A Simple Transaction I
- Thread starter Rihaku
- Start date
- Original
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
It has been a long time, but Page Gang still has my post, if it requires it.
Future Rihaku quests? IDK anything that gets updated fast? Maybe a less martial character this time, but that seems like a more voter-side thing. Hunger eventually branched out enough for my taste, but at the end of the day his first and best response to situations was always "stab it".
Favorite villain? I think Dien and - uh - wait a second while I looks something up - Vanrier, that was his name. They made the most memorable impacts. Augustine was really cool and I would have liked to see more of her, but she also did not have the emotional impact that the above two did. If we had spend more time in the Realm of Myth letting the Lord Protector build up before the reveal, and were more invested in that plotline, she could have been great. Procyon was terrifying but it took me a little bit to remember that that fight happened, and Sten at least makes the list, which is more then many could say.
The Maiden we haven't seen the conclusion of yet, so I'm not putting her in the running as of now.
Future Rihaku quests? IDK anything that gets updated fast? Maybe a less martial character this time, but that seems like a more voter-side thing. Hunger eventually branched out enough for my taste, but at the end of the day his first and best response to situations was always "stab it".
Favorite villain? I think Dien and - uh - wait a second while I looks something up - Vanrier, that was his name. They made the most memorable impacts. Augustine was really cool and I would have liked to see more of her, but she also did not have the emotional impact that the above two did. If we had spend more time in the Realm of Myth letting the Lord Protector build up before the reveal, and were more invested in that plotline, she could have been great. Procyon was terrifying but it took me a little bit to remember that that fight happened, and Sten at least makes the list, which is more then many could say.
The Maiden we haven't seen the conclusion of yet, so I'm not putting her in the running as of now.
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
Hazbin Hotel Quest. Play as the princess of Hell. Imagine the Antichrist if she were a Disney Princess.
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
Thinking on it some more, I have some analysis on why Vanrier and Dien specifically were so memorable to me.
The Moon Temple arc was, in a lot of ways, what defined this quest. Where Hunger found his identity. Vanrier is the defining fight of the arc. The climax of "Book One" of the quest so to speak, and in therefore very definitive of A Simple Transaction I as a whole, because so much of the quest was established in that "Book One".
In Dien's case, it's because he's the villain that lasted the longest versus Hunger, and in some ways even though he lacked the overwhelming power advantage that other fights had (Procyon), Dien felt like the antagonist that had the best chance against Hunger. Maybe because he was the smartest antagonist, the one that Age and Treachery was not effective against, because he was so much more treacherous, ruthlessly methodical, and did not allow the fight to enter Hunger's preferred domain until the very end, when he had no other choice.
Dien was the antagonist that forced Hunger to grow the most, pushing him out of his comfort zone and into becoming an Archmage, being primary a strategic-scale combatant rather then a personal-scale battering ram, and making him actually get in the robot.
His personality, which was entertaining while being morally repugnant enough that I could never root for him, is also a factor.
The Moon Temple arc was, in a lot of ways, what defined this quest. Where Hunger found his identity. Vanrier is the defining fight of the arc. The climax of "Book One" of the quest so to speak, and in therefore very definitive of A Simple Transaction I as a whole, because so much of the quest was established in that "Book One".
In Dien's case, it's because he's the villain that lasted the longest versus Hunger, and in some ways even though he lacked the overwhelming power advantage that other fights had (Procyon), Dien felt like the antagonist that had the best chance against Hunger. Maybe because he was the smartest antagonist, the one that Age and Treachery was not effective against, because he was so much more treacherous, ruthlessly methodical, and did not allow the fight to enter Hunger's preferred domain until the very end, when he had no other choice.
Dien was the antagonist that forced Hunger to grow the most, pushing him out of his comfort zone and into becoming an Archmage, being primary a strategic-scale combatant rather then a personal-scale battering ram, and making him actually get in the robot.
His personality, which was entertaining while being morally repugnant enough that I could never root for him, is also a factor.
OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
A chance to learn what some of the higher Ordinals do.
Maybe the adventures of the Indenture Armaments Pilot.
I'd also be curious how Rihaku would translate 3e/Essence Exalted into an EFBlike format.
I'm partial to the Steampunk genre.
As far as villains go, the only one I found truly daunting was the one with the most screen time: The Apocryphal Curse. Whether it was the Arete mines, or taking unnecessary risks, or literally paying to win - she was always there. She dogged our heels, taunted us, and fought back. We made a habit of underestimating her, but she made this story what it was.
The blade may have been Hunger's waifu, but Apo-chan is our girl.
As far as villains go, the only one I found truly daunting was the one with the most screen time: The Apocryphal Curse. Whether it was the Arete mines, or taking unnecessary risks, or literally paying to win - she was always there. She dogged our heels, taunted us, and fought back. We made a habit of underestimating her, but she made this story what it was.
The blade may have been Hunger's waifu, but Apo-chan is our girl.
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
I agree with everything he said.
Rihaku
The Internet
Well, the culmination of that particular arc was all from Gisena's point of view... I know one poster who would certainly contest your assessment of emotional impact for that update specifically!
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- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
Yeah, in the Double Your Pleasure AU Omake I constructed, that's how Hunger is still threatened by Augustine despite massively increased Arete reserves, the Cloak shorted out by eating the Tower.
HoratioVonBecker
Imperfectly Aligned
Augustine had potential. I wish we'd gotten a bit more of her and the Arcanist - I think I understood her backstory insofar as: "King Nilfel visited the Arcanist to see if she could do something about their existential decay problem, so she had a test-tube baby with him, then consulted her Wizard With A Baby flowchart and decided on child abuse instead of fostercare. The child grew up mad about her child abuse, killed King Nilfel about it, also killed Queen Nilfel and any other aunts or cousins for reasons, but spared her half-sister Adorie. Tried to power up enough to kill the Arcanist, got killed by Hunger and Gisena." But I think there might have been more to killing her dad than blaming his leaving genetic material with her abusive wizard mom for her childhood, and it doesn't totally explain killing the rest of the family except for Adorie. I'm guessing it was partly for pragmatic reasons? But I'd like answers.
The Arcanist would probably have been cool if we'd actually seen her.
I'd like to know more of the Hero's backstory, and particularly his clashes with the Tyrant. How did he only end up maimed? The Tyrant doesn't seem like the sort to have wasted time with torture, but maybe it was a partial workaround against the hero's phylactery-armor? The Tyrant seems like he was a cool villain, and I'd like to know a lot more about him.
Vanreir wasn't really a villain, exactly, but I did like him a lot. He made a huge impression in a small amount of time, and in terms of wordcount-to-interest efficiency, I think he beats Augustine out. His lore plothooks (what was going on with the Amaralt, or the Unerring Blade) are about as interesting as her Foremost connections.
The Republic Killteam is a group I would have really liked to see. I'm still a bit sad that we stageskipped the entire Human Sphere, but adding them to the Rotbeast situation in particular would've been fun to watch.
On purely aesthetic grounds, I'd add Groundskeeper Prelairn. Best D&D Wizard fight I've seen.
And choosing from all Rihakuquests I've read, it's Control, no contest. Zang Kong is probably second place from non-ASTI quests, but he loses to Vanreir and probably even the Killteam.
Looking at the list, I'm thinking the ones I most liked were the ones tied into the most existing plothooks. The worldbuilding around here is phenomenal, and I like villains best if they offer access to it.
- Location
- Pindorama
HoratioVonBecker
Imperfectly Aligned
I respect this opinion, but in practice I found a lot of her interventions... honestly boring. I don't vibe with pirates, the gamer jerks were awful and then irrelevant (both times), the Rotbeast situation that got voted for was hectic but not emotionally impactful, and the pay-to-win rocket tag starting with Augustine's powerup is harder to evaluate.
The one time I think the quest as an experience was clearly improved by the Apocryphal Curse was the Temple of the False Moon, and even then, only by acting as an impetus for us to go there. Having to speedrun the Inner Temple kinda wasted a lot of the buildup for that area, and skipping all the Immortals meant we still haven't seen more than like seven Soul Evocations total, most of them in no detail.
Then again, I don't know how much of that is Apocryphal's fault and how much is just the habitual nature of Rihakuquests.
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
Eh, 50-50 really. Like, this isn't that much of an outlier for R's Quests, but it's still a bit of one.
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
Sounds cool. I haven't made nearly as many as you, but I like to think Forgotten Realm was pretty popular.
I'm still a little sad nobody even made a build for my PCUG CYOA, honestly.
Aabcehmu
Confusion as a Natural State of Being
- Location
- Chicago, IL
- Pronouns
- Any/All
It always feels a bit bad when that happens, yeah, and it stings worse when you put a lot of effort and wordcount into it. For myself, it's just not a version of the setting I'm super interested in?
If you want, I'd be willing to work on something together with you sometime, after I'm done with both of Harold Smith-Stacks and the Unexpected Rendezvous and the Unsealed CYOA.
WHISPER
IS VERY TRANQUIL!
As I said before I would like a quest in the Shinza Bansho setting.
The ways people become really powerful though their desires and crawings until they literally become gods and overwrite reality in their image after fighting the former Godhead is really cool to me.
Not to mention all the insane crawings and ,otives characters have that can basically be anything.
Basically I really like how becoming powerful in the setting works and operates.
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