Metis

For what it's worth I'm pretty sure that accurately describes Zoe's Y1 student adventure, at least as far as I recall it.

How controversial would a piece of literate be in which the story had one of two warring human groups (both of which are portrayed as a lighter shade of græy at best) forced to attack and burn down civilian targets in order to prevent basically a zombie apocalypse type deal? Asking for a friend .

What kind of cutlery (and related stuff) are students given during meals? Relatively expensive silverware, relatively dirt cheap iron/tin/something student projects from the Academagia's own forges, something else? And how closely are these items kept track of, how often do some go missing?

What is the extent of people's knowledge RE: theoretical methods of time travel, since I'm assuming in practice it is impossible to pull off (at least as far as anyone would publicly admit)? I'm assuming there are spells that manipulate the flow of time on a relatively minor/personal level, but could those spells theoretically be expanded upon to achieve full-on time travel (even if doing so would be akin to "expanding upon" a stone cup to hold an entire ocean), or is there some reason to believe it's just plain impossible?

I'm assuming stuff like Stress Max/Vitality Max, unless that mechanic also got changed, still keys off of attributes. Would be interesting if getting a more even spread of attributes ends up being better than focussing only specific ones in order to get roughly balanced abilities while still retaining decent skill learning speeds.

Painting Rumors, Stage 16: I've no idea how relevant attribute increases will be in Y2, but here's my traditional list of options to choose which one to bump up anyhow. Totally not an excuse to cram even more text into this adventure. Totally .

And since it's (finally) done, Painting Rumors, Stage 15: I believe I mentioned that a later stage would do the "lead into a quick infodump stage to not clog exit texts with copy/pasted information" trick before? Well, that time is now. Ironically this is probably a lot less text than what that stage's exits could have compressed into a single infodump stage, but this is a stage where the flow of text allowed for it in the first place, so here we are.

Painting Rumors, Stage 14: This is a stage that, in planning, looked very differently than it turned out. Zero regrets insofar as to how it ended up, though.

Painting Rumors, Stage 13: Part of me feels like the Concentration exit is a bit too "adventure gimmick button"-y, but there is a reason why the option succeeds where an otherwise equal generic Glamour wouldn't...in theory. Not something this adventure is going to dive into, though, for better or worse.

Painting Rumors, Stage 12: I'm sure it surprises absolutely no one that, no, this is not yet the end of this adventure. Close, but not quite yet...

3. Broadly speaking, how are vampires seen by common people? Mythical creatures who might not exist, curious mysteries who might or might not be the death of you, abominations that must be cleansed in fire, somewhere in between?

Painting Rumors, Stage 11: I can already foresee this stage being a bit of a stumbling block in practice, given the less than orthodox skills it requires .

Painting Rumors, Stage 10: Perhaps a bit whiplash-y compared to the previous stage, but it's what happens, and the last thing this adventure needs is filler .

Painting Rumors, Stage 9: It is surprisingly difficult to try and step back into the mindset of the era before every last bit of local folklore already has been examined from all angles and the results of said investigations being one quick Google search away (or whatever search engine you prefer to use).

Painting Rumors, Stage 8: Again, I'd accuse this stage of massively inflating the word count, but the word count was crazy even back when I only had a single success text filled in for basically everything, so...yeah... As for the stage itself, rest assured that not everything in it was planned from the start. In fact this is actually a point where the adventure kinda swerved off the path a tiny bit, though only for a moment (until the topic of possible follow-up adventures in even later years comes up, but details...).

And as punishment for stage 6 being late (and because it's done already anyway), Painting Rumors, Stage 7: I will, at no point, deny that from the PC's(/player's) perspective "giant wall of infodump text" is far from ideal. However - as is so often the case with my mysteries - trying to figure it out organically is about as feasible as trying to intuit the left field solutions to obstacles in old school adventure games. And if not that than I'm sure couldn't manage to give the player hints that aren't anvils, sledgehammers or anvils welded onto the end of sledgehammers anyhow. I also couldn't think of a more appropriate way for this sequence of events to go from the perspective of the NPC's own character, so I kept this stage as-is. Incidentally, but if the adventure ends up needing to be cut into two parts due to length (it's a lot of words...) this is the most likely stage where that split ends up happening. I think.

Painting Rumors, Stage 6: I would say this is the part where the adventure, as mine are want to do, broke off the rails and careened off of the nearest cliff in spectacular fashion, but this is actually still part of the plan...insofar that there was one to begin with. The off the rails section was actually most of the prior stages, if you can believe it. The plan? I'd explain the inspiration behind it, but rest assured, it's so inexcusably stupid and thoroughly disconnected that context wouldn't even help .

Painting Rumors, Stage 5: I'd thank Google Translate for bringing us this stage and all, but that's probably just implied at this point.

Painting Rumors, Stage 4: Pardon the multiple "look around aimlessly" options, but getting directions to someone who doesn't leave signs in her wake when you can't ask other people about it turns out to be surprisingly difficult. To imagine, if nothing else .

Painting Rumors, Stage 3: Having these lengthy exits not lead into a quick infodump stage where most of their actual information can be told only once instead of trice (as will happen much later in this very adventure, in fact) might look like a probable cause for the mysterious word inflation I mentioned before. But rest assured, this adventure broke all kinds of word count records even when it was just a basic skeleton with only the final stage having more than one exit success text filled in. So the mystery still remains.

Painting Rumors, Stage 2: As always, keeping (rough) information parity between these various options can be difficult. Also yes, the Incantation exit is a reference to Y1's tutorial adventure .

And another one! This one's an early survivor (maybe, hopefully), though as always, a doozy. In word count if nothing else, I've no idea how it got out of hand as badly as it did but it did. Painting Rumors, Stage 0: You'd think an intro stage like this couldn't be more straightforward if it tried, but I actually remember having to edit it once or twice. Painting Rumors, Stage 1: This stage likewise went through some major editing, though early on. Beyond that I'm not sure whether to be embarrassed or proud of the foreeclipsing going on here. At least it won't be difficult to edit if it needs to be .

I think you missed my latest two PMs, Legate .

6. Can't believe I'm about to ask this question, but how easily can an average human tell the difference between male and female pixies?

What complications could there be, socially and otherwise, if a student's parents were found guilty of assassinating said student's younger sibling for being an uncontrollable problem? The student's relationship with both parents and sibling beforehand being distant at best. ...Asking for a friend. Totally .