Latest Posts by tomataga - Page 2
looks like my summer vacation is… over.
“Let’s take a pic!”
rainy nights
prints available :) link in bio
wikipedia is a gem
There's a scene in Fallout: New Vegas that I find really interesting in how it uses skill checks in dialogue. A merchant company, the Crimson Caravan, want to buy out one of their rivals, Cassidy Caravans, and they hire the player character to negotiate the deal. The player has likely already met the rival company's owner, Rose of Sharon Cassidy, by this point - in fact, it's entirely possible that she suggested they ask the Crimson Caravan for work in the first place.
Cass is propping up the bar at a truck stop on the border near the game's opening area. She's heard that her caravan has been destroyed in her absence - her employees killed and their wagons burned in an attack on the road - but she can't investigate because of a bureaucratic hold-up. The man in charge of the border post, Ranger Jackson, has halted all commercial traffic across the border because of dangers on the roads - wild animals, bandits, and enemy soldiers - that the authorities are struggling to get under control.
When the player brings the Crimson Caravan's offer to Cass, she refuses on principle. Her business may have effectively been destroyed, but she's too proud and too stubborn to sell her surname for any number of messes of pottage. Convincing her requires that the player employs one of either their Speech or Barter skills - there are two options for each, requiring either moderate or high investments of skill points. Skill and Barter are the game's two Charisma-based skills, and it's not uncommon for them to appear side-by-side like this, but here, they diverge in application.
The easier Speech option is simple - the player just reminds Cass that, if she sells the business, she won't be commercial traffic anymore, so she'll be able to get across the border. She's itching to get on the road again, so this convinces her. (She will ask the player to help Jackson clear the roads for the benefit of her fellow merchants, but this is a very simple quest that they likely already completed hours ago.)
The more challenging Speech check is to tell Cass that there's no way her business can survive, so it's her duty to do the merciful thing - shoot it in the head, bury it, and move on with her life. This, naturally, brings her close to socking the player in the jaw, but she sees the truth in it. She's been holding onto the forlorn hope that there might be something left to save, but she really has lost everything. This bypasses Jackson's quest - she just wants to walk out and not look back.
The Barter options approach things differently - from the Speech options, and from each other. The more challenging one involves making some sport of the offer, challenging Cass to a drinking contest. The player has to supply the booze, and they run the risk of getting embarrassingly drunk if their Endurance stat is too low, but, either way, this will impress Cass enough that she'll sign the contract.
The easier Barter option, though, is, I think, the most interesting. It requires the player to sweeten the deal with their own money - a not insubstantial amount of it, in fact. Cass is still hesitant, though, which allows the player to make a very interesting point. With the money from the Crimson Caravan plus the player's contribution, she'd have enough to restart her business - buy new animals and equipment, hire a new crew, start trading again.
Further, the player can point out that the Crimson Caravan are unlikely to continue using the 'Cassidy Caravans' name after buying it. They're only buying her out to try to monopolise local trade, after all. If they don't use the name, they'll forfeit their rights to it - meaning that Cass can, as she puts it, take their money, give them nothing, and go back to running her business as if the attack never happened.
Cass, naturally, accepts this offer, though she's staggered that the player is so willing to sell out their employers to help her like this. (The player needn't feel any moral misgivings about doing so. A little investigation reveals that the attack on Cass's business was actually engineered by the Crimson Caravan themselves, in collusion with a crime family, in a conspiracy to wipe out their competition.)
I think this entire interaction represents how well New Vegas uses skill checks. Barter, in RPGs, is often a very barebones skill. Its use is letting the player earn more and spend less - as part of an equation determining shop prices, or in dialogue options that boil down to asking for money. It's not uncommon for Speech to be the skill of the peaceful, benevolent diplomat, while Barter is for common mercenaries.
Here, though, the Barter options actually cost more than their Speech equivalents. The player ends up out of pocket for a sizable chunk of change or at least a lot of booze. Instead, the Barter skill represents the character's understanding of common business practices and relevant laws. It allows them to convince Cass to accept a deal by finding a loophole that benefits her more than if she refused.
The equivalent Speech options, meanwhile, are effectively free, but do involve making Cass feel that little bit worse. They emphasise what she's lost, how trapped she is by her circumstances, and convince her to give up and let the Crimson Caravan win. In the long run, this doesn't make a real difference - once she leaves the outpost, she and the player can discover the conspiracy and get their revenge either way - but I think the choice does let the player say something about their character.
Part of the brilliance of this game is how little details, like Cass being stuck at the outpost, tie into other details all across the story. Caravan traffic is halted, in part, because deathclaws have nested near the roads to the north. They've nested there because the local quarry has ceased operations - the noise caused by the digging and blasting had previously scared them off.
The quarry closed down because escaped convicts raided it and stole the workers' stash of mining explosives. The convicts escaped because the government was using them for forced labour on the railroads, and foolishly entrusted them with enough dynamite to stage an uprising, seize control of the prison, and turn it into a fortress and a base of operations for banditry.
Similarly, the threads of Cass's story spread outwards, ultimately affecting the entire future of New California. When she learns that the Crimson Caravan and their allies killed her friends, Cass is furious. She wants to march over there and beat the snot out of the people responsible. The player can convince her to instead settle things legally - get proof of their crimes, pass them on to Ranger Jackson, and hope the justice system gets revenge for her.
If Cass does things her way, the criminals pay with their lives, but their bosses end up better off for it. With their regional execs murdered, the trading companies can claim that the government isn't doing enough to protect them - so, they don't have to support the government's interests, either. They withdraw trade, demand special treatment, and end up making their shortfall everyone's problem.
If the legal option is pursued, though, the evidence becomes blackmail material. The government has the trading companies over a barrel, and that lets them pass stricter trade laws. Given the choice of accepting regulation or facing criminal investigation, the crooked execs choose to stay out of jail. Those responsible for the murders technically avoid justice, but their hopes of a monopoly are dashed - and their superiors are unlikely to be pleased with them having hurt long-term profits so badly.
Cass's story is political and economical all the way through. It's about the influence of wealth on government, and the fundamental injustices of the carceral system. It's about revenge, and reform, and how to hit people where it hurts - their bottom line. And it's about how, sometimes, skills in an RPG aren't about making numbers go up - they're about how a character understands the world around them, and how they can apply that understanding to help someone out of a jam, or help reshape the trade lines of a whole nation.
no way! I actually did it!! here's all 93 hetalia characters, my beloved
the last time I did one of these was like 7 years ago 🥲 here's the previous ones: 2016//Sept 2015//Feb 2015
hope you all enjoy, this is my little treat to the hetalia fandom, also the last digital art I'll do for the next 5 months but I've got something else big to post in a while plus sketchbook stuff!
Its spooky season everyone 👻🎃🧡
favorite silly girl
having fun with the official Hetalia fandom merch
ART ver. America and Alien Tony!
🌼 his picture is "American Gothic" by Grant Wood
is any of this for real or not?
not going to hollywood
LISTEN TO MY AU, BOY. zomggg check it out okay dish is mai hetalia middle school au ^_^ hope u like how half these draws are literally over two years old but i spliced in like two new images rodf. OKAY ANYWAYS THO. so in this au everyones a 7th or 8th grade because i love violence
- Germany - be careful who you call ugly in middleschool to da max. do not ask him if hes in republican club HES HAD IT HE JUST WANTS TO LOOK "SHARP" HES NOT A CONSERVATIVE STOP IT GUYS YOURE SO MEAN!!1!1!1!!! total A plus student yada yada u know him he also tried to run for student council president and actually won because his competator was england and everyone got their asses up to vote purely because they all agreed theyd fucking had it with englands bullshit but then the school was like wtf u know only 8th graders can be student president but england literally got one vote (from himself) so they have put the entire student body indefinately on hold since stopping people from making pancakes in the boys restroom is a higher priority rn
- Germany - be careful who you call ugly in middleschool to da max. do not ask him if hes in republican club HES HAD IT HE JUST WANTS TO LOOK "SHARP" HES NOT A CONSERVATIVE STOP IT GUYS YOURE SO MEAN!!1!1!1!!! total A plus student yada yada u know him he also tried to run for student council president and actually won because his competator was england and everyone got their asses up to vote purely because they all agreed theyd fucking had it with englands bullshit but then the school was like wtf u know only 8th graders can be student president but england literally got one vote (from himself) so they have put the entire student body indefinately on hold since stopping people from making pancakes in the boys restroom is a higher priority rn
- Germany - be careful who you call ugly in middleschool to da max. do not ask him if hes in republican club HES HAD IT HE JUST WANTS TO LOOK "SHARP" HES NOT A CONSERVATIVE STOP IT GUYS YOURE SO MEAN!!1!1!1!!! total A plus student yada yada u know him he also tried to run for student council president and actually won because his competator was england and everyone got their asses up to vote purely because they all agreed theyd fucking had it with englands bullshit but then the school was like wtf u know only 8th graders can be student president but england literally got one vote (from himself) so they have put the entire student body indefinately on hold since stopping people from making pancakes in the boys restroom is a higher priority rn
- Italy - Fucking Idiot. Besties with germany since forever cuz germany was/is autistic asf so he had mad trouble talking to people without sounding aggressive and italy is a fucking idiot who does not give a single shit. they bonded over germany being so fucking disgusted by italy eating grass and glue at lunch that he'd share half of his own lunch wif him and then told that his lunch tasted like his grandmas dentures <3 love wins. been in a friend group wif germany and japan since elementary school teehee!!!!
- Romano - twin brother (yes theyre twins here but romano is still older by matsuno rules) o' italy yeah romano already acts like hes 12 in canon theres nothin else to add
- America - unfortunately cursed with brother of england disease (god bless his soul) motherfucker also already acts like hes 12 in canon tf why do all these characters already act this way. okay but fr tho hes chill hes cool hes a weeb asf tho but pretty close to japan since they bond after school cuz america and englands parents drive china and japan home with them since china and japan's parents are too busy with work so china and japan just hang out at their house. Japan's forced to be apart of englands band but always ends up hanging out with america (because he actually has fun with him) despite how england keeps trying to say america cant hang out with them because hes a 7th grader
8th graders
- Japan - Straight A student as always but hes also the gateway for all the weeaboo infections at school. he introduced america to nico nico douga and hasnt recovered since. he tried to make takoyaki in the school restrooms once because he wanted everyone people to hopefully like them and stop making fun of him for loving balls (world peace will be achieved if i EVERYONE loves balls not just me) but unfortunately everyone kept buying only the pancakes :(((((( older cousin is china (they live in the same house basically tho cuz family lives close together n all). japans in 8th grade with him because he skipped a grade lol yeah japans 12 just like germany and italy
- England - Lead singer of his rock band "The Brapples" (fucking stupid ass name based off the beatles). its an after school garage band consisting of him, japan, and china but they dont even make any music they just hang out bc its hard to do punk songs with a keyboard on classic piano mode and a violin. He acts like hes a big punk rebel cool boy and all and wears cool jackets but hes actually a good two shoes snitch who is the only hall monitor at school because nobody wants to work wif him rodf. literally a fucking menace will rat out anybody instantly unless you bribe him and then he snitches on you for bribing. he tried to go for student council president but literally everybody agrees hes so fucking obnoxious fuck this bitch fr. dont get me wrong tho i luv england rodf hes the kid who everyone fucking hates but hes still accepted in da class friend group albiet with the role of "that friend nobody likes". the dee reynolds of the group if you will
OKAY THATS ALL THE MORE INDEPTH CHARACTERS IVE THOUGHT ABOUT IM STILL NURTURING EVERYONE ELSE INDIVIDUALLY but also some extra general info:
- 7th and 8th graders have mixed P.E. together and everyone has last block P.E. yayyy everyones together!1!!1
- 7th and 8th graders also have mixed lunch together but 6th graders have their own seperate lunch
- prussia spain and france are the mfs who make pancakes in the school restroom
- japan draws ship doujins of germany x italy for cash (all his art looks like the classic how to draw manga books) he sells his doujins for a dollar and everyones thinking theyre getting a little stale but have faith okay americas helping him with his next one to bring new concepts!1!1!1! italy thinks its funnie and likes being drawn hot asf and germany acts scandalized but goes "BUT- WELL WHO AM I TO DISCOURAGE YOU FROM PURSUING THE ARTS.......... and uhm. as the subject matter i should see how youre portraying me as well so you got any spare copies-"
- germany has a secret crush on italy fr and italy doesnt have a crush but does want to marry and travel the world with germany and live with him forever. he doesnt think thats a crush
- they all use human names within the au rodf but for this info post i use country names since thats easier to keep track of
winter vanya & his gray temples
this morning's warm-up
be free!!
fall out boy, march 2005. from a show in anaheim ca. photos taken by corrie brown
Something I made a couple of years back. Man, I love Gob.
The most interesting art collaboration in my life with @farg0dss (man, you inspired me 100%, thank you!!!!)
Here’s a funky one, I might draw it myself too!
**Y-17 trauma override harness!**
Bastards just keep coming.
