What is Prep Work Anyway?

Holy smokes, this week breezed by! What did I even do this week? *checks notes*

Oh! Nothing! Cool. Cool.

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So, Wednesday was the start of a pretty social week, which means all roleplay prep-work and writing kind of took a back seat. That's always a good idea when one wants to start up a campaign in a couple of weeks, right?

Well, to be fair, I was still kinda-sorta working on the prep-work. See, Rozsavaria is going to be one of the players for Scum and Villainy, and on Wednesday, she unofficially created her character. In other words, she came over to flip through the rulebook to figure out how she wants to build her character. We won't do actual character building until the 21st (in theory; the date isn't officially locked in yet), but she likes to prep as well so she doesn't take hours to character build the day-of. It also gives her time to play with her build and tweak things before actually starting play.

Along with reading through the book on Wednesday, Roz also borrowed it to photocopy some pages, which meant I didn't have it for my day off on Thursday. That's fine, Hubby didn't have work either, so we had a long-needed re-coup day anyway. Then, Friday, I was still training the newbie, so no RP work going on while on the job. I probably could have worked on it a bit more Friday night since Roz had returned the book, but chaos was about to go down on nopixel.

One of nopixel's players is a streamer known as Burn. He had become good acquaintances with Sykkuno's character Yuno Sykk, and saw how popular the character was. As a gag, Burn created a second character modeled off of Yuno, and named him NoYu Sukk. He then spent the better part of last week running around the nopixel server with this Yuno parody, purposefully trying to ruin Yuno's reputation. He and Sykkuno played up this "evil twin" gag for four or five days. Canonically, no one is quite sure what NoYu was, because Yuno kept switching up what to call him, between "evil twin" or "evil clone" or "identical cousin."

Sykkuno put no effort into creating his character, resulting in him constantly referring to himself as ugly. Because of this, he typically wears a motorcycle helmet, making it harder to differentiate between Yuno and NoYu when both are masked.

Anyway, after a few days, Burn was getting tired of the joke and wanted to get back onto his main character, so he let Sykkuno know he wanted to kill off his character. I believe in-character NoYu told Yuno that he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, and soon. Well, Sykkuno's birthday was June 4th, which happened to be a Friday, so Yuno came up with a plan to hold a major birthday party for himself, which would also serve as NoYu's grand finale. His plan was to host the party in the lobby of The Vault; the most secure bank in-game. He'd convince the party goers to all dress like him, that way NoYu could blend into the crowd. Then, since Yuno is a master bank hacker, and NoYu is the Bizzaro version of him, they'd have NoYu fail a hack attempt. The hack attempt - regardless if it succeeds - will signal the cops. NoYu would then start shooting at the cops, forcing them to breach into the bank, where they won't be able to tell which "Yuno" is shooting, and be forced to start up a major fire-fight within the bank.

The first part of the plan went off without a hitch. In fact, it may have gone better than any would have expected. Yuno had Twatted (the in-game version of Twitter) out the time and location for his birthday party, as well as instructions on how to dress up like him. These Twats started about 24hrs before the party, and there was also a lot of word-of-mouth. It seemed like at least half the server knew about the party by the time it went down. As evidenced by what seemed to be at least 60 characters showing up as Yuno to wish him a happy birthday.

Just a small portion of the many Yunos invading the Vault for the birthday party.

Instead of having NoYu fail a hack, they had switched gears a bit. The first thing you need to do to break into the Vault is to set off thermite to blow open the barred door to the main offices of the bank. Yuno set off a thermite claiming it's his birthday candles. This was also his "special invitation for the cops" that he had told his cop friends to keep an eye out for. Unfortunately, despite the 24hr planning, and Yuno calling up his friends and telling them he'd really like their roommates/cousins/twins/etc (aka in-character telling the players to switch to their cop characters instead of showing up to the party as their main criminal characters), only one cop responded to the Vault hack. He was promptly set on fire by NoYu and then kidnapped and trampled by the other guests before the cop managed to get some backup trickling in and could be brought to the hospital. The big bummer there, though, was that this was one of the players that specifically switched to his cop character for Sykkuno, but didn't get to really enjoy it because he was ambushed so early. His character was revived soon enough, but, for immersion reasons, he couldn't respond to the same crime he was already taken out of. He ended up being one of the few cops responding to other crime going on, more-or-less missing the whole ordeal. Poor guy.

Anyway, it kept a little while, but eventually there were about seven or eight cop cars out front and the "true party" could begin. NoYu started shooting up the guests to force the cops to breach for the shooter(s). Everyone scattered. There was chaos. But not as many cop casualties as Yuno was going for, and NoYu slipped away unscathed. Eventually, NoYu managed to get himself caught and brought to the police station, where he tried to blow himself up to no avail. Some time later, the cops were able to bring Yuno in to identify NoYu. He did, stating that NoYu was his evil clone that had slipped into his totally innocent birthday party and started shooting everyone. Yuno had also blown himself up at a gas station a little time before that, coincidentally right about the time NoYu - through a game glitch - managed to pull out his phone while in lock-up, so Yuno claimed NoYu called a hit on him, and NoYu admitted to it.

The cops pretended to be disgusted by the whole thing, and one of the cops started a fist-fight with NoYu. She was getting her butt handed to her, which gave her an excuse to defend herself with a knife, taking NoYu down via stab wounds. He could still be revived with an EMT or hospital care, and Burn was trying SOOOO HAAAAARD to get the character killed, so he had NoYu try to instigate the cops further. Instead, through another glitch, one of Yuno's friends that was also there for the identification - Hunter "Wingman" Skye - broke into the line-up room and shot the downed NoYu in the head before sprinting away from the cops. Burn was like "that was a bullet through the head! There's no coming back from that, right? Wingman, you are the best!" (Technically, if he didn't want to kill off the character they COULD find an in-game reason for him to have survived the headshot, but this was Burn's out.)

Wingman ended up getting caught and given jail time for the murder of a suspect in custody, but it just meant he had to RP in the prison for about 40minutes or something. In the meantime, NoYu's body was processed, declared dead (because the player let the other players know he wanted the character dead), and Yuno was called in as next-of-kin to identify the body. There was this touching moment where Burn typed up notes to "fall out of NoYu's pockets" as Yuno interacted with the body. They were both sweet and insulting in the best of ways. Burn then typed up that Yuno found an MP3 player with his name on it, so Yuno claimed he pressed play, and Burn voiced a "recording" NoYu had left Yuno. Go check out this awesome roleplay. 

(Warning: Contains foul language)

The female that is with Yuno is called 4T, just, FYI.

So... yeah. That was my Friday night. Snuggled up next to the hubby and watching about four or five hours of chaos unfold. Like I said, the nopixel server is way more entertaining and engrossing than any show out there right now, especially since you have so many streamers to cut to for their perspective of what's going on. Also, if there's a storytelling lull with the streamer you're following, just switch to another to keep the action going.

Saturday was a slow work day. I was with my manager, so no training needed. The new sale tags weren't ready yet for me to start, so that's one fewer things on my plate. I had the SaV book. Do you think I spent the downtime doing more prep-work for the campaign?

Nope!

I just couldn't focus on reading or writing that day, so instead I was back on picrew.me. Who's ready to see more OC pics?

Created using Character Maker

Honestly, I'm not a fan of Willow's hair at all, but it was as close as I could get to something she'd actually wear as a hairstyle. Plus, I was able to get the blue streaks in, however awkwardly. So.... meh? I also didn't notice at the time that I gave all three X-Future girls the same bang set. The hair options and clothing options were a bit limited, but, for the most part, it worked. Shawn looks sooooo young though. Oh well.

After work, Roz and I went for a walk, then it was anime night with Goob and Hubby. Wolfhearted also made an appearance, glad that Hubby and I are now officially fully vaccinated (past the 2-week mark after our final shot). We gave each other hugs. It was great.

During our micro-party, we watched the anime SK8 the Infinity on FUNimation. It's a short - 12 episodes - anime about racers in an underground extreme skateboard league. The animation is GORGEOUS and the story is fun. I've been gushing about it almost daily to ChibiSunnie, who only encourages this endless fangirling by sending me stuff she's seen on her Tumblr and Twitter feeds. A lot of the people in the same Sports Anime fandoms she's in have migrated to SK8, so she's been seeing fanart and other such content for a couple of months now. And she's passing most of it over to me.

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Anyway, if you're on my Facebook or Tumblr pages, you already know this story. For everyone else, though. As Hubby, Goob, and I are watching SK8, we're introduced to the character Tadashi Kikuchi. The more we heard this character talk, especially since it was the day after Yuno's birthday party, the more Hubby and I commented that the guy sounds so much like NoYu. The voice just sounded so familiar, and it bugged me that I couldn't pinpoint it. So I looked up the credits, and someone named Brandon Johnson is Tadashi's voice actor. The actor only has the one credit though; this is his first major voice acting role. So how do we recognize it? Hubby just kept pointing out that the character sounds like NoYu, the VA only had this one credited role, and there wasn't a headshot, which is typically another sign that they're relatively new to the business. So I asked Hubby if he happened to know Burn's real name.

He didn't, but did point out that Burn's main nopixel character is Sasuke Johnson, so.... did Burn give his character his actual last name???? I tried looking up Burn's real name, much like how Hubby and I were able to find Sykkuno's, Valkyrae's, and Disguised Toast's. For a lot of streamers, even when they use a streaming/gaming handle, they still have their real names as public knowledge. I didn't find a wikipedia page revealing his name, like I could for the three I just listed. So I went to Burn's Twitter to see if he had his real name posted there somewhere. The answer to that is a big old 'nope', but he does have himself listed as a streamer AND voice actor! So I scrolled down a bit, and right at the top of his page was this pinned Tweet:

You can find the actual Tweet here

My mind was mildly blown by how tiny the world was for a moment there. We started watching SK8 because Goob really enjoyed it and thought we would too. He knows nothing about nopixel aside from what Hubby's been gushing about lately, and even then, Hubby didn't start following Burn until this past week's NoYu shenanigans. We don't follow Burn's socials, so we clearly had no clue he was somehow connected to this anime. We didn't watch SK8 because we knew it was Burn's first major role. Nor did we start watching nopixel or Burn because we enjoyed his performance. It was pure coincidence that we stumbled upon this connection, and I just find that so cool. Especially because, with him being a streamer first and foremost, his audience can spend WAY more time with him, so to speak, than most voice actor fans could. He seems so much more "everyman" than most VAs that you only can interact with via convention panels, meet-and-greets, and watching/reading interviews.

So, yeah, bravo to Burn! That's quite an exciting step into his career as a voice actor, and I did really enjoy his performance. Also, the character Sasuke - which he plays as if it were Sasuke Uchiha from Naruto - makes more sense now considering it showcases how much he enjoys anime, as well as a possible way for him to build up his voice acting highlight reel.

Sunday was another training day.... kinda-sorta. I was working with the newbie again, it was a painfully slow day, and I'm sure there's loads of things to still train her. However, we both were a bit mentally burnt out for various reasons, and the sale tags still weren't ready, so I couldn't really teach her how to do the new tags yet. We chatted for a little while, and I went over some small things; answered her questions. But for the most part, we just each did our own things. I couldn't focus, though, so still no work on the SaV campaign. I thought I could maybe re-focus better at home, but that didn't work out either.

Roz and I took another walk; something we're trying to make a routine out of now that the weather is nice(r) and it's safe to hang out again. I think we overdid it in the heat, though, because once we said our goodbyes - and Roz again borrowed the SaV book to photocopy pages - I was dead. I ended up nursing stomach issues while catching up with Animal Crossing: New Horizons instead of attempting any sort of writing. I didn't have the book again anyway.

Yesterday I finally had some focus. It was a bit fleeting, but it was there. I was also at work with my manager again, with little for me to do since the tags STILL weren't ready to put up. So I figured I'd keep going with campaign prep. Roz had the SaV book, so I couldn't finish reading that or work on my cheat sheet for the factions. I DID have access to the PDF of the Gravity RIP rulebook though, so I started reading through that again.

Each RIP race includes 20 racers. If all four or five (one's still on the fence) SaV players decide to participate in the RIP races, that leaves 15 or 16 slots to fill with non-player characters (NPCs). Normally, they're just nameless NPCs aside from the "rivals": NPCs significant to the overall story of the game. Rivals could be literal rivals for the player characters (PCs), they could be allies, or they could be targets the PCs are focused on for that particular race's objective. I want to make my life easier during play itself though, so I'm making it harder in the prep-work by actually coming up with racers. I'll then reveal them as needed, but at least they're already made up and I won't have to pause the game so I could scramble to come up with something. I can also easily switch out my pre-made characters with whichever characters the PCs meet during the main SaV roleplay. I already have some of the notable faction NPCs set up as racers or main gamblers on the RIP races. I could build off of that.

The thing that's super holding me up, however, is.... naming. Of COURSE it's naming.

I don't Sci-fi enough to really know where to go with these names to make them seem futuristic and/or alien. I have enough of an ear for it to know if a name I come up with sounds like it would fit, but it's such a long road to get there. On top of that, each racer has their own custom rig - their Machine - that they race in, so I get to design those as well. Thankfully, they don't need a lot of description, just a broad stroke describing if the Machine is more bulk and weight, or lighter and more aerodynamic. Then, of course, some distinguishing feature to signal that this Machine is this specific racer's rig. Although, if we do our character creation session on the 21st, like I'm planning, I'll be visiting my mom and sister for the first time in, like, 16 months the Monday after (which is the main reason I don't want to start actually playing until July). If we start officially playing on Monday, July 5th, that still gives me almost two full weeks to look at how the players built their RIP Machines and design the NPC ones accordingly.

I've also been trying to get myself in the right mindset with a playlist. While searching for "space opera" songs to get me - and my players - into the right mood to play SaV, I stumbled upon this amazing video. I've been kind of obsessing over it for nearly 2 weeks now, I just neglected to share it last week since my post was already kinda long. This is also a long post, but... meh.

The song is amazing, and really talks about hope in such a cool way. I live for the 80s music aesthetic. Likewise, I adore the classic anime art styling. The actual STORY of the video is compelling. The main character - dubbed Strive by the production team - is adorable and engaging to watch. Plus, seeing the interpretation of the costumes the band TWRP (pronounced 'twerp') wears on-stage is fantastic.

Along with loving the video for all of the above, I also like watching it to get ideas for character and space ship designs. Fun factoid, Strive was designed off of a bird - hence the fluffy, feather-like hair, pointed face, and wing-like ears - and his spaceship reflects that bird aesthetic.

I also started re-watching the Netflix/Dreamworks revival of Voltron. I had gotten as far as season 3 (out of 8) a few years back, but it's been so long, I figured I'd start over to refresh my memory. Ended up a good plan, because I can also study the character and ship designs in that show to help me with preparing for SaV/Gravity RIP.

There's still so much I have to sort out. I'm a bit overwhelmed, but also so excited to do this. I'm even figuring out how to bring Maggie the Info Broker into SaV. I mean, one of the "factions" already set up in the SaV book is "the galaxy's most renowned info broker and hacker" so, much like if I ever got the chance to bring her into nopixel, Maggie is just AN info broker, not THE info broker, but still. Could be fun to try to flesh her out and at least get a chance to play her. Plus, the likelihood the PCs will INSTANTLY get in touch with THE info broker is pretty slim, so having a more humble option to work with at first should be good.

I just need to get my head to focus again so I can finish reading and prepping. Two weeks to go. Let's do this!

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Where Did Last Week Go???

Well, um... oops. Seems I missed last week. And I had things to talk about too. How did I manage that one?

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Honestly, Hubby and I had a lot going on last week, so I was barely home last Tuesday. Not much time to write when I'm not even in the same building as my computer. Then the rest of the week kind of ran away from me, so I didn't bother trying to play catch-up. I had other writing to focus on, which I'll discuss in a moment.

First of all, the coworker I tended to butt heads with is officially gone. She had put in her two-weeks earlier this month (er, I guess that's technically last month now... Happy June, everybody!), and Thursday was my last day with her. We also already have a replacement. The newbie is about my age, and seems real open to learn, which is already such a breath of fresh air. I'm hoping the personnel switch will be a major load off, and that ease of stress can help me get back to some semblance of writing normalcy (as well as just general mental health wellness). That said, part of the craziness of this week was that transition of the one coworker leaving and starting to train the new one. Yesterday was also Memorial Day in the States, which means "big weekend specials." Ignore that we've had the same sale on for about 3 weeks now, and it's still going for one more week; everyone decided to hit up the store this weekend. So.... that was hectic! Not terribly overwhelming though, so there's that.

What I've been doing the rest of the week, however, has been a combo between watching more NoPixel with Hubby, catching up on our watch list of Netflix shows, TV shows, and YouTube videos, and me continuing to world build - er, galaxy build? - for the upcoming Scum and Villainy campaign Hubby and I want to run. Well, rather, that I'll be running so Hubby can play a character, but I'm also running a lot of the set-up by him first to make sure it makes sense. With any luck, we'll be able to kick off our campaign by mid-June/early-July. Everyone involved should be well past their two-weeks post-final-shot of their vaccines, so we'll be good to go on the COVID front as well. Weeeeee!

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The opening of last week, and pretty much the entirety of the week before that, was spent just reading through the SaV handbook to get the rules down, and see how they might differ from Blades in the Dark. There are some changes that Hubby and I discussed, to see if we wanted to stick with the changes SaV did or revert back to how Blades does the same mechanic. More often than not, we decided to split the difference, as it were.

I have post-it tabs all over the handbook, and I've been slowly photocopying pages so I can highlight the bits I want to make sure to remember, as well as help cut down on the book tabs. This quickly turned into me photocopying about a 1/5 of the book, though. Shhhh, don't let my work know I've used so much paper and ink!

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Full disclosure: I STILL haven't finished reading through the handbook. Some of the more key things unique to this game - such as how to play an alien race - known as a xeno - or what happens when interacting with an ancient artifact, or what information is known about the ancient but now deceased race known only as the Precursors, or how to build things using the advanced technology typical of a space opera theme, etc - are towards the back of the book, but I've just plain skipped over them for the time being. Instead, I wanted to flesh out the actual life going on in this game.

In Blades, the closed-in city of Doskvol is already overrun with an assortment of criminal syndicates, corrupted political parties, and a dirty police force. Part of the game play involves your up-and-coming criminal crew siding with some of these factions while surviving the wrath of those the crew managed to piss off. For SaV, it's very much the same way.

The game takes place in a corner of the galaxy known as the Procyon Sector, consisting of four different solar systems: Rin, Holt, Iota, and Brekk. The whole known and developed galaxy is run by a Hegemony, but the Procyon Sector is on the edge of this governing power; all but forgotten by the Hegemony. This is where the players can either decide to go full Space Cowboy/Space Pirate, or they can do odd-jobs to just try and carve out a life for themselves on one of the inhabitable planets/moons in the sector, or they can fully rebel against the Hegemony, or anything in between, honestly. Think of the Star Wars franchise, especially The Mandalorian and its setting of nearly forgotten planets by the New Republic. Or think of Cowboy Bebop, or Space Dandy, or Trigun, or Outlaw Star, or just about any other space opera themed anime. Or Firefly or its movie Serenity. Or you could even go with Marvel and think of either Guardians of the Galaxy (both movie and comic versions) or the Starjammers from the X-Men comics/90s cartoon. In truth, one of the alien races introduced in SaV is called the Sah'iir, and it kept me SO LONG to not read it as the Shi'ar, which is a prominent alien race within the X-Men comics. I STILL occasionally read it as Shi'ar, frankly.

Sorry, got a bit off-topic for a moment there. My point is, much like Blades, SaV has a thriving population of Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) and factions that help make the world (well, galactic sector) feel more alive. There are 12 established docking stations (3 per system), and pages explaining how to create more. There are also 36 established factions the players could either ally with or compete against. These factions are broken down both by main allegiances - between the Hegemony, criminal activities, and just "general weirdness" (usually cults) - and by power tier, ranging from Tier I (the weakest) to Tier V (the strongest).

Since Hubby wanted to also include elements - mostly the RIP racing - from the game Gravity RIP in our campaign, I was already planning on pre-creating various racing teams and racers the players could interact with and start alliances/rivalries with. This helps prevent me from having to come up with something on the fly; I'm trash at improv. Well, since I was creating these racing teams and RIP racers - and their rigs - ahead of time anyway, why not also get a better feel for the factions of the sector, right? I figured I could have fun creating cheat sheets for the players on what would be considered common knowledge for their characters. Based on that, I figured I'd write up mini bios, as it were, on the top-tier factions. I figured they're so prominent throughout the sector that most people would know SOMETHING about them, so I could play with that.

In the books - both Blades and SaV - the factions are given a simple sentence or two intro, and then slightly more depth a couple pages later. For SaV, this more detailed breakdown of the factions includes the location of their HQ, as well as any other turf they might hold. It also lists notable assets that the factions own; assets the players might want to steal or protect, depending on allegiances. There's also a list of quirks about the faction, the main motivation/goal of the faction, the current situation the faction is trying to handle (usually heading towards that main goal), and a list of 3 or 4 notable NPCs the players could interact with when dealing with each faction.

It's great information, but there's also a lot there that the players probably shouldn't know right out of the gate. Easy peasy. As I mentioned, I can just take the top-tiered factions - the ones everyone would know something about - and create my own bio. It would contain "common knowledge" about the faction, some "notable rumors" about the faction, and "notable members" of the faction, along with a couple-sentence bio about each of them.

It was tricky to read through each faction's official bio and try to organize it into "yup, most people should know this about the faction" vs "the players should still know this info, but maybe it's not confirmed facts, so this would be a 'rumor'" vs "the players' characters probably wouldn't know this, so I'll have to remember it in my back pocket." For instance, the only Tier V faction is called the Guild of Engineers. Their turf is listed as "mining concerns in every system" and "advanced research facilities in Rin, Iota, and Brekk" with the space station SB-176 as their headquarters. This all feels like common knowledge anyone who had spent significant time in the Procyon Sector would know (especially since the location of the research facilities is unknown; just that they exist in nearly every system). Meanwhile, in the Situation area, it's listed that the Guild is "beyond the ability of the Governor to police. The Guild is exploiting this, using this remote sector to perform experiments banned by the Cults and the Hegemon." This all feels like rumor to me; something the players should suspect to be true, but something they realize is only spoken in hushed tones and denied by the Guild themselves. Finally, the conclusion of the Situation paragraph says, "Their current project involves converting Way energy into a highly unstable but physical compound." Now, Way energy is this game's version of The Force from Star Wars. This feels like something virtually no one outside the Guild would know, along with the Notable Asset "Technology even the Hegemon is unaware of..." Both of those tidbits were completely left off the bio for the players since their characters probably wouldn't know any of that.

Now, once the info was sorted out, I then tried building mini-bios of the NPCs listed. This is where the majority of my writing energy went this week. To save space in an already large game rulebook, the creators only gave names, possibly a title within the faction, and a few descriptive words for each NPC. More often than not, the characters aren't even given a gender, allowing the GM just about free-rein to build these character suggestions into whatever the game needed.

Here are the examples from the Guild of Engineers:

• Avalon Riat, Chief Executive (cybernetic spider legs, megalomaniac)
• Thiel Kharrat, Operations Head (brutal, connected, influential)
• Oevers Star, Head Researcher (genius, reclusive, overworked)
• Yast Jor (commanding, shrewd, bold)

It's enough to get you started, but not much there to pull out on the fly. So, instead, I spent the week trying to think of who these characters are, and what the general population of Procyon might know about them.

Since the Guild of Engineers is the most powerful faction in the Sector, I also felt like the notable members will be too far removed from society for people to really know much about them. Also, these were the first bios I had written, so I hadn't found my groove yet. In the end, the above bios from the official rulebook became these extended bios:

• Avalon Riat, the chief executive. Not much is known about him beyond the fact that he's clearly a megalomaniac and has cybernetic spider legs replacing his biological ones.
• Thiel Kharrat is the head of operations. He has made a few news appearances, and everyone knows he is not someone to be trifled with. Not much else is known.
• Oevers Star, the head researcher. All anyone knows of Oevers is their name.
• Yast Jor. No one truly knows what her job is among the guild, but people certainly know her name. Many assume she's some sort of enforcer for the Guild.

Some NPCs have context clues within the faction bios that reveal their gender, such as Tallon from the 51st Legion. In the Legion's situation section it's stated, "Tallon earned many commendations on the battlefield, but swore to cleanse the Hegemonic military of nepotism when his command was sacrificed to a Noble's daughter." Obviously Tallon is meant to be male. Cool. However, most NPCs weren't given such context clues. As I mentioned above, this was probably purposefully done so the players can give these NPCs whichever gender (or no gender) they feel best fits their narrative.

So, for our game, I basically rolled the names around on my tongue to try to see how they sound, and then try to guess what gender would typically use that sound. Honestly, I debated for quite some time if Avalon should be a female, but in the end the cybernetic spider legs just reminded me too much of Dr. Loveless from Wild Wild West, so that's kind of how I picture Avalon now.

Dr. Loveless during the climax of 1999's Wild Wild West

As I shook some of the writing rust off, however, the bios got significantly longer and more detailed. Perhaps a bit TOO detailed for my players; I might have to rewrite some of it, and then have one version for the players and one for myself with the more detailed info.

The funniest part for me is that the lengthier bios I've written usually started with me going "this list of adjectives is too vague; what am I going to do with this?" and then this whole story just kind of popped up.

A prime example would be the Lost Legion. Here's the list of NPCs I got from the book:

• Commander Eterin (disciplined, veteran, inspiring)
• Captain Rowan (tough, stoic, unhesitating)
• Lt. Yon, ace pilot (bitter, just)
• Haya, a royal guard (potent, unstoppable)
• Her Excellency, the One True Hegemon (elite, royal, resplendent)

Again, I stared at that list and was just kind of like, "ooooh-kaaaaay????" Reading the faction's situation did help though:

"The 1st Legion - the Hegemon's private guard - rebelled when the current Hegemon ascended. They protect a young girl, heir to the last Hegemon, whom they hope to reinstate. They plan to capture the head of the Church of Stellar Flame and convince her to bless the girl as required."

Rolling that around in my head while re-reading the list of NPCs ended up ballooning into these bios:

• Commander Eterin, the Legion's leader. He has developed a weird dynamic with the Legion's young ward: part devout protector, part father figure, part teacher, and part loyal servant. He's massive for a human, both tall and broad, and distinguished with a square jaw, facial scar, and salt-and-pepper hair.
• Captain Rowan, Eterin's second. He is a much more calculated man, caring little for the wishes of the Legion's ward; instead protecting her solely out of duty to what he believes to be the true Hegemony. He fears Eterin has grown too much of a soft spot for the girl. He's clean-shaven, voluntarily bald, and more lithe than bulk in his muscles. He has the precision of an assassin.
• Lt. Yon, an ace pilot that rivals just about any other pilot within the sector, maybe even within the whole Hegemony. She's also cold towards the girl; making sure there is a distinct line in the sand about their vastly different class statuses and the girl doesn't mistake Yon for her friend. Yon is still loyal to the former Hegemon, but also feels it is partially his fault the current Hegemon was even able to raise to power; he had grown too soft and complacent.
• Haya, a royal guard. She is always by the girl's side; head on a swivel. She's of a broad build; specializing in upper body strength to handle the recoil from her blasters as well as to-the-death hand-to-hand combat. She does have a soft spot for her ward and may show some playfulness if she believes the girl perfectly safe. Otherwise, watch out for this wolf of a guard dog.
• Her Excellency, the One True Hegemon, the girl (of about 9) that the Lost Legion will defend to their dying breaths. No one ever refers to her by name; only title. Most of the public couldn't even begin to guess what her name actually is (then again, most couldn't tell you what any of the Hegemons' names were). Some question if the girl truly is the heir to the previous Hegemon. If she's a fake, they found a great actress, because the girl has an elitist air about her and is the most resplendent child anyone has ever seen.

A touch longer than the bios I had for the Guild of Engineers, huh? And I don't know if details such as "[Haya has] a soft spot for her ward and may show some playfulness if she believes the girl is perfectly safe" should be so common knowledge that my players would need to know that factoid. Instead, it should probably be something to keep in my back pocket. Something to know about the character in case the players ever interact with her or spot her "in the wild". Along those lines, I have a few other characters where I'm mentally picturing them as androids, but I also know that's a tidbit I don't want to be considered common knowledge, so I left it off the bios.

So.... yeah.... looks like I'm making one of these cheat sheets for me and another for my players.

Or... maybe not? Considering I'm not done yet and my "cheat sheet" is already 12 pages long!

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In the SaV handbook, there's a small section that talks about how to set up your own NPC factions to add to the game. One of the things you need to figure out is what Tier they would fall into, and the book gives examples of what each Tier's power level roughly means:

"Strong locally or weak on a few planets? Tier I. Strong in one system or weak in a few? Tier II. Strong in a few systems or weak throughout Procyon? Tier III. Tier IV is strong in multiple systems, and Tier V has reach and dominance beyond that in some way."

Based on that information, I knew that the PCs would know all of the Tier V and IV factions, and possibly the Tier III ones as well. However, I didn't bother checking to see how many factions that would actually be before undertaking this task. The answer is 20 out of the 36 factions listed in the book. Whoops. I mean, that list drops down to only 9 factions if I just stick with the Tier IV factions and the lone Tier V: Guild of Engineers. But what about "strong in a few systems or weak throughout Procyon"?

I'm still working on the Tier III factions, so I might have to pause and research if they're supposed to be just strong in a few systems, or if they're known throughout Procyon, and pare down those final 11 factions. Or, maybe I'll just keep going, add in the final 16 Tier II and Tier I factions, make that my master log - going back to include details I thought of but aren't necessarily "common knowledge" for the PCs - and then thin that master log down for the players.

In other words, I've still got a LOT of work ahead of me. Especially since I haven't even touched the Gravity RIP side of these NPC builds.

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by Yanare Ku

It's beginning to look like maybe we won't start playing until July after all....

I'm having so much fun trying to flesh out these NPCs though, and I'm already mentally plotting out how these factions will interact with each other during player downtime or between gaming sessions, in order to help make the universe feel more "real". The NPCs are all still doing their own things on the side; they aren't all there just to help push the players forward in their story. It helps make the players feel like their characters are part of this living and breathing thing.

I'm so hyped for this!

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Oh! That Bitmoji reminds me, I haven't talked about what I wanted to say last week. So, the reminder comes from the fact that one of the streamers Hubby almost religiously follows now - Ray_C - says "Let's Gooooooo!" all the time. It's basically his catchphrase (along with "I've got a plan" and "I need an akuma"... just... check out this Soundcloud song someone wrote for his character to get the idea).

Anyway, the reminder of Ray_C brings me back to nopixel. While talking to ChibiSunnie a couple of weeks ago, I kind of spit-balled an idea of making a Miraculous Ladybug non-magic, streamers AU. I even came up with how the Love Square shenanigans can still show up in this AU.

This post is already so long, so I won't get into the details this week, but if you want to see what I've come up with so far, you can check out my Tumblr post about it: Yet Another Plot Bunny Joins the Masses

For this week, though? I think you've listened to me ramble long enough. Take care, peeps, and a very happy Pride to my LGBTQIA+ friends, family, and random readers.

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New Addiction: NoPixel

Welp, I think Hubby and I are officially addicted to NoPixel. It started by following streamer Sykkuno, and then Valkyrae, and from there Ray_C. Now Hubby is following about a dozen streamers all because of the various characters we routinely see on NoPixel. 

NoPixel official logo

I talked a bit about it last week, but for ease of reference, how about a quick refresher on what NP is?

I'm sure just about all of you are familiar with the Rockstar game franchise Grand Theft Auto, but for those who are not, the games mostly follow characters as they climb their way to the top of the criminal underworld of various cities. The most recent game - Grand Theft Auto V - takes place within the fictional city of Los Santos; based on Los Angeles. GTA V was released all the way back in 2013! Later that year, GTA Online was launched; a way to run around GTA V's Los Santos outside of story mode, and while interacting with other players online. 

I'm not sure if it's exclusive for people who play GTA Online on their computers, but people can set up private game servers. That way the players can better curate their gaming experience. Most MMORPGs do this. I can't find info of when exactly it was created, but the server NoPixel started to at least get some real viewership and traction back in 2019. While a lot of servers are for things like player vs player (pvp) gameplay, NoPixel was one of many servers created specifically for roleplaying. You could be a criminal, or work a normal 9-5 job, or both. You could be a cop or EMT or doctor or mechanic or reporter, etc. The world these players created is so vast and immersive. 

Addictively immersive.

NoPixel became the #1 GTA RP server to watch via Twitch. It's now extremely exclusive to get onto this server. I'll get into that more in a little bit.

So, anyway, I talked last week about how Sykkuno's character Yuno is renowned throughout Los Santos as one of - if not THE - top hackers. Not too shabby a feat when Sykkuno only joined the server and created Yuno back in, like, February, and only successfully hacked his first bank in April or something! Beyond the hacking prowess, however, the shenanigans Yuno gets into are hilarious. That alone is enough to get Hubby and I checking in on his multi-hour-long Twitch streams. Especially when those shenanigans include things like this daredevil stunt:

I think the best part is that the other three bikers ended up wiping out on the mountain. The girl with the purple hair Oki Doki, and the girl in the pink hair Leyla, both fell off the downed tower before actually jumping, and the other guy, Sasuke, ended up crash landing right about where Oki did. Yuno was the only one who managed to safely make it down the mountain and back into town. Hubby and I didn't bring up Sasuke's player's stream, but Oki's and Leyla's chats, as well as Sykkuno's, were all screaming that Yuno is clearly NoPixel's main character/protagonist, because of the apparent plot armor the character has. Especially since this isn't the first time Yuno has been in a seemingly life-or-death situation and got out more-or-less unscathed. Granted, the character did get beaten up enough to have to go to the hospital before; many times, actually, but when it's crucial that he stays safe or completes a task, he somehow miraculously gets away clean. Especially if he's the ONLY one who does. Please see his freakout about getting "the last chance" at both hacking and blowing up thermite during his Vault solo-hacking run last Monday for further proof of his "plot armor".

Now, to be clear, there is no actual protagonist or main character of this server. There are big names that just about everyone knows, sure, but that doesn't mean the lesser known characters are any less important or entertaining to watch. I think too many players and their audience members get too cranky when their character isn't considered a "main" character, but the fact that just about every streamer you watch has compelling content is amazing. The developers aren't trying to set anything up so everyone focuses on just one character; it is entirely up to that player's roleplaying to make compelling and enticing content. And, boy, do so many deliver!

I mean, again, Hubby started watching so many new streamers specifically because their characters interacted with Yuno, and we loved how the character was being played. We wanted to know more about them, so Hubby went over to their player's stream to see things from their perspective. That's the beauty of this complex game!

Anyway, the long and short is that there are, I think, over 3000 players that all have characters on this server! It's a living environment. You can watch one streamer's gameplay, then switch to someone else's for a different perspective. Some of the streamers Hubby has started watching are players who have cop characters, just so Hubby can see their reactions to all the crime going on in Los Santos.

Mostly, this whole practice started on Thursday, when Yuno and three of his friends achieved a milestone not before seen on the server; what Yuno dubbed the Rainbow Road. I'm not sure if it's part of GTA Online, or specifically the NoPixel server, but there are three branches of banks: Fleeca, Paleto, and The Vault. I mentioned last week that The Vault is like the Fort Knox of the city: the largest and most protected bank. The main goalpost for bank robbers. Fleeca is the most simple to rob; Paleto the middle ground. Along with the difficulty ratings of these banks, they are each given a color designation. Fleeca are green banks, Paleto are blue, and Vault is red. You have to get specific gear in order to hack into each bank; you can't use the same equipment to hack into Fleeca as you do the Vault, for instance. I won't get into the nitty-gritty here, but suffice to say it takes a lot of planning to hit up even one bank.

Well, the crew called Team Rocket - a revival of an alliance the players had in the game Rust - plus their Rust - and now GTA - ally Yuno, decided to attempt to rob one of each bank color back-to-back-to-back. Normally, people don't hit up more than one type of bank per day, or, if they do, they at least take a beat to get clean from the cops and hide the loot before trying again. Prior to this Rainbow Road Heist - so named because of hitting up the various colored banks - Yuno was excited about hitting a bank, dropping off the loot at his apartment, and then INSTANTLY hitting another bank. So, going straight from a Fleeca heist to a Paleto one to The Vault without first ditching the cops or dropping off their loot was a feat no one seemingly attempted before.

Guys, this whole thing - from planning to execution - took HOURS; DAYS! But I was sooooooo invested. Then, after the insane getaway that Yuno pulled off post-Vault, Hubby had to see the other three streamers to see how the Team Rocket members - Jean Paul "X", Mickey S, and Lang Buddha - made out with their own getaways. Then Hubby tracked down a couple of cops' streams to see their point of view of everything; how they reacted when they realized the same four guys were hitting up bank after bank after bank. As well as watching the cops trying to figure out the getaway plan. Then jumping over to the main reporter in Los Santos: Ron Otterman. His coverage of the high speed chases and plane getaway was amazing, and it was hilarious to watch him fixate on how the cops missed the robbers "obviously" meeting up in a black helicopter at a fishing dock. He even followed said helicopter MILES from where Yuno actually was. Ron was convinced the robbers were in there and they had managed to ditch him when he had to refuel his helicopter. That helicopter was just being flown by an NPC (called "local" on the server to keep the RPG immersive), and just coincidentally took off shortly after Yuno's crash landing. (Again; because Yuno has Plot Armor, apparently)

Hubby and I must have gone through about a dozen streamers' videos to try to get as many angles on this heist as we could. Like I said, we were invested!

This was such good content! It's violent content with a lot of cursing, so there's that, but it's still such ENGAGING content. We're definitely addicted. Especially when you add in the actual roleplay and character interactions.

For instance, Sykkuno seems to be the type of person who wants to befriend everyone, and that transitioned into his character. So Yuno is friends with just about everyone he meets; criminals, cops, and hostages alike. It's nearly to the point where Yuno is essentially untouchable since there are so many characters that would kill for this man. Case and point, he had to actually hold back a load of characters the other day.

Yuno finished robbing The Vault again, had his cut on him - about $106,000 - and had gotten away from the cops. He switched to a car the cops didn't see him in. All he had to do was change out of the clothes he wore during the robbery and he'd be home free. He works just about everywhere in Los Santos, which means he could access just about any employee locker room to change. Usually this is so characters can change into and out of their work uniforms, but a lot of people also use this feature to just change in general. Yuno goes to one of his jobs - the casino - gets changed, and is instantly jumped by the leader of a major gang (gang family?) on the server: The Block Gang. The gang had kidnapped the news team and had followed the bank robbers via news chopper. One of the gang members - Yuno's contact within the Blocks, no less - saw Yuno switch cars and where he went, and alerted his boss Mike, who then jumped Yuno for the cash.

Good Guy Yuno offered a deal with Mike Block. The guy never bothers with banks because none of the crew are particularly good with the crucial task of hacking the bank. Yuno offered to be his bank hacker on retainer if the guy returned Yuno's loot. "This is just a cut from the bank. If I hit it with you I won't even ask for a cut, which means you get more money than what you just got off of me." Mike is supposed to let Yuno know tomorrow if he'll accept the offer and give Yuno his money back. He did return some of Yuno's stuff as a show of good faith, so there's that. 

In the meantime, though, Yuno had to talk down a BUNCH of people who wanted to just kill Mike. Or, at least, rough him up for daring to mess with Yuno. "Guys, shooting him won't do anything but spiral violence. No one wins. I won't get my money back, and the Blocks will just want blood too. If I offer to be his hacker, I get my money back, I get to do a job with the Blocks, and I might have inspired more bank robbers. Plus, they get even MORE money. Everyone wins!" Yuno stated to both the other characters as well as Sykkuno's chat.

Remember at the top of this post when I commented that one of the streamers Hubby now follows is Ray_C? Well, his character Raymond Romanov already has beef with the Blocks. They had kidnapped Raymond's in-game girlfriend Kitty, robbed her, then left her for dead in the desert. Raymond had told Yuno countless times how he plans on burning every member of the Blocks to the ground. Now that they also messed with Yuno, he was ready to put that plan in motion. Yuno really had to talk him down, but Raymond assured him that he WILL take down the Blocks if they dare to hurt Yuno at this meet-up/possible exchange.

**UPDATE: As of his stream the evening of 5/18, Raymond was still plotting ways to kill Mike Block, and had a few of Yuno's many allies in on the plot, despite Yuno's insistence that no one needs to harm Mike for the hold-up.**

And that's just ONE TEENY TINY SCRAP of all the in-character drama going on in this game!

How does all of this relate to my writing though? I know, I know, lately I tend to go on these long rants and take forever to get to the point.

The point is how bonding with Hubby over this new form of entertainment has also got us daydreaming about what our NoPixel characters would be.

It's kind of a moot point, honestly, because the likelihood of either of us actually GETTING NP characters is so slim.

First of all, I've never played even a minute of any Grand Theft Auto games, to my recollection. So I'd be going in completely cold on how to even play. Hubby is the same way, but at least he splurged on GTA V when it was on a Steam sale last week. So he's at least started playing the storyline game to get a feel for it. Granted, a lot of the mechanics are specific to the NoPixel server, but because of that, the server-exclusive minigames are available online for people to try out and improve their skills. So there's that. Point, being, though, I've never even played the game and I'm still daydreaming about running a character on this exclusive server.

Which brings me to point two. So many people wanted to join this server. In part, because it's just a fun place to roleplay, but mostly because it's where you can get the most exposure as a streamer. Once more I'll point out how many streamers Hubby discovered simply because they were on the same server as Sykkuno's roleplay. The streamer Whippy, who runs the character Dundee, even noted this. Dundee was literally the first player to significantly interact with Yuno, and the two became fast-friends as Dundee took Yuno under his wing and taught him how to live a life of crime. Because of these interactions, so many of Sykkuno's fans sought out Dundee's player to watch his streams. That's what Hubby and I did. Whippy is just a masterful improv actor and roleplayer. We enjoyed every moment he interacted with Yuno, and wanted to see the non-Yuno moments as well. Of his own volition, Whippy stated that he had a decent amount of followers before, but after teaming up with Sykkuno - and add in Sykkuno's kindness to really promote Whippy - his follower count skyrocketed. He started making enough off of streaming that he could finally put a down payment on a house. On a stream, Whippy literally credited Sykkuno for his ability to have the new home he was playing from.

The popularity of the NoPixel server was so massive the developers had to start requesting applications from potential players. After screening the applicants, some of them get whitelisted and they can join the server. The process is long, and you have to wait FOREEEEEVER for a slot to open up so the devs will take a new request. It seems like MONTHS before they open their free-to-apply queue. More often than not, it seems you have to pay to apply. By that, I mean you have to join one of their donation tiers, starting at $15/month. Considering the amount of time and money that must be put in to this server, I get the charge, and I'm tempted to just jump aboard with that $15/month charge. No different than paying it to Netflix, right? I mean, aside from NoPixel at least giving the opportunity to ADD TO THE CONTENT at some point for that amount. Anyway, if you're in one of their donation tiers, you are allowed to apply to join the server more frequently, and your application is reviewed faster. You also get priority over non-donors when free-to-apply queues open.

All well and good, but it still requires $15/month just to APPLY to join, and hope for the best. So, that adds a layer of "not very likely" on my end.

The next hiccup is the fact that this is a popular server for STREAMERS. There doesn't seem to be a rule that you HAVE to stream your gameplay somewhere, but it also seems like a waste to not stream? And neither Hubby nor I have ANY of the equipment needed to stream. Heck, I don't even have a computer that likes to use Zoom properly! We also don't really have the space to stream semi-professionally, so there's also that. We both have been dreaming about starting up our own gaming streams for the past year or so though, so.... maybe one day????

On top of all of that, there IS that long queue to get onto the server. Without any sort of platform and clout, even if we were donors and applied, who knows how quickly we would actually get approval, or if we even would? You're only allowed to apply up to five times with the donor applications, and five times with the non-donor applications. Ten times, tops, and half of those are with the epic wait times. If you can't get in then, you're not getting in.

The whole thing of joining NoPixel is achievable, but it also feels a bit like a pipedream. Still, dream Hubby and I do.

I instantly thought that Los Santos would be an excellent spot to let Trish loose. Let her wreak havoc all over the city; killing, cursing, and burning everything in sight. She'd be perfect. That is, until I remember it's an RP where people have to have an active mic on to interact with everyone. And I cannot control Trish's mouth. I have a hard enough time letting lose and letting myself TYPE her foul language, but to actually SAY it? Almost nonstop? I- I don't know if that's really the first image of myself I really want to put out in the world via streaming. Especially when so many viewers can't separate the characters from the players.

Okay, so Trish is out. Lia is too sweet and naïve to fit, so she's out. Maybe Willow? She could be fun, but she's also too much of a "good guy" I think. Maybe though... in X-Future Hubby and I did have Chayse learn thievery from his father, join the Thieves Guild, and had Willow join as well as Chayse started teaching her. They could be bank robbers and cat burglars that avoid hurting people if they can; much like how Sykkuno plays Yuno. I've even seen Willow's signature asymmetrical bob, silver hair, and blue dyed hair tips (not streaks, but close enough) all on NoPixel characters, so I know I could do a great job at actually building the Willow I see in my head.

So that's a possibility. I was also thinking Jolene could work: sex worker by day and cat burglar by night. I could do the same plan I had for Willow, more-or-less. I don't know how comfortable I'd be with pretending to be a prostitute with a bunch of random other players though. If it was exclusively my friends, that would be one thing, but strangers? Eeeeeeeeeeeh. I could scratch the self-employed prostitution off of Jolene's resume for NoPixel, but I'd have to figure out how to tweak that.

Next up would be Amara as a bounty hunter maybe? She's pretty standoffish though, and I don't know if I could be that cold. She also has a lot of traumas, and I don't know if I know enough to properly roleplay surviving what she did. She's also on the back burner.

Mara is from Blades in the Dark, a game about being a fledgling criminal in a crime-ridden city. Hubby might revive his character Ashlyn if he ever made it onto NoPixel, so... maybe? Her backstory is that she was a cop that saw how much more lucrative a life of crime could be, jumped ship, and became muscle that used her connections with the local PD to help keep heat off of her and her crew. Plus, she's a sharpshooter. I've never played the game, so I don't know how good of a marksman I'd actually be, and I don't know how I could roleplay a former-cop-turned-criminal... so she's probably also a no-go.

That's when I started building a new character. I keep trying to shake it and come up with something else, but the name Maggie keeps popping into my head whenever I think of this character, so I guess she's just Maggie.

Maggie would, yet again, play very similarly to Yuno. She'd purposefully befriend EVERYONE to the point that no one dares touch her because she has so many friends that would defend her with their lives. She'd befriend criminals and cops alike. She may even work everywhere she can in order to get a decent amount of legal funds and build a network. The key with Maggie, though, is that she'd be a criminal organizer and information broker. She's like the mafia's lawyer: she doesn't exactly take part in the crime, but she knows everything to help it go off without anyone staying in jail too long.

She could coordinate when banks are hit so someone isn't trying to hit a bank that someone else just robbed; wasting time and resources for nothing, along with chancing jail time for no money. She could help set up "baby criminal" training: apprenticeships, as it were, for people that want to learn how to become bank robbers or street racers. She could also broker information between the criminals and PD, as well as be a neutral party between warring criminal factions - such as the situation with Yuno and the Block Gang. She'd be a stash house while keeping herself clean so there's no reason for the PD to raid her home.

Again, Yuno already kind of fills this role unintentionally, but it would be fun to make a character who is doing so purposefully. Sweetness and sunshine so everyone will love her, but then dead seriousness when it's time to get to business. I even thought about always keeping extra food and water on her so that if she gets kidnapped as a hostage for bank robberies she can leave some previsions for the robbers to make sure they're well taken care of before their getaway, and therefore will take good care of her as well, should she need it.

She'd be the Mom of the server, protectively watching over her allies. Much like Pops from the Luke Cage Netflix series/comic books, she could be an untouchable Switzerland that everyone parleys through.

The more I think of Maggie, the more I like her and wish I could make her happen. Maybe I'll have to try her out as an NPC over on Scum and Villainy in the meantime. Really playtest her personality while scratching that itch since who knows if she'll ever see the light of day otherwise. Especially because, who am *I* to create a character that has so much pull and weight in a game with so many big-name streamers??????

Okay, so this blog is again long, and my laptop is dying. I was going to talk a bit about my progress in combining Scum and Villainy with Gravity RIP, but that will have to wait.

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Creating My Own Game Mechanic

Whoo-boy! Hello again! I'm trying to get back onto my Tuesday updates, even though not much has happened since my super-late posting on Saturday. Also, ignore how late this update was posted today....

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As predicted, I didn't really have time to read or write anything new since Saturday. However, what I DID manage I'm soooooo excited about! Like, I know I said last time that I'd show off my picrew images that I made of myself, and talk about the game When the Past was Around, but... I already have a full blog post just talking about my prep work for Scum and Villainy, so... raincheck?

On Sunday, while I was reading through the rulebook to see what differences there are between Blades in the Dark and Scum and Villainy, I actually thought of a potentially fun House Rule mechanic for the game, especially since we're trying to merge the game with another RPG anyway.

To better understand the mechanic I came up with, I think I need to first explain what got me to think of it, as well as a little bit of the Forged in the Dark game mechanics. Forged in the Dark is the name of the game mechanics first introduced in the game Blades in the Dark. However, the creator John Harper welcomes people to make their own RPGs using the same mechanics, and thus Scum and Villainy - along with many others - was born. So, for ease, since I'll be inspired by Blades but prepping for S&V, I'll just talk about the established game mechanics as simply Forged in the Dark.

Good? Okay.

So, part of the Forged in the Dark character creation includes picking one NPC to be your friend - "a close relationship (a good friend, a lover, a family relation, or similar)." - and one NPC to be your rival or enemy. Well, I SAY "pick" but you basically design your friend and rival as well. See, each character architype a player can choose from has its own list of five NPCs, and the player chooses one to be the Friend, and one to be the Rival. However, the game just gives the broadest of strokes: a character name and their position in society, be it their main job or their social standing. From there, the player creates who this NPC is and their connection to the player's character.

For instance, Hubby's Blades character Ashlyn was a Lurk architype; they specialize in stealthy infiltration and burglary. The different NPCs Hubby could choose from included a beggar, a bluecoat (cop), a locksmith, a noble, and a city clerk. Hubby decided to befriend the noble. More specifically, he created the backstory that Ashlyn was in a relationship with the noble's daughter, and the noble continued to keep close ties with him even after the daughter passed. As for his rival, Hubby chose the locksmith because he liked the flavor of someone who constantly breaks into places and things having a rivalry with a locksmith.

Coincidentally enough, when the Oxboxtra crew started posting their game sessions of Blades in the Dark back in January, Andy Farrant had chosen the Leech archetype - saboteur and technician - but somehow stumbled his way into kinda-sorta having a locksmith as his rival as well. Instead of choosing one of the five NPC options - apothecary, psychonaut, corpse thief, blood dealer, and priestess - he created his own rival. Basically, he modeled his character Edvard Lumière off of Nikola Tesla, and created Edvard's own Thomas Edison: a man named Amadeus Astor. According to Edvard, Astor is a hack inventor who just steals other people's invention ideas and markets them as his own. He further claimed that Astor did this exact thing to Edvard multiple times, most notably when Edvard created the incandescent lightbulb. Astor, much like Edison, is a great salesperson and master of PR, so his brand is all over the city, and his highest seller is his line of locks and safes. So Edvard has made it his life's mission to prove Astor a hack by breaking every last Astor brand item he could find, such as cracking every supposedly impenetrable safe.

So, both Ashlyn and Edvard have this rivalry with lock manufacturers, and make it part of their life goals to master cracking every last one of this rival's locks to prove they aren't as good as everyone believes.

How does this relate to the mechanic I came up with?

In one of the Oxventure Presents: Blades in the Dark episodes, Edvard goes to pick a lock, and Luke, who is their Game Master this time instead of a player, does what's known as a Fortune Roll. Basically, if there is something that involves some sort of luck, but isn't directly affected by the players - and therefore would make no sense for them to roll an action for it - the GM can opt to roll to see how good their fortune is. In this occasion, Luke ended up rolling that the lock was an Astor brand, which ended up enraging Edvard. As I was reading through the Scum and Villainy rulebook and reread about the three main positions the players could be in at any given point of a job - Controlled, Risky, or Desperate - I thought back to Luke rolling to determine the lock's brand.

That's when I came up with the mechanic of a permanent Devil's Bargin. See, the Forged in the Dark games use standard six-sided dice for their action rolls. If a player wishes their character to do anything, they describe their intent to the GM, and the GM decides if it's simple enough to just happen or if the player should roll to see if they're successful. If the GM determines that a roll is needed because the results of the action aren't definite, the player then chooses which of their abilities best suits what they're trying to do, and roll. If a player rolls a 6, the action is a complete success. If a player rolls a 4 or a 5, it's a partial success. The action still succeeds, but with a complication. If the player rolls 3 or under, the action fails.

The players get a pool of dice in order to increase their chance of success, because only the highest dice roll is used. The points they put towards different action abilities on their character sheet give them a die per point for said ability. For instance, if they have two points in Stealth, they get two dice to roll. If they have three points in Sway, they get three dice to use that ability. If they only have one point in Tinker, they only get the one die. If they have no points, they can still attempt to use that ability, but now they roll two dice and take the LOWER number rolled.

The player can also choose to push themselves to add another die to their pool. This adds 2 stress to a counter on their character sheet. Their character gets a permanent trauma (hinderance) if their stress meter gets too high, and if they get enough traumas their character retires from the life of crime. Another player could also opt to add 1 stress to their counter in order to "assist" the rolling player, adding a die to the pool. So there are lots of ways for players to try to increase their chances of rolling a 4, 5, or 6.

The Devil's Bargain is just one more option. In the Forged in the Dark games, a Devil's Bargain is something the GM could offer the player for any given action. The player can accept the bargain and add a die to their pool without any added stress. However, as a Devil's Bargain, there's always another price. Regardless of how successful the player's roll, if they accept the bargain, this price will be paid. It could be that the crew gets more heat on them, and they are more likely to be arrested. It could be that there is unintentional collateral damage. It could be that their relationship with someone suffers greatly or their social standing plummets. It could be that they leave behind more evidence. The list goes on. The player, of course, could always decline the bargain, or negotiate the terms to something they're more willing to accept. The other players are even encouraged to offer Devil's Bargains or help negotiate terms. It's a fun mechanic that doesn't seem to be used nearly enough either when Hubby and I played or when the Oxboxtra crew plays.

Okay! To FINALLY get to my mechanic, now that you know the broad strokes of how the game works. I thought about the Controlled, Risky, and Desperate positions a character could be in. If the character is in a controlled position, even failing their rolls won't be of great consequence. If a character is in a desperate position, failing their rolls could create grave consequences. Risky is more-or-less the default position most of these heists take place in. I also thought about Ashlyn and Edvard and their rivalries with locksmiths. I then thought about a D&D mechanic called "Favored Enemy."

The long and short of this Ranger class feature is that the character has one thing in particular that they have studied obsessively. The rulebook has a list of options the player can choose from with such things as 'fiends' or 'giants' or 'undead' or 'orcs', etc, but a DM might allow the player to specify if the player requests something reasonable, such as a specific dragon that razed the character's village. Because of the intense study to master ways to take down this specific enemy, the character gets bonuses when confronting or tracking said enemy.

Side note, in the last D&D campaign I played in - that sadly died when the pandemic hit - Wolfhearted's character bashed down so many wooden doors that Hubby thought his character became properly experienced. Although it's not what the feat is intended for, and Wolfhearted's character wasn't a Ranger, Hubby still gave him Favored Enemy: Wooden Doors. He now had a bonus to attack rolls against wooden doors, this was to showcase that the character became skilled enough to masterfully find the weak points in any given wooden door, and therefore was capable of easily smashing through them. Plus, it was hilarious to us that a party member had inanimate objects as their 'favored enemy'.

So, anyway... I thought... what if I found a way to bring Favored Enemy into the Forged in the Dark games? Have it function kind of like what Hubby did for Wolfhearted and the wooden doors? What if there's a specific Devil's Bargain set up for each player, and it comes into play whenever that character's chosen rival is involved? Or, if they struggle with something consistently at first - such as locked wooden doors - and have purposefully roleplayed their character doing whatever they can to overcome that? What I came up with ended up as a multi-faceted Devil's Bargain, because it's technically a Devil's Bargain to accept a specific Fortune Roll agreed upon ahead of time.

My example that I sent Hubby revolved around Ashlyn's and Edvard's rivalries with locksmiths.

Specifically, every time that character comes up against a lock, they can opt for their Favored Enemy Devil's Bargain. If they accept, they get their extra die, but then the GM rolls the pre-established Devil's Bargain Fortune Roll.

• On a roll of a 6, the lock was designed by the rival. The character has spent so much time studying this design that they have mastered cracking it. There's still skill needed, and the character can still be distracted, but they are also in a controlled position.
• On a roll of a 4 or 5, the lock is indeed designed by the rival, but it's a new model the character isn't particularly familiar with. The character is in a risky position, and if they fail their attempt, they will gain a stress as they fixate on mastering this new lock.
• On a roll of 1, 2, or 3, the character doesn't recognize the lock maker. The character's expertise is specifically for their rival's locks, and so they are now in a desperate position. If the character's attempt fails, they will fill in 2 ticks on the Alarm is Raised clock. If no such clock is already started, start one and fill in the first two ticks.

Okay, quick aside. So "clocks" is another way of creating tension in the Forged in the Dark games, or a way of showing progress in general. The GM, with potential input from the players, creates these clocks to showcase how the world around the players is still moving. Most clocks either take 4 ticks, 6 ticks, or 8 ticks to fill, and once filled, the event the clock is for happens. These can be such things as: an alarm is raised, a guard finishes their patrol loop, a war breaks out between factions, a project a character is working on is completed, or an overheated engine explodes, etc. Actions players do could advance a clock, such as failing a sneaking action could add a tick to the Alarm is Raised clock, or assassinating one faction member and claiming it was in the name of another could advance the Factions at War clock, or pushing a car to go faster could add to the Overheated Engine clock. Alternatively, players could untick the clocks, slowing down the inevitable outcome. Things such as making it look like a stray cat made all the noise could lower the Alarm is Raised clock, or saving a faction member and claiming it was another faction's plan could lower or even erase the Warring Factions clock, or slowing the car or pouring some water on the engine could lower the Overheated Engine clock.

Going back to my house rule, though. The way I see it, the Rivals angle doesn't seem to get nearly enough gameplay, nor does the Devil's Bargain mechanic, as I mentioned. It is also fairly infrequent, for the most part, for a player character to come up against this "favored enemy," as it were. So why not amp it up on occasion? It shouldn't happen often enough to break the game by making it either too hard or unfairly easy for one player or too easy for all of the players for the game to no longer be fun anymore. Even if it does get that bad, it's easy enough for the playgroup to agree to retire this mechanic. 

However, including it also allows the player to really feel like their character is a badass if they choose the Devil's Bargain and get a 6 on the Fortune Roll. And even then, there's no guarantee they'll succeed, it just makes it easier for them to do so, and harder for them to irreparably screw up something their characterization says they should be an expert at (something that frequently happens to my D&D characters because dice hate me). I mean, I might even go so far as to let the player get an extra die if the Fortune Roll is a 6, just to make them even more excited about the outcomes. So, that would be their initial dice pool, plus one for accepting the bargain, plus a second one for that 6 on the Fortune Roll.

Let the characters be a bit overpowered for this ONE instance. Let this ONE specific type of Devil's Bargain have the potential of NOT including something bad happening to them (kind of defeats the title of DEVIL'S bargain, but ignore that). If allowing that little imbalance and inconsistency in game play means the players get enough dice to roll a six every time they come across their rival's locks, then that just adds to their legend and to the rivalry. Let them feel like a badass as their character basically looks at the lock and it comes undone.

Look, over lockdown, Hubby has really gotten into watching the streamer Sykkuno. Most recently, Hubby has gone back to watch Sykkuno's highlight reels of his gameplay on Grand Theft Auto V online. Specifically, the NoPixel GTA roleplay server. Sykkuno is almost ungodly good at the hacking, lock picking/hot wiring, and thermite detonation minigames in GTA. His character Yuno is fairly well known on the server as Los Santos' best hacker. Well, last night, Hubby and I went over to Sykkuno's Twitch stream, where Yuno and some friends decided to hit up the most secure bank in-game: The Vault. This is Top Tier if you're a GTA bank robber.

The whole stream was cursed with constant server crashes, and it kept FOREVER to get to the actual heist because of it, and even the epic getaway was ruined by a server crash. It was painful to watch because I felt the players' frustration about everything.

Point being, Sykkuno routinely told his chat over the course of about three hours, that it's insane that he was the sole hacker for this job. Most crews would have at least two hackers, that way if one got too nervous the other could tag in. There was something like 5 locks to hack through, and each lock has something like 5 puzzles to correctly answer in the hacking minigame. I'm always dumbfounded when I watch Sykkuno, because there is no way my brain could process the information fast enough, and yet he makes it look like it's no big deal. He's suuuuuuper humble about it too, which is adorable and so endearing.

Anyway, his friends just have him as their sole hacker because they know he's good. They all told him they trusted he could do this job. On top of that, they didn't really have the time to come up with back-up plans because of all of the server crashes. So, if Yuno couldn't crack into the safe, they were out roughly $100k that they had put into planning the bank heist, and they'd all be in jail. The poor guy was so nervous, he did indeed screw up three times, but, as luck would have it, they brought exactly enough supplies for him to still get all the way through and get away with the money. He's there on his stream sweating, a nervous wreck as he kept telling everyone, "This is it. This is the last shot. If I screw this up we don't have another option. Why do I keep being handed the last shot? What if I screw up?"

It was SOOOOOOOO tense, and both Hubby and I were holding our breaths as we watched him go through each hacking level. In the end, he just kind of wandered around going, "that was the worst I've ever done! I've never had to go to my third attempt of hacking anything!" Meanwhile, his friends are all cheering him on about how unbelievable he is at hacking; he's a hacking god! Sykkuno is panicked about nearly screwing it up, but all his friends see is "he got most of those on the first try, and QUICKLY too! It's like he looked at the door and it opened!"

I think my new Favored Enemy Devil's Bargain house rule might add that same type of tension and excitement. If the player gets that extra die for the 6 on the Fortune Roll, they just seem even more epic as they get through the lock with virtually no problem. If the player STILL fails, it will be all the more devastating and investing. Also, if the GM fails the Fortune Roll, and the character is now in a desperate situation because they don't recognize the lock, can you imagine the cheers if the player still manages to roll some form of success?

I really like this mechanic, guys. I think it can really add to the overall storytelling and engagement in the games. I'll want to come up with something like this for every player's rival so they all get that opportunity to be a badass on the table. If they wish to pick it up, cool; if not, no big.

I'm so excited about this!!!

I might also change the 4/5 roll on the Fortune Roll table slightly. I'm debating if I want to keep the one stress side effect. I want there to be a consequence, but it doesn't feel right. In Forged in the Dark games, after completing a job, the players have two downtime slots. They can use them to have their characters do a variety of things from healing to destressing to working on a project to helping take some heat off of their crew to improving the efficiency of their crew. I might change "add one stress" to "remove one downtime slot" because one of those slots is automatically filled with the character obsessively studying that new lock design.

Yeah. I think I like that better, but I also don't want the consequence be TOO severe, especially since there will still be a normal consequence to the failed roll, AND Forged in the Dark already has a mechanic called "entanglements." Basically, it shows the aftereffects of taking on the job in the first place. Some of these entanglements already have the potential to remove a downtime slot, and what if the player goes up against more than two locks? Granted, that's to the GM's discretion, but things I might have to think about and playtest a bit. Talk it over with Hubby some more.

I do like the flavor of losing some downtime to studying the lock, but I also like the flavor of the character getting stressed about more new locks they have to learn to master....

Either way, I'm just having so much fun with this! I can't wait to see what other bits of inspiration I'll get while continuing to prepare for our playgroup to start up this campaign! I mean, I know it's not writing per se, but it's still getting my mind thinking creatively again, and for the betterment of the overall story the campaign will tell.

Hubby and I were also talking about somehow recording our sessions this go, either via old-school tape recorder so I could better transcribe everything, or actually taking video of the session. Again, probably just so I could transcribe, but if we can get a set-up good enough, maybe Hubby and I will have a reason to use our Twitch accounts for more than watching and following streamers.

We'll see where we go with all of this.

In the meantime, I'm back to the grind. I'm excited to see what else I'll have to talk to you fine folks about next week!

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