My partner and I both work full time and have high pressure jobs. This is not a first marriage for either of us and there are school age children in the home who add to the chaos. After my divorce I swore I would not get back into the situation where I took on all the responsibilities of household chores but here we are. He will do a small chore like fold clothes, then is on his phone or doing his hobbies. If there is anything else to do like clean a bathroom, vacuum, sweep, clean pet areas etc I either have to do it myself or point out each individual task. He never just initiates cleaning the house and a lot of times when I’m cleaning and insist that he get up and participate, he complies but is obviously agitated. He always says this or that can be done tomorrow or done later but eventually someone has to wash dishes! Not everything can stay a “later” problem. On his days off, he takes the day to rest so it’s assumed on my days off, I will clean, cook and do whatever else needs to be done. Yes we have had conversations about this issue but nothing changes. I am feeling very resentful at being placed in the role of parent/drill sergeant to get my partner to do his share: note I am not saying “help” me. It is not “helping” me, it is being an adult and doing his part to maintain a shared space. I am beyond frustrated. Any creative suggestions that have actually worked other than me losing my mind and yelling like a complete maniac?

Forgive my formatting errors. Reddit's formatting guide is dumb.

Miles needs to get his happy ending. Not because we all love him, not because he's the protagonist or a Mary-Sue, but because he, as a character, has PROVEN that he can make it happen. "You're the best of all of us Miles. You're on your way. Just keep goin'" Aaron's dying words are prophetic. Every single person, save Miguel, that Miles has a interaction with is changed for the better through said interaction. They KNOW something is different about him, not just because he's the original anomaly, but his personality, his actions and deeds make them change their minds. It started with Peter B. Parker, then it moved to Gwen and the other three, even Aunt May and his dad. In Spiderverse 2, Gwen and Spider-Dad change their minds. Spider-Man India, Miles saved his girlfriend's dad AND the little girl when it wasn't supposed to happen (sure it caused another problem but Miles still SAVED them). Hobie saw something in Miles that caused him to be a mentor, to plant those seeds of rebellion...And create the D-Bracelet he gives to Gwen. It is Miles who ultimately will correct the course of the Spider-Community because it led to nearly ALL of them being told "We're supposed to be the good guys" by Gwen. You can see that radiate, however subtly, through the foreground characters in that moment AND the background spiders. Miles is incredibly smart. He is determined. He can save his dad AND the Spiderverse so long as he is given a chance. That is what they begin to realize and snap out of the tunnel vision that Miguel had them all looking through. The entire assembled Spider-Verse could not stop him, so what is to say that he can't beat the odds with his Canon Event? And again, yes, Miles is the main character of these movies, but main characters are, at least in the great stories, not promised their happy ending. They have to EARN it, and I fully believe the Miles has proven that he can.

Thank you for coming to my Spider-TEDtalk.

It can 2 tap the beefier red bars on a 120 when it’s active (combined action) and is quite good on the tex kinetic shotgun for majors
It’s such a good perk, I’d put it next to explosive payload and kinetic tremors as my preferred adds perk

My current campaign setting involves the party's participation in a war. While I play to use the D&D 5e system for specific conflict, I had previously used a Risk board and ruleset to simulate the progression of the war itself while the game was in-person. While toying with the idea of bringing this into Foundry, are there any suggestions as to way to simplify or automate this?

Hello,
I would like to open a discussion on these two games.
I grew up during the SNES/N64 era. If you were around then, you know nothing is better than Chrono Trigger. The characters, the story, the music, the graphics, the gameplay...this game was so beyond. When I think of Frog as the tragic hero and his music starts playing... I can't put it into words but if you were there I don't have to. You know.
Fast forward 20+ years...I have watched my kid playthrough Red Dead Redemption 2 three times now. Every time he goes through it I am more and more amazed. From the moment Arthur gets drunk at the bar with Lenny, gets in a fight, dances, then runs from the cops (lol) you are making friends and growing meaningful relationships. My kid and I were genuinely shocked and saddened at the way things turned out for some of the members. I can't remember who it is, but the one mission toward the end when one of your friends gets shot in the head as you're fleeing town. Super super sad. And then of course, the final scene...
I truly think of Red Dead Redemption 2 as the only game that can hold a candle to Chrono Trigger. Both of these games were just so beyond...everything really.
Anyway, I would love to hear some thoughts from everyone.
Thanks have a great day!

So it’s become obvious to a lot of us that the main cast has become a bit of a mess. You have Olivia (whose characterization has become a bit of a mess), Fin, Carisi and then basically a bunch of newbies. And add to that the fact that Fin and Carisi don’t get as much screen time as they deserve.
Before I start, I’m just gonna say a lot of this is just me riffing on some ideas. So here goes…
But anyways, the point I wanted to make is how the main cast just is generally lacking in well written characters with actors who have at least a bit of chops. Honestly, as far as I can see it, they really had a great track record all the way through probably to Kat. That was the last time I felt we had an addition to the crew who had any dramatic weight behind them.
Every new detective since then has been a half-assed whatever that it’s hard to care about. Velasco is about as interesting as watching paint dry, Churlish was horribly introduced as a character and further appearances have seemed to try to walk back her being a rat, as if they knew they screwed up, and Muncy, hoo boy. Probably the worst written and acted main character in SVUs history. It seemed like watching an amateur. Just an embarrassing character. And Bruno, once again, it’s cute, nice idea, trying to bring some Munch like vibe, but it’s so obvious and the characterization we get of this guy is sketchy at best cuz he’s never around long enough for us to get to know him.
I think Wolf Dick has bought too much into the idear that the cast has to be young and pretty. Everybody on the cast is good looking. Compare that to the earlier years. Don Cragen and John Munch were grizzled cops, even Stabler, dude looked like a father of four with issues. Yeah, you had Mayhem as the babyfaced younger guy and Olivia was Olivia, but still.
Why not bring some more grizzled, experienced cops into the group?
Hey Wolf Dick, stop being so cheap and bring in Donal Logue as a main character, fuck….bring back Danny Pino. Bring in somebody like Jeffrey Donovan, who has done a fabulous job as a long time cop on the mothership. Even Jason Biggs showed some promise when working with the team, why wasn’t that pursued. Plus that woulda been interesting: “from American Pie to SVU.”
It doesn’t even have to be people from the Law & Order universe, just actors with some chops who would work on a show like this. People like those mention in the paragraph above. Maybe at one time people who were movie stars or at least character actors who have been around and could give some grit and experience to the squad. Somebody would actually be interesting to watch without having to rely on Mariska to make the show keep moving. It could be an actor that’s near or over 50. It’s okay Wolf, we don’t watch a police procedural for all the hotties. We’re not at an NSYNC concert.
Or we can just have Wolf Dick just pick out whoever he thinks is the new prettiest girl to replace which female he thinks is aging out of the show.

I was nothing but your fucking object back when we were just chatting. You tell me whatever I want to hear. That you’re not flirting with other girls. Meanwhile, come to find out you’re flirting with other girls (ugly ones too I might add, like what the actual fuck), including your sister’s friend WHO YOU SENT YOUR DICK PIC TO!!! Then what? Video chat with me the next day and ask me to show you my fucking tits?? How many times did I flash my tits to you without even realizing you’d flirted with someone else, or sexted, or sent dick pics to, or received tit pics from? It makes me sick to wonder this. Makes me feel so used and disgusting. Women are just your fucking objects and nothing more. I was just your object. I felt used and disgusting after discovering that. You telling me you’re not a fuckboy and then behaving exactly like one in messenger with any woman who gives you the time of fucking day. We all just exist to boost your fragile little ego and make you feel like a man. Meanwhile, how do you make women feel? Like objects. Like nothing human anyway. We are nothing to you. I feel betrayed, because I never lied to you. I told you I wasn’t flirting with other men and I wasn’t. I am a fucking person and you lied to me and kept me in the dark, and made me feel like you were one way but you were totally someone else the entire time. Hiding your little sexting convos with other women. You act like you’re 17 years old sometimes. It’s fucked up. Grow the fuck up and stop treating women like the douchbags you used to hang out with treats them….still…today, who still act like teenagers in their THIRTIES. And not the fun kind of teenagers, not like “oh that’s fun that they like to laugh and dance and joke around and be youthful”, nope it’s “I’m gonna manipulate women and tell them what they wanna hear because I am so desperate to see tits that I’ll do anything, including hurting people, lying, and treating women like they are not people”. Disgusting. You don’t even have any explanation other than that they boosted your confidence. No apology for lying to me about it, because it wasn’t my business anyway. Meanwhile you also asked me who I was chatting with and I TOLD YOU THE FUCKING TRUTH WHEN IT WASN’T YOUR BUSINESS EITHER…but I guess you would just say that’s my own fault for saying anything to you, and you didn’t force me to say anything. It’s fucked up, and you’ll never ever see or understand why, because all you do is defend defend defend, and tell me that “all men do it”…meanwhile you don’t speak for all men. Not all men behave that way, and for you to try and tell me that as if I’ve never met any other men in my life, is ridiculous. You have all of these opinions on women and you act like you know it all about women, but you apparently also know it all about men. I guess I don’t know about either. Must be nice to be so smart and be surrounded by so many dumb fucks like me.

​
Before I dump on the game, let me mention a few of the places that were actually clever:

• The bit with Camelus where you had to raise the bridge and shoot into it from below.
• Figuring out there was a path under the bridge that the ice block blocked.
• Figuring out that you could get up on the ice block from the other end of the crane.

I found the game to be disappointing and frustrating, all down to three reasons:

• The lack of interaction modes. Everything is a doorknob.
• The lack of characters, plot, conflict, and motivation.
• An inability to suspend disbelief, made even more absurd by the ending.

Let's look at these, along with contrasting to early Cyan games, and notice how combining all three together makes for a poor experience.
Essentially, the only mode of interaction available is turning a knob. While this is not necessarily a game killer (Myst, for example, only has clicking something) in Firmament it is completely treated as turning a knob. That is, every time you use the adjunct, you're interacting with a manufactured bit of machinery to control power to one or the other function of what you're connecting to. This leads to a sparse range of puzzles that can be included, essentially none of which progress the narrative. And it leads to the requirement for a technical instruction manual at the start of the game.
There's no "let the water out of the chest then close the knob again so it'll float when you fill the pool." There's no compass rose or turning mirrors. There's no locks to find the combination to (fortunately, given the plot). There's no sorting of singing monkeys. There's no tempting of birds with seed pods. There's no catching of Squees. There's no summoning of Wharks. The steam generator and pipes to fill the Voltaic airship actually work logically, and there's a reason they're puzzling, unlike the steam pipes in Curievale. (I had to actually look up which world the steam pipes were in just now, which shows you how well-integrated that puzzle is.) Also, each puzzle is independent of all the others; there's no foreshadowing of what you need to know, nor cleverness of relating one puzzle to another, as was common all through Exile for example.
Almost all the puzzles (including the most frustrating) involve trying to find the next doorknob to turn; or, having found it, trying to figure out how to reach it with the one and only tool available. Occasionally there's the "let's see if I can find the hidden pathway." Almost none of them involve figuring something out based on the environment or the world building. When stuck, I found myself walking around with the adjunct out looking for some hidden doorknob to light up, or wandering into unobvious corners and walking around the edge of the playable area seeing if I missed a hidden pathway. This is compounded by the huge amount of nonsensical consistency-busting designs. (Watch any first-time playthrough and you'll see the player running all over the place looking for the next clue.)
Granted, once you figured out the solution, it was often clear in hindsight what you were supposed to have been doing.

• You could realize the conservatory is symmetrical and has rubble blocking the way so you need to climb across the planters.
• You could figure out that there were controls under the sulfur you couldn't see the first time by looking at the diagram, if you could figure out what the diagram was saying without extensive exploring to start with.
• You could figure out that the goal in the battery field was to connect the one wire to the other (and not stringing batteries from the outside inwards) once you realize there's exactly two wires leading out from the lake and the error is "no connection".
• You could figure out what order the sockets get concatenated in by looking at their orientations. (Granted, they tried to teach you that during "verification.")
• Once you've drained the first reservoir, it becomes clear the odd structures sticking up were walkways.
• Often you progress a ways through a puzzle and then you can see the exit.

The lack of characters, living people, conflict, narrative, etc also left the game feeling lacking. There's nobody you can interact with, almost no direction is provided as to what you should do (and no, just saying "start the Embrace" doesn't help given you have no memory of what that means), and no motivation for doing it other than some ghost tells you. The real reason you work at it is you know you're playing a game. The fact that the world is terribly inconsistent with the story, and the mentor wants you to do things she won't reveal, just compounds the problem.

• One of the first things she tells you is she'll lie to you, which kind of gave away the "you are Turner" ending.
• You're the only person alive/awake, you're vital to the completion of the project, and your mentor can tell you what to do, but she doesn't.
• In Myst, Riven, Exile, you're given ongoing plot, and you know your motivation from the start, and why there's nobody helping you.
• The ending is an unsatisfying info dump. The beginning is the same. There really wasn't a sense of accomplishment, especially since "Hey, you got to the end, no go away, everything else is automated."

The entire time I was playing, I was saying to myself "Why would this be like this?" It made the entire experience tremendously gamey. Myst and Riven didn't make you think "why would anyone do this?" Exile and Portal both had reasons for being full of puzzles, as well as a motivation for your opponent to be setting up the puzzles and for making them solvable. But Firmament should have been 10x as easy to navigate, except that wouldn't make a good game, so artificial barriers that make no sense are set in your way. This, for me, destroyed the suspension of disbelief. Especially when the ending reveals that even the things you might have thought were accidental were designed that way. Even the constructed places were designed like puzzles rather than somewhere you want your workers to be effective at working.

• Why would your mentor set things up that you needed to work so hard to make happen what she wanted?
• Why are there even locks on the doors, given only keepers and crew are there?
• Why would any giant door only have a doorknob on one side, especially when there are other doors you can enter?
• Why wouldn't there be a path around the skiff engine so you could couple either side?
• Why is there even a cargo skiff stuck to the side of a building that has stairs at the top and bottom of its range? That's like making a handicap elevator that opens onto a staircase landing. What are you moving on the skiff?
• Why would you install steam pipes zig-zagging all over under the water?
• Why would you install the gangways zig-zagging all over under the water?
• Why would you install steam valves that block the path when turned on? Why not turn that bit so they stick out over space?
• What does turning on the steam even do, other than clearing the way to the spire? It's not powering anything at the exit. Why are the pipes and heaters even there except to make a puzzle?
• Why do the electric heaters need steam power?
• Why do pressurized steam pipes glow green, except to make the puzzle possible? Why are electric lights shining out from inside the steam pipes?
• Why wouldn't you provide all the modes of running the crane on top of the crane? Why can't you raise the hook from on top of the crane?
• How is Juleston the only place that needs special electricity? Where do the other realms get their electricity that this realm couldn't?
• Why does the conservatory have collapsed columns blocking the way that aren't anywhere else in the building? There's no place for them to have fallen from. They're not symmetrical with the other half of the building.
• Why wouldn't the walkways around planters go all the way around? How are you supposed to care for or harvest the contents on the sides without walkways?
• Why wouldn't the controls for rotating the planters be more easily accessible? There's 6 or so controls to raise and lower each planter, and one control to rotate them that you wouldn't even be able to access on foot.
• Why do you need to ride the ice block to get to the factory? Did OSHA approve that? How come the protective gear described on the sign isn't available?
• Why did the walkway in the ice processing center that the moving bridge fills collapse, and where did the collapsed floor go? There are no broken plates on the floor.
• Why is there even a movable room in the ice processing center? Why not just finish building the bridges and walkways?
• How did whoever put the moving bridge there leave? You can only reach it standing on top of an ice block.
• Why is the green pipe valve hidden behind a bunker? Wouldn't it be easier to build stairs?
• Why wouldn't you build stairs all the way to the ground instead of having to walk along the crane to an ice block to reach the stairs?
• Why are there blocks of ice all over outside the processing center?
• How did all the ice blocks get around the base of the crane? Why not grind those up instead?
• How did the block of ice block the pathway, then the bridge get closed, except intentionally?
• Why not put all the controls for the sulfur mixer in one socket?
• Why is there a giant door requiring three sockets to get connected? The tracks don't go through, and there's nothing to be moved from one side to the other, and no vehicle nearby. Why is it there, and who closed it for that matter?
• Who would build a vehicle where the part you need to line up can't be seen from the steering wheel? Camelus' back door is not visible from the steering wheel. The first ice crane has to be automated at each end because you can't see what's happening. The alignment of the second ice crane is invisible from inside the crane, requiring the platform out the side.

And then you get to the end, and it becomes even more absurd, given that everything you've seen was intentionally designed and built.

• Why would the crane be constructed to run into the cliff? Put it farther out like the bubble car, or don't put rocks jutting out to block its path.
• Why would the sulfur need to be mined? It's not really a planet. Why not stacks of sulfur bricks? Why are there geysers in space?
• Why would you build the bubble car rails where they'd get frozen by ice? There's no seasonal run-off making waterfalls so you had to know that would happen.
• Why pretend you're mining coal? Why launch your coal supply from the ground in rocks instead of extracting it on Earth?
• Why are you wasting coal melting ice anyway? Just use the water before you freeze it. Why build the heat-powered power plant in the coldest realm?
• Why not build the steam furnace downhill from piles of coal and a big pool of water?
• What were you planning to do with a bunch of mountains in orbit when you got to your destination?
• Lots of puzzles block you from turning them off once solved. Why? And how'd they even get in that state in the first place? Nobody is working against you, and nobody has more authority to make changes than you do.

And many more I don't remember the details of.
Given Cyan's track record, one might ponder some of the inconsistencies in implementation and wonder whether they have a deeper meaning. I couldn't find any.

• The first double-bridge you come to, you have to navigate around to cross; the second double-bridge you can just reach the adjunct across; the bubble car there (I think) is positioned in a way that the last person to leave couldn't set up.of mentor dialog or books or something.
• Only one bunker has an alternate exit.
• Only one bunker has a hibernation bed. Did she drag that there? Her monologue doesn't sound like it.
• It seems like a bad idea to have the Juleston bunker close you in when the power goes off.
• Places blocked by rubble have nowhere above for the rubble to have come from.
• Collapsed floors that need to be bridged have no broken flooring or rubble under them, nor is there any reason for them to have collapsed.
• The first double-bridge you come to, you have to naviate around to cross; the second double-bridge you can just reach the adjunct across; the bubble car there (I think) is positioned in a way that the last person to leave couldn't set up.
• The moving bridge near the ice grinder for sure could not have been left that way (unless someone got ground up). Otherwise riding the ice wouldn't be a puzzle.
• The first place you need to connect three sockets, and there's only one order they connect in.
• The second place needs four sockets connected, but still shows "1/3" when you do the first one.
• When there's some option not currently available for a socket, you're not given that option. Or maybe it goes "Doink". Or maybe just nothing happens. Or maybe it's dimmed out. Or maybe it starts and then immediately reverts.

Compare to Myst: Myst was surreal, magical. It's expected in such situations that there will be weirdness. Nevertheless, essentially every puzzle was reasonable in its environment and grounded and somewhat predictable. Things like getting the key to the lighthouse was grounded in basic physics; things like resetting the spaceship after a mistake, or figuring out how to deduce the stoneship symbols, or raising the channelwood tree, were based on wide-spread cultural references. Where there were other puzzles, the end-goal was shown in advance, with you almost always running across the lock before being presented with the keys. The rare maze allowed you to (mostly) see where you were going several steps ahead and also told you the destination before you found it. The pointers to the story were left in conspicuous places (the note on the grass, the blue and red books). Also, the weird crap was explained in extensive world-building (heh) books in the library. Nothing (almost) was hidden just to make a puzzle harder. The solution to each puzzle was presented while you're in the puzzle trying to figure out the solution, if only you were clever or observant enough to understand it. If you wanted to get into the spaceship, you followed the wires. The elevator trick in Mechanical Age wasn't hidden; you just had to think about why the elevator didn't start right away. The most hidden thing there was the secret panels, which were secret, but still had a target drawn on them. Every place you were stymied by a lock, the lock was intentionally put there to keep natives of the land away from the books, or to keep others from using the books on Myst Island (i.e., the places of protection).
Contrast with (say) the greenhouse puzzle: first you have to figure how to get to the entrance riding the skiff, because that made so much more sense than another flight of stairs or a ladder; thank goodness the vines didn't quite close off every path. Then you have to figure out that the place you're trying to go is the other side of the planters on the same level (and not to the thing that looks like a lift or ladder), even though you can't see the other side. Then you ride the things around a while, trying to see the walkways above and below you, before realizing there's another doorknob down at the bottom; good thing they all have distinctive lights on them, eh? That doorknob can only be reached from where you're far from your goal, and from a limited number of puzzle states, then you have to work your way all the way back up, and then if you're lucky you'll have figured out how to turn the planters so you can dodge across. Sometimes you can cross on the diagonal, sometimes it's a fraction too far. And your knees don't bend, so you can't get over the foot-high plank lying on the floor. Or look at the steam pipes and heaters. You need to turn them on, and oh goody, they light up when you do. But some of the doorknobs don't glow; other sockets on the pipes aren't doorknobs they just look that way. Some of the pipes go above the surface, and you can't tell where they come back down. You then can turn on electric heaters using steam, somehow. You have to go down to turn one on, then melt some ice, then coming back up requires turning that off again. Several times you have to turn it on, then turn it off again because the valve was installed in a way that blocks the walkway. There's a valve hidden behind a grate for some reason, but fortunately your other tool can go through grates and the walkway passes by quite close. Then you have to turn on a valve, loop around to go two levels down, turn on the second valve that you can't get to because the steampunk builders thought it was a good idea to install valves that block the pathway, come back up far enough to turn on the third valve, go back down to turn on the heater, come back up and turn off the first valve, then you can progress. And when you've worked the steam power all the way to the end, what do you get? A steam-powered machine? No, just the same electric lift as in every other realm. Good thing, because you had to turn the steam off again to get to the other side of the path. The only reason for the steam pipes is to make a puzzle that somehow runs electric heaters off steam pressure, with electricity at both ends of the path already. Oh, and there's a hundred meters of gangway in loops and ramps in the water, instead of, you know, a path from one side to the other.
Compare to Riven: Riven is grounded like Firmament. It's not particularly supernatural. The stuff is mechanical, not magical. If someone disappears from a one-door room, there's probably a hidden switch. Granted, "fire marbles" aren't explained, and why there would even need to be clues to get into Tay is unclear story-wise, but OK, combinations to locks need to be written where you can find them. And the mine cart going under water was just Rule Of Cool. Everything else makes sense. Secret passages are only secret from one side. Doors are locked between where Ghen moves and where natives move, and locked on the side where Ghen is. When there's a "hidden" passage that's hard to see, the people who created it leave a pointer (usually a dagger). When there's a hidden door, you can see into the adjacent room so you know to look for the door. There's no case of "wander all over the level holding the 'show me interaction points' control, trying to figure out if there's a button that enables some other part of the level to work." There's no wondering whether you need an upgrade to even start working on this puzzle. If there's a hidden button to make something work, you can follow the wire to it (the fan), or see the pathway over there, or see the room through the window (book assembly island dome), or notice from where you start there's only one other path of many open (the lake sub), or etc. Look at the design of the wood pulp boiler vs the sulphur mixer. And again, the reason for all the locks are explained in-game. Riven is a masterclass in adventure game design because the puzzles all make sense in the context and story of the game, all of which we see before we need to know it, and there's almost nothing arbitrary about the puzzles.
Contrast with Firmament: Firmament looks realistic, but is surreal in detail. The entire place acts like one giant puzzle, with a dozen unintuitive steps to get from each place to the next. It has knobs that can control things remotely, but uses that capability to put things out of reach instead of making things easier, even tho the only people with adjuncts would be people who are supposed to be working the machines. It has machinery on rails constructed too close to other features to let the cars pass (like the first crane blocked by rocks, the second crane blocked by ice, the bubble car blocked by the ice, etc), which is even more silly when you find out the cliffs aren't natural either. It uses complex machinery of all different kinds to accomplish the same ends; the skiff vs the first crane vs the second crane vs the sulfur trains; the conveyance pods vs the bubble cars vs (cripes) riding blocks of ice and hopping off hopefully before you reach the shredder blades. There are places where simple stairs or bridges could be built, but instead there's a half dozen baroque processes to get from one place to another place a literal stone's throw away (see "riding blocks of ice" as well as the pointless skiff and the pointless steam pipes and ....). There's several kinds of power supplies which have to be turned on, each of which powers only the bits of puzzle blocking your way. There are innumerable doorknobs placed in cages where you have to be at the right angle to fire them with no obvious reason for the cage walls to be blocking you from there (see "riding blocks of ice"). Even at the end you have to walk entirely around the axis twice to unlock a door you're 20 feet from when you come out into space.
Compare to Exile: Exile is surreal, but this time it's intentionally designed by its creator to be surreal. Each age has a purpose and a theme, and it looks designed (unlike Myst's ages). The design of each Age gives you clues to the solutions of the puzzles, and then plays into the endgame. You have an ongoing story that tells you the motivations of the people involved. You have a reason you're suddenly thrown into the situation alone. (As in Myst and Riven, for that matter.) No need for the cliche loss of memory or untrustworthy narrator (both features of Firmament, both described in the opening monologue). There's a reason the puzzles are more difficult than you'd think necessary. The same reason is why there are clues how to solve them scattered about. And you're shown the ways in which the puzzles were made more difficult, which helps tell the story; nothing is randomly broken by accident. When you solve an age, you get a beautiful reward of getting to see the age laid out before you to admire. The ending is fulfilling, and in your hands, left to you to figure out how to bring about some solution or the best solution.
Contrast with Firmament: No setup other than a monologue telling you "you remember nothing, I might lie, go do puzzles I mean maintenance work." The puzzles are arbitrary-progress-blockage puzzles. There's very little where you have to think about what the world is like to make things work. The ages don't feel any different from each other, because every one is "figure out where the path is, where the goal is, and then try to find where you can reach the doorknob from." There's no puzzle having to do with ice on Curievale (other than the heaters, which are just different forms of doors). There's no puzzle having to do with plants on St. Andrew. Even places where you might have figured it out, it was tedious rather than clever; for example, the batteries were painted colors. Imagine how it would have been if you could see into the water and each post had a different number of batteries wired to it? I don't really want to spend time doing linear algebra to figure out puzzles during my gaming hour. And when you do solve a puzzle, half the time you're inside a building or vehicle where you can't see what's happening; the shutters only open once, the bubble cars obscure most of the view, engaging the Embrace doesn't make it obvious the doors are opening in the spire, etc.
How could I have done better? Well, I don't design games for a living, but I've been playing adventure games since they were coded in FORTRAN and printed their text on paper. There are a few obvious places the puzzles could have been made more enjoyable.

• Make the batteries in Juleston visible through the water, with different pylons having different numbers of batteries visibly connected. Then you don't have to do linear algebra and experiments to figure out what's going on, and the fact that the final step is also providing power would be obvious. This would leave open the possibility for the people who want to do linear algebra. (Sort of like how the sound direction clues in Mechanical Age let you navigate in Selentic Age even though there were adequate clues if you went to Selentic first.)
• Keep the steam pipes underwater, so you can follow where the next valve is.
• Actually require the player to mix the sulfur with the sulfur mixer, just for realism. And don't just have the computer tell the user what the next step is. "Door crusted." "Too much acid." "Pool full." Show, don't tell, like with the crusted lock at the start. Maybe make it so you can look into the pool before you add sulfur and see that there are controls down there, and locking lugs, and crusty stuff.
• When a machine finally turns on, make it obvious why you needed that machine in the first place. The whole "turn on steam" in Curievale was there to clear the way of ice in your way (with electric heaters, no less), while the builders could have just put a walkway over or straight through the water there. They could have made the lift at the end obviously running on steam pressure, which might have even made sense in the context of the steampunk origin story. The whole "turn on the batteries" in Juleston was there to power a half dozen machines while other machines all over already had power. Why does the Juleston bunker (you know, the place holding all the maintenance supplies) need battery power to be accessible and the others don't? (Oh, that's right, achievements.) Why did you have to send power to the bunker in order to open the giant doors? And again, the sulfur didn't need mixing (can you tell I'm traumatized?).
• Put some puzzles in that have to do with the age. Require a puzzle where you have to know ice floats, like drop a giant floating ice cube in the resevoir to get across. Require a puzzle where you have to fertilize or poison (with sulfur?) or electrocute (after powering up Juleston?) plants to progress through St Andrew. Let the player pick up a battery to locally power puzzles in Juleston (due to broken wires?) instead of just declaring that this lift lacks power but that lift works fine.

Anyway, that's my rambling. Hope you enjoyed. :)

I (30M) am the kind of person that doesn’t date very often cause I’m not very good at it. I’d say I’m pretty much the opposite to the typical “alpha male”: skinny, little facial air, book nerd, I like intellectual stuff, deep conversations. I have a profound respect for humans in general and women in particular. I try not to recreate any behaviour i find problematic and distance myself from people who promote it. I’m quite introverted and I don’t feel the urge to actively and constantly seek dates. But once in a while I have dates which I feel are going great, we have a good connection, we talk a whole bunch of different subjects and the convo is just naturally entertained. I get said often that im not like the average guy, that I’m really kind and intelligent and everything. I mean all things you want the other person to say during a date I guess.. The thing is it rarely goes beyond a first date even though I really enjoyed and (at least feel like) the other person did too.
Also, I find it hard to just get to the first date at all. On dating apps, It literally takes months to have only one match (which most of the time leads to nothing), even though I’m generally told I’m good looking. In person, I feel like women around me are not really attracted to the kind/intellectual guy type. Like I’m good material to be a friend or someone that listens to your problems, but not good enough to get to the next level.
It makes me wonder if some of my character traits are a turn off or is it how I advertise myself? Am I just misreading the signals (cause I gotta say I’m real bad at that)? Do women prefer “masculine” men rather than the intellectual ones? Sorry if it’s a bit confused and thanks for the tips!

My players have just finished their current main story line, and we were discussing next steps. Most of my players are experienced dms as well, and one of them has expressed an urge to run a game, while I also haven't had the chance to be a player in a while.
At first we discussed the prospect of a one shot or some other campaign, but the players just leveled up and the general consensus is that they want to both continue playing with their current pcs AND continue progressing thru the current setting.
I had an idea that I wanted to discuss with you beautiful nerds: what if I rolled up a character and basically tagged in while another character tagged out and started running? I was thinking that he could run more of a short term "side-questy" time game while I had a break and cooked up the next part of the main story. I even considered writing up a solo adventure for the character who would be taking a vacation from the party while my character adventures with them instead.
I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this round-robin style dming, or just having multiple dms run a single game in general. My immediate questions are:

1. What resources should I provide to the interim dm (IDM) for my homebrew world to set them up for success in creating a unique storyline?
   
2. How would I deal with the potential conflict of the IDM's storyline with my setting plans once I return to the helm?
   
3. Is it realistic for me to collab/consult with the IDM about his campaign and still have an authentic player experience?
   

Thanks for reading, any and all advice is appreciated! Love y'all :)
TL;DR: Looking for advice on games where a dm has tagged out or otherwise shared the dm experience with another player.

Hello. I saw this subreddit and I thought I’d give it a try.
I’ve been roleplaying for a couple of years now, I would say that I’m decently detailed but I would also say that I still have a long way to go in my roleplaying journey so please bare with me. A couple things before I get into specifics, I prefer rping on Discord I will mention again that I am relatively new so please keep that in mind when we are discussing or rping and 3 is that this is a commitment thing I understand people have things going on but at the end of the day this is a longterm roleplay.
With that out of the way i’ll explain a little more about the roleplay. This roleplay is going to be about Stranger Things, essentially it’ll be like we are playing out a season of the show except we can tinker with the season and have our own monsters and plot lines. I personally like to make my own character instead of using a canon character but you are free to do what you would like. As we make our way through the “season” our characters will begin to develop different feelings for eachother.
That’s my idea sort of, contact me if you’re interested
(Disclaimer, I can write (I prefer a bit of intimacy) smut so if you are into that we can totally do that. I am also using an OC)
I prefer Discord. Contact me :)
Best wishes!

I have the following error in my Renpy project:
```
I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.
​
While running game code:
File "game/script.rpy", line 12, in script
$ client = poe.Client("XXX")
File "game/script.rpy", line 12, in
$ client = poe.Client("XXX")
AttributeError: module 'poe' has no attribute 'Client'
​
-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------
​
Full traceback:
File "game/script.rpy", line 12, in script
$ client = poe.Client("XXX")
File "G:\renpy-8.1.0-sdk\renpy\ast.py", line 1138, in execute
renpy.python.py_exec_bytecode(self.code.bytecode, self.hide, store=self.store)
File "G:\renpy-8.1.0-sdk\renpy\python.py", line 1122, in py_exec_bytecode
exec(bytecode, globals, locals)
File "game/script.rpy", line 12, in
$ client = poe.Client("XXX")
AttributeError: module 'poe' has no attribute 'Client'
​
Windows-10-10.0.22621 AMD64
Ren'Py 8.1.0.23051307
Test 1.0
Sun Jun 4 15:09:39 2023
```
I'm trying to make a visual novel that uses Poe's bot chats using the Poe-api (poe-api · PyPI), the problem is when every time I try to use "$ client = poe. Client("XXX")" simply Renpy give me this error message, what can it be? I searched the internet interira and nothing. I am aware that to import a python module into Renpy you need to install it in the "game /python-packages" folder.

init python: import poe define e = Character("Eileen") label start: scene bg room show eileen $ client = poe.Client("XXX") e "You've created a new Ren'Py game." e "Once you add a story, pictures, and music, you can release it to the world!" return 

Can anyone help me with this problem? Am I doing something wrong? Please I will be grateful to anyone who gives me a guide!
​
(I don't speak English, I used it with translator to write this post, I apologize if the text has confused)

Hello. I saw this subreddit and I thought I’d give it a try.
I’ve been roleplaying for a couple of years now, I would say that I’m decently detailed but I would also say that I still have a long way to go in my roleplaying journey so please bare with me. A couple things before I get into specifics, I prefer rping on Discord I will mention again that I am relatively new so please keep that in mind when we are discussing or rping and 3 is that this is a commitment thing I understand people have things going on but at the end of the day this is a longterm roleplay.
With that out of the way i’ll explain a little more about the roleplay. This roleplay is going to be about Stranger Things, essentially it’ll be like we are playing out a season of the show except we can tinker with the season and have our own monsters and plot lines. I personally like to make my own character instead of using a canon character but you are free to do what you would like. As we make our way through the “season” our characters will begin to develop different feelings for eachother.
That’s my idea sort of, contact me if you’re interested
(Disclaimer, I can write (I prefer a bit of intimacy) smut so if you are into that we can totally do that. I am also using an OC)
I prefer Discord. Contact me :)
Best wishes!

Main hub thread with the full 131 rankings
What if I told you Memphis made Peyton Manning the QB he is today? In 1996, Memphis hosted junior QB Peyton Manning and #6 Tennessee late in the season. Memphis was just 3-6, while Tennessee was 6-1 and in the hunt for a national title. In true college football chaos fashion, the 26 point underdog Tigers pulled off a 21-17 win, scoring a TD with just 34 seconds to go. Returner Kevin Cobb took back a controversial 95 kick return for TD in which it looked like his knee was down, but the refs ruled it a TD. The play won an ESPY for college football play of the year, and the win was one of the biggest in school history.

Best Seasons and Highlights

1. 2019: 13. Memphis: 12-2 (29.169) 2. 2014: 25. Memphis: 10-3 (14.915) 3. 2015: 34. Memphis: 9-4 (11.312) 4. 2017: 35. Memphis: 10-3 (11.256) 5. 2003: 32. Memphis: 9-4 (10.813) 6. 1983: 42. Memphis: 6-4-1 (0.514) 7. 2020: 52. Memphis: 8-3 (-1.024) 8. 2016: 53. Memphis: 8-5 (-2.515) 9. 1992: 45. Memphis: 6-5 (-5.086) 10. 2004: 46. Memphis: 8-4 (-5.388) 11. 1993: 45. Memphis: 6-5 (-5.914) 12. 2018: 65. Memphis: 8-6 (-7.446) 13. 2005: 57. Memphis: 7-5 (-7.696) 14. 1988: 55. Memphis: 6-5 (-9.088) 15. 2022: 66. Memphis: 7-6 (-9.635) 16. 1987: 55. Memphis: 5-5-1 (-11.684) 17. 2021: 78. Memphis: 6-6 (-13.121) 18. 1984: 65. Memphis: 5-5-1 (-13.469) 19. 1991: 60. Memphis: 5-6 (-13.473) 20. 1999: 68. Memphis: 5-6 (-14.812) 21. 1994: 63. Memphis: 6-5 (-15.174) 22. 2001: 74. Memphis: 5-6 (-18.471) 23. 1990: 71. Memphis: 4-6-1 (-19.290) 24. 2007: 80. Memphis: 7-6 (-20.859) 25. 1996: 72. Memphis: 4-7 (-21.378) 26. 2008: 85. Memphis: 6-7 (-22.433) 27. 2000: 83. Memphis: 4-7 (-25.765) 28. 1997: 80. Memphis: 4-7 (-27.819) 29. 1985: 80. Memphis: 2-7-2 (-28.717) 30. 2012: 100. Memphis: 4-8 (-36.249) 31. 2013: 99. Memphis: 3-9 (-36.251) 32. 1995: 88. Memphis: 3-8 (-36.550) 33. 2002: 98. Memphis: 3-9 (-40.272) 34. 1998: 104. Memphis: 2-9 (-46.048) 35. 1989: 94. Memphis: 2-9 (-48.897) 36. 2006: 110. Memphis: 2-10 (-49.540) 37. 2009: 112. Memphis: 2-10 (-54.004) 38. 1986: 104. Memphis: 1-10 (-59.789) 39. 2011: 116. Memphis: 2-10 (-60.369) 40. 2010: 120. Memphis: 1-11 (-67.338) Overall Score: 10364 (82nd) 

• 213-253-6 record
• 2 conference titles
• 5-8 bowl record
• 4 consensus All-Americans
• 60 NFL players drafted

60 NFL players is a LOT. Especially for a Group of 5 team. Memphis has produced the most NFL draftees of anyone on the list so far with 60, more than the 6 Power 5 teams we’ve seen including Iowa State, Indiana, Kansas, and Rutgers. Primarily they’ve been a RB factory in recent years, producing NFL RBs DeAngelo Williams, Tony Pollard, Antonio Gibson, Darrell Henderson, and Kenneth Gainwell. The first 3 produced 1000+ yard rushing seasons in the NFL, while Gainwell ran for 100 yards in a playoff game last year, and Henderson won a Super Bowl with the Rams recently. They also have a shout to be Special Teams U, producing All-American K Joe Allison, All-American P Tom Hornsey, NFL 2010s All-Decade K Stephen Gostkowski, and current NFL starting kickers Jake Elliott and Riley Patterson.

Top 5 Seasons

Worst Season: 2010 (1-11 overall, 0-8 Conference USA)
I can only imagine how helpless Dontari Poe felt. The 6’3 345 lb DT would be drafted with the 11th overall pick just 2 years later, and was a standout talent on an otherwise hapless Memphis team. Memphis ranked bottom 5 in both offense (14.4 PPG) and defense (39.8 PPG) in 2010, losing 8 games by 20+ points. Freshman punter Tom Hornsey probably enjoyed the inept offense, getting to punt 80 times for a 42.7 yard average. Hornsey would go on to be a consensus All-American 3 years later in 2013. They somehow beat Middle Tennessee 24-17, who made a bowl. But a 17-56 loss to 5-7 Houston was bad. Most of the blame fell on the shoulders of first year head coach Larry Porter, who prior to his hiring, had never been a head coach or even coordinator. Porter came from LSU’s RB coach position, and has returned to coaching RBs ever since his firing in 2011. As one cfb member put it, “Larry Porter almost got our program cancelled.”
5. 2003 (9-4 overall, 5-3 Conference USA)
After beating Tennessee Tech 40-10 in the opener, Memphis made themselves nationally known in week 2, beating Eli Manning and Ole Miss 44-34. Memphis QB Danny Wimprine outdueled Manning, throwing for 355 yards and 3 TD with no picks, also catching a 34 yard pass on a trick play. Future NFL RB Deangelo Williams burst onto the scene, racking up 166 and 3 TD from scrimmage on 32 touches. Ole Miss was a good team that year too, they’d finish 10-3 with a #13 final ranking. Memphis had a hangover after the game though, and won just 1 of their next 4. They grouped together to win 5 straight by an average score of 37-14, before losing to USF 16-21 in the final regular season game. Tied for 3rd place in C-USA, Memphis faced 3 straight Sun Belt champs North Texas in the New Orleans Bowl, shutting down any UNT passing game for a 27-17 win. Junior QB Danny Wimprine threw for 3000+ yards with 22 TD 13 INT, and would finish his career next season as Memphis’ all-time leading passer with 10,215 yards and 81 TD. DeAngelo Williams won C-USA Offensive POTY with just 11 games played, going for 1814 yards from scrimmage. Sophomore K Stephen Gostkowski was 19/29 on FGs.
4. 2017 (10-3 overall, 7-1 American)
By 2017, Memphis was known as one of the more solid Group of 5 programs, having gone 27-12 over the previous 3 years, located in an area with lots of local talent. QB Riley Ferguson and WR Anthony Miller returned for their seniors year after a great 2016 connection, and would level up in 2017. In week 3 they hosted #25 UCLA and Josh Rosen, who had just completed a 34-point comeback against Texas A&M 2 weeks prior. Ferguson was the better QB on the day, throwing for 6 TD in a 48-45 upset win. After a 3-0 start they’d lose 13-40 to a UCF team that would finish the season unbeaten. A few weeks later, a 30-27 win over #25 Navy would give Memphis their second win over a top 25 team in one season, their first time ever doing so. Other wins included 42-38 over Houston after being down 14-31 in the 3rd quarter, 66-45 over 7-6 SMU, and 70-13 over East Carolina. It was #20 UCF (11-0) vs #20 Memphis (10-1) for the AAC title, and UCF, a team of destiny that year, would win 62-55 in OT in one of the games of the year. Memphis played an emotional Iowa State team in the bowl, who was having their best season in decades, and lost by 1 point.
Ferguson threw for 4257 yards 38 TD 9 INT, completing a fantastic 2-season career after transferring from community college. RB Patrick Taylor Jr. got the bulk of carries with 157 for 866 yards and 13 TD, but it was Darrell Henderson who popped off with 1154 rushing yards on 8.9(!!!) yards per carry. Anthony Miller was a consensus All-American with 96 catches for 1462 yards and 18 TD, leading the nation in TD catches. LB Genard Avery had a stellar season on the defensive side with 80 tackles, 8.5 sacks, and 13.5 TFL.
This was one of the best offenses in the country, ranking 2nd in PPG with 45.5.
3. 2015 (9-4 overall, 5-3 American)
Justin Fuente was building something special at Memphis. Hired to clean up the mess Larry Porter left, Fuente had Memphis go 10-3 in 2014, his 3rd year, ending on a 7 game win streak. With that momentum, the Tigers started hot in 2015. A 55-23 win over Kansas in week 2 wasn’t even close, outgaining them 651-359. After wins over eventual MAC champion Bowling Green, and eventual bowl teams Cincinnati and USF, Memphis improved to 5-0, set to host #13 Ole Miss. In front of 60,000 fans, Memphis owned the Rebels, scoring 31 straight points in a 37-24 win. Memphis looked like a legit team that could compete with Power 5 schools for the first time ever. 2 wins later, they were up to #13 in the nation with a win streak of 15 games dating back to last season. The wheels would fall off against 6-1 Navy though. A -3 turnover margin was costly, as Navy just chewed clock on drives in a 45-20 win. Navy would go on to finish #18 and Keenan Reynolds was top 5 in Heisman voting. Originally the media darlings as the top ranked G5 team, #21 Memphis now faced unbeaten #24 Houston, who came back from down 34-14 in the 4th quarter to win by 1 point. Memphis slipped again, losing 12-31 to a really underrated Temple team, before taking their frusturations out in a 63-0 win over SMU. The 63-0 win had…the wildest statline I’ve ever seen? Ferguson went 9/14 on passes for 222 yards and 7 TD. Seven touchdowns on nine completions???
The year ended with an uneventful 31-10 loss to Auburn in the bowl. It was kind of a “what if” season for Memphis, losing 4 of their last 5, but still their 3rd best season in the last 40 years. Lynch parlayed a 3776 passing yard 28 TD 4 INT season into a 1st round selection by the Denver Broncos, successfully scamming the Elways. Somewhat deserved though, this team had just 1 other 1st/2nd team all-conference player in OL Taylor Fallin, so Lynch carried most of the load. Fuente left for the head coaching job at Virginia Tech after the season.
2. 2014 (10-3 overall, 7-1 American)
The year before 2015 was slightly better. This team was young and nobody knew who they were yet, as they’d gone just 12-48 over the previous 5 seasons. The media could smell something brewing under Fuente though, as Memphis was picked 7th out of 11 teams in the American, giving them a solid shot at making a bowl. Memphis surprised everyone in week 2, playing #11 UCLA to a 35-42 loss in the Rose Bowl (venue, not game). A 41-14 win over Cincinnati in week 5 signalled that Memphis had truly arrived, the offense clicking on all cylinders with 610 yards and 0 turnovers. After a loss to Houston, Memphis was 3-3 and 1-1 in the American, about to get into the meat of conference play. Easy wins over SMU and Tulsa improved their record to 5-3, and a walkoff FG for a 16-13 win over 5-3 Temple earned them bowl eligibility for the first time in 6 years. At 6-3 and 4-1 in the American, Memphis just needed to win their last 3 games to claim the conference title. A soft remaining schedule consisted of Tulane, USF, and UConn, whose combined record at the end of the year was 9-27. Memphis won all 3 easily, and clinched a share of the American title with Cincinnati and UCF, completing a dream regular season. They had a wild game in the Miami Beach Bowl, beating BYU 55-48, and tempers erupted at the end of the game, leading to one of the best brawls of the decade.
Memphis achieved double digit wins for the first time in school history and finished #25, their first top 25 finish ever. LB Tank Jakes won AAC Defensive POTY with 92 tackles, 6 sacks, and 9.5 TFL. K Jake Elliott was the AAC Special Teams POTY, going 21/32 on FGs, ranking 1st in the AAC in scoring, and hit a 54 yard FG in the bowl. Justin Fuente won AAC Coach of the Year. Memphis football was back!
1. 2019 (12-2 overall, 7-1 American)
This team was LOADED offensively. QB Brady White, the second year starting QB who transferred from Arizona State, could hand the ball off to future NFL RB Kenneth Gainwell, or throw to all-conference WR Damonte Coxie or future NFL players Antonio Gibson and Calvin Austin III. The year started strong with a 15-10 shutdown of Ole Miss, followed up by a 5-0 start. #23 Memphis lost in a 28-30 upset to Temple, but that’d be the Tigers’ last loss all regular season. With College GameDay attending, #24 Memphis beat #15 unbeaten SMU 54-48 in an absolute barnburner, Antonio Gibson going for 97 rushing yards, 130 receiving yards, 159 kick return yards, and 3 total TD. And he touched the ball just 12 times!!! That’s 386 yards on 12 touches! Memphis needed to win their final regular season game against #19 Cincinnati to make the American championship game, and grinded out a 34-24 win. The two would rematch a week later, and Cincinnati would give a better effort, but the Bearcats were too depleted at this point in the season, and Memphis scored a late TD to win 29-24 and claim their 2nd conference title in 5 years. #17 Memphis earned the Group of 5 slot for a New Years 6 bowl and played admirably against #10 Penn State, losing 39-53 in a fun game. The two were polar opposites, Memphis throwing for 479 yards and rushing for 53, while Penn State threw for 133 and rushed for 396.
Brady White finished 2nd Team all-conference, throwing for 4014 yards 33 TD 11 INT. He’d go on to finish his career a year later as Memphis’ all-time leading passer with 10,949 yards and 92 TD. Freshman RB Kenneth Gainwell had an unreal year, rushing for 1459 yards and 13 TD on 6.3 YPC while also catching 51 passes for 610 yards and 3 TD. WR Damonte Coxie was 2nd Team all-conference with 1276 receiving yards. Do-it-all WR Antonio Gibson put on a show all year long with 369 rushing yards and 4 TD on 11.2 YPC, 38 catches for 735 yards and 8 TD, and won AAC Special Teams POTY with 28 yards per kick return and a TD. Even TE Joey Magnifico was all-conference.
2019 Memphis is my 42nd best Group of 5 team since 1983.

5th Quarter

What play/playegame do you think of when you think of Memphis? Who was a better coach at Memphis, Justin Fuente or Mike Norvell? Fuente rescued Memphis from the depths they were in and built a solid foundation, while Norvell took it a step further, making a New Years 6 Bowl. How would you rank these QBs in college: Paxton Lynch, Riley Ferguson, and Brady White? How would you rank these RBs in college: DeAngelo Williams, Darrell Henderson, Tony Pollard, Kenneth Gainwell? What’d you think of those Fuente/Norvell teams that were beating top 25 teams on a yearly basis, were you scared of them? And how do you think Memphis should fare when it comes to conference expansion, are they a nice program to add?
If you appreciate the effort, please consider subscribing on substack!

Hello everyone! I'm looking for beta readers or a critique partner for a novel I'm working on currently. It’s not completed yet, but what I have so far is the introduction into the series and I want to see how well it works with readers. This is my first official work although I've written other manuscripts before. This novel has gone through a lot of edits. I'm looking to iron out the final kinks in the story so far so I can fix any issues and get started on the rest of the story. My plan is to create a whole series so I would say think of this part as the introduction before the main story.
Summary: With his village plagued by a deadly disease known as the white plague, Kazone Marlock, along with his cousin Karen and villager Rai, embark on a mission to find a cure. Immune to the disease themselves, they are sent by their village elders to find a cure to the untreatable disease. Their journey takes a supernatural turn when Kazone encounters a celestial apparition—a Taurus of the zodiac—who tasks him with retrieving magical and powerful shards scattered across the globe in exchange for healing his afflicted people. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, 15-year-old Eva Sauburn's life takes an unexpected turn when she is attacked by a rogue treasure hunter. Saved by her long-lost grandfather, Elric, Eva discovers her unique ability to destroy powerful and mysterious ancient shards. Learning of her fugitive terrorist father's involvement and convinced by her grandfather about the reasons to destroy the powerful shards Eva sets out on a journey with her grandfather to uncover the truth and confront the adversaries who seek the ancient shards. As Kazone and Eva along with their perspective comrades traverse a treacherous world, they encounter powerful allies and dangerous foes, including renowned monster hunters, corrupt officials, and enigmatic treasure seekers. Unbeknownst to them, the shadowy antagonist Stavick, driven by revolutionary ideas, seeks to collect the shards for his own purposes and has amassed a formidable following. The race to retrieve the shards becomes a high-stakes battle, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Amid conflicting emotions and the seductive allure of the shards, the protagonists must navigate their own personal struggles and confront the darkness within themselves. As their paths intertwine, Kazone, and Eva will face formidable challenges, testing their strength, resolve, and unwavering bonds. The journey will reveal hidden truths, shape their destinies, and determine the fate of their world. In this epic tale of adventure, danger, and self-discovery, the protagonists must overcome their pasts, confront their deepest fears, and ultimately choose between succumbing to the darkness or emerging as the heroes their world desperately needs.
Feedback: I am looking for any type of feedback, positive, negative, constructive, anything that’ll help me craft a better story and become a better writer. Feedback on the plot, or character even motivations and goals literally anything and everything. If you have a thought at all please just let me know. I really appreciate harsh critiques so don’t think you're hurting my feelings or being offensive. Please ask any questions, let me know any comments or concerns. Swaps: I am really down for swaps, i would definitely love to read your work if you're interested in swapping. My story is a YA Fantasy novel, but I'm still down to read anything you have to offer. I'm free for the next few months so I have a lot of free time to read.
For anyone interested, here is the first 10 pages:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WfXOD7gQS2hxaTxb2uPhbaO6joi404J8B6iXZaCSmNc/edit?usp=sharing

There are plenty of moments where her being unzipped is cool and adds to the character of her being a spy, trying to seduce snake, but her boobs being out for the entire finale is just crap and annoying.
I hope they zip her up for the finale. She could actually unzip again when she is taunting Volgin on the Shagohod, that would be pretty cool.