A Boy And His Star...

A quick doodle of Princess Hereford, of the Bear Fairies.  Don't ask,

And, finally, here's a Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine Doodle I did.

  An Octopus Singer, a Fortitude Rat, a few Octopus sketches, and a Horizon Ghost (the ghost I am the least happy with....).  

"An Unreliable Narrative" - A Prototype Welcome to Night Vale Quest Set for Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine (Part 3)

Storyteller 2:

Making Yourself Heard

15 or 25 XP Quest

It’s time to say something.  You can’t just dispassionately watch and report, you have to say something.  You have to become involved.

You’ve still got a job to do, but part of that job is now about reacting to events as they unfold.  You’ve just been observing, but even observing is affecting, and its time to consider whether you’re willing to just sit on the sidelines any longer.

After all.  People are counting on you.

✿ Making Yourself Heard (25 XP)

Major Goals

The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

You speak truth to power, revealing something that those above you would rather you not reveal.

You publicly call out a foe or rival

You overcome something that keeps you from speaking aloud

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.

Quest Flavor

1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:

✿ receive a compliment for a job well done

✿ align yourself with something weird, dangerous, or wicked

✿ warn of an impending doom

✿✿ relate your own past or situation to present events

✿✿ engage in a debate or argument

✿✿ say or do something you know will get you in trouble

✿ Making Yourself Heard (Simplified) (15 XP)

Major Goals

The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

You speak truth to power, revealing something that those above you would rather you not reveal.

You overcome something that keeps you from speaking aloud

You can earn one of these bonuses, for a total of up to 5 XP.

Quest Flavor

1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:

✿✿ show support for something weird, dangerous, or wicked

✿ experience a flashback about current events

✿ experience a presentiment of doom

✿✿ stick your nose where it doesn’t belong

✿✿ clash directly with an authority figure

✿ take action even though you know it’s probably a bad idea

Storyteller 3:

A Part of the Story

20 or 30 XP Quest

Now you’ve done it.  You went too far.  You’re no longer on the outside looking in.

Now you’re in the middle of it.  And backing away with your hands up isn’t going to get you out of this jam.  You’re going to have to actually do something here, you’re going to have to step from behind the microphone, even if its just for a few minutes.

✿ A Part of the Story (30 XP)

Major Goals

The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

You get last minute help from a friend or enemy

You are attacked in somewhere that you previously felt safe

You travel through a portal, dream gateway, or other liminal path away from the regular world

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.

Quest Flavor

1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:

✿ admit that you’ve been hasty

✿ propose a theory about the hidden truths begin events

✿✿ suggest a course of action to solve whatever issues are occurring

✿ are injured (or at least disheveled)

✿✿ give advice to a friend that gets them into trouble

✿ attempt to hide from events

✿ A Part of the Story (Simplified) (20 XP)

Major Goals

The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

You lose a friend because of advice that you gave them which turned out to be bad

You are attacked in somewhere that you previously felt safe

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 10 XP.

Quest Flavor

1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:

✿ are injured (or at least dishevelled)

✿✿ suggest a course of action to solve whatever issues are occurring

✿✿ try to form an alliance with someone you’ve previously counted as an enemy

✿ attempt to hide from events

✿ refuse to admit that you’ve been hasty

And that’s it!  Arc complete!  You’ve stood behind your microphone, hidden behind your microphone, and then come out from behind your microphone!

What’s that?  The story’s not over yet?  There’s still a big emotional finale?  Alright.. well, we’ll, once more, finish that later.

Why do I do this?  There's no particular reason....

The most intriguing part? We ALREADY have a Best Friend! Who IS this guy?

Over on RPG.net, I’m in a PbP game of the Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine (an RPG by jennamoran) campaign Glass Maker’s Dragon (I play Natalie Coutourier, the Vampire Prodigy) [You’ll need to have an RPG.net account to click that link].

The game is being HGed by the...

Journey to the Outside - Characters

Prepare to go on a great quest to the ends of Creation and well, well beyond. Before you know what to pack for such a quest, though, you need to figure out just who you are! So, are you...

❀ The Light Seeker, Tripp Tanaka, if you want

✶ to be the sort of person who tends to fall headfirst into trouble

✶ to make friends out of enemies

✶ to be sort of naive and embarrassing

✶ to have a mission to find a great treasure

(or are you the Rider girl variant, Susan Numidia, instead?)

❀ The Peerless Spirit, Sonya Hou, if you want

✶ to be an impossibly skilled nature god

✶ to be a reluctant hero and a bit of a jerk

✶ to climb a ladder to heaven and face what doth dwell therein

(or are you the cyborg variant, SWk-2456, instead?)

❀ The Vice Magus, Roderick Titov, if you want

✶ to be something of a comic relief

✶ to use weird and scary magic to get what you want

✶ to decide the fate of whole worlds despite being wildly unqualified

(or are you the girl variant, Zoey Titova, instead? Or maybe you're Colbrand, the False Light?)

❀ The Granite Knight, Oboliu Waite, if you want

✶ to be steadfast even in the face of terrible things

✶ to labor under a terrible enchantment

✶ to get things done when your companions are always faffing about

✶ to be asked to sacrifice your life to remove a great darkness from the world

(or are you the boy variant, Dace Lillimut, instead?)

❀ The Servant Prince, Julian Lungren, if you want

✶ to change into a bunch of shapes but especially an enormous dragon!

✶ to quest to regain your honor and impress your family

✶ to put someone else's needs before your own

✶ I did mention becoming a dragon, right?

(or are you the girl variant, Yurian Lopez, instead?)

Or come and be . . .

❀ The HG, or "Hollyhock God," if you want

✶ to focus on describing the world rather than being attached to any particular character

✶ to play the game, and nobody else is being the HG, so you had better!

✶ to be able to just say that things happen and they do, and

✶ to help pull together a story from the things characters do,

Journey to the Outside

And the angel of the sun did fall. She fell, down, down, from the sky, and into the emptiness beyond the world, beyond the things that were good and real, out where only false and nonexistent things might live.

And then they knew what it was to know darkness, to know meaninglessness, to lose all hope. The world, the whole and breadth of it, knew what it was like to be without a sun.

But at the same time...

...and, perhaps, this was most surprising of all...

At the same time and for the first time, the emptiness beyond knew what it was to have a sun.

And the whole of it changed.

--- Journey to the Outside, a fan campaign for Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine

So, I've been working, off-and-on, for a while on an idea I've had to do a Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine Epic Adventure campaign in the style of Journey to the West. I'm almost ready to get started running it, so I thought I'd share the stuff I've got so far. Instead of actually creating the mechanics for the characters, I'm giving descriptions and allowing the players to choose their Arcs on their own. I'll probably write up, at least, the starting Quests for each character, eventually, but I haven't gotten there yet. So far it's mostly just a list of characters and a bit of description for each one, and their variants.

Introduction

Jade Irinka is dead. The sun has fallen into the Outside and the world is reeling under a strange and alien sky. Each day a ball of blazing gas rises and sets, casting shadows and helping the plants to grow. But it is not the sun - and in their bones, the people of Town know it.

It is a mournful thing to live in a fallen world.

But there is hope. Or, rather, there is a chance for hope. Hope exists, but someone has to venture out into the Outside and get it. Someone has to go on a journey to save the world. And not just anybody: gods and monsters and villains… and also just some guy.

It sounds like it will be an Epic Adventure, doesn’t it?

Sidebar: Conventions

This campaign is an Epic Fantasy game featuring THREE Conventions, manifesting as level 2 Afflictions:

The stage may be small but audience is great

You are well known wherever you go

And

There’s always a place to stay when the weather gets bad

….And Rinley too! I should wait until this is all done… But I have no idea when I’m going to just give up, so I’m going to just spam these until I don’t anymore.

A very quick sketch of Entropy II, Magister, King of the Evil World and the Principal of Horizon’s School, by the Grace of Heaven and the Light, in his casual wear.

My fairly terrible Mignola-copying cover for a fictional Natalie Coutourier-starring Chuubo's comic called "Winter: Flowers in the Ice". I'm not done, but I don't know that I ever will be done so...