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Nine hours of midnight - survival contest
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Actually I mixed up my challenges. Forget the comment above since I can't cross it out on mobile.
Craith looked upon the pile of dead creatures before him and saw that there seemed to be almost no end to them. He quickly retreated and encased his wounds with ice. Not the most ideal solution, but it was alright for now.
Having retreated behind the barricades, he saw the silver bullets and had an idea on how to manage the situation. He grabbed some of them and used his magic to create a projectile that'd shatter on impact and hurt everyone around the target instead of just one enemy.
Noticing the soldiers still being able to keep the monsters at bay, despite losing a few, he fully focused his attention on weakening as many as possible. When he noticed several people leaving the barricades and retreating back into the city, Craith followed them. They'd manage without him and he was curious, despite the serious situation, what he might encounter. On top of that, he could use a short rest to recover his abilities after fighting without break.
Making his mind up, he decided to check where his assistance might be needed the most and went back into the town with some of the other soldiers.
Ding!...
Ding!...
Ding!...
Ding!...
Ding!...
Ding!.....
Six times the clock rang again - and it remained midnight.
Selina tossed a wolf's corpse, which she had drained of blood, to the side. She took a deep breath as she listened to the wind crawl through the forest in the north. She listened to the soldiers shout and fighting, muskets firing, corpses burning. She listened closer - first she heard the sound of her heart beating in excitement of the blood, and fear of what is to come. Then her heartbeats and the underneath lying sound grew separated. In the forest something large was pushing the trees aside as it came closer towards the bridge.
Then out from the trees came a behemoth, an undead abomination of the night with mouths all over its body. With heavy steps it moved towards the bridge. The sharpshooters on the rooftops and in the balloon opened fire. Smoke and blood splatter from the beast as the bullets hit it. It gave out a frightening roar, but it began losing strength. As it continued to be showered in bullets, one hit it in its eye and it fell into the river. A small victory but short lived. Out of the forest another behemoth arrived followed by a third.
Then from high above - a screech. Selina raised her eyes and saw dark bat like beasts descend towards the town. The sharpshooters raised their rifles and opened fire towards them. They managed to shoot down some but most made it past the fire and down into the town. A balloon above Selina became target of two of them. One of the beats got its head blown off by a sharpshooter with a blunderbuss, but the second beast managed to get into the basket. The two sharpshooters where thrown out while the beast kept the alchemist to feed on.
Beast all around flew to and started attacking the windows and doors of the buildings. One of the beasts came flying towards the line of soldiers at the bridge, but a vampire was quick to strike it down with one swing from his sword.
All around the town, Alchemists had begun preparing and releasing tiny illuminating balloons with oil and a tiny candle inside. One fell beasts quickly attacks one of the glowing orbs and almost immediately as it attacks it is set ablaze by the oil. The beasts screeches and falls to the ground.
Forty minutes later Selina leaves the bridge and with two other vampires she begins to move towards the church. The third hour is approaching, and with it one of the most terrifying beasts of the night.
The following people have died this hour:
- Lysandre, Mad Mechanists
The health and condition of the characters are at the end of this hour:
Selina Velintes: 60%
Klavor, Priest of Annihilation: 45% + wounded
Kethran Churchson: 40%
Alio the Sleepless: 50 %
Craith, Force of Ice: 55 % + Wounded
Aoria, Vessle of the Mind: 65 %
Pillmaker Nigredo: 50%
Caronte, Possesed Watchman: 55 % + Wounded
Wounded - Causes health to degrade faster and provides a minor penalty to strength, combat skill and endurance.
Wounded indicates significant bleeding wounds that should be treated. This does not include "minor scratches" and some cut wounds that can be mostly left alone.
Reminder:
The health is not a direct indicator of how well your character is doing. A well made character can have poor health while a bad character can have a high health.
The health can be considered a summary of the total wellbeing of the character, both physical, psychological. It can be purely because the lack of sanity which causes the character to take worse risks and receive worse wounds.
It's a total of how close the character is to be killed.
Your character could thus be at 20% health without a scratch on their body, but their mind would be in shambles - and vice versa. How this harm is distributed is up to you, what you feel is correct for your character.
Second reminder:
The nine hours of midnight, and Eitnaheim are just settings which contains the stories of your characters. You make your characters and their stories how you want them as long as they don't disturb other people's stories (without their consent) and the setting in a major way. This is a large world - the chances that a character exists with your desired personality is very likely. A vampire that see humans as equals? Yes! A spirit of a dead fire cleric - sure! A steam driven horse (Don't even remind me of that abomination)!
- 100% Health immediately for the character that brings a steam horse (that works).
From this hour and every hour left of the night, at least one character will die.
Some thoughts
I have begun to see some problems with this contest. At first it was too plain. There was nothing here except a setting, so I added some mechanics to diverse the gameplay. Now it works really well - if it was a board game where everyone is gathered and we got a board between us. I'm not saying that this contest has failed, far from it.
One problem is - the night is too long. 9 hours is 9 weeks, which is a very long time doing the same thing pretty much over and over.
I see two solutions to this:
1: Reduce the night to 6 hours instead of 9. This makes it quite manageable but instead we lose the later hours which are the most unique. But not many people will be alive by then anyway so it might be somewhat wasted.
2: We combine hours, so having two hours in the same cycle/week. This would quicker remove the more mundane 1-3rd hours, and the stranger 4-6th hours. 7-9th hours would be untouched though. It would thus feel like a 6 hour night.
Quite much work for me to make the cards however. What do you guys think?
If we have to do an option, my vote would be for Option 2. I really enjoy this right now, but i wanna get to the punchline if we need to speed things up. Also, I noticed it's hour 2 and yet everyone is below 2/3rds max health. Presuming it gets more difficult as time goes on I don't expect anyone alive by hour five lol.
If I had to choose though, option 2 would be ideal, cheers!
As DrakeGladis mentioned though, it seems like nobody will make it to the later stages of the midnight anyway at this rate. Maybe the dramatic loss of health (if interpreted as physical damage for a particular character) will encourage players to heal themselves? (They'd have to do it a lot though.) If you plan to run this again, I'm curious as to whether there's anything particular that you'd like us to take from this playthrough when planning characters/strategies for the next midnight.
She comes too from her meditation a second too late, as she realizes the swarm of hellish beasts is coming towards her, she levitates out of the way last minute as the claw of one of the beasts shreds some tiles of the roof that she resides on. Two of them shreek wildly as they fly unsteadily with the incapitated corpses of more wounded soldiers. They collide with each other, one of the solders gaining conscious right as she is being dropped by the colliding beast, she screams in horror, but ultimately ends up as red paint on the side of the road, framed in the metallic canvas that was once her armor. The other beast is less fortunate, for it barrels across the ground at an increasing rate, before colliding with the wall bellow. Unfortunately for the soldier also in its grasp, he dies as well.
In horror, Aoria tries to collect her wits. She manifests a dog like form around her as she begins to run, and the remaining beasts follow suit. She leaps from building to building, shattering some of the tilling, as she dodges the beasts in panic. Suddenly her umbral manifestation is hit, causing it to break and her body to be launched from the roof. She comes to her senses, as she almost hits the ground "I can't die here".
She quickly activates reactivates one of her best manifestations of an umbra as she is encased in radiant blue samurai armor before landing gently. The four beasts fly towards her, but with one slash they are quickly dispatched. She looks down to see that the three abominations have spotted her and are now barreling towards her. She slashes one smoothly as she runs, her current location now being Duvgen, as a second one then promptly runs towards her hitting her armor, which she shrugs off, before slashing it and stepping back. The third one wastes no time and runs towards her full force shattering her armor and launching her into the Duvgen river.
As she is slowly drowning, she subconsciously activates a serpentine armor around her, shielding her, from taking in more water. She opens her eyes within it and reminds herself to remain calm, as she pulls out the crown her mother gave her and wears it.
"It is time I become serious, otherwise I will surely die"
Tentacles rise from the water, one grabbing the abomination and launching it westward, and the other grabbing a couple other fell beasts that had joined the hunt and smashing them into the ground. She rises out, now inchoated in her usual kraken like umbra, ready for what might come next.
Ding....
The second hour, still just as dark as midnight. Alio huddled up further into the back of the church trying to hide in the crowd. The cleric, Kethran, had let him in and provided some healing. He clutched the wound at his side, it slowly healing had helped but it still ached. More gunshots, more screams from outside. People quieted down trying thier best to not attract attention. Alio sighed, he was safe.
"How long do you think you can stay in here?" He froze, it was her. He looked up at the spectral woman floating above him. No one else in the church seemed to notice her. She smiled and softly landed next to him. "These walls won't hold forever, you know that better then anyone." he reached for his bag, some moon dust should banish these unwelcomed visions. But something stopped him, a force over took his body and his muscles tensed. "You can't run forever, not tonight." he tried to fight it but she was strong. His mind was filled visions and images.
It was dark loud, people all around him grabbed frantically worked. They boarded windows, secured doors, prepared themselves for the onslaught. What were their names? He couldn't remember it had been so long...had it? Someone threw a piled of supplies in his hands, he needed to put them somewhere...the door, the one in the back. That's where it happened.
He took the supplies there, passing people as he went. They were faceless, all forgotten. Wait, that person's face wasn't... it was worried, a large scar ran down it. What was his name? It started with a W, or was it a J? The persons face faded away as Alio tried to remember in vain. "Hey! Over here!" it was her, not spectral this time, alive. She was barricading the back door he ran over and started helping. They needed to be quick, the night would come soon. She looked worried, he understood why.
"We'll be alright, we always are." she spoke to them as they finished. He responded, but his words were muddled, he didn't remember them. She said more forgotten words as the world blurred. She walked away and waved, he remembered the wave, the goodbye. The world blurred around him, the torch light spread and wrapped around him. The room was on fire, the barricades had failed. Faceless bodies bled out, torn open by the horrors of the night. He was bleeding to, he should have been dead to. But it found him, the shadow wrapped around him and took him away. Dragging him to the depths of his mind.
"Well what do we have here?" another faceless figure, in an alley. A guard searching for him, for them. The two had taken something, money, food? It didn't matter they had gotten caught. Now they had to run. The guard approached her hiding spot preparing to grab her. Alio reached down and grabbed a pile of horse manure. The waste hit the guard square in the head, "RUN!" Alio yelled out as the two urchins booked it leaving the guard behind. As they did the world collapsed around him buildings and streets bending around them as red rain fell from the sky. She didn't seem to notice but Alio did, he stopped as the rain began to fill the angled streets. He closed his eyes his spine tingled and his heartbeat rose. From nowhere she whispered.
Alio opened his eyes. He was still in the church, she was gone. Tears ran down his face mixing with the dried blood. He just silently reached into one of the pouches, took some moon dust and let the whispers die out.
(The damage Alio has taken this round has been mental. I might write more)
That the health is so low after the two first hours is kind of actually because the starting amount is too high for how death would be determined in the beginning.
It was at first meant that health was supposed to be the only factor if a character died or not, but in practice that makes it unreliable at best and useless at worst.
I did not want to make characters suddenly lose 70-80 % health due to events which they cannot prevent, only react to. The huge downside of this format compared to a board game.
But characters still need to die, it would otherwise not be a survival contest.
I have made some changes to the health system.
1: Health will always degrade with a certain amount during each hour.
- 10% for the first 3 hours.
- 15% for the middle 3 hours.
- 25% for the last 3 hours.
2: An additional factor of change will be added on top of the one above. Some of these are action, and story based.
- Healing the character will increase the health. (up to +30% but takes at least 1 hour)
- Resting in a safe place will reduce the degradation with 10% (Only works for hour 1-6)
- Taking risks will make the character lose a little bit of health. (up to the natural degradation: 10% for hour 1-3, 15% for 4-6 and 25% for hour 7-9)
3: "Sudden death"
Just as in other saga contests, specially tournament of champions, players receive an amount of arbitrary points based on cards and stories posted. This may affect the healing amount above and the harm done when taking risk. BUT this is changed by such actions. Healing reduces these points, taking risks increases it. (As long as the storytelling and actions are reasonable and logical.)
Resting for 6 hours is also not feasible as a survival tactic for this reason.
Regarding survival the value is used to determine the "sudden deaths"
- Each hour one character will die (Technically not true but practically). This will be the one with the lowest storytelling score.
- Each hour, those with a score beneath a certain value will die. This value increases for each hour exponentially). This will not be relevant until the 4th hour, and not a big deal until the 6th hour. (This was the original determination of survival and death which was supposed to be the sole factor for this contest, but was replaced with the health system).
So to survive you have to make sure that your health does not reach critical level but also continue to create cards and/or telling your story while keeping it reasonable and logical.
An explosion from below startled Nigredo. While he was used to his traps going off, what concerned him more was the groans and roars that followed. Sounds like something big. Probably not worth finding out what.
Opening the window, he gathered up those of his little ones without wings. He climbed onto the nearby tree, feeling it tremble, but hold. Moving as quickly as he dared, he moved down a few branches before leaping clumsily to the ground. Landing roughly, he quickly picked himself up, having faith that the residual effects of his medicine ball would fix whatever minor bumps and scrapes he might have sustained during the fall. Checking over his gear, he began heading north toward Duvgen town. It would almost certainly be chaotic, but the buildings should provide sufficient cover and escape routes during any encounters.
As the small entourage fled the area, Nigredo caught something out of the corner of his eye. He stood by a corpse lying in an empty archway, likely a regular sight on this horrid night. What drew his interest though was the number of small pouches and pieces of equipment nearby. Was this an alchemist? Maybe I can find something useful here.
As he knelt to examine the corpse, he heard an odd chittering and some distant screeching. The flying creatures from before? Best work quickly. He began snatching up pouches and other small items almost at random, stashing them in a few empty outer pockets and figuring there'd be time to examine the contents later.
What seemed like mere moments later, a few of his assistants began hissing and growling threateningly, and Nigredo looked up, knowing what he was likely to find. A number of large, almost batlike creatures leered down at the group from the surrounding rooftops, perhaps eager for easy game. I can't die here. Not tonight; not while the Great Work remains unfinished. While I'd like to use flash powder here, it might attract more of them… I don't want to use this so early, but it appears I have no choice.
Nigredo took out one of his precious Murkmist balls, signaling quietly to his little ones. Pinching his nose and holding his breath, he hurled the pill up toward the walls below the creatures. A sickly white cloud exploded outward, and Nigredo bolted, not daring to look back. He held his breath until his lungs burned from exertion, his poor stamina showing itself as he'd not gotten far.
Gasping, he hurried into Duvgen town, searching for a dark corner to take refuge in. Taking shelter under a large tree, Nigredo spread the scavenged items and containers on the ground, checking them quickly and efficiently while a number of his assistants spread out to keep watch.
Desperate Measures (escape from the Fell Beasts)
Robert Tess sat on the roof of a four levels tall building beside a chimney where smoke was pouring out. Beside him was a lit brazier with two torches resting on the iron bars. Robert opened a bag by his side and began picking out bullet shells which he put into containers around the shaft of his rifle. When he had filled the containers he put one shell into the chamber. He closed the bag then put the rifle so it rested on his knee.
He looked down the iron scope, took a deep breath, then fired.
Bang!
A behemoth that was chasing a soldier fell to the ground with blood pouring out from the large hole in its head. The soldier turned around and gave a nervous salute towards the building roofs without knowing exactly where his saving shot had come from. Robert did had already reloaded his rifle and aimed at another direction.
Ding!...
Ding!...
Ding!...
Ding!...
Ding!...
Ding!.....
Robert listened to the bell toll with the sound of his heart beat. The wind blew once more, shaking the trees of the forest and causing Robert's skin to freeze for a moment.
Robert continued his work taking out the behemoths that had made it into the city.
A fell beast screeched as it attacked a oil fire balloon and was set ablaze. It tried to fly away but the fire was destroying its wings so it fell towards the northern bridge. It crashed north of the bridge against a tree. A short moment passed and a chain of iron slamming against the ground could be heard from the dark trees. Out of the trees came a wolf looking creature- an abomination. It approached the feel beast and began biting and tearing it apart to reach its flesh. A beast of Vex'Ion.
Strength - 4
Combat Skill - 5
Endurance - 5
Intelligence - 2
Knowledge - 1
Psychology - 2
Vitality - 4
Magic prowess - 0
Quantity - Horde
Comes from: The forest.
Special note: Not very coordinated unless a beastmaster in commanding them.
Robert aimed his rifle, not towards the wolf, but the creature that commanded it. Behind the wolf came a one of the beastmasters of Vex'Ion. An ugly creature, a failed demon made of the decayed corpses of animals and humans but a brain of a beast. The creature smirked as it looked towards the town, with more wolves following behind.
Bang!
The side of the beastmaster's head blew off, and it fell forward. It feel on its knees but it did not die. The beasmaster groaned as it stood up again. With a large chunk of its head blown it off he yelled with a deep half demonic voice. "Vox! Vox Kalma Haron!" It took an iron whip from its hip and began hitting the ground and the corpses off other beasts so blood and guts were thrown around. From the forest came a dozen wolf horrors. With its face covered in blood and bits of its brain, the beastmaster pointed towards the town and yelled. The wolves began their assault.
Strength - 6
Combat Skill - 2
Endurance - 3
Intelligence - 5
Knowledge - 5
Psychology - 3
Vitality - 6
Magic prowess - 4
Quantity - Some
Comes from: The forest.
Special note: Prefers to have their beasts do the fighting for them, but don't underestimate their strength regardless.
They are also able to use lesser blood magic to enrage their following beasts, and cause corpses to give away a foul toxic stench.
"Fire!" Yelled the vampire which had taken command over the bridge defense. The soldiers opened fire. Many of the wolves were fell as they were hit but more wolves joined the assault from the forest. Robert saw one, two, three more beastmasters step out of the forest each followed by a large amount of wolves. Robert looked at the soldiers who were able to deal with the wolves quite well, while the beastmasters themselves were too lazy to attack. Something was wrong. It was too easy.
Robert once again aimed his rifle towards the beastmaster which he had shot before. The beastmaster was clearly affected by having a piece of its brain blown off as it began pushing another beastmaster that stood beside it. Robert almost felt like letting the creature be, but he was still dangerous.
Bang!
Another chunk of the creature head was blown off, and it almost fell on its back. But once again it regained its balance. It threw up blood on the ground as it moved around it circles. Screaming, it took its whip and hit the other beasmaster then the trees, the wolves. Then it turned back towards the forest and continued to scream. The other one drew out a club with the intention to end his companion's life, but then it stopped still.
The first beastmaster swung its whip into the forest once, twice and then a third time.
A deep and loud roar pulled the air from Robert's lungs before he could fire off again. The unharmed beastmaster backed off from the tress towards the river.
Crush! Crack!
The wounded beastmaster had disappeared into the woods. Something huge was approaching the Woodline. The beastmaster turned around to run, but in the same moment the monster dashed out and grabbed his head in its mouth. Then as easily as biting into an apple, the monster crushed his head. The body fell into the river. The monster was as large as an elephant, its eyes and fur were glowing red of hellblood. A true demonic beast of Nox - a hellblood beasts.
The beast crunched the head in its mouth and swallowed it. Then it moved its eyes towards the town looking at all the living prey - humans, werewolves and vampires. They were all prey to this beast. "Shatter formation! Drench it in flame and bullets!" The vampire shouted. Robert and the other sharpshooters opened fire against the beast but they did only minor damage to its thick wet hide. The beast roared, and then it dashed across the bride.
Strength - 9
Combat Skill - 9
Endurance - 10
Intelligence - 6
Knowledge - 5
Psychology - 6
Vitality - 8
Magic prowess - 5
Quantity - A single one
Comes from: The northern bridge
The beast of the 3 first hours, and the first of the Apex monsters of the midnight. Extremely deadly to everything that is not a lord. It can release hellblood mist from its fur which act as a burning toxic gas. This beast will go for everything which it desires, everything that it considers prey - everyone.
The probability of survival: High
The probability of survival against the hellblood beast: Low
The following people will die during this hour:
The health condition of the characters are at the end of this hour:
Kethran Churchson: 30%
Alio the Sleepless: 60 %
Craith, Force of Ice: 45 %
Aoria, Vessle of the Mind: 55 %
Pillmaker Nigredo: 40%
Caronte, Possesed Watchman: 45 %
I have removed wounds, illness and such. It was too difficult to keep an eye on all of this so I have decided to remove them. You can still use these to fill your stories though.
It does become somewhat difficult for me to keep check of everything that is happening.
I would thus be happy if you for every story segment you write, add an summary for their actions which affects health. Such as:
Selina used a blood bag to regain health.
or
Selina moved into the house to look for bandages.
Good luck surviving.
That's not a good indication for this contest.
I have an idea
How about we take the suggestion from earlier and combine the 4th-6th hours into one 2 week long session.
This will shorten down the total contest time with 1 week, and the sessions by 2.
We play the 3rd hour as normal.
The result will then kill 1 character during the entire 4-6th hour period.
We play the 4th-6th hours as if they were one single hour (but twice as long).
The result for "pre-7th" (The minutes between the 6th and 7th hour) hour will then kill 2 people.
The first 45 minutes of the 7th is played as normal but with a twist. Your character needs to find a solution to how to have the chance to surive the monsters of this hour.
The result for the end of the 7th hour is revealed.
The first 45 minutes of the 8th hour is played in the same way as the 7th hour.
The result for the 8th hour is revealed.
If there are any survivors left then the 9th hour will be "played out."
This would make the remainder of the contest much simplier with only one core system.
The biggest problem with this is that the health system might need to be abolished (since it won't be needed), thus removing the "survival" part from most of the contest.
This is probably the best solution to salvage what we have here.
The best for the entire contest would have been if the health and the story telling points were combined into one system. This is not feasible at this stage of the contest though - so that will have to wait to a second constest, if there will ever be one.
Nigredo called his little ones back, looking for a large building to take refuge in. Finding one nearby, he crept up to the second floor, listening for danger each time the floor creaked under his feet. Encountering naught, he found his way into a library of some kind. Bookshelves filled the walls on either side, and three large windows dominated the far wall, pallid moonlight filling the space. This is as good a place as any; I need to make more concoctions before something else finds us.
Nigredo took out his cauldron and a number of the ingredients he'd scavenged from the fallen alchemist. The flames of his magic warmed the cauldron as the first few reagents fell into it. First, more curatives. On the off chance I encounter someone sane, they will likely have need of assistance. Providing support is likely the most I will be able to do, but–
Nigredo caught a flash of something in the distance as he worked. An immense creature that seemed to slaughter everything before it without thought or effort. A moment later it was out of sight, but Nigredo continued to stare after it, forgetting his work. What monstrosity was that? How could one even begin to–
The reagents in the cauldron reacted violently, Nigredo's flames flaring violently and scorching his hands. He hissed as the cauldron fell to one side, purple ash spilling out. Having been through many similar failures, he reflexively ate a medicine ball as he considered what he'd seen. If we were to encounter that creature, would anything I carry work against it? Even if it did, would we live long enough to escape? With such creatures running amok, and likely far worse to come, why bother with any of this? All of those fighting for their lives will undoubtedly fall before it, and where does that leave the rest of us once greater threats follow? I can only hope my writings will assist another once this night has passed, for it is clear I will not be finishing the Great Work. Until then, I suppose I should do what I may; revelation might deign to strike in this dire hour.
Turning to his cauldron, Nigredo numbly cleans out the wasted reagents and returns to his work, not truly thinking about it as another concoction begins to take shape. Keris, having noticed the change in his demeanor, but knowing not how to help, does everything she can to assist while some of the others set traps below.
Card(s) for the Hour (don't mind the name; it's also an entry for something else)
Aoria lays in stern silence as her umbra keeps her afloat in the river, she closes her eyes and enters a deep meditation within her umbra, as the occasional stray undead rushes into the grasp of her umbra getting launched away. She sits in silence for a moment, but then the river waters begin to gently stir, as she attempts to establish a mental connection with the villagers and the other survivors alike.
"Hello. If you can hear me, you are not insane, or atleast I assume you aren't. I pray that you may pardon my intrusion of your minds, but I have but a simple favor to ask of you. I sense something foul lurking within the night, something beyond my or your power.
If my observations are correct, most of you will perish before we lay eyes on it. Perhaps currently there is no swifter mercy than death with all these rampant abominations running around. Should you wish to survive though, I only ask that you share your mental energy . This will allow me to greatly increase my psychic potential, as well as tap into your imagination. Using that potential, I will be able to contest, if not atleast stop this mighty foe. Should you refuse, I wish you the best of luck."
@Jonteman93 Aoria is going to avoid combat this turn as much as possible and she will remain within the river harnessing mental energy from those who share.
Hi Guys!
I'm sorry for not updating the thread in... 2 months.
Since the contest was dying with droputs, low interest and a mess of rules and instructions - I wanted to end it at the 3rd hour with a final encounter between your characters together with Kayne, Selina, and the others vs the hellbeast.
I never managed to gather the enthusiasm to actually sit down and write the text.
I have a clear image in my head for how this world is supposed to feel like, and the monsters that haunt the midnight. The most interesting thing about the midnight (in my opinion) is the monsters, but sinve I have to rely on existing artwork I cannot bring those monsters truly to life. I cannot show the entities of glass of the 7th and 8th hours since there is no artwork that resembles what they are. So I have to either go without cards or use other people's creations as my own. This works for the beasts of the first 3 hours, and somewhat for the demons of the 4th-6th hours but not beyond that.
This harmed my enthusiasm further.
Then there are the rules and how the "game" works with supplies, items, equipments, movements and such. This is not applicable for a text-based contest that this is where there needs to be some kind of system or rules that dictate what is allowed, what works, what fails, and what is not allowed as the playing field changes over time.
Either I would have to take complete control which leave you without many choices to make or the rules have to be set aside, be made independent on the changes of time or be a matter of your own interpretation which is not great in a survival setting.
This would be much easier if done direcly as a DnD campaign but with survival as focus, but that is not possible on this forum. Voice chat or text chat like on Discord is much more applicable.
I really like this setting as it lets me use themes and creatures which would not work in Avelaide. I would love to explore the later hours of the midnight, the entities of glass, the different vampire cultures and families, the social relation between humans, werewolves and vampires, the things people are willing to do for survival - the experiments of the kind doctor.
Perhaps there is an alternative contest type which would work in this world, but if there is then that is for the future.
It pains that I have to cancel this contest. That is the second one in less than a year. But better cancelled than left to rot I guess.
I thank you regardless for participating in this contest. There was much knowledge and experience to be gained.
I have opened my eyes for another contest once again - one which I have much more faith in and more experience with.
Would that be an option? At some point resurrecting this as an imagination game with you dming?
That would indeed be an option.
It would play out very much like a DnD campaign but with much less focus on battle and more on navigation, scavenging and of course survival.