive that it is worthy of a “Showstopper” token. Only one of these precious items may be distributed per session, and only one may be used per in-game day. What qualifies for earning such a treasure:

• Beating incredible odds

• Getting the shit end of the stick repeatedly and being a good sport about it

• “Pulling a Grant”

• Getting very, very creative in combat

• Getting very, very creative in a series of skill checks

• Getting very, very, very creative in a roleplay

Using a Showstopper token gives you a variety of abilities, some of which are quite unique. These include:

• +4 to your next attack, skill check or roll

• One extra action on your turn

• An action out of your initiative turn

• One minor automatic success

• A daring and extraordinary maneuver off the books

• A unusual use of an item not listed

• Something so crazy you need to run it by the DM first

These tokens are hard to come by, so use them wisely.

9.) The Carpe DM Boards

One liners; we’re full of them. Sometimes a joke is only funny in context, and it’s so epic it takes its place on the Carpe DM boards. This is often called a LOL bonus, and depending how clever it is your joke might make the board. The base bonus is +50, but can go all the way up to +500 if you make everyone laugh hard enough. Should you become immortalized on the board you will also be credited on our Gamer’s Anonymous page.

I hope this clarifies the atmosphere of the game I’m trying to promote and answers any questions you might have. Remember, the point of this whole mess of math and critical thinking is to actually have fun (and believe it or not, if you word it right, you CAN put this on your resume. I’ll vouch for you). Please call ahead if you can’t make a game to make things easy on the plot, go easy on the dildos this time around and allow me to immerse you into a world of excruciating detail, one that I hope will fill you with wonder and adventure.

Peace

DMGhost

What is “pulling a Grant?” Let me tell you a story. We once roleplayed with a dude named Grant. He would do the CRAZIEST shit without ever attacking. He could take down a CR20 at level 3 using nothing but skill checks and a hodgepodge of random items, all by legit book rules. If the DM ever throws up their hands and cries “WHAT THE FUCK?!” upon a long and drawn out success, a “Grant” has been achieved. This requires an incredible amount of on the fly planning and good rolling, so doing so is no small feat.

I have a Tumblr of my Carpe DM boards and all the funny stories that led up to the one liners that made it, but I haven’t been keeping up on it. If you would like to check it out, do so here and I will start documenting our capers once more.  If you would like some LOLs, hop on over to Gamers Anonymous on Facebook and ask to join.  I shall gladly let you in on the fun ^_^

“DMGhost?” Don’t ask…

featured art by M0AI on Deviantart

Fantasy Game Review: Undertale

OKAY! I know I said that I would be doing a nostalgia review, but guess what? I LIED!! I just finished my second run through Undertale. I did true pacifist first, then a genocide, and holy shit, I was blown away both times.

Let’s start if you don’t know what I’m talking about. Undertale is a RECENT (2015) release on Steam by Toby Fox, just for PC, and once you finish it, you realize why it will never be anything but. This game not only incorporates normal game play, but breaks the fourth wall! Not just playing off the fact that the game knows you are a player, but enemies messing with game mechanics themselves, such as saving and menu options! There’s even an unlockable character by digging in the game files. Normally games have you kill enemies and earn “EXP” and gain “LV,” but they don’t stand for “experience” and “level.” (my mind was blown when I found out) You can choose to either “FIGHT” and kill enemies, or “ACT” in a certain way to spare them. This was introduced in the Metal Gear Solid stories, but this takes it to a whole new level.

Let me get to the overall story itself. SPOILER ALERT!

You are a human that’s fallen down into Mt. Ebott, a place where all monsters were sealed after a great war between humans and monsters. It’s really crappy down there, and everybody knows it. You think you are naming the avatar you are controlling but YOU ARE NOT. Who you are controlling is actually named “Frisk,”(conveniently gender neutral, as you can “flirt” with many monsters, male and female!) as is revealed at the end of a pacifist ending. You go through the whole game, finding out things about humans and monsters (most of which cannot tell that you in fact, are human yourself), thinking that you are the human most plot points are referring to. BUT IT’S ALL WRONG!!

Six humans came before you, and all the souls of which have been gathered by Asgore Dremurr in order to break the barrier that traps the monsters in the mountain. Seven are needed. GUESS WHO NUMBER SEVEN IS? Apparently the first was called “Chara” (play on “character”) and she was a murdering psychopath due to events that led her to befriend the prince of the Underworld, named Asriel. I won’t spill all the beans in case you want to play this yourself (BECAUSE THE SECRETS AND REPLAY ARE LITERALLY ENDLESS!), but he ended up in a non-feeling, flower form, who guides you periodically in a really creepy way to promote destruction and chaos (which you can choose not to do). In a pacifist ending, he is the last boss, and incredibly difficult. He is twisted, but for a heartbreaking reason. You can even spare him! In the genocide run, at first he is your friend, but it quickly becomes apparent that YOU are the evil heartless thing, and I end up feeling quite bad for him.

The characters are tangible, deep and feel so real they are like your friends. The rundown:

Toriel is the first face you see after Flowey, and she is a play on “tutorial” because she shows you how to play the game in a way that’s relevant to plot! Kill her in the fight you have to initiate to get out of the first area?! YOU MONSTER! After she was so nice and loving to you!! (if you kill her and have spared some creatures [even ONE], her death seems like a mistake. But on genocide, her reaction is much, much different.)

Sans (a play on the font “comic sans” for his dialogue box) at first seems like a really funny, laid back and lazy dude. It turns out, he knows much more than he lets on. Ironically, unlike every other character in the game, you only find out the most about him in the genocide ending. He will make you laugh, doing anything from “plaguing” his brother Papyrus with “incidental music” to piling 30 hot dogs on your head. He’ll even call you on being such a tough cookie on genocide. I was not expecting him to be the last (almost impossible) boss at the end of genocide.

Papyrus (also a play on the font his dialogue box uses) was one of my favorites. He is Sans’ brother, and his a kind of lovable, dorky idiot, who only wants love and acceptance. The way he goes about it by shouting and making friends by “throwing awful puzzles at people and fighting them” is hilarious. He often foils himself. He dreams of becoming a part of the Royal Guard and impressing Undyne, and though this dream is never fully realized (in all but one ending I believe), his dedication to it is admirable.

Undyne (play on “undying,” or a reference to the aquatic spiritual nature of water in some Pagan thought) is full of “determination,” something usually humans and some Boss Monsters only have (and allows you to save). If you kill her (which is exceptionally hard, thought not as hard as Flowey or Sans), she uses this to extend the fight well beyond her mortal capacity. If you befriend her, she becomes the badass, bitch friend that’s extreme in everything she does. If you hang out with her, she will confess that she doesn’t want Papyrus in the Royal Guard because he’s too soft, and has been teaching him cooking instead .If his spaghetti is any indication of his potential, he’s lovably hopeless in a dopey, self absorbed sort of way. Undyne understands this, and sort of helps her friends in her aggressive, all-or-nothing sort of way.

Alphys (some say an anagram for “shy pal,” or a play on “physics,” as she is a scientist, or even an ironic play on the Greek meaning of the word “powerful”) is a shy, unconfident weeaboo with a stutter who would rather make others happy than herself. She is hardcore crushing on Undyne, which you don’t really play all the way through unless you play true pacifist to the end. Her love of instant noodles and anime makes her incredibly relatable to a lot of gamers (she even claims that anime is human history!). She hides in her laboratory a lot, afraid to admit her failures, which you explore AFTER you beat the game the FIRST time on pacifist (to get the REAL happy ending, you have to beat the game twice on the same file after completing certain events). In a non-violent play through, she is very helpful, if shy, though she makes very understandable mistakes, some small, and some very, very big. You can even go on a date with her (and at an earlier point Papyrus, if you flirt with him), though it’s actually hooking her and Undyne up. It speaks worlds on gaining confidence, however you don’t even meet her on a genocide run (but if you abort genocide in Hotland, you can get her to become ruler of the underground!).

Mettaton (“metta” meaning self-reference and “ton” meaning a lot) is Dr. Alphys’ creation, though he’s more for entertainment than human destruction. He’s a robot that is the star of the show, and often televises his capers with you, though they are always “foiled” by Alphys. In reality, Alphys was the one to sick him on you, only so she could save you. Mettaton gets sick of this and comes after you for real at one point, where you see his true, sexy form (holy fanfictions Batman!). His goal is to take your soul and go beyond the barrier and become a star for humans (screw everybody else!), but should you choose to spare him and get his ratings over 10,000 his loyal fans convince him to stay and that’s the last you see of him. This cybernetic nightmare is hilarious to be chased around by, there’s even a Final Fantasy Six reference when he sings to you in a dress on a stage. I LOLed.

Napstabook (a reference to the early file sharing forum “Napster,” an easy guess from his headphones) is a ghost that actually first appears right in the Ruins, but I mention him here as he is the cousin of the ghost that was used to bring Mettaton life, Hapstablook (a plot point that’s difficult to uncover). This sad little ghost is very mopey and unsure of himself. All he needs is a little cheering up! Unless of course, you attack him when you first see him, in which case he informs you that he’s already dead, you can’t kill a ghost and that he was just lowering his HP just to be polite. You actually lose an EXP for fighting him down! (I haven’t tried this, but what happens when you only spare him…?)

Asgore Dremurr (this one had me stumped until I saw someone comment that Asgore was an anagram for “aegros”, a Greek word for sad) is the king of the Underworld (who is apparently very bad at naming things) and has ordered all humans that come to the Underworld be captured and brought to him in order to break the barrier that traps all monsters forever. His wife greatly despised this mentality, and left him for it. On a pacifist run, he clearly doesn’t want to fight you, but he knows it’s necessary, and destroys the option to give him mercy until you literally beat him to an inch of his life. Monsters often refer to him as a big pushover and a really nice guy, but good lord and lady is he scary to fight! When you go to the “True Laboratory” you find out that Toriel had been his wife, and they had a son named Asriel together. When the first human fell down (the one you name at the beginning of the game, otherwise known as Chara), they took them in and the human befriended Asriel, growing up together. An awful tragedy occurred in which they both lost their lives, but due to the nature of monster souls, human souls and a mysterious force called “determination,” Asriel met a terrible fate…

Asriel Dremurr (anagram for “serial murderer”) turns out to be the true antagonist all along (if YOU don’t end up being just that by means of Chara channeling through you), but he only does these terrible things because he loves you and doesn’t want you to leave. Once he gained the ability to “save” his progress with a human and monster soul inside a soulless vassal (a golden flower, eventually called “Flowey”), he started manipulating time lines (something Sans is very aware of as well) and falling into despair. He lost regard for all life after he lost his ability to feel compassion (though at the end of genocide, it is very clear he still feels fear). He’s adorable in his child form, but Photoshop Flowey is one of the most terrifying boss battles I’ve ever played. Saving Asriel in the second pacifist final boss run gave me chills.  … Okay, I cried.  A game hasn’t made me cry since Twilight Princess!

Even more amazing, whenever you reset the game it remembers! It remembers everything you did even after you quit without saving. It remembers every ending you complete, and in what order. Once you complete a genocide run, your file is forever tainted unless you uninstall and reinstall the game.

Don’t even get me started on the music! Everything is 8-bit, just like the graphics (with the exception of the very last bosses in pacifist), but I would give my left nipple to hear it in full orchestral form! What an amazing score! Each character has a theme, and the events that unfold play directly on those themes. Each area has several different versions that play depending on what’s going on in the plot (kill every monster until the message “but nobody came” pops up in encounters and the music gets very creepy).

Because I played true pacifist all the way through first, I was literally emotionally hurting to do the genocide run. The characters are that solid, like your favorite book characters but you can actually interact with them and change their opinions based on your actions. EVERYTHING has consequence in this game, every last action you take, and this is a work of genius that rivals Final Fantasy Seven *gasp!*

I know I haven’t uncovered every secret there is, far from it, I’m sure (though temmie armor is incredibly useful!!), because depending on who you spare and who you kill, there are at least six other endings. I regret doing genocide second, because there is always a comment on the monster dust on my hands when I run through again (monsters turn to dust when they die). The game has a secret save registry that you have nothing to do with, so even if you change your mind about a decision and go back to your last save to change it, the characters tend to KNOW. This level of attention to detail … it’s no wonder Fox is up for the fancy awards next to the big guns like Nintendo and Sony.

11/10, WILL PLAY UNTIL THE END OF TIME.

The fandom is incredibly rich (and a little weird, but what fandom isn’t?). If you haven’t seen or heard about this game GETERDUN. RIGHT GODDAMNED NOW. I haven’t said a game has been my favorite unless it was Final Fantasy Seven since 1997, and this shattered my world view. This is the new standard for fantasy gaming. I’m eagerly awaiting The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which is rumored to have a map 9x the size of Skyrim’s (which in case you didn’t know, is literally the size of Georgia). I also am amped for the long awaited Final Fantasy Seven Remake, though as a hardcore fan, I know they’ll change some things to accommodate for further plot development in later games related to that story. I dunno how I feel about that, but I guess we’ll find out.

I don’t think either of these games are going to come close to the Undertale experience, no matter how awesome the graphics engine is. If you would like to play, you can find it on Steam and don’t forget the soundtrack! It’s worth it, I promise!!

Featured art “Asriel Dremurr” by kristoferngully on Deviantart.

Stranger: Nice to meet you. Me: Give it time

It is every creative soul’s greatest desire to share what they see with you.  To immerse you in it the way we are.  Some do this with writing, others doing it by painting, photography and other endless forms of art.  This is especially true in the fantasy genre, where things happen that could never be real in mundane life.

Fantasy to me is a safe place in my mind, a place where anything can happen.  Mind you, my stories rarely have happy or perfect endings, but there is an aspect of creating the world to my fancy that is thrilling to me.  I fuel this fire many ways, writing short stories, longer projects like novels, writing articles, painting, photography and my favorite, role playing games that test my creativity like table top d20 Dungeons and Dragons or d10 systems like World of Darkness.  My adventure so far has filled me to the brim with inspiration, and man am I anxious to share what’s inside my head.  Being a Game Master has allowed me to escort people to another realm and bring them to awe and wonder at the impressive (and sometimes downright quirky) details.  I want to not just do that to five or so people at at time, but the world as well.  You know that really sweet goosebumpy feel after you’ve had a brilliant idea or experienced something moving? I want to share that rush I get with everyone I can, like any good story can do.  I have brought people to tears (I brag about that a lot haha), I have made people laugh but best of all I have made people think.

I was told by my mother to do something that brings me joy with my life.  Well this is it.  You bring me joy by reading what I write, seeing it the way I see it, and being moved by what you see.  I love feedback, good and bad, as long as it is constructive (a professional way of saying easy on the hate, bro) and thrive on interaction with others of creative mind or had an opinion on what I’ve written.  The way I evaluate my work is by how people react.  I’ll take anything but “Meh, it was alright.” If I’ve made you feel, I’ve accomplished my goal.

All those wonderfully written words… it’s going to crumble down to crude wit and outright strangeness after a while, I just know it.  Please note that I am highly unpredictable, as are most writers, and I’ll be just as likely to post an article on the latest fantasy genre related thing out or a random name generator link as a webcomic that perfectly describes my mood (i read strange shit… cyanide and happiness if you care for a flavor).  Yes, I drop the F-bomb.  A lot.  Click that Twitter link, I dare you (you’ll find out just what kind of drugs I’m on!).  Sounded very classy a few paragraphs ago, didn’t it? I’ll quote one of my many characters (you’ll meet them all!) Y’lenn:

“I lied.”

featured image by Toonikun on Deviantart