Deedeequest or The Wonders of Mundus: Be Careful Who You Pretend To Be - A Genderous Isekai Quest

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How Dice Rolls Work
  • Informational
    • Character sheet is here.

    Dice rolls are 1d10 + Stat + Proficiency + any applicable bonuses, such as Boons.

    You may spend 3 Tension to Overdrive for a retroactive +5 to your roll (a Determination Overdrive), or +3 to an ally's roll (a Teamwork Overdrive). I will also automatically overdrive to avoid exhaustion or unconsciousness.

    It is possible to critically succeed (on +5 on skill checks and +10 on combat rolls) or critically fail (by the same margins), but rolling a 1 or a 10 does not automatically crit in either case. It is possible to crit retroactively by Overdriving.

    Your stat bonuses have names:
    • Vigor grants a Strength bonus.
    • Agility grants a Dexterity bonus.
    • Spirit grants an Aura bonus.
    • Mind grants an Intuition bonus.
    • Resolve grants a Guts bonus.
    Dice are rolled on a first come, first serve bonus. You only roll for Deedee.
     
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  • Informational
    • Which parts of Another World Online the game did the player base get super irrationally mad about even if it ultimately meant only a slight inflation of the in-game currency or something? And conversely, which wacky glitches and obviously broken mechanics did the player base defensively adopt as part of the character and metalore of playing the game?
     
    How did our protagonist meet their roommate Jules, and what was the incident that caused the two of them to decide "yes, this is a person I'm willing to share an apartment with long term"?
     
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    bookwyrm said:
    Which parts of Another World Online the game did the player base get super irrationally mad about even if it ultimately meant only a slight inflation of the in-game currency or something? And conversely, which wacky glitches and obviously broken mechanics did the player base defensively adopt as part of the character and metalore of playing the game?
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    The biggest bugbear in the game wasn't a glitch at all, but the perennial complaints about how many goddamn furries there are. About a third of the playerbase play Vulpecians, most of them with either weeby f(au/o)x-Japanese names or horrible fox-related puns, with ubastim and koboldt not far behind. There are, by far, more Andrax (humans) than any other species, but that never stopped the complaints.

    Contrairiwise, the most beloved ascended glitch of the fanbase is called the Glamour Hotswap, which allows you to change the appearance of your armor and weapons out of combat under certain arcane but relatively easy conditions. It was never intended - for verisimilitude, normally this is the sort of thing you can only change at campsites, hotel rooms, or appearance shops - but it was such a benign bug and used to make beloved meme videos like Glatisant Can't Match My Drip that any attempts to fix it were shouted down.
     
    DrunkenGrognard said:
    How did our protagonist meet their roommate Jules, and what was the incident that caused them to decide "yes, this is a person I'm willing to share an apartment with long term"?
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    This will be covered in more detail in conversation with them, but they went to college together - taking a literature class together - for as long as both of them could stay in college. While Deedee-mun ("Jake") was consistently underemployed for a whole host of reasons, Jules was able to find work... until a nasty accident fucked up their spine and they weren't comped or treated nearly well enough for it.

    What was supposed to be a month on Jake's couch paid for by doing chores dragged out, but they were honestly the best roommate Deedee ever had even without accounting for the crush she refused to act on, and once Jules did find a way to pay the bills and throw an occasional party the choice to let them stick around and start paying half of the rent was obvious.
     
    What were Another World Onlines biggest teething problems in the beginning months?

    And what was the games opening, tutorial and early quest/storylines like?
     
    So we know there's an empire roughly playing the role of "Rome if it survived into the Renaissance", with Aurora serving as their patron/mascot deity.

    Are there any other geopolitical bodies playing in the same weight class? Alternatively, are there any notable geopolitical bodies which have managed to stay independent despite the Auroran empire really wishing it could slurp them up?

    Talia B said:
    Contrairiwise, the most beloved ascended glitch of the fanbase is called the Glamour Hotswap, which allows you to change the appearance of your armor and weapons out of combat under certain arcane but relatively easy conditions. It was never intended - for verisimilitude, normally this is the sort of thing you can only change at campsites, hotel rooms, or appearance shops - but it was such a benign bug and used to make beloved meme videos like Glatisant Can't Match My Drip that any attempts to fix it were shouted down.
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    Hmm! It'll be fun to find out if that still works, or if it went the way of Frankie's labcoat and Hikaru's stache.
     
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    BagFullOfLizards said:
    What was the most random NPC the fanbase became irrationally attached to?
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    There's a line of quests in the Isle of Caelibyrn, their analog to the British Isles, involving a hunt for the Ionian Glatisant with the Knights of the Stone Circle. One Ser Trieste, the court engineer, retreats from the battle rapidly (to get reinforcements and seige equipment) - this combined with being a Vigor/Mind build has earned him the title "The Smartest Knight Of The Circle," with jokes about Trieste's reasonable and relatable cowardice and him appearing in a variant of the "if shit sucks, hit da bricks!" meme.

    Qoheleth said:
    So we know there's an empire roughly playing the role of "Rome if it survived into the Renaissance", with Aurora serving as their patron/mascot deity.

    Are there any other geopolitical bodies playing in the same weight class? Alternatively, are there any interesting geopolitical bodies which have managed to stay independent despite the Auroran empire really wishing it could slurp them up?
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    There's the Yao Dynasty of the Zhongguo Empire, too remote to threaten Omphalos but not enough that they don't trade and compete in feats of oceanic exploration; the 12 Principalities of Al'Khebulan of West and Central "africa," home of the greatest alchemists of the age; the unconquerable Ranasthani… and the Il'Khanate that stretches across the continent.

    These latter two are perpetual foes of the Omphalans, though the story of AWO does not take the Omphalan "side." Recently, the closure of Ranasthani borders - and the brushfire wars and raids between them, the Khanate, and anyone downrange of either - has started an arms race and an Age of Sail and Piracy, to obtain spices otherwise locked behind the castles of South "Asia."

    (Did I mention how extremely badly I need a Mongolian cultural consultant?)

    Qoheleth said:
    Hmm! It'll be fun to find out if that still works, or if it went the way of Frankie's labcoat and Hikaru's stache.
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    This is something I plan to address, actually.
     
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    Qoheleth said:
    Awaiting a future expansion pack, I presume. :grin:
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    Actually, the war is part of the subject of the current expansion pack - along with the Age of Sail. The present expansion is entitled Pepper, Silk, Gunpowder and Rum and opened up starter cities in Ranasthani and Zhong'guo.

    Adventurers are, after all, hired as mercenaries for every belligerent.
     
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    Oh! That reminds me of a different question I've been wondering about.

    We've heard about PvE in Another World Online - fighting NPC brigands and monsters and Questing Beasts. ACDC, at least, seems to have been focused on this type of content up until the crash.

    So then... what was AWO's PvP content like? Was it like FF14, narrowly cordoned off to special zones and play modes, limited to Holy League ballgames and gladiator matches and the like? Was it closer to WoW, where there was support for players joining opposite sides of broader political rivalries and coming to blows over it? Is the spectre of "PC megagroups becoming geopolitical forces of their own" a new consequence of everyone crashing into a more lifelike Mundus, or had OWTB gone as far as dipping their toes into "EVE Online"-style large-scale/structural PvP support?
     
    Qoheleth said:
    Oh! That reminds me of a different question I've been wondering about.

    We've heard about PvE in Another World Online - fighting NPC brigands and monsters and Questing Beasts. ACDC, at least, seems to have been focused on this type of content up until the crash.

    So then... what was AWO's PvP content like? Was it like FF14, narrowly cordoned off to special zones and play modes, limited to Holy League ballgames and gladiator matches and the like? Was it closer to WoW, where there was support for players joining opposite sides of broader political rivalries and coming to blows over it? Is the spectre of "PC megagroups becoming geopolitical forces of their own" a new consequence of everyone crashing into a more lifelike Mundus, or had OWTB gone as far as dipping their toes into "EVE Online"-style large-scale/structural PvP support?
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    I think it used something like the WoW model where there were occasional large scale battles and literal raids that affected warscore in temporary campaigns, with events stalemated or having canonical conclusions as needed. Wars just didn't end with extermination back then, after all, and there are various reasons that are very angry, several stories tall, and heading to rip your warmongering tyrannical king's palace out of it's moorings and then shake him into their mouths like popcorn that rulers who try tend to have traitors within the palace guard; most countries had small victories and lost territory, without the culture being erased.

    Those reasons also double as endgame PvE content, challenges from the Gods, which was a plus.

    F0lkL0re said:
    What were Another World Onlines biggest teething problems in the beginning months?

    And what was the games opening, tutorial and early quest/storylines like?
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    I imagine balancing the above was a problem, for awhile, with them needing to apologize and reset things as they patched very exploitable and unrealistic ways to get a ton on warscore without other parties able to interfere. Or for that matter, ways to piss away warscore that should logically work, but didn't.

    That, and some issues with feedback or pain from poorly autocalibrated neurohelm connections, or some idiots disabling options that weren't meant to be disabled then logging out and being hit with 12 hours of hunger. This is one reason that they instituted such harsh XP penalties for not logging out and sleeping huge XP bonuses for having your characters camp or find an inn, and logging out after playing no more than 4-6 hours a day.
     
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    Qoheleth said:
    So then... what was AWO's PvP content like? Was it like FF14, narrowly cordoned off to special zones and play modes, limited to Holy League ballgames and gladiator matches and the like? Was it closer to WoW, where there was support for players joining opposite sides of broader political rivalries and coming to blows over it? Is the spectre of "PC megagroups becoming geopolitical forces of their own" a new consequence of everyone crashing into a more lifelike Mundus, or had OWTB gone as far as dipping their toes into "EVE Online"-style large-scale/structural PvP support?
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    Well this seems pretty much like a theme park, so there's not really a way to reliably build up the infrastructure that you would need, or at least it's no probable, because the game doesn't seem to condition their players that way, with raids being more of a social activity. And with stuff like stealing and betraying there isn't such a meta-game that drives people into larger entities. Another factor is that the fact that you're essentially playing on a 2D environment also means that this many people at the same time wouldn't even be able to hit stuff while in Eve you have a 3D environment with dozens upon dozens of kilometers of range for regular doctrine ships. So N+1 isn't that big of a factor for fantasy games as it would be for space games where it's basically very easy to multibox characters because all you're doing is some clicks.

    But my question would be: Is there open world pvp that you can't fully evade if you want to get somewhere or is it like, only pvp if you really want to?
     
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    www.mundanewiki.org/sylphan
  • Media
    • Sylphan
    The Laughing Wind, The Many-Masked, Trickster-Fox Of The Roadways, The Mousehunter,
    He Who Smiles On Lost Children And Fools, Who Takes The Ill and Dying
    Child of Mutan and Inpew-Euthanatos, and Aurora by adoption
    Brother to Flamma, Thorne, Delvar and Meredar
    God of the Wind, Foxes, Speech, Travel, Dance, Insight, Deception, Messengers, Merchants, and Outcasts
    Patron of the Vulpecians


    Concept art by Rukafais​

    Sylphan the Trickster-Fox, laughing god of the winds and the Vulpecian people, asks his followers to wander and chronicle their wanderings; to shepherd the lost and the helpless and to spread joy on the wind. He attracts mendicant pilgrims, silver-tongued bards, honest merchants, eloping lovers and rapacious thieves alike to his cloud caravansary, and commands his followers to chase happiness, be flexible and cunning in the face of superior strength, to speak well and have your name in the tongues of strangers, and to keep out a weather ear for the smallest sign of trouble.
    - Character Creation Blurb

    SUMMARY:
    Sylphan is a wind god with a wide array of defensive and mobility options available to his cult, with a focus on speed and information-gathering. Gregarious in the lore, they're well suited to be either stealthy or huge, splashy distractions; either way their enhanced senses make them excellent forward scouts or skirmishers. It's difficulty to go wrong with a Sylphanite build; they will want Spirit or Agility first and foremost, but a little Vigor or Mind goes a long way, and a Resolve build can do stupid things with Tension.

    GAMEPLAY:
    Least Boon: Bright Eyes And Fluffy Tail - Grants a passive bonus to the first Rapport Check you make to anyone, and to some future rapport checks. This one is at once useless in combat and opens up incredible possibilities to get advanced equipment early - negotiations for pay are based on Rapport, and so are prices with NPC merchants. It turns out that first impressions are important! This is a strange one to adjudicate in terms of combat utility. What's not hard to tell is that it's a great way to learn gossip, find sidequests, and find unique bits of sidestory content - much like the Least Boon of Sylphan's favorite sister, Flamma.

    Useful Boons:
    As useful as it is hilarious, Lifted By The Wind gives you enough mad ups to bypass a lot of obstacles and cover and slam dunk some very surprised flyers who would otherwise require ranged attacks to deal with. Mouse-Hunting Ears makes you flat-out immune to surprise, important for scouts face-checking areas of concealment or finding traps as a Smiths or Rogue: it combos well with Quicksilver Nerves to turn the tables on your ambushers and make their surprise round their problem. Trickster's Revenge is fun when you build around it, but you will need to build around it - either by going Vigor and having a knockback/pull/slide heavy build, ideally with Throws, or by going Agi or Mind and taking Watch My Tail Carefully, and hoping your to-hit rolls aren't wasted on Feints (like you're a Ranger or something). If you want to try out stealth but don't have the Agi or Mind for it, consider instead taking Traveller's Cloak for magical invisibility and to unlock a Spirit-based Stealth skill; conversely, if you're tired of stealthy foes, take Nose of the Trickster to enable an olfactory equivalent of Spirit Sight. At higher levels, Zephyr Step is useful on it's own as a mobility tool, and also unlocks several sources of Stupid Fox Tricks: Mocking Shadow and Just The Wind let you place illusionary decoys, while Do-si-Do lets you swap places with allies or - with a bit of luck or a timely overdrive - a very surprised opponent, making it great for kiting or breaking aggro...

    Technique Considerations:
    Offensively, you'll want to make use of Trickster's Revenge to increase your DPS. If you don't go Agi or Mind to pick up Watch My Tail Carefully or another Feint, then you'll want to get a lot of Reposition to slam foes against terrain - which is, fortunately, exactly what Wind elemental damage is best at. Consider trading some offense for utility by making Sapping, Persistent, Draining or Debilitating attacks, as Trickster's Revenge adds directly to the otherwise low damage of these. If you're going melee, Vigor is great for this because it enables your Reposition attacks to also get Throw, potentially doubling your DPS. Once you level, start adding Launch to your Reposition attacks, giving a decent kiting and control option and boosting the damage while your party hammers them in mid-air.

    Because you'll want high Spirit, your support options should focus on area of effect. Boosts are hard to do as AoE's during a battle, so prepare for trouble and apply them early. Weakens can afflict a whole line of battle, and Healing techniques can do likewise; just be careful where you place them.

    DIVINE BEAST: The Twins, Reynard and Sylvia
    Two heads are better than one, and the Twins are really good at distracting you. Reynard goes on the melee attack, rushing through frontlines and keeping attention; while Sylvia acts as spellcaster, blasting with wind and fire. Both love knockback, and both have Infuriating Laugh and Persistent or Debilitating attacks, so pack cleanses. Their adds don't help either.

    They're trying to confuse and infuriate you; don't let them. Likewise, try to time things so you bring both down at once; if one is slain, the other redoubles thier effort and abandons subtlety, laying on debilitates and disables for the final blow... and it's a rare tank that can pass that DPS check.

    LORE NOTES:

    Sylphan is the Bearer of Fresh Air and the Bringer of Winds, the messenger of the gods. He's sometimes abjured, in his role as psychopomp - sometimes he's sent in the stead of his father Inpew to collect the dying, and people find it expedient to leave chicken, arancini, blood sausage, or other meat and rice bribes for him to leave their sick alone (and serve the remainder to the afflicted). This may be why he's welcomed warily by some, particularly the powerful; sometimes no news is good news, and Sylphanites know full well that sometimes tyrants shoot their messengers. But Sylphan is regarded by most as a friendly god; a bringer of good news and fresh food, leader of lost children to shelter, harrier of the wicked and hunter of vermin that others wouldn't notice. Indeed, 'mousehunting' is a popular idiom for 'troubleshooting,' and both Flamma and Sylphan are invoked as mousehunters by investigators - the fire to see by and the serendipitous wind. As Flamma is the Protector of the Barleycorn, so Sylphan is the Guardian of the Rice Paddies...

    When there is a problem that cannot be solved with strength, the gods send Sylphan to solve it with guile - with Flamma in the back pocket as the last resort, in case the granary is too full of mice to save, so to speak. Both of them are renowned for unconventional and creative solutions, and for finding ways to make the arrogant tie themselves up in their own webs of deception...

    TRIVIA:

    The Free Company Fully Automated Luxury Queer Magical Communism (FALQM) has adopted Sylphan as their mascot, as they joke that he's the patron god of "redistributing wealth," IE, stealing from the rich and powerful to give to the poor. Copycat guilds and memes include the Vulpecian Liberation Front and the Red Foxes For Sylphan. Later, lead developer Nathaniel Adams joked at "the missed opportunity to make him a truly red fox" at a panel, as he's visually based on a fennec.


    AMA is still ongoing!
     
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  • Media
    • It is I, the Ace Cryptid, here to post. I drew a reference sheet for how I designed the character! Except for the hammer. that design is new.


    edit: updates with the extra notes
     
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    Qoheleth said:
    ...and our current mess certainly seems like the kind you can't solve with strength, DARPA or no DARPA. Auspicious! :grin:
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    DARPA do seem like they're more likely to throw Flamma at it and hope it works out, yes.

    I find that most of the symbolism I include I do by accident, but the mark of a great writer is to notice when they've stumbled on a eucatastrophe.
     
    FIGHT IT OUT, part 2
  • Media
    • We will be starting up our wargame of the events of the next chapter on roll20 here in 15 minutes. Either @Aura will be there or we will have one player slot! Spectators are welcome!

    ETA: That went well, well enough to write an update tomorrow. We'll be doing it again on Monday, at 3:00 Pacific - we need only one more player, to play Sekhmet. Post if you want in!
     
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  • Media
    • With Sylphan up, I'm out of god art... right now. But I'll be getting a new bit of art and a new write-up started next month.

    So... which one would you like to see? Throwing open a minor vote. This is an approval vote.

    [] Gnomon, the primordial scribe, That Which Remembers All That Is Written
    [] Mutan, the god of the dreaming moon, They Who Reflect The Psyche
    [] Inpew-Euthanatos, the judge of the dead, He Who Weighs
    [] Ubasdjet-Hydria, goddess of midwives, The Lioness Of The Jar
    [] Delvar, the dragon of the depths, King Under The Mountain
    [] Meredar, the goddess of the sea, The Storm That Walks
    [] Jae'eun-Argentum, goddess of trade and wealth, The Silver Needle
    [] Echidna, the mother of monsters, She Who Must Be Abjured

    Voting closes on the 29th. I'd appreciate it if you explained why you picked which gods.
     
    [X] Ubasdjet-Hydria, goddess of midwives, The Lioness Of The Jar

    Morbid curiosity. Don't usually see that iconography with that pantheon.
     
    Spectrum said:
    Ubasdjet-Hydria, goddess of midwives, The Lioness Of The Jar

    Morbid curiosity. Don't usually see that iconography with that pantheon.
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    I'll give you this for free: historically, the Romans made fun of Egypt for worshipping animals (an extreme oversimplification of how the khemetic gods do things, by the way).

    Omphalos didn't have the same biases, and a history of snatching up foreign gods as suited their needs. See also: Eranda, Scherzo, Flamma, Delvar, Jae'eun and Inpew.
     
    [X] Echidna, the mother of monsters, She Who Must Be Abjured

    I'm really interested in your take on "evil" gods, monsters, ostracised deities, and potentially those who worship them.
     
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