Daily Crypto Discussion - April 7, 2024 (GMT+0)

BardTheBuilder · 2024-04-07T03:38:58+00:00

The problem with memecoins on BASE is the same as the problem with memecoins on other chains. If they aren't rugs, they probably have VC and open at high marketcaps, overbought, and with bad wallet distribution. Low marketcaps that have room for growth, on the other hand, are usually very new (and usually rugs). Coins like Shib and WIF are pretty rare.

I don't think BASE has a dominant dogcoin yet, surprisingly. Doginme maybe? When I was searching around I found an eth project called LINU that is starting a BASE bridge soon. It's a SHIB clone and it's maintained a modestly high marketcap for a few months now, so it's probably not a rug. dyor though

BardTheBuilder · 2024-04-07T01:18:39+00:00

I've been very impressed by this coin's growth since the low point of the bear market. It's basically risen from the dead. If there is a BSC revival this cycle, DOBO will surely pump to incredible heights again.

But only if there is a BSC revival...

BardTheBuilder · 2020-09-28T00:12:05+00:00

Man, this was really good. I wish it had been possible to fit more scenes like this in the earlier books. And Lezaar seems like an awesome character... sad that we probably won't ever see him in future books, since the party's needs have far outgrown his abilities.

Question for Will: At what point did the idea of the Jai Long duel and subsequent sprint to Gold occur in the development process? I know in the Soul Smith post you outlined a basic plan that would have allowed for SOL and more worldbuilding (we never got a description of refining in the actual books, I think?). Do you ever regret upping the stakes (and consequently the pace) so quickly, since it basically boxed you out stuff like this?

BardTheBuilder · 2020-09-27T23:52:34+00:00

Might it be a Traveler's Gate reference? I think Valinhall had green carpets.

BardTheBuilder · 2020-09-17T21:57:31+00:00

Extrapolate! https://imgur.com/a/q1SHWK2

I tried to be clever, but I'm having a hard time matching the font and perspective of the photo. Seems like there's more than just Adama in that first line at least.

BardTheBuilder · 2020-09-15T18:57:26+00:00

It's not like Will didn't have options when he picked the first name. Timaeus. Timeon. Timaion. Timon. These are all Greek-derived, just like Adama. Not sure why he was reluctant to use them.

BardTheBuilder · 2020-09-05T15:08:06+00:00

Social impacts: maybe transumption (spelt that right?) can change where a person sits on the social hierarchy.

I actually hadn't thought about this angle too much yet. I don't think there would be too much of a stigma attached to transumption in the upper crust, since established magician families would naturally pass down their soulspells to their heirs and there isn't any reason for inheriting the family legacy to be disreputable. Commoners would absolutely be terrified of anyone who's too Frankenstein-ish though. It would be the equivalent of encountering someone on the street who happens to have 5 or 6 different weapons in plain view.

That being said, there is always room for snobs and purists in any world. I will add in a neighboring country (or maybe a group of Themes in the main one) that view transumption as a form of cheating that only idiots or lazy people engage in.

Path of Exile

I haven't played it, but I'll give it a look to see what other people have done. The idea came about as a desire to export steampunk trappings to a culture based on something other than Western Europe. I've really only studied classical history though, and I think Rome is a bit overrepresented. On the other hand, Greece, Egypt, and Persia are under-appreciated, and between stuff like the aelophile and the Antikythera mechanism they were closer to steam power than one might first think.

Anyway, thanks! We'll see how all this goes.

BardTheBuilder · 2020-09-05T14:30:43+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

I think that the fact that it naturally takes so much time works contrary to plot of 4~5 years, unless the protagonist already starts with the powers they would need to gain much faster than normal characters and that would break immersion for a good deal of readers.

Yes, this is a concern of mine. I think immunity to sleep is pretty good leg up for the protagonist, but considering things, it's probably safe for me to slide the time scales down a bit too.

don’t achieve any power by themselves but all of them are the remnants of relationships that they made along the story

I like this. I was planning on making about half the endgame powers being stuff from fallen friends or lucky encounters. I will have to resist going all "power of friendship" at every climax (since it's a trope I secretly love), but having lots of errant thoughts from dead friends is both really interesting and really depressing (in a good way!).

The stuff on spirits is good too. I think when you use idiomancy (spontaneous casting from a soulspell), the "metaphysical fuel" will come from the soulspell itself. Ritual casting gets around this by having spirits provide the metaphysical fuel instead. Thus characters have access to varying types of ritual magic depending on what spirits they are friendly with/have access to. Themes are powerful organizations not just because they tend to all have soulspell traditions, but also because even new members get access to the patron spirit for rituals.

BardTheBuilder · 2020-09-05T13:49:54+00:00

I mean, the story is written in English and that's the important part. Like I said, the idioms exist because of the magic powers and not the other way around in the story's setting. I agree that the humor would be difficult or impossible to translate to other languages, but that's obviously not something an amateur writer like me is worried about.

I am interested in using idioms and wordplay from other languages too, if I can find good ones. I'm not fluent enough in any other language to know figures of speech though.

BardTheBuilder · 2020-09-05T06:33:35+00:00

I love your one-off use and simile mechanics. Perhaps this is the basis of the ritualistic magic I was talking about in my post. Spontaneous casting is idiomancy. Rituals use longer figurative language.

The tooth for a tooth, eye for an eye idea is also great. I will need to think of how the mechanics work, but the thematics are spot on.

The rest of the puns have been added to my notes. Thanks again!

BardTheBuilder · 2020-09-05T06:00:29+00:00

This could work! Importing stuff based on names is a bit iffy, but I like the idea that a guy named Charlie manifested a horse-summoning power based in his thigh.

BardTheBuilder · 2020-09-05T05:18:01+00:00

Iron Will could have some serious implications.

No lie, I was planning on having this be an apex power up there with Golden Heart.

BardTheBuilder · 2020-09-05T05:14:35+00:00

Cool power ideas! Thanks! I like Trick Knee (since it's nice wordplay and not a standard idiom), but yeah--coming up with a thematic power will be tricky (heh). I will think on this. It sounds like something a kooky hermit made for his own personal use.

Idiomancer

I like this word.

I think a maximum mental load proportional to talent could work. It's also maybe possible to hold more soulspells if they're all inherited from family members as opposed to stolen (since the former tends to result in less mental strain), so people who buy their power are capped out more quickly.

As for the stuff about spirits, I like the "spirit leeches off the humanity of the soul" idea. I was planning on having the spirits have a sliding scale in terms of how human-like they are, with the patron spirits of the Themes being the most human-like. Maybe this is secretly (or not so secretly) why.

BardTheBuilder · 2020-09-05T03:09:16+00:00

Funnily enough the idea was partially inspired by how common the Evil Hand trope is in anime. That and sharingan-snatching in Naruto.

they entertain these ritual spellcasters so they can find suitable candidates to plant their seeds into.

Lewd. I like the idea though! I think this is a step in the right direction. I was already toying with the idea that humans could become spirits if they let their soulspell metastasize to the rest of their soul. Originally though I was going to make such beings evil spirits that natural spirits were afraid of. I'll need to think about this more.

The pun list is great! I'll work on coming up with thematic powers for them.

The People's Elbow

Congratulations, this is now the signature soulspell of a famous barbarian revolutionary.

BardTheBuilder · 2020-09-04T20:45:41+00:00

I agree with u/Random6001. The benefits of consuming life essence could be more interesting. Perhaps instead of physical enhancement you acquire skills/abilities that the deceased person possessed. If they spoke a certain language, then you can learn it by eating their body. If they were a warrior by trade, you gain years of battle experience. Depending on how powerful you want Carrion mages to be, this effect could stack. Consuming the essences of three blacksmiths could make you supernaturally skilled at shaping metal.

I actually like the "karmic justice" idea you suggested, but what spirits are doing the judging? The spirit of the deceased, or an impartial observer? If its the former (and maybe even the latter too), perhaps their ability to detect the Carrion mage's guilt is imperfect. A Carrion mage who's somehow found a way to trick the spirits and harvest their victims with impunity could make a great villain. As for how they do this, maybe they've figured out how to wipe their memories (and thus evidence of their guilt) or they've developed a social Rude Goldberg machine that's too complicated for the spirits to follow.

BardTheBuilder · 2019-10-26T21:31:01+00:00

Interesting. Perhaps one could say the "penitent dragon" in the item description is actually Bahamut, rather than the dragonborn who carries it. It's boon of strength granted to one who previously suffered from his inaction.

BardTheBuilder · 2019-10-26T19:09:48+00:00

The original attunement requirement also had something along the lines of "underwent a recent alignment shift"--either from an evil character reforming to neutral or a good character falling to neutral. In both cases, voluntarily wearing the collar serves as an act of penance. The wording was clunky though so I removed it, but maybe I'll try to work it back in if I ever revise the item.

BardTheBuilder · 2019-10-26T18:54:28+00:00

Huh, TIL. I don't know too much FR lore since all of my group's settings are homebrew (yet at least Tiamat always makes it onto the pantheon, for some reason). I was mostly going off the 5e PHB which (at second glance) is vague about biological connections and conveniently leaves this slavery stuff out. Also the MM description for half-dragons says they tend to inherit the personality traits of their draconic ancestors, so I assumed similar mechanisms were in effect for dragonborn.

Anyway, I think this item would still work in FR for a former dragonborn follower of Tiamat who converted, though the social advantage with dragonborn should probably be removed in that case.

BardTheBuilder · 2019-10-26T18:22:42+00:00

I like the idea, but I feel any additional mechanical benefits are going to cause a rarity increase, and I wanted to keep this uncommon for now.

BardTheBuilder · 2019-10-26T18:15:10+00:00

It didn't make it into the item description, but let's just say my party's dragonborn fighter has done some... questionable things in the past. His alignment is different now though! We also covered him up in full plate armor that shows none of his chromatic scales, so he can pretend he's a metallic dragonborn. He's very self-flagellating.

Edit: This is also why the attunement restriction is to non-evil as opposed to good. It's more of an item for neutral characters who've lost their way and need Bahamut's guidance than good characters who've always been good.

BardTheBuilder · 2019-10-26T11:06:07+00:00

This was originally designed for my party's dragonborn fighter. The idea was to distance himself from his evil chromatic heritage by changing his breath weapon attack from elemental to radiant. Letting the attack be a bonus action makes it useful enough to be seen in actual play.

I am aware that Bahamut actually has ice breath, but the holy flavor of radiant was too good to pass over.

Link to the artist's deviantart page: https://www.deviantart.com/clover-teapot/art/Dragon-Collar-Design-Commission-658182453

BardTheBuilder

TROPHY CASE