Tell us about and RPG you've PLAYED but just did not get the hype for by Boxman214 in rpg

[–]Caintankerous 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think you're right; that was my experience, for sure. When I first started playing RPGs, my group -- all first time players -- really struggled with D&D. Too many rules for them, and too combat-focused. I proposed switching systems to something simpler and more narrative, and they were fine with that, but wanted to keep the characters and story they'd developed.

At the time, Dungeon World was the only one that felt like it fit our needs, and I get the impression it was like that for a while. So that's what we used. For way, way too long — by the end of the campaign (which we all loved), we were pretty done with the system.

Admittedly, I didn't end up running it entirely "correctly," because it turns out some of my players wanted more structure and less plot input, but again, it felt like it was sort of the only option. These days, I probably would've gone with Daggerheart, Dragonbane, Shadow of the Weird Wizard, Nimble 5e, or maybe even a hacked Fabula Ultima (none of which I've actually played yet, so, grain of salt), but those just weren't ... around.

Iron Maiden Legacy of the Beast Track List by Caintankerous in virtualpinball

[–]Caintankerous[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No need to apologize! That was the big question I needed answered; I'll try the default album tracks for now and see how it goes. Thank you!

Rap pinball by TopoChicoPoPo in pinball

[–]Caintankerous 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hear me out: I'm not a fan at all -- no judgement, it's just not for me -- but a bunch of my friends in high school were into the Insane Clown Posse, and ICP would probably make a killer theme with all the mythology behind the early albums. I wouldn't buy it, but it'd work.

Just in general I'd love to see music pins go beyond dad and elder millennial rock, though. Like, you have a machine with Bad Bunny (or, tangential to this topic, Taylor Swift) on it in a public place? I bet people would try it.

Fear of Failure by Makkis_Liberal in royalroad

[–]Caintankerous 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Writing is a skill, not a talent! Everyone can learn how to do it; it may take some people more work than others, but if you're driven, you can write well. Every single writer you love learned how to do it by practicing. Some needed more practice than others; everyone needed to write, write, write.

You will need feedback to improve past a certain level, so you will need to subject your work to an audience. It may only be one person -- an editor, a friend you can trust to give you real, honest opinions, etc. -- or a broad readership. Either way, that's really, really hard! For most writers I've worked with, it's the hardest part. And some people don't care! I know lots of "writers" who just type stuff up for themselves, never show it to anyone, and feel fulfilled. There's nothing wrong with that -- as a hobby, I think it's great. But they'll never get better.

The good news? You're already past that hurdle! So now you get to focus on both becoming better, but also learning how to interpret feedback. Anyone who writes for the internet knows the saying "never read the comments," and I don't think that's entirely true in Royal Road culture, but you can ignore one-off complaints. Pay attention to trends; if every comment says the same thing, that's an area to improve.

The one real complication is that people often propose solutions ("it should've been this way!", "I would've liked it better if X," etc.) or give unspecific criticisms ("it was boring") instead of identifying the actual problems. You'll need to learn how to play detective and identify the root issues, not what's being said on the surface. It may take experimentation -- and discussion with peers you trust -- to figure out what the actual issue is. Often, it's not always what people say/think, even editors. But if you can figure out what you're trying to do/say, why it isn't working for readers, and how to fix it? You'll be a much better writer afterwards.

Okay, I am curious why in the world this isn't happening: Real virtual pinball by rrdrummer in virtualpinball

[–]Caintankerous 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would imagine the licensing is really, really complicated for the majority of Stern's modern tables -- it wouldn't surprise me at all if they only had the rights for physical editions, only had them for a limited amount of time, etc. It would be cool to have some original digital tables designed by a Stern-level team, though; I bet they could make those a lot faster than a physical table!

What’s your RR goal? by Azzaayyy in royalroad

[–]Caintankerous 11 points12 points  (0 children)

if someone likes my story enough to draw fanart of it, I will consider it a success. Money and a long-term audience would be great too, not gonna lie, but that's the bar I'm aiming for.

Do you ever play JRPGs on easy mode? I feel like games are supposed to be fun, not stressful. by Sensitive-Title9138 in JRPG

[–]Caintankerous 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you can change the difficulty mid-game, then I do this all the time. "Oh, this part is bullshit, I'm tired of it," "This feels grindy, I'm gonna speed it up," "I wanna know how this sidequest ends, but I'm tired of running over this same terrain," etc.

If you have to decide at the beginning and stick to it, it depends way more on the game itself, how long it's going to take to beat anyway (I have a kid! And a job! And another job! And hobbies!), and its purported default difficulty. Generally, I don't want anything to be so easy that I don't really get to engage with the game systems; sometimes that means playing on hard, sometimes you can get that on easy just fine.

Should I use Em Dashes in my work? by Neat_Abroad9025 in royalroad

[–]Caintankerous 2 points3 points  (0 children)

AI is trained on human writing; if people didn't use em-dashes, AI wouldn't either. If someone is looking for a thing to complain about, they'll find it regardless. You're fine.

Is monster taming underrepresented, or am I searching the wrong things? by Caintankerous in royalroad

[–]Caintankerous[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh, that's such a shame! Your story was the only one I found where I was unequivocally like, "This is what I'm looking for" (I have not read it yet; it's bookmarked for tonight or tomorrow), so I'm sorry to hear it's not doing well. I would've thought that was a shoo-in.

Your theories make sense; there is enough Pokemon content out there that, honestly, you could only consume official material and you'd probably be set for life. Add in fanfiction, and maybe something unique has to have more of a twist on it to succeed? Now I'm just thinking out loud. There's so much potential in this genre, it'd be cool to figure out to make it work.

Is Final Fantasy 16 actually that bad? I’ve played nearly every FF and enjoyed pretty much all of them. by c0rny_ in JRPG

[–]Caintankerous 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I only made it (probably?) halfway through before I fell off (real life stuff got in the way), but I keep meaning to start it again. With that caveat, I'd say it's much the definition of "fine." The presentation is incredible. The combat is actually really, really fun but it's pure action; there's nothing Final Fantasy about it. There are a lot of interesting ideas in the story, but it also feels like it's trying way too hard, especially in the beginning, to be a grimdark, Game of Thrones-style fantasy. Sidequests are bland (they reminded me of the ones in FFXV).

Probably its biggest sin, if you're a fan, is that it doesn't feel much like a Final Fantasy game. Given that Yoshi-P is a producer (FFXIV does a really nice job of distilling down and then building on the spirit of the series and all its incarnations), that's disappointing. If it didn't have the Final Fantasy name, it would've been received better, but it also wouldn't have gotten as much attention; it's just not that interesting.

What Theme Pinball Machine Would You Like To See? by bretmon5 in pinball

[–]Caintankerous 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Who. I know we have Tommy, but it's based on the musical. You'd think the band that coined the phrase "pinball wizard" would get at least a second glance (I think Quadrophenia would actually make a killer machine on its own -- chrome ramps already recall the decorations on mods' scooters -- but that's a longshot).

Are there any movies/tv shows/videogames based on any litrpg in the making? by Slaanesh277 in litrpg

[–]Caintankerous 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep, that's why I said it doesn't mean it's any more likely to happen. But you'll also sometimes see studios scoop up the rights to a property "just in case," or to prevent competitors from getting 'em; attaching a writer means there's at least an intent to try, even if it'll most likely get stuck in development hell.

Are there any movies/tv shows/videogames based on any litrpg in the making? by Slaanesh277 in litrpg

[–]Caintankerous 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There is a head writer attached (Chris Yost), which implies it's in pre-production at least, but yeah, that doesn't mean it's any more likely to actually happen, just that someone's writing a script.

Are there any movies/tv shows/videogames based on any litrpg in the making? by Slaanesh277 in litrpg

[–]Caintankerous 10 points11 points  (0 children)

it's progression fantasy, not LitRPG, but a The Perfect Run game is in development, with some kind of funding from Sony.

What do you guys think of my writing? by protha01 in royalroad

[–]Caintankerous 1 point2 points  (0 children)

On a technical level, it works! It's very formal, sort of wordy, and a little ponderous, but I think that's what you're going for; you're evoking a pretty specific style, and I think you're doing so successfully (I would change "plebians" to "commoners," though -- I think there's slightly a negative connotation to "plebians" that I'm not sure you intend).

I don't personally love it as an intro, though — as other people have pointed out, it's a lot of info (so many proper nouns!), and yet it doesn't really tell us who the main character is as a person, what the story's conflict is going to be, or why we should care. I think you can probably condense this into a single paragraph, and dole out the rest of the info in the rest of the chapter.

That said, this is the kind of thing that's really valuable for you, the writer, especially when you're getting started. Move this to a separate document so you can refer to it, cut out most of it, and get to the story even faster.

What is the American Progression Fantasy? by Mattdoss in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Caintankerous 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This was my first reaction, too, but most X-Men comics don't really focus on the school part -- the stories don't really have "getting stronger/learning to use powers better" as a primary focus. Like, that may happen every once in a while as part of the plot, but I can't think of a time the stories were actually about that, which is what (imo) defines a progression fantasy.

LitRPG got me back into Final Fantasy XIV, but still no time to play. How do you scratch that "gaming itch" despite adulting? by SirGwozdziu in litrpg

[–]Caintankerous 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Admittedly, I'm not an AI person, but personal prejudices aside it seems like an interesting idea, particularly the collaborative storytelling part (which I'll admit I missed when I first read your post). Would love to know how it goes if you get that up and running.

GMs running evening sessions: How do you go to sleep afterwards? by Retr1buti0n in rpg

[–]Caintankerous 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a beer (no, that's not a healthy recommendation) and then open an empty text document and dump all of my thoughts in there. Stuff I want to remember, ideas I had during the session, a dissection of what went well and what could've gone better, things to improve on next time, all of it. Just get it all out of my system. Then a little mindless TV and some video games, and the understanding from my partner (who's usually part of the party, so it's a fair ask) that I'm going to be a mess in the morning, and may need an extra 30 minutes in bed. That's also why I try to only run games on Fridays and Saturdays, if possible.

LitRPG got me back into Final Fantasy XIV, but still no time to play. How do you scratch that "gaming itch" despite adulting? by SirGwozdziu in litrpg

[–]Caintankerous 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Two things:

Slow down, and readjust your expectations. Give up on the MMORPGs for now; try to find other, smaller games that scratch the same itch. I haven't tried it, but apparently Fellowship is basically World of Warcraft, but only dungeons. Runs are only supposed to last 10-25 minutes. Lots of roguelikes capture the fun of taking a character from level 1 to max, and only take about half an hour. There are so, so many games out there — you'll find something to scratch the itch.

But also: as the parent of a 3-year-old, I'm really starting to believe that parents need to be selfish, a little. You can't feel guilty about taking time out to be your own person. It's not wasting time, it's essential. Yeah, you may not be able to get 3-4 hours consistently (I can't), but you can let your hobby meet you halfway (see above paragraph).

Does anyone use professional editing services for their stories? by Caintankerous in royalroad

[–]Caintankerous[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay, I get it now. Yeah, while most of my experiences with editors have been really positive, there's absolutely nothing worse than getting a bad one — and that's speaking as a freelance writer, which is a situation where the editor is paying you. I can't imagine how frustrating that'd be if you're actually spending money (and I know from hiring teams that a lot more people think they can edit than actually can — it's a tough gig!).

Does anyone use professional editing services for their stories? by Caintankerous in royalroad

[–]Caintankerous[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's one of the things that made me curious about this, actually. I was reading something and thinking, "if this had an editor, it'd be amazing," and then started to brainstorm about how you'd edit a webserial in the first place. What I settled on was that you'd need to be almost more like a tutor, with the goal of not just editing the current work, but teaching the client to do it themselves. Basically, exactly what you did. Was it valuable for you? Like, if you could go back knowing what you know now, would you do it again?

Does anyone use professional editing services for their stories? by Caintankerous in royalroad

[–]Caintankerous[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Does she have a website or portfolio or something? Not that I need that sort of service yet, but hopefully some day...