Salt and Sanctuary Guide: Boss Weaknesses and basic strategies

 This is as much for me as it is for my friend Shelby, who is brand new to Salt and Sanctuary. I'm centralizing the boss weaknesses in order of potential encounter, as well as some basic tactics.

So, the first boss is the Unspeakable Deep. If you're skilled enough with the game to take on this "one attempt only" boss, he's weaker to blunt damage, but also to the pitchfork. The spear heavy attack does a two hit attack when you're close, and since you're doing a two hit combo max before rolling through it, you can melt his health bar faster than the morningstar, the next highest damage weapon for the deep.

 The Sodden Knight is weak to blunt and fire damage. And if you choose the Iron Ones or the Three, you can buy firepots from the merchant, and those can rip through the Knight's health.

The Queen of Smiles is weak to slash, fire, lightning and holy, though holy is the only one it has no resistance to. Use the Blessed Pages you got on your way to the boss.

The Mad Alchemist is weak to slash, and also all elements. And I've found that firepots can rip through not only his health, but also the adds he occasionally summons.

The Kraekan Cyclops(yes, that is how this game spells "kraken") is weak to slash and all elements. And I mean 0 in those resistances. However, I've found poison to be extremely effective. Pessmuld drop randomly from mobs in the Watching Wood, and the Stone Roots merchant sells them, though you have to join them in order to place it. You can leave and join a different creed immediately after, and if you want to rejoin your former creed, the Candlelight lady is on the lower path from the Village of Smiles to the Watching wood, in the drop down after getting the Scythe.

The False Jester is Slash and Poison, with "all elements" being its weakness in Classic Mode.

The Kraekan Wyrm is weak to strike, holy and is allergic to lightning. 

The next bosses are dependent on which path you take. The path I take leads to a grinding spot and the best movement abilities. You can head into the Red Hall of Cages instead, but I'm going to describe the path I take.

So, the first boss of the Dome of the Forgotten is the Untouched Inquisitor, who is weak to slash, fire and arcane. Fire is the better one, since it creates a DOT effect.

Then comes the Third Lamb. This is a tough fight if you're not prepared, but it's weak against slash and fire. 

The next boss in this path is the Dried King, who is weak to blunt and holy damage. Fire and lightning are also low resistances.

At this point, I return to the Red Hall, and head down toward the Tree of Men. The Tree of Men is allergic to lightning. Blunt damage is the next closest weakness.

The Disemboweled Husk is weak to slash and holy, though I find fire more effective due to the DOT effect.

The Stench Most Foul is weak to slash, fire and holy, though again, fire's DOT is powerful.

At this point, you've gotten all the movement abilities, so you can access all the bosses. My path takes me to Ronin Cran, who is weak to strike, poison, holy and arcane, plus fire and lightning in classic.

This gives an easier path to the Bloodless Prince, since getting through the lower path of the Ziggurat of Dust is a pain. The Prince is weak to slash, fire, lightning, holy and arcane.

The Coveted is weak to strike and arcane, with all other elements being just as good.

I'd hit Carsejaw the Cruel next. Carsejaw is notoriously weak, with low HP and defenses.In Enhanced, strike is his only true weakness, with all others but arcane being being low resistance, with arcane being 500. In Classic, only Poison being the only stated resistance.

The Witch of the Lake is the next boss on my list, and all I can say is "good luck", due to how RNG heavy her fight is. She's weak to slash, fire and holy, though it's a small consolation while you die over and over as you learn her tells.

The Unskinned and the Architect is a duo boss, with two health bars. The Unskinned is weak to elements, with slash being the next lowest. The Architect is weak to slash and arcane, so your best bet for this duo fight is for you to use stained pages, as those are the arcane weapon buff.

Murdiella Mal is out of the way, and she's weak to slash and fire, lightning and poison. She's weak against holy and arcane in Classic Mode.

The next optional boss is the King, the Knight and the Judge. Three health bars, and the King and Knight are weak to fire, and the Judge to arcane. The Judge has no resistance to slash, and the King and Knight have low resistance to slash.

Kraekan Dragon Skourzh has no special weakness, but is strong to strike and lightning. 

And lastly, the Nameless God is weak to strike, with slash being his next lowest resistance. All others are a 500 in resistance, so any weapon buff would be fine.

 And that's the weaknesses for all the bosses! Hope this helps anyone who comes across this!

 Until next time, stay beautiful freaks! 

Dark Souls 1 Character Build: Neolithic Rogue

  It's time for another "Neolithic Character Build" for Dark Souls 1. To remind everyone reading this, I keep seeing "caveman builds" in Dark Souls Remastered challenge run builds, so I decided to create a "more realistic" based on real world neolithic societies.

Today I started with the thief class, as they started with our weapon of choice, the Bandit's Knife. And this is my SL125 Neolithic Rogue

Vitality 50

Attunement 11

Endurance 40

Strength 22(I actually had to use this as a dump stat to get up to SL125)

Dexterity 50

Resistance 10 

Intelligence 12

Faith 11

Power Within

Wander Set +9

Pyromancy Flame(Upgrading does not affect Power Within) 

Longbow +10 with poison arrows 

Heater Shield/Target Shield +10, depending on how easy you find parrying

 Bandit's Knife +15 (this is the only knife available that doesn't require true steel working. It could feasibly be bone, iron or obsidian)

Hornet Ring

Wolf Ring 

This is definitely a PVP focused build, as most bosses can't be parried, though they can be bled. And if I wasn't restricting myself to Neolithic standards, I could easily take some of the strength points for intelligence and another in attunement so I'd have access to the Magic Weapon spells.

 But that's it for this Neolithic build, and until next time, Stay Beautiful Freaks! 

 

Salt and Sanctuary Beginner's Guide

 Since my friend Shelby has professed interest in Salt and Sanctuary, I figured I'd create a beginner's guide. It'll be very bare bones, focusing on the very beginning of the game.

First off, the 3 beginning creeds. Without upgrading anything, The Three, Devara's Light and the Iron Ones determine which items you can purchase at the beginning vendors. At level 1, both The Three and The Iron Ones stone merchant sell Pitchfire, a fire buff, Fire Pots, a potent firebomb that can carry throughout the game, and Red Shards, a consumable heal that doesn't replenish at sanctuaries and candles. Also, the Iron Ones are the only creed that sell Shock stones, a lightning buff that's potent throughout several bosses.

Devara's Light, however, sells Light Vessels in lieu of Fire Pots, and they do holy damage instead of fire. All three have equitable heals, though the Water of Blessing grants the protection buff, which is 2x your current defense rating. 

 Devara's Light's blacksmith sells the Flintlock Pistol at level 1, the other 2 sell at at level 3.

And finally, the Iron Ones have two changes at the Cleric and Mage; the mage sells lightning storm(a tier 3 incantation, so you can't use it right away if you're a mage) instead of wildfire(which is tier 1, and can be used as a mage right away), and the cleric is the only creed that sells War Horns, which increase stamina regeneration during combat, which is a great buff during boss fights. This is why I say to choose the Iron Ones as your starting creed, place down the stone merchant, cleric and guide so you can warp back to this sanctuary to replenish supplies, as you can still buy from abandoned creed's merchants.

Second, I've seen that new players can have trouble finding certain weapons if they don't know where to look. The Kureimoa(aka Claymore) can be found in the Village of Smiles, in a hidden room that you may not see due to level geometry hiding the light that tells you about a hidden room.

The Infantry Poleaxe can be found early if you're willing to brave the Bandit's Pass to the right of the Devara's Light sanctuary, and later on if you return there through proper progression.

The Haymaker(A Grim Reaper style scythe) is found after defeating the Queen of Smiles, following the lower path and opening the gate.

The Warhammer is found by entering the Sunken Keep from the upper path out of the Watching Woods. The lower path leads to an elevator that leads to a boss.

And finally, the Outlaw Greataxe is found in the locked door in the Bandit's Pass outside Castle of Storms. the key is found on your approach from the Sunken Keep.

The game does not teach you how to parry. Looking at the controls does not tell you how to parry, but by holding block and pressing attack, it allows you to parry with nearly every weapon. The only weapons that do not parry that way are the bow, crossbow, pistol and wand. The crossbow and pistol take a cue from Bloodborne and utilize that timing, and the wand allows you to use one equipped spell. 

 And lastly, the game doesn't accurately tell you how certain abilities affect how you handle weapons. Daggers, shields, wands, staves, bows, and whips are all their own skill to use. But other weapon skills count for multiple weapons. 

1 handed swords and greatswords both use the Swordfighter skill. All 1 handed hammers and axes fall under the Berzerker Skill. Greathammers and Greataxes, however, fall under the Heavy Macefighter skill. And finally, all Spears, Reapers(Scythes) and Poleaxes all fall under the Pikeman skill.

 Lastly, starting gifts. They don't tell you what they do at character creation. Red Shards are a consumable healing item. Stone Sellsword allows you to summon a friend at your first sanctuary. You can find one after the 1st boss. The amber idol is a transmutation material, and it's only useful if you know what kind of weapon you want to transmute into. The Grasping ring grants you 10% more salt from every kill, so it's a staple for most builds. and lastly, the Crystal Sphere allows you to convert a sanctuary for your chosen creed. These aren't really useful until after you've started leveling up your creed and want its bonuses.  

Oh, and one more thing; desecrating a sanctuary. The game does not tell you how to do this, and if you're new, DO NOT DO THIS! It's only required if you want the Order of the Betrayer as your creed, and you don't get access to it until nearly the end. But in order to do this, you take the Stained Page, your arcane weapon buff, and place it on top of sanctuary icon you want to desecrate. You'll then be attacked by all merchants you placed/that are already there, and then be attacked by 2 waves of sanctuary guardians. Defeat all them to clear the sanctuary, and if you're Order of the Betrayer, you'll get creed level up items. 

And if you're intending to join the Betrayers, you need to either die at your first attempt to desecrate a sanctuary, or use the Bell of Return to avoid the fight. You'll get the bloody writ, which you'll need to join the Betrayers near the end of the game. 

 And finally, here's the fextralife wiki for Salt and Sanctuary. It covers both the Enhanced version(only available on PC) and the standard version. https://saltandsanctuary.wiki.fextralife.com/Salt+and+Sanctuary+Wiki 

Hopefully, this will help anyone coming to Salt and Sanctuary without overloading them. But until next time, Stay Beautiful Freaks! 

Dark Souls 1 Character Builds: Neolithic Shaman

 It's time for another "Neolithic Character Build" for Dark Souls 1. To remind everyone reading this, I keep seeing "caveman builds" in Dark Souls Remastered challenge run builds, so I decided to create a "more realistic" based on real world neolithic societies.

 Starting class was Cleric, and that helps push toward the Shaman build, where they're using the power of stories to heal, help when surrounded and to buff their weapon, since Miracles are stories of the gods. Here's the SL125 Neolithic Shaman

Vitality 40 

Attunement 14

Endurance 40

Strength 44

Dexterity 20

Resistance 11

Intelligence 8

Faith 30

Wrath of the Gods

Great Heal

Sunlight Blade

Pyromancer Set +9 (Neolithic people would wear cloth, with some stones for jewelry)

Great Club +15 (did a spear build last time)

Heater Shield +10 (Dark Souls has access to fire magic, so metal working is viable as long as they can find it)

Raw Shortbow +5 with Poison Arrows

Sunlight Talisman (Stronger than the basic Canvas Talisman, but still looking like a Neolithic person would use)

Havel's Ring and Wolf Ring, since jewelry has always been a thing humans do.

 This one's a little stronger in PVP than the Quality Spear Pyromancer build, only lacking in stamina regeneration buffs due to the weight of the weapons.

 This is the last of the magic capable builds in my Neolithic series, since Sorceries require schools and books.  Most I'd be willing to allow from this point on would be Power Within, since that's just pushing beyond the body's limits. 

 Until next time, stay beautiful freaks! 

Dark Souls 1 Character Builds: Neolithic Fighter

 So, I don't post to this blog very often anymore, mostly because I'm more active on Youtube lately. But after seeing a LOT of "caveman builds" in my feed from Dark Souls Challenge Runners, I came up with a more realistic build for person from a almost neolithic society. I have to make allowances for some level of metal working, but since this is a world with magic, a neolithic tribe would figure out how to use pyromancy to perform metal forging, because if I didn't, I'd be stuck with the "club, large club and great club" build those challenge runners use, and I want to utilize equipment that a neolithic society would use.

With that said, here's my SL125 Neolithic Fighter. Starts with a Pyromancer.

40 Vitality

28 Attunement

40 Endurance

35 Strength

35 Dexterity

12 Resistance

10 Intelligence

8 Faith

Great Fireball

Great Chaos Fireball

Power Within

Fire Tempest

Chaos Storm 

Pyromancer Set +9 (Neolithic people would have simple cloth clothes, but would also reasonably have simple jewelry with gems and polished stones.)

Spear +15 (I know the tip is steal, but we don't have access to stone tools in this game)

Heater Shield +10 (I know its metal, but with pyromancy, they could perform metal working to a lesser degree)

Ascended Pyromancy Flame +5

Reinforced Club +15 (Humans have been shoving sharp objects into blunt objects as long as we've been aware we could do that)

Short bow +10 with poison arrows

Wolf Ring, Cloranthy Ring or Bellowing Dragon Crest Ring. Jewelry is a reasonable thing for humans to create, since we've been doing that for as long as we've been human

 

And there we go. SL125 so it's good for PVP, and since it's a quality build, it's robust enough to use all the weapons  on the list. It's also a good PVE build due to the Pyromancy spells. I'll figure out a miracle build too, since in Dark Souls, Miracles are stories passed down through the generations, and humans have been storytellers for as long as we've been human.

That's it for now, so stay beautiful freaks! 

Update to things

 So, it's been 2 years since I last posted to this blog. And it's not intentionally left barren. I'm just more active on Youtube these days. I vlog on subjects I used to blog about, like my DnD days, reviews of games, shows and other things. So, if you want to see what I'm up to, click this link. I'll probably use this blog as a secondary place to post my vlogs, and I'll post here when I intend to do more thought out things rather than the rambling I do on Youtube. 

 Until next time, stay beautiful freaks! 

Vampire the Masquerade: Antedeluvian Chronicles Rules

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

So, it's time for me to post the ruleset the Antediluvian Chronicles.  First off, when I created the idea for this, I was running on Vampire the Masquerade: Revised Edition, but you can easily use 5th edition's Dark Ages rules in a pinch. 

With that in mind, even the Dark Ages rules require some changes. Going off the Dark Ages character sheet, you'll have access to all Talents. Among the Skills, Commerce would be restricted, since you'd have come from a closed society, and you became a "god" to the humans, so they provide everything you'd ever need.

As for Knowledges, that has the most restrictions; Linguistics, Seneschal, Occult, Theology, and Law wouldn't be available at character creation. As previously stated, you come from a Neolithic society, anything that's not required for survival wouldn't be available.

That doesn't mean that those abilities won't be available during the chronicle. Trade will begin, Languages will develop, Laws will need to be created, religions other than Caine's direct interactions with the One Above will form amongst outsiders, etc. 

Roads/Paths of Enlightenment are not available until partway through the chronicle, not even thought about until after the destruction of Namtaru. The default Paths will be the Dark Ages Roads, Road of Humanity, which is holding true to their former human morality in order to prevent the Wassail, and the Road of the Beast, which tries to sate it by holding survival as their top virtue. All other Roads and Paths are derived from these two, and may be developed over the chronicle.

Additionally, disciplines would be restricted as well. Characters have access to Animalism, Auspex, Celerity, Dominate, Fortitude, Obfuscate, Potence, Presence and Protean. Clan specific disciplines like Chimerstry, Obeah/Valeren, Obtenebration, Quietus and Mortis would be developed during the Second City. Viscissitude would be created AFTER the second city by Ashur, since, in my mind, I always looked at it was a "seed of the Antedeluvian", so he'd create Koldunic Sorcery, but that would be the only form of blood magic. 

As for characters, you'd be playing one of the 13 clan founders. Each of them has an origin tailored to them.

Veddhartha is was a Seneschal for the 1st city, and is the final child of Enoch, embraced as the last of the 16. He is extremely jealous of Lucien, setting up the rivalry of the Ventrue and Lasombra early.

Arikel was an artist and a dancer in life, creating simple art like cave paintings and carvings. Enoch was moved by her works, and made it so she could create her art forever.

Ashur was an early shaman, in tune with the earth, an early indication of his clan curse. He's the only one to to have access to the Occult skill at character creation.

Lucien is the first child of Enoch, and will be groomed for greatness. However, Enoch will see that the embrace awakened a darkness that had been there in life.

Ilyes was a warrior in life, who felt that something was missing after the embrace. He dove into scholarly pursuits, becoming the passionless vampire the True Brujan become. 

Absimilard considered himself perfect in life; a great hunter, perfect lover, beautiful man. However, when Zillah embraced him, she left a small, insignificant scar on his cheek. He's hated her and himself ever since, and had plotted her destruction ever since.

Ennoia was a werewolf kinfolk in life, which is why she starts with the Protean discipline, and would go on to become its master. However, because werewolves consider a threat to their kinfolk to be a threat to themselves, they begin the never ending war between them and the vampires.

Mekhet's embrace went wrong. Some of the early spirits found him when he was dead, and tore at his soul. He forgot his own name because of that, with "Mekhet" being the name that Irad gave him. He's forever seeking the pieces of his soul that were taken from him until he's finally destroyed.

Dracien was a criminal in the 1st city, and was sired as a way to spy on his brethren. It will be his idea to destroy the 2nd generation shortly after the fall of the 1st city.

Malkav was a seer in life, and along with his sister and Saulot, was meant as to be part of a cabal to plot the course of the future. However, like his sister, his sight was cracked by the embrace, so nothing would ever be clear.

Saulot was both a seer and a doctor, meaning he's the only one who had access to the Medicine talent at character creation. He's the kindest of all vampires, though as the chronicle will show, even he will gain a darkness.

"Set" very similar to Ennoia, though he's a Nagah kinfolk. He came from a proto-Egyptian clan, and this colored his views. He wants to destroy the 2nd generation and return to his own culture. Players will come up with his name, but it should come from a proto-Egyptian name system.

Haqim was a warrior before the 1st city, and was instrumental in building up them as fighters. He became a mediator among the city as time went on.

As for the personalities of the others; Enoch is ambitious and wise, Zillah is quiet and direct, Irad is scholarly, yet quick to anger. Namitara is driven by her visions, fearful of the paths the future takes, yet wanting nothing more than to see her people safe.

Malakai is constantly depressed, having sought the sunrise more than once. Only after being tricked into a blood bond by her brother does she wish to survive. After the bond, she adores her brother, and gets jealous of anyone who interacts with him,  save for Saulot, who can help with her depression, and Namitara, who gives her a purpose.

Nimug is like Arikel in that she's an artist. However, she focuses on art through her unnamed discipline, which she will dedicate her time to perfecting. 

And Namtaru could never reconcile his new existence, alternating between depression and rage. He's slain by his sire after the Wassail, the "final frenzy" that sends him from Humanity 1 to Humanity 0.

Finally, all characters will be considered "Caitiff" so there'd be no clan curses, and disciplines would be neither in clan or out of clan; they'd follow the rules of Caitiff, with disciplines requiring 6 times the cost of the discipline to advance, instead of the 5 for in clan disciplines or 7 for out of clan. 

That said, some characters will have some disciplines at character creation. Ennoia, "Set" and Ashur will have Protean, Malkav and Saulot will have Auspex, Ilyes will have Celerity (this is required to build toward Temporis), and Veddhartha and Lucien would have Dominate.

Additionally, the way generation would work would be not as you'd expect. Functionally, you'd be 13th generation at the start; 5 point stat cap, 10 blood pool. As time goes on, your blood pool would creep up to the point where you'd have the 15 point blood pool of an 8th generation vampire. After the 2nd city part of the chronicle, you'd gain access to level 6 and 7 abilities, as well as the blood pool. The 2nd generation would always be stronger than you, however, having access to level 10 abilities by the end.

Caine, however, would be untouchable. The sevenfold curse is in full effect; any damage forced upon Caine would come back sevenfold on them. In effect, 1 point of damage on Caine would return 7 health levels of damage. This would kill a human or werewolf outright, and would force a vampire into torpor. In short, you attack Caine, you lose. And everyone in the story will know it.

Lastly, equipment. As previously stated, you'd be restricted to neolithic equipment, so clubs, knives, spears, bows, axes and furs. Crafting and Hearth Wisdom would be crucial in this chronicle, since there's no manufacturing or specialized abilities yet. You'd head toward the Bronze Age as you near slaughter of the 2nd generation, though no swords would be available at that point.

Oh, and here's a few story hooks for the Chronicle; first, vampire hunters. They'd be a minor nuisance in the 1st city, and a real threat after the flood. 

The war with the werewolves. They'd be a constant threat, and would require constant vigilance.

The Baali infiltrating the 2nd city, leading toward the eventual war against infernalism.

Troile's diablerie of Ilyes. This would cause the split between the True Brujah and the modern Brujah. 

Now, if you want to continue the story past the deaths of the 2nd generation and the curses placed upon them buy Caine and Namitara would be in full, you'll be able to raise your traits to 9 (since level 10 disciplines are considered a "plot device" by the Revised Edition rule set) by the fall of the 2nd city, and the new hooks would be the Baali war and eventual collapse of the 2nd city. 

Additionally, if you're Ilyes' player, you can swap to Troile if you wish to continue the chronicle at this point.

And that's it. Those would be the rules for the Antediluvian Chronicle. The White Wolf Wiki is a useful tool additional resources after getting the initial books. If you're interested in running it, by all means, take this as a springboard. I would love to see someone get something from my efforts.

 

 But for now, stay beautiful freaks!

Vampire the Maquerade: Short Story for Antedeluvian Chronicle

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

After playing Vampire the Maquerade: Bloodlines a lot recently, and talking with a coworker who plays pen and paper games, I'm reminded of my "post Gehenna" idea, the Antediluvian Chronicle. The idea was taken from the Storyteller's Handbook, where they talked about running a game during the 1st and 2nd cities.

This is the opening I had planned for the chronicle, from the "forgotten" member of the 2nd Generation.

 

Caine is deified. The clans tell tales of him. Few know the truth. 

I am Namitara, the 4th direct childe of Caine. In the nights of antiquity, I was known as the Seeress, due to my ability see visions of the future, even as a mortal. These nights, I am merely the Forgotten.

I know many of you know of the Book of Nod, so you know of Enoch the Wise, Irad the Strong and Zillah the Beautiful, an epitaph I always found distasteful for her. I always preferred "the hunter" for her, due to her being a hunter of beasts before her embrace, feeding many in her camp with her skills, a focus she retained long after the embrace. Each of them embraced 4 childer, as did I. And thanks my curse, memories were altered and reshuffled among the 3rd and 4th generation who were around at the time, so some thought they were sired by others. 

In truth, Enoch was the "father" of Veddartha, Arikel, Ashur and Lucien. Irad sired Ilyes, Namtaru, Mekhet and Dracien. Zillah sired Ennoia, Absimilard, Haqim and "Set", as we now call him. And I was responsible for Malkav, Saulot, Malakai and Nimug. Some of those names would be unfamiliar to modern Cainites, and as they should be, as they either didn't embrace or were destroyed outright. 

However, 13 of them created the modern clans. Veddhartha the Ventrue, Arikel the Toreador, Ashur the Tzimisce, Lucien the Lasombra. Ilyes fathered the "true" Brujah as well as the one known as "Troile", Absimilard the Nosferatu, Ennoia the Gangrel, Mekhet the Cappidocians, Dracien the Ravnos, Malkav the Malkavians, Saulot the Salubri, "Set" embraced his "Followers" and Haqim his "Children". 

Of the 3 remaining, Malakai, Malkav's sister while they were still mortals, shared his gift of prophesy, Nimug abandoned her name and calls herself "the Shaper", and Namtaru had to be destroyed due to falling to the curse. The first, to be exact, which taught us all the danger of surrendering our Humanity. 

None of us understood what "the Beast" was back then. Due to his own curse, Caine was unable to lose himself to it, as he would be unable to remember that he was, and will always remain, the first murderer. But the rest of us? The curse he passed on would allow us to fall to the fear and rage, to become little more than animals.

But I digress. During those first nights, Caine ruled and we performed his will. At some point, Caine learned of the blood bond, and tricked Zillah into it, something I found distasteful then, and still do now. But it was not my place to tell her, if she would have believed it.

We ruled kindly and fairly. At least, we thought we did. The One Above, however, disagreed. He sent the flood, which killed our mortals and knocked us all into Torpor, leaving only Noah and his get alive. And for a time, the world was peaceful. 

But eventually, we woke up. And once again, we began to rule over the Children of Seth. But Caine...Caine saw what his actions had done, and refused to once again take the reign. So Enoch became "first ruler", and his reign became far more brutal than Caine's had ever been. 

We ruled for over a century, my siblings falling farther and farther into depravity. I tried to stem the worst of it, since I had foreseen out eventual end, but without Caine's influence, Enoch, Zillah, who had finally freed herself from Caine's blood bond, and Irad became more and more cruel as time went on. They called me weak, and refused my advice.

One night, I foresaw our end at the hands of our childer, and I fled to find Caine, so he could punish my siblings and our childer. But it took far too long to find him and even longer convince him to return, as he had washed his hands of his responsibility.

When we finally returned, Cain witnessed Absimilard cutting off Zillah's head with a stone axe, and this caused him to rampage across the Second City, violently gathering the third generation, demanding to know what happened to Enoch and Irad. And when they admitted what they had done, Caine laid their clan curses upon them and their childer. And when Caine was done, I laid my own curse upon them; for the remainder of their days, neither they nor their childer would remember that I existed. Even my own childer would forget that I sired them.

And so I remain, the last of Caine's direct childer, forgotten by all but my sire. I've watched through the ages, seeing the war of ages as it happened. And I have seen visions of the end. The end of everything. And God help us all. 

And that's it for the opening. I'll be posting the rules of the Antediluvian Chronicle soon. And while it was written with Revised Edition in mind, I'm sure it will work well with 5th Edition. Until then, stay beautiful freaks!

Blog Anniversary: KOTOR Version 2: Endgame

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

I know I'm late on this, but as we all know, life can get in the way. And between a bout of depression from my job and my family being...needy, I couldn't get to this until now.

Picking up a few months after the events of Vhae's Journey, Vhae, T3 and HK-47 land the Ebon Hawk on Tatooine and begin asking around Anchorhead for a man with shoulder length hair and a beard, or a woman with a Coruscanti accent. After a chapter of searching, Vhae finds out that Revan and Bastila are in a small hut in the Jundland Wastes, near where Obi Wan will live thousands of years later. HK-47 is overjoyed that he finally found his original master again, though T3 is hesitant, due what happened during KOTOR 2, and now being a little more loyal to Vhae than he ever was to Revan. 

Revan and Bastila invite Vhae and crew in, where Revan once again restores HK-47's memories and full capacity while Bastila serves them the dinner they'd been making. Vhae asked what their plans were, and Revan would reveal that his plans were to hide out on Tatooine until the Republic had rebuilt its strength so it could defend itself from Vlad Ragnos and his plans. Vhae balks at this idea, since she is shocked that Revan would be so inactive, since Revan always had a grandiose plan. 

Revan asked what Vhae thought they should do, then, and Vhae revealed the events of her game, with the defeat of Sion, Nihilus and Kreia and her gathering new Jedi recruits. Revan was pleased to hear this, as well as hearing that both Carth and Canderous had done what Revan had asked of them. This sent Revan's mind into motion, thinking that, if they could gather Vhae's allies, Carth's influence over the Republic, the Mandalorian clans AND Revan's Jedi allies, they just might have what they needed for Revan's original plan.

And so Revan and Bastila gathered their old Jedi robes and the lightsabers they had set aside years earlier and returned to the Ebon Hawk with Vhae the next day. From there, they headed to Dxun and set up base among the Mandalorians, and kept in contact with Onderon, to let them know about the future gathering of fleets. Revan and Bastila had a happy reunion with Canderous, and contacted Carth from there. 

At this point, the narrative would have split slightly, following Vhae and her efforts to reunite the the KOTOR 2 crew and Revan to reunite the KOTOR 1 crew. Vhae would find Bao Dur on Telos using both his mechanical talents and him figuring out Mechu-deru, a force power that allowed him comprehend and manipulate droids, helping out with the rebuilding. She found Atton and Mira on Nar Shaddaa, using their own foci to help others; Mira using her skills as a bounty hunter and empathic abilities to find lost souls and Atton as her protector (due to his precognitive abilities, IE his "bad feelings about this") and money maker through manipulating of probability. She found Mical on Dantooine, trying to uncover what he could from the Enclave as well as the Star Map, being very careful about the Dark Side. Brianna had returned to Enshan to try to reconcile her Echani heritage with her newfound connection to the Force. And Visas Marr headed to Alpheridies to have some down time and commune with the Force, trying her best to find a good balance between the Dark Side that had been thrust upon her by Nihilus and the Light she learned from Vhae.

Revan, on the other hand, would be speaking with Carth and Admira Dodonna about naval reinforcements, and while they could give them a fleet, it would be nowhere near the size Revan commanded during the Mandalorian Wars. Revan told them they'd make do, and spoke to Canderous about Mandalorian support. Mandalore wholeheartedly supported Revan, since Revan would give the Mandalorians the best fight they'd ever see. HK-47 also revealed about the HK-51 factory they hadd access to, and that droid army could make up the ground difference. At that point, they headed to Kashyyyk and reconnected with Zaalbar and Mission, who revealed their paths; Zaalbar was now the leader of his people, and pledged Wookiee support, and Mission had a smuggling network that she could use to supply Revan's army. They also found Jolee Bindo, having returned to the Shadowlands, though he was taking an active role supporting the Wookiees and reconnecting himself to the Force.

From there, they headed to Sleheyron, where Yuthura Ban was leading a resistance against Hutt rule. She was doing so subtly, having small raids against the worst slavers and getting slaves out. Some lived a life away from them, most stayed to fight. They recruited Yuthura and a strike force of elite fighters and headed to Cathar. 

On Cathar, they found Juhani, who...was doing something I can't remember. But they recruited her, and all of them returned to Dxun. 

Once all the teams were recruited, Revan revealed his plan. They would head to Nathema and assault Vlad's temple, lead Bastila to a Force Nexus, where she would use her Battle Meditation to enhance the team, giving Revan what he needed to face Vlad alone.

I had planned on a large space battle and a ground assault, with a small strike team heading to the Temple compromising of Revan, Bastila, Vhae and their Jedi companions, who are met by Revan's Sith team from the first story at their open landing spot. This was their first part of their role; the second they reveal to the team. They would lead the Jedi team into a diversion so Vlad wouldn't catch what was happening, Bastila and Vhae to the Nexus, and Revan is led to Vlad's chamber. Assassin falls during the diversion, Sith Lady and Vhae once they finally get to the Nexus, and Marauder betrays Revan for Vlad, claiming that Vlad had taught Revan "powers Revan could never dream of". 

Everyone was on the back foot, and I'd have given every one of the two games' crews a highlight during the battle and how they'd deal with a newly revealed character; Vlad Ragnos' daughter, who was using her own Battle Meditation to hamper the Republic.

However, once Bastila gets to the Nexus, she and Vhae defeat Vlad's daughter, the battle was now in the Republic's favor, and Revan defeated both Marauder and Vlad. Once Vlad was defeated, his troops were routed and destroyed (since most were Sith Alchemy monsters), Revan's team finally returned to Carth's flagship, celebrating until Sith Lady stormed the bridge. She was angry at Revan for not doing more keep her friends alive. Revan said he regretted the death of Assassin, and told her that Marauder  betrayed their purpose and attacked Revan. She turned from anger to despair, saying she knew that the lure of the Dark Side was strong, and that she didn't blame Revan for defending himself. However, she would not return to a Jedi Order without Assassin, revealing some feelings for him. However, she would not remain a Sith either, and headed off into obscurity.

And at this point, I would reveal that Revan was telling this story, via Holocron, to Tionne Solusar, shortly before the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong War, as that was the ongoing story at the time.

And that's it. That's the synopsis of the story I was telling 10 years ago. The huge epic that eventually got out of hand for me, and got put on hold when Mass Effect came out. And when SWTOR came out, the whole was idea was abandoned, since SWTOR did a LOT different with their backstory than what I had planned.

What's next for the blog, though? Well, I'll probably do a character bio of my Dark Souls characters, starting with Rain the Deprived, then going into Lucinde, Cleric of Velka.  If you know Dark Souls Lore, you might be able to tell where Lucinde's photo story will go as things progress.

For now, check out the Journey of Rain photo journey on Deviantart, and stay beautiful freaks!

Blog Anniversary: KOTOR 2: Vhae's Journey

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

Now, as I said before, Vhae Pano was originally a male protagonist when I was in my 20s, but thanks to Chronicle of Ana Shepard, I'm FAR more comfortable writing a female protagonist than I was back then, so going forward, Vhae is a woman for the purposes of  this story.

Now, much like KOTOR Version 2, KOTOR 2 follows the story of KOTOR 2 for the most part, with a few minor changes to suite the character. In this story, Vhae is a VERY sexually charged woman, and during the course of the story, she has a string of lovers, both male and female. Atton, the Rodian merchant on Dantooine, the Twi'lek Pazaak player on Nar Shaddaa, a string of other NPCs, finally ending with Visas during their "meditation scene", though when posting it to the old KOTOR adult blog, I would have gone into detail that it would have been a combination of the Force Sight scene and sex, making it a very transcendent experience for Vhae. (I wasn't comfortable writing gay romance back when Vhae was male, so Atton would have been off the table back then.) I also planned to imply Atris would been among Vhae's past lovers, giving some extra context for their interactions; Atris is just as much of a jilted lover as she is just generally upset that her friend left for war against the Council's wishes. Though, with Vhae's change in sex, that gives Atris an "angry lesbian vibe", but I feel that having them be former lovers adds context to their history.

I was also planning on including both Brianna and Mical (known as the Handmaiden and the Disciple in the game's party line up) in the story, because I like both their stories. I like Brianna's "I'm missing something without the Force" a lot, and I like the idea of having Mical being Vhae's introduction to teaching others, since he already HAS previous Jedi training, making him easier to bring up to speed. From there, Vhae would teach Brianna, Atton and Bao Dur in that order, with Visas and Kreia having their own stories.

As for Mandalore? Well, his story is as stated in the games, so other than just have conversations with him, there's not much to cover here. 

As we headed into the end, I was planning on using plot threads from The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod, giving HK-47 his mission, as well as him stopping G0-T0 on Malachor. From there, after the defeat of Sion, who revealed he has feelings for Vhae, and Kreia, Vhae and crew returned to Telos, where Vhae told her crew to "go and be Jedi", in so many words, and that she would go find Revan.  And that would lead into KOTOR Version 2: Endgame.

I'll post that one on June 14th, the 10th anniversary of this blog, without fail, even if I have to write it up ahead of time. But for now, look forward to it, and stay beautiful freaks!

Mass Effect Retrospective 15: Andromeda Companions, "Like 'X', but..."

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

 So, even though I've uninstalled Andromeda to free up space for Dark Souls, I'm going to finish off my retrospective. And today, that means comparing the Tempest crew with the Normandy crew. Or rather, to show just how similar the Tempest crew can be to the Normandy crew.

Starting off with the cockpit, Kallo is very different from Joker. While both are crack pilots who are suited to the seat, Kallo was part of the original Tempest design team, and came to Andromeda with the ship. And his memory is good, even for a salarian, meaning he's reliving the building of the Tempest all the time.

Suvi is like a combined Mordin/EDI/Traynor in terms of her roles. Like Mordin, she's the science officer on the Tempest, and like EDI, she's the voice that tells you that you've launched probes. But unlike them both, she's a woman of faith, though it's more of an "I believe in A monotheistic deity, but not any specific one in respect to real world religions." And like Traynor, she's the lesbian romance, though both are more than their sexual preferences, I prefer Suvi's romance to Traynor, since Suvi feels more natural, since it's slower (though you could blame Traynor's romance to it being the last game in the trilogy).

Next on the list is Dr. Lexi T'Perro, who is the ship's doctor. And of course, we compare her to Dr. Chakwas. Lexi plays the role of the "motherly doctor who takes care of the crew", though Lexi lacks Dr. Chakwas' tact. Lexi worries that the crew thinks that she thinks of them as nothing more than experiments, and that bothers her greatly.

Cora Harper takes the role of Kaidan/Jack/Miranda. Like Kaidan and Jack, she's the overpowered human biotic, and like Miranda, she's the second in command of the Pathfinder team. However, what makes Cora "unique" is that she has an asari mindset due to serving with asari Commandos for four years. Little more needs to be said about Cora. She's one of two heterosexual romances on the Tempest.

Liam is the resident "fish out of water", much like James Vega. But where Vega grows into himself over the course of 3, Liam tries to force his views upon a new galaxy. And while he does eventually find his niche, his path is really an annoying one, at least to me. Also, Liam's the other heterosexual romance on the Tempest.

Next up is Nakmor Drak. And Wrex is the best comparison for Drak; an old man of a krogan who wants better for his race, and is willing to fight for it. What makes him unique is that he's got Shepard levels of cybernetics. 

Up next is Peebee. She's like Liara only in terms of being young. In fact, it seems that her writers did everything they could to make her NOT like Liara while still making them both young scientists. The only other thing that's similar between the two is that she's a romance for both Ryders, though if an asari's a romance option, she's probably into both sexes.

Vetra Nyx is pretty much "what if Garrus grew up on Omega instead of Palaven". She's a turian who didn't go into boot camp at 15 and instead became a smuggler. Like Garrus, she cares about her remaining family, though in Vetra's case, her sister is a huge part of the game, and is even a part of her loyalty mission.

Vetra's also a romance for both Ryders.

Gil Brodie takes elements from Lt. Adams in that he's the "Chief Engineer", though unlike Adams, he's the only engineer. He clashes with Kallo over the Tempest; Gil is constantly remodeling and upgrading the Tempest to make it better suited for Andromeda, while Kallo wants him to leave the Tempest alone. That's actually their combined storyline, ending with them coming to an agreement.

Gil's also the gay romance for a male Ryder.

And last but not least, Jaal Ama Darav. And much like Tali was to the Normandy, he's the representative of his species.Lot of lore dumps from Jaal regarding the Angara. But unlike Tali, he's a romance for both Ryders.

All in all, the Tempest crew is very much like the Normandy crew, though much less fleshed out to only having 1 game to shine in. If their story had continued, they'd have had time to grow like the Normandy crew did.

 So, that's it for my Mass Effect retrospective, at least for now. When the next game comes out, I'll review the game and analyze its combat and companions once again. But for now, stay beautiful freaks!

Blog Anniversary: KOTOR Version 2 Summary

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

Now, remember, this story was conceived before the SWTOR announcement, some plot details will not conform with the current continuity.

Our story began between Revan and Bastila's Jedi strike team. Revan had just taken down a Jedi while Bastila and her team took down some of Revan's Sith. Bastila spoke her famous "You cannot win, Revan", and he dropped into his defensive stance before Malak's attack rocked Revan's ship, killing Bastila's team and gravely wounding Revan. Bastila was about to leave when she felt Revan's life force still active, though it was weak. She began healing him, only for a memory that they shared to surface; Revan, at 12, found Bastila crying out in the Dantooine wilderness. Bastila was four at the time, and Revan was the first Jedi to be nice to her after she was separated from her parents.

Bastila was shocked that Revan also found this memory important, and did everything she could to save his life. Doing so created their Force bond, though the memory that they shared reinforced it. She brought Revan before the Jedi on Dantooine, and they healed his body and mind. And that's where the hook of this story happens; they recovered Revan's personality, though they chose to not bring back the past 5 years, the length of the Mandalorian Wars and Revan's Jedi Civil War. 

Upon Revan's recovery, Bastila related the last few years to Revan, and he decided that he needed undo the damage he did to the galaxy. He talked to the Council on Dantooine, and they decided to try to deliberately recover his memories of how he managed to create the fleet, though hiding his identity at first.

He followed Bastila onto the Endar Spire, pretending to not know each other, but their bond allowed a sort of telepathic communication not found in most Force bonds. Then the Sith attack over Taris happens, and Revan had to reveal his Force powers during his escape. Due to this, he revealed to Carth his identity, and revealed his plan for this war to Carth; find a way to end the threat to the galaxy that he knew was out there that caused him to fall to the Dark Side and stop it it without compromising himself.

The events of Taris, along with most of the story, happen as they did in the games, though with a slight twist with Revan knowing who he is. the biggest change, other than Carth knowing who Revan is from the start, is that Revan utilized the Force to save the lives of himself, Carth, Mission and Zaalbar from a volley of grenades. He reveals that he is an undercover Jedi, though not revealing his name at this moment. 

The next biggest change is that, during the escape, Mission was injured. And when I say injured, I mean she had a metal bar impale her spine, paralyzing her. For the rest of the story until the Leviathan interception. She's dealing with physical therapy and acclimation to her cybernetics until she finally returns to normal around the time of Korriban. 

Anyway, during Dantooine, Revan finds Juhani, and recognizes her as "that young Cathar he saved on Taris years ago", and redeems her. She joins the crew, and during the Star Map quest, Revan regained some of his lost memories. 

This is how most of the story went; Revan goes through the events of the game, and regains some of his memories when he finds the Star Map. However, Revan has a special interaction with HK-47 and Jolee Bindo. With HK-47, Revan restores HK's memories upon buying him, and with Jolee, he mentions how "familiar his presence is".

As for the Leviathan, Revan, Bastila and Carth tell the crew that they don't want to know their escape plans, so every one of them happens, including Mission's. She finds this to be her "I'm back to normal" mission, since at this point, she hadn't been able to do what she did.

However, the battle between Revan and Malak happened differently than in the game; Revan regains all his remaining memories, and is battling his own Dark Side while fighting Malak, and he lost the fight, and Bastila did her thing to save the crew.

Upon escape, Revan talks to Carth about regaining all his memories, saying he's "now the man who destroyed Carth's world", and that he'd understand if Carth wanted to leave. Carth said that at this point, he "can't hate him" for what he did, since Revan had chosen to be better.

They headed to Korriban, since they still needed the coordinates from the last map, and Revan had to tip toe around his identity, though he was thankful that nobody knew his face. He redeemed Yuthura Ban, and was met by the Sith Lady character from the last story, and they talked about Revan's current plans. He told Sith Lady that he intended to stop Malak, then bring the might of the Republic against his old Sith Master. She told Revan that her team might not like this "redemption", though she herself would stay loyal to him.

The Ebon Hawk crew then landed on Rakata Prime, where Revan got into the Temple, and utilized his romance with Bastila, whom he'd been building a rapport with during this entire story to make her doubt her loyalty to Malak. And upon the Star Forge, he helps redeem Bastila, where they share their first kiss.

Revan defeated Malak, and was made a Jedi Master for his efforts, Bastila a Jedi Knight. He then tasks his friends with their quests for the next few years; Carth to gain influence within the Republic Navy, Zaalbar strengthened the Wookiees, Mission creating an underworld force for Revan to gather supplies, and with Canderous, he retrieved Mandalore's mask. 

From here, Revan and Bastila head into the unknown, where they would try to hold off Revan's old master for a while.

Next up is the story of Vhae Pano, the Jedi Exile. And unlike the two prior stories, this one hadn't been started at the time I stopped this saga. So this will be all new to my old fans. But for now, stay Beautiful Freaks!

Mass Effect Retrospective 14: Combat-Shepard vs Ryder

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

Today, I'm going to tackle Andromeda's combat, and how it differs from the Shepard trilogy's combat.

Before I start in, I'm going to refer to Shepard as "she", since I prefer the female Shepard, and Ryder as "they", since both Scott and Sara exist in the same playthrough.

When it comes to control over your character, you have more control over Ryder, and not in the ways you'd expect. Yes, Ryder has the jump jets that let them dash and jump around the battlefield, but I'm talking about something different. You see, Shepard automatically draws their weapons when attacked. Whether you holstered your gun or not between fights, Shepard automatically draws. Now, I realize that's a quirk of the combat engine, but it makes sense; Shepard is a heavily trained, heavily experienced, special forces soldier. Like Thane says, Shepard's training is so finely honed that entering combat is practically instinct. But Ryder? You have to tell them to enter battle by drawing their weapons, which, in my eyes, means they're a little scared about battle and have to mentally prepare themselves for a second or two, forcing the player to take action.

Ryder, however, is minimally trained. On Habitat-7, Ryder mentions that they've "tackled a batarian pirate in my day", but Ryder is quite a bit younger than Shepard. Practically first enlistment young; early 20s at the most, compared to Shepard being 29 in her first appearance. And for Shepard, that time between an 18 year old enlistment and her first appearance is spent in a LOT of foxhole situations.

That leads into the class system, too. The Shepard trilogy is all about a soldier and her team entering battle with their own strengths and weaknesses complimenting each other. Shepard spent 11 years refining her skill set to a point where she can handle any situation that comes before her. But Ryder is an explorer. Using Sara as an example for a moment, she moved from basic training into a field scientist role as a Prothean researcher. And while Scott spent his time guarding a Mass Relay, the Ryders spent their early careers learning adaptability. That's why Ryder isn't restricted to one specific class the way Shepard is; they're adaptable for any situation they come across as an explorer.

Now that they lore bits are out of the way, it's on to the mechanics. As I said previously, Ryder is more mobile, with the jump jets giving them speed to get around the battlefield in ways that are impossible for Shepard. But that's not without consequence; Shepard dives into cover at the touch of a button, where as Ryder has "contextual cover", where they automatically take cover if they hide behind something that CAN be used as cover. And while the games are designed around these systems, it takes a bit of time to get used to the difference if you're playing them back to back.

The other biggest difference is how powers are handled. In Andromeda, you don't have the power wheel that Shepard has. You select three powers for use in battle at once, and you can swap them out on the fly through the pause menu. That means you have to think carefully about what you're choosing. This makes Andromeda a little less beginner friendly in terms of abilities, because you have to really understand what you're doing compared to Shepard. That makes builds more important in Andromeda, with the profile system giving you access to different builds on the fly.

And the last thing I can think of is vehicle combat; there is none in Andromeda. I'm forced to play Andromeda the way I played the original build of ME1's Mako; get out of the car and fight there, though back in 2007, it was because you got 25% less xp from shooting with the Mako's cannons than with your small arms. The Nomad has no guns, and if you run over any mobs, IT takes damage. The Nomad is not a tank, it's an explorer's vehicle.

Andromeda is definitely a different beast when it comes to battle, though its fun in its own way. Just familiarize yourself on Habitat-7 before diving head first, and you'll be fine.

Next up will be my analysis of the Tempest crew and comparing them to their Shepard Trilogy counterparts, but until then, stay beautiful freaks!

Blog Anniversary Part 1: KOTOR Version 2 Sith Triumvirate Summary

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop! Today, I'm tackling the first in the timeline of my abandoned "epic", KOTOR Version 2: Sith Triumverate.

This story began just after the Mass Shadow Generator was activated and the Exile, Vhae Pano in my story, lost her connection to the Force. The main characters were three Jedi followers of Revan whom Revan let into his inner circle just before heading to the Star Forge. These three, already teetering toward the Dark Side, become the three prestige classes from KOTOR 2; a dual wielding heavy armor user that I'll just call Maurader(because I don't remember their names), a saberstaff, stealth based character I'll call Assassin, and the female of the group, a Sith Lord who focused on the mysteries of the Force, though I'll call her Sith Lady instead.

This one was to be a short, lore dump story, where I set up my interpretation of some of the backstory. They headed to the Star Forge, where they got their equipment, save for their lightsabers, which they would just switch out the crystals due to their background as Jedi, since Jedi view the lightsaber as an extension of their soul. 

From there, they would meet Revan's "true master"  Vlad Ragnos, the last survivor of the Sith species. Vlad, the father of Marka Ragnos, has an army of Sith monstrosities made from Sith Alchemy, and after this meeting, Revan revealed his true plans; to make the galaxy strong so they could bring its might against Vlad. However, as we'd find out much later, Maurader is tempted by Vlad's teachings, since his role is that of a brute in Revan's group, and wants to become more.

Here is where they begin Revan's plan. They first "inspect" the Sith Academy on Korriban, which is run by Exar Kun hardliner Jorak Uln. They prepare Uthar Wynn to take control of the Academy, leaving it fully in Revan's control, though Uthar Wynn does meet Revan, though with the mask, leaving a possibility of near recognition of Revan's voice during KOTOR version 2.

I also covered the recruitment of Saul Karath, the loss of Malak's jaw to Revan(which was due to Malak forcing Karath to destroy Telos instead of make it theirs, setting up Malak as the brute to Revan's brain), the building of HK-47 and his killing of a group of Jedi as a test, and him calling Malak a "meatbag", as he reveals in KOTOR. I also had a mission where Assassin infiltrated the Jedi temple and look for suitable Jedi to recruit, though this lead to him being ambushed by a pair of Jedi Temple Guardians and was forced to kill them.

The next bit I had planned was Sith Lady meeting Revan on Korriban just after he defeated Uthar Wynn and redeemed Yuthura Ban, Revan having fully regained his memories at this point(a major plot point in KOTOR Version 2 was Revan's mind was not wiped, but amnesic, and his regaining his memories of a Sith as they gathered the Star Maps), and they spoke of Revan's plans. Revan says that he still intended to go through with his plans, but with a Jedi's perspective. He also apologized for leading them down a dark path, and he'd do what he could to redeem them after this war was over. Sith Lady, still dedicated to Revan's cause, tells her allies of Revan's survival and that he intended to finish what he started, omitting his desire to redeem them when she recounts her meeting.

Curiously, I didn't have any ideas for a Maurader chapter, which is probably I introduced the idea of him being tempted by Vlad. Regardless, they sat back and waited for Revan to contact them again after the events of KOTOR Version 2.

Next month will be KOTOR Version 2 itself, but for now, stay beautiful freaks!

Mass Effect Retrospective 13: Andromeda Review

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

I know I'm late here, but I've finally gotten around to reviewing Mass Effect Andromeda. So at this point, I'm considered a "second wave adopter", since Legendary Edition brought renewed interest in the franchise, I thought I'd throw my thoughts into the bucket.

Now, I've only managed to get through the game twice; my first time through as an Adept, and my second as a Sentinel. First time through was the "I'm learning the systems, crafting and combat" playthrough, and the second is the "I know the game better and am discovering things I didn't catch the first time" playthrough. 

Mass Effect Andromeda takes place 634 years after the events of Mass Effect 2, in a galaxy far, far away (I know, but I had to do it!). You play as Scott or Sara Ryder,(whichever gender you choose to play as during character creation), fraternal twins of Alec Ryder, the human Pathfinder. Alec was one of the crew to travel through the Charon Relay, and one of the first N7s, though based on the events of the first Mass Effect novel, he wouldn't have been an N7 yet, since Anderson was a member of the first class through the program. As Scott or Sara, you are part of the Pathfinder team, a group who follow the Pathfinder in his efforts to find a habitable , or "golden" world, in the Heleus cluster of Andromeda, for the human race.

Unfortunately, Habitat-7, the golden world meant for the human ark, had been destroyed, and Alec was forced to give up his own life and save his offspring, transferring the Pathfinder authority to them. And this is when the story really begins.

Now, unlike the original Mass Effect trilogy, Sara and Scott both exist in the timeline. The one you didn't pick still exists in the story, albeit at a lesser extent; the opposite gender sibling being in a coma for the first half and inactive during the second half. However, you do play as the other sibling during a short mission late game, and as a plot device during the final encounter.

Now, at this stage, much like my Dark Souls Remastered review, I know I'm late here. All the anger over the story, animations, "Deadname Abrams" and what not have died down considerably. In fact, we're at a "was Andromeda really that bad?" point in history, where any video you find on YouTube is pretty much praising it. People are more forgiving of it than they were in 2017.

What's my view on it? I have fun playing it. The combat is very fun, though I had to get used to it. Getting your build just right is important, since you only get three abilities in battle per favorite profile. You have a LOT more mobility than Shepard ever did, though I understand completely why Shepard and Ryder are different. Shepard is a soldier, dedicated to a certain skillset, trained to fight and kill, with an imposed honor code to not allow them to become a monster, though a Renegade character can turn into one anyway. Ryder, however, is an explorer first and a fighter second. Their job is, to quote Star Trek, "seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before." Ryder picks up abilities that are necessary to survive and explore, not just kill their enemies.

And that's something I remind myself of when I create characters. Ryder is NOT Shepard, and should not be treated as such. And to remind myself of this fact, I utilize certain facets of the character creation and color schemes to create a "theme". Shepard's color scheme is black and red, with the N7 logo proudly displayed whenever possible. Ryder, however, is white and blue. I use the tattoos for Ryder, and a beard for Scott due to a lack of military regs on facial hair, to differentiate that they are civilians, not soldiers, and have a different mindset.

I also like the story, though I can definitely tell they were planning for more. The role as Pathfinder, some plot threads and the setup for the quarian ark, the story of Ellen Ryder...all of these are screaming "we were planning on DLC and a sequel, but due to the failure near launch, we're not doing that", leaving me screaming about the untapped potential.

For the things I don't enjoy, a couple of these things are my computer's issues, and the biggest one is a part of the game design. I have auditory glitches during conversations on the Tempest in some locations, (I'm looking at you, bridge!), and if I don't delete the autosaves after an hour or so, the game will crash due to a lack of memory, though again, these two are issues with my computer, one of which will be solved once I get an external hard drive.

No, what I really don't like is the exploration. I HATE open world games, and Andromeda is that in spades. That said, when I remind myself that the Andromeda Initiative is all about exploration and finding a new home for not only humanity, but all the Milky Way species, it becomes easier to stomach. That said, I spend the first...I'd say 20 minutes of my time on a planet driving to unlock the fast travel points so I can actually enjoy the missions.

I also don't like crafting, but I've found some easy ways to get what I want. First off, I pick up Financial Infrastructure 1 and 2 from the AVP terminal so I have a steady stream of money. Second, I get  Mining Operations, Hunting Parties, Special Forces and Lab Technicians in that order. And finally, instead of selling weapons and armor, I deconstruct anything I don't want in order to get their materials. That gives me what I need to build my gear, though Remnant and Heleus gear is still time consuming, since you don't get a steady stream of research points.

As for companions, they're not as good as the Shepard Trilogy companions, but we don't have three games to fall in love with these characters. Anyone playing Mass Effect 1 in 2007 might have found certain characters wooden or one note. I mean, fan favorite Urdnot Wrex was grumpy and confrontational in his debut game, and Liara was extremely wide eyed and naive in 1, far more socially awkward than I could ever be. But we grew to love them over time because we had the time to do so.

 All in all, I enjoy Andromeda. I'll be doing a full combat engine analysis, as well as one for the characters like I did for the Shepard trilogy. Look forward to that, and stay beautiful freaks!

Blog 10 Year Anniversary: Beginning Preparations

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

So I was going through my blog while I was on break at work last night, and I noticed that my first entry was on June 14, 2012. That means that it turns 10 years old soon.

So, while thinking about it, I decided to mark the occasion with an announcement; I'm going to spend the next several months giving a plot synopsis of the story I was working on when I started this; KOTOR Version 2.

KOTOR Version 2 was conceptualized before the SWTOR announcement, so the plot details were based on KOTOR 1, KOTOR 2 and the Tales of the Jedi comics. That means the "True Sith" Kreia was talking about was a surviving Pureblood Sith from the original Sith Empire, the ones that started the Great Hyperspace War. 

So, what should you expect? Well, starting in March and ending in June, there will be one entry per month as I try to remember what my plans were for the saga. It will start with KOTOR Version 2: Sith Triumvirate, a story with 3 unique characters that were created as agents of Revan. They fell under the advanced classes from KOTOR 2, and prepared Revan's Sith Empire for taking on the "True Sith", disappearing when Malak took over.

KOTOR Version 2 came from a what if concept; what if Revan's brain damage wasn't as bad? What if he remembered who he was up to the point just before meeting the True Sith?

This story followed the events of KOTOR 1 with minor variations, since Revan knew who he was, regaining memories with each Star Map he found. 

KOTOR Version 2: Vhae's Journey is the KOTOR 2 story, with a few changes as well. Vhae Pano was originally a male protagonist, though I'm changing Vhae to a woman this time, since I'm far more comfortable with writing a female protagonist. Also, both Brianna and Mical will be part of the crew.

Finally, KOTOR Version 2: Endgame will be the finality of the story. Vhae will follow Kreia's advice and seek out Revan, and she and Revan will gather their allies from all three previous stories to end the threat of the True Sith once and for all.

This is a big undertaking, since I need to re-read the plot synopsis of the two games, and the Tales of the Jedi comics, in order to remind myself of the details of these stories. I'll also need to prepare new notes in order to remember what the details of the non-game stories.

For now, look forward to these story plot synopses and stay beautiful freaks!

How I make Stardew Valley fun

 

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

I know it's been a while since I posted here, but that's not intentional. Work and life and all that. But I have a subject to talk about today. I've seen a ton of videos on Youtube on how to make the best of Stardew Valley. Things like how to guides for the Community Center in Year 1, how to make out friendship with all the villagers, how to make money, etc. And while this is a guide, it's not one of those types.

No, this is a type of guide for players like myself, who don't really like farming sims or minecraft like games. Resource gathering, fishing, crafting, etc...none of these interest me, but I really want to see more than the first two weeks of the game, because it is SO good after you get some skills and crafting recipes under your belt. 

Now, full disclosure, I have several mods that help me cheat. I'll list them here and explain why I use them, if they require explanation.

1. CJB Cheats menu. I'm not a fan or the fishing minigame, how slow you move, having to worry about hay for the animals, and a few others things. I use this mod to get around the stuff I don't like.

2. CJB Item Spawner. I don't like resource gathering, which is the biggest reason I couldn't play for more than an hour when I tried out Minecraft. So I spawn in items for stuff I need. However, one restriction I place on myself is that I NEED to get at least one of an item, or more if it's plentiful, before I start spawning them in. 

3. CJB Show Item Sell Prices. This was critical during my Joja run on my Riverland farm, since I needed to know the cash crops in order to unlock the community upgrades fastest.

4. Gift Taste Helper. This saves time on going back and forth between the game and the wiki.

5. NPC Map Locations. Trying to find someone on their birthday can be a pain, so this is why I use this.

6. Babies take after spouse. 

7. Part of the Community. I saw this on Youtube, and I liked the idea that you could get approval from people if you talk to their friends and relatives. Makes Pelican Town more "real".

8. Content Patcher. Several mods require this, like the "babies take after spouse" one, as well as a couple after this.

9. Slime Hutch Winery. Gives me a reason to actually build the Slime Hutch. This mod requires Content Patcher.

10. Spawn Monsters. I really don't like hunting for specific monsters for the sake of the completion, so I just spawn them in on the floors that they'd show up on in order to fight them.

11. Ellie's Ideal Greenhouse. This adds specific places for fruit trees, as well as a few dozen more spots to grow crops.

I also used to use the Seasonal Villager Outfits, but that mod went out of date and when I tried to download it again, the creator took it down to rework it as a SMAPI mod. I tried another mod like it, but I didn't like how it changed the shape of the head, so I'm just waiting on the paradigmnomad rework.

Now, I've also got some tips and tricks I've found that make the game fun for me.

1. Never try to finish the Community Center in Year 1. I know this goes against what a LOT of Youtubers do, but there's an advantage of waiting; Kent. Kent does not show up until Spring 1 in Year 2. So waiting to complete the Bulletin Board bundle gives you a boost to his approval. Between this and how much he loves going to the movies, you should have what you need to cap his friendship before the end of Year 2.

2. Get rabbits for your Coop, and keep them. Rabbits are a great resource. Between the rabbit's foot being a favorite gift of the majority of the villagers (save for Penny.), this is a great resource for your far. 

3. Avoid the sheep. Yes, they give wool 1 day faster (2 days if you're a Shepherd), but that's all they give. Rabbits give both wool and rabbit's feet, so they are a much better resource.

4. If you hate the mines, go with the mushroom cave. I hate spelunking more than I have to, which is why I have both the item spawner and cheat menu, but since I have my "no spawning items until I've collected them naturally at least once" rule, two mushrooms are completely out of reach unless I get lucky. And since fruits can be grown naturally, I need the mushroom cave for the red and purple mushrooms.

5. If you want to try the Riverland map, take the Joja Path, then go for perfection AFTER unlocking Ginger Island. There's very little land on the Riverland map for you to both farm and build, so space is at a premium for crops. If you want animals, fishing ponds, places for the obelisks, sheds, a mill, a silo and a place for the clock, you're eating valuable farming space you could use to grow Community Center crops. But if you focus on cash crops, you've got a LOT more space for them, and that will mean you're getting access to both the Greenhouse and Ginger Island faster. 

6. Have fun. Whether you mod or not, whether you take my advice or not, if you're not having fun, you won't want to play.

I'll post something again when the mood strikes me. This blog is very much a hobby for me, so just keep that in mind and stay beautiful freaks!

Mass Effect Retrospective 12: Legendary Edition thoughts

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

I've finally Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, so here are my thoughts on what's the same and what's different.

First off, what's the same. The engines for each game is the same, quests are the same, companions are the same, the way the romances work are the same (for better or worse in the case of ME1), and the classes are the same for the game you are playing. It's still Mass Effect as you know it, but better in most cases.

As for the differences, well, some games are more different than others.  I'm going to front load this analysis by saying the graphics are better across the series as you'd expect for a 2021 remaster of a game series that initially came out in 2007. So, full 4k support, better textures, etc. Also, all DLC is available (save for Pinnacle Station, which they lost the source code for) for the full trilogy.  This includes the Extended Cut ending changes in Mass Effect 3, making it the standard way you experience the trilogy's end.  Some of the achievements have been pruned, removing redundant ones and taking away the hardcore and weapon kills achievements in ME1.

First off, Mass Effect 1. The soldier is no longer a required run for your first time through, something I didn't realize until I looked at the achievements and saw that the weapons ones were gone. And the reason for this is something that has been well published; all classes can use all guns with the accuracy of ME2 and 3 from the start. The biggest reason to play the soldier in this one is that you can make ALL your guns better, as opposed to only some better for the infiltrator and vanguard, or at all for the adept, engineer and sentinel. This creates a bit of a disconnect later, which I'll get to.

Also, the grenade button was moved, and a sprint was added for outside combat. So you should familiarize yourself with the controls on the ship or in the early parts of Eden Prime before entering battle.

Second biggest change is the character creator. We are now using the Mass Effect 3 character creator in both 1 and 2, so there will be no surprises when you load your character into 3, bugs aside.  But what comes along with that character creator is the ME3 femshep is now the standard for the whole trilogy.

And the third biggest change to ME1 is the Mako. First off, you no longer lose xp for killing with the Mako, so you're able to fight as intended with the Mako. This is important, since Thresher Maws now work differently. In the Thresher Maw fights, they have those pop up tentacles that you see in the ME2 Grunt loyalty mission boss fight, and when they're low health, they chase you around the arena. This makes the fight much more intense, making them a real threat and, if you're the Sole Survivor, much more scary.

The second major change for the Mako is the maneuverability is better. It is slightly less bouncy, and while it can still "turtle on its back" if you're not careful, it's less likely to happen. In fact, I only turtled once in my first playthrough. 

The Mako also took the boosters from the Andromeda APC, meaning you can go faster when you want to and can get up the sides of cliffs faster.

As for Mass Effect 2 and 3, they remain mostly unchanged, at least according to what I saw in terms of gameplay. They play the same as they did previously, though the disconnect I mentioned previously pops up in ME2. You see, since ME1 originally restricted the sentinel, engineer and adept to pistols and gave the sniper rifle to the infiltrator and shotgun to the vanguard, none of the classes had a rapid fire weapon in ME2 outside the soldier, so they granted the submachine gun to all but the soldier. However, since ME3 removes the weapon restrictions (though they replace it with the weight system), ME2 exists in a strange place in the Legendary Edition trilogy, as its the only one with real weapon restrictions. You can still choose a new proficiency on the Collector Ship, but as was before, that is halfway through the game. Which is why there are mods for the PC version to remove the weapon restrictions, making the trilogy more consistent.

Also beginning in ME2, all the DLC armors and weapons are now purchasable at shops throughout the game. That means that powerful guns like the Eviscerator and geth shotguns, the Phalanx pistol and the Kestral armor set have to be bought before you can use them. This was made to rebalance the game so the difficulty is as its supposed to be.

And for Mass Effect 3, you get a lot of the same; all DLC available, DLC gear has to be bought, etc. But the two biggest changes are the removal of the multiplayer (which was done to make a superior single player experience), and a change to Galactic Readiness. Since a lack of playing multiplayer removes the need for the Effective Military Strength (EMS) due to not playing multiplayer halving the strength of war assets, Legendary Edition simply makes all war assets worth their full rating all the time. And while this could be considered worrisome to returning players, if you play the game as intended, you'll have more then enough assets to get access to all three endings.

So yeah, the Mass Effect Shepard Saga is very much improved. If you're playing it for the first time, you'll definitely enjoy yourself. And if you're a returning player like myself, you'll enjoy it as well.

So for now, stay beautiful freaks!

Dark Souls Remastered Rain the Deprived final build

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

So I've calculated what the closest thing to a final build for my DS Remastered character, Rain the Deprived, would be. Thanks to the build character over at https://mugenmonkey.com/, I've figured out how to allocate my stats for my new game end game character. I'm still working toward that end, but here's her stats. This is mostly so I've got something online to keep me to a specific build as I move through the game.

SL 133 Deprived

Vitality: 50
Attunement: 16
Endurance: 40
Strength: 40
Dexterity: 18
Resistance: 11
Intelligence: 20
Faith: 20

RH1: Greatsword of Artorias (Requires a +10 broken straight sword or straight sword hilt and Soul of Sif to make)
RH2: Black Bow of Pharis
LH1: Grass Crest Shield
LH2: Ascended Flame +5

Armor:
Elite Knight Helm
Elite Knight Armor
Elite Knight Gauntlets
Elite Knight Leggings

Rings:
Ring of Favor and Protection
Cloranthy Ring

Spells:
Great Fireball
Fire Whip
Firestorm
Great Combustion
 

These won't be her final stats, as I play offline, so I'll go higher and higher with her strength, dexterity and resistance so I can cakewalk the ending the best I can(still paying attention to what I'm doing, since you know, this IS Dark Souls, and you can't truly out level your enemies without the skill to back it up.) My intelligence and faith are at 20 for the sake of the Greatsword of Artorias.

Okay, that's it for now. I'll post the final pictures for this build on both here and Deviantart. Until then, stay beautiful freaks!

Dark Souls Remastered: Why the Deprived is the best class for new players

 Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop!

Once again, I know I'm late to the party, but I've been really into Dark Souls Remastered, and since there are people like me who are still picking up the game even now, I'm going to give my two cents on this. 

The Deprived is the best class for new players, in spite of what experienced players say. And there are a ton of good reasons for why this is true.  In fact, some of those reasons are why other players say this class is a "challenge for experienced players".

You cannot rely on armor.  Armor in Dark Souls Remastered is different than armor in the two games that come after. Yes, you gain defenses to physical, elemental and magical damage, but you're still going to take a lot of damage from anybody. The biggest thing about armor is poise, a stat that makes it less likely you're going to get staggered from enemy attacks. But on a first character, during the first 2-8 hours of the game (depending on how much you're dying), you don't want to rely on poise. You want to know how to block and roll, and the deprived offers opportunities to learn how to do both, since you have to do both.

Shields are important, but not all shields are created equal. The Deprived starts with the plank shield, a small shield. It has pretty good resistances to physical, ranged, elemental and magic damage, but it doesn't have 100% physical damage resistance, meaning you're going to take chip damage from oncoming melee hits from enemies. And even though you get a better shield in the Undead Burg early, you learn all you need to know about shields in a relatively safe environment, where you have abundant bonfires and estus available.

Weapons have wind up. The club is a good starting weapon; it has the third highest damage output for a starter weapon, with only the mace and battle ax doing more. And while it is relatively quick in attack, the club has start up lag that you need to account for. There are weapons faster than the club and there are weapons that are slower than the club, but the club give you what you need to make the decision of what kind of weapons you want in the future.

Keep on rolling. The Deprived is a class where you have to roll to survive, at least until you bet a better shield and some armor. Luckily, since its equip load is so low, the Deprived has the fastest roll in the game. This will get you through the Undead Asylum and part way through the Undead Burg until get your hands on the Hollow armor pieces. And if you return to the Undead Merchant (male) in the early areas of the Burg, you can buy some chain mail armor, both of which drop you down to a mid roll, which is the roll the game is built around. And if you're getting a fat roll, you need to either buff your endurance or take off heavy bits of armor, because a fat roll can get you killed.

Stats are for upgrades. And the biggest thing I like about the Deprived is that you are lacking in nothing. With 11s in all your stats at the start, you have access to 1 attunement slot and the intelligence and faith to use basic sorceries and miracles. You also have some good stats to start out with for strength, dexterity or quality builds, and a good amount of stamina and health to build upon. And resistances, the one stat nobody builds on, starts at a good level too. 

So yeah, the game starts out tougher for the Deprived, but before long, that difficult start doesn't matter for anything. My Deprived character, Rain, is about to head into Blight Town after finishing off the Depths, and I've built her into a low level quality/sorcery build. She's using a claymore, a long bow, and some weapon buffing sorceries as I build up her intelligence for higher tier stuff.

Rain the Deprived

Now, obviously I'm not an expert. But thanks to both walkthroughs and the lessons I've learned from playing Rain, I've gotten farther as the Deprived class than I've gotten with any other.

But for now, stay beautiful freaks, and don't you dare go Hollow!