Dungeon Crash... The Beginning

Game Master BloodWolven

*Reads crystal cost* Gauging by the class advancement for Monk, to advance Unarmed Damage, it would cost 1 Orange to 1d8, and then 1 Lime to 1d10, if I read correctly? Likewise for the Unarmored AC Bonus?

NoooOOOoooooo... Can't use a red crystal for Resist Nature's Lure (Ex). As I suspected, the Master Programmer is changing the rules to prevent Flynn from having Resist Nature's Lure (Ex) before a FAE Court function.

Mr Manyteeth. Welcome. We are Ships passing in the night. I enjoy having you here.

Only one way to find out Alice. Initial cost would be best.

Correct Memorii.

Sorry Flynn, I realized it needed a bit of changing. Thanks.

So hard to resist looking... at... spoiler... quickly closing page!

I suppose that is true. We will see what happens then.

I was waiting on Augrok but I guess I will move us forward.

Alice lives both in and outside the game world. Somehow, gaining the protection of the Cycle, but sped up. Like she slipped into life as a Fae soul would be reborn, but its different in the worst way. Speaking of Fae souls, there sure are a lot just sitting around and waiting for their reincarnation cycle to begin. As if a soul was glitched into the wrong body, corrupted in its data, changing the body to be partially dead and partially alive.

Sure would be a shame if one were to be grabbed from just sitting around and tossed into a dead body, interrupting the reincarnation to a living body; to where the soul has no idea that it will permanently die if the dead body is slain. In this way, Alice destroys the Fae, as they destroy themselves.

And she creates beasts that are no longer mob monsters. They don't follow the same game mechanics that pets or companions do. They exist inside, but outside of the game, fueled by Fae souls and Alice's direct will. Without her control, they are free to pursue their hunger for life, like oni and their love of souls.

That young Fae she stabbed? Its now walking around as a dead beast that hears Alice's will like something wiggling in front of you so fast that your brain adds sound to it when you dream of it.

She will be the Destroyer.

I also believe I know what her request of the King will be. It took a bit, passing through many different ideas. The first one was obvious, power in the form of a weapon that she feels pulled towards and would want to use, or gems to increase herself. Then there was status, to be one with the court of the king. Though her current one is a terrible idea that I remembered from watching a terrible movie and may be historically inaccurate or not. Either way, it'll be a great scene.

Great to hear, Alice you are giving me goosebumps.

Because I don't really have an opportunity to post often, and this is a very fast paced game, I am sad to say that I'm going to drop out of this campaign. I'm sorry, but I feel like my posting rate is just making it harder. Also sorry for the suddenness of the notice.

Be well. You will be missed.

Can I have your musket?

May have to take orison of purify food and drink, woodland stride, rogue talent fast stealth, and hit points for the red crystals.

Sorry to see you go Aien. Garret and Ise are gone as well. At least I have my three new players, and what adventures you seem to have in store for me!

Terrible ones, no doubt. Goosebumps are what I'm aiming for.

I'm definitely going for the "Travel the land and wrestle monsters" angle.

Flynn covers everything else!

Flynn and I enjoy the gradual shift from Game programmed economy to how Reality works. In a Game. you fight through 300 warriors to a boss battle... but the dungeon had only 10 beds, no toilets, a minimal kitchen. In reality, how were the NPCs suppose to work and live? No eat, no restroom breaks, the food only for those in command. No "living" creature can live that way.

Sanctuary has magic as the answer considering the number of churches there along with the Mesa Farms. Loarim, however, doesn't have farms, doesn't have a Life Church, doesn't have trade routes. Where does it food come from?

Mordriac is in a unique position. He controls food, through the Hunt. He has Flynn's observations. Per Open Source, he is a new comer to the Winter Court, so no set loyalty to tradition. He has his Adepts, which qualify as a fighting force. In the Game, he was low in Prestige, while in Reality, he is quite important. The question becomes, how does this translate into our Narrative?

The King has to be very intelligent, very powerful, very dumb, or on the verge of abdicating. Maybe a combination. Mordriac may allow the King to remain King for a few months to simply compile more data. That is a flaw in being smart. Wanting to know more stuff vs doing something so you can go get drunk.

Flynn hasn't made this observation yet, and he is trying not to think about it too much. It has been on his mind, but then pushed aside. The Gods must be complicit in the kidnapping of Souls. Let me state this again.

The Gods are complicit.

The Mystery Man in Black Armor coming out of his hiding to get Aien's "Chosen Status". Or his "scale" if we compare Players to Nagakin. Baris asking for Chosen Status was getting tiresome. I like Baris laying in the grass, watching the sky, with weed sticking from his mouth... The Gods need Chosen Ones as a drunk needs Miller Light.

The Gods track their scores by Chosen One statuses they acquire. A video game I played had in the metric screen had a rating for "chickens killed". The Gods are comparing their numbers of Chosen Ones against each other.

The scary thing becomes "Why?".

Flynn is further thinking, Can the character of the Chosen dictate the actions of the God. Per the Death Temple, doctrine can be changed by vote once a year.

So Alice can influences the Death Temple to allow Undead - which would be awesome. As it stands now, the Death Temple doesn't like Undead. Should that have been in a spoiler?

In Dungeon Crash, Physics/science/biology is merging (or fighting) with Game Progamming.

Spawn points vs Pregnancy. Can female avatars become pregnant? Or are all new life forms through spawn points?

Actual training and muscle memory. Retention and Repetition ... all this vs Red Crystals, level ups, and Chosen One Gifts. Hours of work vs Armor Set virtual feats.

Dungeon Crash is about Reality vs Perceived and Programmed Reality.

Sanctuary should have enough food because of Magic and Mesa Farms. At what point will Reality dictate Sanctuary Food statis. When 50% of the farms destroyed, 100% of the farms destroyed?

Doe food decay because of bacteria, time, and erosim... or is the status of food have a timer like food in the Sims - edible or throw-up-able.

I was thinking of adding an npc into this mixed up scenario. Alice's friendly rival of a player who tends to pull heart strings, rather than rip them out. She is a vindictive soul, but not neccessarily violent. It's possible for her to spend days thinking of how to get her revenge on someone who wronged her, and Alice may have helped with one or two of her "quests" before she died.

Her most notable ability is to change shape, to better attract those she wants close to her. But she likes the idea of having brightly blond hair and the most stunning dress colors, when she's not in another shape. Her purpose would be to climb the social ladder and cause mayhem between her lovers.

Great. You ruined all blondes now. As we head into a Harvest Festival. With Nymphs and Dryads.

Alice, go ahead and make your second character. If she is an NPC it will be much harder to incorporate her.

Yesss. Sorry Flynn, I couldn't let those nymphs and dryads be without scrutiny.

Enjoyed the juxtaposition between Flynn stepping over the log and Alice's encounter with the log.

My friend told me about his favorite thing about Alice. "You know what I like? You know how people would abbreviate names? Well, Alice would be M. Alice. Or Malice."

I am liking Alice of the Red Cloak. Sorta Noble, yet not... All these clueless NPCs rolling their Knowledge Nobility and Royalty to determine if it is a legit title.

Whereas I've sort of hit a wall. One can be jovial and gregarious, but as an (obviously) just starting character at a FAE BALL there's very much the "stay small, stay quiet" pressure going on.

Oh yeah, dropping bombs! Going boldly where no one has gone before.

Ahhh, that's what the episode should be called! Bombs at the Fae Ball! It's magical.

Hello everyone!

Based on what GM Wolf has said, I may have made the final "totally hand made race" for this Game Dungeon Crash!

I am Titus the Gold, and I have no doubt we will meet shortly.

Titus basic description for gameplay / style would read as follows (while he spins, digimon style, on a series of highlighter colors flashing through a glass podium)

@GM Wolf- I have not read a single piece of the gameplay thread yet to respect the game and keep it sacred <3 I would happily come in like everyone else.

You want to provide a small narrative in spoilers on gameplay, and then off and away I can go? Or should I wait for Crayfish?

(Also, not sure how this is normally played, but I'd imagine anything and everything on Titus' page for the lore of dragons etc. would have to be common knowledge. Pre-order bonuses / rewards aren't really secrets after all)

Titus the Gold. I am offended that you have not read the previous story. Please do so - I have written some f&%+ing awesome posts. You can't allow posts like that to go unread.

The game is based upon a premise that players have meta knowledge of tropes that have commonly appeared in the genre.

You may have played the previous version of the game, or you may have read a walk through / preview /review / wikipedia page of the game. As a Dragon, you may have been watching the Hunt through the Spheres of Illumination with the rest of the Court.

At this point players in the MMO have either been killed or adjusted to the game being a new reality to realized that the stakes are their lives. You have kids in their parents basements thinking there are no laws so they can go out and stab people... vs the accountants that realize they can't risk their lives in the game to dungeon crawl so they set themselves up as bartenders and grocers.

As witnessed in the number of Fae Nobles that have died during the Hunt. The previous Hunts have always said they were successful. When statistics and agendas happened after the Awakening - when the dice had to roll for every encounter, the sheer numbers of the Nagakin overwhelmed the Fae Hunters. Story Telling vs Reality are two different things, that is why Flynn wanted to act this Hunt.

Flynn is trying to figure out how to better the player base and NPC base against the next threat. Alice of the Red Cloak is insane but some part of her wants to either betray such an action or seek redemption in allowing such an action to happen. Mr. Manyteeth is great. He probably hasn't realized he can't log-out yet. As a player, he is still goig through the WTF stage.

The Hunt has been happening since Halloween. So while it is fast paced, the timing is slow. BTW: Merry Christmas. Suddenly, the red cloak has white trimming...

All characters represent a stage of grief in being trapped in the game. What stage will your character be?

BTW: please let me know if you think that Flynn is behaving in a CN manner... Is he shifting towards other alignments. More of a philosophy point than a game mechanic. I am curious.

I use easydamus for most of my alignment quandaries. Their individual alignment information is very informative. But I find CN to be a very forgiving alignment.

As for Alice, she could care less about Flynn`s plan. Though if he told her he was trying to help others, she would be very confused as to why he want to. And if his plan was clearly in the way of what she wanted at that moment, then she would destroy it, or at least the bit that was in front of her.

She's a very front moving being.

Well then Ill start reading immediately!

Stage of grief... I believe titus'player would go through three stages. The first stage is observation. Dragons are patient and observant, and he would nit want his strength to draw too much attention until he was aware of his surroundings. Dont let this read like a true act of wisdom, however, because it is not, it would be out of fear.

The second stage, given his power, would be preservation. Titus would ensure the immediate area, people he trusted, and people still in a stage of fear were protected. Still, this is not an act of draconic nobility so much as self security.

The true nobility and bravery of a dragon, in Titus case, is that of finally being proactive.

In order to observe, Titus must go to other places and areas. To protect people in those areas, Titus must become stronger. To become stronger, Titus must act.

Aa far as player vs. Character, I would say living through this game skin would cause the player to be a sort of existential realist- he is Titus in real life because if Titus dies, he dies. When Titus is hungry, he eats. It is absolutely a coping mechanism to accept the messed up reality the player is in, a desperate search for something concrete to hold on to.

I'm on page about 12 or so, @flynn

Definitely glad you had me read. Love when you post the whole Devil goes to Georgia song xD

Even more excited to play :P

Someone has to read the past posts. That someone is never me, mind you, but I'm certain there is some very fine thought-provoking work in them.

Lol. "That someone is never me."

I'm normally the word of mouth guy. If it's super interesting, I end up writing it down. Helps with a PbP because then I can just remember what page the passage I'm looking for was on xD

If you are playing a Dragon, play it smart: Know the characters you will interact with, develop long term strategy, have an agenda. Play a Dragon that is worthy of the name Dragon.

Make me believe that you are a Dragon, rather than a gamer trapped in a Dragon body. Don't be the Dragon that hoards Mountain Dew.

Though you could develop the character to finding what it means to be a Dragon. I haven't played around with the notion of does the Game mix in personalities. So Gamer A sitting in an internet cafe in Seattle gets trapped in the Game inside of Orc B. Does Orc B's personality/biology affect the end result, which is Gamer AB.

Flynn has a 20 Int in the Game. He was smart outside the Game, being a washed out Video Game Designer turned Chef. So now Flynn is recalling history lessons and mathematics from college, recall quotes for the Art of War, rereading Calvin and Hobbes (the comic and the men named for)...

Oh absolutely.

I think the story is more going to be about the Player playing as the Player, since the consequences are the same now, and then realizing (the point he is at now) that he has to *be* and / or *become* a dragon.

The IRL lore of the Dragon Skin is that it was just a pre-order award. This kid didn't think he was actually going to have to be a dragon to survive, he thought he was just going to get to play as one.

Now he's slowly realizing that his fantasy of being one, the whole reason he wanted the dragon skin, could *also* be a reality.

It's that very complicated switch of persona like I mentioned earlier. Almost like a two face deal. The character acts like a dragon, but the player is still a bit fearful. Whether his fear makes him look wise, or his wisdom will protect him from his own fear yet, I have NO idea.

That sort of development comes from me finally playing him :P

I made my playing very simple in killing the player tied to Alice. But at the same time, it's a different style of awakening and play, as Alice's goals are very different from the standard player. She doesn't suffer from the fear of death, nor does she believe she's trapped in something that she must escape. The game is her reality, the world outside is a stranger to her.

Super excited to start! Tyme and I have a few things to work on from the past before we join you guys, so feel free to read on us as we catch up to you in the timeline! Ive read to page 14 for the pbp so far, very excited

It will be a blast!

Oh yeah. We develope the first eleven floors and will make our first posts tonight

Me and titus are gonna die... And its gonna be by our own design XD

Good luck. I got an NPC troupe in reserve... let alone random 'PCs' hiding/waiting for a chance to break free.

Welp I can say the dungeon so far is really really cool and I love the boss we made a lot cause hes badass

GM-

I've not read much farther yet on the PbP while Tyme and I prep for tonight-

I see at least 7 in game days that the others have spent in time. Do you happen to have a count of the days?

For Tyme and I's timeline to "now" in the PbP, I assume close to 14 if not a little bit more. If not, it's cool, I'll keep reading and try to get a more accurate count.

If tyme and I's posts get spammy, please let us know.

On one hand we have 20 pages worth of a timeline to catch up on (we made several rules to the dungeon to speed up our timeline, however ;) ) but on the other we don't want to create 2 straight pages of just us if it will irritate anyone :P

GM, feel free as needed to endorse what we rewarded ourselves for each dungeon floor vs. what you would reward. We aren't sure how scarce you want crystals / gold to be.

So far gold is a non-existent reward in the dungeon, and pretty much every floor is designed to kill us in one way or another so that the crystals we do gather are properly earned.

Until then we chug along without spending any of them.

two of my class abilities I picked don't stack for what I wanted so I'm just gonna switch out the useless one for cure light wounds 3 times a day if thats ok. The other thingy was completely useless without the channels stacking as that was the only thing it gave

Psh get good dirty dungeon diver :P

Poor Tyme and Titus.

Can't wait until they find out the consequences of going back into a dungeon you haven't completed yet :P

Days 2 / 14 completed for our little side journey.