Yam I Am

Toontown | The Guild's #1 Stop for Cartoon Discussion

And despite my ambivalent feelings toward Edgerunners, it was clearly a success. (In garnering interest back into a product with bad PR.) So, maybe now that this is the third time something like this has been positively received on Netflix, they'll make these instead of those shitty live action anime movies. >.>

@SleepingSilence

I dunno why everyone gives CD: Projekt Red so much shit. I mean, they're the best advertising firm I know: They've managed to convince people that they make good games for the past 15 years!

Solar Winds : A Reboot

Ditch all this numerical stat-block bullshit and i'm all in

Toontown | The Guild's #1 Stop for Cartoon Discussion

The first episode of the Cyberpunk anime was kinda bad in the heavy handed, generic way that was somehow both slow and too fast paced for a 26 minute thing.

And then I saw that it was done by the guy who did Promare, a movie I fucking think sucks massive ween, and then it all clicked.

@Fabricant451

@Fabricant451, I quit watching after the first episode, as well (?).

@Mole

Well since Edgerunners is the topic of discussion and i've just gotten done watching it with my roommate, i'll pitch in my two cents: Going off of these two in particular.

Edgerunners is...fine? Like...it's okay? It's not bad? But in that same breath I hesitate to call it "good". It's very...standard. For a beat-by-beat, plot-point perspective, Edgerunners has nothing new to bring to the table.

Edgerunners - much like its contemporary in Cyberpunk 2077 - is like your first girlfriend: She's nice. Kinda cute. You two get along and go out, not a whole lot, but just enough. But she's also really just basic. And if this is baby's first forray into cyberpunk, then like your first girlfriend, you'll probably be madly in love with her for a few months, then after a while, after you grow and know one another for a while, you two just drift apart. Then you two stop talking for a bit. You meet new people, and every now and again, you think of her - and you sorta struggle to really bring it to yourself to like her again. But she's your first, and the nostalgia will forever be there.

For fans of the cyberpunk genre - especially those who have been really long-time, 10, 20, even 30 year fans of it - Edgerunners is very archetypical. None of the characters are bad - but they do fall a bit too neatly into their contemporary archetypes, and these aren't really shaken up in really all too interesting of ways. They're all pretty well written with their own motivations for being around and doing everything they do (a nice change of pace from the usual shitfest of excuse motivations that most anime characters fall into), and if you know the archetypes, you know exactly what's going where and what whose deal is. My roommate really loved him, but personally David wasn't anything mind-blowing to me: He was another street kid with dreams of grandeur, looking for a way up who just can't seem to keep his head on straight.

On the note of some whiplash, there are a lot of scenes in Edgerunners that are really colorful, bright, flashy action scenes full of blood and bullets...and all that bright and vivid neon just can't really cover up the really just mediocre choreography. None of the gunfights are particularly exiting. I think a lot of that boils down to the sort of awkward shotwork that comes out of animation as a medium - it's less of an issue to show off really good gunfight action in live action where you can position it wherever you please, but even in an era of computer-assisted animation, even the pros get it difficult to pin down. The end result here are a lot of really just gosh darn frustrating scenes that have some of the neat parts sprinkled around, but just can't pull it all together to make a shootout scene worth a damn.

It just leaves me in an odd spot to put Edgerunners. Nothing about this show is bad, and I can sure give some praise here and there for certain scenes...but in the whole scene of eveything cyberpunk, for all its eponym suggests, Edgerunners seems pretty content to stay far from the cutting edge.

Relief, Houston - A High Tech Low Life Cyberpunk Story

>from the dried and burnt California fled on the coattails of tech elite that spread like locusts from the barren wastes of decayed silicone valley to greener pastures in Austin, those that could afford the move.

As someone who's lived in Austin for 24 years, I think it is very kind of you to think that this place won't go up in flames due to our severe drought cycles and like we didn't just have massive wildfires that ravaged the entire north side of town about 10 years ago.

Now as for the actual setting of Houston proper, I can give some decent knowledge of the place, owing to the fact that I have a ton of friends and some family who have lived there for a while.

@Gisk

I'm trying to imagine a future refugee crisis and exodus from California, I know California has a pretty heavy Asian population as well with China, Japan, Korea, and even Taiwan having sizeable communities and wondering what some of that combining with Texas might be, there will definitely be some elements that come in and it won't be absent of Asian culture at all. I just don't want it dominating the scene for lack of a better word. I was def already toying with how that idea would change in story.

@Krash

There are some pretty good-sized Chinese and Vietnamese communities in Houston. It's Chinatown is a decent size, but it's more of an "Asiatown" for the entire Asian-American diaspora than anything specifically related to Chinese-Americans (If you think racism might have something to do with that, congratulations for using your brain and welcome to Texas). Most of the Vietnamese came there during the mid-70s and have stuck around since. You get occasional groups of Koreans and Japanese, but again, nothing i'd really consider out of the ordinary for

About Houston's layout: It's fucking disperse. If you want cyberpunk-styled megacomplexes and giant concrete spires, Houston is not your place. All those pretty skyscrapers you see in those pictures of Houston's skyline? Yeeeeep, those are all office buildings. You aren't gonna find too many high-rises over in H-town: It's a lot of like 2 or 3-story apartment complexes that look like Motel 6's and then a bunch of neighborhoods from around there, all stemming off from the absolute congestion nightmare that is Houston's infrastructure. Seriously. Driving in Houston should be standard practice for measuring someone's blood pressure.

Now, there is a decently interesting take you could spin this all with Houston's economy: A huge part of Houston's historic economy was how all the refineries and petroleum companies were located there. But if there's a huge shock and the oil industry is going to shit with a huge push for electric stuff and alternative energy, then all of a sudden Houston's staying power is thrown immediately out the window and it becomes another Detroit. So you could do some cool stuff where like abandoned refineries are used as hideouts and marketplaces, and there's all these basically-abandoned office high-rises downtown that have been basically converted into squatters' communities, maybe run by the local slum lord.

What Are You Listening To?

⥑ Ember to Ashes ⥏ Dark Fantasy/Mythology (Interest Check)

Bump

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Apocalypse Rescue Team

Character Creation: Be sure to make a well crafted character for the RP. I understand that this isn't exactly a bright and cheery RP, but nobody wants to have to deal with the edgelord skulking in the corner being cringe.

@Lord Orgasmo

Fuck. Looks like i'll have to join another RP.

Yam's Organic Character Farm and Distillery

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___________________________________ Yerka Zhan, 22 ________________________________________________________________________________________ Azhari | Hekhaz, Azhar, Outer Rim Territories ___________________________________ [+] ▼ E X T R A I N F O R M A T I O N ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ► DOB - 02/29/3976 BBY ► Height - 5'10" / 179cm ► Weight - 157 lbs / 71 kg ► Hair Color - Red ► Eye Color - Amber ► Specialization - Sith Acolyte -

D E T A I L E D A P P E A R A N C E Azhari are - if utterly forced at blaster-point to choose - just shy of "Human". The near-Human race of their eponymous homeworld are accustomed to a humid, temperate, and windy climate which permeates throughout the world's vast hills and dotted with shallow oceans. They have sharp eyes with slit, dark pupils evocative of reptiles and are possessive of long tongues, through which their olfactory systems perceive the world in scent and taste. Yerka speaks with the same wispy rasp that permeates through her race, and finds it simple to hiss and difficult to make harsh, cut sounds, which instead translate to a phenomenon not dissimilar to that of a snake hissing at its prey. P E R S O N A L I T Y Yerka is very direct, handling most issues head on and never being one to shy away from confrontation. Though she certainly possesses drive, her temper can prove to be rather short. When provoked by actions she sees as short-sighted or foolish, she doesn't hesitate to interject her own thoughts on the matter, leading her to often question their capabilities or intelligence. Yerka is not particularly shy, seeing displays of herself as natural - and finds it odd that others don't have the willpower to do so in turn. From her old roots at home she developed an appreciation of song and dance, and to this day she still practices the latter. After leaving Azhar and receiving some exposure to the wider galaxy, Yerka took up to playing the Synthtone. While she can come off as a closed and cold young Sith Acolyte, Yerka is very loyal to her friends and people she has come to respect. Though she's spent a good number of her formative years now in the training of the Sith, Yerka still has tied herself down to something resembling a moral code. She holds betrayal and forsaking of promises in utter disdain, leading to many clashes with both other students and her instructors at the academy. Her experiences in tribal life - with its focus on communal survival - has lead her to view most Sith at the academy as nothing else but petty thugs or small-minded bullies. Although she's hasn't found the greatest appreciation for the Sith, she views them as at least somewhat superior to the Jedi, whom she views mostly as either spineless cowards or as apathetic hypocrites.

---_{B I O G R A P H Y}

Born to the somewhat isolated Outer Rim planet of Azhar, Yerka was born among her primitive people who had earned their livelihoods hunting and foraging along the planet's rugged surface for parts and technology in one of Azhar's dotted spaceports. At a young age, her planet was visited by Jedi, who had come in search of finding force-sensitives to be taken for training. Force-sensitives such as Yerka were highly prized in Azhari culture for their utility as witch-doctors and fortune-tellers, and when the Jedi had come, most all the Azhari refused for any of them to be taken. Although some had been taken to the Jedi after a struggle, Yerka remained on her planet, where she grew up alongside the hunters and witches of her people. Yerka was raised suspicious and distrustful of the Jedi Order as a result of these actions.

Although Azhar's relative isolation had saved it from the initial conflicts of the Mandalorian Wars, in due time it would find itself occupied by the Mandalorians, who sought out more sources of manpower. Seeing the Azhari as capable scouts and warriors, a teenage Yerka would be dragged alongside the conflict in its closing days, a trial by fire against the Republic and their Jedi allies against her nascent Force proficiency. After a brutal fight, Azhar was freed of the entrenched Mandalorians by 3960 BBY, but at the cost of grievous scars across Azhari society and life. Much of the planet was brutalized in the fighting. Yerka's disdain for the Jedi only grew, and soonafter she learned of the revival of the Sith against the Jedi. Making pilgrimage to Korriban, she found herself undertaking perilous trial after trial, until she was finally accepted into the Academy late into her teenage years, just to be greeted by academy life which rewarded pettiness and scheming over actual learning.

---_{E Q U I P M E N T}

- Lightsaber (Yellow)
- Short Lightsaber (Red)
- Datapad
- Commlink

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-A Template by Load Wraith

The Draw of Nation Roleplay.

>To address these questions, this is exactly what I do. Well aside from Madden as I just don't like EA. But generally I do just play a game, such as Skyrim as has been mentioned, or make up stories in my head or worldbuild. And arguably I get more progress doing that than I would roleplaying as roleplays--due to their nature--have a habit of either dying or becoming a source of lost motivation. That and for the last question I'd prefer that personally because it would give me more ability to pursue whatever my vision is without stepping on other people's toes.

>These are the reasons why I myself don't do NRP, and have only barely gotten back into character RP outside of 1x1's. Because it's often more creatively freeing if I either write it all myself or play a game and then write a story or lore or AU myself. But I do see what you mean, and how RP serves as an outlet for some when things such as games or solo projects simply won't or can't do according to personal preference.

@Zyx

...this is more just a statement on the fundamentals of what makes roleplaying as a hobby enjoyable than any specific statement on Nation RP. Like, it's all about cooperation - give and take, like I said earlier. If that just doesn't mesh or if you feel like it's a hassle to how your creative process works, nobody's gonna judge you on that. But cooperating with other players isn't anything unique to NRP...that's just Roleplaying Basics 101. And if that's just something you don't want to deal with for one reason or another, then that's fine.

NRPs go and die just like casual or advanced or 1x1 RPs do, and there's no magical sticking point that will just make players stay around just because there's "nation" or "advanced" attached to it.

The Draw of Nation Roleplay.

>My question at that point though is one, why not just play an empire building game?

@Zyx

If you wanna RP as an anime knight, why not just play Final Fantasy 14?

If you wanna RP as an action movie crime lord, why not just play Saint's Row or GTA Online?

If you wanna RP as a sports star sensation, why not just play Madden or FIFA?

If you wanna RP as a fantasy adventuring rogue, why not just play Skyrim?

If you wanna RP as a country, culture, language, and history that you have to create and do a bunch of research for, why not just write a book?

On the other, it can fall to dick measuring, and at that point I cite my grand strategy game question. If you want that level of progress in a--let's face it--usually far fairer environment, then a game with carefully balanced mechanics is probably a better way to go. And it gives the dopamine hit of progress without necessarily having to step on anyone's toes intent-wise.

@Zyx

Two key points here, one per statement:

1) Dick-measuring contests are the stuff that politics and plots are made of. It's all dick-measuring. If there weren't any, and everyone was smart and rational and nobody was stupid or petty or incompetent or jealous, then it'd be a really boring state of affairs. The best part about dick-measuring contests is that usually what ends up happening is that nobody ends up actually pulling out their dick, out of fear that their opponent actually has the bigger dick - just like in real life. Getting your toes stepped on is just part of politicking: It's how you deal with your boo-boos that drive the plots forward, and it's easy to forget that sometimes. You will rarely ever be able to get all that you want, and its part of the development of the plot - goals, aims, dreams, ambitions, all crashing headlong into reality as you have to face the inconvenient truth and decide how you want any of this to be incorporated...if it even can. But it's all those wants and desires - and why we can't have them - that make plots. And plots make for stories.

2) Strategy games aren't balanced, even by their developers' own admission. Why? Because nations aren't balanced. Perfectly-balanced nations isn't even a desirable goal by any stretch of the imagination: All that really tends to do is leave a staleness that makes it difficult to really maneuver around. A country like Bulgaria or Syria, no matter how hard they try, just aren't going to out-punch someone in industry or economy or military might like China or the USA. So they have to get crafty and use what they've got. Start using connections and find out just that little competitive edge that they have that they can use as leverage, maybe get a few good friends on the side. Maybe some of those friends don't like some of your other friends, so you have to play a game of negotiation and placation, and compromise with all of them until either you reach some sort of agreement or you just have to get on one side of the fence or the other.

The overarching theme here is that it's all give-and-take.

You know, it's really funny seeing all of the points of conflict in NRP being brought up: They're all beginner's traps of Nation RP. Superpower Gary Stu nation? Pure beginner's trap - it's pretty common assumption that it's way better to make a country that is, at the start of the game, undergoing some manner of instability, crisis, or is otherwise in some undesirable situation and work towards it.

Let's just start this all up - think of this as kindergarden of NRP basics. Nation RP is easily the most detail-oriented type of RP you can do. There's so many moving parts to any organization that it can get mind-bogglingly complex that you could never reasonably hope to get any or all of it completely on your CS before you start writing posts. And some people never even get that far. And it usually comes down to research: A whole lotta research. And for a lot of people, doing that much legwork isn't something they're really into. Keep in mind, it's perfectly normal for the nation to not be 100% developed before the game starts, but as situations and ideas come up, you gradually do more and more research, tack on ideas here and there, and really flesh it out more and more as you think about things you didn't have to earlier.

You know...kinda like a regular character RP.

Which is kind of the elephant in the room anytime NRP gets brought up. People seem to forget that Nation Roleplays...are roleplays. Just because you slap "nation" on it and maybe expand the scope of what you're writing doesn't just slap away all of the other problems that you can encounter anywhere else: In basically any other kind of roleplaying, you'll get all these same problems - undependable posters, Mary Sue/OP characters, drama, unreasonable demands, lore disputes, et cetera.

But the concept of the entire country at play offers a whole level of creative freedom and possibility for interaction that i've never been able to get in any other kind of roleplay.

And when all that legwork finally all comes together and you and your RP group are filling out ideas, and it's all now in motion...just a sudden spark of imagination sets off a chain of ideas - ideas that turn into whole plots, motivations, intrigues, and you spend the next 2 hours talking over just the possibilities alone. You know how character RPs can utterly sparkle when you finally get to delve deep into their psychologies? Nation RP does that - but for sociology, history, military science, art, architecture, music, and so, so so much more.

And when that all happens, the world you've spent so much time together creating with you and your friends just completely comes alive. It's like turning the lights on in your basement and you find an old Christmas present that your parents just forgot to take up one year, and you unwrap it and like you somehow forgot, you re-discover what it means to let your imagination run wild. You get completely lost in it, where it almost seems real. And even with all of this coming together - a country's culture, it's people, it's art, what they eat for breakfast, how they look at the news in the morning, and all those people living, breathing, being in this own space sets off something in the back of your mind, like it's a dream that's just too vivid to ever forget.

It's time when you are master of the universe. As you staying ageless and motionless before your computer, flying untouched over human frenzy, where cities rise and crumble under my thumb, tiny people ran hurriedly to their lives and deaths on the roads you built, and time flew and froze at your command.

Then it all stopped, and you have to become one of those running specks. They call it life.

And that feeling is so good, so great, so utterly fucking wonderfully intoxicatingly Kafkaesque that you will bitch and moan and fight and argue over and over and over again with 100 different groups over 10 years over the most minute details...just to get there again. And it's the best feeling in the whole fucking world.