Critique and Advice; the treadmill of adventuring.

Farewell is OrangeAipom's alt jsyak

I really don't care buddy

Don't talk to my son ever again. He is real.

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only farewell has blocked you. i don't have anything against you but i don't want him to see that stuff.

(also, i myself am not new to forum adventures.)

Huh. More suggestions isn't really a bad thing! Dunno why you're so against having more of them.

it's a little overwhelming to have so many expectations! i've never done this before and it's hard to deal with so many suggestions because i'm new to this.

I feel like I understand less and less the longer I try to.

I hate alt accounts

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If you scroll up slightly to witness someone confusing other members by arguing with himself, all may become clear.

There isn't anything inherently bad with alt accounts when used to build a story. But it is easy to lose track of who's aware of the story and who isn't.

Knask did a good job of this with AwakeLemon back in the day. Keeping AwakeLemon to making adventure updates, and occasionally popping out of the thread.

When the story starts being told outside of the thread, however, there will be people who don't know what's going on and might feel like they're being mocked when they find out. Others though, might misinterpret an attempt for clarification as an attempt to shut down the role-play, and take offense.

It's one of those cases where no-one tries to be a dick, but can come across like it anyway. The real solution, I think, is to put the role-play on hold for a while and focus on the real relationships above the imaginary ones.

Bloody Beatrice is a fun adventure, and the ms paint art is endearing! I also really, enjoy Farewell as a character, but I agree that the role-play has caused more confusion and frustration than enjoyment for most here.

I do hope the adventure continues, though! The character designs all have an adorable quality to them, Farewell included!

^ Oh, man, I was getting confused there. Thanks for the clarification. I had a friend who used to do this on another site and it got super confusing super fast.

Also I have a question that might be unimportant but I was wondering about image size. Like I tend to draw on a 16 by 9 aspect ratio that can be resized (because I use too many smart objects), but I was wondering about how big do you think art for an adventure should go to before it's overwhelming. Are there any preferences or is it up to the poster? I mean, of course it is, but I wanted to know if anyone had an idea of what's appropriate

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If you scroll up slightly to witness someone confusing other members by arguing with himself, all may become clear.

ah i thought it'd be kinda like suggesting for my own adventure but i guess not! i'll keep that in mind.

^ Oh, man, I was getting confused there. Thanks for the clarification. I had a friend who used to do this on another site and it got super confusing super fast.

Also I have a question that might be unimportant but I was wondering about image size. Like I tend to draw on a 16 by 9 aspect ratio that can be resized (because I use too many smart objects), but I was wondering about how big do you think art for an adventure should go to before it's overwhelming. Are there any preferences or is it up to the poster? I mean, of course it is, but I wanted to know if anyone had an idea of what's appropriate

Homestuck typically uses 650px high X 450px wide panels, so that's what I decided to default to for Rootborn. Might want to try using double that (1300px X 900px) when compositing the image, then shrinking it by 50% (using nearest enighbor interpolation if your software has the option) when you're done and ready to post. This will give you a bit more leeway when drawing to smooth it out before pixelizing it.

I have a bit of basic forum adventure advice that I think could apply to generally most forms of storytelling stuff:

Self inserts are terrible and don't ever do them, even as a joke. Because people will get confused and think you are probably some kind of legit egomaniac or something. If you're going to make characters based off your close pals, don't make them into like supreme deities either or do some other kind of kiss-arsey thing. Maybe ask them first if you're really dead set on it.

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I would actually disagree there, but less because it's bad advice and more because of the hard and fast "don't ever try this, never ever" nature of it. There are few, if any rules of storytelling without exception. You just have to be mindful that you do it well and understand why something's a rule before you go trying to break them.

I think that goes for any rule of storytelling. Rules can be broken only after you understand their purpose. Like that book written entirely without the use of the letter 'e' or spelling mistakes done on purpose when written from the perspective of a character who can't spell. Or breaking grammar rules for better flow, or for it to be read a specific way.

Self inserts are touchy, though. Most people seem to really dislike them so if you do want to try it may be difficult to get 'right'. Making OP self-inserts rarely goes over well. But I guess anything can be done with the right ingredients. The trouble is finding them, I guess.

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also thanks for the formatting advice! I need to stop drawing ridiculously huge. Thank the gods for the ability to resize an image

The key to making self-inserts work is to make sure they have character flaws. This is where people usually slip up with them.

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If nobody knows the character is a self-insert, it's fine. In fact, it might make writing the character as sympathetic easier, because you'd know your motives for doing things.

Though I do like to share a trait or two with a character I write, I personally wouldn't write a self-insert in a serious story simply because that's the story of a dude at a computer shirking responsibilities and living a relatively comfortable life. There may be incredibly mundane conflict, but not any sort of satisfying resolution.

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Then I'd already be a different person who has lived a completely different life from me.

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I think author inserts (ala homestuck) are generally more acceptable than self-inserts, if that makes sense. But still only when the story is already kind of silly and meta.

Self inserts is a real make it or break it situation for me. I know there have been more then a few times I dropped a webcomic because the author would throw in a self insert and make the whole story, or at least the current arc, revolve around them. It really strikes me as weird and a little awkward and I tend to drop the story if the arc runs too long and I wasn't that invested in the story in the first place.*

There have been a few self inserts I've seen that improved the comic instead of kicking me away but those are very few and far between. So yeah be careful when putting in self inserts, it can work but if not done just right it can totally turn off readers. You want to avoid having your story suddenly revolve around yourself or having the arc basically turn what feels like a drug psa.


*This isn't counting webcomics that are suppose to be about the author and/or their lives because those comics were designed to be about the author instead of throwing them in midway.