#borg pc Game

[mvfm-25]

" Star Trek meets Quake III... You know it makes sense! " PC Zone Magazine n81 - October, 1999.

[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/

[probablyfunrpgideas]

Idea: if you’re playing a game where zombies, or vampires, or the Borg, or werewolves are a major part of the plot, here’s a devil’s bargain or plot enriching device. Let’s say a PC gets affected by one of these infecting monsters - a toxic mutagen is sprayed on the Monk during a battle with some yuan-ti, and the fight is far from over.

Now, the rules might say the Monk immediately morphs into a serpentine version of himself, but the rule of cool still applies. “I’ll let you resist by sheer willpower for a few minutes,” you tell the player, “but if you do, there’s no curing this.” With the Witch at 0 hit points, and the Fighter surrounded, it’s a dramatic decision - and the Monk will have another dramatic moment later when he says goodbye to his friends as he becomes a bloodthirsty snake monster.

Would you take the deal for your character? Save the day, but become an enemy of the party or run off into the forest? Or would you accept immediate transformation, with the possibility that they could save their friend later on?

[darachbeo]

Dimension 20 seasons that used D&D5e and the other systems that would have served them better.

I'm mostly just making this to vent because, while I do enjoy D20, I am a WotC/5e hater and think that the platform that Dropout has with D20 could be better used to uplift smaller designers/publishers rather than just homebrewing/redesigning the dragon game published by the cartoonishly evil, multi-billion dollar corporation every other season.

Be warned that the only two seasons/series here I have actually watched are Fantasy High and Dungeons & Drag Queens because I simply cannot be bothered to watch that many hours of a game i don't even like. Most of this is gonna be based off of trailers and summaries and vibes.

Fantasy High (and associated spin-offs)

Starting off strong with the flagship, this series is a pseudo-urban fantasy, with only one nation in the world of Solace having technology comparable to modern day and the rest being more classically high-fantasy. Because the setting and story is very much typical of a fantasy game, I think another fantasy game would be good to use here. Perhaps even one that also includes high-tech stuff like automatons and androids, even space ships! That's right, I think Fantasy High would be better as a Pathfinder 2e game. Given how much the PCs play with their builds and use more customized content, as well as how diverse the NPCs are, a game with more character options to support that natively is what I would look for here and Pathfinder 2e does that very well. Pathfinder is also already very similar to DnD in how it plays, so the transition for both players and the audience wouldn't be too jarring either, with only some terminology differences and slightly different maths being the biggest gap.

Pathfinder 2e is published by Paizo, who are a unionized company as opposed to WotC sicking the literal Pinkertons on people, and all of the rules for the game are available legally and for free online on the Archives of Nethys.

Dungeons & Drag Queens

This series is also high-fantasy, but far more focused on the camp than anything else. The players here in the all-drag queen cast also don't appear to be all that familiar with the game either, so a game that is more rules-lite and rewards camp would be the ideal system here. For those reasons, while it is not a fantasy game, I believe that QUEERZ! would be the best system for this series.Not only is this systems specifically about playing queer characters in a world of ignorance, it also utilizes a system of easily understood tags and descriptions rather than numbers and hard calculations, allowing it to be more fluid and quickly learned by people new to it. The creativity for how this system works also lends itself very well to rewarding and encouraging campy behavior, which would play very well with the all-drag queen cast.

QUEERZ! is published by ISA, a queer mangaka, and Son of Oak Game Studio.

Starstuck Odessy

A season about a space-ship faring group of misfits. Very sci-fi but in a very grungy way. Yes I know it is technically not DnD 5e but Star Wars 5e instead, but that is still using the same bones and contributes to WotC. I was originally going to put Paizo's other game, Starfinder here, but in light of recent (late June 2025) events in the TTRPG sphere, I'm going to say Rebel Scum instead. Rebel Scum is an explicitly anti-facist system that takes big inspiration from Star Wars. It includes "giant lasers and space magic" so I think the Intrepid Heroes, as well as Brennan and the audience, would absolutely love this system.

Rebel Scum is published by 9th Level Games and can be purchased on itch.io.

A Crown of Candy/The Ravening War

This season is strongly inspired by Game of Thrones, but with a candy coating. The high-lethality and court drama of this series are what makes it stand out, in addition to everything being food. I think the best system to use here would just be MÖRK BORG and applying the same everything-is-food aesthetic to it. There are also a bunch of other games compatible with MÖRK BORG to add-in additional options and flavors of narrative if need be, like CY_BORG or Punk is Dead. The dark nature of this game would play itself well into the role-play of this high-lethality setting and let it use that to thrive.

MÖRK BORG is published by Free League Publishing and is available in both Swedish and English.

Escape From the Blood Keep

This is a very heavily Lord of the Rings inspired campaign, which makes the decision here very easy. Just play The One Ring, which is explicitly an LotR TTRPG. It has rules for combat, traveling, and diplomacy which would work great with the workplace comedy themes here while also retaining much more of the Tolkein-esque flavor.

The One Ring is also published by Free League.

The Unsleeping City

An urban fantasy setting set in NYC that has a lot of supernaturally charged politics? This sounds like the exact kind of game Urban Shadows was made for. While the game is generally written for the supernatural elements to be unknown to the average citizen of the world, that can be changed much more easily than trying to make a high-fantasy game fit a modern setting. Being a Powered by the Apocalypse game, it is pretty easy to pick up on mechanically and allows for a lot of narrative play-space.

Urban shadows is published by Magpie Games and recently had a very successful Kickstarter for a second edition.

Tiny Heist

A campaign about a bunch of little folk and toys come to life going on a dangerous heist. I'm gonna get real indie here and say that the best system for this would be Goons in Toyland, a game where imagination brings things just like this to life, but can also make things that go bump in the night real as well. It is a very simple system and I think it would have served both this campaign and its crew and audience very well.

Goons in Toyland is an indie game made by the wonderful @mrrayrpg, who is a friend of mine and also has a podcast, $2 Creature Feature.

Mice & Murder

This season appears to be a furry murder mystery game, which I fuck with as a concept. I would fuck with it even more if it used a system like Brindlewood Bay, which takes inspiration from Call of Cthulhu and Murder She Wrote. The blend of horror, mystery, and camp here would have served this season very well, though it was not published until almost two years after this season was filmed (but if there's a second season....).

Brindlewood Bay is published by Gauntlet Publishing and is an ENnie Award winner.

Coffin Run

This is a vampire season where the PCs have to recover Dracula's coffin for him. I think this would have been better served by Vampire: The Masquerade for obvious reasons. I do not think further explanation is needed here. Yes there is a non-vampire character, but since VtM is a World of Darkness game, compatible with others in the same universe, non-vampire characters could be made from one of those systems, like Hunter: The Reckoning.

Vampire: The Masquerade has multiple editions and publishers, so you have choices here depending on the compatibility you want.

A Court of Fey and Flowers

This game is already half not 5e, using Good Society for a lot of the courtly aspects of the game, but the bulk of it is still 5e with extra steps homebrew in it. The Good Society bits can stay I guess, but I think the rest would have been better suited by Faery's Tale, which is explicitly an RPG about such fairy tales and the creatures in them and plays with those themes very well.

Faery's Tale is published by Green Ronin and was nominated for multiple ENnies and an Origins Award.

Neverafter

More fairy tale than the previous season, but in a very Brother's Grimm dark style. This makes me think of dark folklore, which leads me to the system of Vaesen, a game about confronting monsters from Scandinavian folklore that are often metaphors for social and environmental issues. I haven't watched this season, but I feel like that would also fit this season really well based on what I do know about it.

Vaesen is another Free League game and has a supplement that brings in some Celtic folklore as well.

Burrow's End

This season is about little critters going on a deadly and dangerous adventure.Very Watership Down.Because of that, I think the best system for it would be The Warren, which is also very Watership Down. Rules as written, player characters are all rabbits, but that can be narratively adjusted with ease. It's also a PbtA game, so the mechanical aspects are fairly easy to pick up on, especially for those who have played other PbtA games.

The Warren is published by Bully Pulpit Games and a PDF only version is available on itch.io.

Titan Takedown

Wrestling with a Greek mythology coat of paint. If it were just a mythological fantasy campaign, it would be easy to say Scion for this one, but since they went hard with the wrestling aspect, I think the best choice for this campaign would have been World Wide Wrestling. WWW covers the drama, the wrestling, and the whole good versus evil plot this season likes to go for and honestly seems like it would be a flawless choice.

World Wide Wrestling is and indie game by Nathan D. Paoletta and often has free community copies available on itch.io.

Cloudward Ho!

A steampunk adventure focused around a mystery to locate a missing person? This just screams Blades in the Dark to me. Blades is very Dishonored-esque, with the supernatural being very real but vague and unknown for most people, and centered around a gang of scoundrels trying to make it in the world. This season is currently still airing, but I have seen the clip compilation where Siobhan solves the little riddle Brennan gave the players and that only reinforces my choice here.

Blades in the Dark is published by Evil Hat and recently had a crowdfunding campaign for an expansion called Deep Cuts.

anyways those are my thots on the subject. no i will not be accepting criticism. good bye.

[ultimavela]

Conquistadors, Inquisitors, and Settelers from the north

They all look thirsty, they all are violent, they all desire gold, and they all create their own myths about your home, Isla Grande.

Roll d6-d6 for each column in the next table to create a Conquistador

-> If you need a paraphernalia, you can get one HERE

Inquisitors belong to one of seven orders: Lunate, Hamate, Triquetrum, Pisiforme, Capitatum, Carpalia, and Phalanx. Being Phalanx the order that oversees all the others.

In each order, there are six specialities that can be fulfilled by its members, being Oculus the one that oversees the order within itself:

Spina: Entry rank multi-functional inquisitor.

Valde: Posted to manage a village and its affairs.

Vulnus: Specialises in warfare and military missions.

Penetravit: Infiltration and secret missions.

Combustia: Commandant of large operations and specializes in witchcraft, its uses, and restrictions. They can become Combustia-adeptus; those that have learned the use of witchcraft in service of their god. A combustia-adeptus commonly will learn the secrets of the anima vincula, the magic of will subjugation.

Oculus: Oversees the order.

Above all the orders is the Phalanx Dei, who is thought to be the direct finger of the god-man-king on earth, and to whom all inquisitors answer.

Roll 1d20 for each column in the next table to create an Inquisitor:

Settlers from the north

Settlers do everything without any modifier and all of them have 10 blood (HP), all red.

CONVERSION FOR OTHER OSR GAMES

This NPCs make references to something call “Grief” and sometimes to another tactic/attribute/stat of the PCs, so if you want to use them in your OSR game…

…for something like OSE you can use this:

Grief → XP or Treassure carried by PCs or sum of both (divided by 1000).

Blood → HP (this is for mortal creatures)

Strong → STR

Agile → DEX

Imposing → CHA

Resilient → CON

Sneaky → DEX

Observant → WIS

Shields dies d4/d6/d8/d10 → AC +1/+1/+2/+2

…for something like MÖRK BORG you can use this:

Grief → Omens, or Silver dived by 100, or the sum of both.

Blood → HP (this is for mortal creatures)

Strong → Strenght

Agile → Agility

Imposing → Presence

Resilient → Toughness

Sneaky → Agility

Observant → Presence

Shields dies d4/d6/d8/d10 → Damage reduction -1/-1/-2/-2

…In the case of Conquistadors (for Mork Borg and OSE)

Violence → When doing something physical.

Pride → When doing something social.

…In the case of Inquisitors (for Mork Borg and OSE)

Torture → When doing something physical.

Intimidation → When doing something social.

…for both you could also add this:

Let the PCs spend “X” HP to increase their roll by “X”.

Let PC to sacrifice a weapon/shield to prevent damage.

Allows PCs to gain Dominance (added to all combat rolls, represented by any kind of token) by doing something that gives them an advantage (better combat stance, stunt, intimidation, making the terrain change, etc…) → They need to roll to acquire it, it is cumulative and on a failed roll they lose it all.

Conditions modify the rolls of anything that make sense (spring ankle will hinder jumping, confused will hinder perceptions, anger will hinder interactions, etc…). Conditions stack.

If you dont want to use Conditions, then make them do as much d4 damage as their mnodifiers (ex: Sorrow -2 → 2d4 damage).

“Tags” are word that accompany a weapon/shield. In a NAT 20, you can give that word as a condition to your adversary, or apply any special rules pecified by the tag.

If anything has just one stat, it can use it for everything.

If anything make reference to number of Compulsions, you can remplace it with number of weapons or valuable belongings

If there is reference to advantage/disadvantage roll twice and use best/worst result.

[chicago-geniza]

Once again thinking about imprinting on Daniel Molloy as a fictional character and how I used to spend hours playing that Voyager PC game as a kid deliberately derailing quests in order to get assimilated by the Borg on purpose. Which could mean nothing,

[goblincow]

Is it too late for me to pull something together to crowdfund for Zine Month?

I have an adventure playset compatible with Mörk Borg with some design sketches and loads of great notes and ideas that I'm ready to start work on properly, called WAIL OF THE ROT KING.

I also want to make a farcical push-your-luck ruleset for use with Mörk Borg adventures (cos I find the engine behind Mörk Borg very dry, not at all the extreme campy nightmare it says on the tin) called NASTY BASTARDS: A SLAPSTICK HORROR GAME FOR 3-5 WEIRD LITTLE FREAKS where when your PC dies you take over control of a nearby pre-existing NPC with all their motivations, so shit can hit the fan fast and you can end up with entirely different goals and weird conflicts but actually maybe get a better picture of all the fun stuff in a module than you might otherwise?

But I haven't even figured out what I want that central push-your-luck mechanic to be yet, so it's very much just a strong sketch of a game in need of proper development.

I have a logo, some writing snippets, a pitch and some sick illustrations/layout/collage examples for both of these, and I intend to produce it all as one project.

But I only just realised that I could maybe do zine month, considering this is my next major project either way?

Is it too late, is there still time?

Are we in a crowdfunding landscape where I really do need a mostly complete project before I try and fund it?

I haven't funded anything before, where do I begin?

I also have a book coming out this year with Melsonia, which luckily they are very cool and smart and on the ball about, but I'll still be learning what that's like for the first time and sinking time in to polish the final touches and promote it.

So would I be better off working on Nasty Bastards/Wail of the Rot King until it's 90% there, doing my research and proper planning, then learning to crowdfund through ZiMo '26 so I'm not doing too much at once?

I don't want to overload myself and burn myself out, so I think I've answered my own question, but if anyone has any advice I'd definitely appreciate it!

[geometrygirl]

Thinking a bit on some of the reasons I’ve become a bit annoyed with DND 5e (mechanically and culturally, not from a WoTC-bashing sense):

1. I think that 5e has crystallized a theory of DMing where the DM is sort of expected to concede *a lot* to players, based mostly on the notion that PCs will drive the narrative based on what they want. This isn’t necessarily a mechanical issue (though it has some overlap with the “main character fixation” point 2 below), and it isn’t exclusive to 5e, but I think it has become a more intrenched assumption with the popularity of Live Plays, which are media made for an audience with long-form storytelling prioritized. We are also a culture where more people come to DND from videogames as well. There’s nothing wrong with PCs saying that they weren’t ready for character death and would like to figure out an alternative, but I think it’s bad when I see people claim a DM is “playing wrong” just for having high-level villains use their powers effectively against a party.

2. What is considered “roleplay” seems to now heavily be a focus on backstory, already-established goals (tied to backstory), vocal/physical character acting, and doing showy things with mechanical powers. None of this is bad in and of itself. But it feels like it’s kind of become an assumption that if you’re not being a big “main character” you can’t be properly roleplaying. Not not a big OSR player, but I think it’s unjustified when people say that there’s no roleplaying in something like Mork Borg just because it doesn’t give you a lot of character powers or backstory-fodder and you start out as a weak nobody. It’s okay to be a character that grows and is fleshed out by being in the game world—and learning about the game world through play rather than character creation—rather than already be some kind of warrior (?) from the get-go. Now I know 5e is a game for big characters. PF2 is as well and I really like its mechanics more than 5e. 3.5 also tended to focus on very powerful characters. But a lot of these roleplay tendencies I think tip in the direction of “being” a character by talking about yourself, having emotional beats already in mind, and using unique powers, rather than figuring out how you interact with the world around you and with other characters.

3. 5E is not well-balanced and is not rules-lite. I dunno know why people act like it is the best introductory ttrpg system with easy rules. What 5E *does* have is branding and a general core framework (when in doubt, roll the d20) that can have a bunch of other half-fleshed-out systems bolted onto it. 5E happens to be good for a certain kind of tinkering in the way that you may intentionally buy a busted cheap guitar to fiddle with. But the fact that people often choose to chuck a good deal of RAW because they’re inconsistent or feel clunky or boring doesn’t mean that the game is actually easy. Or that games *should always* try to make their rules largely optional and modular. I think this has led to weird assumptions about what rules do for games. Sometimes a game works well when it offers a lot of flexibility to just chuck things. Sometimes you should probably play a different system, even if you want to keep the world/flavour of the one that isn’t working for you. Sometimes games give you lots of flexibility without offering a lot of mechanical depth (OSR rulings-not-rules type stuff), sometimes games are v hard to keep balanced if you fiddle with the core machinery at play but sticking to those rules can make it easier to play really rich, powerful characters (Burning Wheel, PF2).

4. I know I just complained about “powerful main characters” but for a game where you play big heroes (at least by default) the character creation is pretty bland. And no, saying people do homebrew doesn’t mean that the system has solved its own problem (see the Oberoni Fallacy/Rule 0 Fallacy).

[allstartrekgames]

Star Trek Online (Perpetual Entertainment)

Original Release: N/A (Cancelled 2008)

Developer: Perpetual Entertainment

Publisher: Perpetual Entertainment

Original Platform: PC

Not played: No leaked prototypes.

This version of Star Trek Online was in development by Perpetual Entertainment. The game was due to a lot of focus on non-combat activities such as planetary surveys and diplomatic activities (although there would be plenty of combat, too).

Players could only own small ships to trave on their own. The bigger ships – such as the Galaxy class and Sovereign class – were large social hubs with detailed interiors where you would be a member of the crew.

The story was set 20 years after Nemesis, where the galaxy was at relative peace and even the Borg weren’t a huge threat. It was focused on exploring the Beta Quadrant and one of the main NPCs would have been Miral Paris, who influenced a lot more Klingons to join Starfleet, especially those that believe her to be the kuvah’magh (this part was kept in the Cryptic version).

Developing your character would be about specialising in certain fields, such as medical or flight control, and gain skills that would help in a variety of different situation.

There was even an ambition of Star Trek Online leading to a TV show, with player’s actions in the game impacting the show. This concept was tried again by a different Sci-Fi show, Defiance, but the “influence” ended up not amounting to much.

When this version of Star Trek Online was cancelled in 2008 (with all development staff sacked), the game’s assets were given to Cryptic Studios, who used it as a basis for their version, but ultimately decided on a different path. There was also a stipulation that the new version had to be released within two years.

[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

[dimalink]

Quake 2 – 3,2,1 countdown and up to generator of a black hole

And I continue my summer walkthrough summer, my summer walk in second Quake.  From time to time, as a time break, pause, relax. And I, already, solve the reactor moment. Lots of things – I was doing for this. To stop cooler. And next to run different maps and push the buttons. Something to do with water. And, only, after that reactor was destroyed. Of course, it was about very different maps. And different number of enemies. Action is in continue.

Interesting new moment in game. You run to final computer. And only after that, you get to know, it is final step. And you push the button. And now you need to run fast. And it is start countdown. And you need to run to the very start point of the map. It is not far. But it is winding road, it not straight. There are turns, corridors. I think, about with attempt number ten I do it. And I need to remember a way. To experiment. It is a big gun location. I think so, as I remember that right now. Some nearby storylines segments. It was very exciting.

In Quake, there are such short sequences, short briefings. So, it is everything so computerized, as in action movie. So, reactor is done. Big gun is destroyed. Saying more correct, it was something like rocket attack or artillery ride, something like that it was in a storyline. So, when you play for the first time, you are very surprised. And after first walkthrough, when you are doing one more walkthrough, you are already can pay more attention to the details, so it still interest point to play again. At first, it is simple – surprise point. And just pass the stage. To get to know what to do.

So, I remember a place, when you are in something like mission impossible – and you need to run with time counter back, it was cool! I remember that. Adventure!

So, one more interesting moment. Near the something black colored and with form like bee hive pillar. Some reactor, maybe it was. It was a lava there. And such a small bridge. It was broken and you go by it. And later you see two computers at the edge. And you need to jump from little bridge to that computer’s small places. One by one to turn them on. Such moment – it is, already, a fragment from style game like Half Life.

By the way, grenade launcher, of course, it is slow thing, but this thing has some feature. If to hit enemy straight, then explosion is immediately. So, this way it should to be used. Or to throw grenades behind the corner. You see enemy - he is slow. You are doing fast back. And shoot behind the corner with grenade launcher. So, this way it works good.

Yes, such a funny moment. In one room, I shoot with rocket launcher. I cannot to hit enemies. They do some move all the time, and move to a different sides. And so, I hit some computer. And it was a secret. I got a message – you find a secret! It was a random thing for me.

Interesting visual style has a second Quake. It is such from the era of appearing a three dimension graphics. Age of rising three dimensional accelerators for graphics. Everything is such rounded or like squares, it depends from design level. Some special colors, and some smooth effect for textures. Part of textures - it is just like a color, it is stretched to all the wall. Somewhere textures are more detailed, some arts or drawing you can see, even. Smooth, it is a point, that makes a surprise even today. Part of stylization.

So, there is someway like this, here you have a shotgun, and rocket launcher, rail gun. They have such a circle, rounded forms. It is more often to see. For example. And in some things - it is opposite - a square form. In level design. Explosions are such rectangles style here.

Interesting such action movie. I need to go to hangar. And to destroy a black hole generator. So, not to deactivate it. And certain way to do - destroy it. And, by the way, I find a new enemy on some levels. They are such funny visual rust industrial view robots with green power field. You shoot at them. And it reacts as a bright green shield field. You better to shoot at his legs with something like rockets or grenades. In this case, not from a first attempts, but his shield is breaking. They have a funny visual.

Design, here again, it is, already, like a computer base. So, there are here generators of power field. You need to deactivate them. To run a different maps. To push some buttons at the computers. And, after that to go back to a room with such a dark green computer big thing. And go to a little door. Where before it was a power field.

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/

[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.

[ultimavela]

This past weekend, I had the luck of being able to visit some friends at their place to continue a game that we have been playing sporadically whenever we can meet.

They live in another country, which makes every meeting and schedule of a new game difficult but also special, as until now, we have decided only to play in person.

We are playing Knave with an extra modified version of the “Stamina” mechanics of Grave, and some ideas coming from Mork Borg.

The setting we have created has “Dolmenwood” and the “Old World” (Warhammer fantasy) on the same continent, and includes the “Goblin curse” from Mork Borg as a recurrent topic on the adventures and, recently, players have found their way into the “Stygian Library”.

In our last game (we played three sessions the past weekend), the PCs confronted someone that has been following them after some climatic events. This mysterious figure followed them to the “Stygian Library”, and to make thing a little spicier, between session I created an extra room-staircase based on Harry Potter’s grand staircase, so if they escaped or confronted their stalker, they will have to transverse a room that is eternally changing (the rest of the “Stygian Library” we played as intended, by generating the rooms, events, and details while playing, wituoput preparing anything in advance).

It's a super simple concept, but it worked super well when we played in it, so I thought maybe someone else could enjoy it.

So here it is, the eternally changing staircase!