Resolving Stalkers Season 5

[Neo Emolga]

It was a close call, but the verdict is “Fast forward to the ending” (given how AD meant to go for this option rather option #1). Personally, I think even with the stripped-down version, you guys would likely pulverize the Stalkers with the Shadowmarch gear, which I was okay with, but there wouldn’t be any threat of losing doing this.

I’ll try to get to writing up the ending this week, but first some background on it so when you read it, it makes sense.

• The situation was meant to become increasingly morbid with every Stalker you defeated. You wouldn’t have seen too much with the first three Stalkers eliminated, but once #3 was gone, the Abyss would start sending in soldiers and assassins to make the situation more difficult and you would have noticed darker days and bizarre macabre weather patterns. So in addition to fighting OMEN infected, you would have been rolling random chances of facing these guys, too. And then when there was only one Stalker remaining, the Abyss would send in their absolute nastiest elite officers. On top of all this, things around Exacta City would have become really plunged into darkness. This would all be leading up to the final battle between Utopia and the realm of the living versus the Abyss, which you'll read about in the ending.
• The ending will play out as if you completed all the steps of the Sin Purge Ritual. This was also meant to include the rescue of Hoopa and Blazewing the Latias (who would have helped with some of the Sin Purge Ritual steps). Blazewing was in fact the Utopia Angel that would have been purifying stuff and breaking Phylacteries.
• This will also be the ultimate end of the Stalkers RPG. In terms of the five-Season ongoing storyline, yes, since all five Seasons are loosely connected (having some exposure to the other Seasons will make you appreciate the ending a bit more, but it’s not necessary). You’ll see hints to old familiar friends and followers from the previous Seasons (and in fact there are connected references to those other worlds in the ending). Once you read the ending, you’ll know why Season 6 won’t be a thing.

Though no promises, I may run something similar to Stalkers in the distant future that uses major components of the game’s play system and will likely have a very similar look and feel, but will have some distinct differences. However, a large amount of the addon extra stuff that was weighing me down too much to resolve will definitely be stripped, so combat would go (or would be very simplified into single dice-roll outcomes), most if not all of the inventory stuff would go including money and stores, and so would the stuff that doesn’t really get used often enough to hassle with it. They were nice attempts and were fun to try, but they’re just unwieldly, unfortunately. What the theme of it would be, not sure yet, but the fantasy theme kind of resonates with me.

In closing, I definitely want to thank everyone who participated in this, even if you were only active for one cycle or so. I apologize I just couldn’t keep up with it and it’s always a bummer to me when sometimes doesn’t get completed the way I wanted it to, but eh, it happens. Overall, I hope you had fun with it, there will definitely be other events at PXR and I hope you join in on them.

@EmeraldSky @Noblejanobii @Scytherwolf @SlickSlack @Lychee @AD @Suicune’s Fire @Shruikan @Chibi Altaria @Bulbasaur @James-Typhlosion @TylerNinetales