Hey there! Fae back again with another Void Dreaming crosspost from before the Itch page went live!

Last time we touched on the Origins, one of the cornerstones of the Void Dreaming project. They’re important, and provide the bulk of the unique dialogue and narrative options that come about as you venture through the story of Void Dreaming. Sometimes though, Rael will need to take action. When that time comes, it’s not his Origins that define (directly) the outcome, but his Skills.

Visual novels are at their best, in my personal opinion, when they’re leaning into the interactive nature of them. It’s the whole reason why I’m going through the pain and expense of making one! The Skill system allows for Rael to have meaningful interaction with the story and shape how he approaches problems, which is a key goal of this project.

The Skills of the visual novel are split into six clear categories. Each one of them is useful in their own way in the course of the story, and there’s no wrong way to build out Rael. No matter what choices you make, you’ll always have opportunities to use your Skills to succeed! Or fail. We’ll cover that, too.

Skillful

The Physical Skill deals with Rael’s raw strength and physical attributes. A high Physical skill represents a fit and strong Rael who’s able to solve his problems through the application of good ol’ muscles. It’s also a nice Skill to have many points into if you’re going to be fighting paw-to-paw, which is always a risk when you’re on the fringe.

The Mind Skill stands as the opposite, representing Rael’s mental acuity and general intelligence. A high Mind Skill depicts a Rael with a high degree of critical thinking ability making him smarter than the average wolf and more capable of out-thinking his enemies and whatever situation he finds himself in.

The Technology Skill might seem at first blush to be the same, but this accounts for Rael’s knowledge of and aptitude for different technologies. High tech, low tech, retro tech and prototype tech all comes naturally to a Rael with high Technology Skill, and he’ll be able to find solutions to his problems through the application of his knowledge of systems.

The Starship Skill, perhaps predictably after that, deals with Rael’s knowledge not of general technology, but specifically that which relates to starships. With high Starship Skill, Rael’s knowledge of starships and their systems will grant him insights that he might otherwise not have.

The Social Skill is the quintessential Charisma check; bards need look no further! With a high Social Skill, Rael’s got the gift of gab and a thoroughly silvered tongue. If you need to convince someone of a course of action and you can’t rely on a relationship you’ve built with them, or if you need to deceive someone? This is the Skill you want.

Finally, the Weapons Skill relates to Rael’s proficiency with and knowledge of weapons. Whether it’s a pistol or a rifle, a starship weapons console or how best to repair, modify or optimise a weapon, a high Weapons Skill will let Rael make the most of almost anything and everything that shoots, stabs, burns, or blows up. Another surprisingly useful Skill on the fringe!

Whew! Hopefully those all make sense. I was tempted at one point to break it down to the six attributes you might be familiar with from something like your D&D character sheet, but I wanted things more specific to what I was doing. I feel like this setup is the right approach, but whether that’s the case or not will depend on what people think when they get their grubby little mitts on it.

Speaking of response, Skills will be defined pretty early (either in the prologue when you choose your Origins, or in the Quick-Start option when you choose your preset) but they don’t actually become a part of the visual novel properly until day two. I admit, this was a bit of a tough call to make, but it’s not without deliberate intent. The goal behind it is to make sure that you have time to get a handle on the Origin choices and making choices without Skills affecting them before easing the reader into them. It gives the Origin dialogue choices a time to shine before also adding the extra gamey mechanics of the Skill system on top of it. Don’t worry, though! Skills show up pretty early in the events of day two assuming you don’t mind going for a little trip…

Base Load

So now you might be wonder exactly what skills you earn from what Origins, and I’m happy to say they’re all right here for you to consider! Feel free to pre-plan your ideal Rael in advance; and I’d love if you shared your design and reasoning below!

 - Spacer Rael gains a point of Technology and Starship. He loses a point of Social.

 - Colonist Rael gains a point of Physical and Social. He loses a point of Starship.

 - Core Rael gains a point of Mind and Social. He loses a point of Physical.

 - Punk Rael gains a point of Physical and Weapons. He loses a point of Mind.

 - Dreamer Rael gains a point of Social and Mind. He loses a point of Weapons.

-  Tech Student Rael gains a point of Technology and Mind. He loses a point of Physical.

 - Pirate Rael gains a point each in Physical, Starship, and Weapons.

 - Administrator Rael gains a point each in Physical, Mind, and Social.

 - Innovator Rael gains a point each in Mind, Technology, and Starship.

All Skills start at a base of five. This means that whatever Origin combination you choose, you’ll have seven positive points and two negative points going across all of your Skills. If we take the Starfire Rael preset as an example (which, for those who don’t remember from the last post is Spacer, Punk, and Ex-Pirate), we end up with a Rael who has only four points in his Social and Mind Skills, but six in Technology and a comfy seven in Physical, Weapons and Starship.

This also means that while most Skills max out at seven and drop only as low as four, it is possible to build a Rael who has certain Skills get as low as three, or even as high as eight. Whether you want to minmax your Rael to get the right spread of specific Skills or go for a one-size-fits-all approach for your Jack-Of-All-Trades Rael, it’s all up to you. Your Origin gives you the Skills you need to get through whatever he has to face.

At least at the start of the story.

Skill Issue

Rael’s starting Skills aren’t the ones he necessarily will have to rely on for the whole story. How you spend your time aboard the Dreamer is more than just interaction with the crew. You can also choose to spend some of Rael’s time developing his Skills and growing his abilities in these six fields, the better to shore up weaknesses, enhance strengths further, and prepare for the challenges yet to come.

Locations where Rael can develop his Skills vary, but the majority of Skills can be developed by spending time in Rael’s quarters aboard the ship. This does mean that you have to choose to sacrifice a chance to build your relationship with the crew in order to build those Skills, but in the long term that may also prove advantageous to Rael’s journey into fringe space. Sex is great, sure, but have you ever experienced a well-rounded set of skills foundational to your experience in a hostile envirom- hey where are you going? Come back!

Not every Skill requires you to sacrifice your socialization time. Some Skills are built through certain interactions! For example, spending some time in the gym is a good way to increase Rael’s Physical Skill over time, with or without a workout buddy. Maybe some challenging game soft in the rec room would help develop your Mind Skill, depending on who you play with (and how well you play). And your Weapon Skill? Well, let’s just say that if you want to get a peek at the ship’s arsenal, making sure you’re in Caleia’s good graces is probably a good start.

Building your Skills isn’t a one-and-done thing, though. It’s a constant balance of how you want to spend Rael’s limited time every day, and Skills take more than one study session or run on the treadmill to get you advancing your Skills to the point your checks are better.

It’s also worth noting that there’s a hard cap on Skill development; you’ll never be able to lift a Skill beyond ten points at the maximum, and in the course of the story you’ll only be able to lift an individual Skill by no more than three points. So a Rael with a high starting bonus to his Physical Skill, for example, isn’t going to be able to exceed the Skill cap! Nor is a Rael who starts with a low Physical Skill going to be able to max out his Physical abilities. It does mean a Rael who starts with high Physical Skill is going to be able to max it out quickly though, and then devote their time to other Skills, or social pursuits. The choice is yours!

(Skill) Check It Out

Building Rael’s Skills is important because the checks for Skills come in three distinct flavours: normal checks, difficult checks, and impossible checks. Sometimes you’ll even get different difficulty checks for the same Skills, giving you the chance to maybe take a safer route that doesn’t do you as many favours, or a harder check with significant bonuses… if you’re capable enough!

Checks are conveniently colour coded for you, and are also marked appropriately for those who perceive colour differently.

Normal checks are simply presented to you and are coloured blue, and as long as you don’t have less than average points in a certain Skill, you’re very likely to succeed in your use of that Skill.

Difficult checks marked and coloured *yellow* will definitely require Rael to have more than average Skill in a particular area than others if he wants to successfully use that Skill to complete a given task.

Impossible checks… well, those speak for themselves. Marked by <red text> when they show up, Rael’s Skills need to be extremely high or he’s going to have a hard time coming close to what they require of him!

Origins might help define the nature of Rael’s personality along with the other choices you make, but his Skills are what will allow him to solve the problems that come up day in, day out aboard the Void Dreamer. Picking the right Skill for the task is something that’ll only become more difficult the longer Rael’s on the fringe.

And that makes for a perfect segue into a brief note on the structure of the story: the days!

Days of our Lives

Void Dreaming will have its major public releases to correspond with the notable end points of each ‘day’ aboard the ship. Days aboard the Dreamer are broken up, as Zuberi explains it, into three distinct shifts. On the first and second shifts are work shifts, where the crew is busy doing crew things. This includes Rael; he doesn’t get a free ride, after all, but you get to choose which shift and which crew you want to work with at the start. Don’t worry; this isn’t a choice that’s going to lock you out of massive chunks of the story!

The third shift, however, is where the magic happens. While the crew work or sleep during the first and second shifts, everyone’s awake and relaxing on third shift. A time of recreation and personal development, this is the prime time for Rael to make friends, influence people, build Skills if he’s willing to put in the effort over time… and maybe even engage in a little romance, if he’s built up enough of a rapport with someone. Or several someones!

The story takes place over a number of these days (I hesitate to put a number on it because I’m still writing the whole thing and it might change!), with the prologue and Day 1 serving more as a sort of introduction to the characters, story, and galaxy of Void Dreaming. Which isn’t to say that these initial steps aren’t important and allow you to start your journey toward getting in good with different crewmembers, of course!

I expect to do major releases of the novel in line with those days, starting with the prologue to serve as a little tease and demo. There’ll be a way for you to get more than just the prologue when the launch comes though, so stay tuned for future details on that once we’re a little closer!

For now though, that’s about it for this one! Next time we’re going to talk a little more about the nature of the choice system in play in Void Dreaming, and how exactly that helps you on your path to build the stats that I bet a lot of you are really interested in: the Approval and Lust ratings for the crew. Hey, it’s the furry space future. There’s a lot less hangups about sex there!

Until then, stars guide you.

 - Faora