It may be too soon to ask but are you planning on doing anything with the gravship in your next playthrough? I find it kind of limiting but it could be good for a smaller more compact colony rather then a big family like your previous playthroughs... I'm curious to hear your thoughts!
Also: what 1.6 mods are you looking forward to using?
I've got a whole bunch of ideas for my next colony. The plan at the moment is to do a poll once I'm finished with A Mechanitor's Message to see what my first proper 1.6/Odyssey run should be. Building a gravship would definitely make for an interesting challenge, considering my penchant for building sprawling, fancy bases.
Still, I'd also like to see how much fun I can have building a super-fancy ranch/homestead in the grasslands, or a sanctuary hidden in the glowforest, or a fortress in the lava fields. We'll have to wait and see where the poll takes us!
As for mods I'm excited for, there are a few I've seen that I didn't want to add so close to the end of A Mechanitor's Message, but have been itching to try out. Stuff like More Creepjoiners and Vanilla Aspirations Expanded.
Also, my beloved Tau Armory mod has been updated to 1.6, so my next colony can have Warhammer stuff at long last! That's particularly exciting. I like drawing t'au.
✨behold the preliminary designs for potential next colonists✨
Kid's all out of chips, but he finds something else he can wager against you
+++++++++++++++++++++
“Hah! I win again!” you threw down your winning hand amidst the groans and boos of other crew members as they tossed their losing cards back into the center of the table. Taking the chips greedily you snickered, noting the pouty look of displeasure on your captain.
“Looks like you’re out of chips Kid,” you said with a sly grin. Kid scowled further, brow furrowing under his goggles. Killer’s shoulder shook with a silent laugh as he started to deal out the new hand of cards. You all took your hands, and as Kid studied his cards, his expression quickly changed into something more sinister.
You quickly noticed this change, “…Got good cards Captain?”
Kid huffed, placing his hand face down with a smirk, “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
Your eyes narrowed, “Well it’s too bad your all out of chips then, isn’t it?”
Kid jerked, his mind quickly running as he surveyed the table. Finally, he leaned his arm forward, aiming a cocky grin in your direction.
“Okay then, what do you want? I can bet something other than chips.”
You leaned back in your chair, pondering this before a sly smile pulled at your lips.
“Okay Captain, if I win…I get your jacket.”
This was met with a chorus of ooohs as Kid’s face fell, “Why do you want my jacket?” He subconsciously pulled the textured red coat closer around him.
You shrugged, “It’s cozy.”
Kid studied you hard for a long moment before he finally spoke, “Fine,” he leaned back into his chair with a creak, “But! If I win, I get a kiss from you.”
This brought more ooohs and chuckles from the others around you as you considered this. After a moment you stuck out your hand.
“Deal.”
Kid shook it with a firm pump, his own hand swallowing yours in his grip.
“Just don’t chicken out when you lose,” he sneered.
You laughed, taking back up your hand of cards, “I can read you like a book Captain, you have shit cards.”
Kid smirked, “We’ll see.”
As the round began, the others quickly folded, not wanting to interfere in the bet you and Kid had made and curious to see the outcome. The two of you held your cards close, eyes flicking from your hands to the other’s face, studying for any sign of weakness. After a long moment, you finally broke the tension.
“Four of a kind,” you laid down the field of red diamonds you’d collected with a flourish.
Kid let out a long slow exhale as everyone waited to see his hand, finally he threw them down.
“Straight flush,” he said in a dark voice, smirk pulling at his red lips.
You blanched, shit he actually had you beat. Kid leaned back, crossing his arms with a satisfied grin on his face as the others whooped.
You scowled in response, chugging the remainder of your drink before standing abruptly from the table.
“Aw come on,” Kid called as you left your seat, “Don’t be a sore loser,” you made your way past the others in their seats as Kid continued, “No need to get all shy now-“
He stopped abruptly as you approached him, threading your fingers through his red hair and forcefully tilting his head back up to face you. Before he could even blink, you descended, lips pressing against his, swallowing the surprised little gasp he gave. His eyes were wide as you pressed against him, lips moving gently before teasing your tongue against him. With a throaty groan, Kid felt his eyes flutter shut as he accepted you into his mouth, tongue dancing along his as he thrust his face forward to feel more of you. His skin broke into goosebumps as you devoured him, the tight pull against his hair only making him harder, and then just as suddenly you pulled away releasing him. Kid’s face trailed blindly after yours, already searching for that delicious warmth as he cracked his eyes open.
You swiped a thumb along your lips with a coy smile and heavy-lidded eyes boring into his and Kid felt his breath hitch.
“Well? Are we even now?” you asked.
Kid managed to close his gaping mouth as he swallowed thickly, giving a dumb nod.
“Good, I think I’ll call it a night then,” and with that you left the group.
Kid sat there, feeling the intense heat that was crawling across his face before he shortly rose as well.
“I gotta go,” was all he said as he marched off towards his own quarters to take care of the growing problem that was starting to tent his pants.
happy sts Star! now, i have a hypothetical for you, my fellow d&d player. let's say someone invents d&d in your world, and your characters decide to start a campaign. who's the dm? what are your characters playing as? and most of all, what chaos do they get up to?
Okay, alright, you asked for this, don't forget that. I have gone down the rabbit hole with this one. I have created an entire storyline. Keep in mind, I have never played in-person D&D, so this is like my romanticized, perfect version of it.
Let's get into it.
This takes place between books 3 and 4, so all the big names can be involved. That means Em'het is like 14/15ish. We will be dividing up the campaigns into the "adults" and the "teens," although the campaigns are related. They're all very busy people, so they only meet up like once a month, so they make a whole thing out of it; it is an all-day experience and ends with a sleepover for the teens as well.
It's hosted at Danhal and Sha'tel's apartment on the base, but it's very potluck, so everyone brings stuff. Sha'tel makes an adorable variety of snacks, cookies in the shape of many mimics, strawberries arranged with toothpicks to resemble gemstones, and drinks in vials to look like potions. She looks forward to doing this more than actually playing the game. Her character is a wood elf glamour bard; she doesn't take notes, and she tries to make the most reasonable choices given the situation.
Danhal is the DM of the adult game; he loves making the puzzles and clues and weaving different languages he knows into the game. It's the only way he can get his friends interested in history and lore. He tries to do voices for the NPCs, but they all just sound like slightly different versions of the same person. His effort is appreciated nonetheless. He's also very picky about music and changes it for every setting and scene change imaginable. He's not a great sandbox DM; he has a planned story, but is pretty flexible when his players make choices he didn't expect. He is most frustrated by "shopping episodes" and tries to find a way to include cool lore items without overpowering his players.
Ana pretends she doesn't like the game as much as she does, but she will go absolutely feral over the third-grade puzzles Danhal throws at the party. She is also the main note-taker. She finds it personally fulfilling when she is asked to do the recap each month, like she's so proud of herself for being the savior of the group's bad memory. She plays a half-elf armorer artificer, and she is the most focused on staying on task and following the story linearly. She often argues with Jax and Mac when they want to go to some random town, but usually gets outvoted by the party. She will sulk until somehow a person in that town has information they need, and it turns out going there was helpful. This is mostly Danhal's doing because she can tend to suck a lot of energy out of the party.
Jax can't let go of his leader role even in the game, so he plays a mountain dwarf glory paladin. He pays little attention to his backstory and often tries to use persuasion rolls against his own party to make the other players give him money, which Danhal has repeatedly explained is not allowed. This has significantly decreased in frequency since Danhal put him in a timeout and kicked him out of the game for a session. He is a real-life chaos gremlin and will actively try to gaslight the other players into thinking something happened that did not. Thankfully, Ana and her meticulous notes keep him in check. He does not understand that the others do not think this is as funny as he does.
Mac LOVES D&D, and he was the one who convinced Danhal to make a campaign for them. He's always wanted to play, but his job kind of keeps him from interacting with others off the base a lot. He backs up Danhal a lot but also tends to go along with Jax's random suggestions, too, because he thinks it's fun. He plays a lightfoot halfling life cleric and has saved the party on literally countless occasions. He is the least problematic of the party; the only time he gets annoying is when he makes them pause the game for 5+ minutes so he can go get dessert. It's not even his turn or anything; he just doesn't want to miss what happens. He also takes notes, but they aren't as detailed as Ana's, and they are more to do with the NPCs they meet. He's pretty sure he knows who the real BBEG is based on these notes, but he's keeping it to himself.
Savi is only playing because Ren is playing with the teen game and seems to really enjoy it. And because Sha'tel's cookies are delicious. He plays a gold dragonborn battle master fighter. He looks forward most to combat, although some of the tougher puzzles have intrigued him. He likes breathing fire and is jealous of Jax being a better tank. He's decided that next campaign he will play a paladin instead, but he hasn't told anyone because that would mean admitting he likes the game enough to want to play another campaign.
Mala enjoys playing because she gets to steal from people and do things the team never lets her do in real life. So naturally, she plays a human thief rogue. Everyone else in the group is too afraid to multi-class their first campaign, but she's been talking with Danhal about taking a few warlock levels and adding some drama to the game. They killed a dragon earlier in the campaign, and she has these cool dragon daggers now that she is very attached to. She is the in-game chaos gremlin and often disappears or splits from the group to commit crimes. She has also been almost killed a few times in doing this and has started buying defense runes to up her AC.
Baz and Liz do not play; they take the opportunity of all three of their kids having babysitters to do other things, like have romantic dates or sleep.
And that's the adults' game! They play in the dining room. The teens play in the living room where all their sleepover stuff is already set up. The DM for the teens' game is Kacey (18/19), and they love to have secret meetings with Danhal to talk about possible crossovers for their campaign, since they both take place in the same world. Eventually, they plan to wrap up the campaign with the two groups teaming up against the BBEG. The teen game is a lot more linear and involves a lot of "notice board side quests" since Kacey is a newer DM. They spend a lot of time making physical representations of a notice board; they love this system.
Em'het (14/15) is the main note-taker for the teen game; his main goal is to figure out the ending before it happens, but currently, he is way off. He plays an aasimar divine soul sorcerer and has crafted (with Danhal's help) an incredibly intricate backstory for his character, which rarely comes up. He is the sort of leader of the teen game; he plays the "smartest" and sees the game as a story, so he's predicting the next plot line. He can derail the campaign, though, when it's not his turn or Kacey is focusing on a different group, and he starts playing footsie with Callie.
Callie (15/16) plays mostly for the opportunity to sleepover at Em'het's place, but she has really gotten into the story recently. She plays a Wood Elf land druid. Her backstory is that she was raised by wolves, and she enjoys growling at NPCs. She spends most of the session teasing Em'het and trying to find a way to make Kacey, her sibling, mad. Like I said, though, recently she's gotten more into the story and the lore, and this has helped focus her energy on the game more positively.
Ren (17/18) really loves the game and spends most of the month talking about it. He takes notes too, usually in the beginning, but by the middle, he'll get distracted and too into character and forget to keep taking notes. He writes letters to his in-game boyfriend from the perspective of his character, that's mostly what the notes are for anyway. Sometimes, Kacey will take the time to write cute notes back from the NPC's perspective and even have it wrapped up in old-time-looking envelopes. He plays a half-orc drakewarden ranger (the drakewarden part is the whole reason his dad, Savi, decided to be a dragonborn in the first place, so their characters would have a connection).
Charlie (11/12) often takes more of a background role, partly because he's young and really shy and really insecure about playing the game "correctly". But none of the other kids wanted him to feel left out, so they tried to keep him involved and tended to overcelebrate his successes. He doesn't have much of a backstory, but he plays a forest gnome spirits bard. His character is mute (since Charlie is also mute), so he uses his fiddle to express emotions and do spells. He mostly heals and doesn't like combat much.
