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I'd like to become a professional writer in the next decade.

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Less than videogames.

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I am a professional writer.

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Total Members Voted: 24

Voting closed: April 23, 2012, 11:42:36 pm

[Deon]

May I ask a help of native english writers with common sense here? I need dialogues for NPC for Fallout: New Vegas mod, but I am afraid that if I write them myself, they will sound silly and not fitting to the characters.

Current mini-request:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Buck Steak, a 58 y.o. butcher-merchant in Freeside, outer part of post-apocalyptic New Vegas. People there are poor, so they mostly smuggle drugs, rob travellers and sell their bodies. Well, and eat rats if there's no work. However Buck (which is not his real name, he just took a shop with a big sign "Buck's Steak House" so he changed his name to attract more attention and make it popular) tries to earn honest money, selling meat, steaks and a bit of alcohol. However his work was not rewarding, he barely earned any bottlecaps until he found (somewhere, this is a space for your speculation) a strange recipe, and now his steak house is very popular due to his very tasty steaks. He tells his secret to nobody, because it's his "special dish". However the "secret" recipe has human and ghoul flesh in it, and in future there will be a quest (starting with bring this and that jobs) which will allow you to learn it and either kill him or side with him (easier if you have "cannibalism" perk).

This man often smiles, he's very friendly and happy to help you. However in his mind he's a crazy old man already: he looks at each person without a weapon as at a piece of meat, weights him in his mind and counts how many steaks could he make out of the said person... So sometimes his attitude in dialogues is TOO friendly, which is a side effect of his mental illness. He thinks that he kills weak to feed strong. Although in many cases nowadays he buys his meat from "special sources", he's too good at business now to do the dirty job.

It's the character. I need someone to write greeting/farewell and trading dialogue, knowing these aspects. Also I would love if someone started to work on a quest side of dialogue, so please contact me!

[Little]

@Little: Uhm. So, how many people were there? I made out only two distinct - a nerd and a dick... And I guess this idea never works other than a gag. Really confusing. I'm half tempted to drop outlining and foruming to do this prompt myself in hope that I'm a messiah of untagged dialogue... Anyway, I got really interested in your creative process while you were doing this prompt, if you could share.

Three. The guy organizing it, the dick, and the nerd. The creative process behind this was that this basically happened yesterday. 

[Supermikhail]

@Talanic: Erhm. The prototype is a sort of dimensional device, although even the scientists that have developed it, aren't much aware of it. Oh, and, not literally LHC, because I believe it to be more realistic for some historical event to have been different, so there might not even be the LHC, or it might be called differently. I was actually sort of joking when I talked about it first. But I still haven't decided on a specific historical event.

Addendum: Nice new chapter. And ass-kicking nicely handled.

@Deon:  I hoped you'd keep the secret recipe secret.

Anyway, does this merchant have a face? I feel a face could make the process easier... Oh, wait, I'm not a native English speaker. However, I think this request is worthy of making it a sort of contest in this thread, so many people could give it a go.

Actually, how about, "Hello, stranger. What can I have... of you?" Although, to top my non-nativity, I haven't played Fallout 3, so I'll have to look it up, but I suspect greetings are similar to Oblivion's.

@Little: I'm afraid to ask which... I'm afraid to ask.

[Deon]

Here's the face:

[lordnincompoop]

And Deon, I suggest that the NPC not tell the player directly. Instead, we could set up the player to walk in on him cutting up peepul or something.

[Fikes]

@ Deon. Greeting: Well hello there traveler! It’s always nice to see a new face. My guess is that you aren’t here for the company, so what can I get for ya?

Farewell: Believe me, the pleasure was all mine. Make sure to come back soon, the freshest meat doesn’t last long in this shop...

[Supermikhail]

And Deon, I suggest that the NPC not tell the player directly. Instead, we could set up the player to walk in on him cutting up peepul or something.

Well, I'm opposed to that. Terrible, frightening, and gross moments need some suspenseful calm beforehand. Showing his cutting people right away would detract from the impact, and also, walk in on him where? He sure wouldn't cut his meat up in his backyard, if he's a professional.

Well, as I said, I'm not a native English speaker, but

"Hello there, Jimmy. (Just because I think he would address strange folks like that) What can I do for ya today? What would you say to our special - Buck's Fatman? (suppose we agree) You're new here, aren't you? Well, I'm Buck and I serve the best steak in the city. And you are? (introduce ourselves) [prot_name], you're a healthy specimen, if you don't mind my saying so."

[Deon]

Supermikhail: your line is quite long, so it would be good for the first time, and then we will beed something like Fikes suggested. I don't like a "healthy specimen" phrase though, he's supposed to be polite and pleasant, not some kind of a mad scientist .

I really love Fikes' farewell message, I am going to use it in my next alpha release ASAP.

Also there will be a chance to see his "dark deeds"... not him cutting people (as I said there're others now who do it) but rather find a stock of human flesh in his safe place if you have a high lockpick skill, or you could see his "worker" cutting a recently killed man and interrogate him to learn about this business. Fallout is all about different ways to get/solve a quest, so I will try to make it as much non-linear as possible.

Also in the alpha03 I've added Iguana John who is supposed to be a street merchant selling iguana bits and iguana-on-sticks. I wrote a few phrases for him with some weird catchphrases (intentional), but I would love to make him to tell some stories (obviously from a strange point of view, as an iguana-lover) because he's supposed to be a son of Iguana Bob from Fallout 2, so he obviously saw a lot on his travels, because he went that far.

P.S. For your help I can make you (Supermikhail and Fikes) into two supermutant brothers (2nd gen supermutants) whom I plan to add at some point (Fikes and Mikhail, hehe, sounds fine for supermutants).

[lordnincompoop]

And Deon, I suggest that the NPC not tell the player directly. Instead, we could set up the player to walk in on him cutting up peepul or something.

Well, I'm opposed to that. Terrible, frightening, and gross moments need some suspenseful calm beforehand. Showing his cutting people right away would detract from the impact, and also, walk in on him where? He sure wouldn't cut his meat up in his backyard, if he's a professional.

Well, as I said, I'm not a native English speaker, but

"Hello there, Jimmy. (Just because I think he would address strange folks like that) What can I do for ya today? What would you say to our special - Buck's Fatman? (suppose we agree) You're new here, aren't you? Well, I'm Buck and I serve the best steak in the city. And you are? (introduce ourselves) [prot_name], you're a healthy specimen, if you don't mind my saying so."

Arrite. You're better at this than me, so I'll follow your advice.

[Deon]

So as I said, you need special requirement to allow him to tell you (cannibal perk, or some very high skill-level check) so it won't be easy and in most cases impossible to learn from him, so you both are right.

Here's the look of Iguana John (his headpeace is not black, it's just weird lighting in the editor, it has the same color as his clothes in the game):

[lordnincompoop]

Who?

[Deon]

What do you mean by "who"?

[lordnincompoop]

What do you mean by "who"?

Who is he?

Sorry if I'm being ignorant.

[Deon]

Also in the alpha03 I've added Iguana John who is supposed to be a street merchant selling iguana bits and iguana-on-sticks. I wrote a few phrases for him with some weird catchphrases (intentional), but I would love to make him to tell some stories (obviously from a strange point of view, as an iguana-lover) because he's supposed to be a son of Iguana Bob from Fallout 2, so he obviously saw a lot on his travels, because he went that far.

Just read a post above .

[Fikes]

@Deon: I think a fun way to take Buck would be he plays up the "I really like people, but I hate ghouls so much I have a bounty on them. Let me teach you how retrieve the part of the ghoul I need to “prove” you killed it.” It would, of course, be the tastiest bits. His “hate” could be so prolific people around town talk about it.

After a while of doing that he can start to trust the player and maybe ask for an investment to improve his shop, making you his partner. It could be a way for a good player to learn his dark secret.

For Iguana John, I kind of imagine a mid-west good old boy tone. The type of old timey sales man that asks your name and the repeats it 50 times in the first conversation so he remembers it. I know the voice acting can’t record it, but I assume you could put it in the text dialog. Here is his greeting.: Welcome to my establishment! Not much to look at, I know, but I’ll fill your belly cheaper than old buck over there.  What’s yer name stranger, and what can I getcha?

Farewell: Come back any time <playername>, any time. You’re always welcome here <playername>