Edelgard

obsession and backrooms are both quite good movies anyway that's all for now bye

Perhaps

moving on now

I see me in the first one! Kinda wish I had screenshots of BZP from through the years, but alas.

I will agree that some users have been less than kind with their responses to you on the server, and that is unfortunate. But you have also received honest, legitimate feedback from many people who were striving to genuinely answer your questions and provide you with advice. I cannot speak to the consensus - I have not been following the entire conversation - but my own perspective is that the idea you've been discussing carries potential for very high risk with very little sense of any reward (reward including a positive change to the status quo). My suggestion would be to set this idea aside.

revisiting the themes & mechanics of a game for a remix vs. revisiting the setup & characters is an interesting approach! as for AWE, what hasn't already been re-adapted into the series simply wouldn't fit with current canon, so it remains a no go

Happy Bionicle Day! This entry will make zero sense to anybody who hasn't participated in the BZPGOT games at all, but that's okay. REMIXES Season One Remix Set on Okoto, the core concept was to be a remix of Season One. The initial setup would have been exactly the same as Season One, with all players getting to choose which of the original “player characters” from Season One they wanted to play as, and then being essentially free to go from there. Of course, a straightforward remix would be boring. My initial concept included a twist that the players were all actually trapped inside a Lotus-Eater Machine, and living in a false reality. This eventually evolved into the idea that the player characters were all “AI” versions of other characters being tortured and experimented upon. Eventually, I decided to challenge myself even further, and the AI Simulation reveal became one of seven possible reveals, depending on which plotline players fully investigated first: If the players investigated the jungle region of Karamu first and managed to summon the Temple of Time, they would get the AI Simulation reveal. If the players investigated rumors of an “Agori in Black” in Agua Hielo, they would discover that the game is actually set between Season Three and The Final Season, as one of Miserix’s ‘Great Games’. If the players investigated Kollorak, Scourge of Dreams, in Aodhiim, they would discover that the game is set after Verdant Wind, with Kollorak having trapped a bunch of unfortunate residents in a dream world of his own. If the players investigated the barren Earth Region and headed underground, they would discover that the game is set in a shared afterlife/underworld. If the players investigated Loki in Kamuk and followed their hints, they would learn that they are merely characters in a series of storybooks. Very meta. If any players specifically investigated the location of Last Hearth in the North, they would learn that the game is set in an alternate universe where all of their characters were erased or ‘Vanished’, and they are suffering at the whims of an unknown entity in the Place Where Vanished Things Go. If, somehow, nobody investigated any of the six paths above, the game would simply serve as an alternate universe ‘reboot’ of the series. I have put many thoughts into this potential game over the years, but for one reason or another have always decided against running it; I did like the idea of running it for the 5th or 10th anniversaries of the series at one point. Nowadays I am of the opinion that a Season One Remix serves better as a thought experiment than as an actual game to be run; there is so little meat on Season One’s bones that a remix would become a brand new game pretty much immediately, and at that point, why bother shackling myself to the concept of a remix at all? Twilight Requiem Remix I’ll be touching on this idea in more detail later, so I won’t spend too much time on it here. Like Season One, Twilight Requiem serves as a bit of an entry point into the series, and as the first major game in the Edge of Dawn arc (with Theogony serving more as a prologue to the arc), it sets up dozens of different arcs across its runtime that stretch across the following games. It has a lot of meat on its bones, as well as some major flaws that could definitely be resolved during a second go around, which makes the idea of running a remix very tempting. Even with different decisions being made, or characters being played by different characters, enough of the original Twilight Requiem would remain recognizable to make hosting a remix worth it. Why hasn’t it happened? A few reasons. Notably, I suspect it would be a huge time commitment, and with the other games I have run the past few years, there simply was not time to commit to a game of the size I suspect a Twilight Requiem Remix would be. Another reason was the return to a focus on the Edge of Dawn cast; I always try to take into account whether characters might be overstaying their welcome, and with several key players from Edge of Dawn returning in recent games, there was definitely a risk of it. PREQUELS Voxumo’s Rebellion This one came so close to happening that I actually have a cast list that is 90% complete for it. The idea is simple enough - to let players play through and expand upon one of the most infamous pieces of backstory in the entire series. Set about 20-25 years prior to Season One, this game would be all about living through the war that set the status quo that players were introduced to in the very first game in the series. I really wanted to host this game despite its prequel nature pre-determining many events, because I have always felt that we kinda missed out on getting to really explore the politics and traditions of Okoto’s noble houses. This game would have allowed us to really see them at their most ‘regular’. There would have been potential for this game to expand into an arc of several games as well, starting before the war and then stretching to cover some of the events in the years after. Why hasn’t it happened? I did the bulk of planning and outlining for this game in late 2019, when I was outlining for the Edge of Dawn arc. At the time, I was deciding between running Edge of Dawn or running a multiverse arc (more on that choice later), and as I started leaning toward Edge of Dawn, it meant Voxumo’s Rebellion would - somehow - need to tie into it. I was unable to determine how to make that happen, and so Voxumo’s Rebellion was ultimately shelved (though a couple ideas from it did end up being utilized in Twilight Requiem). With the way Edge of Dawn ultimately played out, I probably could have tried running Voxumo’s Rebellion after all, but I think it’s for the better that I did not, and it means I still have it in my back pocket, should I - or the players - ever decide we’d really like to play through it after all. The House of Darkfire Voxumo’s Rebellion has prompted me to consider other avenues through which we might go back and explore the noble houses of Okoto and their culture in more detail - and in the years since Verdant Wind, I have toyed with focusing all-in on one house at a time. I toyed with a bit of this concept in The Apologoi, where quite a bit of emphasis is placed on House Rayne (as much as is possible for that sort of game, at any rate), and liked it a lot, enough to begin planning and outlining a game about - you guessed it - House Darkfire. Set 100 years before Season One, this game would be set immediately following an attempt by House Darkfire to seize control of the Fire Region from House Aodh, and would focus deeply on both houses (with secondary focus given to the other houses of the Fire Region). In the backstory of the games, this failed coup attempt leads to the seeming utter destruction of House Darkfire, and this game would have seen players getting to play out the first years of this taking place, acting out how House Aodh rose back to power, and how House Darkfire managed to secretly survive the apparently total destruction of their house. This game would have been standalone, but I was prepared for it to ultimately set up a new “Ancient Okoto” arc, where each game would focus on a different noble family and some ancient event that involved them. A few other houses I had ideas for were House Patrus (and the Stone Region), House Gelu (and the Ice Region), and House Tyde (and the Water Region), as well as a potential direct sequel to House of Darkfire. Why hasn’t it happened? Time, mainly. This game does not fit at all into the Many Worlds arc and I would not want it to, so any thoughts of running it were on hold until that arc was completed. There is a chance I could revisit the idea of running this game after the end of the Many Worlds arc if players are particularly interested, though I am more interested at this point in potentially moving on from BZPGOT in its entirety for any future games. We’ll see. CANCELLATIONS His Silver Gleam This would have been the third instalment of Glass, following A Midnight Requiem and An Azurial Dream. As with the others, the title references a game from Edge of Dawn - in this case, Silver Snow. Where A Midnight Requiem was centered on Dale Eisenhorn and An Azurial Dream centered on Richard Vaughn, this game would have been focused on Aleron Synclaire. His backstory would have been uncovered, and several of his related supporting cast members from the previous two books were slated to play larger roles. The primary antagonistic forces of this book would have been The Moon/Khonsu, as well as a new entity inspired by Stephen King’s ‘Children of the Corn’. This book was going to play with the meta structure as well, with an IRL limit of 72 hours for the players to either succeed or fail in their mission (Glass was run as weekly sessions that typically lasted anywhere between 3-6 hours). Why was it cancelled? A variety of reasons. An Azurial Dream had gone less than smoothly, and whether I was accurate in my assessments or not, I was detecting a severe lack of interest & motivation from the players, which was impacting my own interest. I was also in the process of moving, and that move was immediately followed by diving headfirst into efforts to get promoted. Between all of that and having way more fun running Into the Argo-Verse than I had with An Azurial Dream, and this book ended up dead in the water before it could hit chapter two. Some elements from this book did end up being used in Across the Argo-Verse and The Last Story. A Crimson Raceme This would have been the fourth and final book of Glass, with its title referencing Crimson Flower (and it would have been a meta-joke at that; a Raceme is a type of flower, so technically we would have had a game titled Crimson Flower and a game titled A Crimson Flower. I’m so funny I know). This book would have centered on Sarah Rays & Eleshna Darkfire; its primary antagonistic forces would have varied depending on the results of His Silver Gleam, but the primary setting for the first half was going to be very much based on Castle Dimitrescu from Resident Evil Village, while the second half was going to take inspiration from the Backrooms. Why was it cancelled? Because His Silver Gleam was cancelled. Obviously. Many elements from this book ended up being used in Across the Argo-Verse and The Last Story, with both games ultimately being used to hit certain character and story beats for Eleshna, Sarah, and Seiros that were originally meant to occur in this game. Across the Argo-Verse ultimately ends right around where this book would have, while The Last Story more directly adapts some of the ideas I had brainstormed for this book. At World’s End This one takes a bit of explanation. When I was first running The Argonauts, I had the idea to turn it into a trilogy of games - but to run the trilogy out of order. So I would follow The Argonauts up with the third game in the trilogy - The Aenid - before running an interquel set between both games. That interquel went through a few iterations before I chickened out of the interquel idea, and decided instead to make it a secret backdoor into a multiverse arc. And so At World’s End was born, with the players initially thinking they were playing an interquel before quickly learning that they were playing an alternate universe when the wrong people started dying at the wrong time. We got about two-thirds through this game before I gave up on it - I was not satisfied at all with how I was setting up the multiverse, and wasn’t even sure at that point where I wanted to go with a multiverse arc. By contrast, I was planning Edge of Dawn while this game was running, and I had a very clear vision for where that arc could go, so I made my choice (and I do not regret it). Despite its cancellation (and getting wiped from canon [and me pretending it didn’t even exist for several years]), a lot from this game has actually ended up being reused in later games. Crimson Flower revisited the idea of the original owner of the ‘Argo’ ship being an enemy of the Argonauts, and brought back the destructive Obelisk of Torment. The multiverse itself ultimately ended up getting more properly explored in Epigoni, Into the Argo-Verse, and Across the Argo-Verse, as well as the interquel that we did end up getting with The Apologoi (in which the Iliad also ended up forming an uneasy alliance with the Argonauts!). Other elements of At World’s End have also ended up in The Apotheosis. SEQUELS / INTERQUELS The Aethiopis The idea for this game was to craft a direct sequel to The Aenid, to serve as a fourth adventure for the OG Argo crew. Plot details were never figured out, though my latest idea was for Sharkface to accidentally send the Argonauts into the distant past, forcing them to try and figure out a way back to their proper time. For a variety of reasons, I never went with this. The Apologoi already does the “untold OG tale” idea better, and has them visiting a different world/time as well, and features uneasy alliances with the enemy. New crew members were introduced in The Apologoi, and I used up my freebie for “this is why these characters didn’t show up again until the newest games” there - explaining why any new PCs never showed up after this game would be awkward at best. As for returning PCs, the pool is pretty limited; only Xavi, Seqala, and Ehks are really eligible. That number increases to include Jakura if I were to mix the Dark Hunters in. So I cast it aside, and the OG Argonauts ultimately get their fourth adventure together in The Apotheosis. Cindered Shadows This was meant to be a new entry into Edge of Dawn, set immediately after Crimson Flower and starring the Black Eagles once more. I spent much of 2023 planning for this game off and on; it was going to be a very strange, mystical game, with each member of the Black Eagles undergoing their own individual stories separately from each other and out of order, while also appearing in the other stories, and also Eleshna’s subconscious was going to be the main antagonist. I have a few pages of notes on this game that I can share with players in the BZPGOT Discord if they are interested in seeing them. I ultimately just wasn’t very confident that I could make the game work, both on a very real IRL level and also on a story level. A lot of my ideas for Cindered Shadows are what ultimately evolved into The Last Story - I would even say that The Last Story has more of Cindered Shadows in it than it has of Beyond the Argo-Verse (more on that later). Jason and the Argonauts Not much on this game. Back when Into the Argo-Verse was just one game, this was going to be its followup. Where Into the Argo-Verse was going to really explore the multiverse, Jason and the Argonauts was going to pull things back down to a singular Atama, made up of the merged remnants of the destroyed multiverse. The plot for this game was going to specifically echo The Argonauts and The Aenid with its structure and the locations visited, with the finale echoing The Aenid with a new Battle of the Crossing and Epigoni with a small group descending into Karda-Nui. The general structure of this game definitely would have still worked for a sequel to Across the Argo-Verse starring that game’s crew, though it would need a new title because Jason died. But I decided I wanted to go for more of a thematic conclusion to the Many Worlds arc than a literal one, and so we instead get The Last Story. Sentinels of the Argo-Verse This was a game I considered running after Across the Argo-Verse, and before what was then going to be Beyond the Argo-Verse, turning it into a four game series within the Many Worlds arc. Across the Argo-Verse was going to end on a total cliffhanger, without any indication of whether the Argonauts won or lost - and then this game would come along. Sentinels of the Argo-Verse was going to be a non-linear narrative. Some players would have been playing portions of the finale in the very first moments of the game, for example, while the actual beginning of the game might not have been played until closer to the middle. The narrative itself would have been a puzzle that the players would need to put together, and I had plans to assist this with special headings and gameplay channels for the different “time frames” that the game would have taken place in. The final twist of this game would have been the players discovering that they had, in fact, lost at the end of Across the Argo-Verse - and also learning that their physical bodies were gone, and they were now playing AI versions of their characters lost in the code of the Sentinel Station within the new version of the world ruled by Tabuu. This would have then led into Beyond the Argo-Verse. Why did this not run? For one, both myself and the players often get ourselves confused when trying to track even the simplest of dates and times within games, so how the heck would any of us keep track of a non-linear narrative? For the record - I do think this could be done successfully. But that leads to the larger issue: it is such a grim fate for every single player, for their characters to have died outside of their control offscreen and now be stuck as AI, functionally just ghosts haunting the narrative. And I didn’t have any good ideas for their fates to improve with Beyond the Argo-Verse, and then my plans for the final game in the Many Worlds changed, and ultimately, it was easy to set this idea aside. Beyond the Argo-Verse This game would have taken place after Across the Argo-Verse, and was to be set in a world akin to Marvel Comics BattleWorld, with Tabuu ruling over a hodge-podge world made up of different pieces from the entire multiverse. The plan for this game was always for it to center on a largely new cast of characters, with the main crew from Into the Argo-Verse and Across the Argo-Verse serving mostly as supporting cast until the endgame. These new characters would travel through the different strange regions of Tabuu’s world to gather allies, overthrow the remaining Odysseans, and restore the multiverse. I did like the idea of having some different characters come in to take the spotlight in the final game, but I disliked the idea of setting aside our Argo-Verse crew entirely. It also felt like I was trying too hard to match the scale of Verdant Wind, and I was struggling to think of interesting plotlines for the players to encounter in every region of the world (heck, I was struggling to even come up with enough interesting regions!), so I started looking for other ideas. With Glass having folded in on itself halfway through, and my planning for Cindered Shadows also hitting a wall, I started looking at what it might take to combine all of my ideas from all three. I had always intended for Glass to end with Eleshna and Seiros getting jettisoned into the conclusion of Beyond the Argo-Verse to help save the day, so I used that as my starting point, making alterations to Across the Argo-Verse to fit, and eventually, the game that became The Last Story was born (but that full tale I will save for an AMA at the end of The Last Story). OTHERS The Ship of Theseus This was a game idea I had a long time ago. It would be set in the distant future, with a new crew of Argonauts helping a character named Theseus prove himself worthy of being the new captain of the Argo by assisting with twelve trials (themed after the trials of Heracles in Greek Myth). I revisited this idea while outline for Epigoni - that game was at one point going to end with Sierra Darkfire becoming the new captain of the Argo, and I toyed with utilizing this idea for a sequel, where the crew would help Sierra to prove herself worthy of the title. Ultimately, if I were to revisit this idea, I would just stick with the twelve trials and make the game its own thing, without tying it to the Argonauts. The Alexandria Codes Back in 2022, I planned four different games, and the players voted on which they wanted to play the most. Three of them ended up being run (The Apologoi, AetherGarde, Into the Argo-Verse), while the fourth faded into obscurity… until now. The Alexandria Codes was a sequel to Epigoni set on Atama. It would have followed a small mercenary crew on Olympus, hired by King Hades to find the mysterious Alexandria Codes, a set of relics said to be capable of granting a wish to the user if gathered together. Aveline de la Roche would have played a significant role, serving as a red herring antagonist until the endgame, where it would be revealed that Hades was the true antagonist of the game all along. This game will never be run - it just doesn’t fit the timeline that was established by Into the Argo-Verse - but the Alexandria Codes (the relics) did get teased in Into the Argo-Verse and Across the Argo-Verse, and though no proper outline ever existed for this game, many of the ideas I had for it have ultimately been incorporated into The Apotheosis (surprise!). THE YESTERDAY TRILOGY This trilogy was imagined as a direct sequel to the Edge of Dawn arc. The main antagonists would have been two NPCs from Edge of Dawn - Ingrid Tyde as the big bad, and Cyril Corruich as her second in command (and now masquerading as the Death Knight). Dreams of Yesterday Adapting many of my ideas for The Alexandria Codes, this game would have starred new PCs - primarily children of the old Edge of Dawn cast, or family members of them. Set on Olympus, they would have become entangled in the ‘Yesterday Quest’, trying to find the Alexandria Codes before a mysterious new foe could do so. Watson Poirot and Trinuma would have served as disc one final bosses in this game, before the PCs would ultimately lose, and Ingrid would gather the Codes to enact her wish - to restore the Old World, and the power that the nobles and gods once held. Requiem for a Dream Adapting many of my ideas for a Twilight Requiem Remix, this game would have primarily starred some of the old Edge of Dawn cast living through a remixed Twilight Requiem, in a timeline now impacted by Ingrid’s wish (as well as Ingrid and Cyril manipulating Seiros and the Church of Seiros to their own ends). These PCs would have gained fractured memories of the now-lost New World as time went by. The new cast from Dreams of Yesterday would have had a small but significant part to play after arriving in this new time period as well, racing to avoid being erased by the changes made to the timeline. Meanwhile, the gods begin to reawaken. Seiros and Loki would have served as the disc two final bosses in this game, before both would regain their memories to join the PCs in the next game, after everyone regains their memories and a significant portion of the cast gets erased as the new timeline begins to settle. A Dream for Tomorrow This game would have then remixed Dreams of Yesterday and Verdant Wind, as the surviving PCs (both new and old) work together to find the Alexandria Codes in this fractured timeline, hoping to use the wish to restore the New World and their original timeline. The threat of the gods fully reawakening would have been imminent, but would ultimately not come to pass; it would have ended with a final confrontation with Ingrid and Cyril, before the Codes would be gathered and the wish would be made. There are many reasons that the Yesterday Trilogy did not happen. First, it feels like a waste for the entire arc to end by essentially erasing its events from canon. Second, I worried that Eleshna and Seiros would become the lynchpins of the arc, and that would just be repeating Edge of Dawn. There is also the matter of the time it would take - this is an entire arc we’re talking about, and when planning this, I was already busy with Glass and the Many Worlds arc. I am also not super interested in spending an entire arc focusing on old characters so soon - I have already done that a lot with the Many Worlds arc, and whether the next set of games is set in Atama or not, I’d like to focus on new characters for a while. That said, bits and pieces of ideas that I had for the Yesterday Trilogy did end up getting adapted into Across the Argo-Vere, The Last Story, and The Apotheosis. CONCLUSION Anyway, that’s about it for now! There are certainly many other game ideas that I have had over the years - probably even a few that I have talked about to people before but didn’t include here - but there were lots here already, so this feels like enough for now. And that’s all I’ve got. Bye!

First: In case this breaks, here is a link to the google doc I pasted this from. Happy Bionicle Day! The last few years I have celebrated this joyous day by sharing some artwork from the Atama/BZPGOT series of games, but this year I thought I would do something a little different. Today I will officially rank all 24 of the games that we have played so far. I’ll highlight some of my favorite moments, some lessons learned, which player characters played the biggest roles, and more. So without further ado… let us begin! Starting from the bottom… – #24 also known as: “where the metanarrative experiment went horribly wrong” READ IT HERE Ran from July 2022-April 2023 Tagline: Have Faith and Obey Focus Characters: Richard Vaughn (Trijhak), Xccj/”X” (Xccj), “Sarah Rays” (Ehks) Favorite Moments: Two. The first is Chapter 11, where the metanarrative, due to a variety of circumstances, suddenly became very real. We’ll touch more on this later. The second comes from Chapter 6, where horror and reality blended together. The Game: At the end of the day, something needed to be at the bottom of the list. The hard truth is this: I have some fond memories of An Azurial Dream, but at the same time, this is the game that derailed an entire arc. Players lost interest, players dropped out. Many of the ideas I incorporated into the game (both from original plans and from scrambling to make things work later) failed. This was game two in a four game arc, but games three and four never ended up running. It was only the second time I canceled games and wiped things away. I still feel like the metanarrative could work - but not in a game so horror-focused, where the players need to buy into the world they are playing inside in totality. And it needs to be an idea brought forth before players ever sign on - for a few, its very presence ruined every bit of immersion and attachment they had. The biggest mistake I made was scrambling, when one player exited the campaign last minute, to fully replace them. I should have instead just moved forward, adjusting plans to the lower player count, while searching for a more organic way to introduce a new fourth player. Instead I turned to the metanarrative elements (which had mostly been in the background or hinted at) and dragged them to the forefront to explain how the player would return, through the deus ex machina of a fifth person being pulled into the game. To say that it was a giant cluttered mess is an understatement. #23 also known as “the one where spilled soup kickstarted the most iconic romance in the series” READ IT HERE Ran from July 2018-December 2018 Tagline: Set Sail Focus Characters: Juke Bawks (Zee), Rassilon Oak (TTL) Favorite Moment: It can only be the dinner with Telluris, where soup was spilled on the shirt of a PC by the name of Juke Bawks. Juke’s player rolled a NAT 20 for seduction as they removed the soaked shirt, and from that moment, it was love at first sight for Telluris. The Game: It isn’t that The Odyssey is BAD, it’s just that… there really wasn’t much to it. It was a very experimental game, meant to do a few things. The first was to do a little worldbuilding outside the island of Okoto; the second was to prototype the concept of a pirate-adventure style game (we’ll get there); the third was to prototype a team-based campaign before fulfilling the concept more fully with The Final Season. The Odyssey succeeded in all three aspects, in that the players drifted mostly aimlessly for about six months IRL while I figured out exactly what it was I was actually trying to accomplish. Some fun memories, certainly, but all tied together by the absolute loosest of possible threads. #22 also known as “the oneshot that took longer than entire games”. thanks, burnout+covid. READ IT HERE Ran for all of November 2022 Tagline: A Special Presentation! Focus Characters: None. Favorite Moment: Tough call with this one - I was legitimately so burned out and sick (and then, when not sick, so exhausted) that just getting through this one was hard for me. The players likely had more fun with this one than I did, in that they must have all enjoyed at least a singular second of it. The Game: I should clarify that I don’t necessarily think that The Abomination!! was necessarily a “bad” game, though I did make mistakes that I learned from for future games. First, I came into it without a proper idea of what anything after the beginning could look like, which destroyed any hope of pacing the adventure. The ending is very weak. I made efforts to tie it into the ongoing major story arc at the time, when the game would have been better off standing on its own. But at the end of the day, the real reason that The Abomination!! ranks so low is simply that I cannot divorce the suffering I was undergoing at the time from the game itself. Immediately following this game’s end, I took a multi-week break from both hosting and my IRL job at the same time and spent the first several days just sleeping. (This was all happening at the same time that An Azurial Dream fell apart, and when AetherGarde had its rough start. What a month). #21 also known as “the roguelike with a casual disdain for sense or canon” READ IT HERE Ran from October 2022-March 2023 Tagline: There’s Only One Rule: Win or Die. Focus Characters: None. Favorite Moment: The boat. The Game: We had talked for a long time about what a “roguelike” game might look like, and in 2022 I finally decided “let’s just try it and see what happens”. The resulting game had a very rough start as the players and I acclimated to all of the systems (and I acclimated to the need to hunt people down to actually perform actions). Then November 2022 hit, and then I took December 2022 off, and… that was that. Just kidding. When we returned in 2023 to finish the game, AetherGarde finally hit its stride. We leaned further into the inherent silliness of the concept, and streamlined some of the clunkier setups. It might be low on the list, but the second half was a lot of fun, and I think an AetherGarde 2 would have the potential to be fantastically fun. #20 also known as “fire emblem: three houses” READ IT HERE Ran from January 2020-April 2020 Tagline: A Brave New World Focus Characters: Eleshna Darkfire (Ehks), Quin Galum (Dane), Samson (Jakura), Vlora Crustallus (Voxumo), Giovanna Aodh (TTL) Favorite Moments: A few. The first is the duel between Eleshna/The Flame Emperor, Quin, and Byleth Darkfire in Chapter 4. It was a frantic fight that took them from the second level of an inn out onto the streets at night. The second is in Chapter 8, with the Black Eagles, as they finally uncover the answer about Efandril Darkfire’s whereabouts. The Game: If ever a game was a mixed bag, this game is a MIXED BAG. You can probably tell by the dates above that a particularly stressful worldwide event started in the middle of this game, and it may well have contributed to the stress and attitudes of multiple players (and myself, even!). But there was a lot against this game from the start. To begin: I had a detailed outline of a game taking place over the course of a year, but wanted the players to speed through each chapter over the course of an IRL week, meaning the pacing… well… it doesn’t exist. Major events are skipped over, as well as endless opportunities for genuine character interactions. An entire episode for character interactions set at a fancy ball was cut, for no other reason I can fathom these days except that I was attached to the idea of the game having ten chapters (we’ll get to that). Too many factors to properly name (many of them my fault, and many of them not) led to the most vitriolic game I have ever hosted. Players were at my throat or each other’s throats more than they had ever been (and more than they ever have been since). Three players rage quit over the course of the game, another vanished without a trace, and I barely talked three others down from joining them. I cut an extra episode away from the second half of the game just to get finished with it faster. And half of the players that stuck it out were outright blood enemies IRL by the end of it all. Not the greatest of times. But it beats the games below it both because we did actually manage to finish it out, and because this is the second game in Edge of Dawn, my favorite arc, and so I have a soft spot for it despite everything. Also, it’s the origin of the Eleshna & Seiros dynamic, so bonus points. #19 also known as “the first time voltex tried to end the series forever” READ IT HERE Ran from January 2019-April 2019 Tagline: Welcome to the Great Game Focus Characters: Efandril Darkfire (Burnmad), Feli Sivr (Xccj), Ehks Glacies (Ehks), Nato Greavesy (Nato), Voxumo Ash (Voxumo), Anahera Abissm (Zee), Jakura Aodh (Jakura) Favorite Moment: It comes from Chapter 5 - the midpoint of the game. Two groups of PCs confronted the game’s main antagonist, Miserix… and managed to kill him in the fight that ensued. Little did they know at the time that I had planned it, of course - the real main antagonists of this game were the player characters themselves. Worst Moment: In a rush to get to some IRL event, I left the players mid-climatic event toward the end of the game, with about 30 seconds of in-game time available to them. I returned several IRL hours later to nonstop interactions that veered into the insane and canon-breaking - and not just because the players had been SO ACTIVE that they had played out several hours-long in-game conversations. I deleted everything, and I am still not sorry. Also still not the worst thing a player has ever done (I’m looking at you, TTL, and having your players try to twerk). The Game: The Final Season is a rather slapdash end to what was a rather slapdash arc. It introduced a brand new setup and playing style that contrasted against the focuses of previous games. The world was empty - and not even real for most of the game, besides. The game’s setup forced a premature end to the arcs of several PCs for no reason except that I had baked it into the mechanics of the game to force conflict. The “grand ending” to the series leading up to that point also introduced a bunch of new heroes, potential villains, and plot points. The final chapter ends on with at least two different cliffhangers teasing at future games. Not exactly an “ending”. Nicely done, me. #18 also known as “the choose-your-own-adventure that was really just an excuse to lore dump at the end” READ IT HERE Ran in January 2017 Tagline: How It Began Focus Characters: None Favorite Moment: The title of Chapter 10, “United We Fall”. I felt so clever at the time, but have also kicked myself for wasting it so early in the series many times. The whole “United We Stand / Divided We Fall” is so cliche, I loved the idea of turning it on its head. Silly Voltex. The Game: Not much to say here. This was strictly a CYOA game, where players contributed only be selecting 1 path of multiple options, and had to continue picking the correct path all the way to the end. There really isn’t much to this, and in fact it should probably be lower for it. What I’m really saying is that I enjoyed this nothingburger more than all of the games ranked lower than it, which is just me hurling an insult at… myself???? Let’s move on. #17 also known as “the game where everything falls apart at the very end” READ IT HERE Ran from January 2018-July 2018 Tagline: Everything Before was Just Prelude Focus Characters: Ehks Glacies (Ehks), Quin Galum (Dane), Efandril Darkfire (Burnmad), Jakura Aodh (Jakura), Vinheim Maran (Voxumo), Rilgivi Nivis (Trijhak), Rassilon Oak (TTL), Isniel Lasang (FF) Favorite Moments: A few. The first is Jakura Aodh’s death at the hands of Efandril Darkfire. The second is the trip through time that Ehks took. The third is the entire Battle of Fort Patrus. Worst Moments: Also a few. The first was my co-host rage-quitting on me right in the middle of the finale. The second was a player rage-quitting right before the finale. The third was my co-host taking one player’s PC and sending them on an adventure one episode that was as long as the entire rest of the game combined that also took place in another dimension unrelated to anything else that was going on (seriously, what the heck am I supposed to do with that?!?!). The Game: Look, as you can probably surmise, Season Three had a lot going on. A lot of it was really, REALLY good, and I’ll even list some of it right here: -The House Darkfire plotline finally came to fruition with Efandril Darkfire, whose storyline through Season Three, The Final Season, and Theogony is one of my favorites. -Jakura Aodh was introduced, kickstarting what might still be my favorite overall arc any PC has undergone. -The worldbuilding was crazy intense. The planet suddenly had a name (Atama!). The nations on Okoto had names, and provinces, and actual cities. Those locations were all now filled with actual characters, with actual lives, and actual histories. -Building onto Point 3 - the characters and lore and worldbuilding that Season Three set up are still having significant impact all these years later, with some of its characters still active all these years later (one - Sahmad - was the first character to break past 100 total appearances!). -Season Three had what I personally felt were the first genuinely GOOD fights in the series - whether it was the small-scaled fight against Turahk in Chapter 1, or the Battle of Fort Patrus in Chapter 5. But also, at the same time, a lot of stuff in Season Three was really not so good. To list a few examples: -Each player had their own storyline, tied into the storyline of their specific nation. Some storylines had more going on than others, and this also isolated the various nations in a way they never had been before. -Tied into Point 1 - Season Three removed a lot of the freedom that was so prevalent in previous games. This remains an ongoing point of contention. My personal POV is that the series would not last as long as it has if we had kept with the super-open PVP focus that the series had prior… but also, it means always making an effort not to railroad the players onto a specific narrow path. -Certain setups or encounters were blatantly unfair. Several players were forced to hunt for the cure to a plague given to them during setup, instead of getting involved with plotlines they were more interested in. Many players found themselves reaping unfair consequences for their successes in past games. It was not that good, to put it lightly. -This was the one and only game I had a co-host for, and the experience left much to be desired for every person involved in the game. We’ll leave it at that. -The ending is just. It’s not good. At all. So… that’s Season Three. There’s a lot to like from it, and the series would not have lasted as long as it did if it were not for this game. But a lot of it was less than stellar, and many of the returning players did not enjoy their time. #16 also known as “the one that started it all” READ IT HERE Ran from May 2016-July 2016 Tagline: You Win or You Die Focus Characters: Voxumo Ash (Voxumo), Nato Greavesy (Nato), Pulse Vatten (Trijhak) Favorite Moment: Season One has a few iconic moments, but if I had to choose one… it would be the ending to Chapter 3. “I’m a Man of My Word”. The Game: This placement might seem controversial to some who played it. Season One is the game that started this whole thing! And there is a lot to like here; it was totally open, meaning that almost every single bit of worldbuilding in this game came from the players themselves. They had total freedom of where to go and what to do. It crafted the skeleton from which the rest of the series has been built. But also, outside of the iconic moments it has… not much happens. The entire game put together is smaller in size than most single chapters from future games. The conflict - entirely player driven - fizzles out into utter nothing at the end with near-zero interactions. The worldbuilding is lackluster at best outside of the immediate contributions of players; cities have no names, nations have no names, we’re lucky that the island even has a name! So here it lands, at 16 out of 24. You did good, Season One. But we’ve done so much better. #15 also known as “the blatant excuse to stretch out several play streaks” READ IT HERE (note: this game is incomplete. i haven't done the writeup yet. my b.) Ran in December 2023 Tagline: Learn the Meaning of X-Mas! Focus Character: Balathumel (Voxumo) Favorite Moment: The reveal of X-Mas. The Game: This was a fun little game. I took much of December 2023 off again, to recharge after another year of running games - but I also thought it would be fun to let a bunch of players just have some holiday-related fun, and to stretch out Voxumo’s years-long streak of playing Balathumel (as well as conveniently stretch out the streaks for a few other PCs). So the idea of 12 Days was born: Voxumo would play out all twelve days, each day visiting another PC to learn a lesson about “X-Mas”. And at the end, he even meets Saint Nick! I was not too involved with this, outside of setting each day up - but that was part of the point. To let the players have some holiday-themed fun with each other, apart from the major story arcs being played through elsewhere. I applied some of the lessons learned from The Abomination!! the year prior. #14 also known as “the birth of everyone’s least favorite, most hated npc”. die, sierra. die! READ IT HERE Ran from October 2021-November 2021 Tagline: The King is Dead. Who Killed the King? Focus Characters: None. Favorite Moment: The fate of Ztolta Nares in Chapter 1. Thanks again, Taka. The Game: I talked for a long time about wanting to do a murder mystery game - and The Mysterious Affair at Styles is that mystery game. Following the behemoth that was Verdant Wind, I felt it was the perfect opportunity to do a little genre experiment, and I think it worked out well for the most part. There were some interesting twists and turns that took place, with some implications for the games ahead. I do feel that the mystery aspect ended up feeling a little weak, and while the game was running, I did struggle with providing proper clues for the players. I tried to set things up so that the players could reach a conclusive ending no matter which suspect they selected, but I don’t feel I quite managed to succeed. Like AetherGarde, this is a concept that I think could genuinely turn out great if I give it another shot. Oh yeah - that most hated NPC. Sierra Darkfire. A classic case of a new character being made way too important way too quickly off the backs of legacy characters, inheriting all that made those older characters iconic for no real reasons that the audience/players can see at all. But just you wait, players, I did what you wanted and dealt her a terrible fate! And I’m not done yet! You’ll like her by the end, I swear! I did it with Sahmad before, and I’ll do it again! *shakes fist at sky, continues shouting pointlessly at clouds* #13 also known as “the game where the players were actually the antagonists all along” READ IT HERE Ran from May 2020-July 2020 Tagline: Danger in the Dark Focus Characters: Hakma Populus (Xccj), Giovanna Aodh (TTL), Loche Lurrun (Zee) Favorite Moment: Chapter 6, “A Snake Among Serpents”. The Game: Azure Moon has one of my favorite single-game arcs for a PC - the story of Hakma Populus. It also birthed the idea of “solo episodes”, where only one player is involved. Like most other firsts in this series, “A Snake Among Serpents” is pretty rough around the edges, but it also remains one of my favorites, and I have enjoyed, every so often, continuing to pull a solo episode out of my pocket. Azure Moon also has some of my favorite darker moments, particularly in Chapters 4 and 5. But why is it here, in the dead center? Because that’s just the sort of game it is. It is almost dead-even with Silver Snow in my mind, and Azure Moon just barely loses out due to its weaker finale. #12 also known as “the game where the player characters all hated each other all the time and didn’t understand the value of teamwork” READ IT HERE Ran from May 2020-July 2020 Tagline: Two Worlds Collide. One Survives. Focus Characters: Vlora Crustallus (Voxumo), Samson (Jakura), Mlavic Aodh (Unit), Nathair Greavesy (Nato) Favorite Moments: Two. The first was the reappearance of Balathumel (his first appearance since Theogony) and the NPC known as Vatten (his first appearance since Season Two) in Chapter 3, with both characters joining the party. The second occurs in Chapter 6, when the PCs earned Surtr’s loyalty and respect. The Game: This game ran alongside Azure Moon, and edges it out for a few reasons. While Azure Moon’s highs are higher, its lows are lower; in particular, its first few chapters are pretty meh, and its finale is weaker. Silver Snow, on the other hand, is consistent the whole way through, and has some equally interesting twists and turns. For instance, take the NPC Vatten; he was a bitter but heroic figure back in Season Two who sacrificed himself for the greater good - re-introducing him here in the Underworld, having suffered in the Fields of Punishment, is one of the better tricks I have managed to pull. The players choosing to allow Balathumel and Vatten to accompany them on their journey also directly led to the fan favorite NPC known as Metus Crustallus surviving Silver Snow… so that he could later be taken down by none other than Balathumel. But that’s a moment to be discussed later. #11 also known as “the game with the highest highs and lowest lows. best final battle question mark?” READ IT HERE Ran from June 2019-August 2019 Tagline: The Last Enemy to Be Destroyed is Death Focus Characters: Ehks Glacies (Ehks), Tabek Umrik (TBK), Juke Bawks (Zee), Jakura Aodh (Jakura), Toru Sevoi (Toru) Favorite Moments: A whole bunch. There’s the wedding in Chapter 1, the final battle in Chapter 6, the interactions in Chapter 5, the epilogues… the list goes on. Worst Moments: Chapter 4 might be the worst in the entire series. And Chapter 3 is mediocre. And Chapter 2 is… it’s okay, I guess. The Game: The Aenid was the conclusion to The Argo Trilogy, a trilogy where I ran the first and third games in 2019 and then waited until 2022 to run the second. Yes, the order was on purpose. No, I did not intend for the gap to be three years long. Yes, the trilogy does work well as a trilogy, if you ignore the fact that games 1 and 3 are bullet-point writeups and game 2 has full chapters. Anyway. The Aenid starts out strong with one of the best opening chapters of any game, and it concludes with one of the best battles in any game, and has some of the best interactions, fights, and hijinks in any game. But man, Chapters 3 and 4 in particular are so weak. Truly terrible. The biggest lesson I learned from this game? Don’t make the players do the exact same thing every single chapter. The biggest lesson I ignored from this game? You can either determine chapters by an IRL time limit or by an outline with no time limit. Don’t do both. I steadfastly ignored this until Twilight Requiem blew up in my face. Fun! #10 also know as “the one that would be perfect… IF I HAD FINISHED IT” READ IT HERE Ran from January 2017-June 2017 Tagline: All Men Must Die Focus Characters: Pulse Vatten (Trijhak), Vinheim Maran (Voxumo), Nato Greavesy (Nato), Onaku Greavesy (Onaku), Jed Corruich (Jed), Chloe Saryian (Blade) Favorite Moment: Genuinely hard to think of one moment compared to any others; I am still of the belief that, had we ended up playing Season Two through to its proper conclusion, it would be my favorite game. Worst Moment: Getting burned out, and shutting things down early. The Game: I think that Season Two still has the best mix of player freedom and predetermined plots in the series. The worldbuilding was stronger than Season One, but the NPCs were not as crushingly omnipresent as they would be in Season Three. Players decided what they wanted to do, where they wanted to do it, who they wanted to do it with (or to), and when. The slow escalation of the broader threat from Season One to the end of Season Two would have been great if it had played out to completion. I have ranked this game higher in the past for all these reasons, but alas, I think I must be fair: this game was never truly completed, and so I cannot give it a completing grade. A game that was never finished is certainly still better than most of the games (maybe that’s a yikes, maybe that’s just nostalgia talking, maybe it’s both), and it is good enough to kick off our top ten - but no further. #9 also known as “the end of all good things” HAHAHA WASN’T IT FUN HAVING THAT SHOVED DOWN YOUR THROAT FOR A YEAR READ IT HERE Ran from October 2023-June 2024 Tagline: All Good Things Must Come to an End Focus Characters: Olik (Oncertainty), Eleshna Darkfire/Sarah Rays (Ehks), Prevalar Rayne (Terrorsaur), Rhagre Cipactli-10002 (Xccj), Pohatu-2968 (Voxumo), Jukris (Zee), JUK-3 (Zee), Vashan (Valendale), Achro (Toru) Favorite Moments: A few. The Dread’s first appearance and the subsequent fall of Telluris in Chapter 4; the binary choice made by Rhagre in the finale (more on that later); the Olik solo episode and his return in the Epilogue; the various reveals surrounding Eleshna/Sarah and Seiros. The Game: Across the Argo-Verse is the hardest game to talk about on this list, because it is the latest game to have been completed. If the rankings on this list change, this is the game most likely to shift, as more time passes and my opinion on it potentially changes. But for now it is here, for a few reasons, despite what issues it has (and it did have a few). First is the binary choice: for the third time, I asked one player - Xccj - to choose between two options at the very end of the game, like Ehks in Verdant Wind and Burnmad in Theogony before him. There were also some great character interactions this game, and great rivalries between several of the PCs and the antagonists they were up against. This game was originally just the second half of Into the Argo-Verse, but the campaign grew so large that I split it in two. I think that’s all that I’ll say on this one for now. #8 also known as “the game where characters die for real this time, i swear” READ IT HERE Ran from January 2022-July 2022 Tagline: One Last Stand. Focus Characters: Rhagre Cipactli (Xccj), Rhagre Cipactli-10002 (Xccj), Jennir Nuan (Terrorsaur), Balathumel (Voxumo), Anaster Petros (Taka), Kortaq Maran (Trijhak) Favorite Moments: Two. The first was the destruction of the Argo, before destroying it became a running gag of sorts. Is destroying a ship funny? Well, it certainly became a running something. Second is death of Metus at the hands of Balathumel, and everything that immediately followed it, including the Battle at Styles. The Game: Epigoni originated as me wanting to tell a small, contained story about a couple long-running characters fighting to the death against overwhelming odds to save the day. Somehow that got mixed in with wanting to do a game set in Karda-Nui, which got mixed into wanting to do a sequel to The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which mixed with wanting to do a space game, which mixed with wanting to do a multiverse game, which mixed with wanting to do another Argonauts game, and then suddenly we have the game with the highest number of chapters in the series. Anyway, it was a fun time. And yes, most of the deaths did end up sticking. Except for Kovant. He escaped the ship explosion because I wanted him to. #7 also known as “efandril darkfire is so important she needs her own game” READ IT HERE Ran from August 2019-September 2019 Tagline: Many Faces. Many Names. Focus Character: Efandril Darkfire (Burnmad) Favorite Moment: If I had to choose one, it is the binary choice that Efandril makes at the very end of the game. It cannot be understated how drastically this shifted the course of the entire series moving forward. The Game: If Season Three and The Final Season had a single main character, that main character’s name was Efandril Darkfire. After being absent for the Argo Trilogy, I wanted to design a game around her… so I did. I merged it with an adaptation of the greek underworld, and the resulting game was small but enormously important. She met a few new faces along the way - Balalthumel, Gragu, and Aion/Khron (played by Voxumo, Xccj, and Dane respectively) - who would all continue to crop up in future games. But some of the biggest moments here derive from the lore that Efandril uncovered, and the decision she made at the very end: to side with the gods against the mortals that would stand against them. This decision changed the course of the Edge of Dawn arc, and in turn, everything that has followed. #6 also known as “the happy-go-lucky adventure where nothing bad ever happens, i swear” READ IT HERE Ran from April 2019-June 2019 Tagline: It’s a Beautiful Day Focus Characters: Ehks Glacies (Ehks), Tabek Umrik (TBK), Rassilon Oak (TTL), Xavi Sivr (Xccj) Favorite Moments: Gosh, where to start? Maybe it’s the final duel where Rassilon and Mazeka fought Rassilon’s abusive, absentee father aboard a sinking ship. Maybe it’s the Kraken fight from Chapter 4. Maybe it’s when I suddenly killed off my own self-insert. Maybe it’s the house of horrors that the players explored in Chapters 2 and 3. Maybe it’s Chapter 7, where the players traveled back in time and created the very enemies they were fighting in the present. Maybe it’s one of the dozens of different shenanigans that happened along the way. The Game: The Argonauts is tough to summarize. Even if the writeups were full-on chapters and not just bullet points, I don’t think anyone who wasn’t there and playing can understand the utter joy that this game was. It was our first game to receive official cover art. Players made doodles and fan comics and memes. It was more lighthearted than any game before, but that meant the tragedies and scares and brutal fights that did crop up hit harder than any game before too. It took us out beyond Okoto, giving us a proper picture of what the rest of Atama looked like for the first time (The Odyssey barely counted). It was the pirate adventure I had always kinda wanted to try running, even before I was running these games. Ranking it at #6 almost feels like a crime. But when it came to these top six, one game had to miss out on the top five, and The Argonauts has some rough spots, courtesy of its age, that some of the games that ranked higher don’t have (or overcome). #5 also known as “sorry not sorry but yes the black eagles are the main protagonists of edge of dawn get rekt losers” READ IT HERE Ran from August 2019-December 2019 Tagline: No More Tomorrows Focus Characters: Eleshna Darkfire (Ehks), Meghana (Zee), Lyonesse Yue’yuan (FF), Anaster Petros (Taka), Samson (Jakura) Favorite Moments: I will limit myself to exactly three, just for you: -The end of Chapter 5 (and let me tell you, I regret spoiling the surprise ahead of time back when I was running this) -The Meghana plotline in Chapter 6. -Eleshna’s arc with Sahmad in Chapter 1. -HAHAHA JUST KIDDING A FOURTH - the debut of the Hunter in Chapter 1. Iconic. Worst Moment: The opener for Chapter 4, and the general setup of that Chapter. What a mess, I tell ya. The Game: Take the Argonauts (my favorite faction) and the Black Eagles (also my favorite faction) and blend the two together. You get Crimson Flower. Just thinking about this game I almost want to rank it higher. Almost. For all of the highs of this game (which I will list shortly), it does have some lows. Chapter 4 is almost abysmally bad compared to the rest of the game; Chapter 7 is rushed, and honestly probably should have been spread out into at least one other Chapter (curse you, Past Me, for your arbitrary limit of seven chapters!); there were some issues with players that involved disliking storylines and significant miscommunications that made things messy at the time. But even still, Crimson Flower is one of my faves. I mean, it has all the following: -The Black Eagles sailing alongside the Argonauts -The Argonauts getting a legacy sequel game -The Hunter -Samson & Metus showing up by surprise in Chapter 1 and sticking around the whole game -Unit Ember & Gragu showing up to star in Chapters 6 and 7 (sorry to spoil the surprise here) -More stuff i won’t spoil for you Anyway, Crimson Flower is great, the Argonauts and Black Eagles are my two favorite PC factions, and the Black Eagles always were and always will be the main protagonists of Edge of Dawn. #4 also known as “the game voltex waited four years to run” READ IT HERE Ran from March 2023-October 2023 Tagline: All for One. One for All. Focus Characters: Rhagre Cipactli-10002 (Xccj), Prevalar Rayne (Terrorsaur), Olik (Oncertainty), Pohatu-2968 (Voxumo), Seqala-420 (Trijhak), Thulox (Unit), Gragu (Xccj), Terrorsaur Rayne (Terrorsaur), Pulse Vatten (Trijhak), Isniel Lasang (FF) Favorite Moment: Aside from finally getting to run the thing? Gotta be TBK rolling a NAT 20 to oneshot a character that was supposed to be one of the final bosses. But also when Prevalar had a three phase duel to end the game in the final battle. But also when the Gragcrew became the main characters for a few chapters. But also when the epilogue of The Apologoi ended up leading right into this game. But also exploring an Incursion (what are those? Read and find out). But also every time Thokiller is onscreen. But also Kivoda Rayne. But also- The Game: Listen, if I start talking about Into the Argo-Verse, we’ll be here all day. I’d been trying to run this game (or some version of it) since 2019 when The Argonauts ended, and four years later, it finally happened. Let’s just say I was very happy, got very silly, and call it a day. #3 also known as “that time voltex finally went back and ran the middle part of that trilogy” READ IT HERE Ran from August 2022-September 2022 Tagline: The Untold Tale of the Argonauts Focus Characters: Ehks Glacies (Ehks), Tabek Umrik (TBK), Juke Bawks (Zee), Prevalar Rayne (Terrorsaur) Favorite Moment: The moment that all of the time travel and multiversal spaghetti clicked for people. Assuming it did, in fact, ever click for them. Also Kivoda Rayne. He’s such a dirtbag, we love him. The Game: Back in 2019, I had the thought that it would be very interesting if I were to follow The Argonauts up with a game concluding the story (The Aenid) and then run a third game set between the two after the fact, as a challenge to see if that middle entry would still be fun to both run and play. My first attempt failed, and we do not talk about it, because it was terrible and it delayed Into the Argo-Verse by four years (though it did mean I pivoted entirely to Edge of Dawn, so it’s not all bad). But in 2022, I had run a poll, and the players voted to play AetherGarde next. Except I had nothing ready for AetherGarde, and I REALLY wanted to run Into the Argo-Verse… so I got a couple players together in secret, and then I ran The Apologoi instead as a stopgap. Little did the players realize, at the time, what my TRUE INTENTIONS WERE! HAHAHA! #2 also known as “all of voltex’s horror hopes and dreams realized” READ IT HERE Ran from January 2022-July 2022 Tagline: There is Nothing to Fear Focus Characters: “Sarah Rays” (Ehks), Dale Eisenhorn (Jakura) Favorite Moment: Everything with the Watermill The Game: Much like Into the Argo-Verse, I was inspired by The Argonauts. The idea of running a fully-fledged horror game would not leave me. Only a few small problems: not everyone is scared by the same things. Not everyone wants to be scared, either. Not everyone can sustain that mindset for hours at a time for a campaign. Some people will claim they’re good for horror, but does that mean they are good at crafting the horror, or experiencing the horror, because those are two very different skills! Anyway, it took 2.5 years, but then Verdant Wind ended, and I got to thinking about a question: Where do Vanished Things Go? You see, one of my favorite PCs, Eleshna Darkfire, had recently erased herself. And one of my favorite NPCs, Seiros, had just pledged to find her. And so the mystery was born: I would lead a campaign adapting the cthulhu mythos and other horrors and mythologies into BZPGOT, and all of it would secretly be leading to the potential return of Eleshna Darkfire to the games, so that she could live out her happy ending. A Midnight Requiem went, I think, about as well as I could have hoped for the first installment of such a series to go. The players were into it. I was into it. And though we all know now where it ended, I have come around to feel that it does not necessarily need to impact how I view this game. (Maybe it helps that the storyline started here with Eleshna and Seiros did end up getting its conclusion in Across the Argo-Verse). Anyway, I feel like this game was pretty swell, even if the whole Glass storyline kinda just shriveled and died afterward. #1 also known as “the magnum opus” READ IT HERE Ran from January 2021-August 2021 Tagline: The End. Focus Characters: *deep breath* Eleshna Darkfire (Ehks), Tekmo Saryian (Toru), Tharkan Plast (Trijhak), Iyara Diurim (TBK), Meghana (Zee), Jakura Aodh (Jakura), Xavi Sivr (Xccj), Lyonesse Yue’yuan (FF), Anaster Petros (Taka), Vlora Crustallus (Voxumo), Nathair Greavesy (Nato), Mlavic Aodh (Unit), Giovanna Aodh (TTL), Veer Sanada (Dane), Efandril Darkfire (Burnmad), Kranan Crustallus (Kranan), Samson (Jakura), Feli Sivr (Xccj), Ehks Glacies (Ehks), Gragu (Xccj), Khron (Dane), Jennir Nuan (Terrorsaur) Favorite Moments: The Game. The Game: Let’s get this clear right out of the gate: Verdant Wind should not have worked. It had too many players. It had too many player characters. It had players playing too many characters. It had too many NPCs. It had too many locations. It had too many factions. It had too many conflicts. Too many plot points. Too many story arcs. Too many character arcs. Too many heroes. Too many antagonists. Too many reveals. But it stuck the landing. Yes, there were one or two stumbles along the way. An event or two that could have used some more foreshadowing; a particular skip in time that maybe wasn’t necessary halfway through. But it stuck the landing. The opener was great. The ending was great. The final battles - yes, both of them, at the midpoint and the finale - were great! The choice that ended it all was great. The characters were great. I loved that it came down to Eleshna & Seiros, that iconic duo, and how their rivalry and relationship evolved. We threw everything at the wall for Verdant Wind, and near all of it actually stuck on the thing. Three years later, it still blows my mind. I could run these games for another century, and I don’t think I’ll ever top this. --- Anyway, that's my ranking of the BZPGOT series! Let me know if you disagree. Share your own rankings, those of you that have observed or participated through the years! (and join the community here if you'd like)

I have been working on this series for a long, long time. The first game launched in May 2016, just over eight years ago now. As we approach the end of the latest arc, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on all the games we have done over the years; all of the characters we have seen, and all of the stories we have told, and - of course - how those stories end. My free time isn't what it used to be (WOW, THAT'S AN ORIGINAL STATEMENT), and the end of every arc always brings with it the possibility that it will also be the end of the series. I considered ending things after Season Two in 2017, I considered ending things after The Final Season in 2019, I considered ending things after Verdant Wind in 2021, and now I'm sitting here in 2024 feeling again like maybe this time it will, truly, be time to let the series rest. How many more games or campaigns do I really have left in me to run? Do I have enough worlds left in this universe worth creating? How do they stack up against all of the other hobbies I would like to fill my time with? Running this series has (mostly) been a blast, but it has also taken so much time that could have been dedicated to other things. Plus, we have done a lot. There are 24 games in the entire series, and extra material besides - various Tales written by the players or myself that add to the worlds we have created. That is a lot of story. There are games in there that deal with medieval politics, games that deal with religion, games that deal with death and undeath and where vanished things go. We've had a murder mystery and plunged ourselves into cosmic horror. We have traveled the seas in pirate adventures, and sailed the multiverse. We have destroyed worlds, saved them, destroyed them again, saved them again. We have traveled through time on dozens of occasions. The players have fought themselves, the players have fought the undead, the players have fought spirits and gods and horrors beyond reckoning. We did a Halloween Special! We did a Holiday Special! We tried - and kinda succeeded? - in doing a Roguelike! There has been so much art - cover art for games, special artworks for special chapters, fan comics (some canonized), character pieces, emotes, sketches. We've done a lot. I mean, just look at the image below. Five (or really six) story arcs. You have The Long Night in red: Season One, A Clockwork Night, Season Two. You have The Great War in black: Season Three, The Odyssey, The Final Season. You have The Argo Trilogy in green: The Argonauts, The Apologoi, The Aenid. You have Edge of Dawn in blue: Theogony, Twilight Requiem, Azure Moon, Silver Snow, Crimson Flower, Verdant Wind. Somewhere in there, you have Glass. You have The Many Worlds in purple: The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Epigoni, Into the Argo-Verse, Across the Argo-Verse, and the upcoming final chapter. And then the Tales from Atama in orange: AetherGarde, The Abomination!!, Balathumel and the 12 Days of X-Mas. -- I know that I have at least three games left in me. One is the final chapter of The Many Worlds. The other two will explore the two possible outcomes of a choice that was made at the end of all good things. And I think, if that is where this series ends, I would be satisfied with how it all turned out. But who knows? After all, I have said this all before. There are no games running at the moment. But if you'd like to join our community, you can click this link.

Can't believe I've missed this topic for an entire month!! What the heck!! These are all so very cool! If you do end up opening commissions, I would be very very interested!! Too many here to go over each individual piece, but I'll highlight some of my favorites: -Bohrok Va from post #1. Love the watercolor, love the perspective. -Krika from post #1 -Click from post #1 -I think it's Makuta from MNOG? The Hau with all the creepy arms? -Krika sketch from post #2 -Norik from post #2 -the starry night sky from post #3 -Umbra from post #4 -harp girl from the latest post (I feel like this is a character I recognize from somewhere but I do not remember where from) -Krika collage from latest post, very cool look (also Krika is just cool in general)

Should be under "entry actions", the button at the bottom left of the post?

Read through the script, and I think for a draft of merging all of 2006 into a single movie (which is a pretty tough ask - 2006 is all over the place story-wise!) it does a great job! Like Nato, I don't think I have the skills to assist you but the project does pique my interest.

surely the next phone call will work, surely

i, for one, would love to see more i like the rough, sketchy edges everything has (that's my deep art analysis from being a total art professional /s)

Today is #810nicleday and so I thought I might use this opportunity to visit this old place to once again share some of the artwork that some fantastic folks have done for the campaigns I run over in the BZPGOT Discord server! But first things first: an invitation. If you're interested in potentially participating in any future games (or simply want to hang out with other Bionicle fans), you can click the invite link to join us! Anyway, onto the art. Today I wanted to highlight the series of covers that I commissioned for Verdant Wind two years ago. If I've done it right, you should be able to click the image to see a higher resolution. Verdant Wind was the ultimate culmination of five years' worth of stories. It served as a grand finale for every character and story that had appeared up to that point, and to celebrate the occasion, I commissioned several covers for it. The first cover, done by @TBK, is the official cover of Verdant Wind. It features the leaders of three player factions standing off against the game's main antagonist, with the broken pieces of my own NPC's mask in the dirt behind them. The first variant cover, done by @ToaTImeLord, features those same player characters standing off against each other - fitting, as Verdant Wind brought them back into conflict before bringing them together. The second variant cover was done by @xccj. In addition to the leaders, this cover features much of the other player characters - those who made up the core cast of the Edge of Dawn arc. The third and fifth variant covers were done by some of my IRL friends (and yes, that fifth one is watercolor!). Both feature the faction leaders. The fourth variant cover was done by @ZippyWharrgarbl. Like Xccj's cover, this one features much of the player cast, with a couple cameos and secrets sneakily inserted as well. The sixth variant cover was done by @Jakura Nuva. It features the three player faction leaders being crushed beneath the game's main antagonist. The seventh variant cover is a unique one; I commissioned it later than the others, as Verdant Wind reached its halfway point (and the big twist that would come with it - one that ultimately united the entire game world together). @Akaku: Master of Flight did a fantastic job bringing it to life; it features a set of characters who together represent every era of the games up to that point, working together. The eight variant cover is also unique. I am responsible for the design, but I take no credit for the artwork used - that's all TBK and Akaku. Anyway, that's all for today, folks. Hope you enjoyed!