I Walk in Dreams -- An Esoteric Journey Quest
- Thread starter picklepikkl
- Start date
- Original Fantasy Modern
It was a privilege to have helped Warren design I Walk In Dreams and a great pleasure to see Pickle play it out in quest form. Don't let Pickle get away with being too modest about this quest, y'all - the amount of substance, characterization, and narrative cohesion that he wrote for this quest goes far beyond what was in the original game, and writing nimbly to suit the results of each vote and each card-draw was a great feat, excellently done.
In honor of the completion of this quest, I'm adding 46 free community copies of Galatea to the shop page, one for each threadmark. The sharp-eyed among you might notice that Galatea also features a reference or two to Zev ben Avram. He tends to come up when the occult is being discussed, around here.
ETA: Ash and partner had better visit the Louvre together
In honor of the completion of this quest, I'm adding 46 free community copies of Galatea to the shop page, one for each threadmark. The sharp-eyed among you might notice that Galatea also features a reference or two to Zev ben Avram. He tends to come up when the occult is being discussed, around here.
ETA: Ash and partner had better visit the Louvre together
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That was from the Three of Swords, which is now Lost (spend fighting off the Magician peril), so... It might still be around, but I suspect that mystical tie is no longer binding.
And "their", not "his".
The vulture showed up to feast on the Dream Mugger's failure when we trounced him:
Wiadi
Uncompromising Radical Leftist
- Location
- Something Clever
- Pronouns
- She/Her
An excellent finale - perhaps not the one I'd have chosen, but well-executed all the same. And to have reached a finale at all is, as others have said, quite the accomplishment. It does leave me with some lingering questions which were very understandably left unaddressed for tonal/pacing reasons though. To be clear, I'm not saying these are things which should have been covered in any way, & I think it's even arguably for the best that they weren't, but...
Like, I'd been assuming Ash would incarnate their other half more or less on the spot, but no, they're living at seemingly a residence of their own...so do they have a history of existing independently in the world? Do they actually know how they came to be? Are there other people out there who knew them now, and did those other people have their lives retroactively reshaped around this new addition? Fascinating stuff, & whatever the details, it certainly sells that the peak of the Ascent is not even remotely fucking around.
Like, I'd been assuming Ash would incarnate their other half more or less on the spot, but no, they're living at seemingly a residence of their own...so do they have a history of existing independently in the world? Do they actually know how they came to be? Are there other people out there who knew them now, and did those other people have their lives retroactively reshaped around this new addition? Fascinating stuff, & whatever the details, it certainly sells that the peak of the Ascent is not even remotely fucking around.
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
This is entirely correct. Omen vultures feast on the wreckage of significance. After you kicked the Magician's ass, his significance was pretty darn wrecked.
I tried to allude to how this would work in the update prior:
But yeah, reality retconned a legal identity and existence for them, though they know the truth. It's true that this leaves a number of niggling details dangling, but I preferred it over "they're just there when Ash wakes up" for pacing reasons, as you said.
Ash patiently waiting was very charming and it was amusing too.
To be fair cultist simulator doesn't seem to have a huge influence on mechanics and tone.
Oh don't worry, I noticed how good a job Pickle did at integrating it all together. Honestly it's impressive how smooth it is. Pickle expertly wove together not just the mechanics and narrative votes, but our discussion and intent. Even sidestepping directly describing Ash's partner for most of the end was good writing. Though I'd like more detail describing exactly what happened, it would've taken focus away from what the ending was, if that makes sense.
According to this ending Zev seems to have straight up cut themselves in half in this continuity.
Hard agree.
To be fair cultist simulator doesn't seem to have a huge influence on mechanics and tone.
Oh don't worry, I noticed how good a job Pickle did at integrating it all together. Honestly it's impressive how smooth it is. Pickle expertly wove together not just the mechanics and narrative votes, but our discussion and intent. Even sidestepping directly describing Ash's partner for most of the end was good writing. Though I'd like more detail describing exactly what happened, it would've taken focus away from what the ending was, if that makes sense.
According to this ending Zev seems to have straight up cut themselves in half in this continuity.
Hard agree.
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Winterfest is upon us! The truest observance of the holiday season is popularity contests, right?
Anyway, I Walk in Dreams is eligible for two awards -- Best Completed Quest and Best New Work -- and I would greatly appreciate you considering my little quest when putting together your nomination slates. I've gone ahead and nominated myself for Best Completed Quest because I feel like the primary virtue of I Walk In Dreams is that I finished it, but if you feel strongly I certainly won't stop you from nominating it for Best New Work.
(It's sorta kinda also eligible for Best Original Work but I will make a face if you nominate me for that because it's not my original work, it's my friend's, and I feel that's kind of against the spirit of the thing.)
As a bribe, if we score a nomination, I will share the rest of the Tarot spread which marked the beginning of this quest which it occurs to me I never actually told in this thread. If you think I wrote a good story, then surely you must want another story, right?
Anyway, I Walk in Dreams is eligible for two awards -- Best Completed Quest and Best New Work -- and I would greatly appreciate you considering my little quest when putting together your nomination slates. I've gone ahead and nominated myself for Best Completed Quest because I feel like the primary virtue of I Walk In Dreams is that I finished it, but if you feel strongly I certainly won't stop you from nominating it for Best New Work.
(It's sorta kinda also eligible for Best Original Work but I will make a face if you nominate me for that because it's not my original work, it's my friend's, and I feel that's kind of against the spirit of the thing.)
As a bribe, if we score a nomination, I will share the rest of the Tarot spread which marked the beginning of this quest which it occurs to me I never actually told in this thread. If you think I wrote a good story, then surely you must want another story, right?
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
This is a reminder that nominations close in three days! So if you saw the nominations open, thought "oh yeah, I'll get to it at some point," and still want to take part in the nomination process, you can go to the Winterfest forum and cast your vote in one of the threads. Currently I Walk In Dreams is fighting for a nomination in the Best Completed Quest category, but Best Ongoing Quest, Best Ongoing Fic, and Best Original Work are extremely tight races, so if you have opinions about any of those categories, now is the time to exercise your franchise and register them.
- Location
- Seattle
That is a hell of a phrase. I'm going to use that when I tell people to make choices from here on out
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