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I've been trying to think on why i'm enjoying this more than most works that have what i'd call the 'puzzlebox nature'- asking to be solved, forming dozens of connections, theorizing, picking something apart. This is a sort of story I often find frustrating- a Lost or the like is one of the big things here, a story where it's all about what Could be happening and then when you get to the end there isn't much- or deep interconnected worlds full of Lore that doesn't elucidate themes or ideas. Even something like Homestuck is kind of this- through the massive, complicated mechanisms, it asks you to figure out what's happening, what might be happening, and all that part of that story always left me high and dry- but the characters kept me going. in Zen Hell EndThere are undoubtedly a ludicrous amount of moving parts. Maybe too many in some ways! Sometimes this doesn't hit for me at all- there are large parts of this story that, due to this, I just barely remember at all. Here, while hardly perfect it feels like the ideas that are being set up mean something. The imagery is evocative, I like a lot of the characters. I think some of the theorization is goofy- I never once really think our protagonist is 'actually' multiple people that have been fused, but it does feel like there's something to the way that they have very distinct parts of themselves that they conceptualize as different actors but are nevertheless themself. I've met people for whom that is their experience, and it doesn't feel... as exploitative as works grappling with that sort of idea that I've seen before. Not my personal experience of being, so I can't talk much more than that. I think what does hold up the most for me is the sort of theme here of a bunch of people who are all hurt, very badly, and trying to cope with it- a better world has been lost, ruined by exploitation in some way they don't understand. They know there was something that was supposed to be better, there should be a better world- but they aren't in it, and they're muddling through. Traumatized people, at least trying to help each other. Sometimes badly, often in ways that aren't healthy, but trying. Home, the different cults, and many others we've met. And our protagonist, the lost soloist- shying away from connection even when they make it, except for Kiwat. Trying to be a better person, in a world that asks them to be at their worst. Sometimes failing, sometimes succeeding. Little interactions with other people, light in the darkness. And I think the meta layer- while the complication of a holy end game also existing doesn't do anything for me- also adds to this. It sort of addresses the puzzlebox nature that both frustrates and intrigues me- it is dozens, hundreds of people trying to solve a fundamentally unsolvable thing. There isn't a secret route where you do everything just right and manage to kill all of them. It's not about that. The protagonist struggles with their nature of Tyranny and the desire to inflict their will on the world. Too, those trying to solve the game are trying to box up the world, to make it work the way they desire, to get it just /right./ A Tyranny of a hundred thousand tries, of every scrap of information, in a world that ultimately does not respond to Tyranny. There is always another secret. Tyranny and the blue book won't beat this game or save this world. To me, these feel like much the same thing on a thematic level. This is why I don't mind the 'puzzlebox' nature, the constant trying to figure out which character is also who or tied to what as much as I normally might. It feels like, in the world, that's what people are doing- and it has only lead them to futility. Everyone is trying to win. no one is just trying to play. It feels in conversation with those ideas. These are just some idle thoughts. I've been lurking, but I quite enjoy the thread. Apologies for dumping both criticism and praise in the thread. I might clean this up and edit it later, this is an absolute mess of a 'review'. I find it hard to put my thoughts together in a fully coherent way without spending an hour or two on it.
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Mar 2, 2022 23:41
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 20:23 |
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I'll be honest, i don't remember the writeup on the guns and i just picked the one with the coolest name.
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Apr 25, 2022 20:18
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god i forgot about this lady's weird ableist poo poo. just get some stuff or another backup, she's an rear end in a top hat we can probably get someone better to come with.
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Apr 29, 2022 05:34
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Regallion posted:taking the what? taking THE WHAT OFFER? isn't tyrant a "fake" class as far as the blue book is concerned, in that it's not normally player-accessible? There's two blue books for the two games, that sort of seem to get melded together. in hell end, everyone is tyrant. in holy end, it's dummied out, supposedly.
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Jun 9, 2022 18:59
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Yeah. It's like a hosed up coping mechanism- the like, pushing through things to just Do Them in a way that isn't always healthy- but that doesn't mean it's inherently bad or unhealthy just that uh, it's a trauma response you gotta deal with, yanno? and in this case it seems appropriate. look. these people both fuckin suck. sword em hardcore imo
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Jul 13, 2022 19:41
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in fairness, that was also in like, the most hosed up possible situation.
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Jul 13, 2022 20:40
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isn't merkja not mom, but Mom's Mom/grandma? It's been a minute.
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Jul 13, 2022 20:46
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We should get Power Begets, we're getting kind of lousy with powers right now in a way that's hard to keep track of and it's always more interesting to be really good at a couple things than to be kind of good at many things, imo. Specifically, i think we could drop Voorish Sign, Psychic Shield, maybe Avi's Question, Cheeseburger Magics and maybe Grace under Pressure, and use it to empower Red Right Hand, tourmaline rains, the silver mind, any of our sword techniques, or any of our tyrant stuff. (or get one new thing that's sort of tyrant-y or red-y or heaven-end themed. that's just because those are the directions i'm most interested in leaning in.) Nea fucked around with this message at 08:20 on Dec 6, 2022 |
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Dec 6, 2022 08:15
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Randalor posted:I'm leaning towards the Iron Inserts, Deluxifier, and Skip Sandwich myself. The Skip Sandwich more because we're kind of a glass cannon, so guaranteeing we go first is a big help. The White Belt seems nice, but we're already pretty low level, and the Aqualuma doesn't seem THAT good unless we keep running into situations where there are multiple groups fighting each other so we're not hitting enemies with what they would be strong against (or outright absorbing instead). I'm honestly tempted to say the shotgunshoulders or the chain mail to suitify and then rethread into the black suit. Yeah, everything's been helpful sometimes. That's how having a grab bag works, but it's less interesting. also, yanno. The way these games work if the gm is good is the things on your character sheet are going to be relevant to problems you encounter. The only change I'd make to my original post is yeah, we should keep avi's question for sure.
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Dec 6, 2022 18:11
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Yeah, but you gotta give up cool stuff to get cool stuff, and by getting rid of a lot of our less interesting grab bag of powers we can focus on on stuff that feels more character appropriate. Whatever we get will be useful, because that's how the game works, and it will even let us get new stuff without being absolutely drowned in 1000 things on the character sheet. Plus, if we give up a lot of stuff, the resulting power should be quite good. I'm not like, saying we HAVE to give up all of that either, just those are the things I'd consider.
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Dec 6, 2022 18:24
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Yeah. I think the most interesting ones on the table here are red right hand (both pretty tyrant-y and appropriate since we're going to deal with Red, though possibly not /helpful/ to upgrade right now), either of our Tyrant Techniques, the Silver Mind (All are both thematic and pretty good), Blade Majesteaux (we haven't gone that heavy on the sword stuff, but we could), or inevitable (it's cool.) Or see what we get new thing wise!
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Dec 6, 2022 19:27
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we really should have taken Power Begets.
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Dec 8, 2022 23:28
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god i cannot wait to see where this goes
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Dec 29, 2022 06:07
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watching a movie in a sauna seems like the worst of both worlds. don't want to watch a movie while wet.
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Jun 29, 2023 20:29
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Marluxia posted:Y'all. If something is noted as "oh it never works", that means it's going to be particularly super effective on us. You need to be more genre savvy That's why i voted for it. I love it when bad things happen to us.
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Nov 19, 2023 22:40
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 20:23 |
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Hey, can you take a vote off option 1? i was trying to view results on my phone to see how the poll was going and accidentally voted a second time.
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Apr 26, 2024 19:38
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