Ask the mongoose! Thimacek Q&A

[Thimacek]

Hi everyone! Hoped to get this posted earlier but apparently a flu (or covid - finding that out with an antigen test in an hour or so) decided it was now time to hit me yesterday, and my energy has suddenly got much lower :p But better late than never!

As you (or most of you) know, this was my first attempt at AGMing a forum game. And I couldn't ask for a better GM team to learn from! As Boogie said, I had some issues before the game started. More specifically - depression hit me like a freight train between late January and March, and as a result I dropped the ball on some prep work I had been working on and hoping to get ready. I managed to catch up with at least part of that in the last week before the game's start... which is definitely not something I wish to see happen in next games, as it was a burden both for me (finishing a number of prep things in the last minute and all) and for Boogie and Tassu, who suddenly had new things to deal with as character sheets started coming up.

I certainly hope that doesn't happen again, and I've learned a fair bit from that!

But on the good side - once the game started, I feel it actually even helped me bounce back from how I was feeling. Not that it was easy work, but there was loads of fun involved, and I feel the game flowed more or less smoothly

Again, my warmest thanks for Tassu and Boogie for inviting me to be a part of this game! And my thanks to our players as well - there were some curve balls here and there, but it's been a blast seeing the stories of the PCs play out on the World of Dreams!

Other than dealing with backend and maths stuff, I have been in charge of Soshi Kioku and her plot involving the GeneBioTech lab + the samples there, as well as most things related to the Tsukune Sanctuary (including the D9 event there). Dealt with some other things here and there too (including a certain Iuchi ), but these were the main things.

One surprise I'll add here already is I expected more people to go after Spine Drake pets after the game started! There were some ways planned to have that happen, but in the end only one PC made their way to one - and not exactly in the way originally planed. That was a surprise! But that also means I had a greater bandwidth for dealing with other things, so not a bad thing

With all that said - shoot!

[Dai]

Great job! Fingers crossed on the test - try not to join our ranks of the plaguetouched.

[Thimacek]

Great job! Fingers crossed on the test - try not to join our ranks of the plaguetouched.

I'm glad you enjoyed! Dai's close relationship with the Desolation ended up making him an important part of Kioku's plot - and a very interesting one at that!

And yeah... definitely hoping it's not the plague, but we'll see!

[Usagi Rei]

Thank you for all the work you put into the game! I could definitely see your behind-the-scenes efforts!

Tell us about the event you designed! What sort of processes went into it? What were your overall goals, and how did the design work towards those? Basically, it was creative, and I love hearing about how those things work!

[Hotaru Sakura]

You did a great job, and I'm so glad you managed to bounce back enough to AGM here, I think everyone really enjoyed it all!

I am glad Sakura connected wit Kioku on some level, kinda sad I didn't have the bandwidth to have more pure RP threads sadly, but hey, at least a hug passed between them

I really liked the sample retrieval mission, I think it was well done, and teh samples themselves were pretty cool rewards!

Can I ask for a breakdown of each sample, what they gave and what kind of animals could be retrieved?

[Boogiepop]

Thank you very much for all of the hard work you've been able to put into the game! I keep making mention of it and you really deserve praise for what you've done both in the backend and your story contributions! Shadow War would have been very much a different game if you weren't around to help us and only because of you, we've been able to work so efficiently. Honestly, what you've done had me blinking in amazement!

Were there some things you've discovered or learned as the game ran that you would like to share with us? Any moments that you would consider the highlight of your work?

[Kuni Koyuki]

I need you to know, that while Koyuki definitely knows she can't be a good pet mom. Our scene with her meeting that one who took a liking to her very much had me trying to figure out how to make it make sense cause it was SO PRECIOUS.

Also, importantly, thank you for all your amazing back end work. You're an absolute star

[Thimacek]

Thank you for all the work you put into the game! I could definitely see your behind-the-scenes efforts!

Tell us about the event you designed! What sort of processes went into it? What were your overall goals, and how did the design work towards those? Basically, it was creative, and I love hearing about how those things work!

You're all too kind! <3

The event... I guess there were a few steps to its design - and unsurprisingly, it had quite a few flaws.

The basic idea was 'a side event at the sanctuary'. I was still doing parts of the sanctuary writeup when I started thinking about it, which made me go back and forth on quite a few things - and both finishing the sanctuary writeup and the event (and some parts of the scenes for Kioku's plot!) was something I dropped the ball on when depression tackled me in January.

At some point I'd finished most of the ideas for the Sanctuary, as well as some of the animals I wanted to be around, and after some research I wanted to do a "Night walk" of sorts. Now for me that meant walking in the dark and interacting with the wildlife while it's more active had to be a part of it! But at the same time, I thought a 'festival' feel would be nice. And then Tassu had sent me a message mentioning 'Ecotheology' and how that might be a good motivation for the event - which, considering the Sanctuary is named after a Fortune, was actually perfect!

Mixing all these elements and shaking the whole thing led me to the idea of 'smaller events hidden away in a mostly silent and dark sanctuary' - which I also thought would tie in nicely with the feel of a Scorpion world. Not sure if that was noticed, but the idea was there

After the whole thing was finally written down - which took much longer than I'd hoped, depression and all - there was the final part with designing mechanics. As I've mentioned on discord, I tend to like mini-games, and I definitely got a bit carried away there. So after my first draft, with Boogie and Tassu's help (despite character sheets having already started to come in!) I kept rewriting tids and bits and simplifying parts of it. The end result was STILL roll-heavy - as Boogie had said, I could have had some of the sub-events be full events in their own right, which would also allow me to keep more of their original spirit.

As some of you may have noticed, the mechanics played around with some different uses of Raises, alternative Skill/ Trait choices and having results not depend only on Raises. The whole thing ended up somewhat awkward, but I think some of the ideas worked out fine, and I'd like to play around with some of these concepts more in the future if I can

Which leads me to something - I'll post it in your Q&A!

[Usagi Rei]

Wonderful, thank you!

[Thimacek]

You did a great job, and I'm so glad you managed to bounce back enough to AGM here, I think everyone really enjoyed it all!

I am glad Sakura connected wit Kioku on some level, kinda sad I didn't have the bandwidth to have more pure RP threads sadly, but hey, at least a hug passed between them

I really liked the sample retrieval mission, I think it was well done, and teh samples themselves were pretty cool rewards!

Can I ask for a breakdown of each sample, what they gave and what kind of animals could be retrieved?

Again, you're all too kind! <3 <3

Sakura's connection with Kioku was not entirely expected, but it ended up being really interesting! I'm glad you liked the sample retrieval mission - I was a bit concern about whether the Time Steps + random things popping up + fear creeping up would work, but I think it kinda did?

A breakdown of the samples - ok!

There were only four that you could actually get back in that mission. One was the Rainbow Olm sample itself, which was the plot-specific one. Then I had originally included two other samples PCs might find depending on their actions - Oborozuki Dragon Newt (which both Sumiko and Dai ended up with a copy of) and Benikurage Jellyfish (which Yesugen got a copy of).

The Deepblack silk sample was actually not in my original writeup, and got included after Sakura's interest in the textile found in a lab close by That rumour was mostly a cue to "there may be some things intact in labs previously thought destroyed in the Desolation", leading Kioku to organising an expedition... but with the sudden interest in the textile itself, I decided to include more on that in the mission, and I think it was the right call!

Two of the other species some of you found mentions of during the lab expedition (“long-legged fire-maned dog” and “blue-fire raven”, specifically) were nods to the two smaller Gaki that showed up with the Abomination in the D11 fight, and attempts to find samples of them during the mission would lead to destroyed/ ruined samples. There *might* be a way to restore them later, though! (Dai's working on finding more samples as his endgame goal, after all!)

A quick breakdown of the three samples you could find:

• Oborozuki Dragon Newt Sample -
  • After studying and cleaning this sample, you (or someone else) can create a Dragon Newt Disruptor by rolling a TN 30 Engineering (Biotechnology)/ Intelligence or a TN 35 Lore: Biology (Genetics)/ Intelligence check. This item allows the user to use the effect of the spell Disrupt the Aura (Fire ML2) once per session, as a complex action, without rolling and without using a spell slot. Creating this item consumes the sample.
  • You may instead use the sample to attempt to recreate the species, which seems to be extinct. This needs a cumulative Lore: Biology TN 80, with each roll needing a time slot (in a thread or off-screen). You can do a maximum of 3 such rolls per day. This would probably be very well-received by the Sanctuary (and possibly Kioku, who might collaborate on the task).
  • You could try to sell the sample instead. If you're planning on do that, roll Commerce/ Intelligence to assess what value it might be sold for in the black market.
• Benikurage Jellyfish Sample -
  • After studying and cleaning this sample, you (or someone else) can create a Benikurage Patch by rolling a TN 25 Engineering (Biotechnology)/ Intelligence or a TN 30 Lore: Biology (Genetics)/ Intelligence check. This item allows the user to use the effect of the spell Path to Inner Peace (Water ML1) once per session, as a Complex action, without using a spell slot and rolling 4k3. Creating this item consumes the sample.
  • You may instead use the sample to attempt to recreate the species, which seems to be extinct. This needs a cumulative Lore: Biology TN 80, with each roll needing a time slot (in a thread or off-screen). You can do a maximum of 3 such rolls per day. This would probably be very well-received by the Sanctuary (and possibly Kioku, who might collaborate on the task).
  • You could try to sell the sample instead. If you're planning on do that, roll Commerce/ Intelligence to assess what value it might be sold for in the black market.
• Mixed sample of Ink-black Silkmoths, Duskmoths, Darkleather Bats and Blacksilk spiders -
  • After studying and cleaning this sample, you (or someone else) can create a set of Deepblack Silk Clothing by rolling TN 25 Engineering (Biotechnology), TN 30 Lore: Biology (Genetics) or TN 25 Artisan: Fashion design, tailoring or similar. A Deepblack Silk Clothing may be either Stylish or Stealthy. If Stylish, it grants a +2 bonus to Etiquette rolls; if Stealthy, it grants a +2 bonus to Stealth rolls instead. Creating this item consumes the sample.
  • Recreating species with this sample is not possible, or at least not possible within the game, as this is a mixed sample.
  • You could try to sell the sample instead. If you're planning on do that, roll Commerce/ Intelligence to assess what value it might be sold for in the black market.

[Thimacek]

Thank you very much for all of the hard work you've been able to put into the game! I keep making mention of it and you really deserve praise for what you've done both in the backend and your story contributions! Shadow War would have been very much a different game if you weren't around to help us and only because of you, we've been able to work so efficiently. Honestly, what you've done had me blinking in amazement!

Were there some things you've discovered or learned as the game ran that you would like to share with us? Any moments that you would consider the highlight of your work?

Boogie! <3 Thank you for the invitation to be part of this wonderful game and GM team, and for putting up with my last-minute questions before game start! I'm really happy I've managed to contribute, and I can say I've learned a whole lot about GMing from you and Tassu, on multiple levels!

Things I've discovered or learned.... god, there's just so much!

One thing, that Tassu mentioned early on and is still a very important lesson learned, is - the more you have ready in advance, the less you'll freak out later. Some things WILL need to be winged or pulled out of a hat even so, but the more you have things in place to use as a foundation for that, the better!

As I said above, I fucked up a bit with early prepping for quite a few things, even if Kioku's general plot had been ready for a while. But that rush before the game start managed to keep things more manageable, and again, my thanks to you and Tassu for putting up with it!

Other things... well, writing the D9 event and tweaking it and seeing it still have a few obvious holes was an important learning point too. I hope to take these lessons to heart when designing events for future games!

I've said this before already, but seeing your and Tassu's work in a number of things was always VERY enlightening too. Descriptions, playing NPCs, prodding plots along, events (have I said I LOVE your events, Boogie? I do! Tassu's too, especially their flavour! But I must say a big fan of your events since my first encounter with them in Banner 3!), all of that was a very rewarding learning experience!

And... I guess one more thing. I had hoped to create that monstrous Google Sheets document to manage the game at least a month before the game started. As things were, I was setting it up during D1, which was non-ideal. But gosh am I glad I did. It made keeping track of points, events, honour, glory and everything else MUCH easier - not *easy*, necessarily, but much easier to manage. I guess 'weaponised OCD' (as Tassu put it XD) is really a thing!

As for highlights of my work... I get the feeling I should let others answer that? XD

Personally, I liked how the mission to the Soshi GeneTechBio lab worked out. I'm not 100% certain I managed to evoke the feelings I wanted to evoke there - I'll have to let others answer that - but I think it worked out nicely

The D11 fight was also interesting, but with RL getting in the way a bit, everyone probably a tad tired and BAD GM rolls it may have been a bit less frightening than I'd hoped XD

[Thimacek]

I need you to know, that while Koyuki definitely knows she can't be a good pet mom. Our scene with her meeting that one who took a liking to her very much had me trying to figure out how to make it make sense cause it was SO PRECIOUS.

Also, importantly, thank you for all your amazing back end work. You're an absolute star

Aaaawn <3 <3 <3 You're precious, Mei! I really liked that scene with Koyuki, even if it progressed a tad too slowly! I had the impression Koyuki wouldn't be the best pet mom out there, but it was still interesting and fun to see her opening up a bit to the little critter

Koyuki was generally a very interesting character to read - I've still got to catch up with some of her threads, but what I've read I've enjoyed greatly! Thanks so much for being part of the game!

[Susumu Yakumo]

Thanks so much for being an awesome addition to the GM Team, and for putting up with us crazy players (now you know how truly crazy it is!). <3

[Hotaru Tsuyo]

Thanks for all the work. I know how much handling the bookkeeping in back can mean for a game.

Personally, I liked how the mission to the Soshi GeneTechBio lab worked out. I'm not 100% certain I managed to evoke the feelings I wanted to evoke there - I'll have to let others answer that - but I think it worked out nicely

As a spectator, at least, I was definitely getting the vibe. All the visuals were really nicely done.

My GM questions this game:

Favorite plot? Including any details you wan to share that didn't get out (maybe this was covered above)
Favorite NPC, yours or others'?

And I hope you rest up and get well soon!

[edited to add] Wish I'd worked up a scene with someone to have chat with Ume to see what voice he'd have ended up with. The Drake chats were really fun to read.

[Mirumoto Shigure]

I just want to thank you for not leaving me alone. I felt very lonely in this game. It was sad. Thank you again for the scenes.

[Asahina Hinata]

Enjoy the list of new creatures I made up for you this game!

I expect the stilt legged, egg laying, wading, mammal Blue Flamingo will be a highlight, neh?

[Kitsune Kiyoshi]

You did an amazing job.

I enjoyed everything with Kioku and the sanctuary and only wish I had pursued interest in the drakes a bit earlier.

[Susumu Sumiko]

Just wanted to say you did a fantastic job - I loved being part of the plots and hope you enjoyed the game as much as I've enjoyed it!

I wanted to get a drake pet but RL then got in the way

[Utaku Yesugen]

Thank you for holding my hand so much through your plot line! I enjoyed it even if I was sparse. As i've said before, any ghosting you did for Yesugen was perfectly in-character!

I am curious though: did Kioku know how weird Yesugen saw her? Did she just suck it up and accept that Yesugen was a good candidate for helping her? Was she so in grief that she didn't notice? Or was this all part of some circuitous keikaku?

[Thimacek]

Covid's got me down for the past few days, but I swear I"ll get back here and give you some more answers!

<3