This is meant to be a discussion / feedback thread.
About the future of the quest. A couple problems have appeared as I ran it and checked the notes. First, over the past 3 months that I've tried my hand at various oneshots, I have mostly forgotten the plot. The notes are still there, and I remember the general direction, but the details of the scenes I planned are lost to time. I can reinvent them as I go (probably), so this is not a big problem for me, but maybe for you, my players, it will be a greater one. Lesson learned, do not take long breaks between threads without extensive note-taking.
The main problem is the progression and system of Monster Reincarnation. I've started it as a LitRPG type thing, with all the system notifications about health lost, skill usage, levelling up, formal quests - basically the entire videogame turned quest package. The difficulty about this is that it takes up a lot time to balance it against itself, remember all the stats and mechanics I invented, and integrate all the new mechanics I come up with (I did that over the course of the quest) for essentially no gain. Like I've said a couple times in the past, it is mostly fluff for the "number go up" feel with <span class="mu-i">some</span> but not a lot of effect on the plot and battles. Like "you have a freezing spell, so it affects fire monsters more" or "it takes few hits to kill a 300HP monster with 80 damage skills" type stuff without sure numbers behind it.
Over time I lost interest in this type of system. It's a lot of work to write down and update the stats and skills, think of how strong the later monsters will be and which skills it makes sense to give them, invent stats and skills befitting an NPC. Basically a lot of technical note-taking that you'd expect from a videogame database, not a questmaster.
I thought about retconning it completely, so the world doesn't work on skills and videogame mechanics anymore, but they're deeply embedded in the worldbuilding and the previous plot, so that would be a very different type of story. Also, most of the previous events wouldn't make sense without this system, so that would break the plot a lot.
Starting the quest anew, without it? I'm not sure you, my players, would be interested in that type of quest, or really even ready to go at the same premise for the third fucking time holy shit (fourth if you count the og quest by another QM). Also I didn't only work on mechanics, but also the lore of the kingdoms and gods, characters and history, so it'd suck to lose all of that and start fresh. (1/2)
Your name is <span class="mu-s">Vincent Cruz.</span> You work at a small accounting firm somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Texas. By accounts, you are a complete and total nobody.
You've spent the last five years of your life doing the same monotonous routine day in and day out.
Wake up. Catch a bus. Suffer the indignity of underfunded public transportation for an hour. Arrive at work. Get a cup of coffee. Go to your cubical. Work on financial and tax paperwork for eight hours. Go home. Watch TV. Get a restless six hours of sleep.
30 GOTO 10.
That's the way it's been up to this point. The job pays well enough and the other options weren't much better.
Today begins as much as any other day. You step off the rolling hunk of steel which you could call a bus and into the looming shadow of your workplace, a grey steel and glass monolith that holds nothing but human misery inside. Just how you like it. Ha.
Your body and mind prepare to go on autopilot to get through your routine. Your legs carry you forward automatically and your face is set into the daily mask of impassivity.
You're stopped by the receptionist before you can even step foot into your office.
"Mr. Cruz." The chipper receptionist offers her usual plastic smile. "Mr. Cantwell would like to speak to you." Oh. <span class="mu-i">Great.</span> Your manager wants to talk to you? You can already imagine the dragged out conversation he's going to put you through.
You slump your shoulders. "Okay. Thank you." Your body swerves down the hallway opposite of where your office is. It doesn't take long to find yourself in front of his office door. Lucky bastard actually gets an office all to himself. You knock on the door. No answer. You check the doorknob and it's...<span class="mu-b">unlocked?</span> Huh. You open the door to reveal a room completely shrouded in darkness. You can't see a damn thing in here.
You have half the mind to leave right now... but you might as well see this little jape all the way through. Why not? You step inside and the last thing you remember is <span class="mu-r">two metal prongs being jabbed into your back</span> and the <span class="mu-r">accompanying surge of electricity flooding through your entire body.</span>
You wake up after God knows how long. You can't see anything and, as you try to get up, you realize your arms and legs are tied to something. There's a few whispers and footsteps then the bag gets removed from your head. It's still too dark to make out much of your surroundings, but you can make out what's immediately in front of you.
There's a man sitting on the other side of the stainless steel table that you're forcefully sat at. He's an older gentleman wearing a simple white labcoat with a turtleneck sweater underneath, late 50s if you had to guess. He adjusts the desk lamp (the only source of light in this room) to get a better look at you.
"I apologize for the, erm, troublesome circumstances that surround our little introduction." He lets out a forced chuckle. "<span class="mu-b">To keep it brief, you've been promoted!</span>"
You sit alone at a large desk in a dark room. You were escorted in here roughly fifteen minutes ago so that you could have your interview with The Hunters Bureau. The de facto group for dealing with the supernatural. And while things have surely changed since the Bureau's inception- around a thousand years ago now- it still holds onto its core belief that anyone could be a Hunter… yes, anyone. Before you got shoved into this box you were sitting in the waiting room, surrounded by all types of characters: ex cops, ex cons, prostitutes, androids, chrome heads, dope heads, children and even some respectable looking citizens in there too.
A sound suddenly fills the room, the sound of a handleless door sliding open, followed by a faint square-shaped beam of orange light. Though both of these stimulants are kicked out of the room as an old man steps into the room- the door sliding back closed. The stench of smoke fills your nostrils before your eyes can adjust to actually see the man's face. A bald head, grey moustache and Dreamland Co: Asteroid Blue mega-cigarette are the only details you can make out on him. That and his bulky, torn jacket, adorned in damaged medals and sewn patchwork squares. He lowers himself into a chair on the opposite side of the table, placing a chunky tablet on the table. He plucks the mega-cigarette out of his mouth and presses the side of the tablet- the harsh blue light that erupts from it almost makes your eyes water. And then the harsh white ceiling light he turns on with a tap on the screen actually makes your eyes water. With a few grumbles, screen taps and hits of the mega-cigarette he finally meets your gaze.
“I'm sure you know why you're here so I'm gonna skip parts of this script they got for me-” He holds up the tablet with a flimsy grip before putting it back down- from the brief glimpse you got of all the text on the screen you couldn't be more grateful. “Gimme your name. First and last.”
>[SHORT & SLIGHTLY STANDOFFISH] “<span class="mu-i">Write in</span>.” | This man is willingly smoking Asteroid Blues, he's clearly just like you. Antisocial.
>[REHEARSED & PROPER] “My name <span class="mu-i">Write in</span>.” You fix your posture and reach out for a handshake. “To whom do I owe the pleasure?” | This man is willingly smoking Asteroid Blues. Some order in the chaos (his life) would be good for him.
>[HAPPY… LIKE WAY TOO HAPPY] You reach out with a strong smile and, forcefully, shake his hand “My name is <span class="mu-i">Write in</span>! Nice to meet ya!” | This man is willingly smoking Asteroid Blues. He desperately needs a friend.
>[REJECT SOCIAL CONVENTIONS] Stare and say nothing. | This man is willingly smoking Asteroid Blues, clearly he doesn't want to do his job.
>[WRITE IN] In the words of a great philosopher: “Ahhh go crazy.”
Disclaimer : One shot. Let's try to be fast-paced and see how it goes.
You are located in the middle of France. Which Bee do you pick? >European Dark Bee >Italian Honey Bee >Buckfast Bee >Himalayan Giant-Cliff Honey Bee >Africanized Bee >Hornet Which Hive? >Dadan >Langstroth >Warre >Dead Tree Trunk >Kenyan Hive >Willow-Weaved
To the east somewhere lies a verdant, pastoral paradise butting up against the last living city in Australia. Plentiful reserves of oil, natural gas, and grid running off nuclear, tidal, and geothermal energy sources. Spared the ravages of ecological and thermonuclear devastation. She stands as the last bastion of freedom and hope for mankind. You are over a thousand miles away from her. Stranded in an isolated and devastated wasteland you stand resolute against the horrors of the fallen world to fight your way to salvation. Warlord run territories, stretches of uninhabitable earth, and worse lie between you and the end of your journey. You are a
>Road Warrior: A balanced wastelander trained in the arts of war of the old war. You have superb driving abilities, good combat abilities, and fair technical abilities. You begin play with a signature handheld firearm (sawed off shotgun or High caliber revolver), a Knife of old world make and quality, and the last of the interceptors modded with nitro and an expanded gasoline tank. You also have an ill tempered dog.
>Questing Warlord: A vicious and immensely powerful combatant. You have have superb melee abilities too an almost inhuman level, you have good driving abilities, and poor technical abilities. You begin play with a signature melee weapon of diabolical construction (chainsaw sword ((any configuration you desire)), two handed weapon of old world quality, or abnormally gifted unarmed skill), a muscle car/truck with nitro, and a few followers on dirt bikes or secondary muscle car. You are physically adapted to the wasteland and require far less food and water than a normal person.
>Black Finger: A skilled engineer and scientist of the old world. You have superb technical ability in both engineering and medical knowledge, you have fair driving abilities, you are a poor melee combatant. You begin play with many custom tools and devices that can be improvised, called upon, or already held within logical considerations (you have mechanics tools and medical tools/supplies), you are armed with a rifle, shotgun, crossbow, pneumatic weapon, pistol, and your vehicle has several deadly customized weapons in it as well. Within reason you can scout and replace spent weapon ammunition to a greater degree than ordinary people. You always have the ability to trade your skills with strangers. Finally, you are yourself a valuable commodity and a prime target for slavers or simply the desperate in need, beware!
> While every world travels slowly towards its end, yours has just begun its journey. > For this world, the cycle of Gods and Men spins anew, on freshly birthed lands awash with life. > You are a being of creation, a God, among the first divinities born not long after a world’s genesis. You possess innate knowledge and immense power, with which you may seize dominance and carve out a place for yourself in these savage, untamed wilds.
Welcome to a spinoff installation of Beings of Creation, a long-running tactical civ-style hexcrawl based on your imagination. You are a non-omniscient divine being of great power. You find yourself spontaneously brought into existence in a prehistoric, primeval world, untouched by Gods. The rules are relatively simple, and may be picked up as you go, but the document below goes into detail. Most players are familiar veterans of the game, so don't be shy and feel free to ask questions. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eOyLUfkbgVFHjIPmNmcW9G2wQE7CZenv69m9yQF_aMY https://discord.gg/PvWBE9xn
<span class="mu-r">Players may begin creating their gods with the format below. Following such, every update I make each player will get to take a turn. Let the birth of your gods begin...</span>
<span class="mu-b">Name:</span> <What name will your minions, and other Gods, refer to you as?> <span class="mu-b">Description:</span> <What do you look like? Providing an image of inspiration for your God is preferred but optional.> <span class="mu-b">Domains:</span> <The themes that dictate your God’s powers. You may have anywhere from 1-3 of these domains. The more domains you have, the less powerful each subsection may be.> <span class="mu-b">Color:</span> <The preferred color of your hex on the map.> <span class="mu-b">God Attributes:</span> <Choose one major attribute and two minor attributes from Affinity, Agility, Fortitude, Spirit, Strength, and Terraforming.> <span class="mu-b">God Ability:</span> <A unique ability your God possesses, beyond even those of other Gods. Refer to the God Creation section of the rulebook if you want to learn more, but a basic idea suffices to start with.> <span class="mu-b">Your Minions:</span> <The name of your minions’ species and their general description. Providing an image of inspiration for your Minions is preferred but optional.> <span class="mu-b">Minion Attribute:</span> <Choose one attribute for your minions to receive a starting bonus in from Culture, Defense, Offense, and Population.> <span class="mu-b">Minion Ability:</span> <Minions may begin with a single tech as a part of their physiology. I.e, bird minions having flight.> <span class="mu-b">Starting Hex:</span> <If the game is using fog of war, state your preferred terrain to begin in. If the game does not use fog of war, you may choose any hex on the map to begin from. The Narrator may rule whether or not you may start within a given distance of other God’s starting locations.>
Access to your character sheets will be provided through discord. Please namefag in-thread. May fortune favour you.
What have we done to deserve heaven? If it is our place, why are we here? We are unjust and terrible creatures, and our hell is to ever look at heaven and demand that we be allowed entry. Utopia is heaven- Socialism is heaven’s gates, yet Heaven is no place for humans, is it? We are allowed our glimpse of paradise, yes, but we shall never claim our dreams. We would suffocate as a fish does out of the cold seas. <span class="mu-i">-Charlot Doumer, “We Are of the Night”</span>
-----
It was afternoon on Monte Nocca- a lovely place for most who came here in the beginning of summer, but the one held in highest regard upon it was thinking of being elsewhere.
Vittoria Bonaventura had returned to the mountain once again- that lonely clutch where one half of her bloodline hailed from- and if mother and grandfather were to be believed, they had been there since before even memory of mankind, but to her that was just the Vitelian disease and Mosshead arrogance intermingling, in a way she refused to let fester in her head. The Judge had been merciful in making it blonde like father’s. Yet that did not deter grandfather from calling Vittoria by her new alias, and more comfortably than he spoke her name. Remiel. The same name was what she was summoned by now, further up the stony trail.
“Don’t drag your feet, Remiel,” her tutor in mystic lore and art said from ahead, his voice seeming more like the wind that blew over the mountain trees than particularly human, through that mask of his. He loomed as high as a peak too, in a way. “If this is to be your last lesson for a while, then you should pay close attention. Get a good score, heh heh. Prepare you for where you’re headed.”
“Whatever you’re having me do,” Vittoria said, “I don’t think any of it’ll have anything to do with the Azure Halls. The Dawn and the coming days in its light.”
“If that’s so,” Zeitgeist said as he walked slowly, his steps cloistered by his coat as though a curtain rose and fell on each foot forward. “You’re off, soon, to have your head filled with the dreams of others. To, heh heh, be <span class="mu-i">told</span> how to be wise, Remiel.”
“As though you’re against the concept of education,” Vittoria grumbled back, amusing herself with her teacher’s pace by weaving back and forth amongst the stones on each side of the mountain trail, “Utopia is the future, the inevitability. I might as well be an expert in it, especially if I want to help father. I can’t be of any use if I don’t know all there is to know. You said yourself that this tradition and mysticism is trapped in the past.”
You are a wizard of the Tower. You have come of age and are now considered a journeyman of your order. You must go out into the strange and alien outside world for the first time to learn from it, take from it, and give back what you will.
Wizardry is a vast collection of arts and disciplines that amount to more knowledge than any one man could learn in a lifetime. However, all are roads that join together into the singularly divine path of magic. Your time in the tower has started you down the path of three. Each of these pursuits represent a lifetime commitment and will never be abandoned or added onto. The Tower emphasizes singular mastery above varied mediocrity.
>Path of War: You can kill and defend yourself with magic. You wear magic armor and carry a mystical blade crafted by your own hand. Your dragon is similarly armed and armored, and has likewise been trained in the arts of war to serve as your flying war mount. Other disciplines can be bent to a more martial application when used in conjunction with this one.
>Path of the Healer: You can mend wounds and cure the sick and dying. You are versed in various methods protection against maligned powers. You know much of the secrets of herbs and animals. Your dragon is larger and healthier than others of his kind because of the beneficial powers you have surrounded him with since hatching him. He can share his life force with you when you're in need of it. Other disciplines can be bent towards a more constructive and beneficial end when used in conjunction with this one.
>Language of the Spirits: You know how to commune with the elements. You carry in some form a sample of True Earth, Fire, Water, and Air by which to work with the four pillars of creation. Other disciplines gain immense power when used in conjunction with this one.
>Necromancy: You commune with the souls, remains, and remnants of men and beasts that have since moved on from this world, yet still linger. Great wisdom and knowledge, as well as power can be learned from those that have come before. Threats by which no mortal power can overcome may be dealt with more directly when using this strange and darkest of arts. When used in conjunction with other magic deeper meaning, greater insights, and mysteries undreamed of by mortal man open up to you. Your dragon may take you to the borders of the afterlife, but not even he can move beyond them.
Jail Quest: a text adventure occasionally illustrated.
A night of drinking and a failed attempt to cheat on cards had landed you the strangest job slash community service sentence you've ever had: ensuring Gongalla Gaol survives the reality storm called Singularity.
Now you travel around with your employer and a handpicked crew to survey the four Reality Anchors. Hey, beats being tarred and feathered, right?
You are Rosa Montagni, and after the successful cult roundup operation at Pinewatch, you've headed north towards the direction of the Reality Anchor. Alas, inclement weather greets you as you went - crevasses, flashfrost, and even a Dammerlicht batter your chartered autowagon. Just when hope seemed to be snuffed out by the Dammerlicht, you and your crew were saved by the Lady of the Pines, who deposited you near a cabin. Your two hosts turned out to be the goddess Skadi and her wife - and that her Reality Anchor was just a short walk away. While Nemo went to check the anchor, you entertained Skadi by cooking up one of grandma Ko's recipes - but the special ingredient you added, grated duplicate relic, caused almost everyone's sins to pop out as their doppelganger of sorts. Of course it's up to you to fix this mess...
Darkness. Void. Utter blackness. There is nothing here. Yet there is also, something? The shadows roil like waves of an ocean, twist like strands of a cloth, and wind around you like a fervently affectionate cat. You are nowhere. You are somewhere within the nowhere.
A voice reaches out to you- with pointed fingers, ruffling mailboxes, and ringing telephones.
[bold]Dark, darker, yet darker.[/bold] [bold]Shadows cutting deeper.[/bold] [bold]Photon readings negative?[/bold] [bold]The next experiment is upon us.[/bold] [bold]Are YOU there?[/bold] [bold]Are we...[/bold]
[bold]Connected?[/bold]
It shakes something loose in the core of your being. Memories. An adventure through an underground cavern full of monsters, demons, and beasts. Some of them kindhearted, others malicious, all desiring an end to their imprisonment beneath a mountain.
You guided a human- You commanded a puppet- You were just a child-
It grates on your consciousness. But you can recall that, whatever you were, whatever you did, you were in that pit for a long, long time.
> Try to remember more. You can make no sound judgements without your mind. > Who's there? What's going on? What's this "connection" crap? > The past doesn't matter, now. Time to start again. _____________ Never used /qst/ before. Decided to rejigger some of my writing into a new experience for 4chan. I'm very interested to see what you'll do compared to the last contestants. Updates come when I'm free to write, but this IS the current brainrot, so-
