Hidden 9 mos ago Post by Mangrale
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Mangrale Star-Craving Mad

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Alrighty! Took longer than I wanted it to but I pride myself in delivering eventually above all else. Here is the second POI in the gulf. Some rewrites have occurred, and keep in mind that some edits and even new featured locations can be added over time. The idea with this one is that getting a port up and running, although ultimately rather successful, wasn't altogether straighforward. Also, there's very much that idea that, the closer to the wilds a place is, the more strange things can occur.



I may be moving on to the mountain range after this, likely Fort Harmony and what you can find in there. As you can imagine, the most notable and well known places are likely to come first, leaving a good deal of other places to be revealed over time. I'm also looking into the 'mons you're apt to find in each spot (like the lighthouse keeper for example). At this stage, it's hard to determine how much of a presence they'll have in the RP, but at the very least I can see a descent share of jobs/quests coming from them. I'll get back to you all when I can. Take care.
Hidden 8 mos ago Post by Mangrale
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Hello again. Sorry about the delay. With this I should be ready to continue further into the mountains for the next one. It is likely to belong to the alliance and whatnot, but I'm debating whether it should feature an adventurer's guild or not. One should exist in the mountains sure, but as for exactly where it should be, I don't quite know yet.



It's become apparent that, if the factions are to come to the fore, even as far as possible backgrounds for PCs, then I really should go back and elaborate on them some more, their structure and operation for a start. The friendlier guys should go first, as players might want to look to them first if anything to tie into their backstories. The Burrowers, Hollowers and Crossbones might have to wait until further into the story as more is learned about them. I'll make a personal outline for them for sure, but I likely won't write it all down like the others until later on. But for now, it's on to the next set of locations. See you then.
Hidden 7 mos ago 7 mos ago Post by Mangrale
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Okay so this one requires some explaining. After looking at the barracks in the last post, I decided soon after that I wanted to make it into it's own separate location. From what I understand, garrisons indeed encompass barracks and more, but they're typically a part of bases and such. Could be getting something wrong in there, but there's still time to change things around if need be. Course, if everything's square I will go back an replace the barracks in the fort with something else.



The inclusion of weapons and armor in a PMD story is not one that I take lightly, especially because any item/class of item that doesn't already come with a sprite may very well wind up having it made by me (or maybe I could resort to emojis if I'm just that terrible at it). All the same, I shouldn't assume that I can't still stray further from what made PMD unique from other RPG settings, even after all the other things I'm going for. But unfortunately for you guys, I'm still into this. See you all later for the next update.
Hidden 6 mos ago 6 mos ago Post by Mangrale
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Hello again. This is a smaller update coming at you sooner because I wanted to throw some ideas around for implementing individual character inventories. To sum up, as I have it now, every player character will be able to carry a limited number of items wherever they go (I currently got it as 5 unstackable slots for simplicity's sake), along with an additional slot specifically for equipment (your gameplay-functional garments or accessories). Clothing items worn purely for show will likely be covered in the "appearance" part of the CS and perhaps there'll also be a count for the money PCs carry with them.

I'm leaning towards the floor being open for players to propose their own ideas for new equipment and items, even for their pokémon at the start of the story, though they will have to be treated and balanced accordingly. For instance, there can certainly be equipment like bags and such that could give you more item slots, but any of them accessible at the start will only get you 1 additional slot.

Now then, true to my word, I wanted to give some novice sprite work a try for a class of item that doesn't exist for the PMD games already, in this case: weapons. I hold no delusions of the quality, but even this piece , such as it is, feels like beginner's luck. I don't think I can justify branching off into different types of weapon sprites like spears and so on, but a real artist is more than welcome to try. No, at best I might just pass off some recolors to represent different grades/varieties of weapons. Now and again I'll try at more sprites for things, but for now, I'm happy to say that I won't be relying on emojis just yet. Thanks for catching up on this vanity project of mine and I'll see you next time.
Hidden 6 mos ago Post by ColdAtlas
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might be something id like
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Hidden 6 mos ago Post by Mangrale
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@Elite Minor
Appreciate the possible interest. In the future, just about every update I've made will be put together in a single list for quick reference. At around that time, I'll bump this IC again to see if anyone wants in after they know what they'd be getting themselves into.
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Hidden 5 mos ago 4 mos ago Post by Mangrale
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Alright so, first off, time was at a premium for a while here. Some things you can't help, you know. Unfortunately what I did spend an inordinate amount of time on was a reevaluation of the in-game calendar. I know I said I didn't see the point in tampering with it further, but I couldn't help but fixate on it as of late and so wound up wanting for better than a season paired with a dreadfully basic day counter.

So it started with wanting to change the name of every day in the week, but I soon came to realize that not only were my attempts at substitutes terrible enough for me to give up, but that said attempts would have been pointless in the end anyway. So much of our lives are tied to the days of the week that it'll likely end up being far too annoying for players to make "new" associations just for this RP.

Month names were what I ultimately took a stab at, but before I tell you them, I'll need to give you some background. The rudimentary idea of a single annual day separated from the more evenly divisible 364 days of the year was actually something I lifted from a concept I came across some time ago: the International Fixed Calendar. With just one standalone day and an extra month, I got myself complete uniformity across all months and years (standard leap year terms may apply).

The biggest drawback for me however was that 13 months cannot be spread across four seasons evenly (no matter how hard you try). Now, can even that bit of annoyance be overlooked in the end? I don't know. Maybe? I'll have to consider how I feel about it some more before I rewrite anything I have on the calendar section. For now though, I could list out the month names I've settled on.

1. Nokta 4. Nenoh 7. Reor 10. Lalao 13. Mikkatia
2. Irvesi 5. Onshin 8. Vanou 11. Ragal
3. Ojoth 6. Uishi 9. Solka 12. Depala

I'm sure you'll get the trick I used right away. The point is to get across that this is indeed its own world with its own cultures, as it really didn't sit right with me to stick with RL months. It really came down to preference, but I also understand if anyone feels names like these don't fit that well with what you expect from PMD. Suggestions are always welcome, but I thought I might as well put it out there.

And as a way of a bonus, here's a shield for similar items in your inventories. Took longer than the sword sprite, but in the end, I'm happy that it communicates what I want. See you guys later.
Hidden 5 mos ago Post by Bacon
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I would certainly be interested in this. PMD RP... can't say I've done much of that before. I'm familiar with the PMD games at least, so I don't think I'd be completely lost.
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Hidden 5 mos ago Post by Mangrale
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@Bacon
Hello there! Welcome to the site and thanks for the interest. To be honest, I've never actually been in a PMD RP either, so this is all new to me. The earlier entries (Up to Explorers of Sky) are what I'm drawing the most inspiration from in terms of finer details like items and so forth. But this project for the most part should wind up being its own thing, so hopefully no one will need that much experience in order to get into it.

That said, there's plenty of things I'll be going for in this RP that will put off plenty of people (such as fusions like this guy), so I probably won't be the one to go to for that pure and simple PMD experience. I can't guarantee that this will click with you when all's said and done, but I can guarantee that it will be finished and open someday.

Would be cool if I see you again when that happens, but in the meantime, don't be afraid to check out another of the site's other RPs to join. A good deal of them would be happy to have you. And if you have any questions about how to navigate this place or whatever, feel free to ask around and someone will surely get you sorted. I hope you enjoy your time here.
Hidden 5 mos ago 4 mos ago Post by Mangrale
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Hello again. I believe I've found a calendar setup that covers just about everything I want it to and that's also pretty easy to read. Kinda made up a name for this thing at the last minute but who knows if I ever come across something better than "Revival Age" Calendar. Also this is indeed the first time I've tried out tables within tables so it certainly isn't as clean as I want, but I'm willing to overlook it all if the players are.

It's still a WIP because I still intend to work on it, particularly when it comes to addressing seasons and events. When I next get the chance, I'll likely try and color every numbered day in one of four colors tied to their respective season. The first day of each season will probably have a special event tied to it (like a festival or the like).



Off the top of my head for now, I wanted to divide the thirteen months into as few sub-hiders as possible for our convenience while also keeping a sensible number per hider. Nevertheless, I'm sorry if this setup doesn't read that well on your device. In the full game, active in-game days during the RP will see their "cells" set to "active" so as to be easily spotted. The sub-hider(s) containing active days can also receive a temporary marker so you know generally where to look.

Not bad for a first time, I'd say. Seems like there's more going for this calendar idea than against it so I'm good to continue developing it. This was something I might have thought of now and again, but never had the excuse to try out before now. I'll come back with an update to this soon. See you then.
Hidden 5 mos ago Post by Sp00ki
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I'm interested in joining this establishment. What are the rules for fusion?
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Hidden 5 mos ago 5 mos ago Post by Mangrale
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@RoadkilBanana
Hello there. Thanks for the interest. This bloated vanity project of mine is still trudging along towards a ready state where everything I have will be listed out and updated. For now though, I can point you to the two main posts having to do with fusion. As part of the hard mechanics, check out the last section of the first post under "Fusion Basics". It's based off of the fan-game Infinite Fusion, if you ever heard of that one. The section might be due for a little update soon, but generally that's what it'll look like.

And for what initiates fusions in the RP, check out this post having to do with a certain class of special items in the game called Coalescite. I hope that helped a little. Basically you can either make a fusion who acts just like any other pokémon (and stays like that permanently), or your pokémon can become part of a fusion later that's literally a two in one (with the help of said special items). I like to think that presents a good deal of freedom for what kind of character you might want to make. Let me know if you have any other questions.

(P.S. - Items like those crystals have additional descriptive text to each of them once you move your mouse cursor over them. Sorry if you already knew that. Just wanted to be sure.)
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Hidden 4 mos ago Post by Mangrale
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Hello again everyone. Some more work was done on the calendar. I did replace the old version but then I immediately decided to post the WIP here anyway. Like I mentioned, every number has been colored to align to their respective season. It does look a bit unsightly that three of the seasonal transitions occur in the middle of months, but ultimately the best I could manage might be to try and make it as easy to read as I can.



I'd like to have special events occur at the start of seasons, but now I'm not sure if they'll be festivals like what I have for New Year's Day (each calendar icon will have abbrev. text to them), though they'll at least be related thematically. At any rate, I'll get to deciding for the four of them next. Now to make up for the shame of using emojis, I wanted to fiddle with some well made sprites for my own devices. Here's an empty bottle , and here's a potion , for a craftable basis for unique strategies. That's all I have to present for now. See you next time.
Hidden 4 mos ago Post by Mangrale
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Hello everyone! Progress has been made, just slower than I'd like. The first order of business is the four special events I mentioned in connection with the Master Star Festival. I wanted something interesting to punctuate the start of each season, though not anything as major as an elaborate celebration. They will be added to the final calendar for sure, but I thought I'd post them here as well so you can know mostly what to expect. I have plans for them in the future, but more has to be done first.



In other news, I'm considering having images hosted on site, especially considering that I'll be pushing for artwork on my end when it comes to side characters. That said, I'm thinking I'll add individual sprites to the folder only after I've introduced them for the RP (I'm too paranoid when it comes to spoilers). Ivytortle is there already and more will come in time.

The "Complete Calendar Display" sub-hider section has been added to the "In-Game Calendar" hider, describing as clearly as I can what to expect from the RP's "Wandering Star Calendar", it's makeup and how it works. It's mostly what I already mentioned, but it'll be a reference for when anyone needs it.

It might soon be time for me to tackle one of the biggest aspects of a mystery dungeon game. I have an idea brewing on how I can do it, but like you'd expect it's rather foolhardy and needlessly complicated. Wish me luck anyway! Take care until then.
Hidden 3 mos ago 3 mos ago Post by Mangrale
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Hey guys! I've come back with the beginnings of what may be the RP's biggest feature: Dungeons. Some may already be known by the time the story begins, others (or most) will have to be discovered over time. But the way dungeons will be implemented was rather up in the air for a while, and it essentially has a major bearing on the game as a whole. So naturally I'm starting with an off-kilter option to see how that goes for a while. You see, the bare minimum might be something like just written descriptions whereas the most experienced GMs might look to using their online dungeon-generator of choice. But me, I'm currently leaning towards the poor-man's dungeon map, finagling tables once more, but this time into a simple square grid formation. Keep in mind that some of this might be subject to change.

Below you'll find a sample for 10 columns and 3 rows, representing 1 floor of a dungeon. Number of floors and even the total spaces a floor can have will vary from dungeon to dungeon.
  • Active Cells (Highlighted Spaces) are for rooms where the player party is located. Can the party split up in a dungeon? Not sure. Should they? Probably not. But we'll cross that bridge later.
  • Black Full Blocks just mean a completely unknown and (currently) unreachable part of the map
  • █ White Full Blocks refer to open spaces, and one or more blocks alongside each other make an open room.
  • ╬ Box Drawing Characters (Double Lines) are for pathways and corridors within a dungeon
  • Gray Full Blocks are also unknown parts of the map, but ones reachable by players from adjacent spaces




I hope this setup is easy to read, even if it isn't particularly pretty to look at. It's the best I could come up with at this point, and I believe that, in this way, I can incorporate some of the additional features we've come to love about PMD's dungeon crawling. Course for now, I'm not fixing to make combat overly stat based, perhaps only things like equipment, level, typing and moves factoring into a player's own storytelling. What harder rules I do have in mind center around things like resource management and (maybe) a light use of RNG tables.

I'll of course explain more in future updates. TTRPGs were never my scene, and I'm sure it shows. But even if there was a guarantee that I'd pull this off flawlessly, I feel like there might be some level of disappointment towards this direction. Doors are bound to close with decisions like this. Regardless, all I can say is that I'll try my best to make it work, till the very end or until something I hadn't accounted for makes me reexamine what I want from the RP (it's been known to happen). Anyway, I wish you all the best until I come back. Take care.
Hidden 3 mos ago Post by SsssssSsSsssSs
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I read the New Beginnings. And I wonder - is Mystery Dungeons rpung as Pokemon themselves? It was intriguing to see you put a Boy in that. I have a R-P-Starter I caught to memory years ago, which your paragraphs made me review it from the Spearow's eyes how I did, for that fleeting moment that if it is rping pokemon I'd need to Ranger as Chaos the Spearow. But uh not "Ranger", Chaos' personality would be more akin to being a "Guile Hero".
Hidden 3 mos ago 3 mos ago Post by Mangrale
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@Srpv
Hello there. Yeah I believe you got it. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon is very much mystery dungeon RPGs where you play as the pokémon themselves. People who know the game series will remember a special quirk reserved for certain characters, but I believe that out of all the RPs that I've seen people do before, everyone is a pokémon plain and simple, and there are no humans. I'm adding some extra things to my game, but at its heart it'll still pretty much be a fantasy adventure sandbox but with pokémon instead of people. It's still a WIP for now, but I've made definite progress.

Your spearow will likely fit in just fine. The character sheet template will be revealed in the future so keep an eye out if you want.
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I'll see you then!
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Hidden 3 mos ago Post by Mangrale
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Alrighty! Time for the follow up for Dungeons. If you'll remember, I might have mentioned how I'd want the door to stay open for players to incrementally add to the world beyond just their own characters and associated structures/businesses at base camp. That would include dungeons along with all the statistics involved. That's what's been at the back of my mind while deciding how to proceed. No guarantee that anyone will want to go that far in the end, but it shouldn't hurt to explain everything anyway.

Below, you will once again find the Dungeon Sample, but this time I went ahead and filled in all of its discoverable spaces, right down to the room space containing the "stairs", the exit of the floor. Before I go further, I'll say that I'm debating the highest number of rows that future dungeons can ever have to potentially work with. Ten rows for a 10x10 grid sounded cool and all, but I quickly felt that such a size might be too cumbersome to deal with, so expect the largest of maps to be half that size at most. Besides that, the aforementioned dungeon floor space limits should prevent absolute clusters like this (at least in the early stages)

  • Active Cells (Highlighted Spaces) are for rooms where the player party is located.
  • Black Full Blocks just mean a completely unknown and/or (currently) unreachable part of the map
  • █ White Full Blocks refer to open spaces, and one or more blocks alongside each other make an open room.
  • ╬ Box Drawing Characters (Double Lines) are for pathways and corridors within a dungeon
  • Gray Full Blocks are also unknown parts of the map, but ones reachable by players from adjacent spaces
  • Orange Full Blocks are like gray spaces but can only be entered when certain requirements are met (i.e. locked doors and obstacles)
  • Red Full Blocks signify room spaces where the stairs of the current floor will be found




It became apparent very early on that I really can't stuff everything there is to know about each of a dungeon's spaces into their respective marker's abbreviated text. Now, I'm still going to use abbreviated text (because I have a problem), but once players reach a new space, there will also be additional information under the dungeon table itself. While the abbr. text on the space might wind up being some flavorful details about what the PC party observes about the space, the info below the table may include such things as environmental features, traps (typically series classics of the hidden sort), money/items in various levels of accessibility, and of course hostile pokémon endemic to the dungeon itself. There are more possibilities of course, and as mentioned, I'm eyeing simple online RNGs for certain probabilities.

Hopefully you got a clear enough idea of what I'm aiming for with dungeons. Tis only the lack of stat tracking and dice rolls that's keeping this project from the tabletop section at this point. Anyway, with little in the way of major hurdles jumping out at me in this conceptual stage, I'm just about ready to dip my toes into the next stage for dungeons: setting up the first lowest level dungeon that players will know of at the start of the RP. After something of a final judgement call on everything that'll go into a dungeon, even a very early one, I should feel confident in setting up templates, both for what to explain going into a dungeon and what to keep track of while delving through one. I'll get to work on it soon, so I wish you all the best until next time. See you later.
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Hidden 2 mos ago Post by Mangrale
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Hello again. This one might be a little shorter because, while I am indeed piecing together what I want for the first dungeon, I wanted to take a bit of time to consider (aloud) one aspect of dungeon classification and by extension player progression. If anything, it'll help me have a clearer grasp on what my options are.

In the Explorers games, Exploration Ranks are (unless I'm missing something) milestones attributed to the PC and their partner as they progress through their adventures, signifying their level of experience as explorers. Could be wrong but, to my knowledge, nowhere else is ranking mentioned in the games than when it is applied to the player's team. I don't believe it's revealed what the other guildmembers' ranks are. And there certainly isn't some manner of ranking for the Wigglytuff Guild itself, because it's very much the only one in the story.

If I'm on the mark thus far, then you can probably see where I'm going with this. As this project is shaping up as of now, ranks may have to carry more weight. There will be at least one adventuring team made up completely of PCs at the start of the story, with its own name and ranking ("Normal" to begin with). That ranking will be tied (either directly or indirectly) to the members' literal levels and the levels of any new PCs that may join that team down the road. The team's rank will also determine what dungeons and jobs will be open to them.

Will that wind up with us tracking team rank points throughout the story? Possibly. It might not be that hard to do, but I suppose a good method to fall back on could be to tie rank progression to certain checkpoints in the story. Other teams might come into play too though, either of PCs if interest grows to support it, or even side characters as the outpost itself grows in size. I'll be taking a look at the ranking/points scale that EoS used and coming up with a path forward. Thanks for listening to me talk aloud here. I'll be back soonish.
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