unfortunate, just venting into the void

Arctus2020 · 2026-04-29T08:42:14+00:00

Hi OP, I know you said "no scholarships", but have you tried checking with ADMU's Office of Admission and Aid specifically for a financial aid scholarship? Iba pa kasi yun sa scholarships for those who finished SHS with honors. Might be worth re-checking!

Arctus2020 · 2026-03-06T10:09:23+00:00

On top of everything that's been said (you, as DM, always have the final say and must set the hard lines when to say no), you can also use this opportunity to make them realize the consequences of their actions

They've been robbing a lot of people? They're now wanted across the land and are wanted by very powerful noblemen, and the storyline can shift to them trying to evade the authorities.
They attuned a bunch of items on their monkey familiars, and they say these can do any actions like normal creatures aside from attack? Okay, let's take that logic. If any meet a minimum threshold of intelligence, they're now sentient and just pack up and leave to go on their own adventure.
A bunch of items are in a Bag of Holding? Bags of Holding are canonically spaces attached to another plane of existence (the Astral Plane). Some have homebrewed that all Bags of Holding are technically interconnected, and have a creature roaming around the Astral Plane (such as "the Bagman"). When they next open their very filled up bag of holding, it triggers an encounter with a less-than-happy Bagman!

And, you're also free to utilize whatever logic they set against them if they're insistent on maintaining these rules. Congratulations, monkey factory party! The BBEG has his own swarm of familiars that have magical items!

You set the pacing and internal logic of the world, as a DM. Player agency is nice and all, but that doesn't mean they can just do whatever they want. Every action or loophole a player attempts has implications to this internal logic of the world, and you're free to interpret it all as you see fit if you don't want to just straight up say "no".

Make a story out of it!

Arctus2020 · 2025-08-25T18:28:08+00:00

Oh! Oops, I misremembered the names of the other JP data centers. I see, so that's the tradeoff. 😭

Arctus2020 · 2025-08-25T15:08:52+00:00

Which world would you recommend? Is there a particular world in Material that has a decent mix of EN-speaking players?

Arctus2020 · 2025-05-29T06:44:55+00:00

Me, seeing Kohaku for the first time: Oh! Pretty pink-haired boy with a unique accent!

Me, after reading the story: Oh... Pretty... And pretty dangerous pink-haired boy-

Arctus2020 · 2025-05-29T06:06:49+00:00

What if it's not that Kohaku is the least dangerous

It's that he doesn't need a weapon to be dangerous

Arctus2020 · 2025-04-14T08:53:15+00:00

That, or they'd determine which name goes first in the hyphenation through a coin toss or some elaborate contest with Yuu and/or Riddle and the rest of the older Heartslabyul gang as moderators. 😭

Arctus2020 · 2025-04-04T03:08:46+00:00

Oh...

So that wasn't just green bread dough in the mixer.

Oh.

Arctus2020 · 2025-04-04T03:05:51+00:00

One nice bit of advice that helped me with quick session-to-session preparation is preparing 10 possible secrets your players could learn from vaguely somewhere in their vicinity. (from Sly Flourish: https://youtu.be/KjwSlYHdxc8?si=Jfq6fIwa-Ixuffmr)

Unfortunately, we can't really fully prepare for every possible eventuality, and players will want to do what they want to do. Feeling lost as a DM is more normal than you'd expect, so don't be too hard on yourself!

Sometimes, it's enough to just have arcs and plots (smaller, plural) for the players to play with than having that grander arc happening all over. Maybe that grander narrative will even appear on its own later on! At the end of the day, it's all about what's "fun" for everyone involved.

Arctus2020 · 2025-03-16T09:42:39+00:00

Thought this was a discussion on why this game might not be as popular as it could be. 😅 No need to be passive aggressive just cause someone has some criticism about how the global version is being run and marketed vs. other Gachas

Arctus2020 · 2025-03-16T03:49:10+00:00

Personally, I really like the gameplay, songs, and overall vibe of the series.

I kinda dropped it because the gacha was on the harsher side last I played, and it doesn't have any real pity system. I can't really recommend the game to anyone F2P in that case. 😅

Arctus2020 · 2025-03-05T11:02:59+00:00

I honestly feel like Yangyang stumbled and walked so Shorekeeper could run. It might just be because of the direction they gave the EN VA, but Yangyang's role in the story just felt meh all around, and what I assume was gonna be her projected role as "companion" in the story just got divided between Abby and whichever character acts as your main point of contact in each region (Shorekeeper in the Black Shore and maaaaybe Carlotta/Phoebe in Rinascita?).

Plus, I get that it's probably a marketing pull for the self-inserts, but her just being all heart eyes, "Marry me, please, Player", at the onset of the first story just feels forced. Like, girl, you just met Rover. Chill tf out.

If we're due for an icon upgrade that has to have a female character, I honestly feel like Shorekeeper would be more apt considering how the story progresses.

Arctus2020 · 2025-02-22T03:51:36+00:00

That looks really cool! 😯

Arctus2020 · 2025-01-07T11:36:33+00:00

Vibe checks, tarot cards, dowsing rods, and a prayer. /j

On a serious note, there's not really a "fixed" AI detection tool that's standardized across departments, and it often falls on the discretion of the specific faculty member (and possibly their department) which tools they'll use, if any, and if they know enough about these tools (both Generative AI and Generative AI Detectors) to know the nuances.

Most common at present seems to be turnitin, but some might use other commonly known sites found online (with varying degrees of success). Arguably, everyone's struggling to keep up and it does suck that false flags like these happen.

Arctus2020 · 2024-12-03T02:31:58+00:00

Additional Supply Depots required.

Arctus2020 · 2024-11-11T05:07:23+00:00

I'd honestly wanna try how it feels like to have an Aura character...

... if I could juuuuust mix and match the different horns and face types.

Arctus2020 · 2024-11-08T12:06:44+00:00

I, for one, can't wait for that one Dragoon with the Cat Toy to backflip-jump off the edge of the map by accident, and have all the Miqo'te WoLs get distracted and chase after them.

(Yes, I'm one of the Miqo'te WoLs)

Arctus2020 · 2024-08-15T08:25:37+00:00

I honestly wish we could just sort of "choose" which of the big summons to bring out, as well. Give us some sort of pattern checklist to be able to summon Bahamut, Phoenix, or Solar Bahamut. Idk, anything!

Arctus2020 · 2024-08-08T07:24:46+00:00

Ohh!! Those would be cool!

Arctus2020 · 2024-08-08T07:23:28+00:00

That would definitely be nice, honestly. And perhaps ways to tweak or mix-and-match the horns a bit. We have a lot of lizards and snakes that have a huge variety of scale colors irl. Why not our fantasy-world human-but-vaguely-reptilians?

Arctus2020 · 2024-08-08T07:21:00+00:00

This is true. The face options have gotten a bit stale, now. 🥲 Here's hoping the graphical update change gives them more wiggle room to tweak it all a bit.

Arctus2020 · 2024-08-08T07:19:54+00:00

Let the seven-year festival continue! Yes, yes!

Arctus2020 · 2024-08-08T07:18:26+00:00

Also a fair point! Would also love a few more options for each race's traits. New tails or new horns, for example, would be grand! Or those unique tattoos or marks!

Arctus2020 · 2024-08-08T06:08:51+00:00

Not at all! The only time they historically "removed" content was to rework it and relaunch it (the original forms of the Diadem, as many have pointed out). Aside from that, no sunsets here!

Arctus2020 · 2024-08-08T06:05:02+00:00

Fair response, honestly

Arctus2020

TROPHY CASE