#[gets downed by an ogre in the first combat]

[pinnithin]

Quick sketch of my lesbian vampire cowboy paladin, Leslie Conrad!

[irisintheafterglow]

uhh uhh uhh uhh meeting enemy frat!suguru at a greek life halloween party

cw: swearing, drinking and alcohol, creepy dude at beginning

"look, i'm not interested in whatever weird shit you concocted. so, get lost," you spit at the ugly, intoxicated, ogre-looking airhead trying to give you a shot of heavens know what. he'd been trying to get into your pants since you crossed the threshold and you were having none of it. your sorority sisters, unfortunately, were nowhere to be found and you were left to glare at the stumbling goliath slowly backing you into a musty corner. "i don't want you, asshole, so stop trying to get with me."

"c'mon, lighten up a little. it's a fuckin' halloween party; why are you here if you're not getting shitfaced?" your nose wrinkles at his sheer audacity. you attempt to make a break for the door when his overworked biceps suddenly block your eyeline, trapping you against the wall. body odor and whiskey leak into your nostrils and you swallow down the bile that rises in your throat. "where the hell are you going? do you even know who i am?"

"you're gonna be six feet under if you don't leave them the fuck alone," comes a dangerously low voice somewhere behind your harasser. "get back to whatever shithole you crawled out of."

"don't be such a downer, geto," the guy drawls over his shoulder and his casual nature makes you physically recoil. "i'm just tryna get them to take a shot or two with me, that's all." before you can process it, the shot glass is snatched from the asshole's hand and downed in a blink. the man, who you assume is geto, glares even sharper daggers than you, and your heart does an unwanted little flutter. the gesture seemingly didn't get through the other bro's thick skull as he whirls around, offended. "hey, what the fuck was that?"

"lay off of 'em. don't be more trouble than you're worth." the guy hesitates for the briefest second and is just as quickly shoved to the side, landing on the floor with a satisfying thud. he groans and you inhale a deep breath of stale party atmosphere, pushing off the wall and beelining to the nearest source of fresh air. you vaguely sense someone following behind you and don't bother looking until you're shivering against the chilly october air. "you alright?"

"sure," you deadpan, "if i ignore the fact that i almost got roofied a minute ago." you cross your arms and plop into the nearest deck chair, uncomfortably eyeing a nearby couple getting a little too intimate for being in public. the guy who helped you stands next to you at a respectful distance, following your gaze to the people practically eating each other's faces.

"oi, get a fucking room," he barks and they flinch, scurrying into the house to find some empty room to bang in. "better?"

"yeah," you mutter, still uneasy about why he followed you out in the first place. "thanks for helping me, in there."

"don't mention it. it's a wonder how many frats still let him come to parties considering how easily he scares sorority girls away," he says blankly and you take a second to shamelessly analyze his appearance. long, dark hair was tied back into a loose bun and stray strands framed a mesmerizingly sharp jawline. unlike most of the guys inside, he actually was wearing a shirt, a simple sweatshirt with his frat's letters embroidered across the front. you couldn't see what the letters were, but you guessed he was probably part of a related frat by how willingly he stepped in to help you. to combat the autumn air, you figured, he also wore a flannel that had a dragon printed on the back panel. "you sure you're okay?"

"yeah, i'm good. a little cold, is all," you admit, grimacing at the goosebumps running over your arms. without another word leaving your mouth, he shrugs off the flannel and tosses it into your lap. you wrap it around your shoulders and catch him watching you, the tiniest smirk painting his pretty mouth when you pull it tighter against you. it's warm and smells like expensive cologne. "you're a real gentleman, you know that?"

"so i've been told," he replies and you huff an exasperated breath. "i swiped this for you on my way out, too. it's sealed, but i can grab you another one if you're still skeptical." he hands you a lukewarm bottle of water and, true to his word, requires a little bit of effort to break the seal around the cap. you take a few sips and your mind finally starts to process what happened. "feel a little better?"

"definitely. thank you, is it geto?"

"call me suguru." fuck, that's hot. he's hot.

"thank you, then, suguru. can i ask why you're being so nice when you don't even know me?"

"just making sure everyone's having fun and being safe so no one calls the cops." your response falls from your lips faster than you can stop it.

"nothing else?" his attention flicks to you and he chuckles in amusement at your boldness.

"and, i think you look nice in your costume," he murmurs and you'd be lying if you said it didn't make your heartrate increase. "that what you wanted to hear?"

"mhmm, thank you." the giddy excitement wears off and you check the time on your phone. "i should probably be getting back home."

"you got a ride?"

"i'll go find one of my pledge sisters that are also partied out," you shrug, praying that someone was sober enough to get you back safely.

"you mind if i call you a cab? i don't feel comfortable sending you off in some rando's car."

"technically, you're a rando," you point out, and he raises his hands in surrender. "but, sure, as long as you walk me out."

"i was already planning on it," he affirms and extends a hand, helping you out of the cold metal chair. his palm is warm, safe, and strong, nothing like the grabby ones that were begging for your body all night. suguru waits with you on the lawn until the cab arrives and opens the door for you as you slip into the second row. before you can close the door, he reaches over you and hands the driver a stack of bills that has the old man's eyes widening to the size of tennis balls. "get them home safely, please."

"what are you doing?"

"doing the next best thing besides driving you home myself. i didn't think you'd be comfortable doing that, given the progression of the evening." you're stunned into silence by his genuine chivalry and nearly forget to give him his flannel back. when you go to pull it off, however, he stops you with a gentle hand on your shoulder. "keep it, for now. i'll get it back at some point."

"alright," you concede, wrapping it around you like a safety blanket. "thank you for everything."

"of course. get home safe, yeah?"

"i will. thank you, suguru."

you wake up in the morning on the couch in the sorority house's living room, still in the same clothes from the night prior. your head pounded like it was getting repeatedly slammed with a mallet, but you were barely able to remember the events leading up to crashing at home. you look down and the flannel around your body reaffirms that suguru was, in fact, real and not just a drunk hallucination. you're in the middle of smiling giddily to yourself when one of your sisters screeches to a halt in the hallway behind you.

"good morni-"

"what the fuck are you wearing?" she asks with all the seriousness as if someone had died.

"yeah, i know i look like shit. is anyone in the shower-"

"no, stupid. that flannel, where did you get it?"

"some guy helped me get home last night and he let me borrow it; why are you being so weird?" you stumble to the kitchen and pour yourself a glass of water. your sister watches you from over the counter like you'd grown four heads. "hello? why are you looking at me like that?"

"you do realize where that flannel is from, right?"

"no...?"

"your little buddy from last night is from those assholes at theta phi fuckhead, babe." you nearly drop your glass in shock. there's no way. he couldn't have been from those dipshits, could he? "there's a reason we're not supposed to talk with them, 'cause they're dangerous and unruly."

"but this one, he-"

"doesn't matter. don't let anyone else see you with that on, or they'll have a fit." she sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose between two fingers. "shower is free, so go get dressed and change your clothes."

as you strip off the flannel, a small piece of paper drops from one of the pockets. the message written on it has you gripping the edge of the counter for support.

you look cute in my clothes. (XXX) XXX-XXX if you wanna wear 'em more often

-s. geto

if you enjoy my writing and would like to support me, you can buy me a coffee on my ko-fi! you can also check out my full masterlist here :)

[ravenwriter16]

Star's Don't Shine They Burn, Info!

I wanted to post about each of the MAIN characters in my fic! SOOOOOOOOOOO, HERE WE GO!

Y/n:

YOU are THE main character of my fic. I won't get too deep into your past (Spoilers) but what you should know is that you are a Mage, you had a crappy childhood before being found by the three Automatrons, and a MAJOR incident caused you to finally run away from your Royal Life with Sun, Moon, and Eclipse.

You ran away, caught a one-way boat out of the capital, and hitchhiked a wagon. There you meet a 'Straight-to-the-point' Ogre, who lets you stay with him for a price.

There you learn all kinds of new skills, skills that don't require magic. For eight years you live a peaceful life, taking over the land while the Ogre-Ivan-went off to travel the world.

You also have a stutter that only comes out when you're very scared or uncertain of something.

Sun:

Sir Sun is your (ex) Dad. He's one of the three emperors that rule over the land.

He can wield Mana, just like his two husbands can. He mostly uses it as during combat, either as a defense or an offense.

Sun is the leader of the Celestial Guard, an order of Knights he founded when he was crowned emperor.

He LOVES to do arts & crafts with you. As well as teach you how to use a sword, how to size up an opponent, and how to use your wits during a battle. He also encouraged you to be adventurous and would often get you both in trouble

He was the one who lead out scouting missions himself to find you when you ran away. He's also the one who finally tracked you down after meeting with an informant

Some things he would say: "Out a bit more elbow grease into your swing, Bunny! There you go! Look at you! A born natural!" "You're doing great! Just DON"T LOOK DOWN!...AND DON"T TELL YOUR PAPA OR FATHER!!" "It'll all be okay in the end, sweetie...Someday you'll see..."

Moon:

Mage Moon is your (ex) Papa. He's also one of the three emperors.

His mana is more potent than Sun's and his knowledge of the Mystical is second to none.

Moon is the Head Mage of the Academy of Mana, where he also leads an elite group of mages called the Order of Lunara. All mages that serve in the order are trained by him personally.

He was the one who found you in the first place, sensing an unknown and unheard-of power in you (Which I will explain in later chapters). After a few more trips to your run down home, he decided to take you to the palace, were you met Eclipse and Sun.

Moon was also the one who taught you to read and write, as well as how to control your Mana and cast simple spells, such as creating a small flame, or making something levitate.

When you ran away, he locked himself in his study, trying all kinds of spells and runes to see if he could find you or any trace of your Mana from any complicated spells you might have used.

Some things he would say: "The pen is mightier than the sword...But a Mana infused Stone Golem trumps any pen you use." "Shh, it was only a nightmare, Starlight. I'm here and I'll never let any nightmare touch you again. I swear." "The pain is only temporary...Know that this hurts me more than it hurts you...It'll be okay...just a few more minutes..."

Eclipse:

Alright...This Automatron...is basically the one in charge of the WHOLE empire. He's the main emperor because he does ALL the Royal stuff. He doesn't have an order he teaches or guards he trains.

He just does all the paperwork and goes to meetings and such and such.

His Mana is WAY more potent than his husbands. And his knowledge on the dark arts is astounding. In his free time, he even does small experiments, jotting down results in one of his many journals.

He instantly fell in love with you when your first met. After that he immediately called you his heir and gave you everything and anything you could need and desire.

You would mostly spend your days with him, since Sun and Moon were busy with other people and Eclipse was bored with paperwork.

You both would have tea together, go shopping in the city market, settle down in the library and practice your reading. You would learn everything there is to know about being a princess and he even taught you how to dance and play instruments.

When you ran away, he went...well MAD. He searched for you high and low, paranoid that someone would know where you went, or was keeping you prisoner. He would imprison and torture anyone who he thought was keeping you from him.

Multiple times Sun and Moon had to calm him down when he took thing sway too far. Like attacking a visiting royal for no reason.

He was fuming by the fact that he couldn't go out there and search for you himself, but his husbands convinced him to stay and run the Empire.

Some things he would say: "One, two, three. One, two, three. Excellent work Starfire! At this rate you'll be the best dancer in the entire Empire! HaHa!" "I know, I know. I'm sorry I can't play with you right now, love. But I have to look over these reports...hm...Why don't you sit down at the piano over there and play me one of your songs?" "I. Regret. NOTHING! Everything I have done; I have done for YOU!" That's enough of my info dumping! Hope you've enjoyed!

[thathomestar]

dragon's dogma 2 thoughts so far, roughly 7 hours in:

out in the field, performance is mostly fine. it dips for me sometimes but it stays around 60 fps for the most part. being in the big city is rough, there's like 150 npcs all walking around doing their own thing and it makes the game chug, on my pc it drags it down to 30 fps average, sometimes 20 fps at the lowest points. they really need to clean that up.

i've just been playing fighter so far, and i'm enjoying the new combat system. it feels a lot looser than dd1, the soft lockon from dd1 is even softer. getting staggered and stunlocked by enemies is a real threat, you take much longer to recover from getting knocked over than you did in dd1. the revamped heavy attack button being more used for dealing decisive high damage hits on staggered or stunned enemies is such a good idea.

they swapped the buttons for block and special sword attacks and that kept throwing me off at first lol. perfect parry timing feels about the same as it did in dd1. you can actually use your heavy attack while mounting a monster without instantly jumping off, it's great. my pawn is an archer and honestly i think she does more dps than me sometimes, she's come in clutch so many times already.

the main kicker i've been feeling is the how they treat your health pool. in dd1 you could just spam consumables to cure your health back to maximum at any time, but they've changed how it works here in dd2. now, whenever you take damage, you lose a tiny bit of your max hp. whether a mage casts a heal or you drink a potion, you can't get all the way back up to full until you rest at an inn or a campsite. so now you play a longer-term game of "do i go find a camp and rest to full or do i go fight this ogre at 50% max hp". i enjoy being stupid so i tend to not rest until i absolutely have to lol.

you can actually preview which vocations have what augments now, which saves a trip opening up a browser and searching for that info. you do have to unlock warrior and sorcerer as well as the other new vocations, but warrior and sorcerer was literally "go to a cave, kill some goblins, get the stolen weapons back, ok you're good to go now". took like 30 mins after reaching the big city.

i have encountered every single microtransaction item within the first 5 hours of playing. they mostly either cost gold or rift crystals, and are relatively cheap. i got a camping kit for free for reaching the first oxcart. i got the harpy lure for free by helping a random person out and about. i've gotten four wakestones already. the microtransactions are stupid and so obviously mandated by some dinosaur executive but you're an even bigger moron if you think any of this stuff is meaningful or locked-off content.

uhh what else. turning your lantern on and off is nice and quick. your pawns actually talk amongst each other now. i don't know how different the inclination system is yet so i don't know if doing the d-pad pawn commands changes them. those commands seem to actually work properly now though. ran away from a fight and told my pawns "to me!" and they actually disengaged the fight and ran with me, so that's nice. don't like the music as much as the first game so far, we'll see how it fares once i actually fight a monster bigger than a cyclops.

[the-mic-drop]

Zelink gets Isekaied into BG3 Pt4: Moonhaven and Karlach

Zelda- High Elf Draconic Lineage Sorcerer

Link- Half Wood Elf Champion Fighter

So far: Zelink, Gale, and Astarion have come clean about their big secrets.

The party wakes up and Zelda is surprised to find everyone is tending to look to her for direction and instruction. Link gives her the all ready signal to move out before she can consider how she became the leader of this little group.

They run into Edowin's corpse and Zelda hears the Dream Voice for the first time. It fails to tempt her to absorb the tadpole.

After meeting Scratch and the Owlbears, the party makes their way into Moonhaven.

It turns out that being a demi-god who has lived for untold millennia being backed up by another demi-god and a handful of very capable-looking combatants makes you very persuasive to goblins. As such, they make it into the Blighted Village and rescue Barcus.

They take care of the well spiders, find a forge in a basement, and make a deal with an articulate ogre.

Another basement yields a mysterious magical mirror that lets the party in because Zelda was nice to it. In the adjoining room they find a VERY spooky book that Zelda gives to Gale for safe keeping, much to Astarion's chagrin.

They continue north, passing the love shack because Zelda is not interested in investigating at all.

Raphael appears in front of the party for the first time and Link is instantly been him and Zelda. Raphael offers his bargain and is shut down hard. He leaves in a huff and the group discuss what just happened.

Wyll is most vocal about resisting the devil at every turn, Astarion is more open to it but ultimately, Zelda voices her policy of avoiding Raphael in the future.

They cross the bridge, deal with the Gnolls, and find Karlach. Zelda talks down Wyll by appealing to his empathy and common sense. Karlach joins the party!

They make short work of the "Paladins of Tyr," and everyone clears out while Karlach lets off some steam.

When Karlach cools off (relatively speaking) Zelda is very concerned about her. She reaches out to touch the Tiefling, but Karlach leans away just in time before explaining the whole situation with her heart, her heat, and her story.

Once her concern wears off, Zelda asks as many questions about the infernal engine as she can before Karlach just firmly suggests she ask an infernal mechanic instead. That is enough to get Zelda to warp the party back to the Grove to talk to Dammon.

After getting Karlach's heart tuned up, Zelda has plenty of questions for Dammon and the two chat for a while about infernal machinery which allows the party to take a short rest.

During this rest, Karlach asks Link the question everyone else was a bit too polite to ask; what's the deal with him and Zelda?

[thewertsearch]

Oh, fuck.

Jack, just - just wait there. Postpone your invasion of LOWAS for however many minutes are displayed on Jade's Cruxtruder. Please?

Jack has tracked down the one warrior who could challenge him. Does he have a new plan this time?

Huh. I didn't peg Jack as the 'honorable warrior' type - although, come to think of it, this isn't the first time he's shown respect to his enemies.

I guess he was prototyped with a sword. Maybe it symbolizes chivalry, or fair combat, compelling Jack to seek out a duel.

If there's one thing that this demonstrates, it's that Becquerel couldn't end up in the kernel by accident - his reactions are much too fast. If he gets prototyped, it's because he wants to be prototyped.

GG: hmmmm i wonder what the significance of that number is

It's 413 + 612. It probably represents the kids and trolls 'coming together', and working as a team.

EB: hey, what do you think we should prototype this fussy little orb with? [...] GG: there are so many possibilities [...] EB: it's almost like your grandpa put all this crap here knowing we'd have to make that decision. [...] GG: yes, it sure seems that way

It sure does.

I think the dolls, at least, are a red herring. We've done that twice before, and a Mummysprite just doesn't seem that interesting, especially compared to all the other options.

I think the realistic choices here are Grandpa, Bec, Dream Jade and Typheus. I'd give a slight edge to Grandpa, because he's in the room with the Cruxtruder - but a lot can happen in ten minutes.

EB: he seems like he was an awesome guy, i would have liked to have the chance to talk to him. [...] GG: maybe you will get that chance john [...] GG: yes, as a matter of fact i am sure we will both get that chance! GG: i once dreamt that we would [...] EB: wait, are you saying we will prototype him? EB: like i did with nanna, to bring her ghost back to life? [...] GG: sure, why not!

Hmm.

See, reading between the lines here, it doesn't sound like Jade ever saw a Grandpasprite in Prospit's clouds. She saw herself and John talking to Grandpa - but if she saw him as a green ghost, she'd be a lot more conclusive about that being the correct option.

Instead, she says why not. It sounds right to her, but she's not sure. I think the fact that they're planning to prototype Grandpa is intentionally misleading.

EB: we shouldn't put your grandpa in yet, unless we want lots of imps and ogres and stuff that look like your grandpa. GG: augh, nooooooooooooooo

They could just prototype nothing at all before entering. The game is already unwinnable, so they don't have anything to lose by cutting themselves off from 'ultimate success'. Plus, it'll stop Jack from getting any stronger.

EB: we could put in something really lame, to make all the monsters weaker!

Damn it, and John has a frog in his sylladex! That would have been a fantastic prototyping, if he could get it to her.

Does Jade have enough time to fetch a frog from the lilypad ruins? Probably not - I guess this will remain a missed opportunity. The kids would never think of it, either, because the comic has so far refused to elaborate on Frog Lore.

[ddarker-dreams]

yooo lock from one gamer to another, any recs for the steam summer sale? i've got most horror jrpgs down like misao, ib, and witch's house

ANON FORGIVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE i was thinking about this ask for a few days and. ahem. in that time, the steam summer sale ended. 😦 just keep this in mind for the next sale perhaps?? alas. here are some of my favorite games on steam .

disco elysium

one of my favorite games of all time. i replayed it recently and have a newfound appreciation for every element of it. the extensive worldbuilding can be overwhelming at first, but i personally enjoyed how fleshed out the world is. the writing is sublime and i've never experienced anything like it across any medium. also it's the only game to have kim kitsuragi so that automatically makes it a 10/10

divinity original sin 2

this game is another favorite of mine. there were multiple times when i was playing it where i went 'huh, i wonder if i can do so and so' and i could. i killed a giant ogre with like 10k HP by sneaking an invisible character into its vicinity and teleporting it into lava. before leaving an area i killed a character who i bought tons of equipment from and got all my money back. it's just a really entertaining game. you can also play it with friends so that's fun. the game can be as dynamic as you want it to be. i like spending hours researching the most optimal builds but you don't have to be a nerd to make it through the content. or you can be like me and spend thirty minutes setting up explosives and perfectly placing each party member before every combat encounter because i've never felt the touch of a woman

hades

fast paced, fluid combat, greek mythology, killer soundtrack, pretty graphics, and bisexuality. what more can i say. i got such an adrenaline rush after beating the final boss that i almost collapsed onto the ground and rolled around like a pill bug. very very fun and addicting

hyper light drifter

HNGNNGN PRTTY and the soundtrack also slaps here too. the color palette is so gorgeous. once you get into the rhythm of the combat you feel like a god among men. zooming all over the place. nyooooooom.

omori

this game took my heart, ripped it out of my chest, stomped on it, slapped it back into place, then closed my open ribcage with a hello kitty bandaid. i cannot praise it enough. it's charming, the psychological horror is one of a kind; it's a game that seeps under your skin and stays there. if you haven't played it yet and you're comfortable with the dark themes it explores i'd recommend it 100%. go on without any spoilers.

pillars of eternity

i uh. i like CRPGs. pillars of eternity has a special place in my heart because it went onto influence how i do worldbuilding. the game has one of my favorite stories from a CRPG, it's overflowing with creativity that's explored to the fullest. it's also made by the folks who created fallout new vegas so that's a bonus. the combat isn't my absolute favorite when compared to something like divinity original sin 2, but i still found it enjoyable overall. interacting with the characters and the fleshed out world was what i had the most fun with.

planescape torment

this game's combat is scuffed but the story is one of the best across any medium. play on easy i'm not joking the combat does not matter. but the world, the characters, the factions, how it dabbles into philosophy, the story that leaves you with more questions than answers as you progress,, it's just so good. when it's on sale it's ridiculously cheap and so worth the price of admission. there's lots of reading but if you're into the type of stuff you'll love this game. also there's a floating talking skull

va-11 hall-a: cyberpunk bartender action

ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVS THE VIBES ARE IMMACULATE THE WRITING IS IMMACULATE THE ART IS IMMACULATE THE SOUNDTRACK WOULD MAKE BEEHTOVEN JEALOUS and there's also bisexuality here too. this game is an example of the writing i wanted to aspire towards after i played it for the first time. it influenced me heavily.

[shippingmyworld]

Three hours into Veilguard so I'm spamming yall with pictures I've taken of my Rook, Oscar Thorne. He's a pessimistic punch-first and ask-questions-later Grey Warden Warrior.

(who I'm lowkey in love with??? I didn't mean to make him this pretty)

Random thoughts about the game so far below the cut (spoiler free of course):

HOLY SHIT COMBAT IS SO MUCH FUN!!! The prerelease footage did not do this game justice. I'm barely level 5 with like 2% of the skill tree unlocked, and I'm struggling to not race through the game just to get to the next combat encounter. I admit I'm a huge fan of action rpgs, so the new combat system might have clicked faster for me, but if you're not a fan of this gameplay, I wouldn't worry. I'm playing on normal difficulty, and most enemies go down to a single basic chain attack. I'm debating restarting my game to play at a higher difficulty, just so that combat encounters last longer.

Speaking of the skill tree, it looks like you can respec any time without penalty. I invested all my points into defensive skills that reward perfect guards at first but then refunded them towards more aggressive skills instead.

I am so thankful I haven't encountered the Hinterlands 2 lmao. The zones I've explored so far feel more direct, but still have small areas off the main path i can explore, which can trigger companion dialogue or reward me with extra resources

Dialouge has been a hit or a miss for me. The delivery on a handful of lines makes them come off as either melodramatic or emotionless. Admittedly it's a lot of Hardings dialouge that's lacking, but she's not the only perpetrator. Neve is very melodramatic and Rook made me cringe in his reaction to meeting Bellara. Its not terrible, but you do notice it enough that you wonder how it got approved. I will take it over the 2 second pause that Inquisition always had between sentences though.

One thing I do love about the dialouge is the companions actually talk to each other and react to you. One of the Warriors charged attacks let's you do a double spin attack and I managed to take out four Darkspawn at once, and Harding shouted "Save some for the rest of us Rook!"

Not to validate the dudebros, but the Darkspawn designs are a bit goofy and less scary, was kinda disappointed by the ogre. I also miss the old Demon desgins, if im honest. This game definitely leans far more heavily into magical fantasy aesthetics, where as Inquisition felt more like a high medieval fantasy, and origins and 2 hit more of the edgy dark fantasy (like the witcher series) that i think all the greifers are chasing. The graphics and aestheics aren't a deal breaker though, and I quickly got used to them. Plus the deeper you get into the game and closer to blighted stuff, you do see the darker and edgier graphics come front and center.

I can not tell you how much I appreciate that the dialogue wheel is no longer just the three options of "Good and Rightious, Sarcastic and Out of Character, or Complete and Utter Asshole." Many times you're given 4-5 options to choose from, and even when it's only 3 it's not always the traditional top middle and bottom options like past games, sometimes you can choose from sad, shocked, and angry or joking, positive, and shocked options. Plus, I think they did a better job of making those options, and your companions' reactions flow better than pervious games. IMO, Inquisition relied too much on the "In any case," line in order for your companions or advisors to just brush off the Inquisitors response, like they were just there to make a witty one-liner joke and move on. Plus there's less of the 'Missleading Options' in Veildguard than previous DA games. Like Inquisition specifically felt like if you ever picked the bottom option, it always came out more aggressive than the prompt suggested it would. (Best example I can think of is that there's been no "Glass Him" problems so far lol)

[sapphim]

Addendum to Does Varric Know Their Name? I've mentioned in a recent ask that one can tell, from the string IDs attached to each line of dialogue, in what order each line was first written and saved to the talktable (albeit, one cannot tell from this if they were later revised or rewritten). Now, I'm a nosy busybody who is overly interested in what I can glean from behind the scenes. So. Here's all of Varric's dialogue with the nicknames but in order of writing this time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

sse_ss_varric (combat barks)

6008218 Holy mother of green cheeses! How'd they take that woman down? 6008224 They got Whatshisname, the mage? Damnation! 6008225 Blast it! Daisy got herself knocked out! 6008227 The tame elf is down! 6008228 Don't die on me, Rivaini! You still owe me a pint! 6013488 Hold on, Sunshine, I'm coming! 6013489 Hang on, Junior, help's on the way!

dre000_cut2d_ragstoriches (narration)

6025094 The Grey Wardens left Kirkwall. It was months before we learned Carver survived. 6025097 The Grey Wardens left Kirkwall. It was months before we learned Bethany survived. 6025100 Carver joined the templars, just as he said he would. He didn't turn in the Champion, at least. 6025103 Bethany was in the Circle, now. There was nothing we could do for her, poor girl. 6025106 I felt responsible for Carver's death. He was a good lad, and met a bad end. 6025109 I felt responsible for Bethany's death. She was a good girl, and met a bad end.

dre000_sibling_has_blight (Deep Roads Expedition)

6036545 We're in the middle of nowhere. There's no way… oh, Sunshine…

vrc221_varric (Family Matter)

6043599 He deserved it after what happened to Bethany, but… I couldn't have gone through with that on my own. 6043600 He deserved to die after what happened to Carver, but… I couldn't have gone through with that on my own. 6044166 I almost wish Blondie hadn't wiggled his fingers and cleared Bartrand's head. I liked it better when I just wanted to kill the bastard.

gen00fl_varric (introduction)

6063845 Madam! Your secrets are safe with me.

qcr000_varric (interrogation)

6065797 Oh, he did, but Isabela stole it again three days later.

gen00fl_varric (Family Matter, Friendly Concern, Plans for the Future)

6076067 Carver would still be here if it weren't for Bartrand. 6076070 If it weren't for Bartrand, Bethany would still be here. 6076121 You and Whatshisname, that mage, seem to be getting pretty close. 6076122 People say you and that elf—you know, the angsty Tevinter one—are becoming quite the item. 6076123 I hear you and the Rivaini have something going… 6076124 There definitely seems to be something between you and Daisy these days. 6076427 [CUT] Right, I see you there, Blondie. Don't worry. 6076443 [CUT] Isabela, you know my heart is already spoken for. 6076540 You do know the elf is covered in spikes, like an angsty porcupine? He might have some… issues. 6076541 Isabela is a great girl, but I think you're likely to get hurt. By which I mean stabbed and left for dead. 6076542 Merrill is a sweet girl, but there's a whole lot of crazy in that little package. 6077818 I suppose after the whole business with Carver, it's a good idea to hang on to what you've got. 6077819 After everything that happened with Bethany, that's probably good thinking.

nat380_party_banter (Finding Nathaniel)

6090055 [CUT] If we're going to the Deep Roads, it may be good to bring Anders along. He has that whole "Warden sense" thing going for him.

gen00fl_varric (ambients, A Rumour Making the Rounds)

6103265 Hawke, about Junior… Maker, I'm sorry. Bartrand will pay for this, I swear. 6103266 Poor Sunshine… Bartrand will pay for her death, I promise you. 6107300 Of course not! Not wild ones, at least. I only spread those about Daisy. 6107302 Blondie is hardly an ogre! He's too puny. 6107303 Don't call Daisy an ogre! You'll make her cry. 6107304 If the Rivaini were an ogre… damnation, that'd be one hot ogre. 6107305 Don't compare the Tevinter elf to an ogre, Hawke. Ogres have a sense of humor.

isa311_party_comments (No Rest for the Wicked)

6117818 I hope Isabela leaves an obvious trail. 6117821 Wait, what am I talking about? Isabela's never subtle.

gen00fl_varric (Plans for the Future, The Storm and What Came Before It)

6118723 Just tell me if you hear more rumblings from the Coterie about protection. Blondie's got enough trouble… 6118826 See, when you say things like that, Blondie, it just makes me glad I didn't know you sooner. 6118942 Blondie didn't tell you? He comes down here now and then. He loses at cards to Isabela, and I buy him drinks. 6118945 This is the best tavern in Kirkwall, Hawke! As a favor to you, I put Blondie on my tab. 6118948 Only place in Kirkwall he can get a decent drink. Blondie comes by here, and I put him on my tab.

gen00fl_anders (Questioning Beliefs)

6125133 Uh-uh. You keep your pillow, Blondie. And may you have many more dreams of killing templars on it.

gen00fl_merrill (A Talking To)

6127544 Come on, Daisy. You shouldn't be stuck in this rat-trap. Does Hawke even know you're here? 6127548 Come on, Daisy. You've been holed up in here for days. If you don't get some sunshine, you'll wilt.

(note: at this point, the follower_banter conversation file was filled in with its basic structure. many initial lines here could have been placeholders to be filled in later)

follower_banter

6128552 Steal? Madam, you wound me. 6136374 Oh, cheer up, Blondie. You're making me cry just looking at you. 6136694 Blondie, I don't mean to sound critical, but have you considered a new line of work? 6136701 So what do you do, Aveline? 6136710 So… Milady Sunshine, what's your first act as a noblewoman going to be? 6136714 You know, Junior, it's eerie how much resemblance there is between you two. 6136715 You know, Junior, you're looking at this all wrong. 6136719 So, elf. That thing you do with your hand… 6136721 You really ought to take that offer, elf. It'd keep the Coterie off your back pretty much permanently. 6136723 You know you still owe me five sovereigns, elf. 6136729 You know, Rivaini, you promised me you'd tell me how your ship wrecked. 6136731 So… Hawke and Daisy? 6136732 You have got to tell me what was in that box, Rivaini. 6136738 Daisy, for my sake, please quit cutting through the alleys in Lowtown alone at night. 6136739 So, I hear you've been visiting the viscount's gardens, Daisy.

mrl310_party_comments (A New Path)

6142785 No offense, Daisy, but I could live without telling anyone we murdered you on some mountainside.

follower_banter

6143313 Oh-ho! The broody elf tells a joke! 6143330 So where's your beard, elf? 6149288 Carver.

vrc321_varric (Haunted)

6154756 It's not your call, Blondie.

follower_banter

6155955 Rivaini, stop looking at my chest. My eyes are up here. 6155994 Isabela… Are you talking to Bianca? 6156036 Isabela just thought she'd celebrate your love affair with a… written dedication. 6156063 I like the way you think, Rivaini, but one doesn't just ask to be made a Paragon. 6161345 For you, madam, endless sunsets and roses. 6164065 Go away, Justice. Can Anders come out and play? 6164552 Sunshine, I'm a dwarf, in case you missed that detail. 6164685 I shit you not, Rivaini, it was this big. 6164742 Insist that they're blatantly copying you, and demand royalties. A good noble always has a complaint ready, Sunshine. 6166461 I tried to warn you, Blondie.

gen00fl_dog

6166826 Now don't take it bad—you're still better than Anders.

follower_banter

6167223 Of course I am. We come to the surface with the skills our ancestors had, Blondie. 6167877 So, Choir Boy, this usurper of yours is… twenty feet tall? 6167878 Tell us about Starkhaven, Choir Boy. I'm sure we're all burning with curiosity about your far-away land. 6167880 You know, Choir Boy, I wouldn't normally say this, but—the shiny white armor? It works for you. 6169772 That's because you've spent too much time frolicking in the woods, Daisy. Dwarves don't frolic. 6169800 I'll tell her you said so, Daisy. 6169819 I have family like a rat has fleas, Daisy. 6169828 There's a story behind everything, Daisy. 6169831 Which story, Daisy? 6169843 You have to stick with us if you want to know how it turns out, Daisy. 6169847 Isabela? Of course I do. 6169853 No fun in calling her Rivaini if she's not here to be annoyed by it. 6169871 That was the idea, Daisy. 6169879 You could've just stopped me, Blondie. 6170234 So, you think you can win the coin from Isabela? Good luck with that. 6170283 Every little bit helps, elf. 6170382 You feeling all right, Blondie? You're always in the mood for templar jokes. 6170391 If you could see it from this angle, Blondie, it'd be at least a close second on your priority list. 6170472 Keep dreaming, Rivaini. 6170510 Bring it next time, Daisy. Just in case. 6170591 Haven't thought of a good one yet. What do you think of "Red"? 6170645 Aveline, I thought you'd have noticed by now: I lie a lot. 6170690 If I ever decide to get caught, Aveline, you'll be the guard I let catch me. 6170758 Keep it, Daisy. 6170777 I've got you and Aveline, Fenris and Anders. Hawke. Isabela. 6170786 I fought my own brother, Daisy. Nobody said this was going to be a happy story.

mcr370_cut_player_rules (narration)

6171814 Well… all of us except for Anders. 6171817 Well… all of us except for Fenris. 6171820 Well… all of us except for Isabela. 6171823 Well… all of us except for Merrill.

(note: at this point already-written quests are filled in with various reactions from different followers)

qcr000_arishok (Demands of the Qun)

6173714 I'm sure he'll take that well. Rivaini? You might want to move a bit this way.

fen210_hadriana (A Bitter Pill)

6174813 Hawke? Maybe now isn't a good time to offer the elf constructive criticism.

fen310_varania, fen310_fenris (Alone)

6175041 Elf… Fenris. I know how hard this is to believe, but this is the last thing you want to do. 6175044 Elf… Fenris. Don't. It won't help. Trust me. 6175081 Our elf is a hell of a negotiator!

isa211_isabela (To Catch a Thief)

6175163 You're the picture of kindness, Rivaini. 6175169 You just keep working on that, Daisy. Let us know if you figure it out.

vrc221_varric (Family Matter)

6175232 Don't worry, Daisy. The Chantry keeps a lot of water on hand.

ser121_jethann (The First Sacrifice)

6175347 I'll tell you when you're older, Daisy.

mcr370_cut_player_survives (narration)

6189917 [CUT] Well… all of us except for Sebastian. I never quite figured that one out.

seb321_leliana (Faith)

6197140 To be fair, Blondie, a lot of those "rebellions" boil down to, "Lets feed ourselves to demons!" 6197871 Is there anyone in Ferelden you haven't slept with, Rivaini?

gen00fl_sebastian (Repentance)

6198133 I don't know why Choir Boy here didn't yell, "Hawke to the rescue!" That's clearly what he was going for.

mcr370_varric (interrogation)

6208276 Or that damned idol was. Or Anders. Take your pick.

[deusexlachina]

Antisocial DAO Part 4 (Tower of Ishal): Meet the first two party members I respect

In which I forge a friendship with the bravest humans I have known: Soldier and Tower Guard.

Me and Alistair are given one job: Go to the Tower of Ishal and light a fire to signal Loghain's loyal troops to heroically save us. Unfortunately, darkspawn start besieging the bridge to the Tower, much as I burn bridges with those around me.

At the tower, I find two young men named "Soldier" and "Tower Guard." These are curious names, but I'm glad to meet some new companions. I can't wait to bond with them at camp!

For the first time, I have a full party, and here I will note that there are two ways of playing Dragon Age. One possibility is just to control your character and let your party's AI handle everything else. This is relatively immersive, and it's viable because this game has an excellent AI-crafting mechanic that is refined in DA2 and...is completely dropped in Inquisition.

The other way is to play it as Real-Time Tactics, using hotkeys to switch around who you're controlling. You can even click and drag, or press ctrl-A, to select everyone, in case you really want this story-rich medieval fantasy to have that Starcraft feel to it. I started the game with the first style, but I've moved on to the second due to the difficulty spike.

The Tower of Ishal is one of the hardest levels of the game for a number of reasons. You have at most one mage (the best class by a large margin), and it's too early for any of the really good builds to come online. Soldier and Tower Guard are also quite weak people. Nonetheless, I respect them more than Alistair: they do not judge me for my foreign ways, frightening magic, or the Miasma which follows my body everywhere. I will have to find non-combat roles for them later in the game. I don't need social skills to impress them. They fight by my side without a word.

There's a room in the Tower where you can free several dogs to help in the fight. They don't follow you further into the Tower. But darkspawn do follow you, and they will follow you right into a room full of hungry dogs. I repeat this process of luring enemies into Dog Range, slowly advancing my menacing battle line of pets.

I then meet the dogs' one weakness: area transitions. I will have to leave these good boys behind. Which is a shame, because I'm about to meet the reason this Tower is so hard: the Ogre.

The Ogre can fatally grab any of you in melee range, which would be bad if three of your party members were melee fighters. It also has AOE attacks with knockdown and preposterously large hitboxes - with its sinister powers, it can ram you without being anywhere near you. I Paralyze it as much as possible, which is very little, since it usually resists.

I must use the elusive tactics of the Dalish. That is, I run away almost the entire fight and hope it doesn't ram me while my redshirts try to backstab it and hope it doesn't turn around and grab them.

After a long fight, the Ogre has nearly killed me, Alistair and Tower Guard, but Soldier charges forward and deals the killing blow, getting an amazing animation where he knocks down the Ogre, jumps on it and stabs it in the heart.

I like this animation better than his usual one where he flails with his sword and somehow misses a huge Ogre right in front of him. It's a much better trick, this one. I wish he'd led with it. Nonetheless, Soldier has earned my respect. He may be a human, but his bravery and loyalty have carried us to victory. I would be proud to have him join me in my quest, along with his brother-in-arms, Tower Guard.

Unfortunately, they both die in a cutscene immediately.

RIP Soldier and Tower Guard

[corvidgames]

#10 Dragon's Dogma 2

I know a lot of people had a lot of... strong opinions... to say the least on DD2 upon release but having finally beaten and platinumed it this month, I honestly can say that I had a good experience with it overall.

The combat felt engaging, and getting to craft my perfect team of pawns to make a near unstoppable lineup made tearing through later game encounters easy as can be. I enjoyed the characters I met along the way, the world that I got to explore and the adventures I had along the way, and isn't that just the epitome of an RPG? I'd say so, at the very least.

HOWEVER, I will say that DD2 is definitely not without its faults. Later on into the game especially, during the path toward the true ending, where I was fighting giant cinematic bosses on the regular, I experienced regular bouts of frame dropping and stuttering. At times I was almost certain that my game was going to crash or my PS5 would give up under the pressure. But I can safely say that I only experienced one crash in my entire experience. The crash wasn't even gameplay related, it occurred when booting it up went wrong, so I can't fault DD2 for that.

My main gripes came with the fetch-questy nature of a lot of the middle section of the game and trophy hunting for it. During the sphinxs' riddles, you're asked to find your first seekers token... Needless to say I had no idea where it was. I spent hours across two days trying to track it down before finally finding it thanks to a guide listing all the seekers tokens in the Vermund area. At the start of the game going hunting for seekers tokens was fun! I felt like I was getting a cool little reward for my exploration of the world... but when I had to get 80 of them and somehow remember where the first of all of them was? Nah.

I played as an archer vocation during the vast majority of my playthrough, only switching once to a thief for the medusa achievements and then again near the final act to a warfarer to customise my armour. I still only used a bow the entire time I was in combat (save for the medusa trophies) The weak points and explosive arrows were just far too satisfying to pass up by swapping to anything else unless it was absolutely necessary.

I feel as though it's a little difficult to recommend DD2 to people without first telling them about all of it's flaws. But if you get a chance to try it out and see if it's for you, I'd definitely say to go for it. Despite my uh... obvious issues at times (see this post for a rant on some of the issues I faced) I genuinely can say that I had a good time by the end of it all. Out of the 58 hours platinuming it took, perhaps 5 of them at most were utterly painful, and I think that's a fair enough trade off for the higher notes of the game.

Battling giant foes with little more than 3 friends and a bow felt awesome and I can't understate that fact in the slightest. I felt badass blowing up explosive arrows in the eye socket of dragons and ogres, and getting to have those cool slow-mo shots of the creature falling down at the end as the music reaches its end... nothing quite like it. Chef's kiss.

I also got very... very obsessed with taking clips and caps of my Arisen, so my main account has so many GIFs of her up there, some of which I used for this!

Date of completion: 29/04/2024

Genre: Action RPG

Time to beat: 58hrs 4m

Level of completion: Main story + All endings + All side content

Trophies/Gamerscore: 55/55 Platinum

1-100 rating: 80%

Platform: Playstation 5

[sirpawsies]

A review of Dragon's Dogma 2

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is one of the first major game releases in 2024. With some of the most fun gameplay an action RPG could have and a sense of exploration contrasting with a messy storyline. The game’s world design is more concerned with feeling like a place than being a playground for you to make a mess in.

In Dragon’s Dogma 2 you play as the Arisen, a chosen one of sorts whose heart was stolen and devoured by a dragon. Alongside your main character, you also have a Pawn; a sort of dimension-hopping helper that acts as your main companion in your party. The game fully allows you to customize both characters, including picking a Vocation (think classes), appearance, and in the case of your Pawn, a personality that determines how it will play alongside you. You can also recruit Pawns made by other players to make a party of 4, where they will contribute to your group using whatever personality they were assigned by their creators.

The game’s open world is one of the game’s strongest features, with two major countries to explore with different environments, caves, ruins and other unique landmarks. Exploration in and of itself is the core of how to interact with this game, as traveling around leads to discoveries of treasure, new monster encounters in unusual places, and in some cases new villages or quests of interest.

The combat is relatively simple, with every Vocation having a basic attack, two special attacks that are fixed to the vocation itself and four slots for you to pick special attacks that your vocation offers. With different spells for mages and wizards, uniquely strong physical strikes for fighters and warriors, special tricks for thieves, and similar fitting special attacks for other vocations. The game also features options like grabbing smaller, stunned enemies or grabbing onto larger enemies to climb on them and hit their weak spots.

In spite of its simplicity, or perhaps because of it, the combat in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is addictive. Every encounter with an enemy plays out differently depending on what approach you chose, with every option being simple enough in execution for it to be tempting. If you feel like fighting an ogre straight on or chose to run away, both are viable choices. If you want to throw a goblin at it because they happen to be around, it's a viable strategy (In fact, throwing things at enemies has really high knockdown values.) If you want to goad it into attacking you and falling off a cliff, just be sure not to join him on his way down.

The story of the game is admittedly a bit messy, with an introduction that sets up a plot of political intrigue and a race for the throne that gets lost somewhere on its way alongside the path to fight the dragon and reclaim your heart. There’s traces of good ideas very clearly visible through the plot, but unfortunately doesn’t utilize the setups it makes to their fullest potential. Without getting into spoilers, the endgame in particular throws a lot of things in the story off the rails in favor of something that doesn’t feel connected to most of the main story.

The characters you interact with are also simple. With key characters having relatively simple writing and, with a few exceptions, mostly serving as a means to give you quests and develop the story further. With that said, the characters are written well enough. Additionally, all NPCs exist under schedules, basic behaviors and dispositions that make the world feel like it is inhabited by a few different civilizations.

Which leads to the game’s secret, the strongest card it has to play. The world itself. Some quests are timed by in-game days, so they will end whether you interact with them or not. Larger roaming monsters like griffins and lesser drakes will go wherever they want, independently of you. The capital city of Vermund can be assailed by monsters while you’re strolling around it, NPCs can die from monster attacks. And yet, the game goes on. This world exists even when you’re not interacting with it directly.

This extends to NPCs interacting with the main story, too. For instance, Brant, the soldier who gives you most of the initial quests, can die in a monster attack. Restoring the thread of fate is not impossible, and can, in and of itself, be a source of adventure outside of the story and exploration itself. Whether this is a positive or a negative thing, however, depends on the player and their willingness to interact with the game on its own terms.

With its unique game world design, Dragon’s Dogma 2 overcomes most of its flaws by using design choices that make the world feel so alive that the experience of playing the game overwhelms its shortcomings. The sense of exploration, the thrill of combat and the ever-present feeling of being a part of a living world have captivated my attention thoroughly. And I can confidently give this game a highly positive endorsement.

9/10

*Note: PC version released with performance issues. While I did not account for them in this review. It’s a very important factor to mention. As of writing (28/3/2024), Capcom has expressed their intent on patching the game to address this. I wrote this under the assumption that they will go through with it and the game will have no performance hitches.

[inventors-fair]

Chapter Two: This Week's Runners-up! ~

And our (very strong) runners-up this week are @batatafilosofal, @hanavesinauttija, and @spooky-bard!

@batatafilosofal — Alesha Defies Death (Alesha, Who Smiles at Death)

I think this card, despite being one of my favorites, suffers from being just a little too out there for the winner’s circle. Despite that, it’s a tight margin, and I genuinely wanted to make more space for winners this week. Alas, restrictions and creativity—restrictions like mana, which mean that this could be an RWW Jeskai splash in the Khans world, weirdly enough? What I really like is how you made that overlap okay with your mana necessities, and on top of that the way that you placed this card in the world is just plain cool. It’s the timeline’s story that was unbroken no matter where the clans went, a story that echoes.

That ultimate is a bit crazy, but no matter, I would’ve done two. The first ability, I believe, should be worded like Urza’s Saga: “Alesha Defies Death gains “Creatures you control have first strike.”” Bit wordy but you can adjust the text box sizes or whatever. Middle chapter is awesome still. So where does that lead us? I want to commend you first and foremost for really spinning a new idea onto an older story. Surprising and impressive all at once.

@hanavesinauttija — Isperia, Assassin’s Trophy (Assassin’s Trophy)

Not much to say that’s not already present, right? Phenomenal job making this card out to be the actual trophy part of the trophy; honestly the original spell seems slightly odder in its namesake compared to this card. It’s great to see it be a monument, almost. The reflection in the flavor text of that change is both welcome and natural. Vraska’s stony return is fascinating and speaks to the power of this moment’s presence. It lends an almost in medias res quality; we return to Ravnica again, and boom, there’s no Isperia. Here’s her trophy. What happened? We don’t get to see the assassination, and that’s all the more mysterious.

It’s also a great way to get rid of your lands, heh. Excess lands? Sac ‘em and weep. This card is great for getting death triggers as well as mitigating the damage from tokens. Your own tokens biting the dust is great, too! Drawing and gaining life is excessively powerful when done this repeatedly, but if you have a 10/10 trampler coming after you, it ain’t gonna do as much good. But it could be okay if you draw into something! Who are we kidding, though. Maybe you get burned out instead and nobody attacks, heck. That’s not gonna happen in limited, though, and this card is a weirdly interactive warning for all who dare want to come by and take what Vraska rightfully stoned up. I’d have to see this one in action, honestly. Perhaps the discouragement from attacking is a bit much.

@spooky-bard — Adversary’s Executor (Grand Crescendo)

Heck it. This card’s a personal favorite of mine this week. You got this guy that I’m totally not imagining as a handsome ogreish bouncer coming in and wrecking the party, and, uh... Lost my train of thought. This card’s still absolutely amazing, though, and I’m glad it’s a rare and a stunner of a bomb. It’s rare that you see a card with such a clear pre-combat vibe to it, a threat to end all threats. The citizens clear out, and now even the big boys are going to have to contend with the hustle of an ogre who’s been sold to the highest bidder, that being Mob Nixilis.

Having the treasures be tapped is probably the best option, so good call there, whoof. I wouldn’t call it a boardwipe but it makes the 4/3s that you’ve been amassing all the crazier. Menacing into some chump-blockers feels awesome for sure, and then the combination of Riveteer Treasures and Maestro kick-you-while-you’re-down-ing just ends up being awesome, too. I think this is a great other-side-of-the-page card for sure. It has nothing to do with the mechanics of its predecessor and everything to do with its presence. Admittedly, killing a bunch of 1/1s is relevant, but I mean in terms of the cards’ goals, that those are antithetical. One of them wants to be the life of the party, and this card? This card wants to clear the room, because it’s bashing and looting time. The show’s hardly over, but it’s sure as heck stopped.

Commentary to follow. Eventually. It's a long day today. —@abelzumi

[bryanharryrombough]

CanGames 2023

After a three year hiatus, our local tabletop gaming con, CanGames, returned this Victoria Day weekend; and with it, I had my first in-person tabletop gaming since before the pandemic started.  CanGames is an “all-round” tabletop gaming convention, with RPGs, wargames, board games & card games, but this year I was just there for the wargames.

I’m still dealing with the long-term effects of a health problem, and so I didn’t try to run any games this year and only signed up to play up to two games a day (in past years, I sometimes ran or played in four games in a day).  I ended up playing in four games Friday through Sunday (the final game I signed up for was cancelled due to the unfortunate illness of the game master) and things went fairly well.

Upon arrival, I chatted with some old friends I hadn’t seen in person since before covid, catching up on our lives before going out and having a look at the marketplace.  I didn’t see much there that I hadn’t seen in previous years, but I did pick up a copy of an old Usborne book that I remembered from my childhood: Galactic War.

My first game of the con was a Gaslands demo Friday evening.  Gaslands is a postapocalyptic automotive combat wargame played with converted Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars, and it was quite fun.  The rules were simple enough and the movement templates easy enough to use to simulate vehicular mayhem with gun-toting Hot Wheels cars.  The demo ended spectacularly when I rammed another car, wrecking mine and setting off my grenades, destroying the remaining cars with blast damage!

My second game was the Red Shirt Smash, a free-for-all convention scenario for Silent Death (a space fighter miniatures game from 1990) using “3-times scale” miniatures.  I used to play in Silent Death games run by the Red Shirts in the ‘90s, and it was great fun playing this old favourite again.

My third game of the con was “CanGames Sprint” a simplified version of Car Wars Classic (as opposed to the new 6th edition) played on a criss-cross racetrack.  It was enjoyable but there wasn’t a lot of shooting or interaction between cars during the game.  There was an amicable discussion afterwards with the game master about the game, and possible changes to be made for next year.

My fourth and final game was an old favourite of mine: Ogre, the game of future armoured warfare with giant cybernetic tanks!  My opponent and I played two rounds of the original scenario of a lone Ogre attacking a command post defended by a conventional force of tanks, G.E.V.s and infantry; we traded places between attacker and defender so that we could both get the chance of experiencing the very different sides of the conflict.  In the first round, I took the role of defender.  The Ogre came on strong, smashing my units while they ineffectively shot at its treads.  But after a while, I managed to slow the Ogre down and reduce its arsenal of weapons, giving me time to finally immobilize it before it could destroy my command post.  In the second game, I took the Ogre, and played it in a calculated, viscous manner.  I concentrated my fire to ensure kills, and slowed down at points to eliminate disabled enemy units before continuing my advance on the C.P.  In the end, I wiped out all of the defenders, ensuring an Ogre victory.   This game was the most fun for me this CanGames, and my opponent appeared to be having fun too, despite his losses.

Finally, as I was preparing to leave, a friend of mine had a gift for me, his copy of Heavy Gear Fighter with all of the supplements.  We were both fans of the Heavy Gear wargame when it first appeared in the mid-90s, but I had never played Heavy Gear Fighter (which was actually published the year before the Heavy Gear RPG/Tactical rulebook); so this is quite the gift from an old friend, and I look forward to playing it sometime in the future, just to see what its like.

So I think I can call CanGames 2023 a success for me.  I wasn’t sure how well I’d be able to handle attending a convention going in to CanGames, but now I’m more confident about returning to tabletop gaming in the future, and the possibility of running games next year.

Addendum: more photos, including other games I didn’t play in, here: CanGames 2023

[quaykey]

Thoughts on Writing Anxiety, aka I hate my plot

For the last week or two I've had this anxious dread in my bones. I can't shake it. It's kind of like when you know something is off, but you can't quite put your finger on it. Some might call it a gut feeling, and I suppose it is. It's worse, though, because it's in my chest.

Something about my writing isn't working.

In this post you'll be able to join me as I process this anxiety and dread that's been killing me at work.

We know that anxiety is future based. When you're anxious, it always has something to do with an expectation of the future. Fight or flight (or freeze, or fawn). It's a mode of preperation.

What is it about my anxiety that relates to my writing? How does it relate to the future?

The plot. The outline. It's the thing that tells me in twenty thousand words:

I should be at roughly chapter seventeen, assuming I'm averaging a 4000 word count per chapter.

My characters need to be at this point in the overall journey.

Each character is at their own specific point in their own character arc.

Subplot B and D need to be paid off.

Subplot F needs to be setup.

I'd be surprised if someone didn't get anxiety over such a daunting challenge. I, however, am but a mere mortal.

Image: Takai Art

If you've ever played dungeons or dragons (or any kind of tabletop roleplaying game), you'll know there's a game master or a dungeon master who effectively narrates and crafts the tale.

It's the dungeon masters job to tell the epic story that the group of roleplayers are travelling through. They have to set the scenes, play all of the NPCs in realtime, and offer hooks, conflicts and payoffs to the party surrounding them.

I suppose a DM (dungeon master) has to balance a lot going on. They will most likely have a sketch of what they want to happen in mind. They'll know there's a mountain through a valley where a dragon lives, and the shady man within the inn offers them a contract to go and kill the dragon. The DM will have a few different ideas for combat or conflicts along the journey to the mountain. Maybe a 'puzzle scene', maybe a 'fight with orcs' scene. But the DM will keep the details light.

The DM can't prepare too specifically, because that will force the players to travel down a predetermined path that the DM has created. The whole idea of Dungeons and Dragons is that the players are in an open world! They can go wherever they want to go, and do anything they want to do.

When a DM forces players down a storyline, it's called Railroading.

Huh.

You're smart, so you've already seen the metaphor I'm drawing. As a writer, to outline is to railroad my characters along a single path. If I treat my characters like players - agents of their own story - then they can make an infinite number of decisions! I can present them with a situation or scenario, and see how they react as I write.

This is the best description of railroading I could find.

railroading: - telling a player he can't do something because it would break your story (a good scenario is robust to weird player choices) - continually spawning more monsters until they kidnap an NPC because it's necessary for your story (negating their strategies for protecting him) - putting a plot-centric event or creature in the PCs' path no matter which way they go (AKA quantum ogre, negating the players' choice of path. this will blow up in your face if the players - start scouting ahead or using divination) - fudging rolls to enforce failure (negating the player's luck because it would damage your storyline) - fudging rolls to enforce success (see above) - making the enemies beat your players in a race to a location because they have to get there first for the story to work (negating any clever transportation solutions the players come up with) - having a BBEG (ugh) that serves as a final boss that no amount of player ingenuity will defeat before you want him defeated (self-explanatory i hope) not railroading: - telling a player he can't do something because it's impossible (negating player choice, not to enforce a specific outcome) the villain redirects his orc raiders to try the kidnapping again, rather than continuing to rob travelers (difference: logical NPC behavior, the players have impacted his plans and changed the situation) - having a creature seek the players out actively (again, NPC decisions in response to player choices, with ripple effects on other parts of the situation) - player fails a check (negates decision, not to enforce outcome) player succeeds a check (see above) - the enemies beat the players to a location because the players decided to save money and walk (logical consequences of player decisions) - having villains that evolve (mostly into corpses, honestly) and develop relationships naturally through player interactions

Original Post

Dramatic Superposition is a fantasitc term made by someone who commented. Nothing exists until it's observed.

Really, truly, I should ask my characters what they would do, and I should respect their desire. From there, I can sprinkle in my sketched plot, or I can give them free passage. I could introduce new challenges or characters, or not.

So all this chatting. What's the point?

Well, you see - my attention is no longer stuck in the future. It's not thinking about the seventeenth chapter, and how many words should be there, and what plot that hasn't even been started needs to be finished.

My attention will be in the present, assessing and living through the characters on the page. What they want, I write. And if they want something stupid, I'll rewind, go back in time, edit or add things, and make that option stupid so they don't want it anymore.

Now I'll be in the present, and when I'm in the present, my anxiety dies.

[nintendowife]

I completed Crimson Shroud (second playthrough) on Nintendo 3DS yesterday. I'm so glad I bought this game before the eShop shut down! It truly exceeded my expectations and I enjoyed my time with it.

"This is a tale of those who would quest for this origin of miracles: the Crimson Shroud. May God have mercy on their souls." The story follows a young mercenary Giauque and his partners, Lippi and Frea. The group is sent to ancient palace ground dungeons - now occupied by goblins and undead - to find a missing person and an old book. The location is also rumoured to house a source of powerful magic, the "original gift" called Crimson Shroud which has attracted people through the ages only for them to meet their demise in the dangerous dungeons. I quite liked the characters and their banter during their quest.

The story is good and I was eager to find out what's going to happen in it. There's a good amount of darker content or what say you about the game's depiction on how to kill a heretic: "Lead is poured into the eyes, robbing sight, that the truth might be buried in darkness. The fingers and toes are crushed, that the punished will know they are not to return to this world."

The game features two different endings. The second ending can be accessed when clearing New game+ and surviving an optional boss fight. I found the first ending much more intriquing than the second one but your mileage may vary.

Crimson Shroud's visuals are rather unique with 3D models of characters and opponents mimicking table-top pieces. There's also striking illustrations sprinkled into the story segments. You may recognize the art style as the artist has worked on games like Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII. Music is by Hitoshi Sakimoto (Final Fantasy XII, Tactics Ogre) and sounds superb.

The gameplay combines traditional turn-based combat with elements from table-top role-playing games. You roll dice to determine the outcome of some things like buffs and debuffs - get unlucky and your skill fails. I had never played a table-top RPG in my life and was uncertain whether I'd like the gameplay. I ended up loving it!

The game is clearly more challenging than most JRPGs I've played. Game Over wasn't a rare occurrence during my two playthroughs. The battles can take a long time and paying attention to what happens is important and managing buffs and debuffs is vital to your success. You can't grind levels - actually the characters do not even have levels. You grow stronger by finding better gear which you can also upgrade. But there's a catch: you need an identical piece of gear in addition to upgrade material to meld the equipment into a stronger version. The characters do gain skills at set moments in the game and gear may also have skills attached to them. You can find skill/spell scrolls that you can use to teach new skills to your party members. But again, there's a catch: the skill will be attached to a piece of gear and you'll lose it if you replace the gear. There are no shops to purchase healing items or gear from, you need to find it all as monster drops.

You recover MP only during battle and recovery items can only be used during battles. It doesn't make things any easier that there seems to be a rather limited amount of encounters and traversing the dungeon map drains your MP. I found myself in sticky situations more than once when my characters were low on MP and I ran into an ambush or a boss fight. Luckily the party's HP is fully replenished after battle.

The only complaint I can think of is that the UI for gear was confusing when comparing a new piece of equipment to currently equipped one. The blue and red numbers were hard to decipher and I never understood them, so I had to look at both the equipments' base stats separately to decide which one is better.

Crimson Shroud is quality stuff and it's refreshingly short. My first playthrough took just a bit under 10 hours, after two playthroughs my save file displayed 26 h of playtime combined. I recommend the game to anyone who isn't afraid of reading text and enjoys turn-based combat.