Jump to content

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing most liked content on 07/02/19 in all areas

  1. An expectant buzz filled the air as the last journalists to arrive took their seats in front of the small stage. Journalists all across the country had been expecting an invitation to this press conference for several months now. It was common knowledge that the Norther Interest Trading Company was up to something big, but so far they'd managed to keep the exact nature of their project a secret. Today, that secrecy was coming to an end. The murmur of conversation among the journalists abruptly cut off as a bearded and bespectacled man took to the stage. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please?" He asked, unnecessarily. "As you are all aware, the Northern Interest Trading Company has suffered many losses over the past years in our efforts to decypher the mysteries of the Pantheon Islands. Many have wondered whether the eventual reward is worth the effort. To this question I say 'yes, a thousand times over!' Its ever been the nature of humanity to explore and innovate, no matter the cost. If we where not to give in to this impulse, we would not be human!" "However, just as our drive to explore pushes us up against new difficulties, so does our capability to innovate provide new solutions. Over the past year, our scientists and engineers have been working tirelessly to design and create a new sort of vessel. A ship that does not have to brave the dangerous waters around the Pantheon to bring its crew tot he prize. A ship that is not limited to the well-explored beaches we have been limited to before. A ship that, for the first time in our history, will allow a group of intrepid explorers to take to the sky!" "Ladies and gentlemen..." With a loud grinding noise, the large hangar doors behind the stage started to glide open to reveal the majestic airship within. "I present to you: The Northern Wind!" *** General rules Roles and airship parts *** For this game @Young Bard will be my co-GM, and @Fifth Scholar will be the impartial moderator. This game is planned to start July 10th at 12:00 Amsterdam time, but with two games starting rather close together the game's start might be delayed slightly if necessary. FAQ: Player list: Xinoehp512 Lumgol Eight Thousand Five Hundred and Twenty-Ninth of the Just a Smidge After Twilight... or, I guess, Twi for short StrikerEZ BrightnessRadiant Ventyl Elandera Amanuensis as Saluden Leiken, a Willshaper Worldhopper from Roshar. Ax's boyfriend as Arr K. Thousantoo, an ancient worldhopper who recently recovered from his incident with the constabulary. MrakeDarshall as Quill, a hemalurgist by trade who was marooned on First of the Sun quite some time ago, and has survived mainly by virtue of his... Er... "pets" Devotary of spontaneity as Auseor, a merchant working with a group of salvagers. Mark Shanerockes _stick_ TheMightyLopen Alvron as Second of the Sky Araris Valerian as fourth of the moon Burnt spaghetti as 3rd of Sunset Spectators: Furamirionind Butt Ad Venture Snipexe Rathmaskal cadmium compounder Quick links:
    6 likes
  2. I wanted to share the concept sketches for Navani and Jasnah! I'm pretty happy with these roughs and will proceed to finishing them
    6 likes
  3. New member here! So I just finished Oathbringer and my heart just shattered into pieces knowing that Kaladin/Shallan isn't happening. Don't worry, I'll learn to live with it! (or maybe I'll ship the OT3, because why not?) To channel my woes and sorrows, I decided to focus on the other thing I love about this series : the unique world building. In here I'll be challenging myself to design concepts for a mock Stormlight IP (be it a game or a movie, I'm still not sure). DISCLAIMER : The designs I post here will take liberties from the description the have in the book. My mind's eye is kind of a rebel in that sense. The artwork you will see will be a combination of the book's description, Shallan's sketches and my own flavor mixed in. I hope to post every week to keep my skills up and eventually have a complete portfolio for myself. Suggestions and inputs for inspiration and references are greatly appreciated! 07/01/2019 - INSPIRATION I started reading TWoK 2 years ago and only got back to it this year. I got hooked enough to finally finish all three books and the Alethi culture just screamed 1300s Middle East-South Asia. The Kholin Monarchy, where you had one king and a dozen or so high princes with a 'department' assigned to them reminded me of Persia's shah and sastraps system. Another clue that really influenced the design I wanted to make was the concept of a safehand and havah, two fashion elements that brought the sari, kameezes and kurtiz in mind. ladymxdnight from discord, really helped me out on that one. And lastly, the one element that really sealed the deal on how I saw SA's world was the Parshendi singing in battle. When I read that, I knew I had to go Bollywood. Yep, you read that right. If it were up to me, SA would be a Bollywood film. Thankfully, a really great Bollywood film came out a few years ago that got me really excited to design SA in this direction : Padmavaat by Sanjay Leela Bansali INTIAL SKETCHES As any concept artist will tell you, warm ups are important. After seeking out my references, studying them and recreating them to an almost maddening degree, I started doing simple and quick sketches to further flesh out the designs I see in my mind. Below are quick concepts for the Kholin Uniform, Jasnah and Shallan's Kharbranth havah and initial portrait sketches of Adolin, Elhokar and Kaladin. See you next week!
    4 likes
  4. Hi, chiming in on this. Honestly, I find the power levels to be kind of arbitrary, but I also know why they exist. That said, in a perfect world I'd raise them or eliminate them altogether. Usually, the problem with an OP character isn't the character, it's how they are used. I know that the whole point of the AV is that it's pretty free-form and you can sort of drop in and do what you want where you like, but I also think that crazy plot-hijacking could be curtailed if characters were more developed and planned out, like their personality, their backstory, their weaknesses. The problem is that I'm not really sure how to go about this. So, maybe, disregard my ramblings? That said, I think that the point ceiling should be flexible for a longer-term character, someone who will likely be carried over for one or more eras. Otherwise, you run the risk of making them stagnate. Also, I think that not enough people are RPing the character weaknesses they outline on their character sheets. So many people give their characters an outrageously deep and scarring trauma in order to max out on points, then this flaw is never seen or addressed in RP. It cheapens the effect, imo.
    4 likes
  5. From the album: The Stormlight Artchive

    The most important step a man can take. It's not the first one, is it?
    3 likes
  6. Eye of the world The Great Hunt The Dragon Reborn
    3 likes
  7. You write your name and those of your closest friends in glyphs and proudly send them around. Your friends are nice people and actually compliment you on it.
    3 likes
  8. Pros to living in an apartment full of college students: get to see really dumb shenanigans. Money can't buy this quality entertainment. Cons to living in an apartment full of college students: sometimes the shenanigans are loud, and at ungodly hours of the night. Nobody here sleeps.
    3 likes
  9. So I just finished rereading the three SA books and I've noticed a few things that seem...odd. Since people here like odd things, I thought I'd share. They might just be typos or other continuity errors. They might be me misunderstanding a scene. They might be non-obvious hints about how the magic or the society functions. Ranked in the admittedly quite subjective order of most likely to be an error to most likely to hint at some future revelation, I offer the following observations: 1) In WoR, the chasmfiend's eyes don't burn. Kaladin kills the chasmfiend with a Shardblade to the head as it's swallowing him. The creature dies so fast it doesn't even clamp its jaws shut in its death throes, which means it has to be dying from instant, Shardblade-induced death and not natural damage. But its eyes don't burn. I thought maybe that chasmfiend eyes don't burn, but nope -- the chasmfiend's eyes in WoK burn as expected. Then I thought maybe for some reason a Shardblade through the brain wouldn't cause eyes to burn, but again no -- in one of Dalinar's flashbacks, he kills Highprince Kalanor with a Shardblade "straight through the face", and Kalanor's eyes also burn. This seems very much like an error to me. 2) Spanreed ruby replacement. In OB, When Dalinar and co. don't hear from Kaladin as expected after he jaunts off to Hearthstone, Dalinar and Navani get worried, but not too much because "he'd likely run out of infused rubies." This implies that one can replace one ruby with another in a spanreed. However, this seems to directly contradict the Ars Arcanum, which claims that the process of creating a spanreed "requires splitting the original ruby. The two halves will then create parallel reactions across a distance." If this is correct, then one should not be able to simply swap one ruby in a spanreed out for a different one. Also, as a Radiant, Kaladin should be able to infuse any gem with Stormlight assuming he has any left at all, so claiming that he'd "run out of infused rubies" should be akin to assuming that he'd run out of Stormlight entirely, which is an even more worrisome situation. Therefore Dalinar's shrugging off not hearing from Kaladin because he might have run out of infused rubies seems like an error. That, or I'm really confused about how fabrials/spanreeds work. 3) Rlain doesn't see Lopen's spren. I might be off a little bit on this one, but there's a scene in the chapter "Alone Together" where Rock is helping everyone come to grips with the fact that things are changing faster than they like. Everyone, that is, "except Lopen, who had snuck away from the group and for some reason was lifting up rocks on the other side of the plateau and looking underneath them." Now I took this -- and stiil take it -- as a hint/foreshadowing that Lopen is interacting with a spren the others can't see, satisfying her curiosity in the same way that Kaladin did with Syl before their bond got far along. And this would work great, except for one thing: that this scene is told from Rlain's point of view, and if there's one member in all of Bridge Four who a spren shouldn't be invisible to, it's Rlain. If my interpretation of Lopen's motives are correct -- and if anyone can come up with a better idea, let me know -- then I don't see how Rlain could reasonably be unaware both that Lopen has attracted a spren and that he's interacting with one. Something seems a bit off here. 4) Dalinar speaks of an "old general's trick" that can't be all that old. When Dalinar goes to visit Azir, he refers to using a spanreed for communication by "[flipping] the reed on and off to send signals, an old general's trick for when you lacked a scribe." However spanreeds are only a couple decades old, as near as I can tell. Evi uses one to ask Dalinar what to name Renarin when he's born (eighteen and a half years ago), but I think that's the earliest mention. This isn't necessarily an error, since I don't think there's a hard date on spanreed invention and "old" can be relative, but it's still a weird turn of phrase. Can spanreeds and fabrial science be older than they appear? If so, why did it take them so long to go from spanreeds to other modern fabrials? 5) Renarin sends Stormlight into a wall with physical effects. When they discover the gemstone archive in Urithiru, Renarin causes all the drawers to slide open by "sending a surge of Stormlight through [the wall] that extended from his palms like twin ripples on the surface of a pond." Knowing that Truthwatchers shared a surge with Edgedancers, on my first reading I figured he was using Abrasion to make all the drawers spring free, but nope -- Truthwatchers have Illumination and Progression. The thing is, neither Illumination nor Regrowth seem like they should have much of an effect on a stone wall. Also note that I don't think we've ever seen Stormlight forced into a non-gem object without invoking one of the Radiant's Surges. This leaves several possibilities: 1) it's a mistake; 2) Renarin's and/or Truthwatchers' Surges are weird and can somehow interact with a stone wall; 3) Stormlight can do stuff to objects independent of the Surges. I don't know which of these is correct, or if there's some other explanation, but it seems worth pointing out.
    2 likes
  10. I have to say, that I am not a huge friend of this. I can see, why it makes it "easier" to "rate" how a character grew, but in the end it will make the whole system even more complicated. I am alright with the points system, as it offers a quick and easy way to get a feeling for a character and to exclude OP combinations, but even with that I sometimes see cases where I feel like a nomal attribute like "curious" is suddenly treated as a weakness only to gain points. I can live with that, it's simply something I noticed over the course of the era. To the "gain points through actions thing". What I really want to avoid is people doing things only to get points they then spend on different skills. If someone goes to the Canton and they spend lots of posts on training a weapon skill there, then I am find if the character learns that skill. Same if someone sits down with Lena and spend the time tp brew poisons, and so on. But if joining a guild grants me points, then in the end every character will join a guild and then spend the points whereever they fit. What intrigues me about the Alleyverse is, that I can focus on character development and that I can rp. If we include a system that focusses on gaining points, then it will disrupt all of that. I agree that we need to find a solution for character growth, but maybe we can do something more easy: Everybody gets 50 (random number here) points per era, and they can only be spend on a skill if you've got a reason why the character gained that skill. Because you rped them training, got them spiked, spoke an oath. Points you don't use, either you can stack them, or not. I'm not sure if that's better, but at least there would be no need to act in a certain way to get the points. If a character spends a whole era doing nothing but studying, they can advance in the field they studied and if a character psend time fighting enemies, they can learn something in that regard as well. Personally I feel like the whole jumping from one plot to the other has happened a lot less this era, than in the previous ones. Of course we still have characters that appear and then vanish, but that is also due to their player rping only for a while and then going inactive again. We will always have some kind of fluctuation in that regard, and I think the amount of times people hopped around was withing good borders this era. I agree when it comes to the weaknesses though. I know that it's really hard to rate a weakness and to discern it correctly, but I feel like on the one hand there are lots of weaknesses that almost never trigger, because they are avoided and on the other hand there are things count as a weakness, that aren't a weakness. Like the whole moral code thing (yes I know it influences how your character happens, but why should I get points for deciding to play a character adhering to moral values?) either I play a character that is good, or I don't. Same with weaknesses like curious and the like. And then I think it's sad, that weaknesses rarely trigger, or are set to trigger only in a special situation. I am fine, if not every character is as broken as mine, but I feel like so much rp comes out of failing something - it's fine to not be the hero everytime. But then we can't force someone to actively do that, so in the end we rely on every rper. tl;dr: Please no system where I gain points through actions. Weaknesses should be thought over (which ones give points) and included more into rp. =============== Edit: @MetaTerminal I agree But we need a way for character to advance, if only because it's the concept of all KRs to speak their oaths and to advance. So these characters will grow stronger over the time, or the whole character concept is screwed. And I think, if someone rps their character's advancement/ training whatever, it's fine if the character learns/ improves. (If they are a KR or not)
    2 likes
  11. I don’t like this idea, for one main reason. Participation in main plot and the creation of side plots should be in and of themselves inherently rewarding. That is, we do them because we want to, and not for some external reward. (Usually because it’s fun - maybe because of character development, which is also an inherent benefit). This is the way it’s functioned for all of the ‘verse. Adding a reward for the inherently fun activity shifts the focus away from the fun and towards the reward - especially for new players. It then becomes an RP around points, and not developing stories and ideas. Goodhart’s law. Whatever measure you use to gauge ‘participation’, people will exploit it, even on a subconscious level. People will take actions to get points. (That’s how rewards work.) But then people won’t just do things (like join guilds) because they want to, or because it’s fun - but because they can get points for it. (If I join another guild, I get more points!) And if you don’t choose the guidelines carefully, you screw over people who would prefer not to do those things - because they enjoy their experience more not doing that. Like going solo and not being in a guild? You might as well join one, because you could get points for it. Creating side plots gets you points? That will lead to an increase of side plots. Participating in the main plot has a benefit beyond being fun? People will join the side plot just to get the points. (You might say that this is still beneficial. I argue that it isn’t. They’re not trying to have fun, which goes against the idea of the RP. Having a whole bunch of people doing things that aren’t fun for them benefits nobody.) This sounds cynical and dismissive, but it’s human behavior. This is how people act. We determine our actions based on the system around us. That’s why the system is so important. And I haven’t even talked about how it would be impossible to track, or how guidelines to prevent exploitation of the system may cause issues around what is and isn’t allowed. If you wanted a way to reward active people with more powered characters (and I don’t know if we particularly want to - I know people have raised concerns, but in my (admittedly underinformed) opinion it’s probably fine as it is) then I would say that people need to ask, specifically, to go over the limit, and that there is a designated amount that they can go over by. These people need to 1) be very experienced in the Alleyverse 2) be trusted with these powerful characters (ie no history of OP characters ‘just because’) and 3) have an outline of exactly what they need and why. This is up to the mods, and on a case-by-case basis. (I would say that experienced would equal at least one era where they were fully active. No, I probably would not qualify. Nor do I want to.) Game theory rant over. TL;DR google Goodhart’s Law and I suggest that it should be case-by-case for more powered characters as it is now.
    2 likes
  12. Mistborn Stormlight
    2 likes
  13. I have posted this before, but would I've made several changes to factions and roles, and would love as much feedback on this ruleset as possible. It will be the next MR/QF that I run.
    2 likes
  14. Suddenly, the bug stopped moving, and it seemed as if some form of focus came over it. Unconsciously, Aylitha smiled, focusing on the bug, and taking direct control. Focusing, she tracked the path the bug had taken, trying to determine it's position, and vectored more bugs over to the general area. Meanwhile, the bug itself sat down on the ceiling, and a small patch of black moss spread from its legs. Lifting up again, it flew closer to the man. The wings changed, becoming more sensitive to vibrations, and Aylitha started listening in on the conversation. Meanwhile, an eye opened on the black patch, looking into the room. Outside the building hundreds of bugs flew or crawled towards it, entering and exploring the building, each of them directly controlled by Aylitha. The remaining bugs slowly started moving in the same direction as well.
    2 likes
  15. Honestly, I see Moash as recognising the path to redemption and then actively ignoring it. One of the many faces of depression
    2 likes
  16. We can all agree on one thing, whatever our feelings on Moash and Elhokar: what Elhokar did to Moash's grandparents was wrong, and deserved to be punished for failing in his duties and causing pain to those he was supposed to protect (as Windrunners show, Leadership and Protection are the same). However, he did it without malice, without the intention of harming someone in a permanent way, and he acknowledged his flaws, and wanted to do better. Moash rejects this view, that men are flawed and so aren't responsible for their actions. He killed someone he didn't have to kill, in front of their own child, and before that he was willing to kill someone who had done him no wrong, Kaladin, and who had in fact elevated him and saved him - his desire to sink to the same level of Elhokar, or even lower, meant he embraced his flaws as natural, and right, while Elhokar knows his flaws are things to be ashamed of. And in taking his revenge, he subjected a little boy to the same trauma he suffered, only right in front of his eyes. Elhokar wanted to be better and was sorry for his mistakes. Moash doubled down on his and actively believes that he is absolved of his guilt because everyone is like that. I hope he has a redemption arc, but the first step is for him to realise that not only is he no better than those who wronged him - he already thinks everyone is equally flawed - but that he can be better, that men can be better, that humans must take responsibility for their mistakes, and take their punishment. Everyone is payed back in the end, its just whether you take the punishment now and grow, or later and are destroyed.
    2 likes
  17. “Rusts, I’m so sorry,” he looked to the woman, but when he looked back towards John it was with pointed anger. “What do you mean “what the hell was that for’?!” He stood up. “I’ve just had people try to kill me in the parlour, I was drunk and rusting terrified, and what’s the first thing I see when I wake up — on the ground, should I add? A face of a rusting stranger I’ve never seen before! That’s ‘what the hell’ that was about!” He looked to the woman and his expression softened somewhat. The alcohol seemed to have ejected from his system, so that was good. “Honestly, though, sorry.” It seemed he’d hit her in the jaw. He was lucky that nothing had broken there, he would feel so guilty.
    2 likes
  18. From the album: The Longest Thread (Misadventures)

    When I'm bored, I doodle. When Star is sick of being separated from Pheonix, I doodle them together in my little brother's notebook. That's just how things work, people.
    2 likes
  19. Kaladin actually claims responsibility for too much, carrying the weight of everyone who dies and dwelling on his perceived failures. There's a bit of a Moash - Dalinar - Kaladin continuum there.
    2 likes
  20. No, they do get side effects from Soulcasting, but they are different and less unpleasant then what you get from using a fabrial.
    2 likes
  21. I'm heartbroken about Shalladin falling through. I see the Syladin ship happening but I don't really ship Syl and Kaladin romantically. It's kind of a Lilo and Stitch situation for me. That kind of bond and love is what I see them having in the future and I'm game for it to happen. That being said, if Kaladin does end up with Syl (I doubt it'll be romantic but Kaladin choosing to staying devoted to his spren and his oaths is something I see him doing), I'll find it really amusing that he's going to be technically 'married' to his honor. Zuko anybody?
    2 likes
  22. Isn't that basically what Dalinar is doing as Bondsmith and what Kaladin does by being in an adjacent Order?
    2 likes
  23. .... but I'll see what I can do
    2 likes
  24. From the album: Natural History of Roshar

    Shin chicken after 4000 years of evolution on Roshar would look.... not a whole lot different, if it's like Earth chicken evolution. I thought about going nuts and make it featherless and reverting back to a mini raptor, but I kind of didn't want to paint an ugly uncooked Thanksgiving dinner... So in the end it's back to being a good o' fashion chick'in - lightning color! There, so new, so shin XD
    1 like
  25. Fortune is just a name people use for powers that allow future sight, because many of them can manifest as hunches that look like good luck.
    1 like
  26. I don't think that all forms of investiture that we see existed on Yolen, but that some of the ones we have now have some resemblances to the ones on Yolen. They should all work on the same fundamental principles, after all. The Shattering would affect the manifestations, but it shouldn't have affected the underlying architecture. Kind of like being next door to a supernova. Locally, a lot of things will have changed--gravitational effects, orbits, etc. But the laws of physics still dictate how all that falls out.
    1 like
  27. My post got updated with the relevant WoB. People on Roshar think Cultivation is hiding and not facing Odium. The reality is quite different. So to me the analogy stands. Cultivation is claiming one thing regarding Odium so he doesn't consider her an active threat, but in reality she is moving things behind the scenes. Overtly Endowment could be saying leave everyone alone, but be covertly moving things behind the scenes. From the info I have read, I feel Cultivation is confirmed, while Endowment is a theory.
    1 like
  28. Pretty much the same reaction as @kais for this one. Overall, this was really well written, and I wanted to like it more than I did. I think the biggest problem I had is that there is too much crammed into this novelette. The first two thirds are all about the sea monster, and we really don't get anything about the title of the story, or about K. Then we don't spend enough time with K and A to make their triumph feel worth it. I was actually expecting more to happen between A and the captain than with her husband (or fiancee? Not sure which). I almost want this to either be: --A story this length about A's quest to find and kill the sea monster, and ends when she gets the parts to free K. We never see K. --A story twice as long as this one, where the first half is all about the sea monster so we get enough buildup, but also have good background on K and the O-phage, and then the second half is all about the long, grueling fight to get K back. Right now, it's a little of both, which means there isn't enough time to develop the tension needed for either part. I really want to see more of this story! Notes while reading: pg 1: ah, glad we're starting off withe the sea serpent. I seem to recall leaving off while they were still only starting to search. pg 2: "R’s joy had turned to outrage." --I thought everyone was in on the "let's kill the thing and sell it" plan? pg 3: "If it fled, she would be safe. But K would be doomed." --that's a pretty quick switch from doing everything she can to find it, to nearly giving up. pg 4: "Somehow managing to keep a steady hand despite the bucking ship, he wrote the rune for “sight” on each eyelid." --first, ow, and second, I doubt he got anywhere near the right rune with the ship bucking. pg 4: "No one else moved until the inanimate bulk of the sea serpent floated to the surface." --Ah. I was actually expecting a little more of a fight. pg 5: “You never thought you’d adjust to shipboard life so quickly, did you?” --I know part of this is WRS (weekly reader syndrome) since we started halfway through, but the time on the ship feels pretty short overall. I was honestly expecting more of a chase for the McGuffin. pg 5: “I wish it could have gone differently.” --how? Didn't she get the exact thing she was searching for? pg 5: "He’d been furious at the disloyal crewmen, but with her he’d just seemed disappointed." --ok, I was somehow under the impression the captain knew about the hunt too. I don't have all the character names down because we haven't spent a whole lot of time with them. pg 6: "leaving K prey to the oneirophage" --Ah, I think I've identified one of my concerns. The story is titled after this, but this is (I think) the first time the O-phage has been mentioned. Up until now it's all been about the sea serpent, and my sense of the arc of the story was off because of it. I was expecting some sort of conclusion with the hunt, but it was sort of anti-climactic. Now we come to the real object of the story, but it's not built up much. pg 8: There's a lot of information on this page, but none of it is really relevant to the story, especially one this short. pg 9: “Because I’m coming with you.” --interesting pg 11: Hm. Lots of planning about how to attack the phage, which sort of slows down the tension. I would have though some of this would be figured out by now. pg 13: "I should have known,” --Uh, yeah. I'm beginning to see why he got trapped in the first place. pg 15: "and it dissolved into the same kind of mist" --this is also sort of anti-climactic.
    1 like
  29. Overall I think there is a very excellent adventure story in here. However the short reads more like a living outline that needs filling in. The events are there but the world building, the emotion, the interpersonal interactions are all heavily glossed over, to the point where I cannot gain any buy-in. I want more. More dialogue, more action, more thoughts, more reactions, more world. I think you have enough here for a novella, easily, if you put some flesh on the good bones of the story. As I go - After all that description and wonder, I'd like more reaction to the harpooning - We have to kill it! We haven’t got a choice anymore - I don't understand this. Haven't they already harpooned it? It's likely going to die now anyway so this line is confusing - “Someone once told me that a mage’s rings protected him from ghosts and the Folk of a Thousand Names.” - I'm more confused. This is a short story but it has a few too many elements. It's also pretty late in the game to be introducing more Large Named Magic Things. If the arc is to kill the serpent and heal the brother (?), then we are on track. If it's not, I've gotten lost along the way - pg 10: another quest? This is hard because I didn't really have buy-in for the first one, nor did I get a lot of tension from the reemergence of the brother. Stakes are missing and it's making it difficult to care about the characters and their journey. I think this might be a novella, not a short story. It needs time to breathe and emote and develop - pg 11: wait, the room is another room? Huh? - and J is... not J but I don't know who J is so this gotcha falls flat - why does she care so much about T's face brand? There hasn't been enough time in the story for them to befriend each other
    1 like
  30. Typically we try to work from "the beginning of time" forward. Meaning we take our most basic of cultures that existed at creation, then decide where the new culture would fit in physically and where in time, then we start developing the sub-culture and try to give motivation for how and why that sub-culture came to be. Sometimes we blend two cultures together to flesh it out and other times we just give a small group of one culture a good reason to branch off and become the culture we need to fit the story line. To be honest, it can be a blast to try to "reverse engineer" cultures like that. We've actually ended up creating some major villains and some major heroes by reverse engineering cultures, then realize that we have the perfect opportunity to create a new character that fits into a story we already came up with, but was missing that "special something." And honestly, I rely more on my memory than on notes. Luckily my writing partner is on the opposite end of the spectrum and checks his notes on everything, so between the two of us we're able to keep most things straight and, if not, we create the rules so we can keep the straight moving forward. On a side note, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone on this topic! I'm finding this to be a blast to discuss the different methods of world building and I'm seeing things that I'm very much considering doing myself as far as noes and organization goes. So thanks everyone!
    1 like
  31. @Xardan Ta'Caran I meant to reply to this yesterday but forgot - sorry about that. That reminds me a bit of how David Eddings did his stories, with each of the companions being archetypal of their nation. It can definitely be useful, though I also like how Brandon has done his, with members of a given nation who are main or secondary characters also being considered atypical of their peoples' usual attitudes. Once you have worked out the basics of a culture based on a character do you use single existing or previous cultures to flesh out that base, or do you try to combine elements from a few cultures for each? When it comes to notes, you have to use what works for you :-P if the method works then it's great! And you two together have a system that works, that's great! Much like in a story where each character plays to their strengths to cover the others weakness (life imitates art? ;-) ) @Kureshi Ironclaw Ahhh I like your approach :-) I'm actually codifying my notes right now, and using some of the earlier ideas as the ideas certain aliens and cultures have about how the meta-setting is constructed, with the older ideas being fairly similar to what the races believe and which isn't entirely incorrect. The misconceptions being told by a character to others does allow for interesting reveals when they discover the information isn't correct, or wonder at a seeming inconsistency, and so can serve as misdirection or red herrings :-) Side note but this actually reminds me a bit of something which I think was in Thud! by Terry Pratchett, where each side believed the other had ambushed them, but in actuality they had just bumped into each other. So misunderstandings like that you would list in the notes? My own notes are written more as though from my perspective, with anything believed to be the case by the characters or species or cultures noted as such with the actual case listed before. Separate beliefs are listed in their own documents. I'll add another thing about how I world build here as well, which I think has helped make the settings I work on more distinct. When I write I find I have a tendency to use certain ideas often, such as the main enemy being extra-dimensional, or teleporter networks. So I made a list of the common elements when I design, and allocated them to different settings, making a list of which idea is used where, and how important it is in the story. While the settings all touch the foundation, each setting instead focuses on one or two or three of these, while other stories focus on other ones, and so each can be developed more distinctly.
    1 like
  32. “You’re choice, Brill.” His name was Brillin, not Brill, not the ‘Briller’, not none of those slangs the elders and other kids called him. He was BRILLIN, and he’d always decided that when the CHOICE came to leave or stay in the tribe, he would decline those spikes, and he would leave. And now, he was of age and the CHOICE was his. He nodded, and the spikes plunged into him, and he felt his body grow, blue skin becoming bluer and his muscles grew and his smarts left his body as he was a full Koloss, he wasn’t part of the tribe, and in these caves he’d stay for the rest of his eternity until he died of age. “Bloody savages,” he heard from the side and he saw a person there, face shifting. It looked like a faceless immortal, its face shifting to a thousand civilians, of all races, from all different towns, the face kept shifting and twisting but the look of disgust remained consistent. Brill tried to say something but it came out as a roar and he ran at the face... And suddenly he was in the Parlour, his large Koloss head hitting the roof, a massive sword larger than most men strapped to his back, his eyes bloodshot red. He looked down at the person of shifting faces and it was the old man and the board game, blood leaking from beneath him where Brill had crushed him. He looked and found Nerin looking at his eyes. “They’re not blue anymore...” “What do you mean?” Brillin asked and took out his notepad. He adjusted his coat and looked to the large Koloss who appeared in front of him. “Oh, you were talking to that guy.” He looked to the large Koloss who called himself Brill. Brill roared and hopped off the old man, and Brillin arched an eyebrow. “You’re a savage,” he said to Brill. “What happened to civility?” Civility, Brill roared but he was just trying to ask, trying to ask why? Why was he like this, and the normal Brillin laughed and suddenly there was a group of people behind him and they were laughing as well, and Brill was alone, and so desperate. And Brillin kept on laughing, and his skin changed colour, and his blueish hue became normal, normal like that of the crowd, his blue eyes staring meanly at Brill, and he laughed. And Brill became to laugh too, and the massive Koloss flopped on his side and was laughing, and everyone was laughing except for the man sleeping in the bed, the man so drunk he tried to drown away his sorrows in beer. But the devils had learnt to swim. “If you can’t beat em’, join them. Join them, Briller, old sport.” And the ‘dream’ ended. HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME PLEASE
    1 like
  33. Uhh, what do you mean Moash didn't murder Elhokar? I quite distinctly remembering him killing the king while he was trying sear the oaths Okay, the bus comparison was really bad, I'll give you that. Elhokar's punishment was basically a lecture and a slap on the wrist. So, if Moash is justified does that mean that any Alethi can now kill him? I mean, obviously all that matters is getting revenge so any alethi has enough justification to murder him on sight. Actually make that every human on the continent since he killed a herald, one of the beings that has protected them for so long. If the idea is that if someone kills someone important to you you have full justification to murder them then anyone on the planet of Roshar can kill Moash. The reason I brought up him being redeemed is that many people say that Moash can be redeemed for the terrible things he has done. If he can why not Elohkar as well? I'm not saying that he is too far gone, I'm saying that he sees himself as too far gone. He sees that he has no way out and has given up on himself. The biggest thing necessary for someone to be redeemed would be for them to believe that they can be redeemed, They have to be willing to try and become better and believe that they can become better. He doesn't believe in himself and so he has turned his back on his possibilities of change and turned to Odium. He might be able to be redeemed, but at this point I don't see it happening.
    1 like
  34. I don't think that is meaningless at all. I'm not saying that what Elhokar did as good, but it's less of a crime then hat Moash did. Elhokar as a completely incompetent king. Everyone knows this. But it is one thing to get someone killed because you are incompetent at your job, and another to flat out murder someone. To put it in perspective, let's say that there is a bus driver that is really bad at their job and they get into a wreck and kill someone. Is that the bus drivers fault. Absolutely and they should face a consequence. But this is far less of a crime then the grandson of the person killed hunting down and murdering the bus driver. This is why there is a legal difference between manslaughter and murder. One invokes intent to do harm while the other is accidental. I think Elhokar should have received a far harsher punishment, maybe even losing the throne, but saying that Moash was justified in what he did is taking it too far. Also, didn't this hole discussion start with the idea of Moash being redeemed? So a man that has deliberately attempted to kill the man who trusted him enough to give him a full set of shards, turned his back on all of his friends, killed a king who almost became a knight radient, and killed one of the heralds who have protected this world for centuries, this man can possibly receive redemption. But the man that was misled by a bad friend and accidentally got some people killed, then regretted it and did his best to become better and almost reached the level of knight radiant is not able to receive redemption. How does that make sense? Yes what Elhokar did was wrong, but he could have found redemption for what he did just as people think Moash will. On a side note, I don't think Moash will find redemption. He has turned himself completely over to Odium and is too far gone, even in his own mind. I think that since Dalinar has turned away from Odium that Moash will become the new champion. As we've seen with the radiants and the fused, humans and singers react very differently to being bound to spren. Also, there are none of the 16 shards that are bound to Singers, at least as far as I know. (Feel free to correct me if you have evidence otherise) I'm not sure that a singer would be able to bind enough with Odium to be his champion, while a human could
    1 like
  35. I liked Elhokar.....but the dudes a murderer. He got what he deserved. Yes. Hes easily one of the most realistic characters. Ive met Moash before....many times. I find the hatred people feel towards him to be mind bottling.
    1 like
  36. Finally started my own wheel of time journey today! In one sitting I read the prologue through chapter eight! Not too shabby since I'll be reading even more through the night! I really like what I've read so far, and even then, it's barely scratching the surface. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the journey!
    1 like
  37. I think that is actually the point that Sanderson is making. The religion isn't evil, just some of the practices and leaders are. I mean, his choice to show Hrathen as ultimately a hero, to me, shows that he's trying to say, No it's not evil, but much of what happens under its aegis is evil right now.
    1 like
  38. From the album: The Knight Radiant

    This one took me some time to finish. I've asked Argent, Calderis, R'Shara and some other guys if shardplate can exist in it's armor form in the CR. Answers were inconsistent most of the time. I guess we just don't know yet! So before book 4 makes Shadplate impossible to exist in Shadesmar. Here it is Adolin and Maya, surrounded by some fear spren.
    1 like
  39. Life is rated 'R', matey!
    1 like
  40. It's... kinda blur. And probably invisible without really light screen. Haven't seen many Inkspren fanart, tried to portray how I imagined them. Well... tried. I'm gonna try again in the future.
    1 like
  41. Compounding anything is like having an infinite feruchemical attribute, so long as you have access to the metal, so gold is obviously the most critical one to try for, even if gold is expensive to obtain (with infinite health, I suppose a lot of things become fairly easy to obtain). We don't know what feruchemical "luck" is like yet, except for a WoB that it's not what you might think based on other works of fiction (like Coinspinner in The Book of Swords), so while it certainly sounds attractive, we don't really know what it would mean. Double steel = infinite speed + being a Coinshot, plus steel is cheap and easy to get, is probably next; double pewter (Hulk smash!) and double zinc would be next, though having nigh infinite time to think anything over is only as useful as you can actually think something through to the end at all, from an ability standpoint, or would have the mental stamina to stick with it (I mean, if you had infinite mental time, would you do everybody's tax returns? Probably not.) And don't overlook double brass. Not only are you a Soother, but infinite body heat, combined with an exoskeletal suit that siphoned off your excess body heat into an efficient sink and an array of thermocouples, would make you a walking dynamo of infinite electrical power.
    1 like
  42. Am I the only one really wanting Sigzil reunion with Wit ? Being nearby Jasnah could provide an opportunity, I hope. Also, brilliant ideas you all
    1 like
  43. There is always CAFO (Connect And Find Out) All my computers / devices are named after different cheeses, so if you need a theme for naming yours then you could always go with "foods of the Cosmere"
    1 like
  44. Free-form role-playing is less like tabletop role-playing and more like a collaborative fanfic. In this sort of game, each player creates one (or two, or three, or ten) characters, writes for those characters, and develops them throughout the game. (Most of these games don't have a character limit, so create as many as you want, but make sure you can keep track!) Free-form games don't really have a goal. There may be a loose plot (for example, the What Happened in Oregon series center on the destruction of Oregon in the Epic turf wars) but there aren't really campaigns. Most of the time, it's difficult to say what will happen three or four pages out, as long-term plans are loose at best and subject to change. As a result, these games are highly character-driven as opposed to event-driven—that is to say, characters determine what will happen next by how they interact with their setting and with other characters. When creating a character, consider the following: What happened to him/her before they joined the story? What is their personality like? Are they grouchy or cheerful, kind or cruel, focused or flighty, idealistic or cynical? What are three positive traits of this character? (If you're creating a complete monster, think of traits that help him or her—intelligence, determination, ambition, etc.) What are three negative traits of this character? (Flaws that make a character imperfect, like pettiness, self-absorption, judgmental attitudes, etc. It's been said before, but clumsiness is not a character flaw.) If a genie offered them three wishes, what would those wishes be? How would they react if they went to the store to satisfy a craving for Cocoa Puffs, only to find the store was out? What would they do if they went to the laundromat and saw the one person they could not stand had taken the last machine? In other words, who is this person, and what would they add to the story? The point of free-form role-playing is much like the point of good storytelling: Don't focus on creating the most powerful, most brilliant, or most amazing character in the game. Focus instead on creating an interesting character. Create a character who feels like a person you might sit down and have coffee with: You might enjoy talking to them, or you might not, but the idea is to create a character who feels real. It is highly recommended you read the thread you want to join. If the thread is long or Real Life doesn't give you much time for reading, ask current players for a summary. However, reading at least a few posts of characters in the thread you want to join will allow you to answer these questions: How would my character react to my favorite character in this thread? How would my character react to my least favorite character in this thread? How would my character cause problems for the other characters? How would my character solve problems for the other characters? How would my character make their grand entrance, and how would the other characters react? If you answered the problem-causing question with "Not at all," go back and add a few flaws. Free-form RPGs are about telling a good story and having fun doing it, and stories are all about conflict. Flawed characters cause conflict and are interesting to read about. Perfect characters are rarely interesting. Once you have a good character in mind, PM me and the thread starter and go from there. Some notes on Epic characters: In canon, teleportation is supposed to be rare. As many teleporters were created before this was known, Oregon is rather saturated with teleporters now. If you are creating an Epic character, please stay away from teleportation as a power.
    1 like
  45. "This here's Nightblood, he's got EXTREME sentience... ahem... I mean sentimental value."
    1 like
  46. Ok, first time poster, long time lurker. Going to wikipedia searching for the Julia set and using the same animation that Veil used I was able to produce this. Mystery solved right?
    1 like
This leaderboard is set to Los Angeles/GMT-07:00
×
×
  • Create New...