#a complex rpg where choices matter

[rad-roche]

i got the perk that makes struck enemies fall over and while it is a huge amount of fun i will admit it doesn't play nice with the lovingly cultivated horror atmosphere of some areas. who would win, dozens of human beings painfully turned into spore creatures or one small woman swinging a sledgehammer hard enough to send them into fallout 6: chicago

[0alix0]

So anyway what the fuck is the story even about?? no seriously, every previous DA game had a list of themes and ideas it talked about:

DAO: Discussion of racism, misogyny, unfair class system, how untreated ptsd can twist person's morality. Men and women of any race and origin are equal in a face of death and darkness, forget your differences, unite against a common foe.

DA2: A deeper dive into nature of bigotry and ableism. How and why people abuse religious and military system (or any system at this point). How trauma influences people in different ways. Family issues in all their complexity and the fact that, sometimes we can't control our life.

DAI: Influence of religion and faith on people. Depersonalization of a person by making them a symbol. Internalized racism, addictions, attonement. "What makes a god?"

DAV: ???? "Move past your regrets & don't try to fix your mistakes, keep the status quo ignore the cultural genocide of your people??" And even that message came up only in the last 2 hours of the game. Idk what's there before that???

"Oh but the found family!! the acceptance no matter what!1!!"

Bitch the found family means jack shit if there's no effort in creating in. If there's no choice in accepting or not accepting these people as your friends. If there's no way for you to fuck things up.

Found family can work in the stories with already established characters, where the author has already planned how and why they follow each other and how they complement each other.

Which explains why rook has so little personality beyond "group's therapist". that's the only way they can make this found family work!

But then why call it a RPG?? let me RP in this G (sorry)

[justanotherflemethstan]

I have been very positive and hopeful for DAtV ever since it was announced, but the latest IGN article has massively tanked my excitement, to a degree where I'm wondering if I even want to purchase DAtV on release or wait for it to be discounted at a later date.

Here is the core if the problem:

Continuity has always been such a massive part of what makes the DA/ME Bioware titles special. Playing an RPG where I can romance some of the characters is no longer enough of a unique formula, and others have likely done it better than what DAtV can ever offer (I don't expect nowhere near the level of complexity of BG3). The fact that we as players could inhabit a world that responded to our choices throught time and reflected our decisions in big and small ways was a core part of what made Dragon Age different. Reducing it to 1 romance and 2 DLC decisions completely destroys any visible continuity, where even a character like Morrigan who according to the devs has always been present for "world shaping events" will have to dance around not actually mentioning any consequences of said events.

Basically, avoiding any mention or any consequences of those "world-shaping events" (Epler's own words) makes them kind of not world shaping at all. It competely removes both the stakes from past games and any player agency since no matter what you did or chose in the past the world of Thedas in Dragon Age the Veilguard remains exactly the same. You didn't at all shape it as a player.

Finally, I just want to add as someone working in design myself that respecting user/player contribution and preserving their input are just basic principles of good design. Many, many players across many years have dedicated their most precious resources - time, effort, even money - into crafting their own unique Dragon Age characters, worldstates, and storylines. First offering the tools for players to make all those choices and then completely ignoring them is the studio/EA essentially saying that what we did doesn't matter. Our time doesn't matter. Our effort doesn't matter. Our stories don't matter. All that matters is that we open our wallets and pay for another game because it has the branding of a franchise that we used to love.

[tench]

Veilguard is such a weird game.

It's not a Dragon age game, it's bately a role playing game. It's an ok action. Even though it is the most stable AAA release it is still just a bunch of barely tied together stuff in a trench coat.

The writing (insultingly dumbed down and absolutely incapable of taking itself seriously untill the last 1/6 of the game) is all over the place, the direction is nonexistent judging by the tonal shift from one quest to another. We can have very heart felt monologue about the fear of death sit right next to a conversation where a lot of things are told using one specific phrase (I really hope in a clumsy attempt at emphasis) repeated till these words lose any meaning to you.

There's also a problem of role-playing in this "rpg" and the Rook. None of your dialogue choices matter in terms of defining your character, no matter the option you choose, the general conversation will carry the upbeat silly tone. "Your backstory and class matter more than your race" works untill it doesn't, like when you are a dwarf but you are denied your own journey and realizations tied to the titans, and maybe it is not your journey to take yet you can't even try to be a part of it, even when Harding is actively reaching out to other dwarves to share this connection. It's also weirdly more interested in writing romance between npcs than for the main character (Lucanis comes to mind, it feels like the game is actively punishing you for pursuing him, you have to lose the whole shadow dragon faction, you won't get to hang out with Dorian and still you have bare minimum and he more interested in Neve anyway), that's extremely funny that this game is player-sexual yet completely player-aromantic. (And I miss the dai option where you can come up and kiss your LI whenever you feel like it).

I won't even touch on the weird and unnecessary sanitation of everything, like we can't allow people or factions to have negative traits whatsoever. And it's not "southern propaganda", it's "we are not engaging with complex topics for the sake of clear dichotomy between good us and evil overlords". Speaking of which

The whole plot.. The general idea of it is ok. You come to stop Solas, you make the situation go sideways, you have to work together to fix your mistakes and maybe learn to sympathize with the antagonist haunted by his own transgressions with the main theme being legacy and your relationship with your culture and the baggage it brings. But the journey is a complete disaster. Part of it works solely because the characters absolutely Refuse to make a plan and the other - because the main character has a blunt head trauma. Maybe it's related. Maybe it's all a mass hallucination. I may try to elaborate on how it's absolutely ridiculous how little the inquisition and the politics have any impact in this game yet somehow 8 people squatting in the Fade with no political affiliations are held responsible for providing for every faction they come across. I won't even try to make sense of it. It's the usual case of "the main character does everything".

The direction is not only absent in the writing. Some lines that are ok in text delivered in such a way you may think they were allowed only to use the very first take.

The music is absolutely forgettable. Also the odd riff during the dramatic reveal absolutely took me out because I thought I heard kazoo (but I bet Varric would love it).

The visuals are.. Ok. It's pretty on the first glance but the more you travel the more you realize that the general design of the locations are kinda lacking. They have this weird gradient that makes everything a little bit more unfocused and a bit washed out. There are also too many cases of the horisont just drowning in the fog. Air perspective is great and it suits locations like Necropolis, but I would argue that these establishing shots should be used for environmental storytelling in other places, with some focal points in the background, like during the final mission where you see the world absolutely drowning in the blight, devouring local statue of liberty. Or the dead Titan. Or the first shot of the Veil jumper forest (I forgot how it's called) where you see the ruins going into he sky. But because of the fog (or sometimes darkness) it feels like the game is more interested in cheating the optimisation than to hint on the bigger picture (like the chantry and the gallows buildings that you can see almost from all locations in DA2 or the andrastian/dread wolf imagery of inquisition)

So, in conclusion. Not the worst game I played, yet disappointing, even if we pretend it's not an installment of a beloved franchise that people were waiting for 10 years.

Ps. Also making such a game with nerfing all the lore only to nuke all the legacy locations is a choice I won't ever understand. It's like it is not for the fans and it's not for the new people but a secret third thing.

[simpforsolas]

As I continue to progress through the games on my replay leading up to Dragon Age: The Veilguard's release, the more I'm reflecting upon the heart of the series. As an RPG, the purpose has always been to create a dynamic game that responds to our choices, and part of that is to create a believable world that's real enough that there are multiple ways you can play the game. No ultimate "right" answer or "wrong" answer. Even if there are perspectives you disagree with, you can understand why characters may hold different opinions from you if you think about why they think the way they do.

With all these thoughts spinning around in my mind, I began my DAI replay and got a dialogue with Solas that I think gets right to the heart of the entire series:

Inquisitor: I've heard the stories [about Ostagar]. It'd be interesting to hear what it was really like. Solas: That's just it. In the fade I see reflections created by the spirits who react to the emotions of the warriors. One moment, I see heroic wardens lighting the fire and a power-mad villain sneering as he lets King Cailan fall. The next, I see and army overwhelmed and a veteran commander refusing to let more soldiers die in a lost cause. Inquisitor: And you can't tell which is real. Solas: It is the fade. They are all real.

This is it, people! This is what Dragon Age is all about! This is why we have characters who some people love and some people hate, why no one is perfect. This is why there's so much discourse about the game. Dragon Age is all about different people reacting to an imperfect world and understanding why they act the way they do. Especially in recent times, writers often fall into a trap of not wanting their characters to be problematic in any way that it can take the life out of them and leave them feeling stale. But Dragon Age does not do that. It fully commits to its characters, for better or for worse, allowing their pasts and perspectives to shape their imperfect world views and inform their behaviors. Ironically, Solas's exact words here about Loghain can be applied to him, and it's exactly why some people hate him while others love. Like Loghain, some see him as an egotistical murderer while others see him is a tragic figure whose empathy and idealism drive him to monstrous acts.

What's the truth? What is real? Ultimately, it doesn't matter. All that matters are the emotions and interactions people (players included) have with the world and characters. That's why the choices in games like Dragon Age matter so much. There shouldn't be a right answer or a wrong answer; all that matters is what feels right to the player. Because in Solas's words, all our different perspectives on things that happened? They're all real. And this is where so much discourse comes from. People try to take away the nuanced view of these characters and the world and insist that their perspective is the objective truth. Someone who loves Anders could be in danger of brushing past his many flaws while someone who hates him might be incapable of understanding the complexities that drove him to become the person he ended up. But in the end, all our different reactions to these characters are valid and real, both the positive and the negative. These characters are complex and three-dimensional, and to fully appreciate them it's imperative that we recognize that.

The Dragon Age world and its characters are so meticulously crafted that at its practically its own living thing at this point. As players interact with it, we all end up having our own experiences that influence our opinions of everything, from the characters, to what decisions are the best, to opinions on in-game power dynamics and politics.

[makapatag]

realities, maximalism,and the need for big book™️

some gubat banwa design thoughts vomit: since the beginning of its development i've kind of been enraptured with trying to really go for "fiction-first" storytelling because PbtA games really are peak roleplaying for me, but as i wrote and realized that a lot of "fiction first" doesn't work without a proper sort of fictional foundation that everyone agrees on. this is good: this is why there are grounding principles, genre pillars, and other such things in many PbtA games--to guide that.

broken worlds is one of my favs bc of sheer vibes

Gubat Banwa didn't have much in that sense: sure, I use wuxia and xianxia as kind of guideposts, but they're not foundational, they're not pillars of the kind of fiction Gubat Banwa wants to raise up. there wasn't a lot in the sense of genre emulation or in the sense of grounding principles because so much of Gubat Banwa is built on stuff most TTRPG players haven't heard about. hell, it's stuff squirreled away in still being researched academic and anthropological circles, and thanks to the violence of colonialism, even fellow filipinos and seasians don't know about them

this is what brought me back to my ancient hyperfixations, the worlds of Exalted, Glorantha, Artesia, Fading Suns... all of them have these huge tomes of books that existed to put down this vast sprawling fantasy world, right? on top of that are the D&D campaign settings, the Dark Suns and the Eberrons. they were preoccupied in putting down setting, giving ways for people to interact with the world, and making the world alive as much as possible.

one of my main problems with gubat banwa was trying to convey this world that i've seen, glimpsed, dreamed of. this martial fantasy world of rajas and lakans, sailendras and tuns, satariyas and senapatis and panglimas and laksamanas and pandai... its a world that didn't really exist yet, and most references are steeped in either nationalism or lack of resources (slowly changing, now)

i didn't want to fall back into the whole gazeteer tourist kind of shit when it came to writing GB, but it necessitated that the primary guidelines of Gubat Banwa were set down. my approach to it was trying to instill every aspect of the text, from the systems to the fluff text to the way i wrote to the way things were phrased, with the essence of this world i'm trying to put forward. while i wrote GB mainly for me and fellow SEAsian people, economically my main market were those in the first world countries that could afford to buy the book. grokking the book was always going to be severely difficult for someone that didn't have similar cultures, or are uninterested in the complexities of human culture. thus why GB had to be a big book.

in contemporary indie ttrpg spaces (where I mostly float in, though i must admit i pay more attention to SEAsia spaces than the usual US spaces) the common opinion is that big books like Exalted 3e are old hat, or are somewhat inferior to games that can cram their text into short books. i used to be part of that camp--in capitalism, i never have enough time, after all. however, the books that do go big, that have no choice to go big, like Lancer RPG, Runequest, Mage, Exalted are usually the ones that have something really big it needs to tell you, and they might be able to perform the same amount of text-efficient bursting at the seams flavor writing but its still not enough.

thats what happened to GB, which I wanted to be, essentially, a PbtA+4e kind of experience, mechanically speaking. i very soon abandoned those titles when i delved deeper into research, incorporated actual 15th century divination tools in the mechanics, injected everything with Martial Arts flavor as we found our niche

all of this preamble to say that no matter how light i wanted to go with the game, i couldnt go too light or else people won't get it, or i might end up writing 1000 page long tome books explaining every detail of the setting so people get it right. this is why i went heavy on the vibes: its a ttrpg after all. its never gonna be finished.

i couldnt go too light because Gubat Banwa inherently exists on a different reality. think: to many 3 meals a day is the norm and the reality. you have to eat 3 meals a day to function properly. but this might just be a cultural norm of the majority culture, eventually co opted by capitalism to make it so that it can keep selling you things that are "breakfast food" or "dinner food" and whatnot. so its reality to some, while its not reality to others. of course, a lot of this reality-talk pertains mostly to social--there is often a singular shared physical reality we can usually experience*

Gubat Banwa has a different fabric of reality. it inherently has a different flow of things. water doesn't go down because of gravity, but because of the gods that make it move, for example. bad things happen to you because you weren't pious or you didn't do your rituals enough and now your whole community has to suffer. atoms aren't a thing in gb, thermodynamics isn't a real thing. the Laws of Gubat Banwa aren't these physical empirical things but these karmic consequent things

much of the fiction-first movement has a sort of "follow your common sense" mood to it. common sense (something also debatable among philosophers but i dont want to get into that) is mostly however tied to our physical and social realities. but GB is a fantasy world that inherently doesn't center those realities, it centers realities found in myth epics and folk tales and the margins of colonized "civilization", where lightnings can be summoned by oils and you will always get lost in the woods because you don't belong there.

so Gubat Banwa does almost triple duty: it must establish the world, it must establish the intended fiction that arises from that world, and then it must grant ways to enforce that fiction to retain immersion--these three are important to GB's game design because I believe that that game--if it is to not be a settler tourist bonanza--must force the player to contend with it and play with it within its own terms and its own rules. for SEAsians, there's not a lot of friction: we lived these terms and rules forever. don't whistle at night on a thursday, don't eat meat on Good Friday, clap your hands thrice after lighting an incense stick, don't make loud noise in the forests. we're born into that [social] reality

this is why fantasy is so important to me, it allows us to imagine a different reality. the reality (most of us) know right now (i say most of us because the reality in the provinces, the mountains, they're kinda different) is inherently informed by capitalist structures. many people that are angry at capitalist structures cannot fathom a world outside capitalist structures, there are even some leftists and communists that approach leftism and revolution through capitalism, which is inherently destructive (its what leads to reactionaries and liberalism after all). fantasy requires that you imagine something outside of right now. in essence read Ursula K Le Guin

i tweeted out recently that you could pretty easily play 15-16th century Luzon or Visayas with an OSR mechanic setting and William Henry Scott's BARANGAY: SIXTEENTH CENTURY PHILIPPINE CULTURE AND SOCIETY, and I think that's purely because barebones OSR mechanics stuff fits well with the raiding and adventuring that many did in 15-16th century Luzon/Visayas, but a lot of the mechanics wont be comign from OSR, but from Barangay, where you learn about the complicated marriage customs, the debt mechanics, the social classes and stratum...

so thats why GB needs to be a (relatively) big book, and why I can contend that some books need to be big as well--even if their mechanics are relatively easy and dont need more than that, the book, the game, might be trying to relay something even more, might be trying to convey something even more than that. artesia, for example, has its advancements inherently tied to its Tarot Cards, enforcing that the Arcana guides your destiny. runquest has its runes magic, mythras (which is kinda generic) has pretty specific kinds of magic systems that immediately inform the setting. this is why everything is informed by something (this is a common Buddhist principle, dependent arising). even the most generic D&D OSR game will have the trappings of the culture and norms of the one that wrote and worked on it. its written from their reality which might not necessarily be the one others experience. that's what lived experience is, after all

*live in the provinces for a while and you'll doubt this too!

[felassan]

"Electronic Arts Inc. and BioWare have provided a first-look at gameplay from the opening moments of the highly anticipated all-new single-player fantasy RPG experience, Dragon Age: The Veilguard. This bold, heroic adventure is built to deliver on what the series is best known for: rich storytelling, fantasy worldbuilding, companions and fellowship, and a world where you matter. In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, you’ll embark on a quest to face powerful Elven gods and stop the destruction they’re unleashing on the world. You are known as Rook, battling on the front lines alongside a compelling cast of companions with individual storylines and motivations. In true Dragon Age fashion, companions are central to the experience and as Rook, you must rise up, rally your crew and forge relationships to become the unexpected leader others believe in. Dragon Age: The Veilguard is launching worldwide to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC in Fall 2024. “We want every single moment in the expansive, story-driven experience of Dragon Age: The Veilguard to feel impactful,” said Corinne Busche, Game Director of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. “Players will journey to more regions than any other Dragon Age game, where they’ll need to level up and customize deep skill trees to take on increasingly challenging enemies. Additionally, our combat blends fluid moment-to-moment action with the deep RPG strategy the franchise is known for. We’re incredibly excited to offer players around the world a first-look at this experience that embraces BioWare’s storytelling roots of carefully crafted and immersive single-player RPGs.” In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the Elven Trickster god of legend Solas wants to tear down the Veil that separates Thedas from the world of demons, restoring his people’s immortality and glory – even at the cost of countless lives. But his ritual goes awry, and his worst fears are realized, as two of his most ancient and powerful adversaries are released. They seek only to finish what they started millennia ago – the complete and utter domination of our world. Rook’s journey to stop these two powerful deities will span across all of Thedas to bustling cities, lush tropics, boreal forests, fettered swamps and the deepest depths, but be wary of the evil forces along the way like the Dark Spawn, Venatori Cultists and Demons of the Fade."

---

"Key Features of Dragon Age: The Veilguard Fellowship: Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s brand new companions come alive with some of the most compelling individual storylines in Dragon Age history. Expansive and dynamic stories navigate love, loss and complex choices that will affect your relationships and the fate of each member of the Veilguard. New companions like the Veil Jumper Bellara, the necromancer Emmrich, and the private detective Neve, come from iconic factions in Dragon Age lore, possessing individual skill trees and specialized gear for advanced team progression. You’ll see familiar faces, too, such as the archer Lace Harding who returns to the series as a full time companion. Choice and Consequences: Dragon Age: The Veilguard builds on the series’ deep role-playing roots, providing extraordinary storytelling and worldbuilding, deep personalities for each companion, meaningful choices and impactful cinematic moments. The bonds you create and the relationships you forge will be affected by your choices made throughout your journey.  A Crafted Experience: As a character-driven RPG, Dragon Age: The Veilguard delivers a crafted experience that pays homage to BioWare’s history of storytelling. The Lighthouse provides a central place where you can rest, learn more about the world through conversations, while the Crossroads allows you to traverse to separate explorable regions of the world with your companions. You’ll experience more of Thedas than ever before as your story unfolds across meticulously crafted biomes and beautiful regions including Rivain, Weisshaupt, Arlathan, Minrathous, the Deep Roads and more, each inviting you to delve deeper into the narrative and uncover the mysteries of the land. Fluid, Customizable Combat:��Immersive combat blends fluid moment-to-moment controls with tactical decision-making. Players can fully customize their experience to fit their playstyle with diverse skill trees among three different classes - Warrior, Mage and Rogue - each with unique abilities and specializations. Choose two companions to join you on your quests and unleash powerful team combos that can change the tide of any battle. Make strategic choices and direct your allies to fight, heal or stay out of the fray with the newly-added ability wheel. Be the Leader You Want To Be: Dragon Age: The Veilguard features a robust character creation system that allows you to be the leader you want to be with a vast range of customization. BioWare has created the most comprehensive character creator in Dragon Age yet to make this story truly your own."

[source]

"his worst fears are realized, as two of his most ancient and powerful adversaries are released. They seek only to finish what they started millennia ago – the complete and utter domination of our world."

👁️

"All the world will soon share the peace and comfort of my reign" / "Glory to the Risen Gods. They've come to deliver this world." [x]

also:

lush tropics, boreal forests, fettered swamps, the Deep Roads ("the deepest depths")

more regions than ever before

Rivain, Weisshaupt, Arlathan, Minrathous, the Deep Roads and more

fight darkspawn, demons, Venatori cultists

the Lighthouse (our central hub) is a central place where we can rest and have conversations

We will travel around the world via The Crossroads and presumably the eluvians

companions have specialized gear (Fel note: more on companion skill stuff here)

and I love what they are saying here about storytelling and character-focus and everything of that kind here. :)

[ashaflemythal]

I haven’t seen any real critical takes on veilguard on here, so I wanted to add my 2 cents and open up a discussion bc at this moment I would say I’m beefing with BioWare lol.

Firstly, did I have fun playing veilguard? Uh, yes? I guess? Technically? I would definitely say the combat system and a lot of the gameplay itself is far better than it has been in previous games, and made me more engaged.

However, the writing issues at BioWare came to a major head here.

1) i didn’t feel like they went into the political and social implications of what was going on at all?? The elven gods coming back would bring so many other consequences beyond the destruction and blight. We didn’t see how this affected the way elves were treated, especially somewhere like Tevinter.

2) what happened to the Templar/mage conflict? The implications of the elven gods being alive and back are that then the chant and chantry are mostly wrong. There is no “magic was made to serve man and never rule over him.” This would likely make mages lash out at templars for being oppressed over what have turned out to essentially be lies. The templars then would likely split into those that leave the chant and focus on the real threats before them, and those who dig in their heels and decide that mages should still be oppressed bc of the dangers no matter what the chantry says. This would be such an interesting political shift to witness! And I’m sad we didn’t get this amount of depth

3) what happened to Solas’ followers? There was something so interesting to explore about having current elves helping him because they felt he was doing the right thing. We don’t run into any of his followers at all! And elves would definitely have more than enough reason to seek the world of the ancients and return to Arlathan given tevinter slavery and general oppression across Thedas, so what happened to that?

4) the only complex companion relationship that is allowed in-game is with rook and whoever was hardened with the treviso/minrathous choice. Otherwise, you can’t really have an antagonistic relationship with any of them. The only way to not progress a good relationship is to not engage in their content which I feel like is very weak writing. In DAI, you walk in on Cassandra and varric physically fighting and have to side with one of them. You can tell Cullen to keep taking lyrium. You can pick the wrong option in a companion quest and worsen your relationship. Where was that in this game?

5) the roleplaying, or lack there of. Sometimes I would pick the most aggressive option and it would still sound pretty nice, all things considered, where is my ability to feel differently outside of the very narrow window the game provides?

6) the STAKES of it all. The companions all seem very chill about things, all things considered. They are finding out things that would politically turn thedas on its head, and they’re having these calm discussions around a coffee table. I’m currently on my second play through, and it feels like none of these discoveries are given the weight they deserved, after three games of built up lore.

7) the gods’ allies. The motivations of the bad guys can pretty much be summed up by saying “want power” and that creates such shallow villains. Like yeah, obviously they’re bad bc they just want power and don’t care about people, but what about villains that do care about others? Villains that are complicated? I mean hell even though Alexius was mostly like “yes corypheus power” there was that grounding aspect of him wanting to save his son who was sick. I don’t feel like we had anything that tangible or real from major villains in veilguard

Ok, long post, but I do feel like BioWare has started to shy away from nuance and gray areas in a way I don’t like. It is important to show the complicated perspectives of evil people because that is the same thing we have to deal with irl. As an action-adventure game, it’s fine, but veilguard can scarcely call itself a true rpg. I don’t know, my feelings about it are complicated but all I know is that this game was quite disappointing to me especially compared to DAI, and I want to hope for better from the next game but given the way their BioWare’s last couple releases have gone I can’t say I’m expecting a lot. Anyway, how are yall feeling fr?

[demifiendrsa]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard | Official Gameplay Reveal

Dragon Age: The Veilguard, formerly Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store in Fall 2024.

Title Logo

Key visual

Screenshots

Overview

About

From the storytellers at BioWare comes Dragon Age: The Veilguard, an all new single-player fantasy RPG experience. This bold, heroic adventure is built to deliver on what the series is best known for: rich storytelling, fantasy worldbuilding, companions & fellowship, and a world where you matter. In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, you’ll embark on a quest to face powerful Elven gods and stop the destruction they’re unleashing on the world. You are known as Rook, battling on the front lines alongside a compelling cast of companions with individual storylines and motivations. In true Dragon Age fashion, companions are central to the experience and as Rook, you must rise up, rally your crew and forge relationships to become the unexpected leader others believe in.

Story

Solas, the Dread Wolf and Elven Trickster god of legend, wants to tear down the Veil that separates Thedas from the world of demons, restoring his people’s immortality and glory—even at the cost of countless lives. But his ritual goes awry, and his worst fears are realized, as two of his most ancient and powerful adversaries are released. They seek only to finish what they started millennia ago – the complete and utter domination of our world. Rook’s journey to stop these two powerful deities will span across all of Thedas to bustling cities, lush tropics, boreal forests, fettered swamps and the deepest depths, but be wary of the evil forces along the way like the Dark Spawn, Venatori Cultists and Demons of the Fade.

Key Features

Fellowship – Dragon Age: The Veilguard‘s brand new companions come alive with some of the most compelling individual storylines in Dragon Age history. Expansive and dynamic stories navigate love, loss and complex choices that will affect your relationships and the fate of each member of the Veilguard. New companions like the Veil Jumper Bellara, the necromancer Emmrich, and the private detective Neve, come from iconic factions in Dragon Age lore, possessing individual skill trees and specialized gear for advanced team progression. You’ll see familiar faces, too, such as the archer Lace Harding who returns to the series as a full time companion.

Choice and Consequences – Dragon Age: The Veilguard builds on the series’ deep role-playing roots, providing extraordinary storytelling and worldbuilding, deep personalities for each companion, meaningful choices and impactful cinematic moments. The bonds you create and the relationships you forge will be affected by your choices made throughout your journey.

A Crafted Experience – As a character-driven RPG, Dragon Age: The Veilguard delivers a crafted experience that pays homage to BioWare’s history of storytelling. The Lighthouse provides a central place where you can rest, learn more about the world through conversations, while the Crossroads allows you to traverse to separate explorable regions of the world with your companions. You’ll experience more of Thedas than ever before as your story unfolds across meticulously crafted biomes and beautiful regions including Rivain, Weisshaupt, Arlathan, Minrathous, the Deep Roads and more, each inviting you to delve deeper into the narrative and uncover the mysteries of the land.

Fluid, Customizable Combat – Immersive combat blends fluid moment-to-moment controls with tactical decision-making. Players can fully customize their experience to fit their playstyle with diverse skill trees among three different classes—Warrior, Mage, and Rogue—each with unique abilities and specializations. Choose two companions to join you on your quests and unleash powerful team combos that can change the tide of any battle. Make strategic choices and direct your allies to fight, heal or stay out of the fray with the newly-added ability wheel.

Be the Leader You Want to Be – Dragon Age: The Veilguard features a robust character creation system that allows you to be the leader you want to be with a vast range of customization. BioWare has created the most comprehensive character creator in Dragon Age yet to make this story truly your own

[revuestarlight-pbta]

Revue Starlight PbtA Playbooks

Hello, everyone! I've moved stuff from the Revue TTRPG onto its own blog, to keep everything neat and orderly.

You might guess from all of the updates I've been writing that I've been really excited to work and think about this RPG. I hope that everyone can look forward to it, and that I can create a system that can allow everyone to create their own Revue Starlight stories with friends, whether with existing or original characters.

The TTRPG will be a Powered by the Apocalypse system, following a long and storied legacy of narratively-focused RPGs that enable robust collaborative storytelling. To help facilitate the portrayal of unique characters, it utilizes what are called Playbooks. (You might consider them an analogue of "classes" from other RPGs, whether on the tabletop or on a video game.) However, these Playbooks don't represent how you look on the outside, or what your weapons of choice might be. Instead, they define a character archetype, highlighting your character's core emotional conflict. For this TTRPG, the question they ask is: "Why did your character become a Stage Girl?"

Playbooks can shift between sessions as your character advances, signifying your character's growth and how a new core emotional conflict may come into focus for them. Stage Girls are too varied and complex to be defined by any one thing, after all.

Here's some examples of some Playbooks I've written up so far! (Everything subject to change.)

The Challenger

The path to becoming a Stage Girl wasn’t handed down to you in your youth. Maybe you discovered it later in life, or your family expected you to tread a different path. You seek to defy those forces who seek to dictate your life’s path for you so that you can take hold of the reins of fate yourself.

You might have a variety of different opinions on the world of theater you’ve found yourself in based on your unique outsider’s perspective. Maybe you aspire to be just like the greats, hoping to, one day, fit in with all of the people you looked up to when you started this journey. On the other hand, you might see the flaws in the restrictive, antiquated system, and aim to prove by example that it can be changed for the better.

Examples of Challengers are: Aijo Karen, Hoshimi Junna

The Exile

You’re running away from something. You were already smitten with theater back then, too, but you were in a different troupe, or maybe even a different country. However, one day, something changed: perhaps tragedy struck, or you failed at the moment when it mattered most. Whatever may have happened, you’ve spirited yourself away somewhere else where no one remembers your greatest shame.

You’re still working to pursue your goals no matter what, but your past haunts you. You’ve found new friends and family, but the fact that the people you left behind are still living their own lives scares you. You might hope to one day reconcile with the people in your past, or perhaps prove once and for all that you don’t need them to live your life.

Examples of Exiles are: Takachiho Stella, Yumeoji Fumi

The Guardian

Though it is you who stands upon the stage, you know that there are better reasons to act than just your own self-interest. You have taken on a Charge, which consists of the people or things you’ve sworn to protect—perhaps the members of your class, a childhood friend, or a memory that’s on the verge of fading away.

If your Charge consists of people, you may sometimes stand behind them to support them. Other times, you may stand by their side to work alongside them. Other times still, you may stand against them—because no one else will help them realize the errors of their ways.

If your Charge is a thing or idea, you’re likely one of its last bastions. It needs protecting—otherwise, you wouldn’t be a Guardian, after all. It’s your reason to be a Stage Girl, and you won’t hesitate to sacrifice yourself to protect it… or, perhaps, others.

Examples of Guardians are: Daiba Nana, Ogami Shiro, Tomoe Tamao

The Trailblazer

Forget what anyone else says about being a Stage Girl—you’ve become one just because it’s fun! Others train day in and day out to be at the top of their field, but compared to them, you live more in the moment. What’s wrong with that? Those stuffy girls with all of their high standards never catch a break, while you spend your time expressing yourself and having fun with the people you love most. It’s certainly more exciting than whatever you were doing before!

However, being a Stage Girl isn’t always fun and games. When hardships arise, you might find yourself questioning why you chose this life without much of a strong external force to tie you to it, relying on only your fickle whim and motivation to drive you forward. You may be searching for such a reason to stay—or, rather, pushing back against those who try to tell you that you need a better one. At times, however, you might ask yourself the most difficult question: is your personality the true you, or just a glib facade?

Examples of Trailblazers are: Otsuki Aruru, Otonashi Ichie

[grandwitchbird]

I touched on some thoughts on adaptation especially re: Nilfgaard and the political plot in the Witcher games previously. Mostly that was so I could tackle the convergent narrative that emerges across the games as a mirror or homage to the novels. To do that I have to talk about romance choices in Witcher 3. And to do that I have to talk about Triss. Buckle up.

TW: discussion of SA, nongraphic but frank

The first game specifically created some significant problems for 2-3. And no matter how I turn the issues around in my head, it really comes down to Triss. The amnesia plot is a silly contrivance, but so was Yennefer’s prison stint in the novels. If the contrivance does the job and gets a character where they need to be or out of the way for good enough reasons, we roll with it. The first game over-all has some interesting ~stuff~ happening as an rpg, but I’ve realized I mentally have it categorized as a Witcher-flavored rpg that mostly the next two games have to account for, for better or worse. It gets at some of the short stories’ charms but misses the weight of the novels. Intentionally I think. I guess we’ll see if that changes with the remake. Still, we can think of this as the kind of awkward prelude, a dip into the world in the same way the stories provide snippets of Geralt’s life before Ciri’s story really kicks off in the novels.

The second game is a bridge between this kind of standalone homage to the stories and the 3rd game’s homage and epilogue to the novels. It suffers for it. And Triss is right in the middle of that.

The Triss Problem

Triss Merigold, Yennefer’s best friend, sometime-mentor to Ciri, friend to Witchers, Geralt’s rapist. That’s the woman the first game decided could be sacrificed on the altar of characterization so Geralt could have a random red-headed love interest.

In the novels, Triss is a young sorceress with a complex about her friend Yennefer. She’s a coward. She’s sweet. She’s manipulative. She’s deeply insecure. Shes very into Witchers. She’s also a powerful mage and a pretty solid teacher and support to her Witcher friends and Ciri. Her arc in the books sees her facing herself and eventually growing a spine.

Along the way, however, she essentially magic-roofies Geralt when he’s in an off-again phase with Yennefer. He represses so hard he’s kind of just weird around Triss forever. Nobody else knows. We know why these two don’t address it. Triss is a coward and Geralt is king of repressing. It’s horrible. It’s also notably nongraphic and well-written, centered entirely on the abuse of power and trust and what that does to Geralt.

The Triss we leave behind in the novels would never repeat that choice, I think. Or any choice like it. She went and she changed on her own for her own reasons. The Triss we encounter in the second game is very much doing a retread of her novel arc. But now it’s worse because she’s literally used Geralt’s amnesia to act out her fantasy of supplanting Yen, everything is reasonably graphic, and everything after does kind of stem from the abuse of power.

In a way, I think this is the game owning the mistake while trying not to punish non-reader players for it. No matter what the player does, these two split. Geralt will go after Yennefer. Things will be weird in the 3rd game. Geralt gets back in character and being in character for him means repressing and being weird around Triss. He can’t blame her. She’s his friend. It’s painful to watch. Time is a circle I guess.

Yennefer of Vengerberg

Part elven, invisibly disabled, over a century old, absolute menace of a woman. Yennefer is mean. She’s petty. She scares the hell out of Geralt’s friends. She’s the best friend anyone could ever ask for and also intimidating as hell. She causes problems wherever she goes. This is not an rpg love interest. She is the only woman for Geralt though. And it’s obvious. The 3rd game can’t and doesn’t avoid the obvious ‘canon’ nature of this relationship. It does try to counterweight canon a bit for RP by resetting the sense of conflict and how other characters react to the relationships.

In 2, Dandelion’s narration characterizes the relationship with Yennefer as “toxic.” This goes along with the overall reset and retread the games are doing for characterization beats. In the books, we were well past this version of Dandelion. We see the same thing play out in 3 where everyone and their uncle has to weigh in on how hard Yen is to deal with and how nice Triss is. This is probably handled as well as possible. Eskel’s exasperation with the dynamic, where Geralt can actually clarify and push back, is reasonable. Vesemir is likewise just kind of put off by Yen, which is fair enough. And you essentially have to ignore Yen’s quest entirely or actively treat it as purely a gameplay mechanic to break the romance off at all. The question isn’t whether Geralt and Yen are together, it’s whether or not they can move forward. This is contrasted to all of the pressures towards Triss coming from her own desperate manipulations and people who don’t understand anything about the history the two share.

Time is a Circle:

Recreating the Convergent Narrative

At the end of 2, we find out that Yen is essentially a prisoner again (hello Vilgefortz lol) and we set out to find her. This is where W3 opens more or less. We’re tracking a Yen who has since written to Geralt and is on the run. We don’t yet know from what. She, of course, finds us instead. And we find out that Ciri is back and on the run herself. Now we’re really doing a speed run of the novels. How many times can this family separate and miss and lose each other before they find each other again. Yennefer is off to Skellige (again) and Geralt is doing a (one man this time) road trip and playing detective. Ciri is being the protagonist of a much crazier mythic story, with space elves once again causing her all kinds of problems and a tyrant trying to claim her power for himself. Time is truly a circle.

Somehow, the games have pulled all of this together in 3 via rp options for Geralt. You can play as book!Geralt and stay on theme. This will ultimately lead to the Witcher ending where Ciri takes over as not just protagonist of her own story but as the Witcher herself. This closes out the convergent narrative the game has been recreating and sets them up to carve out their own stories in future. Or you can deny your role. You can rp a random-rpg!Witcher hero and lose Ciri forever, one way or another.

All that said. The Triss Problem(tm) is a problem. It’s the biggest, most glaring flaw in the series to this day, and we’d probably all be better off if that had really been some random redhead in the first game. 3 gets some serious credit here for Geralt just being generally weird around her again, but the rp demands to counterweight the pull of canon with Yen have done nothing but confuse non-readers and frustrate readers. Narrative conveniences are fine. The Hunt becoming a plot device works to pull the mythic layer of storytelling back in, and it gives everything a solid motivation. Regis being back just stretches the lore a bit and serves a great story. The political plots can be a bit of a sticking point but flesh out the game world. We can even forgive amnesia. But The Triss Problem(tm) is forever.

Honestly, as a reader, I kind of respect the skill involved in reworking the arcs and the commitment to not just cutting Triss out after the first game. I also appreciate the effort made to bring these characters back to essentially their book-selves and to give game-Geralt a final hurrah without just wiping the slate. It shows a certain amount of integrity in the writers room that I think we’ve since seen confirmed with the additions to Cyberpunk 2077, where they committed fully to the night city experience and doubled down on it in phantom liberty.

[seeminglydeathlessredshirt]

Ramblings on Suzerain

Dialogue options that certainly don't foreshadow the events of my term.

Suzerain is a political visual novel where you play as the president of a regional power in a Cold War-era alternate world. Put bluntly, there is little else like it out there and what there is is…well, we'll get to that a bit later. The game also has an expansion where you lead a different nation in the region but I don't have it so if you want a verdict on it, you'll have to go somewhere else, sorry.

While the presentation is a bit basic, it gets the job done, mostly when it comes to visuals. Character portraits are all distinct without being distracting, the map is detailed and pleasing to look at, and the text is easily readable(this is especially important, there is a lot of reading.) Music is the same handful of tracks and I found myself getting a bit tired of them fairly quickly, although the "shit is going down" track did end up training me to focus even more on what's going on.

The gameplay itself is, unsurprisingly, very simple. What it lacks in complex systems, however, it more than makes up for in the RPG player's favourite phrase to argue over the meaning of: choice and consequences. You inherit a nation that is at the precipice due to the actions of your predecessors, and it's up to you to fix every last problem. You must deal with problems like recessions, ethnic tensions, foreign relations, constitutional reform, and much more. It's extremely overwhelming, but that's the point. Politics isn't easy, and even seemingly minor choices will come back to haunt you hours down the road.

Despite being overwhelming, a lot of the problems the nation will face will be very familiar. The Cold War of this world is almost identical to our own, and you can choose whether to side with the capitalists, the communists, or just go your own way. All your decisions are tracked on a political compass, and though the names may change, the ideologies are laid out the same. And even when there's something that just isn't clicking, every nation, major character, and organisation has its own codex entry that's just a single click away. The game will occasionally be a bastard and have a decision where the right course of action is something you'd only know from someone's codex entry, so be ready for that.

The writing itself, like the presentation, gets the job done. There were many moments where the prose felt exceedingly dry and only grabbed my attention because of the events that they were describing. This isn't the case 100% of the time and the writers do much better when a scene is mainly focused on character dialogue and conflict, but the rest of the time it feels like the textual equivalent of watching C-SPAN. Despite this, Suzerain is probably one of the best examples I've seen of this niche genre, and it's not even close. While something like The New Order will compensate with things like a wider range of nations to play as, it loses out on many QoL features, has a much narrower range of choices and consequences, and has to deal with the fact that it is a Cold War visual novel messily strapped to a WW2 strategy game.

Overall, I'd recommend Suzerain. It tackles a subject matter that not many games really bother with, and does so with a level of maturity that seems so rare in this medium. While a single playthrough will set you back about 10 hours, there are so many different impactful choices to make that all lead to unique endings. While I must set it away for now, I'm absolutely coming back to it in the future to see how things could've gone differently, whether I finally succeed at building True Communism™ or choose to go down a worse path. I'm just a regional power, it's not like I can end the world.

…right?

[caparrucia]

@garbria replied to your post “(This is assuming you played FFXIII, so if you...”:

Well, now I want to play FF13

​You should! It's available on Steam and on Xbox, I'm pretty sure (I have the collection for Xbox One, because Sony decided it didn't want to port that one to the PS5 and I'm deluding myself to believe that means they're working on a remaster even though the game really doesn't need it.)

XIII suffered a lot of criticism at launch, most of it was a lot of misogyny, a vast majority of the rest is incongruent in the context of the trilogy (but it's fair criticism, because we didn't KNOW it was a trilogy, at launch, or what that trilogy would look like long term) and the smallest remaining is actually fair and valid.

Common criticisms of XIII are:

"It's a hallway!" Which is true, but it is thematically relevant, and only really valid for the first game. It is addressed (beautifully) in XIII-2 and Lightning Returns, because the point of trapping the player and the characters in a hallway is to highlight through gameplay the concept of prophecy and fate as well as to reflect on the player how the characters are acting.

"The story makes no sense!" The story makes perfect sense if you understand it as a god's long term gambit. But specifically the complaint is that the characters are trapped in a situation where killing the big bad will trigger the apocalypse, and after going back and forth about it for twenty hours, they settle in on killing the big bad. People notice, correctly, that this still not really a choice, but they fail to land on the fact nothing in XIII is meant to be a choice. Because it's all ordained and determined by the gods (plural, this is important.)

"The ending is an asspull!" The ending is a literal act of god, yes. There are no consequences in XIII for it, so you can end on a high note if you don't play the rest, but the entirety of XIII-2 and Lightning Returns is a protracted analysis of why "and then God meddled to save our asses" was the worst possible thing that could happen. And also a great example of why we're gonna end up punching The God in the face over it.

"All the story is in the databooks!" This is... a valid complaint! A lot of the lore and history of this world is contained in the datalog, and only briefly or obliquely referenced by the characters. Meaning, if you want to REALLY understand what's going on, you're gonna have to read a lot. The reason, from a game structure perspective is that the story in XIII really isn't about the war between the gods and their gambles and the history of the world: The story of XIII is about grief and loss and refusing to give up on your loved ones, no matter what, and how that fundamentally changes and propels its protagonists (plural! All 6 of them!) into becoming the kind of people who punch God in the face for all his fuckery.

What XIII actually delivers on is one of the most well-rounded and healthy romantic relationships I've ever seen in media, period (should out to Serah and Snow for not being toxic dipshits, either way), a fantastic and nuanced cast full of flawed, complex characters that are trying their best despite the fact there's literally no options and no choice that could possibly fix their situation, and a nuanced, dynamic combat system that is easy to learn and takes time and skill to master but which will allow you to ridiculous shit while also relying on AI that's both distinct per character, but also reliable. Which like. When was the last time you played an RPG where you could trust your AI party members to not fuck you over mid-boss fight?

Also, it looks gorgeous and I love it.

[unkajosh]

Not Equal At All

Not Equal At All

Game Design Essay

Introduction

Many game systems offer a variety of choices or options during character creation; the general thinking among these options is that they are, in theory, “equal” to one another.  In other words, while there may be specific reasons to pick one or another for certain purposes, they can all be chosen without fear of one choice being clearly superior to the others, or at least close enough to not hinder gameplay and player enjoyment.  But this isn’t always the case, and in some games where very coarse-grained choices are part of the process, a wrong choice can have a heavy impact on character capabilities.  Let’s look over some examples.

(For the purposes of this essay, I’m NOT looking at comparative resource costs to get the same result, which is the bane of certain more-complex character creation systems, but instead circumstances where players may have a handful of choices to make.  The topics are similar, however.)

Broadness of Application

One area that this will often matter is broadness of application; if a character has a trait that can only be used in limited circumstances, they may feel very limited in play compared to a character with traits that can be used in a variety of ways.  Extremely freeform traits, such as Aspects in FATE, are susceptible to this problem.  (The FATE rulebook does provide guidelines, but it can still take experience to see the difference in application between Can Make Machines Purr and “Okay, I’m going for it!”  One is good for technological challenges, but the other could be used for almost anything.)

But sometimes, these issues with broad application are actually built into the system.  One example of this is the Sentinel Comics RPG.  PCs built in this game have two Principles in their Abilities list; without getting into game mechanics and probability too heavily, these are actually a very important resource for characters, because they allow characters to use the Overcome action with a dramatically improved success rate.  (The odds of complete success jump from extremely roughly 2% to 43%; PCs should rely on them a lot!)  Principles are selected off a list (and the full range of choices is sharply curtailed depending on character type), and everybody will always have precisely and only two of them, so they should, in theory, always be comparable.

But they aren’t.  An Overcome in SCRPG is, roughly speaking, beating a challenge that is not an opponent, whether it’s persuading an official, solving a puzzle, rescuing a drowning victim, or infiltrating a warehouse.  The Principles, among other things, have a triggering circumstance in which they can be used.  For example, the Principle of Lab says “Overcome while in a familiar workspace or when you have ample research time.”  That’s good when those very specific things are involved, but it becomes a very hard stretch to rescue a drowning victim or shift a boulder out of your way.  For contrast, the Principle of the Tactician says “Overcome when you can flashback to how you prepared for this exact situation.” For that one, it becomes almost impossible for the GM to deny its use, and fairly simple for a player to justify it.  Shift a boulder?  Studied leverage just in case.  Drowning victim?  Took lifeguarding classes to know what to do, anticipating trouble.  Persuade an official?  Did research on the profiles of all of them.  One is much more broadly useful than the other, period.  A player who plans ahead and picks at least one Principle that they can use in a wide range of situations will have a distinct advantage, but a random choice might find a character who is great at knowing locals and their own business and at situations where being small and young is an advantage and nothing more.  

(And yes, very creative and/or persuasive players may be able to somehow stretch and distort their Principle to fit anything, but there’s a point where it just goes outside rational use.)

Scenario Specific

During a scenario at a gaming convention I attended last year, one of the pregen PCs had their one-and-only special trait be a bonus at piloting extraterrestrial spacecraft.  In the course of the scenario, our characters wound up on a spacecraft that we couldn’t control or pilot in any way, arriving at another spacecraft that we then took over-- and that wrapped the game.  That player never had a chance to use their specialty; it was irrelevant to the game.  Now, that’s not good design, since it was a convention game with pregen PCs, but it showcases another kind of problem with unequal choices-- scenarios where some of the options for characters don’t matter.  A classic one is a character built for social encounters who finds the group frequently in deadly combat, but there are countless other examples that are possible.  (At the same convention, I wound up with a character whose major resources were related to hacking and communications, which was fine, but the only conflict involved very dangerous enemies attacking us while we were on a highway in the middle of nowhere, and it was set in the 80s, so there wasn’t much I could do with that.)  This is at least easier to solve if the GM is involved with the characters during the creation process, and can guide them into roles relevant to the scenario, but if that doesn’t happen, it’s all too easy for a character whose focus is not relevant for the game to simply be unable to participate in the way they wanted to, and that feels like a serious loss.

Combat and Noncombat

One key area where this matters in games is, of course, combat; woe betide the player whose character lags behind others in this arena, it is known, lest they simply die!  And that’s certainly a concern-- many RPGs involve a lot of combat, combat almost always involves the entire group, often takes up a lot of table time, and inability to participate meaningfully can get somebody killed.

But that’s actually not the only consideration here.  Being combat-capable is so ingrained into game design and character design that it’s almost not the largest concern compared to noncombat application in a number of game systems.  

One of the classic examples of this is the most popular game in the US and probably worldwide-- Dungeons and Dragons, notably the current edition.  In D&D, one class is “Fighter”; Fighters… fight.  They are good in specific aspects of combat; otherwise, they have skills.  But everyone gets skills; likewise, everyone can participate in combat, often challenging Fighters in their specific area of greatest strength (Single-target combat), and utterly triumphing over them in other aspects of combat (Crowd control, for example.)  It’s doubtlessly necessary for gameplay-- it wouldn’t do to have other classes be helpless in combat, which is a large part of D&D-- but outside of combat, things change.  Fighters can have Skills, as can all classes.  But spellcasting classes gain abilities that let them bypass Skill challenges, or let them do things that no Skill could ever accomplish, and this gap grows larger and larger even as the combat abilities of spellcasters grows with it.  

But this can also impact other systems!  In a relatively freeform system like Cortex, creativity can let a trait like Senses outperform Super Strength.  It’s easy enough to justify using Senses in combat-- analyzing a foe’s movement, spotting their weaknesses and strengths, and so on.  But Senses can also be used to solve puzzles, track enemies, potentially even have application in social settings.  Likewise, in some games, it’s very possible to even use social or psychological skills in combat, perhaps by creating “Good morale” assets for other to use.  However, conversely, it’s often much, much harder to apply combat skills to noncombat situations as broadly.  Being a master archer is much harder to apply to debate than it is to find a justification for a master of persuasion being able to distract a foe or boost an ally.  In this regard, it’s a serious issue if combat-themed characters can’t do anything out of combat, but the reverse isn’t true, and it’s something that needs to be considered, either in game design or in campaign design.

Does it even matter?

Does it actually matter if characters are unequal?  This is a delicate question, and depends in part on the group and the specific players.  If the differences aren’t great, of course, it surely matters less no matter what.  But sometimes it’s easy to see where one character has noteworthy advantages over the other… and I think that it does matter, broadly, and it’s worth addressing. Some players, for example, can become frustrated with their inability to contribute, or to act effectively, and that frustration isn’t fun, the more so when it’s not obvious that some choices aren’t as good.  Likewise, even if one player doesn’t mind being less capable, other players may become frustrated with that player’s weakness and having to cover for them; the GM, in turn, may find it more challenging to balance encounters and challenges while still allowing that player spotlight time.  Overall, the less inequality between equivalent choices, the more desirable the results will be, even if it’s fine with certain players.

Solutions

When making characters, of course, one should look at options and choose carefully, but that’s not always very satisfactory.  What if one’s character concept depends on certain choices, or if it’s not obvious that there’s a problem?  Another good place to work on this problem is at the design phase of a game, of course, but that’s not an option the majority of the time; most of us play games other people have already made.  (I’m a game designer, but for a variety of reasons, mostly play other people’s systems.)

Sadly, this means that a certain amount of work on the part of the GM becomes necessary; it is, however, worthwhile.  It’s good to see what choices players make, and then play to them.  Is the player immune to something?  Make sure it shows up so that they can have their moment!  Do they have a Principle that’s great at stealth?  Give them lots of chances to sneak in places!  Make sure to give players a chance to shine by adjusting scenarios to their characters, rather than making the players adjust to the scenario.  Sometimes, it’s the only solution, but I think that it’s the best one.

[cyberpunkonline]

The Best Designed RPG of All Time is... "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines"

In the realm of role-playing games, a few titles stand out as true masterpieces. Among these, "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines" reigns supreme, and it's not just because of its bloodsucking protagonists. This game has achieved legendary status for various reasons, but perhaps one of its most exceptional features is its unparalleled level design.

A Dark and Immersive World

From the moment you step into the dark and gritty streets of Los Angeles, you're immediately transported into a world where vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures lurk in the shadows. The game's setting is a modern gothic masterpiece, blending the eerie and the familiar in a way that few other RPGs have managed to replicate.

Choices Matter

One of the game's standout features is its emphasis on player choice. Every decision you make, from the alliances you form to the people you feed on, impacts the game's narrative and your character's progression. This level of choice and consequence was groundbreaking when the game was released, and it remains a hallmark of its design.

A World of Darkness

"Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines" draws heavily from the World of Darkness tabletop RPG series, and it masterfully captures the essence of this rich and complex universe. The game offers players a chance to immerse themselves in the intricate lore, political intrigue, and moral dilemmas that define the World of Darkness.

Unmatched Level Design

Now, let's talk about what truly sets "Bloodlines" apart – its level design. The game features a series of meticulously crafted mission areas that are nothing short of awe-inspiring. Whether you're sneaking through a haunted mansion, infiltrating a creepy asylum, or navigating the seedy underbelly of Hollywood, each location feels like a living, breathing part of the game world.

What makes these levels truly remarkable is the attention to detail. Every room, every corridor, and every hidden nook is designed with care, adding layers of depth and immersion to the experience. The missions themselves are diverse and compelling, often allowing for multiple approaches and strategies. You can play as a suave talker, a stealthy rogue, or a bloodthirsty combatant – the choice is yours.

The level design also serves as a storytelling tool. It's not just about aesthetics; it's about conveying the atmosphere and narrative of each location. Whether you're exploring the opulent society of the Venture Tower or delving into the twisted secrets of the Ocean House Hotel, the level design enhances the storytelling in ways that few other games can match.

Conclusion

"Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines" isn't just a game; it's an experience. It's a testament to the power of immersive storytelling, player agency, and, of course, exceptional level design. While many RPGs have come and gone, "Bloodlines" remains a shining example of how to create a rich and memorable game world.

So, in the grand pantheon of RPGs, "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines" unquestionably deserves its place among the greatest. Its level design alone is a masterclass in game development and continues to inspire game designers to this day. If you haven't had the pleasure of sinking your fangs into this classic, it's high time you give it a try – just be sure to watch your Masquerade.

Stay cheeky, and happy gaming!

- Raz

PS. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to Cyberpunk Online. We have so much more cooking!

[that-house]

Hey so how did you get started in making tabletop games? I really wanna start but I don't really know where I can look to even get basics. I haven't been able to find anything applicable to it.

Especially since I didn't really have much experience with any games that weren't video games til like a few years ago. And I can for sure see it as a case of a big part of learning is doing both playing games then tweaking those games to be somewhat different in ways that suit you but I just don't have anyone with the time to play.

i mean part of it is just. this has been a huge part of my life literally since elementary school

i loved pretending to be fantasy heroes and whatnot with my friends, and at some point long before i'd heard of D&D i was like "wow i sure am tired of forgetting what my character can do, i should write it down" and made my first ever character sheet which (a) was totally incomprehensible like a week later and (b) got lost super fast

after that i think i encountered the official warrior cats rpg, Warriors Adventure Game, and that inspired me to start making my own games using Word on the family computer. they were not good, as you might expect from a 4th grader

this post is turning out to be Long so

i got more serious about it in middle school. my school had a LARP program, and that was my first ever brush with actual organized RPG stuff. i loved it so much that i wanted to keep doing it over the summer, but didn't have access to the official rules, so i made my own for my friends and I.

one of those LARP friends got me into D&D, and i almost instantly ruined the campaign i ran for him and our other LARP friends with broken homebrew items because ough game design

i got serious about indie ttrpg design in high school. my big project was Reclaim, a sci fi RPG focused on supersoldiers reconquering the planet for humanity after an apocalypse (which gradually morphed into a critique of the military-industrial complex and american imperialism as my brain pathways connected properly in the later half of high school). it was the focus of my college application essay, but the game itself was not great in retrospect

nowadays i've further refined my approach to game design for my high power sci fi/fantasy anime bullshit project, Field of White Flowers, which is definitely the game i'm proudest of to date (it will probably have a basic version of the rules available for free some day, but the full game is enough of an undertaking that I will be charging some money for it)

the issue with advising people on how to make RPG systems is that there isn't necessarily a "right answer." RPGs can be anything. I can say "making a fun game is the most important part" but different people are going to have different definitions of fun.

like some people want crunchy systems with an answer to everything and rules for how many moles of oxygen you can hold in your lungs, while other people want stuff that's more rules light and lets them get right to the narrative and the roleplay. so i think the main thing when designing a game is pick an audience and stick to it: my games' primary audience is usually myself (i like systems with a lot of room for customization and optimization)

the other big tip i have is to play and read as many RPG systems as you can. almost everything has at least one good idea in it somewhere, and even stuff that's just Bad might give you a moment of inspiration while you're laughing at it.

as a suuuper bare-bones outline of what a game might consist of:

Resolution Mechanic: how does your game solve questions like "can i jump over this gap" or "can I cut this mountain in half?" for example, D&D does the whole thing with a d20 + modifiers compared to a number. other systems handle this in different ways. as a baseline it's nice for players' choices to matter, so i like to keep it somewhere between "flip a coin" and "consult thirteen tables based on your Class and Sense of Style, and then add four if you're a Gemini"

Combat: not every RPG needs combat, but the hobby has its roots in wargaming and so a lot of RPGs end up having some element of combat. your combat can be as simple as a more narrative game saying "make a skill check to kill this guy" (and thus overlapping entirely with your Resolution Mechanic) or it can be a multiple-hour tactical engagement like in Lancer

Stakes: what happens if players fail? can they fail? this is stuff like hit points in combat games, or the king finding out about your plans for the revolution in an intrigue game.

Character Creation: you need a Guy to be. how do you make the Guy? can the Guy be a dragon. an offshoot of this is progression: can my Guy get stronger? how?

this is very much an abstraction. games don't necessarily need all of these things. you can have a game without combat, and if you get silly enough with it you might be able to avoid character creation of any sort. it's harder to make a game without a resolution mechanic or stakes and have it be fun, but it's possible someone out there has done it

but that list of four things, in addition to more literary things like tone and setting, are sort of the basic framework my brain operates off of while making games.

at the end of the day, if you want to get good at something, the first step is to get out there and try it! good luck and happy game development!