#so when they redux their game and had that character finish their arc what do you know they had one of the best character arcs | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hoochieblues · 3 years

Text

100 Days of Writing: Day 2

For your current WIP: What motivates you to write this specific story? What makes this story special for you? Is there a special twist/trope/setting you want to explore? What got you started on this particular story?

for @the-wip-project

Bold assumption that I can narrow this down to one current thing. Gah.

So... this is a story about redemption, compassion, and rediscovering freedom, I guess? bl #writeblurble to ignore.

rn I’m doing two mostly two things. One is reduxing and finishing an old fanfic series that’s been on hiatus for far, far too long, and the other is a novel I’ve been wrestling to write since I inherited about 2000 pages of incomplete mss from my late kind-of-cousin, several years ago.

The novel has gone through many changes. I got started on it partly from a sense of obligation - she died young of ovarian cancer and wanted someone to do something with her work; I said I would - but also because something stuck out to me about the idea.

My cousin’s original story - a 20 page sketch for a fantasy novel that featured an urchin princess and a man with multitudes in his head - is now a solarpunk socialist manifesto where the heroine, who spends much of the book with her jaw wired shut, regains her kingdom only to rip it down. It’s got a lot in it about diversity, disability, and the importance of change... which probably sounds a lil wanky, but has been deeply personal & also why it’s been hard to write (life stuff and the need for a butt ton of research notwithstanding). There’s also a female-led mentorship/found family relationship, which I don’t think we see enough of in fantasy.

I love challenging the tropes and expectations of genres, which is partly what happened with my fic series, too. I started writing it simply because I fell in love with the Dragon Age world and knew I wanted to keep it alive after I played the game (Origins, initially) - and for me writing is partially about making things ‘real’, exploring ideas and codifying or solidifying them in my head - but it soon developed into a realisation that I loved the freedom of playing in someone else’s sandbox. At a time in my life when I was close to burnout with trying to make my creativity fit other people’s needs and desires, fic was a way to be like ‘okay, within this framework, you can go nuts and not worry about anything’ and that was just wonderful.

I also found that I related super hard to the whole city elf thing... perhaps not in the ways that a lot of players have, because for me it’s not an echo of racism or prejudice I’ve personally faced, but more to do with the fact I grew up in poverty, in tight-knit communities whose strength and internalisation of structural prejudice could become limiting. (viz: we do not use the doorbell because that’s for police and social workers; we know we are being watched if there’s house-to-house enquiries about a recent robbery, so we don’t say shit; we don’t go to college, because that’s for those people... you know. I’ve got a whole wealth of discourse on this.)

I’ve loved exploring the character arcs of my fic OCs and engaging with something we rarely see in genres that so often involve prophecies and world-saving and so on... what if the chosen one really isn’t that much of a badass? What’s the toll of all this on them? It’s that Kurt Vonnegut thing of cathartic character torture, but with the freedom to be totally self-indulgent when it comes to exploring the world and the amount you want to dig into it.

And through that indulgence lies - I guess - self-compassion. Letting myself explore things. Vent through writing, indulge in what makes me connect emotionally with the characters I either created or borrowed for a while.

Recently I started writing some au drabbles as companion pieces to redrafting the main series - kind of a ‘what would happen if I’d done this instead’ thing - and it’s been really creatively rewarding. I’ve written more and had more cohesive ideas since I started this project than I have in like two years... and that’s valuable to me beyond measure. It’s a redemption for leaving everything fallow so long, including my own needs and my own creativity/creative freedom.

Anyway, behold my feels.

If you made it this far, you deserve a medal. I don’t have one, so here’s a link to a lil fic I wrote this week that prequels my fic series and gets into far more detail than anyone ever needed about my headcanon Tabrises, their sprawling family tree, and how Shianni ended up in Denerim in the first place:

AO3

Thanks for reading.

#100daysofwriting #writeblurble #dragon age fanfiction #straight outta denerim #it's 4am and i can't sleep #so y'all get my disjointed rambling #at least until the medication kicks in #no ragrats

1 note · View note

becblanc · 5 years

Photo

(the boy is back in town. the boy doesnt want to be back in town. wait boy where are you going.)

finally made a ref for my pokemon insurgence protagonist after being inspired by the one @frightguard made [x]. i love this character a lot and have written quite a bit on them. some extra info under the cut

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHARACTER PROFILE

Dont want to read the whole thing? this pretty much sums up josiah

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ACTUAL CHARACTER PROFILE

latched onto damian super quick since he was the first person they encountered that wasnt trying to kill them. cherishes vijol with their life; truly their best friend and an irreplaceable partner. tolerates nora but really doesnt like being around her after she bullied damian in utira.

what is self-care. or shoes. or sleep? huh. “local hero doesnt practice personal hygiene, more at 11″.

as soon as they get to suntouched and see the tacky gaudy cape on the clothes rack they buy it immediately. “look im alone, dont know jack shit about myself, a good # of people want to kill me, fuck it im buying the edgy cape. if i die, i die in style.”

very much a “reluctant hero type”. starts off extremely skittish and not wanting to get into any sort of conflict, but gradually gains confidence as their team evolves. gets a hoot out of fucking around with the abyssal cultists as audrey. by the time of the infernal infiltration operation theyre almost too cocky in their abilities. blasts gasolina on a boombox as they storm in. when the thing with the darkrai cult happens again, avoids the fuck out of going back to the shade forest. still carrying a bit of trauma from that whole incident. bad memories. all the bravado from before is instantly gone.

after having to return to the surface world from the dream realm, never stops looking for a way back. that becomes their whole drive. They’ll Get Him Out. They Will.

Really Really Really doesn’t want to be the next augur. I Guess I Dont Have A Choice Though, Huh. doesnt want to be famous. wants to disappear into obscurity so they can live a normal life. arceus wont have it.

The timeless: “you’re a fantastic trainer- you’ve beaten all of us. How would you like to be the next augur?”

Josiah:

refuses the crystal shards. boxed them immediately. Thats A Liability.

wants to care more about exploring Holon but doesn’t. I Just Really Want To Get Back To The Dreamworld, out of my way. Everybody just stay the FUCK out of my way. Gets incredible annoyed when people keep trying to fight them

as soon as they get the magic carpet, yeets right the fuck out of holon to get back to the dreamworld. is heartbroken when the first thing adam does is ask that they help take care of the deoxys problem and malon. Cries when adam talks about “father and daughter side by side…. Just as it should be”. cries again when damian comes to.

eventually moves into adam’s old HQ, lives there now. reopens the gaea town gym so challengers can resume taking on the championship. the badge resembles their dragon-based team while paying homage to their father’s badge. since the cults are all finally quelled, augur calls dont come in as frequently. eventually things calm down and josiah can finally get some fucking rest. never really got back the bravado they had from before darkrai cult: pt 2

-------------------------------------------------------

TEAM INFO

Lead: Kirby (mew)

sets up barrier + amnesia, then baton passes it off to the teammate most suited for countering the opponents team

Physical specialist: Sweet boi (delta dragonite)

also the secondary lead. sets up livewire, then punches away with drain punch, thunderpunch, or aqua tail. extremely tanky and self-reliant when receiving kirby’s boosts (which is often)

Special specialist: Respite (delta charizard)

one of the many mega options available, typically takes up sweeper role

Mixed attacker: Saburra (flygon)

can change depending on the need for good ground type coverage with STAB, or extremely strong substitute breaker as mega flygon. good flexibility and type coverage

Wallbreaker: Wingdings (delta noivern)

leech seed + nasty plot/giga drain combo + big root + kirbys defense buffs is something to behold. frail but can heal a ton of HP if done right. can go toe-to-toe with legendaries thanks to immense healing capabilities

Jack-of-All-Trades: Vijol (eevee)

moonblast and icebeam provide type coverage as mega eevee, thunderbolt provides speed to outpace faster opponents and land a finishing blow if necessary. single-handedly carrier the team through the champion match: redux as mega sylveon

keeps 3 mega options on the team for flexibility, depending on type coverage needs. the opponent will never know which mega to expect. the typical recipients of kirby buffs are sweet boi and wingdings due to sweet boi’s tankyness and wingdings’ sp. attack augmenting capabilities combined with healing.

----------------------------------------------------------------

SOUNDTRACK INFO

i like to have certain songs that i associate with parts of the game, making small montages in my head to them. here are some excerpts. click on the location names to hear a song i associate with that arc of the story.

i dont have many songs for early game since i was listening to the insurgence ost for so much of it, however:

Telnor Town, meeting Damian

Travelling the region at night (typically this was the only time i was free)

Abyssal base infiltration

Doing any kind of heroic shit

Infernal Base infiltration

Traversing the Dream Realm

The growing suspicion that adam is josiah’s father (i had guessed it correctly before the reveal in the 8th gym)

no alt music for the nyx battle because the insurg ost for that fight is already bangin

Finally reaching Gaea Town..........

Exploring No Man’s Land late at night

This is a favorite.

Squaring up to fight Reukra before he can summon arceus

when i played pokemon uranium, i associated The Felt [x] album with the scenes of infiltrating the abandoned nuclear plants, especially jade dragon, swing of the clock, rhapsody in green, and variations. (my luxelong- a fakemon which is based on imperial dragons and has a jade tail, is literally a Jade Dragon, was name Rhapsody in line with this album). i really liked having an “associated album” with the game so i decided to do it for insurgence as well

the album that takes that title for insurgence is the Spiderverse OST [x], many of the songs i can see in a lot of different venues in the insuregnce plot thats about it. i actually even have more written about this character on a word document. why cant i have this much passion about my actual OC’s.

josiah is also my go-to boredom character to draw while watching lectures for class

#im laughin because despite being a silent protagonist we both headcanoned a character w/ deep eyebags who is just Done With This Whole Thing #pokemon insurgence #fakemon #pokemon fangames #rachel draws things

20 notes · View notes

jennamoran · 5 years

Text

The Horizon Campaign (15)

Link to the Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG, on DriveThru

Link to Fortitude: the Glass-Maker’s Dragon, on DriveThru

Let’s talk some more about the Horizon campaign(s)!

Previously,

we built some connections between prospective Main Characters and Egyptian deities.

Then, we looked at what characters the campaign would have to have, pulled some out into a possible secondary campaign, and worked on assigning starting Arc colors.

Then, we explored some possible new characters for the secondary campaign, including the Mystery Typhon… but even after two different takes on her, we weren’t quite there.

Then, we finalized something like a concept there and looked at gender-balancing the default versions of our sets of eight characters.

Then, we assigned Arc colors and archetypes to the characters in the secondary campaign, and started talking about Rinley’s first story in that campaign.

Then we made a first stab at that story … and failed!

So we tried again!

and then did a couple more Rinley stories

and a couple more …

and took a brief break to sum up what we had.

Then, we sketched out the corresponding quest set.

Then, we figured out its metadata.

Then, we worked out the first quest!

Then, we started our work on the second, but, because I went into real detail on the design of the quest options, didn’t actually finish it.

Then, we just kept going!

Today, let’s finish this quest up!

Right, Where Were We? (Redux)

So the last few ideas I’d had for major goals or quest flavor items for this quest I’d loosely recorded as being about:

weird creatures

hunting

“don’t be there,” and

“here are some people to fit in with.”

What does that mean, exactly?

Well ...

Weird Creatures

I’m not sure if I was running out of ideas when I reached this point in the initial writeup, or if I was running out of steam when I was expanding on stuff ...

Regardless, much like “legacies” at the end of our last entry, this isn’t super-inspiring.

It’s not empty of inspiration:

I mean, there’s cryptid hunting, and weird Horizon stuff, and weird Outside stuff, and Hoop Snake, and all that.

But it’s not singing.

Maybe it’s just that “weird creatures” isn’t actually landing on the thematic heart of any of it, just the F/X.

Regardless, let’s toss in:

you encounter a strange creature—something that you’ve never seen before

The imagery in my head is sort of threatening and sort of caught-by-the-inspiration-of-it, so we’ll color it like so:

[[RED]][[SWORD]] you encounter a strange creature—something that you’ve never seen before

Hunting

Fortunately, even if I am losing steam here, there’s just three left, and we’ve already wound up covering this one IMO with “there’s a monster-hunting motif” and “the game’s afoot!”

So, more like two, really.

Don’t Be There

This one would be a major goal:

Something convincingly argues or pushes against your ability to fit in to the place that you’ve found in or for this quest.

Here are Some People to Fit With

The last common element I identified in the first brainstorming pass was the idea that you’ve found a group of people to fit in with. Or, more generally, a place.

You’ve found a situation you belong in, as I said in an earlier post.

One way is to make this a major goal, and that was almost what I did just now, but honestly, I don’t know if comfort works like that. I don’t know if you dramatically find a place you belong and 5 XP and then you go back to doing whatever else.

It’s more like:

[[MOON]][[CROOK]] you kind of feel like you belong

And We’re Done!

Let’s put it all together.

After going over all the initial ideas, and before doing any reconciliation or editing, we have three major goals:

Someone terrible invites you to join their group

Something convincingly argues or pushes against your ability to fit in to the place that you’ve found in or for this quest.

You discover a grand conspiracy or secret related to this Arc

And uh

sixteen

quest flavor options.

...

Well, OK Then!

The first thing I’m going to do after listing them is sort them. So, to avoid the pointless repetition, I’m going to skip past the first list and sort them a little before I repeat them below.

sort sort sort

OK, the 16 are:

[[MOON]][[BLUE]] you compose part of a letter, journal entry, or news article

[[MOON]][[BLUE]] there’s a monster-hunting motif.

[[MOON]][[BLUE]] you have a meal with a weird peer group in a weird but appropriate place.

[[MOON]][[RED]] you attend a remembrance or a festival focusing on the past

[[MOON]][[STAR]] you’re in a maze-like, shadow-filled, excessive place

[[MOON]] you feel the weight of history

[[MOON]][[CROOK]] You visit a lab, archive, or room full of books

[[MOON]][[CROOK]] you work on something for a recognized extracurricular activity or club

[[MOON]][[CROOK]] talking shop with a deviant scientist

[[MOON]][[CROOK]] you kind of feel like you belong

[[SWORD]][[CROOK]] You hang out with a student tied to the Arc’s setting or storyline

[[SWORD]][[RED]] you encounter a strange creature—something that you’ve never seen before

[[BLUE]][[RED]] socializing with ghosts, monsters, and things that go bump in the night

[[BLUE]][[GREEN]] the game’s afoot!

[[BLUE]][[GREEN]] you’re challenged by a monster in a position of power

[[MOON]][[GREEN]] you feel disjointed, dislocated, disconnected from what’s going on around you.

... these are all pretty good, TBH.

Trimming Things Down

I kind of want to keep them all. I don’t think I can do that. It’s not that I can’t bend my default rule of “1 quest flavor option per 5 XP;” I’ve done that before, and I can do it again.

... but I don’t think 16 flavor options will fit on a card and I don’t think players can easily process them.

That failing, I kind of want to keep as many as I can.

... but that means making this a 45-XP quest.

Which Raises the Question ...

How long should this quest be?

... it can be long, but it doesn’t really want to be super-long. I think.

Like, 40 is fine, 45 is OK, I will live with it if I have to, but 35-40 is probably better?

So, it’s serious pruning shears time!

Savagery

Let me start with some brutal trimming. Let me cut away everything that doesn’t leap out and yell at me that it’s both a good quest item and a really good fit for this particular quest.

Leaving:

[[MOON]][[BLUE]] you have a meal with a weird peer group in a weird but appropriate place.

[[MOON]][[RED]] you attend a remembrance or a festival focusing on the past

[[MOON]] you feel the weight of history

[[MOON]][[CROOK]] You visit a lab, archive, or room full of books

[[MOON]][[CROOK]] you work on something for a recognized extracurricular activity or club

[[MOON]][[CROOK]] talking shop with a deviant scientist

[[MOON]][[CROOK]] you kind of feel like you belong

[[SWORD]][[CROOK]] You hang out with a student tied to the Arc’s setting or storyline

[[BLUE]][[RED]] socializing with ghosts, monsters, and things that go bump in the night

[[BLUE]][[GREEN]] the game’s afoot!

[[BLUE]][[GREEN]] you’re challenged by a monster in a position of power

[[MOON]][[GREEN]] you feel disjointed, dislocated, disconnected from what’s going on around you.

Down to 12, which is an improvement.

Redundant Quest Items

I feel like we can drop at least one of “you visit a lab...,” “you work on something for a recognized extracurricular activity...,” and “talking shop.”

I think we can drop the lab/archive one, because it’s good but its content core is covered by the two items below it.

I feel like “socializing with ghosts, monsters...” and “you have a meal with a weird peer group” is redundant. Let’s ... drop the meal part.

That gives us:

[[MOON]][[RED]] you attend a remembrance or a festival focusing on the past

[[MOON]] you feel the weight of history

[[MOON]][[CROOK]] you work on something for a recognized extracurricular activity or club

[[MOON]][[CROOK]] talking shop with a deviant scientist

[[MOON]][[CROOK]] you kind of feel like you belong

[[SWORD]][[CROOK]] You hang out with a student tied to the Arc’s setting or storyline

[[BLUE]][[RED]] socializing with ghosts, monsters, and things that go bump in the night

[[BLUE]][[GREEN]] the game’s afoot!

[[BLUE]][[GREEN]] you’re challenged by a monster in a position of power

[[MOON]][[GREEN]] you feel disjointed, dislocated, disconnected from what’s going on around you.

... and we’re down to 10.

It’s getting a little harder to trim them. I don’t know if I can get all the way down to a 35-XP quest.

... but if one of those flavor items can become a major goal, then I only have to trim one of them or combine two of them to have a solid 40-XP quest.

Which One Becomes a Major Goal?

... probably the festival focusing on the past is the best candidate.

I also feel like that might want to be adapted somehow to work better with time travel, so the phrasing needs something.

Speaking of Time Travel

I think the only student you really have to be able to hang out with is Akino, so maybe just move “or time traveler” into the deviant scientist bit?

... wait, Akino is probably not a time traveler. They are probably native to their time. Just, like, aware of time stuff.

Or something.

So, like “talking shop with a deviant scientist or someone else outside of their time”?

I dunno, let’s not be cute. “or someone loosely anchored in time?”

That might get us there!

Major Goals

Blah blah 5 XP when

Someone terrible invites you to join their group;

Something convincingly argues or pushes against your ability to fit in to the place that you’ve found in or for this quest;

You discover a grand conspiracy or secret related to this Arc; or

You attend a ceremony, festival, or remembrance that connects you to the past.

Up to 20 XP.

Quest Flavor

Blah blah 1 XP when:

[[MOON]] you feel the weight of history

[[MOON]][[CROOK]] you work on something for a recognized extracurricular activity or club

[[MOON]][[CROOK]] talking shop with a deviant scientist or someone loosely anchored in time

[[MOON]][[CROOK]] you kind of feel like you belong

[[BLUE]][[RED]] socializing with ghosts, monsters, and things that go bump in the night

[[BLUE]][[GREEN]] the game’s afoot!

[[BLUE]][[GREEN]] you’re challenged by a monster in a position of power

[[MOON]][[GREEN]] you feel disjointed, dislocated, disconnected from what’s going on around you.

40 XP quest!

Let’s pick a color for it ...

I guess this should be orange. You’re in a situation, you’re trying to fit in, but ... it’s a struggle.

Is 40 XP Too Much?

I’ve just noticed that the last quest was 45 XP, and I’m a little worried. But ...

I may want to revisit that, but, well, “the main quests are just too long” is what simplified quests are for.

So for right now, I think it’ll be OK.

I think all I’ll do is tweak the punctuation slightly on the last entry and we’re good to go.

#cmwge #patreon-supported posts #the horizon campaign #rinley yatskaya

11 notes · View notes