Previous -- Home. . . Is this really a "game update?" I dunno. Might as well use that same navigation header, though, so it looks "official."
This RTD RPG has run for 1 1/2 years and 206 updates. According to Imgur, there are 190 play maps, wherein you have explored 9 revisitable underground locations (of course there are more) and 4 "civilized" locations (of course there are more). You have killed 171 enemies and I just have no idea how many tiles you've mined and minerals you've sold, but you have encountered a little more than half of my bestiary and mineral-iary. By my measure, you've definitely earned the bronze user lookup badges, and probably silver. (Gold is for if we managed to catch up to the really long-running forum games.)
I had fun. Did you have fun? Because that was important.
And now some thank-yous and what-would-have-beens. In order of appearance, to you I say:
Dustan (Dustan Hache): Ah, the group doctor. I had no idea you'd live this long. Do you think you would have gone back on the waitlist if you'd died? Certainly, since medical powers turned out to get more use than others, I expect that other gamers would have taken up the medical role if you bowed out. Then again, since we never saw any claim medicine on the waitlist, maybe you frightened them.
Frank (Coolrune206): Ah, the group lunatic. Don't know how you lived so long in your first iteration; and I must thank you for trying absurdities including stabbing other players and crafting . . . uh . . . crafts. I'm glad you came back for a second run. I think.
John (ziizo): How is it that an alleged chicken thief became the motive force behind so many of my adventure/plot developments? You were about to do it again, you know; the "one scene further" to which I alluded above. Remember the handful of cavereed seeds you gathered? You were told that the Hlaf family might buy it off of you. And you know how the families of Rock Bottom have been key to many of my adventures, so yes indeed, your casual idea to make some money was about to open another avenue of plot and information. I may discuss that sometime.
Lazlowe (Shadowclaw777): The first to die! Thank you for your helpful demonstration of my yes-you-can-kill-your-friends-with-a-bad-roll system. I'd been waiting to get the group back to the region of the underground where you died, but apparently this never happened. Also, though you declined to go back on the waitlist, one day I would have hoped to ask all lost players like you to come back and contribute a bit. Again, I may discuss that sometime.
Sir Lootington (TankKit): Blacksmith! I definitely wanted to see more come of your characters. I mean that both in terms of your alarming intentions for the team and in terms of your profession. We'd just gotten to the point where the direct worship of mystic minerals was coming to the forefront, and I'd have liked it if someone who knew how to work the stuff saw more activity. Ah, well.
Durenadal (HugeNerdAndProudOfIt): Your character was an interesting one. I already knew that I needed to accommodate medieval brewing in this world, but with you as a brewer it encouraged me to go and learn more stuff promptly. In the end, the story was cut a little short, but you too would have been someone to start on the adventure thread I mentioned for
John; in your case, your contacts with the Aegir family would have initiated it. They compete with Hlaf in running the eating and drinking establishments.
Helmacon (Helmacon): Thanks for demonstrating that players will try to abuse any system, anywhere. I keep being reminded of your flying leap out of the scaffold to steal goodies from the prospector we later came to know as Elena. I don't know whether people drew the connection there, but I was trying to form connected threads with familiar faces, and your criminal actions gave more life and motivation to later interactions with the prospectors and town guard. How thoughtful of you.
Overseer (FallacyofUrist): Well, well, well. By asking to open up the world of meditation, you opened a new avenue of investigation into the world I'd set up here. Yes indeed, there was something waiting; it just was going to take more time than you had in order to explore it all. It was going to take most of the game.
Alyssa Alpine (Rautherdir): How have you managed to get this far without establishing your character's gender? How? That letter "a" at the end, you know, automatically triggers the "female character name" stereotype. But you never said anything, so I've watched players engage in linguistic leaps to avoid stating a gender for you. Fine work.
Dwain (Starver): Ha ha! Such secrets we have, don't we? The other players wouldn't know that you and I have been holding exchanges over private messages for awhile. They have been very entertaining. In general, I'd like to encourage players to spend more time talking about "what's
really going on here?" in the game, but the format doesn't encourage that. Still, I had a plan to encourage it more explicitly once we got into the next big adventure.
Ragnarok /
Ragnarek (PaPaj): Clever character! I got the impression you were displeased to have died so quickly, but I did try to give you a complete gaming experience. I particularly appreciated the fact that someone
other than
Dustan got a player kill; I would gladly have had you back on the waitlist.
Sir Looty (TankKit): You again? Speaking of player kills. But though your character was shortlived, the disruption itself was appreciated. And then I was able to cycle the waitlist more quickly! Woo!
Gary (Coolrune206): And so does one lunatic owe another lunatic for getting cycled back into the game. It seemed like you were trying to become more . . .
coherent for this time, but your recent efforts to turn raw flesh into clothing implies we were going to be in for another ride. You wacky character.
Bob (magmaholic): The fact that you had a proper crafting talent was great from a gameplay perspective, as now we had more chances to use the crafting mechanic. And, as with blacksmith characters, I could imagine that your character would have more to do now that the worship of minerals has come to the forefront.
Louis (dustywayfarer): And you finally, finally, took Elena up on the offer to pitch a wheelbarrow through open space at a living human being! Ah, the complete experience. There was to be more to come with the prospectors, of course; has it occurred to any of the players to
leave Rock Bottom along the floor of the sinkhole? Anyone? That's where the prospectors are, after all.
Tohil (randomgenericusername): Lastly, though it seems like I needed more thorough game mechanics to meet your expectations, it looks like you were having fun. I thank you for purchasing expensive equipment. The Salt the Earth adventure was supposed to earn you lots of cash so you could do even more. If I get the time, naturally, I will be glad to share what other interesting magical items were waiting for discovery.
. . . And I say "thank you" to everybody who jumped on the waitlist. Sorry I couldn't kill 'em fast enough for you! I hope you enjoyed the show.
If there's anything I forgot I was going to do in this update, and, uh, somehow you people know what it is, go ahead and remind me. I'll have a few days before my move. Afterwards, hopefully, one day I can post my unused material; perhaps get general group voting on what you would have done. And I have ideas for another lighter-intensity game sometime in the future, in addition to other time-heavy stuff. Not knowing my career trajectory right now, anything's possible!
Any recommendations for other games I could be reading right now?
Author
Topic: Magical ASCII Mine-diving Adventure, Day 20 - At Rest (Read 238895 times)