#Top inventory strategies

[apekssolutions]

Top 4 World Major Inventory Management Techniques

Explore the Top 4 World Major Inventory Management Techniques that are transforming how businesses manage their stock and streamline operations. From Just-In-Time (JIT) to Economic Order Quantity (EOQ), these proven strategies help companies optimize inventory levels, reduce costs, and improve overall efficiency. By integrating these techniques with inventory management software, businesses can gain better control of their inventory, automate processes, and boost productivity. Perfect for businesses of all sizes looking to enhance their inventory control and maximize results!

[lifecarelogistic]

Managing Inventory for Logistic: Strategies for Effective Supply Chain Management 

Introduction

Good inventory management is vital for logistic firms to guarantee on-time and efficient supply chain management. This entails the careful monitoring, control, and optimization of stock levels to decrease expenses while fulfilling customer needs. The Best Logistic Company in India in this blog, discuss some techniques for successful inventory management that logistics companies can use to bolster their supply chain management.

Important techniques 

1. Adopt a Just-in-Time (JIT) approach: 

A Just-in-Time (JIT) method involves ordering products right when they are needed to meet customer orders, thereby eliminating the need for excessive stockpiling. This way, companies can minimize their inventory while still meeting consumer demands, thus cutting down on inventory carrying costs and freeing up space.

2. Use Forecasting Techniques:

 Logistics companies can use forecasting techniques to predict customer demand and adjust inventory levels accordingly. This approach ensures that inventory levels are optimized to meet customer demand, reducing the risk of stockouts or excess inventory.

3. Utilize Technology: 

Technology can help logistics companies manage their inventory more efficiently. Inventory management software can track inventory levels, forecast demand, and automate the reordering process.

4. Implement an ABC Analysis: 

An ABC analysis categorizes inventory into three categories based on it’s value and usage. 

Class A inventory is high-value and fast-moving, 

Class B inventory is medium-value and medium-moving,

Class C inventory is low-value and slow-moving. 

By categorizing inventory, logistics companies can prioritize inventory management efforts and allocate resources more effectively.

5. Adopt a Continuous Improvement Approach: 

Continuous improvement involves constantly monitoring and optimizing inventory management processes. Logistics companies can use data analytics to track inventory performance, identify inefficiencies, and make data-driven decisions to improve inventory management.

Logistic companies can benefit greatly from implementing effective inventory management strategies. By adopting a JIT approach, using forecasting techniques, utilizing technology, implementing an ABC analysis, and adopting a continuous improvement approach, logistics companies can improve their supply chain management and provide better service to their customers.

[safexpress-pvt-ltd]

How Returns Management Simplify Small Businesses With Safexpress?

Safexpress helps small businesses streamline returns with hassle-free reverse logistics, real-time tracking, and quick turnaround times. By reducing operational costs and improving customer satisfaction, Safexpress enables businesses to focus on growth while ensuring efficient and reliable returns handling.

[theresattrpgforthat]

So, I went to a game store, and I asked if there were any good beginner games for someone who tried the DnD Essentials Kit and found it too complicated, and you'll never guess what one singular game they suggested!

THEME: Simpler Games than DND.

My friend, I’m not a very good guesser, but I hope that I am able to present you with some games that will give you what you’re looking for.

24XX: Chaos Unit, by polyhedralmice

Deep under the busy streets of Sapien City is the headquarters of the Vermin Squad, the espionage wing of a secret organization of urban animals known as the CHAOS Unit. They capitalize on the fact that vermin are virtually invisible human inhabitants of the city and use they use their street smarts to run vital missions for the unit. Raccoons, opossums, pigeons and squirrels each play specific roles and together form teams that take on the most vital of missions. From intercepting life-saving pizza orders to rescuing their colleagues from the dastardly Animal Control, there is no task too daunting for the brave animals of the Vermin Squad. Every night teams are sent out on their missions, and this is the story of one of those teams. Nothing will stop these brave agents from successfully completing their tasks (except maybe a humane trap baited with peanut butter). 

CHAOS Unit is a spy themed hack based on Jason Tocci’s 24XX.

24XX games are great for groups that love different-sided dice. In general, you only have a few skills for your character that are outside the normal parameters (upgraded to d8 - d12), and the success threshold is the same for pretty much every roll. The challenges and situations of any given scenario are typically presented as roll tables, allowing the GM to come up with an adventure just by rolling a few dice.

CHAOS Unit has just a few character options, some simple gear options, and a comparatively light-hearted premise. It’s a great introduction to the system, and learning how to play one 24XX game makes every other 24XX game a piece of cake to learn, even if they include new rules.

Loot, by Gila RPGs.

LOOT is a fantasy TTRPG by Gila RPGs that combines looter shooter mechanics with west marches vibes. When a rebellion toppled a lich overlord and torn down his city, the people were left with a lot of loot, and a lot of problems. That's where you come in.

Get some friends together, fight some monsters, deck your characters out in cool loot. Do it all over again.

Even though LUMEN uses grid-based combat, your character’s stats are simplified, reduced to a few things: health, armour, and three action types: force, flow & focus. Your stats themselves come from the items that your carry - your loot.

Your loot is organized through slots on your character sheet: you can only carry so much, so you’ll have to think carefully about what kind of stat bonuses and abilities you want. I find that a visual inventory can make it easier to keep track of everything you have, and can help some players learn how to think strategically. If you like the fantasy and strategy that exists in D&D but don’t want to do nearly as much math, you might be interested in LOOT - although the lack of dice is certainly a big change.

Slugblaster, by Wilkie’s Candy Lab.

In the small town of Hillview, teenage hoverboarders sneak into other dimensions to explore, film tricks, go viral, and get away from the problems at home. It’s dangerous. It’s stupid. It’s got parent groups in a panic. And it’s the coolest thing ever.

This is Slugblaster. A table-top rpg about teenagehood, giant bugs, circuit-bent rayguns, and trying to be cool.

Forged in the Dark games can be tricky to introduce to a new table, but Slugblaster is one of a few that I think can do the job. It’s a streamlined version of the system, that takes away a lot of the crunch that comes from Stats, Position, and Effect, and boils it all down to Kick and Boost. It also streamlines harm into 2 levels of slams, and keeps stress and downtime to a procedure that you can follow step-by-step when you finish a run. Finally character creation is very easy: you only make few choices in terms of abilities, and many of these choices are descriptive, rather than mechanical.

One thing I’ve noticed about games with “simpler” rules systems is that they typically do require a bunch of improv, which can be scary for new GMs. Slugblaster isn’t that different in this regard, but it does have a few things you as a GM can prepare beforehand if you want to make things easier for yourself. For example, you can set up your map of the different dimensions beforehand, including the doorways that the teens can get through. If you know that the teens get back to your home dimension without going through Operablum, then you can prepare a few location - specific threats to confound the teens as they try to get back in time for dinner.

Another strength of these games is that typically, if a player wants to do something, they just have to be able to describe how they’d do it - you can then work backwards using the gear & resources on your sheet to give you some dice to roll, as well as the logic of the game world, to figure out what happens next.

Lady Blackbird, by John Harper

Lady Blackbird is on the run from an arranged marriage to Count Carlowe. She hired a smuggler skyship, The Owl, to take her from her palace on the Imperial world of Ilysium to the far reaches of the Remnants, so she could be with her once secret lover: the pirate king Uriah Flint.

Lady Blackbird is the first game I ever played, and it’s a game I fell for - hard. It involves rolling pools of dice that you pull from descriptive collections of tags assigned to pre-generated characters. It simplifies game-play by taking away the step of character creation, and gives the group a pretty solid story to pick up and follow wherever your heart may lead.

While the rules of the game are fairly simple, I think that as a GM, you’re going to need to be comfortable with a fair bit of improv to make this work. The game has some excellent pieces of advice on how to come up with scenes for the characters, and even includes some example complications to throw at the party. I’m really glad this was my first game because from the beginning, it affirmed that roleplaying games are a communal experience, and even if the characters and the starting scenario are already written for the group, the players have a lot of freedom to decide who their characters are, and what they’re going to value.

Liminal Horror, by Goblin Archives.

There’s a strange comfort to ambiguity. To stand at the threshold between states of what was and what’s next, to inhabit the places of transition. But you’re never truly alone here. There are things that hunger within the dark places. Strange creatures and mysteries lie in wait and tumbling into the wrong place at the wrong time may put you on the path towards doom.

Grab your flashlights and blood splattered jackets as you try to make it through the night. Beware, snapping bone and rending flesh are often the simplest outcome. While there may be great power within these places… not all mysteries can be solved and not everyone can be saved. Above all, there are fates far worse than death.

LIMINAL HORROR is a rules-lite, adaptable Survival-Horror roleplaying game about normal characters and their struggles against the things that go bump in the night. The game focuses on surviving the weird and Investigating horrors while blending simple, old-school inspired rules with modern, narrative first principles. Survival is not guaranteed and those that do make it through the night are often forever changed.

In Liminal Horror, character creation is rather quick, often easily generated using a few dice rolls. For most tasks, your characters will roll a d20 and try to get a number lower than one of their three stats, so when you get started, teaching the game should be pretty simple. Of course, since it’s a horror game, there’s more than just trying to roll under a stat: characters will find themselves subject to the consequences of being exposed to horrors that are far beyond the limits of human experience. As a result, characters will find themselves dealing with two different kinds of harm: stress & fallout. These two harm systems will make the stakes feel real, and they’ll also inflict changes on your characters as you play.

Liminal Horror has a few things going for it. The basic rules are fairly straightforward, but they’re also free. The game is meant to be paired with pre-written adventures, which often include place descriptions, NPCs, and adventure-specific consequences to torture the characters with. A lot of the adventures available come with a price tag, but if you want to try out the system, there’s a couple of free ones out there - I recommend Messenger National Park, by capacityforwonder.

For the Ship And Its Crew, by Adeline Fowl Games.

We've crewed this Ship for years together. We've seen wondrous sights, gotten ourselves into seemingly insurmountable trouble, and have owed our fair share of creds to the wrong people. And yet, still, we fly. But after all these years, our past may be catching up with us. As the missiles tear across starlit space, we'll be forced to ask ourselves: What will we do, for the Ship and its Crew?

This is a hack of For the Queen, which mostly involves answering prompts, using something like a card deck, or in this case, a digital hosting service. Your group is telling a story by taking turns answering questions, which makes the game fairly easy to teach, even to people who don’t have a lot of roleplaying experience.

These kinds of games can also be played very quickly, which might also make it easier to introduce to folks who aren’t used to sitting around a grid and calculating resources for 2+ hours.

Other Recommendation Posts To Check Out…

Easy To Teach Recommendation Post

First Time GMs Recommendation Post

Little Reading or Writing Required Recommendation Post

[sexhaver]

probably the saddest video game L i have ever heard of is the case of DeathOnAStick. he was a nethack player who aimed to not just beat the game, but beat it with the highest score possible. score in nethack is based on the total value of items in your inventory when you win, so his strategy was to cast Polymorph on rocks until they turned into gems (which have the best value to weight ratio). Polymorph can turn rocks into basically anything, including "hostile golems" or "nothing", so this took him a while.

and by "a while" i mean "a year and a half". he played this save file for a year and a half. without dying.

he got so many gems that he needed multiple pet giants to carry around the bags for him. dude was fucking loaded. once he was satisfied with his haul, he strolled into the Wizard of Yendor's tower and killed him, as one does to begin the final segment of their run. the Wizard was kind enough to drop a Potion of Gain Level on his corpse, which DeathOnAStick picked up and immediately drank out of habit despite already being at the level cap of 30. unfortunately, the potion was cursed.

an uncursed Potion of Gain Level will give you enough experience points to level up. a cursed potion, on the other hand, will have you go up a level.

a level (floor) of the dungeon.

without his pet giants or any of his gems.

if you go up a level from the top of the wizard's tower, you end up in the Plane of Earth, which has no stairs down and blocks teleportation and digging.

his player logs indicate that he "went idle" for 38 seconds at this point, meaning that no inputs were registered; i'm going to hazard a guess that he was not exactly "idle" irl during that timeframe. he finished the run with a relatively pathetic 2 dilithium crystals that he managed to scrounge up from the Plane of Air, a far cry from the thousands his giants had been hauling around for him.

there is a silver lining though: five years later in 2010 he took another stab and managed to finish with over 8000 gems in around 400 hours of playtime. but still. jesus fucking christ. a year and a half of your life down the drain because of a cursed potion effect based on a pun

[edwardseymour]

i'm shocked that theirs no evidence of their being a order to have all of anne boleyn’s portraiture be destroyed one of the things i hear anne fans talk about all the time is a attempt to "erase" her from history by henry and jane!! they make it sound like their was a bonfire of all of anne's paintings and personal belongings like that one scene from sleeping beauty

✨ terfs/zionists fuck off ✨

it’s another one of those popular anne boleyn isms that’s uncritically widely accepted but i don’t think it holds up.

there’s simply no evidence of such an order. plenty exists of her to suggest there was no top down command that was acted upon. more reasonably, she likely simply became an unpopular figure to have displayed in one’s house after her execution… but she was still referred to posthumously as “the late queen”, her iconography was left in place in actively used palaces, henry kept several of her possessions in his inventory, and her portraiture outlasted the tudor period with one surviving as late as 1773 in the lumley collection. so it seems improbable that there was a formal order or enforced policy of erasure or damnatio memoraie against her, as an anointed queen and mother to a child of henry’s, illegitimate or otherwise — nor does there seem to be much evidence of that as a strategy taken against other traitors. henry howard’s portrait still survives, for example.

[cherrypikkins]



okokok no one asked for this but here is my rationale for Sylvain being a forever-DM in my dungeons and dragons and three houses post

his interests are specifically stated as being fine art and theater. furthermore, his supports with bernadetta (houses) and ignatz (hopes) shows that his eye for art and literature is not just at a surface level. not only can he recognize a good narrative in writing, but also knows how visual description can be used to build context in a story.

the board game is one of his preferred gifts. DnD is as massive a 'board game' you can get in all but technicality, being a table-top RPG system. one can assume that sylvain has an aptitude for putting written rules into practice as well as a mind for strategy needed to simulate encounters that suitably challenge the party while keeping everything balanced.

in three hopes, he excels at taking inventory of the pantry and tidying up documents. his profile states that he is specifically bothered by untidy spaces. clearly, he knows how to stay organized and on top of paperwork and logistical details.

also, his dating habits and ability to keep up with multiple distinct relationships at the same time means uh, he's got serious time management skills. always a plus for a DM, i guess? especially given the challenge of scheduling anything with a sizable group of players.

but most of all he puts on personas in his every day life, has a flare for both humor and the dramatic, and knows how to appeal to one's emotions even when he doesn't really mean it. one could reason that he has the acting ability needed to play as multiple npcs at the drop of a hat, while hiding his cards when necessary to keep the players guessing.

so not only would Sylvain be a competent and engaging DM, he'd be stuck in the DM role forever - also because no one would dare imagine the unfathomable amount of drama and mayhem he'd be capable of causing as a player.

[thedailyjcs]

Thrifted Treasures: LJ's Journey in Sustainable Fashion Entrepreneurship

by Jerraine Sy and Jose Carlos Morata

Leila Jazel Madelar, who goes by the name LJ, is a student at National University Fairview pursuing BS Tourism. LJ is the proud owner of Madie's Wardrobe, where she sells curated thrifted clothes through her Facebook page and ships them out via Shopee Checkout. LJ's commitment to sustainability and supporting local businesses is an appropriate match for our theme, which emphasizes the advantages that thrifted clothing has for the economy and the environment. 

In the vibrant world of ukay-ukay, LJ encountered unpredictable situations as an entrepreneur. This is not new to the business world, especially in the ukay-ukay culture. Although she handpicked these items rather than buying in bulk, sometimes they do not appeal to people's tastes or align with current trends. The importance of adaptability in overcoming obstacles is truly essential, as mismanaging this aspect could result in profit loss. 

She discusses the diverse attitudes of customers and the challenges in ensuring they follow instructions. Despite that, she employs patience and takes the time to educate customers on the checkout process, maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction. True success lies in maximizing profitability. When she receives the profit, it marks the culmination of her efforts as a dedicated businesswoman. 

LJ sets herself apart by focusing on offering affordable sets, steering away from the trend of overpricing items observed in similar shops. This strategy has contributed to the success of Madie's Wardrobe. She handpicks each item from various thrift stores, personally fitting them and curating a collection through meticulous examination. This attention to detail ensures a curated and quality inventory. She observes the thrift clothes market trends and notes the enduring popularity of items like crop tops and pants. She also stays attuned to customer preferences, adapting her inventory to meet the ongoing demands of the market. 

The virtue of patience is the most significant lesson that she teaches. Managing several projects at once is part of being a lone owner, and even with diligent attention to detail, problems can still occur. Maintaining a high standard of customer satisfaction requires flexibility and responsiveness to any issues that might arise. LJ advises aspiring thrift clothes sellers to embrace hard work and be prepared to take risks. She emphasizes the importance of having a backup plan to avoid losses and ensure success. Aspiring thrift store vendors should accept hard labor and be willing to take calculated chances, according to Leila. She strongly expresses that to prevent losses and guarantee success, a backup plan is essential. The importance of preparedness for potential challenges cannot be overstated; it forms the backbone of a resilient business strategy. It's important to have a backup plan within a backup plan, as this provides greater control in uncertain situations. 

To sum up, LJ's experience selling used clothing is proof of her tenacity, enthusiasm, and steadfast dedication to her clients' needs. Madie's Wardrobe is a source of inspiration for aspiring businesses that want to enter the realm of online thrifted clothes sales in addition to providing reasonably priced apparel. 

[outofangband]

Sorry if you’ve done this before, but for Himring worldbuilding do you have any thoughts on the layout of the fortress and its architectural style etc? In fic I’ve variously seen it described as ranging from a single solitary castle all the way to a whole little walled city on the hill so I was wondering what you thought about that! Thank you so much ❤️❤️

World building masterlist (also more in the himring tag)

I think it's somewhere between a single castle and a walled city! It's a walled fortress comprising of a number of primary buildings within the walls and then a number of remote outposts throughout the March.

The Fortress of Himring stands on the hill of the same name. It is a stone fortress constructed primarily from slate, granite and travertine. Its construction took several decades and was worked on primarily by members of the Noldorin host Maedhros had brought there with aid from a group of dwarves from the Ered Luin Maedhros had formed an alliance with. In exchange for their help, they were given access to the geological resources of the March and protection while traveling North towards the Ered Engrin.

A number of stonemasonry techniques were utilized in the construction of Himring including arch masonry, dry stone (used primarily in the construction of remote buildings and lower walls), and post and lintel which makes use of pillars and beams. Most of the arches and arch systems of Himring are vault arches, that is, self supporting arched systems used to construct ceilings and roofs. This means spacious almost cavernous rooms with high ceilings. Almost all rooms have either fireplaces or fire pits with some buildings having a complex system of chimneys.

The fortress is built upon the Hill of Himring and rises up from the top with sections extending around towards the base of the hill and even some under the earth. The foundations rise to a sheer, wide tower with surrounding buildings connected through bridges and ground level passages.

The design is beautiful as is most creations by Noldorin architects but Himring is generally thought of as a grim, utilitarian place. It is a pallet of grays of varying shades, standing starkly against the cold skies. It is made to withstand both harsh weather and enemy attack. Its full plans are known only to Maedhros himself and there are many secret exits, hiding places, storage areas and other features understood on a need to know basis

Indeed, it is probably the most utilitarian of the Fëanorian realms with the lowest number of civilians. People went to Himring because they desired to be on the forefront of the battle with Morgoth. There is a population of non fighters, comprising of both soldiers who are unable to fight (temporarily or otherwise) due to injury and those with other distinct roles. They are employed as cooks, hunters, construction and repair, crafting, producing and mending essentials like clothes, weapons and blankets, overseeing trade and supplies, translation, cartography and strategy and others of the many jobs that are needed to maintain Himring.

There is a small market that operates within the walls of Himring but, due to rations and inventory protocol, is fairly regulated. (Any essentials, and there is a long list for this, are regulated and cannot be sold without formal permission. Luxury goods, puzzles and toys for the few children who live at the March, other crafts, and certain food items are usually sold here depending on what they are made from)

Most artisans come to Himring with the understanding that there wares will be primarily used for the war and supporting those fighting it.

The fortress is lined with parapets near its top. Half of them are partly covered to protect against the worst of winter winds and snow.

Steel is made in a bloomery and forge a few minutes away from the fortress of Himring itself where weapons are also made. The forge combines Noldorin techniques with some Sindar ones and weapons development is more prioritized than in most of the other Fëanorian realms. Animals are kept in lower, wooden outer houses towards the bottom of the hill of Himring, to protect against theft and the cold.

I have a post about gardens here!

I hope this helps! Please feel free to send more!

[clarebear-0925]

Flowers, Fight Scenes and Isolation: My Prediction for the Future (And Possible Ending) of Jujutsu Kaisen

Hi. So seeing this extra for volume 26 finally spurred me to articulate all of my thoughts on this subject in one place. Sorry for the length, but let me cook.

Here's the big idea: I believe that Gojo is in fact going to come back— but with a major catch.

Lets review the (mostly theme-based) evidence, shall we?

Firstly, throughout the entire series, we know that Gojo has been incredibly lonely, isolated at the top by Jujutsu society,

As summed up by this iconic panel, with just him, vast empty white space, and his title, the only thing that most people know him for/define him by, aka “the strongest.”

We also know that isolation played a big role in his mental state and thinking until his death, and is something that Gege made sure to reemphasize during his last moments in chapter 236.

In this conversation, Gojo expresses the gap he felt and also sets up the connected imagery of him and flowers.

(In addition, I feel as though it is also significant that the person he finally opens up to about his feelings on this isolation is Geto- more on that later).

Next, JJK is commonly nicknamed “jumpkaisen” as a joke by fans due to how often the characters team up against the villains. However, I think this pattern actually has more significance in the overall narrative than being a funny quirk.

Over the course of the series, we have seen all sorts of teamups between a wide variety of characters- like the widespread jumpkaisen nickname suggests, they are an iconic part of JJK's combat.

However, one character in particular is exempt from this trend- Gojo. (and also Sukuna but we’ll get into that later too.)

He is always fighting alone- as an adult, we never see him fight alongside anyone else the way that other characters do. Even the villains note this when planning their battle strategy:

This is is made especially clear in the final battle (especially with the contrast between the mostly solo Gojo v Sukuna fight and the absolute dogpile that is going on in the manga right now).

The only times we ever saw Gojo fighting alongside another person is with Geto in his youth. Geto is also the only person who didn’t him as “the strongest.” Instead, they were the strongest together, and that is reflected in how they fought together.

But then after everything in Hidden Inventory, Geto too starts to see that gap between him and Gojo.

This results in him leaving Gojo, thus permanently isolating him as “the strongest.” (See also the change from "we're the strongest" in the Hidden Inventory Arc to "I'm the Strongest" in JJK episode 2).

We never see him fight with another person after that.

Ok, so now let’s put these two points (Gojo's isolation and its connection to the fight scenes) to serve up a prediction.

I believe that Gojo is going to come back severely weakened to the point that he will finally have to (or be able to) fight WITH others- in particular, the students who he has made it his express mission to protect and nurture so they can go on to improve Jujutsu society.

This would be in sharp contrast to Sukuna, who has continually refused any chance or notion of love and connection, likely due to his belief that it is unattainable due to his strength.

(Serena on TikTok has an amazing and concise video on this topic- go watch it if you're interested in a better understanding)

I also think that this development would be a great way to show that Gojo HAS been successful in his goal to nurture a better future of Jujutsu- rather than the society isolating and systematically breaking students like it did Geto, the students are now all working together to defeat this insurmountable evil.

So, in conclusion, yes, Sukuna will in fact be defeated by the power of love and friendship (and a couple dozen or so black flashes), and it is NOT Gojover.

Also, here is some vital supplemental information (again from the amazing Serena) regarding the flower depicted on Gojo’s cover and the volume 26 extra.

I think the fact that Gojo compared himself to a flower in Chapter 236 as he died, and the fact that the flower in the supplemental (who he is clearly connected to via the cover art) hasn’t hit the ground yet is a very good (and more concrete) sign for his chances of returning.

Thank you for reading and sorry for the length! I would love to know your guys' thoughts on this theory and what you think will happen in the future of JJK! :)

[emblemxeno]

Fire Emblem Mystery of the Emblem Book 2 and Overall Game Thoughts

-A delightful finale, all things considered. Worked to get the perfect ending, and I think the records, CGs, and chronicle are great rewards for all that work.

-If I had to describe Book 2's maps on a graph, it'd look like a mountain. Really had a rough beginning with chapters 2 through 4 not being fun for me. There was also a drawn out endgame, with the Dark Emperor chapter probably being my least favorite in the entire game. Even chapter 3's Walk of Nothing was more bearable than choking the spaces near Hardin's location, for 5 waves of reinforcements. It picked up for Wyvern's Dale, but then the three Dragon's Table maps weren't really that noteworthy, though I did have mostly capped stats for my team so maybe I made things easy for myself (stat booster secret shop is nuts).

-But holy hell, do I like the mid-game a lot. Starting with Chiasmir Bridge, the game really shined, especially during the Anri's Way arc. Idk if that's an unpopular opinion, but working a strategy around the dragon enemies was pretty fun for me. Passing around the astral shards was surprisingly enjoyable too, even if I had to have a chart on hand showing me which growths were improved. Getting to max out my favs was delightful.

-My team was probably pretty standard? I knew Julian, Minerva, Merric and Sirius were required to get the best ending, so they were a lock. The rest were Caeda (personal bias), Tiki, Linde (early game bishop go craaaaaazy), Jeorge (he already had Parthia access so why not), Ogma, Navarre, Phina, Sheena (someone had to use the Gradivus for the endgame), Marisha and Yuliya.

The last two were definitely unexpected key members of the team, for all the utility staves they could use. Eventually I stuck Nosferatu on them and had them switch off the starsphere, and the rest is buff cleric history.

-Mechanically, Book 2 hit both extremes on the good and bad compared to Book 1. Knowing how this game works at its core helped a lot, what with things like inventory management, stat calculations, and even the movement range not showing the attack squares yet.

However, more often than in Book 1 did I find myself disliking the rougher parts, such as the deployment slot issue, ambush spawns, and even the command menu at times. Seriously, putting 'Wait' near the top was a bonkers choice.

Overall though, it wasn't enough to deter my enjoyment of the game. I think FE3 as a whole is probably the definitive "old game" experience, where you can go back an experience a classic that still isn't archaic enough to be a confusing slog. (This game is the one that introduced hidden treasure though, please never bring that mechanic back, or at least not in desert maps, i don't like crawling around with a 3 space thief ;-;)

-Story went nuts compared to Book 1, like there's sooooo much more dialogue and text. I appreciate it though, I think Mystery has a very sophisticated and well crafted story, with a tone that's darker compared to other SNES nintendo games, yet manages to maintain hopeful and heroic moments.

-My personal story highlights include:

Jagen being a present, well written advisor and having a small arc of believing in Marth's capabilities.

Lang being an absolute bastard, which is an example that more early game bosses should follow I feel since it's all the more satisfying to knock him down a peg.

As I mentioned a couple days ago, I like the way the lore is delivered in this game because contextually it makes sense to pad the time of a harrowing, isolated journey with some story time;

The story of the dragons/manaketes is one that is the pinnacle of what good morally grey FE storytelling is. There isn't excusing what Medeus and his allies did, but it gives an understandable example of what not to repeat. Not for the sake of making the bad guys not seem bad anymore, but for endearing us to the people originally from that side that are now working for us. It sucks that the dragons got treated horrendously by humans, but that doesn't mean it's okay for Medeus to strike back by attempting to conquer humanity. It does, however, make perfect, justifiable sense for Gotoh and Xane to keep distance from humans (and for the latter to straight up say he hates them), because they know what it's like to be taken advantage of-yet they never try to take revenge.

Big ups for the writing unrepetantly noting Gotoh as a big asshole when it came to Tiki's situation, it's another layer of questionable actions for a greater good that really make him an entertaining divine figure.

Marth being himself will never fail to make me smile, he's just really good and genuine, that it hardly ever takes me out of the story when he's praised.

-That said, a couple low-lights are 1) all territories being ceded to Marth at the end, I just find it a bit hard to swallow, even after all he did for the continent. And 2) this game kind of started the whole trend of "women being relegated to the backseat" in FE that comes back every now and then. Sheena, Minerva and Nyna all just give up their lands, the former two becoming everyday people and the latter flat out disappearing? I can't describe it with any word other than odd. Nyna especially, I think she was given a really rotten deal and a payoff that's pretty sour. It makes some sense for the kind of character she is, but I still wanted better for her.

Also, I think the only women (who isn't a child like Tiki, Maria and Yuliya) in the game to have an ending or character that wasn't romantically tied to a man in some way were Minerva and Cecil, the latter having no lines. Maybe Linde as well? The rest are definitely not passing the Bechdel Test I don't think lol.

-Overall, a very satisfying experience, I'm very glad I played it. I don't forsee myself going back to it anytime soon, or over other FE games, but if you haven't played FE3 before, I'd say it's worth it.

Next on the list for me is replaying Sacred Stones, yay~

[createncodewebtechnologies]

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[andrevasims]

I got the first Style Savvy (or Style Boutique in Europe) game for the original DS, cause all I saw was people making outfits, so I thought it was mainly a dress-up game...

Well it is, but it's also business management strategy, because you have to sell clothes to customers, but you need to purchase inventory stock, but you need to earn the money for buying inventory by selling clothes, but you can only sell clothes if you choose something the customer actually likes, which you have to decipher by memorizing the 15 fake in-game brands and what styles the customer may prefer based on what brands/colors they're already wearing (or what a "sassy" top is supposed to look like)

And tbh I thought that was annoying at first, mainly because I didn't know how to choose stuff customers would actually buy, and didn't have the money to get more stuff lol, but I think it's a pretty cool concept now that I do know how it works.

The game is also based on real-time, so the stuff available to buy for stock changes every irl day, and a lot of the styles will be based on irl seasons/holidays (like customers ask for warm coats & scarves now, but later in the year they'll want tank tops & sunglasses probably)

idk I haven't regularly used my 3DS since 2014, so I'm happily surprised that I liked the game that much :P

[theresattrpgforthat]

Hey, I've been thinking of maybe getting into TTRPGs, but I don't really have any friends in person that are into that sort of stuff (I do have online friends who are into it, though). Do you have any recommendations for a/some good "solo" ttrpg for beginners.

THEME: Free Solo Games for First-Timers.

Hello friend! I managed to find a whole cluster of free roleplaying games, so I hope you find something here that tickles your fancy! There’s some story games, some survival games, and some that are in between.

Lycans & Lawyers, by GorgonHead.

You are one of Capitol's top lawyers. You also turn into a werewolf at night.

Welcome to Moondale, one of Capitol's nicer districts! Your law firm is based here, and most of your clients come from here. It is you job to keep them from getting convicted, even if they are guilty. 

And they are. You must employ your best skills, both as a lawyer and as a lycan, to keep them safe from the Union's law long hands. To manage this, you'll have to do some shady things. But it's all for the good of the client!

This is a simple, one page game with a lot to play with. It has a few paragraphs of lore, a map to help you visualize your neighbourhood, and two moon tracks to follow. You’ll have two different sets of stats depending on whether you are in your werewolf mode or your lawyer mode, as well as a series of roll tables to set the scene. If you like a concrete goal but also some flexibility in the details that you get to contribute to the story, you might like this game.

Strandead, by chuymarin.

Awakening amidst the boundless stretch of the open ocean, the unsettling sensation of isolation grips your soul. What lies ahead in this abyss, lurking within the depths of the ominous waters? The weight of impending threats gnaws at your very core. 

A solo hexcrawl for the survivalist at heart. Travel across an ocean and roll for encounters, fish, and random items as you try to survive for X number of days out on the open seas. With two difficulty modes and an optional QR-linked random generator of rumours, you’ll have an excellent combination of randomness and strategy to keep you invested. Perfect for folks who prefer balancing numbers and don’t want to fill in a narrative from prompts.

Fortress in the Frozen Wastes, by August Wigg.

Set in the post-apocalyptical land of the Frozen Wastes, a young Ranger must journey to an outlaw fortress to rescue their captured mentor and a group of settlers. Customize your Ranger to be proficient in different skills and choose different paths as you attempt to save the prisoners of the Fortress in the Frozen Wastes.

This is a combination of a traditional roleplaying adventure and a choose-your own adventure story. You’ll create a character sheet with stats, character abilities and inventory slots, and success and failure depend on a d10 roll. Your character dies if their endurance ever gets to 0, so you’ll do your best to navigate each new situation you encounter and make choices that keep your ranger alive long enough to fulfill their quest.

5 Min Knight, by enui.

5-Min-Knight is small one-player RPG about being a Knight of the round table. It takes 5 minutes to play.

This is basically a writing challenge, with a number of d6 tables that you’ll use for writing prompts. You are meant to roll and write as much as you can in 5 minutes - when the timer is up, you roll again to see what called you away. This is a great exercise if you’re looking for a way to practise your creativity, or if you don’t have that much time in a day to play.

If you’re more interested in solving mysteries, you can also try 5 Min Maven, by the same creator, inspired by Brindlewood Bay!

Curiosity Killed?, by Zole Tsoi.

Playing as a cat wandering the streets of a futuristic city, you are tasked with helping ghosts of the underworld who have unfinished business.

This is a one page game that uses a d4 for pretty much everything. You’ll want to keep an eye on your three stats, because if they get too high or too low, your cat is forced to end their mission early or gets stuck. Get your Stress down to 1 or your Morality up to 5 to win the game!

Homunculus, by DOMINO CLUB

Alchemy is a dirty, tiring, thankless job. I’ve let this absorb my whole life, and I’ve now gotten to the point where I’m ready to move on.

In this game, you play as an homunculus, newly created by an alchemist to explore the world .

Homunculus is a game that starts you off with quite a bit of guidance, easing you into play by setting you up with prompts connected to cards you draw from the deck. Card suits are connected to four stats in this game, which you will attempt to increase equally in order to gain the best possible ending. This game allows for a few replays if you are interested in getting different endings, but it also relies on interpreting prompts as drawn by the cards. If you like a game where you’re reaching a specific target, you might like Homunculus.

The Dukes Aid, by g0ri.

On the frontiers of space, an interstellar empire exists in a perilous balance. As a close aide of a Duke and his house, your job is to navigate safely through the coming intrigues.

Observe the plans within plans within plans as your House takes over the production of the Empire’s most important resource.….

The Duke's Aide is a solo roleplaying game requiring at least half an hour, a set of roleplaying dice, a deck of cards and something to write with and on. This is a proper journaling game, using a deck of cards to supply prompts, jokers included to help pace the game out for you. You’ll choose a character class, which also determines the dice you roll, which you’ll need every time your character tries something risky. This is a great introduction to a journaling game that still gives you a lot to work with if you don’t feel super comfortable extrapolating from prompts.

Games I've Recommended in the Past

The Wandering Library, by AP.

[kiaantechno]

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[boxkeith]

Video Games I Played in November 2024

I’m writing this only a few days after the end of the month and I’ve already played a bunch of new games that are etching away at my memories of the stuff earlier in the month. It doesn’t help that November was uniquely prolific with 15 different games started on top of perennials like Helldivers 2 or Picross 3D 2, as well as spillover from October with Sekiro and Twilight Princess. Slow work and high life stress means a whole lotta gaming.

Astral Ascent – I’m starting to think I don’t actually like action roguelites. Maybe it’s overexposure. Maybe it’s that the genre is incestuous and so there’s too little outside influence and far too much churning reiteration of the same concepts. The same boss patterns. The same metaprogression upgrades. Again and again. It’s tiresome, as if some demiurge were doing broadly the same thing over and over hoping this configuration would be a demonstrable improvement over the rest. But in all seriousness I tend to fall off roguelikes pretty hard if I feel like I understand the bulk of the systems early and this one I knew 80% of its deal from looking at how they drew grass.

Ori and the Blind Forest – What can be said of Ori? I played it a few times on release, played the Definitive Edition in 2017, and sat on it since then putting it on the shelf with Hollow Knight and Super Metroid as one of the pinnacles of the genre. Against my better judgment I took it off that shelf. Bash still feels like a dream, and when the game is at its best it’s atmospheric, flowing, and a joy to behold. However the added abilities from the Definitive Edition (a dash and a projectile you can bash off of) completely undermine the game’s flow, and the ending section remains tedious and frustrating. There’s a lot of charm here but time is unkind to works carried mostly by their aesthetics.

Peglin – I like peggle. I like goblins. I tolerate turn-based card battlers. This finally came out of early access so I gave it another go. It’s unfortunately the game that it is. Not much depth, a few too many trap options, and for me it hit a sourspot where the randomness inherent in pachinko was fundamentally undermining my ability to sequence or plan. If there’s no strategy and I’m just hitting buttons, then a roguelike gets frustrating quick because chance is such a huge component.

Rivals of Aether II – I really expected to have more of a fire lit in me by this but I did a few CPU matches, one ranked match, and put the game down. Dunno what’s up. Maybe it’ll be like Lethal League and in a year or three I’ll go fucking bonkers for it for a year.

Kao the Kangaroo (2022) – Mascot platformers are a genre I dabble in, and when one is 5-10 bucks and I’m in the mood it’s hard for me to say no. Unfortunately, the shallow gameplay, oddly stilted voicework (Polish speakers trying to do an Australian accent), and glitchiness undermined what I had hoped to be a few hours of jumping around punching stuff. One of these days I need to try Ty the Tasmanian Tiger or something, I guess. Or I can replay Vexx again.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps – Did you ever have a friend in high school who saw the wrong movie at a formative inflection point and you’re just gonna have to write off their personality for five years while they wildly chase after a version of themselves that isn’t real? The Ori devs did that after playing Hollow Knight. Gone is the atmosphere. Gone is the momentum. In its place you get a fiddly inventory, NPCs, sidequests, and themes that completely undermine the first game. Mechanically it’s much more solid but structurally it’s a bit of a mess and the designs don’t cohere. Taking bash off its own button is a monumental error and that snag cascades through the entire feel of the game.

The Rise of the Golden Idol – I should really finish Obra Dinn. I liked The Case of the Golden Idol well enough, though I felt the DLCs were full of overly complex puzzles whose ambiguity was such that without the solution as a framing device getting an intuition for what had happened was impossible. This game doubles down on that, and oftentimes it felt like some of the shakier Sherlock Holmes mysteries where he pulls a secret clue out of his armpit that resolves everything. It’s not a bad puzzle game but it doesn’t hit the highs of the first game which is a sad spot for a sequel.

UFO 50 – If nothing else this was an extremely efficient way to add bullshit to my steam library that I feel like I should play and then don’t. I tried a half-dozen of them, they’re all very interesting and cool, I like a lot of the concepts at play and the breadth of designs is truly impressive. I just can’t be bothered to filter through several dozen games that are each worthy of 2+ hours of playtime. Good lord.

Voidwrought – Speaking of games that took one look at Hollow Knight then gouged out their eyes… I keep trying indie metroidvanias and for every one that’s actually doing something novel in structure or in presentation there’s three that are slavishly copying Hollow Knight and/or the cultural memory of SotN (which is closer to Aria of Sorrow). None of them are copying Super Metroid wherein enemies are closer to environmental hazards than combat encounters and momentum is a reward for systems mastery and map knowledge. No sir. It’s stats, enemy pogos, and losing resources on death. This one was notable for giving me a projectile I could pogo off of very early, which I used to sequence break the everloving shit out of the intended progression. The end result of this was I did 99% of the game without double jump when you’re supposed to get that in the first few hours, but such is life when living on the edge. The final boss was touhou nonsense with far too much HP and I have learned to just set games aside when they get to that level. Exactly one game’s final boss was interesting and intricate enough to be worth five hours of my life, and that was Nine Sols. Y’all ain’t Nine Sols.

Headlander – Y’ALL DEFINITELY AIN’T NINE SOLS. Games like this are why people stopped giving DoubleFine money, good gravy. The core conceit of being a head that body-hops to use various body-specific traits like unique weapons, traversal powers, or keycards is solid. However the 60s retrofuture aesthetic gets old quickly and after the opening half hour there’s no changes in complexity or structure for the rest of the 5 hour game. Writing was also pretty loose, which is what DoubleFine usually leans on when the gameplay is shoddy, leading to a game that really underlined how much Psychonauts was lightning in a bottle.

Final Fantasy I: Dawn of Souls – This GBA remake is older now than the original was when this came out. My Final Fantasy exposure is mostly playing XIII in high school, Kingdom Hearts, and watching Advent Children at least five times. I felt I owed it to myself to go back to the source. The source showed me we’ve been making the same damn game for 40 years. It’s a pretty good game. If I wasn’t able to fast-forward the emulator and hold down A to autoattack I might’ve lost my marbles though. The GBA bonus dungeons were the highlight of the game, so I’m glad I went with this version.

STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN – Playing FF1 was also homework for playing this. I want to kill chaos. I do not want to play a Team Ninja game. This leads to conflicts. I expect to stick with this because I’m genuinely fascinated by the game’s delirious genius, but it’s also bewildering.

Noreya: The Gold Project – Metroidvania map design is hard. It’s been said that in many ways the map is the main character of such a game, and the player avatar is merely the means of exploring and understanding that character. Noreya has interesting ideas of save points being shrines to one god or another, and the god you choose to install both unlocking parts of your skill tree and whoever is winning sets world tendency which alters around a quarter of the map. The issue is the game’s laboriously labyrinthine tunnels, with constant linear corridors ending in a switch to open up progress in another corridor that requires a six room detour to return to. It’s cumbersome, it’s boring, and it’s incessant. I ended up dropping the game at that point, because the good parts of this game’s lore and presentation I already got from Blasphemous years ago.

Metal Gear Solid 2 – Substance – Same as MGS1 I’m going to be playing this 1-2 hours at a time for several months when I hang out with a buddy. This means I’m on a drip feed of Kojima’s bullshit. Any other game series I would assume the named woman who establishes her familial relationship with other characters, history with various factions, pregnancy status, and combat skill would be a recurring antagonist or otherwise a driver of the plot. However, we’re in Kojima’s house so he used every polygon available to the PS2 rendering her armpit hair then drowns her offscreen. Maybe I’m wrong! Maybe she’s alive! Maybe she’s 16 rats in a trenchcoat! Possibilities abound.

Thread – Games like Thread are why I buy random shit off steam and give it 5 hours of my life sight unseen. I only heard of it from an offhand comment in the steam review of another metroidvania and it quietly snuck its way into being one of my favorites. Dense, consistently clever, and a joy to move in, it’s everything I could want out of a metroidvania that deliberately eschews bosses. What an absolute joy to discover.