#borg pc Game

[star-trekster]

Yeah, sure, Q’s character insights. Borg PC Game, wonderful

BUT WAS ANYONE GOING TO TELL ME YOU HAD THE OPTION OF KICKING HIM IN THE BALLS?

[dimalink]

Quake 2 – returning to a techno base

In the last day of April I for the first time go to a country house. It was excellent weather at the country house. And I ama again returning to retro gaming with computer Asus F3S. It is a computer with Windows Xp level.

And, so, it is a new country house season. Excellent weather. And, of course, videogames. I continue to play second Quake. So, I remember that last year, I was even tired and bored after Q2. But this year, after a pause about a year, it is everything again like new - it is very interesting game again for me! And I do not remember where am I. Some techno base. Iron. Somewhere soil. Labyrinth style techno. Interesting, at the start of the level there is some silhouette at the wall. Such a green colored. Cool drawing. By the way. So, you can - not to see it when you move fast, you can run fast and not to pay attention to this drawing, but art is very exciting.

 

I continue to go though a techno levels. And I use a nailgun. Cool thing. And, also, a machine gun, sub machine gun. And shotgun for several times was good. And with grenade launcher it is a little harder. So, while you though grenade, it cost you some time. And enemy is already reach you. It is better smoothing more reliable, to not to wait so long time.

I remember second Quake. And game is again makes a big impression. So, it is good to have a little pause. And you play like new. But, one moment, you remember badly a several things - where are you and what you need to do. But I have a save at the beginning of the level.

And I few times burn some barrels with a shotgun. Which are like in a doom. You can burn them. I in a few places find a secret or some support things. Ammo, health. For example. Somewhere it happens beautiful red explosions. Anyway, sometimes I use a grenade launcher. But, as for me, automatic guns or shotguns – are more reliable.  And, I even can to see the sky. Here it is a very red color. So, you look at this and remember a second quake. So, looks like, maybe, it is a sunset in game.

Playing little games. From time to time i like to play videogames. And write about it. Dima Link is making retro videogames, apps, a little of music, write stories, and some retro more.

WEBSITE: http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/home_eng.html ITCHIO: https://dimalink.itch.io/ GAMEJOLT: https://gamejolt.com/@DimaLink/games

BLOGGER: https://dimalinkeng.blogspot.com/

[sprintingowl]

What Non DnD TTRPGs Feel Like

Okay, quick thread about what playing different non DnD ttrpgs feels like.

--

Pathfinder

This is DnD. It feels like DnD. It's like going to a slightly different church. Some of the words used during the service are different, but at the end of it the pulpit turns out to be a mimic and you cast Entangle and summon your direwolf.

--

Fate

This is Rule Of Cool with additional rules. The GM has powers to one-up you or lead you into temptation, but you have powers to one-up the GM, and all these powers use the same kind of token that you ultimately shuffle back and forth.

--

Savage Worlds

Handwave-style DnD (positive connotation.)

The GM has a lot of freedom to pick genre and setting, and the gameplay is sleeker, rule-of-cool-ier without losing meaningful combat or character building.

--

Call Of Cthulhu

You may not be an old librarian, but you sure are built like one. Most acts of violence can flatten you in a couple of hits, but violence doesn't happen often. It's the punctuation mark at the end of a long sentence. Atmosphere and pacing rule over this land.

--

World Of Darkness

This is a game about getting deep into your character's headspace. It's about figuring out who they are and roleplaying them passionately. Your backstory choices and powers have a huge affect on how you interact with the world around you.

--

Warhammer Fantasy / Dark Heresy

You are Scrumbles McGrumbles, a walking heap of morbidity and washed-up soldiering. You are trying to find your place in a world that's having an even worse day than you are. Your best friend is a ratcatcher. Together you will be heroes.

--

OSR (Mork Borg, Mausritter, Into The Odd, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Labyrinth Lord, Cairn, tons more)

DnD boiled down to two components: GMing + Making A Guy. GMing is made as easy as possible and PCs are somewhat disposable, so the story is the hijinks you get into together.

--

Powered By The Apocalypse (Masks, Nahual, Monsterhearts, Pasion De Las Pasiones, tons more)

The goal is to get into trouble and stir up drama. Succeeding on a roll with no consequences is rare, but when you fail you fail forward into even bigger, messier drama.

--

Blades In The Dark

You go on missions and then return to your base. The missions are about choices as much as about rolls, and you build your base together to make yourselves more powerful as a squad.

--

Trophy

Your goal is to lose. Specifically, it's to lose in a dramatic and harrowing fashion that sticks with everyone at the table. Think movies like Annihilation, but as oneshot games.

--

Golden Sky Stories

You like everyone at the table with you. When someone does something adorable, you can award them exp. The highlight of the session is someone getting flustered and/or speaking in a squeaky voice.

--

Ryuutama

You are going on a journey and helping other people along the way. Important choices include packing lunch, wearing appropriate clothing, and completely filling your canteen. Combat is a cozy, pastel color jrpg.

--

The Indie

There are so, so many games that are just completely their own thing, and that I can't squeeze into a single thread. If you discover you like game mechanics and you want to Get Weird with seeing what they can do, there is an entire scene here waiting to welcome you.

--

Stuff I Missed

There's lots of stuff I haven't played, or didn't remember in the moment, or absolutely love but it would take a whole thread to explain why I love it. I will do more game recommendations in the future, but you can also comment systems you like below!

[allstartrekgames]

Star Trek: Borg Assimilator

Original Release: N/A (Cancelled 2001)

Developer: Cyberlore

Publisher: Activision

Original Platform: PC

Not played: No leaked prototypes.

Borg Assimilator was an RTS game where you played as the Borg. In each of the 12 missions, you would have started with a few drones, building up your resources and assimilating enemies. Each mission would have you assimilating a new race, with the ultimate goal of getting the technology to produce an Omega Particle. If you complete these missions, you could then try to conquer the alpha quadrant in free mode.

There would also be threats along the way, such as Species 8472, viruses and individuality. You played as the “hive” with a Borg Queen acting as your conduit.

After announcing it, Activision ended up cancelling the game because “the game’s design did not reflect the established Star Trek universe”. The game was supposedly near completion at the time.

[spicyicymeloncat]

Okay it’s 4am and I bring you: Ninjago gamer hcs (in order of who plays the most)

Jay is the gamer. That’s what he spends most of his time doing. He prefers older games for the nostalgia and has a massive collection. He also is just really into computers and consoles and knows so many unnecessary things about computing history and what pc has the best performance and what not. Yknow he’s probably a twitch streamer. And he just generally loves all kinds of games, arcade, console, computer, mobile. And he’s played all of them. He’s also probably tried his hand at coding games but he’ll start a project and never finish it (yknow like everyone ever). Jay also probably makes let’s plays and game reviews lol.

Cole is almost as diverse in his game tastes as Jay but he gets rlly into specifically rp games, and will ramble on about the plot of a game to anyone listening. He’s usually Jay’s player 2 in any co op game, and can become quite competitive (there’s like two instances of Cole being someone who beats other people’s high scores - even though one of those times was a prank by Lloyd). He’s actually got better hand eye coordination than Jay but Jay has more knowledge on game mechanics.

Pixal usually plays borg games (because yes of course Cyrus borg makes games). Regardless of what genre it is, she supports her dad. Although her favourites are racing games bc zooom. I think she’d enjoy rpgs as well idk. She got into gaming as a way to have alone time, and isn’t a huge fan of co op with the ninja because they’re really loud lol. But she can be player 3 sometimes.

Lloyd plays whatever is new trendy and “soon to be considered cringe” (not to say they are cringe but just to address the games that other ppl tend to describe as cringe). So he was big into minecraft and Fortnite (or the Ninjago versions of those) when it was popular. I can see him being in to first person shooters just because a lot of people play those. Oh and Nintendo esque games. Like we all know he kinned link from any Zelda ever. I think he’s also a fan of sonic tbh (jay too). Oh but Lloyd scarcely ever plays older games. He only really plays games that have just come out and as soon as a new game comes out he’s abandoned the old one forever.

Zane doesn’t play games all that often (honestly he enjoys board games more) but he does enjoy incredibly hard or thought provoking games. He’s a rhythm game king and is scary good. He’s also a mobile gamer on top of that. Unlike Cole, Zane can’t really get into rpgs especially if the graphics are kinda old school. Also he usually gets high scores so beating him is usually seen as a great triumph. Also everyone on the team is prone get frustrated at losing games but Zane isn’t really a sore loser because he never loses. But on the off chance that he does struggle with a game and loses, he’ll sigh and lie down on the sofa and idk refuse to make dinner. He’ll sulk the longest out of anyone and it’s fair because RHYTHM GAMES ARE SO PERSONAL OKAYYY

Nya doesnt really like video games. But she’ll play them to make jay happy because she likes seeing him game. But mostly she’ll just watch and offer random commentary. However she love love loves the dance game at the arcade because romance and also she likes being active (maybe she’d like a wii sports lol). She’s got a soft spot for the arcade but that’s about it.

Kai only likes a select handful of games and it’s usually brawl streetfighter games that specifically came out when he was a kid, and it’s mostly because he was good at them. He used to like them a lot more but grew out of it. He just doesn’t understand how complicated newer games are, and barely remembers how they work anyways. He’s like and old man who just watches Lloyd gush about the new game he got for his birthday with barely any idea of what’s going on. He’s more of jock so.

Wu does not game it hurts his eyes. I’d say he’d like chess but I think wu would absolutely despise chess (and it’s because both Garmadon and Misako are chess pros and wu doesn’t even remember the names of the pieces)

Bonus: all the ninja love (hate) mariokart and it is chaos. Cole spends 30 minutes picking a character, Lloyd can only be green characters because he relates to them, Kai is screaming because he keeps falling off the map, jay is screaming because he just screams during games, Nya doesn’t even play properly she drives around backwards on the map, Zane will get blue shelled and Pixal will win and Zane’s just holding back tears repeating “I love my gf” over and over. And Wu will unplug the tv because he wants to go to bed.

[vikenticomeshome]

Cyberchase on Pixter Console (part 1/?)

Hello all,

I wanted to talk about the Cyberchase game that was released for the Pixter handheld edutainment console during the early 2000s. To my knowledge, this is the only licensed console game released for the series. There were, of course, PC games released in the form of "Carnival Chaos" and "Castleblanca Quest". And they also had their various web-games.

Unfortunately, I don't own a copy of this game at this time. I can't really play through it on the real hardware and give my thoughts. I am aware that MAME has recently added a preliminary emulator for the Pixter console, and they did obtain the data from the cartridge. However, the emulation isn't yet sufficient to play the game.

The purpose of this post is to document that this game exists, given its obscurity. There is also some material available to look at, like the manual. I hope that I can eventually provide screenshots, either by obtaining a cartridge, or waiting long enough for the MAME emulation to be ready.

I don't have a cartridge or box, but I found some photos. These images of the box-art and cartridge appeared on an eBay listing at one point.

This console image appeared on a blog from Liz Herrick, one of the designers.

So, now that we've established that this thing exists, let's look at the manual for the Cyberchase game and see what we can figure out.

Here's a PDF download of the manual for those interested, but I'll post images of individual pages as I go.

So, the manual cover and box-art feature some classic Cyberchase artwork that got used for alot of stuff. We have Matt, Inez, Jackie, and Digit on hand. I'm not sure which Cybersite is in the background here, since the full-color version is so small, and the black-and-white version removes alot of context. My guess would be "R-Fair City".

And now, we can see the standard instructions for logging in as your user.

It's hard to see them due to the resolution of the scan, and perhaps Fisher-Price using bad screenshots to begin with. However, I can see Jackie (third row from the top and third column from the left) as one of the icons.

We get five games:

Sorting

Patterns

Logic

Creative Fun

Drawing

For "Sorting", we have Digit sorting Poddles by shapes, colors, both shapes and colors, or number comparisons. The screenshots are low-resolution, but it looks like we are sorting this poddle into one of two train cars, choosing between "hexagon" and "rectangle".

We can see the page that leads to the next level. I will say that the kids appear to have been badly cut out from something else.

For "Pattern", we have a challenge to fit planks into a bridge based on patterns. We have an option for simple patterns, complex patterns, and number patterns. I don't recognize the character on the bridge.

For "Logic", we have what appears to be a game of "Klotski". Klotski is a sliding block game where the goal is to get a single sliding block off the board by shifting other sliding blocks around to make room.

For "Creative Fun", we get to mix and match parts to create a "cyber-robot"? Is this a borg, a bot, or something else?

We can see some face options here.

We also get to add the giant frog from "Eye of Rom" apparently.

For "Drawing", we get to pick a background and use it to create a scene.

We can also put some stickers on it, like two classic pieces of Inez art.

And here's some Delete stickers.

And here's a Digit sticker.

We can view high-scores for the activities.

We can also check progress on these five activities.

And then we log out and let someone else play, I guess.

Yeah, I know this is pretty basic by today's standard. Someone in the intended age group for this probably would have enjoyed it though.

I wonder if this was distributed through FlyingMinds back in the day, who was responsible for alot of Cyberchase merch around 2005. Their site is gone, and several pages of content were missing. I suppose we'll have to wait until we get a good scan of the box to see if the FlyingMinds logo made it on there.

I hope to be able to share screenshots at some point, since this game is not well-documented online. Hopefully, I will either obtain a cartridge copy, or the Pixter emulation will improve.

[fleshwerks]

Thoughts on new Dragon Age "teaser"? You have the best takes.

I'll be deadly honest, I didn't even realise it was out, that's how checked out I am, but I will always fall hook line and sinker for a delicious bait made of things I can chew on, so let's seeeeeee. I'll do first impressions for now. I'll warn you, I haven't done 'takes' in ages, I've seriously lost my edge and resemble someone yelling at a cloud more than someone with intelligent or at least entertaining takes. Proceed on your own volition. Note, I have not been keeping up with DA4 updates. At all. I am literally grasping at straws and screaming out of my arse.

I'll say this. I believe Mark Darrah who had retired from BioWare was brought back on to save this tattered ship that had failed to launch how many times now? If you were with DAI and Anthem especially, you know that when a vet of that calibre is being brought on board towards the end of production, you're fucked. The sheer scope of the regions visited in the trailer... I wouldn't blink an eye if it was a turn-based strategy game, but it is not.

I'm surprised how shit the game visually looks, but it's been my criticism with the thus far released art, and now, environment assets. And again, I'm coming off of Anthem, and Anthem was truly, truly gorgeous. Now someone might argue that every DA has had its distinctive visual style. Well I thought DA2, for what it was, sure did look inspired. I didn't enjoy the game or the characters, but I enjoyed looking at it. Dragon Age Inquisition kind of lost me aesthetically, but I see what they did there. It was more generic, certainly not attempting to be photorealistic, but I saw the idea and accepted it.

Now this though? What is this? The panning over what I presume is Treviso literally looks like a mobile game ad.

Ok, fine, I'll not go in on the visuals, I'm too fresh out of art college and I'm so anal-retentive that my o-ring's more pinched than a pinprick about this stuff. Moving on.

I believe the new PC is an Antivan Crow? Since when are they fighting for all of Antiva? Everyone??? Since when?! Zevran's canonically not returning, and even he was compassionately practical on his best days. The Crows are not good people. They buy kids to train for miserable jobs meeting miserable ends. Oh, so we had a whole character who gave the Crows a finger for being the shitshow they were, but now they're this resistance task force? What, why, because the 'Islamic Borg' invaded?

Then. I feel like I'm missing a fuckton of contest because I haven't read the preceding comics and stories, I have one comic book from the DAI-DA4 interim and it ended so disappointingly, I never bothered after that.

We're really retconning all the complex and complicated factions into freedom fighters, aren't we. I guess such is the state of our real world. Always a plucky band of people belonging to formerly shitty fucking organisations suddenly saving the day like heroes, possibly somewhere along the way ruminating for 2 seconds on whether they deserve to pat themselves on the back, landing on 'but we will change how we operate, and we will save the world, always!'

I'm into the Rivaini squid though. I've never been fond of Rivain, not just because parts of the fandom like to present this place that has barely been talked about in canon like some haven for... idk. I just didn't expect squids. And you people know I love marine invertebrates. You know what, fuck it, here's my 'best take': have squid, will travel!

But that port city ravaged recently by the dragons in ruins looks like it's been in ruins for the past 2000 years, only recently excavated. It's so clean. And here I go again with the aesthetics.

Anyway, Falon'din and/or dirthamen is fuckin' around in Rivain, aren't they. Because I believe that head shape, multi-hands etc were presented in many of the statues we saw in DAII, and given that Falon'din's proverbial crows, envy and nightmare were so prominently featured, and sexyman Solas' outright resentment for former master Dirthamen and the vain Falon'din, welll... risen gods. Dirthamen at the very least was associated with watery depths, but they're twins (or are they? Perhaps the facets of one person altogether)... Anyway, I'm more interested in what the fuck is happening in Weisshaupt. That part genuinely interests me. Circling back to Dirthamen, Razikale is the dragon of Mystery. Associated with Dirthamen, at least according to my theory, while Urthemiel was the Dragon of Beauty, and we keep getting indications that Falon'din was pretty, aggressive, and exceedingly vain. So Big Dirty's up next. Falon'din had the crows, right? Both defeated in DAI. He's out, more or less. And again, Solas most likely was Dirthamen's student before he decided that he himself didn't want to be but totally wanted to be revered. So my take is that Razikale, who got mentions in DAI is waking up as well.

The villain gods of this mess, the classic Dragon Age false gods we fight in every single game as end bosses, will be connected to Dirt. Eh. Same eagle, different liver.

Anyway I have a doubt that this kind of scope will end anywhere nice. The production's been fraught as fuck to the point where the panic button has been pressed many times. The art looks like a significant downgrade, the production has been filled with veterans just clocking the fuck out.

It doesn't sound interesting. I'm tired of saving the world as an Eastern European in late 2023. This kind of story does not speak to me at all anymore. Not after 2019, not after 2021. It looks dated and mediocre, the story is so old that if it goes where I think it will, it has no relevance or message for anybody but perhaps some American audiences (some). I'm just... I'm not.

The rah-rah I got from that clip leaves me ice cold. There is no rah-rah in such widespread misery. There are only curse words and the sound of grinding teeth, and everybody's a dick, and everybody's dick past is dredged up hard. No retcons.

I don't want it. It better receive insanely high marks for me to play it. And I loved this franchise, two of the PCs have gone on to be archetypal in my private works now.

The mystery is gone. The power creep... I don't want to hang out with gods. They should have never been brought into the story as characters you can extensively hang out with. Edit: basically the entire thing sounds about as exciting as a somewhat well-produced mobile game. Which is fun to fuck with while taking the metro, but...

[toxycodone]

ttrpg anon again; my group does rotating games, so Guy A brings Mörk Borg to the table and when we finish the campaign Girl B brings Changeling: The Lost, then Guy C brings Pathfinder, Guy D runs an installment of our DnD campaign, etc. I brought Call of Cthulu bc it’s just the best ever. You’re totally welcome to use my ideas for your sonas since they’re based on you anyway!

If I don’t have a character in mind already I just kinda point at a character/person who’s been on my mind and approximate their behaviors so I don’t have to spend time building a PC from scratch. That’s how you ended up in call of cthulu, then you posted abt venery and I thought he’d have a No Good Very Bad Time in Mörk Borg, which he did and it was fun for me <3

That's actually really cool!! omg...I wanna find a group to do ttrpgs with.

IM SUUUPER GLAD U HAD FUN W ME AND VENE TYSM FOR SHARING <3 Call of Cthulu is so fire,,,my friend said I'd fit perfectly in that universe so I'm like. so happy to hear about that omg. AND YESSSS VENERY SHOULD SUFFER <3 I ALWAYS WANT HIM TO BE IN PAIN im so happy he had a terrible time in Mork Borg.

Wishing you all the fun time and ventures on your ttrpg journey <3 and ahhhh as usual im just so happy and honored to have been apart of it

[jaijaitbinks]

Im back on my D&D hyperfixation bullshit, and I so badly wanna write a fic where Genos and Saitama play D&D with the gang using characters they made together. The duo they created are dating and almost carbon-copies of them bar Saitama's being a little more eccentric, but Saitama and Genos themselves aren't together at all. And Genos is milking every moment they gave in game for all its worth, because he himself is too anxious to say any of what he's telling Sai's character to Saitama's face.

Like he is down horrendously and he's just using their PCs as an excuse to tell him how he feels and how much he loves him.

Everyone else can see right through it, too. Like they know.

And so does Saitama. He knows what Genos is doing. He just never says anything about it because it is extremely fun to flirt with him in game and watch the borg go from "OMFG OMFG SHIT SHIT THAT DID THINGS TO ME HELP" to "Okay. Okay Genos, play it cool. Act like your character. Just respond" to "*channels his character's energy and responds either flirtatiously or affectionately*"

I wanna write this so bad f u c k

[demon-of-side-quest-hell]

Thoughts on Cyberpunk 2077:

Cars feel bad to drive. Bikes are fine. I play on PC and driving mechanics on PC have always been kinda shit but my console playing friend has confirmed the issues remain when using a controller.

I'm still mad about [BEAT ACT 1 OF CYBERPUNK 2077 TO UNLOCK THIS TEXT]

Tumblr won't let me share all the photomode screenshots I took and I'm so mad but I'll keep trying

I feel like CDPR reigned in alot of the silliness of stupidity of night city, which sucks. (eg, no Exotics)

I'm conflicted towards the fact that all 4 romance options have defined and set in stone sexualities and aren't just "Player character-sexual" (But Fallout New Vegas does this too and I haven't complained there so I dunno? Maybe it's that it's never a formal "romantic" thing there.)

I wish there was more cosmetic cyberware options (Like being borged up, or different limbs)

For as much as the game marketed the feature to have gender non-conforming genitals, I find it weird that which voice you choose decides what your pronouns are

Fuck that stupid spider-tank

30 Principales and Body Heat Radio are the best radio stations

So far Corpo feels like the most appropriate lifepath for the whole game.

[swedebeast]

What are the most important video games, books, movies, and/or tv shows that really shaped your taste today?

Oh man, the problem here is not just in remembering which ones that fit the bill but also reducing the numbers so this doesn't become a bloated mess of an answer.

Howevah, I will try.

Video games: I've played most genres growing up and it was a bit of console but gravitated towards PC pretty much by my mid teens. I really thing it was Civilization III that solidified by taste for strategy games after being exposed to Civ II in a bootleg CD game pack, but Red Alert really did a number on me as well - especially Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun. But I cannot lie, Fallout 2 and Fallout: Tactics were instrumental in developing my taste for RPG's and my borderline obsession with the post-apoc genres which I carry with me 25 years later.

I read much more when I was younger, but I only recently had a rediscovery of the earliest science fiction novels I read that without a doubt set the first brick on the road that I would go, and it was the Swedish YA Science Fiction series "Andromeda" published 1979-1986 (I even made a post about it earlier). I am sure it lead me to other classics like War of the Worlds which remain a favourite for me. That, and I think graphic novels might fit - and then Tintin, Spirou, Asterix & Obelix fit as formative. But also the more adult ones like Buddy Longway.

And movies.... man, apart from 1980's and 1990's Disney animated movies that I devoured, I have to say that monster movies of the same time remain close to my heart. Aliens, Predator remain favourites. Jurassic Park was fundamentally formative for a lot of kids of the time, but I also consider Tremors (one and two anyway) to be one of the most fun monster movies out there. In general though, I also think the bad movies that came out were also formative in developing my tastes. Everyone saw the Star Wars prequels - being any kind of sci fi fan meant that they were mandatory viewing - but they never *wowed* me. So, I knew I loved the originals more. Not fanatically so, that is more reserved to-

Jumping into TV-shows specifically, I can't understate how much Star Trek blew my goddamn mind. I have no idea where it started - I remember seeing mid-90's on Swedish Kanal 5 around noon on weekends re-runs of Star Trek TOS, later also DS9, I remember some of the earliest shows I pirated was TNG, AND also religiously watched Babylon 5 also on Kanal 5 when it was a new show, and I followed Voyager -and- Enterprise when they first ran on... SVT 1 or 2, 19:00.

And on that, I just remembered how much I followed ANYTHING Star Trek in the video game space as well. Starfleet Command, Bridge Commander, Klingon Academy, Elite Force, New Worlds, even games that were supposed to come out but never did (Like, Star Trek Borg or whatever the fuck).

But on the note of TV-shows and my youth, I would be remiss if I also did not give a shout-out to Babylon 5. I have a sweet spot for space operas, very much due to this show - and together with TNG it has made me a very, very picky fucker with my science fiction writing. It set a high bar for me. Thanks, btw.

In general, I can remember movies, shows, books and games I grew up with or at least had exposure to, but it takes some introspection to realize which ones actually influenced by - and then by how large of a degree. I still remember the ending scene from the "Death of Computers" Swedish cyberpunk novel nearly 30 years ago when I was not even 10 years old reading it - but did it really shape my taste in fiction? Did reading the follow-up novel give me a love for language, when a space traveler killing a giant alien bird with a laser knife on its last powerpack - but to avoid culturally contaminating the strange human cave men - at the end he just picked up a rock and gesticulated smashing the bird on the head - later on having his partner deliver her baby and the caveman midwife saying "flekka" - and it was strangely similar to the Swedish word girl - "flicka"? And this gave rise to a theory that these people were transplanted by some alien force?

No idea, man. But what I do now is that every so often I see if Good Old Games have released Klingom Academy yet - 23 years after its initial release - and I know that the main composers were two people collaborating, one is the original composer for TNG and also worked on several Star Trek game projects, and the other is Inon Zur - who later worked on Bethesda's Fallout games?

If these games and showes are not influences, I sure do think a lot about them.

[merge-conflict]

I realize there are some practical limitations to different models (I’ll save my pc body types rant for another day) but sometimes all I can do is daydream longingly for the kind of extreme body modifications that must be possible in Cyberpunk- even if homebrewed and hacked or in a risky gray area like the maelstrom optic nerve stuff. Where’s the person with a super long segmented centipede like body? Extra limbs? Forget fursuits where are the furries who have enough money to make themselves look more like animals? What does adapting to that level of change take? I have to assume it’s pretty fringe– either someone’s life work tinkering or people who are so rich they can afford to be an “oddity”. What does it look like when you can change your body at will? And then what happens when your prototypes have wear and tear? If you don’t have a good time adjusting? Like Smasher is considered to be an outlier in that he enjoys being a borg, and he has had multiple frames he’s used (including the humanlike gemini one) so clearly it’s a technical possibility…

I’m very wary of how the dream treats cyberpsychosis tbh, and my own personal feelings about it are that it has more to do with everyone’s stress levels being more or less unmanageable all the time even without physical changes and recovery. (Not holding my breath for whatever they’ve implemented as a mechanic for the dlc btw. I’m sure it won’t be tasteless or reductive.) But there’s gotta be somebody out there who wants a “weird” body and can get it and I’m fascinated at the idea of free for all (consensual) body modification and there’s very little delivery. I can’t even take off my tits in game, y’know? Then at the very end of the game you can choose to be digitized and no one even begins to explore what that means in universe and it makes me want to eat my keyboard and add about a dozen more exploratory stories to the pile.

[dimalink]

Cold day and quake

Country house, country house. Sweet village. So, it is already month June. But, to my surprise, it was cold weather. And I need to change shorts for jeans. So, this time, it was really cold, but without rain. Clouds in the sky. And when sun goes from the clouds, then it was getting warmer. And, by the evening, weather starts to be better. And I was basked under the sun in the evening. I watched the trees. You know, country house is in the forest. And I watched the sky.

And, of course, I spent time, also with videogames. After, some little village tasks. I sit down and play. In my Windows Xp notebook. I try several games. By serious, I run simulation. Harpoon Classic 97. It is some style sea simulation, or better say, strategy game. About theme of radars, oceans, land, and mainly about ships and submarines. 

It was about times 80s or 90s, I think. And game is more serious, than I expect. I don’t understand at all. How to play it. So, even hurricanes can happen in the sea. Before my eyes, there is a strategy map. Lots of ships and submarines and you need to do something. I don’t get, what to do.

 I try to continue play in Crimsonland. I stuck at level Arachnid Farm. It is already episode 2. In mode with levels. Game has lots of play mode, by the way. And lots of weapons, bonuses, and even has upgrade system. It is made with perks. You gain experience for monsters and choose a new skill. Such a funny arcade. Shooter. Game is just a meat, you know.

 A most of all, in a dusky day. Better to say, just grey and cold day. I was playing, of course, in Quake 2. I move forward pretty good. I reach episode, or how, they called here – missions. Such a super big length levels. Up to the stage Jail. It was a scene with a big gun. Such gun, to shoot in the sky. You cannot sit before it. But after the gun it was an enemy. It was such effect. And, mainly, enemies become more evil. And more strong. And stage is jail. It is rather dark place. I need to say.

 Some change in locations. If previous stage was industrial base, technological base. And this stage is different, it reminds about medieval architecture from first quake. But only reminds. There is also a place for computers, and it is also industrial place.

 I noticed, that labyrinths are become trickier. So, mainly, you are going just forward. But you need to push something. Get up with the lift, take useful item. And that’s why it become more tricky to play. Multi floor architecture.

 There are places with water regions and underwater. It is large territory, saying in another words, for your explore. As I say before, you can walk these maps. You can have a walk on a map. And even more, you need to do that, because computer gives you some tasks. And now I am reading carefully everything, that computer writes to me. Button F1 is your best friend. It writes to you what to do and where to go.

 I take a notice, that some locations are made like a circle, you can go by circles. You, if you do not know where to go, then you will get lost. Because it is a round and circles. And enemies will catch you. And some places there is a screaming alarm signal here. And all the time all these cyborgs, half humanoids, half humans are running at you. It is serious war game is here. You intrude with automatic gun to the enemy base. And you are making some task here. Man, you know, no jokes, it is scary. Especially at level stage Jail.

 It is a dark place. There are your soldiers in the prison cells here. But they are already gone mad after experiments. We can see, that not all of them will become cyborgs or borgs. It is a scary picture. So, one soldier speaks – “Lets go”. Some one another is screaming something. Third is hitting his head about the floor, while he is at his knees, or if he stands, then he hit his head into the wall. Scary place. No jokes. And I don’t have sunny day, also. And it is a cold day. It is getting more of this atmosphere. It is intense situation and cold.

Machinegun takes, as I see, same ammo as automatic gun. And I don’t have time to make sure while a battle time. But machinegun use ammo very fast. It starting rotating for a long time. And fast blowing bullets. Works well. But usage of ammo is so big, that very fast, you will be out of ammo. I am, standing for automatic gun. As for me, it is more close to me. Automatic fire saving situations, all the time.

 Shotgun is not bad. But you need to aim from a right distance. To the head or body. It depends on how strong is enemy is. Some enemies, you cannot take just with shotgun, and you need to fire 5-6 shotguns slow strikes.

 You are out of ammo all the time. And I even play on level easy. And I become dead many times. I make a load and try again. Shotgun is good against who is small or weak. And in other situations, it is good with automatic gun. Or is it Uzi into his hands. I say automatic gun, saying simple.

I pick up all the time, healing things. It helps a lot. Location jail is made in another style. With elements as medieval, as industrial. There is some pyramid here. It is a several people in high. Not high, but higher than a human. As one and a half of human size, or little higher. And it is something like their computer. And lots of running because of this pyramid. First, you need disk to bring. Then to go to another part of the map. And all the time computer will tell you what to do.

 Game has a good music. It is playing rock music. It is nice to listen to it. Or such heavy metal. Or minor rock with gothic mood, but rock. It happens, that when you walk this labyrinth a lot of time, then music stop to play. And you go with silence and hear screams of monsters. And it is wind blowing outside. And red sky. Effects and music are cool here.

 So, in result, I think quake is good game. And there is a change of locations. And there is something to surprise player. With more fat and hard to hit monsters. And tasks – like bring disk, activate pyramid. Find computer and restart it. Something like this. And all the time, it is feeling, that you are on enemy territory.

 And, I finish with country house theme note. At the evening, I was just standing about half of hour under the sun. It basks, but it is not a heat. And it was a rather cold wind. North, maybe. But sun basked. I simply was standing under the sun and watched the sky and trees. I spent time very good. But, day, was cold for summer. But I remember this day. And I played in quake very good!

 Dima Link is making retro videogames, apps, a little of music, and some retro more.

WEBSITE: http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/home_eng.html ITCHIO: https://dimalink.itch.io/ GAMEJOLT: https://gamejolt.com/@DimaLink/games

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[sprintingowl]

Writing Your First TTRPG

So you want to write your first TTRPG system.

A short thread.

First, you should know that you don't have to make your TTRPG from scratch.

You can always use Mork Borg or Fate or PbtA or Trophy or any other system that supports third party content.

Systems like Caltrop Core even come with tutorial material for how to write your game.

But let's say you don't want any guardrails. You want to make the whole thing yourself. Here's how to do that.

To start, zero in on what your system's about.

Don't worry about genre or style, just find something you think would be fun to tell stories about. Dinosaur bikers. Astronauts in a lover's tiff. Spiders selling hats. Anything.

Now that you've got your subject, the next step is crucial.

Dive right in.

I'm serious. Open up a document and start writing the part of the game that is most interesting to you.

It might be character Classes, or monsters, or even just a basic idea of how you want your game to handle some part of gameplay.

"Food is important! There's rules for hunting!" is a fine place to start.

From there, build outward.

If you've written "Gremlin Class: +1 to Sneak, +1 to Airship Repair", that tells you two things about how your system works.

It tells you that both sneaking and airships matter in your game, and that you should write rules for them.

When writing rules, here are some things not to worry about just yet:

-Are the rules realistic?

-Do the rules work?

Just get some mechanics down. Give people a way to interact with your game.

"Roll a d6. High is good and low is bad" is a fine place to start, but you can get weirder.

Do you want people to roll a lot of dice? Or use dice that get neglected?

Do you want to test something other than dice rolling, like playing cards or flicking a paper football?

Do you want players to have some degree of control over the dice? Can they spend a resource for rerolls, or to simply succeed?

You might end up finding that your dice system works a bit like another game, and this is completely fine. There are thousands of TTRPG systems that have elements that overlap with each other. Nobody has a patent on target numbers.

Once you've got some mechanics, take a look at how they interact with the other thing you built---the thing you care about. This will inspire you to design further.

Add new Classes, new monsters, new subsystems.

Keep designing until you feel like you've written down everything you want to, and then get some sleep.

Yes, really. Put the project down, go to bed, wake up the next day, and edit it.

Your game is going to look incoherent at first, and that's fine. The goal of this editing pass isn't to get it perfect. It's to get your game to the point where someone can read it and make a character.

Once your game is in that state, get some friends to build PCs. Play a session. See what breaks. Go back and adjust your game to fix the things that broke. Then play a bit more. See what else breaks.

If you wrote a really big system, this will all take longer, but eventually you'll find that your system isn't breaking all the time.

At this point, you can keep it for yourself and your friends, or you can distribute it.

Platforms like itchio are great for posting new TTRPGs. Depending on your skillset, you might illustrate your game and put it through layout, or you might just export it as a PDF and post it. Both approaches are fine.

If you decide you want to make your project into a commercial undertaking, you can go to kickstarter or gamefound, or print zines and sell them yourself. Or you can just sit back and enjoy the thing you've made.

--

Coda: This is absolutely not the only way to design TTRPGs, and I'm sure a lot of designers have completely different processes. If this approach isn't working for you, or if there's something you hate about it, go with your instinct and do things different.

[allstartrekgames]

Star Trek: Borg

Original Release: 1996

Developer: Simon & Schuster

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Platform: PC

The second interactive movie game. This follows Cadet Furlong who is being sent to a starbase ahead of a Borg invasion 10 years after the Battle of Wolf 359. Wishing he was fighting the Borg instead, as he lost his father at the Battle of Wolf 359, the cadet ends up being visited by Q. Q offers him a chance at saving his father and sends the cadet to the past, taking the place of the security officer and Q taking place of the medic.

The whole game is made up of live action footage, and John de Lancie gets plenty of screen time and is wonderful through the whole thing. The cast of new characters are also really good, too. At points in the “film” you get to make choices or solve puzzles, with Q resetting you if you mess up. I found that I much preferred picking the “wrong” options so I could see all the footage – you can never get tired of Q teasing you.

Because of Q resetting things, I think this works better than the Klingon game. I also really like that they make use of the bad choices as you sometimes need information from them to progress though the correct path. Unfortunately, the game is a lot of hassle to get working on a modern PC, so unless it gets easier, I would recommend watching the game on YouTube instead – treat it as an extra episode of Star Trek, as that’s what it essentially is.

[captaincrusher]

Hi, I also play sims 4 and it’s a shame you can’t use CC cause I just found some things that can make your character a trill, a bajoran, a cardassian , a Klingon, a borg, and Star Trek uniforms and I’ve been having a time with those.

That sounds like a lot of fun! At some point I might switch to PC and explore the game that way.