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Topics - Araph

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1
Other Games / New Frontier - Bay12 Minecraft Server
« on: June 02, 2019, 06:27:20 pm »
IP Address: 51.77.45.161:25590

Welcome to the new frontier. Thousands of miles of open land, ripe for civilizing. You might have been sent on a one-way journey to this unclaimed world for any number of reasons - to stake a claim, to start a new life, to create your magnum opus - but one thing is certain: there's no going back.

You and your fellow builders are tasked with creating beacons of civilization and connecting them. Houses, fortresses, castles, cities, towns, lodges, camps - any sort of settlement you can think of. In time, most settlements (not all - it's totally fine to build your own secret fortress) should be connected via roads, railroads, or tunnels.

This is a light RP server. What that means is that you don't need to have a backstory or stay in-character, but you shouldn't build anything that's overtly ridiculous (for example, no mile-high pixel art made entirely out of wool and pumpkins). Most of the settlements should be reasonable (even though reasonable DOES include gigantic obsidian fortresses with lava moats) and should usually have at least a token story (very soft requirement - nobody's going to enforce anything). Other than that, don't cheat, don't grief, and generally don't be a jerk.



Settlements
First Hearth: A small, communal lodge at the center of the map. Connected to the spawn point by a short road. It's very much a work-in-progress so feel free to help build it further and take any supplies you need.

2
Forum Games and Roleplaying / [ISG] Elyrna
« on: May 07, 2018, 02:56:54 am »


The land of Elyrna is many things. It is a place of untamed wilderness and bastions of civilization. Of warring clans and quarreling spirits. Of adventure and risk.

And it is your home. All your life, you have lived in the cities, forests, and mountains of this fair land - through times both good and hard. While there have been far more hard times in your life than good ones, you've survived nonetheless.

But before we can tell of your present, we first need to know of your past. Who are you?



You are a...
1. Man.
2. Woman.

Your father was a...
1. Minor noble. You vividly recall the early years of your life: carefree, playing with your siblings and the servants' children on your family estate, receiving tutoring on math, history, the sciences, and etiquette. That all changed as the years went on: bit by bit, your world was chipped away as your family fell into squalor. You never found out exactly how your father fell out of favor, but by your tenth year you found your family - and yourself - on the city streets.
2. Merchant. He was a busy man and rarely had time to spend with you, but he made sure your mother and you never wanted for the finer things in life. On the rare occasions that he took you with him on his business forays, he explained the intricacies of the economy - up until the point that his shipping vessels were sunk in a terrible storm. In a single night, your family's fortune was gone.
3. Farmer. He was a dependable man, a loving husband, and a caring father. He taught you his trade and raised as best he could - attempting to instill in you the integrity and work ethic that kept his humble farm running. When the blight hit, however, you could only watch as your father's spirit died alongside his crops. As food and money became too scarce to bear, he was forced to sell his land - keeping his family alive, but leaving them destitute.
4. Craftsman. A carpenter by trade, he kept your mother and siblings fed by crafting fine furniture. Your childhood was simple and busy with apprentice work, but it was enough. As your father took on more apprentices and began to make more money, he attracted the wrong kind of attention. Thugs attempted to extort money from him for "protection", and he took offense. When things escalated, your father found himself in a gutter with a knife in his guts - and you found yourself out on the street.
5. Criminal. He was a hard man. A thug - one who would take on any work, no matter how dirty, for a few copper pieces. In the slums, it was necessary just for survival. To his credit, you did survive, unlike many of your childhood friends: for all his cruelty, he did his best to keep you intact. You learned how to fight dirty, how to run fast, and how to cut a purse. It wasn't much, but it was your life.

As a teenager, you became a...
1. Hunter. Taking to the wilderness, ran from your childhood and sought refuge in nature. It kept you fed and made you a few coins off of animal hides - some obtained legally, some culled from the lord's forests. You learned to shoot a bow, track a beast, and skin a hide.
2. Minstrel. Taking to the open road, you ran from your childhood and sought refuge in song and story. It was a difficult living, but it kept your mind occupied and gave you a sense of adventure you had never felt before. Gradually, you learned how to play and sing, read a crowd, and entertain the masses.
3. Courier. Seeking employment by merchants and nobles, you fled your past by visiting the far corners of the realm, delivering messages and parcels. Your work has taken you to many exotic places and introduced you to many unusual individuals as you learned to navigate the upper echelons of society.
4. Criminal. With nowhere else to turn, you took to the city streets and began your new life as a thief. Picking pockets, cutting purses, and mugging travelers along the highway proved lucrative enough to keep you alive - although your run-ins with soldiers and other criminals keeps you on your toes, nearly leading to your demise many a time.

Throughout your life, your dream has been to seek out...
1. Power. After years of hardship, you only want to acquire enough power to do whatever you damn well please - whether that's helping the poor folk in your current situation or crushing them beneath your heel.
2. Wealth. The fine things in life. Gold and prestige, servants at your command, and a manse in which you can live out the rest of your days in luxury.
3. Adventure. Despite years of poverty, the lure of adventure calls to you deeper than any amount of gold or power could. You yearn to feel the miles roll by beneath your feet, always looking for what's beyond the next hill.
4. Knowledge. The esoteric pursuits of the druids has always fascinated you. If you could only get out of your current, wretched situation, you would spend your days studying the nature of spirits and the arcane, learning alchemy and other mystic arts.

Your virtue is...
1. Honor. When you give your word, you mean it. When you commit to a task, you intend to see it done, no matter the cost. You don't like to lie and you don't feel comfortable being part of subterfuge. It's just who you are.
2. Compassion. When you see others in pain, you feel pain too. No matter how terrible your situation, you still try to shield others from their own suffering. It's just who you are.
3. Humility. It's not that you can't think highly of yourself - it's that you'll admit when you're wrong. If someone offers help, you'll gladly accept it. If someone knows more than you, you'll gladly learn from them. It's just who you are.

Your vice is...
1. Deceit. You're good at lying and you know it. It gets you both in trouble and out of it, but you just can't seem to avoid it: it's second nature to you. (This vice is incompatible with the honor virtue.)
2. Rage. Your blood boils at the slightest irritant, and there are many irritants in your life: people, places, circumstances, inclement weather. The list goes on and on. (This vice is incompatible with the compassion virtue.)
3. Pride. You know you're not, technically speaking, perfect, but you'll be damned before you admit that to anyone else. The smallest jab or condescension cuts you to your core. (This vice is incompatible with the humility virtue.)

You are currently...
1. At a seedy tavern in a large city. The beer is cheap and the beds don't have too many fleas in them. It's not great, but it'll have to do - you don't really have any other options.
2. At a small wayside inn. It's comfortable in a rural sort of way. Situated at the side of the highway, it's a goodly way from any sort of real civilization, barring a few small, walled villages.
3. In a prison cell. It's cold, dark, and damp. Most prison cells are.

And finally... what is your name?

3
I've somehow ended up in a position where I can get paid to make videos of myself building random stuff. More specifically, random stuff that is flashy and shows off the equipment my employer offers.

I have access to basically everything you could possibly need to build anything: welding equipment, a CNC router, laser cutters/engravers, 3D printers, electronics workstations, woodworking tools, industrial sewing machines, and various other pieces of machinery. I also have a pile of microcontrollers, components, and miscellaneous hardware I can toss into the mix and a moderate (definitely not big) budget.

What cool stuff would you want to see built? The more outlandish, less practical, stranger, funnier, cooler, and/or more eye-catching the better.

Potential Ideas
  • Electroplating fictional coins and house crests with copper and silver.
  • Pneumatic third arm.
  • Stationary pneumatic Dwemer sphere centurion (moving limbs, but not rolling).
  • Optimus Prime mask / costume with moving faceplate.
  • Complete armor set à la Iron Man or another popular character.
  • Solar-powered buggy.
  • RC R2-D2 / BB-8.

4
Creative Projects / Untold Lore v0.1
« on: April 15, 2018, 12:48:22 am »
What is Untold Lore?
Untold Lore is a web app that helps organize setting information. It's essentially a wiki that's specialized for worldbuilding, but it also has a few useful tools like NPC generators. And by that I mean one useful tool: an NPC generator. More will be added over time.

How does it work?
You organize by civilizations, then by locations within civilizations, then by people and places at specific locations, and so forth. You can also link between entities (people and places and such) in descriptions, just like a regular wiki.

Currently it allows you to track people, places, civilizations, organizations, items, and events.

Can it do <thing>?
Probably not, but tell me if you think it'd be useful and I'll add it to the to-do list.

Link to project.
Link to Trello board for project.

5
Forum Games and Roleplaying / [ISG] Aldryn Navar: Wizard for Hire
« on: May 22, 2016, 07:54:00 pm »

The room was cold, silent, and dark. Furniture. Pictures on the walls. Knick-knacks on shelves. The accoutrements and trappings of regular life. To a casual observer, nothing was amiss, but I am no mere casual observer, for I am a mighty magus. A mighty magus who also happened to have insider information on the house’s state of amiss-ness.

The name’s Aldryn Navar, wizard for hire. Lost items found, paranormal investigations, reasonable rates (no love potions). I was on the hunt for a missing drow by the name of Welverin Khalazza, who had vanished under mysterious circumstances. His consort, Xune, had contacted me after he disappeared and pled for me to take the case, offering me the one thing I couldn’t refuse: money.

Thus, I had made my way to Welverin’s recently-vacated house - the last place he had been seen. According to Xune, she had left the place to run an errand and Welverin wasn’t there when she returned. Her complete and utter lack of useful contextual information was mildly off-putting (particularly given her insistence on hiring a PI rather than waiting for the police to do their job), but I took the case anyway because I’m a sucker for a pretty face.

And money. I’m a sucker for money.


I conjured a small orb of light and examined my surroundings in greater detail. There was something here that could lead me in the right direction, of that I was sure. Odds were it would be something entirely mundane that had provoked the man to skip town, but I was hired to find him and I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to do just that. But where would I investigate first?



Aldryn is a versatile wizard with a litany of spells at his disposal. In addition to his mastery of fire and wind, he can divine past events from significant objects (a murder scene can be scryed with the murder weapon, for example), while hair and blood can be used to track down the person they originally came from. Given enough time, he can even compose new spells and rituals to add to his arsenal. You’ll need to use both magic and mundane investigation to piece together the many cases he will doubtless solve.

6
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Forum Game Poll
« on: May 21, 2016, 12:47:11 am »
It's that time of the year (not actually per year, exactly - it's pretty much random) when I decide to try running another illustrated suggestion adventure. Cast yer votes for what you want in the train wreck this time around (or suggest something else in a post)!

7
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Fortress Planning Checklist
« on: April 24, 2016, 05:08:23 pm »
I'm trying to plan out exactly what would be required in my next citadel (because I insist on building fortresses with stone block walls around the entrance and an above-ground castle) and this is the list I've compiled so far:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm planning on constructing a massive octagonal wall within which the surface buildings will be built (planning on having a handful of taverns, ornate halls filled with statues, soaring buttresses, and other unnecessarily elaborate displays to flaunt our dwarven wealth) while the actual living quarters (except for the military, who will have barracks both above and below ground) and workshops are underground.

What else would you all recommend adding to the list? I want to make sure I know exactly what I'm going to be carving out and building right off the bat so I have to rebuild as little as possible.

8
Creative Projects / ReeveEngine
« on: February 04, 2016, 01:50:55 am »
A few weeks ago, I started a project (then ran into a pain-in-the-ass-problem, put it on the backburner (translation: forgot about it), and have only now just picked it up again). That project is a game under the working title of 'Reeve'.

What's the idea of the game?
The idea of the game is fairly straightforward: you control the titular reeve - a man who manages a medieval town. Your objective is to handle your settlement's finances and other administrative work, which means deciding who gets what percentage of the income from trade and taxes. However, this requires you to keep an ear to the ground: every guild and organization has their own demands that are sometimes mutually exclusive.

The way the story progresses depends on where you spend your time. Did you meet with the Stonemasons' Guild today? Great, you now know that the northern wall needs repairs, which the masons will handle if you pay them. Unfortunately, you missed hearing the merchants complaining about their caravans getting waylaid by brigands. Unless you were lucky enough to somehow guess that the guards need money for extra patrols, your income will suffer later on.

As cool as it would be to have this sort of game be procedural, I'm planning on making it scripted (along with providing tools for players to create their own campaigns). For reference, check out the game Papers, Please, which has influenced how I picture gameplay working. It's not entirely scripted, but the times for the additional events and rules are preset.

Okay, but ReeveEngine?
This isn't just any old game, though (I'm lying, it pretty much is just any old game). This is a game written from scratch, in C++, in a cave, with a box of scraps (also SFML, a set of libraries for basic graphics and audio). Unlike previous projects (Warden) which were written with either JavaScript or C# in Unity, Reeve will have a relatively simple 2D engine built from the ground-up - creatively called ReeveEngine.

What do you have done so far?
At the present time, the foundation of the engine is underway, but it's not particularly impressive. The scene manager and UI managers are working, which means that I can easily create scene layouts that can be loaded via clicking on buttons. It might not sound like much, but the way it works under the hood is a big step forward for me. I'm trying to stretch myself with this and make the code be as organized and clean as possible, which means all kinds of things: more elaborate file structures, being as object-oriented as possible, separating classes into namespaces, and so on. It's going a bit slower than some other things I've written, but I'm happy with how it's turning out (particularly given the language it's being written in).

What's next?
Adding more functionality to the UI system (adding text fields and dialogue boxes), using the scene manager to create basic menus, and beginning experimenting with some gameplay ideas (how reports and requests for money will be handled, how the overworld that lets you choose who to talk to will be handled, and so on).

9
Forum Games and Roleplaying / [ISG] The Druid's Apprentice
« on: November 24, 2015, 12:39:25 am »

You are Finn of Rosach, apprentice druid. Though you hail from the western shores, you have come to live in the southeast of the great forest, amidst idyllic fields and peaceful woodlands - and it is here that you began learning the druidic arts.

Unfortunately, being an apprentice druid turned out to have a whole lot more studying and writing than you anticipated.


You see, druids are the protectors of the forest’s people. With ancient rituals and potent concoctions, they ward off dangerous spirits and maintain order, and, correspondingly, they command a great deal of respect. It’s a noble and prestigious line of work, one that only the fearless and cunning can succeed at.

Being an apprentice druid, on the other hand, involves taking absurd quantities of notes, assisting a master, and suffering through long-winded lectures on the more esoteric aspects of the trade. The adventure you were promised is, unfortunately, in very short supply.

However, that may very well be changing for you! Your master has sent you to the town of Abhach to resolve an unexpected problem while the settlement’s guardian druid is indisposed - your first foray into proper solo druid-ing. You can hardly wait!

You stride down the dirt highway as the afternoon wears on, rowan staff in hand. Despite the short travel distance, it still takes nearly a full day of trudging along to reach Abhach - not that you’re complaining. It’s a pleasant place to walk.

Okay, you’re complaining at least a little bit. Walking is boring.


Eventually you pass the town’s outlying buildings. You don’t see any people, though, which strikes you as rather odd. By the time you reach the village’s walls, you are slightly more unnerved. Where is everybody?

The gates swing open and you are ushered through by a guard, past a small crowd gathered just inside, down the main road, and into a rather important-looking building, where you are greeted by an elderly man with a concerned expression. He explains that the village has been terrorized by a thing from the woods. Come eventide, it haunts the roads beyond the walls, attacking his people, killing livestock, and destroying property. For safety’s sake, all civilians retreat to within the town’s walls well before the spirit returns.

Can you protect us, druid?

You tactfully refrain from commenting that this suddenly seems way above your pay grade and also that you fell asleep multiple time while studying. Of course you can handle this spirit! Definitely. Right.

You check your notebook.


You’re doomed.

Time Until Sunset: 2 Hours






You have two hours until sundown. Large actions (such as moving to different locations, preparing potions, etc.) will take time. As such, you must carefully manage your remaining time, lest you be caught unprepared!

You do not have complete knowledge of the situation. You do not have complete knowledge of spirits. You do not have complete knowledge of rituals. To survive, you will need to investigate and improvise! At times, you will be able to add to your notebook, building upon your existing knowledge base.

Despite his sloppy note-taking, Finn can create a dazzling array of potions and elixirs, both researched and improvised. You’ll need to collect ingredients (Some of which may not be in the notebook! Please try to avoid poisoning our intrepid protagonist.) from different locations in order to brew them, but a good druid always carries the implements needed to create such concoctions with him (we’re being lenient with our definition of ‘good’ here).

Finn can also conduct rituals, both researched and improvised (but let’s be honest: mostly improvised). These can be as complex as burning herbs and scrawling esoteric symbols on a silver disc with the ashes while reciting incantations or as simple as hitting something with a particular type of stick. You’ll need to experiment to discover what works and what doesn’t - but try to avoid getting him killed.

(Hint: You won't know for sure what kind of spirit you're up against until you're almost face-to-face, but there are always general preparations a druid can take. Take your best guess and get ready!)



Spoiler: Finn's Notebook (click to show/hide)



10
Forum Games and Roleplaying / DMing Pitfalls
« on: November 23, 2015, 01:54:58 am »
I'm planning on starting a forum game in the near future that I've sunk a considerable amount of time into, so now seems like an ideal time to pose this question: what mistakes have you repeatedly seen in forum games? I realize that the answers are almost entirely subjective, but still. In the interest of helping any DMs reading this (myself included), what things have you encountered that made prematurely you lose interest in games, irritated you while playing games, or otherwise negatively affected your experience with forum games?

Answers can be vague, specific to certain types of games, matters of personal preference, whatever. Just lay 'em out there.

11
Creative Projects / Wardens of Teros
« on: July 16, 2015, 01:18:47 am »

Like a bad entry in a Hollywood franchise, Warden refuses to die. It really is it's own unkillable B-movie monster, in a sense. That being said, I've been thinking about it and I'm gonna JUST DO IT NOT LET MY DREAMS BE DREAMS take another shot at it from scratch, hopefully avoiding the pitfalls I fell into last time I tried this.

Where gonna make this hapen.

Overview
For those of you who weren't around for the ride last time, Warden is a multiplayer survival-horror game that pits one player (controlling a demon) against all the other players (controlling the titular Wardens). Each game is over when either all of the Wardens are dead or all of the demonic altars have been consecrated. However, each time an altar is successfully restored, the demon shifts into a new, completely different form. In order to survive, the Wardens will need to understand what they're up against before it can catch them off guard.

Objectives
The demon's goal is to kill all of the Wardens. The Wardens' goal is to cleanse the evil altars scattered across each map.



Spoiler: The Wardens (click to show/hide)



Spoiler: The Demon (click to show/hide)



Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Wondering why I'm still bashing my head up against this game? Let me know! Sorry if the descriptions are worded poorly in this post; it's late and I'm kinda braindead right now.

In the near future, I'll be posting concept art, dumb lore bullshit, and monster ideas as I finish the flowchart. Then... Then the real work begins.



Just a Reminder
Previous version's IndieDB page

Warden was not a small project. It was not an idle pursuit. For the sake of my blood pressure, check out the videos on the IndieDB page and maybe even download the demo to see the state the game was in when it was abandoned before posting anything in the vein of 'think about your limitations/try making a smaller game first'. If you don't, the rustling of my jimmies will echo throughout eternity.

12
Forum Games and Roleplaying / The Price of Freedom
« on: June 29, 2015, 02:07:40 am »

13
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Donny Bravo
« on: May 18, 2015, 03:53:30 pm »

You are DONNY BRAVO, a dwarf living in the mountainhome ROKELGESHUD. You spend your days chasing PRETTY DWARF LADIES and admiring yourself in MIRRORS. You are currently in your 3X1 TILE BEDROOM.

Hair status: Perfect
Shadeglasses: Equipped

>_

14
Creative Projects / Join me in my quest to Git Gud!
« on: April 14, 2015, 04:07:34 pm »
In my ongoing quest to stop being a scrub at everything, I made a YouTube channel called Git Gud. The channel hosts a bunch of programming tutorials, though it'll hopefully branch out into animation, art, music, and whatever else catches my interest in time.

The idea behind it was that I would learn stuff that I want to learn and then try to teach it to random people on the internet, which forces me to learn it well enough to coherently present an explanation on it instead of just kinda being okay at it and then moving on. I started with programming because game development in Unity is basically the only thing I feel I'm competent enough at to try teaching it.

Currently there are only two sets of videos (four, technically): intro to programming and networking in Unity. The first because it was a logical starting place, the second because it's something I learned how to do pretty well over the last year or so and it seems to be a troublesome topic. If there's a particular area you'd like video lessons on, let me know! Otherwise, I'll just keep making videos on random topics, which works too.

Unity Tutorials
Intro to programming
JavaScript
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

C#
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Networking
JavaScript
Part 1
Part 2

C#
Part 1
Part 2

Input
JavaScript and C#
Part 1

Animation
Cartoon Modelling
Part 1
Part 2

Miscellaneous
Warden Postmortem

Disclaimer: I cannot guarantee that I am not a shitty teacher. Sorry.

15
Original Thread, check it out.

The original game was run by ShadowHammer and has since been concluded with the creation of an awesome map you can see in the original thread. I really liked the concept and thought I'd try running a second round of it (since really, we can never have too many settings or ideas to tear apart and rearrange for use in other games/campaigns/what have you).

Setting Rules:
- The setting is high fantasy.
- Be sure to add backstory to the locations.
- No scythers.

Current Map

The area is ravaged by arcane storms, most often bearing with them volumes of water suited to monsoons, though is can be rain, snow, hail, or even steam which takes it upon itself to fly down at the earth and scorch those beneath it.
The Fallen City of Círannon. Civilizations may endure above the stormclouds, but sometimes they fall. Círannon fell to dark and powerful magic. Living shadows dragged it down beneath the clouds and crashed it against the surface of the earth. Now its ruins, still wild with rampant magic, lay scattered on the plain of Aul. Bold adventurers and scavengers may pick it apart for items of magic or lost treasures, but must beware the shadows that are said to still dwell within its broken walls...
The Crystal Rill, a great river which runs to the east, and has crystals growing in it's depths. It is said divers from Círannon had once scavenged it's bed for the magical crystals, but the art of harvesting them has been long lost. On days when the water is clear, and it has been long since a storm, the glittering shapes may be seen, taunting the observer.
A Tribe of Webclaws, feeding on the remains of dead and or dying, this race of crablike people have thrived in the wasteland left from the destructive path of of the arcane storms. The only thing stopping this race from controlling the entire surface world is there tendency to resort to cannibalization when they deplete a food source, rather than look for another food source.


Our brave cartographer begins his journey in the northwestern corner of the map. However, before he begins travelling he must mark the name of this land on his parchment.

Also, what is the climate of this new land?

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