Super Dangan Ronpa 0.2 [OOC] (New Chapter!)

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Are you in favor of the new system? (Players only please)

Yes
6
46%
Neutral (I don't mind)
4
31%
No
3
23%
 
Total votes: 13

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Re: Super Dangan Ronpa 0.2 [OOC] (New Chapter!)

Post by kwando1313 »

Well, I think enigma and NN have both been pretty busy with schoolwork, hence the lack of communication...

I'd think it's more important to talk with enigma and co before we decide on anything...
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Re: Super Dangan Ronpa 0.2 [OOC] (New Chapter!)

Post by SwagmaWampyr »

You know as well as I do that the entire chain of command has been thrown into disarray with recent events. Not that that's an excuse for leaving things as they are, but... but after two years, I'm not satisfied without TRYING to get a hold of someone to just TRY and see if we can still make it work.

...Look, if this is the ending you want, I can't exactly overrule you. I can't exactly do the whole RP by myself. This whole thing depends on whether my fellow RPers want to participate or not. And it seems like you don't mind hanging it up a lot. And I get it. It's been a lot of fun, but also a lot of commitment and stress, and it's taken it's toll on me as well as it has anyone else. Possibly more! I know a lot of people dropped off, but towards the end, nobody was whining about burnout louder than me. If this is it, so be it, I guess. I can't force anyone to stay, nor would I feel comfortable doing so, when again, I get it.. But... we're not even going to TRY to get in touch with the remaining people in charge and either get a final word or some sort of communication going? That doesn't seem a little... ridiculous, for lack of a better word, to anyone else?


I get that they should have said something by now. I get that we as the players shouldn't have to do all the work in making them come to us when something like this happens. But I'll level with you, I don't like this. The way things are going, I may not have to like it. But right back at you, I still don't have to like it. I'm sure some of you have been thinking it from my complaints and how my activity went from being in the top percentage to a post a week or in the worst cases, every TWO weeks and I'm sure I managed longer at other points, I never wanted this. I just wanted a break. Not the whole damn system to collapse while I was gone having one. Maybe that would have been beneficial in the long run. Having a hiatus now and then to just let people chill a bit. Or maybe nobody was getting burned out that badly besides me and I'm just making excuses. I don't know, I can't speak for anyone but myself.

So yeah, that's where I stand. I don't like it. And I get it, it's not all about ME, it's all about US, but us means this is a democracy and that I still get a vote, and my vote is I don't like this. Maybe we've all been trying enough for the past two years, but I want to KEEP trying. But if I'm overruled, I'm overruled. Maybe I'll share a story or two for the post mortem. Maybe I'll be too upset about how all of this is ending to do that. I can't tell you what I'm going to do. I don't know how I'm going to feel in a week. I'm just telling you how I feel right now. The only good thing I can say about all this is that if this is it, the anchor that's been keeping me here as a somewhat active member on the forums is finally going to be lifted. So uh. That's going to be nice. I don't think it's worth it, but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't feel some relief.

tl;dr, I don't think this is the right approach to take or the right attitude to have. But it doesn't really matter what I think, does it? If you don't want to try, I can't force you to stay. And I wouldn't want to. But... even if we got a hold of NN and the news he had for us was "Oh we're done sorry guys", then at least we can say we freaking tried. That's all I'm asking for. I don't think it's much.

But if the decision is we're going to let things rot (and let's be real spd, you KNOW things are going to rot if we don't make any sort of effort to touch base here) then that's the decision, and I can't change it. In which case... see you in a week. Maybe by a miracle everything fixes itself before the timeframe provided but I don't think they make miracles that big of a size.



Oh, one more thing, what's this Fire Emblem thing and why do you all talk about it like it's an actual game franchise that exists? You're all weird and silly.


PS: Uh oh, judging from kwando's comment, I may have put my foot in my mouth. Which... well, I honestly thought the whole thing was pretty obvious, but my mistake for being hasty if so. I just don't think this is worth keeping under wraps.
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Re: Super Dangan Ronpa 0.2 [OOC] (New Chapter!)

Post by spd12 »

Let's not all get too fired up and emotional here.

It really is in the ball court of the GM team to check in on their own game and communicate with us without our prompting.

Enigma did say a while back he wasn't going to be posting here for a while and to just keep going on without him, that bit is fine. If schoolwork is in the way, that's more than understandable, I'd just like a heads up where it can be easily seen around these threads.

UDR died out in virtually identical circumstances.
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Re: Super Dangan Ronpa 0.2 [OOC] (New Chapter!)

Post by enigma »

Hello! Just started University (aka. very busy) and am trying to make a new "home" for SDR0.2 that I believe I've talked with all of you before individually, prior. Still very much alive.
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Re: Super Dangan Ronpa 0.2 [OOC] (New Chapter!)

Post by spd12 »

Hi, players and readers. After some deliberation, I've decided that it's time for me to part ways with the 0.2 project.

Take a deep breath before you read this! I don't want to start a fight. I'm not seeking one. There's no need for this to end in metaphorical tears and bloodshed... but I feel, after much thought, there is a need for an end.

It primarily boils down to the sunk cost fallacy. We've been at this for a long time, and some of us are invested in seeing things through... but therein lies the biggest problem, as I've come to accept even with my intent to help others enjoy writing as I did so alongside them.

The scope of the game all but requires a great number of people maintain largely equal interest and self-drive to push things forward. I've seen it one too many times now, across the players and game masters, that this is not going to be the case. Some of it unfortunately an inherent fault in the framework of the game design that calls for a long-term commitment that some players may not feel comfortable putting in. I can't force them through it. No one can. No one should.

Saying there is interest is one thing. I do have interest! I've had a lot of fun writing out of my comfort zone - but I've come to accept that a lot of people I wrote alongside do not, and that there's a very high likelihood they will once again drift away and leave things to wither as they have several times. Even when they were technically present, the level of commitment on display strongly varied. I will confess that I was sometimes disappointed to see that the effort I might put into a post wasn't always met with as much enthusiasm and interest in turn.

I'd love to see where the story was intending to go. Quite a few of the characters are very strongly written, and have great players to match, but we are at the mercy of those who do not share this same drive. This often extends to staff, as well, who saw it fit to not communicate at all for five weeks - to say nothing of the treatment of one of them by the others. Given real life circumstances that I'm made aware of, we are probably not going to receive that strong direction necessary to see things through as they are.

There is nothing that would see to the less committed players actually post. It's easy to say 'I'm interested to keep going,' but the follow-through has often proven lackluster. Even during times of great excitement, the game would drag! Topaz's murders in Chapter 2 were fantastic (even with a few consistency slip-ups, none of which were fatal) and, most importantly, it filled me with faith that the playerbase largely did learn the lessons of UDR's and Chapter 1's individual controversies... if only people were to pick up their feet and play, the investigation and trial had to be dragged slowly across the finish line. The maturity of the playerbase gradually improved, but the level of commitment and drive - and ability to really communicate expectations of one another - did not.

I also felt there was a general disconnect in trust at times between players, and sometimes staff too. The weapon debate incident was by far the worst of it - given that there is that disconnect and uncertainty that has been put on display by the five weeks of silence, I don't think we're looking at a group that is committed enough to keep going, let alone truly trust each other and their writing. I think it's come to the point it's good for the health of people to be open and honest about wanting to disengage, rather than feel pressured to say to keep going. I am probably the most guilty of this towards several people, and for this, I apologize for adding so much stress to some in the misguided name of trying to be a good teammate. I admit I pushed many people far too hard.

Taking things to a new board is one thing. People will of course might say under pressure, 'sure, I'll post,' but that's not a guarantee. Constantly I'd have to check with people to get certain things going, and it was a frustrating endeavor to deal with people who, even when they finally posted, would only give the bare minimum and sometimes not even succeed in pushing anything forward with their posts. I do not feel this is going to improve in any substantial way that will see consistent, decisive, rapid movement towards the intended conclusion as things are.

Instead of bemoaning "what could've been," instead I'm going to take the things I learned from writing out of my comfort zone among then-unfamiliar writers and using that to grow further as an author - something I would encourage everyone to do instead of wallowing in sadness over "wasted time" or what have you. The time sure wasn't wasted for me on the whole!

I went in here writing a genre I never have before, in a format that would ensure my writing was read and indirectly critiqued with every post! I learned a lot from others' reactions to how I wrote, where I may have gone wrong, and indeed, where I went completely right. I can't wait to share with you my experiences, ideas, and plans going into writing a small part of a greater whole among those who would have equal importance and worth to my own ideas. That, to me, was the true worth of partaking in 0.2, Ultra Dangan Ronpa, and Turnabout of the Elements. (Sadly, I dropped the ball for Pleasanton, and for this I apologize - I do not believe it is within my available time and energy to pick it up again for the time being, which I understand is the most inconvenient thing for multiple people. I'm very sorry.)

I want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to play among you as a complete stranger who came out of nowhere, and having run things for as long as you did even in the face of negativity and apathy. I feel it's all run its course in wake of long-established patterns, so I'm choosing to walk away satisfied with what did come to pass - quite a few fantastic organic conflicts I will be happy to share at length! - and not linger on what couldn't. A lot of what I planned to happen didn't, but that's the beauty of cooperative improv writing itself, because what did in its place was great and I'm excited to show you guys why I felt it was.

As a young child, I would come up with so many weird off-the-cuff concepts for stories between childhood friends that would fade forever to obscurity as the sun set on that day. Said friends and I may never pick that day's plot thread up again, but the value lied more in the fun we had in the simple act of doing - and I'm choosing to keep that line of thought going for my time in 0.2. Today I went to a weird playground! I couldn't play with all the toys there, but the ones I did were fun, and even with the ones that weren't, it didn't diminish my enjoyment of the ones that were.

Heck, given time and interest, I'd be down with writing alongside quite a few of you again if given the opportunity. I say let's all move on stronger for the experience, and look forward to what comes next - judged not for completion, but for what was gained from going for it as a shared experience between friends who have yet to fully outgrow playing pretend.

All this said, I will not be entertaining combative responses - I won't even read them! There's no need to compete for a last say - you can have it if you want, if you're so inclined. There's no argument to win with me, or anyone, to point out a villain or a hero in the big picture.

I instead impart my understanding - it doesn't need to be yours, but it is mine - that I had fun for an unbelievably long day that at last has the sun setting. It's time to go home for the evening for dinner and sleep, but there will be another day for fun if you choose not to linger on it. It's a day I'll happily talk about, even with a few scrapes to the knees, but one I'm recognizing ultimately now as yesterday.

See you tomorrow! I'll bring another shiny ball I have, if I have the time to take it with me in the morning... and if you want to play. Maybe we won't all play the same thing together again. Maybe I won't be able to bring the shiny ball, but that's okay.

I still like the playground, even if the jungle gym continues to intimidate me.
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Re: Super Dangan Ronpa 0.2 [OOC] (New Chapter!)

Post by SwagmaWampyr »

I won't lie, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little upset with this decision as I've been finding the drive again after a much-needed unofficial hiatus and was totally ready to make things happen again... I also can't really be mad. I did just say it. I can't force anyone to stay. And you just said it. We can't force people to stay. And I get it, it gets frustrating. So... I mean, I really don't have anything else to say.

While this is definitely another huge hit to the roleplay... I'm still willing to give this all another shot. I'd be kind of a hypocrite if I didn't have that position. spd has made his choice, and I respect it, but all the same, I need to ask... who else has my back?
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Re: Super Dangan Ronpa 0.2 [OOC] (New Chapter!)

Post by Blackrune »

I'm still willing to stick around until this reaches whatever ending it reaches or is declared dead for good.
(Though I won't lie, unless the pace miraculously picks up, I don't see much of a future at this point.)
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Re: Super Dangan Ronpa 0.2 [OOC] (New Chapter!)

Post by Enthalpy »

I don't believe it will be a surprise to anyone that I do not plan to continue with this RP either. My mind was made up about five weeks ago, which is the rationale for my own inactivity. I was waiting to announce this until some other matters had resolved, but recent events have preempted that.

I stopped enjoying GMing a while back, and in more recent history, to the extent I was GMing, it was actively unpleasant. There is a great deal more I could say about that, but I do not believe my reasons for this ought be opened for public discussion. Any other comments I would have, spd has already said them far better.
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Re: Super Dangan Ronpa 0.2 [OOC] (New Chapter!)

Post by SwagmaWampyr »

So. Um.

I feel responsible. For all of this. spd got fed up because of how long the GMs took to communicate. They took so long to communicate because I never said anything. Because I really selfishly needed to take a break and thought it best not to say anything and just left things to lie, foolishly assuming that was what everyone else needed just because it was what I needed.

Speaking of spd? I know he was talking about me when he mentioned people who were taking forever to write bland, uninspired posts. He didn't mention me by name. He didn't need to. I think we all know that's true. I was very unmotivated for the final months of the roleplay. I know it. You know it. We all know it. And we all know my post speed and quality took a huge hit as a result. I'm not mad at him for sniping me. Why should I be? It's the truth.

I'm a very unapologetic person, because that's just the way I am. I don't apologize if I step on toes or offend people. I've said a lot of repulsive things to people in other realms of the internet. And I don't apologize for a word of it, and I'd say it all again.

With all that being said, one thing I will apologize for is this. I'm not one of the dedicated people keeping DRRP afloat like I was arrogant enough to believe. I became a poison that was slowly killing it. I know the goal was to talk about what made us happy about the RP but after how all this ended I'm just in no mood for it. But I don't deserve a happy conclusion to this, anyway. People like me don't deserve to be happy.

I didn't post this for sympathy and I didn't post this to debate about who's really responsible for this all. I just posted this to say I'm sorry, nothing more and nothing less. I'm sorry because I think I let a lot of people down, and no excuse I can make for a lack of motivation is good enough.

In it's own sick way, this is a lot off my mind, and maybe, just maybe, JUST MAYBE I'll complete a trial behind the scenes some day now that this is all to rest, but I won't be releasing anything I make, if I ever make anything publicly. But hey, if I like you, you'll probably get to play it.

But, like I said... the anchor that's been keeping me here for years after I wanted to leave is finally gone. So uh. If anybody ever wants to talk, I'm open, just hit me up on Skype or Steam.

I also won't lie, I probably said publicly a few times it never bothered me, but in the end... I am a tad upset I never got my character art from Evo. But after writing everything I did, how can I say I deserved it?


So, yeah... I'm sorry. I messed up. I could have done better. I didn't. Things might have turned out differently if I did.

Don't comfort me, don't convince me, just accept it for what it is. All right? All right. Cool. Sorry to make things even worse than they are now but I had to say something. It was eating at me deep inside after I read spd's post. I SAID I was ready to keep going after he left, but... was I really? I definitely couldn't have. I may have liked to fancy myself as someone who could carry DRRP. But I stopped being that a long time ago.
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Re: Super Dangan Ronpa 0.2 [OOC] (New Chapter!)

Post by spd12 »

What? You were one of the four core players really holding the game together at its best in my eyes - the others being GD, Alnar, and I would say me.

Osuji was fantastically written as someone who helped spur conflict. Just earlier this morning (or, uh, last evening for them) I was telling Hersh how you were one of the best parts of the game, hands down, and that I think you really stuck it to any detractors that were present for when you got selected to play. Your run on Osuji is one of my very favorite parts of 0.2 even with occasional issues I might've had with your attitude towards certain things. I'm certain others would come to agree that you were stand-out and great fun when you were up for it.

There were activity issues much later on... but at that point the issues were almost universal. Heck, I accidentally held up Alnar twice, even, at one point. (Two points, back to back, in pre-murder Chapter 2.)

It's just the four of us could not carry the game, period. While you insist on saying not to comfort or console you, the fact of the matter is I did not ever consider you as one of the poisonous elements. The lack of communication at the very end with the five week gap was multi-layered in terms of problematic components, but the sum of them came up to me as "this has to end, I need to be the one to broach it."

A good number of my favorite moments of the game involve you, and I'll be happy to share what they were and why in the near future.
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Re: Super Dangan Ronpa 0.2 [OOC] (New Chapter!)

Post by Bad Player »

just remember bb:

we'll always have an open washing machine with your name on it
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Re: Super Dangan Ronpa 0.2 [OOC] (New Chapter!)

Post by spd12 »

In a bit of mood whiplash - I sincerely apologize to all of you just coming to see the above huge 'this needs to end' post and then this - I can add a spoonful of sugar to the bitter medicine in hopes of giving all of you who were truly involved with the game a good bit of insight. At worst, it's poor taste after a moment of high stress for a lot of people, and for that I apologize again.

It is an element I'm ultimately happy with, one I worked very hard on given how difficult it is to do in this kind of play environment. Maybe this can kickstart some discussion about the hows and whys of our writing, and what we enjoyed in spite of the tumultuous end of it.

The actual crazy in-depth stuff will be later. This is a singular question being answered, the very biggest one, with a bit of embellishment as I was hoping to reveal it in somewhat happier circumstances, but... I suppose it is now time sensitive and I should say it as soon as possible for best impact and potential enjoyment.

Here we go!

-------------------------------------------

I'll take a moment to go over the most infamous thing about Teruko Wada and her portrayal.

I have held strongly to the first rule of Knox's Decalogue: "The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow." (Credit to http://www.thrillingdetective.com here)

So, I never allowed anyone any initimate look into Teruko's thought processes, but I threw breadcrumbs in which some might intuit her actions or intents even in seeming absence of outright mention. This was the challenge I undertook in my attempt to learn the genre, writing her alongside you all.

There has been a certain terminology I've used with insistence when she gets obtuse and maybe even alien in her movements. Things that appear to defy any sense or reason to rational human beings...

It is called thus the ACTS OF ??????????.

This is ten question marks for a reason.

This is because it's a word, in truth. A word that I have hidden even from the staff! Let's unveil it... there are so many interesting words that it could fit!

Red rules are in effect, distasteful as I am finding them as time goes on. These letters are 100% correct.

ACTS OF M?????????

ACTS OF M?S???????

ACTS OF M?S?E?????

ACTS OF M?S?E??I??

ACTS OF M?S?E??IN?

This spells something. I wonder what it is... hm, let me get my blue marker.

Oh, I know, it must be...
Spoiler : Acts of M?S?E??IN?... THE TRUE ANSWER WITHIN! :
ACTS OF MaStErmINd!!!

Ha, I knew it, we all knew it! I was super obvious. I was probably an Enth smurf all along, as you guys surmised. See? It was this all al--

ACTS OF M_S_E__IN_ ....

Wait, the blue letters were repelled?! That's not right?! Then...

Also, ouch, that 'a' hit my forehead. Give me a sec to ice the wound... ow, ow, ow.

...

...

...

...

...

...

Oh, no. I figured it out.

It really was, all along...

Teruko had gone up to acts befitting of this one singular word, as per her true narrative role as designed painstakingly from the start, playing this to the hilt best I could in a chaotic environment of many wills and ways...!

Teruko Wada, the SHSL Puppeteer, thusly got up to...

...I can't have it said in word. It must be said in image, her true self that I have hidden so long to the utmost greatest effort I could muster...! I have used the fact I was a true unknown amongst you at the time of applying to use my prowess of the written word to the very greatest effect I can...!

I cannot hide this from you any further, for everything that is Teruko boils down to this category of action...

PRESENTING, AT LONG LAST, THE ACTS OF...

http://imgur.com/Efirm8m

(click the imgur link and cherish it, for future generations will not get to witness the moment.)
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Re: Super Dangan Ronpa 0.2 [OOC] (New Chapter!)

Post by SwagmaWampyr »

....Can't say I see the point in keeping secrets anymore.

With that in mind.... the REAL mastermind's identity...
Spoiler : spoiler tagging just for suspense :
...Is Masami, from what enigma told me a few hours after he did... what he did.
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Re: Super Dangan Ronpa 0.2 [OOC] (New Chapter!)

Post by spd12 »

All right... next up in the post-mortem, it's time to talk about Teruko's character design choices in the pursuit of ACTS OF ??????????.

I assume you've already read the dramatic reveal of her important, pivotal role in the story. Let's move on.
Spoiler : Name and Appearance (DR1+SDR2 spoilers, WHOLE GAME) :
First of all, her name is supposed to be a vague compound of Teruteru Hanamura's and Leon Kuwata's names... both the first killers of their games.

From the name alone, subtly, I wanted to arouse suspicion. I know I picked an odd character for part of her given name. The vague translation would've been something like 'shining child of a peaceful rice field.'

The idea being, of course, that she stands out among the field of characters as someone suspicious. For character reasons I had considered having her simply call herself 'Teru,' as in Japan some young women drop the '-ko' suffice once they're of adult age according to an acquaintance of mine I've long since lost contact with. This didn't make it to the final take.

In terms of appearance she draws from a traditional Japanese stagehand (her style of hair replaces of a veil), Disney's Pinocchio (she had the bow-tie and shoes!), and a certain kind of bunraku puppetry doll that visibly transforms from a human woman into a demonic face. The last bit can be demonstrated here video privded by Marianna Lykhina as a fragment of a program by NHK TV, roughly around 3:40... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4G68civvo8

Her face under the hair was in fact frightening and demon-like! Two characters got to see it: Masahiro and Katsurou. This was ultimately a red herring, in spite of my claims otherwise. More details on her personality later... she was also fairly tall for a young woman by Japanese standards, again, to make her stand out.

She also had ugly, hairy legs. I was hoping for this to be used as a point of mockery by some others when she sped out the door to kidnap Hazuki (more later). This was also me saying 'ha ha, no, she's not some pretty porcelain doll, here's a real uncomfortable thing for a teenage girl to be made fun of over!'

She also had puppet string hair ornaments symbolic of her feeling controlled and wanting to break free, and the "symbol" on her earrings is the number '3' criss-crossed into unrecognizability. This matches some of the weird emblems the characters themselves have in their designs. In bunraku puppetry, most puppets are handled by three people as a team effort. (Remember this for later, this is important.)

The choice to use blood-colored accessorization for herself and Chartreuse was to mimic the false foreshadowing used for Souda Kazuichi, who himself used sharp angles and threatening-looking shapes to paint him in a picture he ultimately does not reflect. Leon Kuwata himself had a red bloody skull on his shirt, even, as vague foreshadowing!

As far as Chartreuse goes, I kept her appearance somewhat vague and open to interpretation outside of the theme of her looking like a young idol of older days. This plays into her background and a lot of what drives her! Her name came from me trying to think of some complex-sounding English word she might've eaten up. At first I was going to use Periwinkle, but that was the name of a Disney character...

Incidentally, her name's color and the color the puppet actually was were close to opposite on the color wheel. That's a happy coincidence.
Spoiler : Background and Personality :
She was billed as a mix of Ibuki Mioda (SDR2) and Touko Fukawa (DR1) in my three character proposals to Hersh. I told them she'd be the hardest one because I wasn't sure that the players would like that I'd run someone so confrontational and difficult. She reassured me to go for her, and so I did.

I made a humongous app, twice over. It's a bloated mess and doesn't reflect the final take that well, as it was written before I understood the cast chemistry I had to work with.

However, I made sure she had a fair bit in her background to draw from as to best pad out the reveal that she was ultimately not the villain of the game.

Her mother was a former disgraced idol of decades pass. Various unlikely circumstances happen, and Teruko is launched into puppeteering stardom from a curiously young age. (In this theme, the characters are all crazy uber-talented, so this isn't too out of left field.) She became a commodity rather than a daughter, something she truly despised.

A big reason why she was so reserved in honestly opening up to people is because she's used to many people simply being fake and putting up a front. She saw herself as an entertainer first and foremost, and assumed (incorrectly) the people before her had similar backgrounds to her and would find the same glee she did with her own brand of off-kilter humor. Her mother wasn't hovering over her shoulder, she could say as many vulgar things (within reason and rating) as much as she wanted! She could eat whatever she wanted and when!

This also served to give her a nearly identical sense of humor to Monokuma himself! It would be later revealed that the laughter you guys heard from her would have, in fact, been "puhuhu!" Just like the localization of DR1... another misleading detail. In addition, it turns out her laughter and crying were almost identical - something that I meant to throw as a curveball later on to make certain characters re-evaluate conclusions they made about her.

Back to her background. The thing that really put a divide between her and her mother...? The puppet, Chartreuse, was constructed and intended in full as a mockery of the one truly happy thing her mother had in her life. In addition, famous as she might've been, she was prepared for the eventuality that the novelty and stardom surrounding her talent and age would fade. Her father was relatively absentee due to being a very hard worker at his job, and she had younger siblings she loved performing puppet shows for. (She was the eldest child.)

She saw Hope's Peak as her chance to be something more with her life in the long term, and left her mother on far less than happy terms given the great insult that was Chartreuse - modeled after her stage name and likeness from the distant past. However, academically in spite of her incredible talents across multiple puppeteering disciplines, she was not very good. I found this difficult to manifest. If she were mechanically inclined, she'd know math. No doubt she'd understand some difficult words in Japanese scripture because of how she spent much of her time... this was an odd inconsistency I never could hammer out. (This does play into something big with another character, though!) I wanted to get her into the library at some point to show her frustrations here, but didn't get the chance.

She did not see Monokuma's game as anything more than a prank in bad taste that she of course enjoyed due to her awful humor sense. This made it difficult to stretch within suspension as disbelief as time went on, since it took over half a year of play for someone to die!

This is part of why she seemed to be such a suck-up to Monokuma! She spent the near-entirety of her childhood under the thumb of her mother, and trying to subtly work around them best she could in fulfilling her own objectives. In fact, she may have had more freedom on the ship than she did in her entire life up to this point...

This also kept her ultimate allegiances in the air, given that I did not allow anyone to read her inner thoughts as per the first rule of Knox's Decalogue. But... fun thing is, in quite a few GM tags, you do get to see what she's thinking! This was intended to be a bonus for GMs as thanks for their hard work, but...

It became very difficult to balance inner thoughts with wanting to keep up a veil of 'who the hell's side is she on?' This is the downside of writing in an environment where little is decided in advance, and everything is made up as it goes along.

I'd like to think I did pretty well given the circumstances I worked with, though, as a lot of this was done without many tips from the GMs. I'm not sure the mastermind player even knew what my game was!
Spoiler : Interactions and Setups :
The biggest challenge with Teruko was this - how do I subtly impart that she's not as horrible a person as she appears to be, but yet still be ambiguous enough without being too obtuse? This is where things were difficult. Based on certain player reactions, I did not always succeed.

In my final app, I had her as someone who would laugh at the first killer for failing. This did not come to pass - I was surprised by how many students were out for blood! Also, there was the matter of a seeming relationship budding between them... a bit more on that later.

I had to establish right from the get-go that her sense of humor was awful. This did mean breaking her character slightly by having her cheerfully address Chouko while she was huddling in fear, as I wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page about how dark and vile her ideas of 'funny' were.

I also had to make sure she didn't warm up to anyone too fast, as to not spoil her role. To make this work, I threw a lot of spoiler tag information to have people help piece certain traits of hers together... and sometimes they were, of course, misleading.

Chouko got to see her pick something up right at the beginning - was she awake longer than most of the rest to begin with? Sigmund saw Chartreuse twitch independent of Teruko's hold during a fight in the laundry room. Katsurou got to see that Teruko actually knew her way around machines, like a generator. Akira saw she was holding onto something hidden in her left sleeve. Hazuki heard mechanical noises from Chartreuse once. Masahiro was given a misleading twitch on Teruko's part to make her think she was controlling Monokuma at the end when they stopped the ninja from escaping punishment via suicide. "Naota" got to see that she didn't know how to prepare food by herself very well. These are all prime examples.

There's too many examples to list in total, but I also threw in a few extremely subtle exonerating pieces of information for down the road if we got that far together.

Masahiro saw a situation where Teruko did not carry anything under her sleeves to a Monokuma gathering. Fury's Ryuunosuke got positive proof that Teruko did not know about the pistols being waterguns. (EDIT: In addition, she confused the Ryuunosukes for one another at one point!)

Eventually I would've had to reveal a number of key things: one that Chartreuse could be operated by remote hidden in her left sleeve and that's why she's so amazingly lifelike (and why she was looking for batteries). This was to make sure everyone understood she likely had the skillset necessary to construct, operate, and maintain something like Monokuma. If anyone grabbed Chartreuse, she would have been very heavy (why she kept rolling her shoulder, she was straining it) and quickly found she is mechanical. Teruko had one of the strongest skillsets of the cast entirely devoted to the purpose of having everyone mistake her abilities as being a neat fit for villainy.

I did find a decent groove by having her being the only person on the ship who, at any given point in time, never resolved to touch a dead body. It's gross! It's unclean! Culturally that's a huge deal in Japan, and was an interesting counterpoint to her horrible sense of humor because in reality... she wasn't a sociopathic monster. She was very shaken by the first death... and was afraid for her life on the second set because she actually saw Masahiro go into a room!

However, by keeping her thoughts hidden, everyone's reactions were honest, and it was wonderful! Let me list some good ones.

- Her relationship with Sigmund was the meanest thing she truly did to anyone. She was actually intending to use him to get a study buddy to help her with her grades when school started - and unlike the norm for the Japanese with their attitudes towards cripples and other people with severe health issues, she really liked his fake hand. It was fun to touch and fell in line with her skillset and interests! She seemed carefree in the face of strife because she believed she was above everyone falling for a practical joke. She did not have truly romantic feelings for Sigmund, but... she did feel guilt when he chose to try and get himself killed. She even gave him a straight-laced telling of the tale of Momotaro to help him sleep, doing it in my own words that emphasized teamwork as part of a later irony for her intended fate. This was not romance at heart, but that's why I loved it so much - it was a great way to mess with the concept of it without really getting into uncomfortable territory. All this stuff may be preserved forever in archives, after all, I don't think people will see that and go 'ew, disturbing.'

- Teruko grabbed the gun past Osuji. She was trying to ferret out where the rival puppeteer was via nervous twitches, and did not point the gun at any of the other students. Osuji assaulted her and she was shaken for quite some time - she was absolutely fearful for her life then!

- Teruko tried to figure out where they were in the stage, again, by making a motion only Monokuma could see with Chartreuse. They responded positively. Remember, Monokuma does not play by typical rules of physics or good sense, so this deluded her into thinking there was someone else on the ship pulling things.

- She tried to stop DLA's character from joining the others because she didn't want him to be caught up in the mania surrounding the killing game. She wanted to hold off the meeting for as long as possible to spend time with someone untainted by bloody death and laughing bears, but he decided he wasn't going to have it. She also threw a ball at him to test his reflexes when Rune's Ryuunosuke made her think he might've been the puppeteer. She would have continued to probe at him, had DLA been more active and involved.

- Teruko was mean to Mononeko because she saw both her and Monokuma as one in the same! That, and she could get away with doing awful things to her in the name of learning how the puppets worked. Due to what she did in the chapter 2 trial, she checked to make sure the Mononeko that Chouko was with later was one in the same - hence why she sniffed the cat! (She was! She smelled of swimming pool.) I didn't expect Chouko to snap at her at last, and it was great. Chouko was one of the people she truly cared for because she was so kind to her following Osuji's assault, so naturally, she was poised to start to emotionally break down from the stress and really, really start gunning for Monokuma's blood.

- Teruko said some very rude things about Osuji in the Chapter 2 trial. She had her eyes on Masahiro the whole time, but just in case Osuji was faking being blind, she tried to trip his words up in case he was responsible for the deaths of Akira and Shiho.

- The most famous example is something that GD and Alnar both got down correct through deduction: when she appealed to Monokuma to let the sick rest where they please, she was hoping to get all the sick to come together as to protect them from predation. At the time, she was trying to bluff Monokuma's motive... but as time went on her resolve would've been shaken, given she was putting the lives of everyone she cared about at risk. (She wouldn't have missed her mother... or so she thinks.) The reason she was even there at the night of the murder was to see if people were using the new rule to their advantage. To her disappointment, they weren't.

- ...Related, that's why she kidnapped Hazuki, believing Osuji was intending to kill her. She thought that everyone sick would've been in the sick bay, and thus Hazuki would be safe if she brought her there. To her sadness, only Chouko was. Her laugh was of frustration that her attempts to actually do a good thing for everyone ended in failure... after the murder happened she realized the jig was probably up with Monokuma about herself, especially when Katsurou all but tried to defend her character in front of Naota.

- To sum it up, she was more of a Kirigiri figure that was doomed to fail. She was resuorceful, she was shrewd, she had a number of helpful talents... but she just couldn't see eye to eye with anyone (literally)! In fact, she kind of distrusted most people on principle of them taking to the murder game so readily in her eyes, as she accused everyone of in Chapter 1's ending. Still, she did her best, as part of a power struggle between her and whoever the other puppeteer was that they were all opposing. Bunraku puppetry is about harmonious movements between multiple puppeteers, and this would've served as the ultimate irony to her hopeful eventual downfall... as she was largely working on her own, with how she alienated everyone. That is exactly what I wanted.

- I want to reiterate one last time that I tried to include people as much as I could on information that she had, without completely tipping her hand. I had a gag order for Masahiro's involvement in Chapter 2, but left breadcrumbs for her investigation partners, Katsurou especially. For Sigmund, which was harder to work with, I came up with a surreal way to shove in some fun characterization that few people took me up on... but I stand by that choice, as it put the power in someone else's hands in an organic and, to me, interesting way (Chouko's).

- I'll save her individual thoughts on characters for another post.
Spoiler : Intended Fate :
From the beginning, aside from being the SHSL Red Herring, Teruko was intended to be a late game victim if at all possible!

Over time she would start to get more frustrated and unhinged as her attempts to rise above the panic and work against Monokuma would be met with failure after failure after failure, in hopes that eventually she would be taking the heat after truly ruining her ties with almost everyone.

Ideally, I would have wanted Osuji to be my killer! Someone who played a hero choosing to act like a hero best he could for everyone, at last striking down the villain that plagued everyone and set up this tragedy... only for it to be later revealed that he murdered someone who might have been considered one of the most heroic, well-intentioned characters of the cast. Nobody can read minds - certain talents aside to an extent - and Teruko did an awful job of ever justifying herself. She was afraid of and distrusted most of the characters, and was hesitant to ever open up to most of them - besides, she was trying to play a long game against Monokuma, and making all the wrong moves in spite of her efforts.

Now, when the game stalled out early on, I considered having her be the first killer instead as to gracefully bow out and kickstart the story proper. I did not get as far as to deciding a victim, other than it involving an argument over the sword, someone running away with it, and tripping on a banana peel she set on a staircase as a fire-and-forget weapon that would see them impale themselves. (Akira, maybe?) Her playing with a banana peel early in chapter 2 was in reference to me nearly going through with this! Also, because she tried to cheer herself up by further dragging her mother's name through the mud via the Chartreuse puppet. Spite was part of what kept her going, in her attempts to keep herself in good enough cheer not to despair.

The motive for that would've been the thought that she wasn't ready to live on her own, away from her controlling mother, given she did a poor job of taking care of herself. It would've humanized her as a very frightened little girl who wanted to go back home after all, especially given just how crazy people were about the death games from the word 'go' (but then she would've bitterly understood that, in the end, it was her whose strings were pulled into action). A part of me wonders if this would've been a far better way to go out...

Since people were stalling out as time went on, it seemed like I would've been forced to accept she might've been my singular "losing" condition - a survivor. Yes, it's true, I wrote a character with great effort into a game where no sequel or other similar game was in sight, intending to die! There's no sacred cows, only hamburger.

If she did survive, I'd have had her try to run off with Monokuma as her personal prize. Oh, the fun things she would do with what secrets lied inside...! I'm sad I never got much interaction with Ai in which to have them butt heads over the potential dissection of Mononeko...
Spoiler : What I'd Do Differently :
This is hard to qualify because I didn't know the character chemistry of the cast coming in. Maybe I would've toned down the obtuse nature a bit, as it seemed to frustrate more than entertain.

My path for her was difficult, if not impossible, to pull with perfection in a pure improv environment. I would like to think I did a very good job with hints, being very fair with just about every tidbit I gave as people slowly chipped away at who she is, and what she was about. I had to try and predict the way things would go with certain actions, only to have them not go that way, making some foreshadowing elements disjointed and weird. That's the price of writing as an equal alongside others...

If she had a typical Free Time storyline, it would've been about her eventually choosing to reconcile with her mother and instead be grateful - grudgingly - that through her, she had the chance to meet her new best friend ever (Chouko was furthest in the running towards this, with Katsurou and Hazuki occasionally making the right strides).

Her app would be less bloated since I'd have had a better idea of what would likely be broached in her screen time. On the whole, though, I'm happy to have been given the opportunity to try my hand at the mystery genre alongside you!

I have had a bad run-in with several people over recent years with me doing a lot of work for them, but then not having my stuff read by them in turn. Joining a silly internet play-pretend thing was a good way to get people to basically read and critique my attempts on the go, which I treasured. My peers will roll their eyes and make fun of me for doing that, I'm sure, but I had my reasons. Many of them panned out.

As I acknowledged earlier, my enthusiasm far outstripped many of the people I wrote with, to the point of alienation. For this, I apologize that I may have been as deciding a factor as anything as to why the game fell apart... but I'm taking the lessons I learned via going out of my comfort zone with Teruko, and hopnig to put together something good between my runs on Teruko, Heath, and Ledger.

It's been long time for me to put something together completely on my own. Maybe I'll share it with you guys yet, if I think you'll be interested (or if it ever materializes). So, thank you for sparing what time you did for me.

...Oh, right.

Her special court skill, for funsies, was Ambidexterity, which totaly would've been great against the final PTA versus the Mastermind by letting her BFF attack two statements at once. The most difficult character to befriend, for perhaps the strongest end-game skill.

EDIT: One last detail... I worked so hard thinking about how she could cause problems that I didn't think too hard about how she could solve them. This made her thought processes seem inconsistent, as I was not anticipating being a frontrunner in the trials at all.

Now I know better than to take my fellow players for granted there... ha ha.
I look forward to seeing what you all have to share, and your thoughts on the game and your writing if any.
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SwagmaWampyr
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Re: Super Dangan Ronpa 0.2 [OOC] (New Chapter!)

Post by SwagmaWampyr »

I... am still not in the mood to go into much detail, but maybe that's going to become apparent soon.

I intended to be Chapter 3's killer. I can't tell you my longterm plans, because... there really weren't any. I needed the motive for the current chapter to be handed out to incorporate it into my murder plot, somehow. That never happened, so no longterm planning was ever made. BP may or may not have collaborated with me on the murder. We talked about it once and made big plans and then it never came up again. In fairness, it never got an opportunity to.

We never decided on a victim. I was mainly looking at Singi, Dave, and Kwando, possibly a Ryuunosuke, trying to base everything off of user activity. I know spd wanted me to, and I have no objections to how well it would have worked out, but killing him really wasn't an option. Activity and all. Same deal with GD.

In the end, I can't logic or structure my way out of a wet paper bag. So maybe it's for the best I didn't screw everything up in case BP decided he wasn't up for it anymore. But not getting the opportunity to close off this loose end of a character I've been writing and evolving (failed attempt at calming down and maturing after being blinded, anyone?) for two years... it does leave a bad taste in my mouth and does leave me unsatisfied. Won't lie to you and won't lie to anyone else.
The one and only Rated B member.
Engaged to Gumpei <3
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