#game's not playable the stats are for fun

[sabrebash]

I realized i hadn't posted all of the cards i completed last year, especially some of my favorites like the Rods and Mokole Mbembe, and since i didn't like the format i was posting them in anyway I figured i'd make a masterpost here. Sorry for the length! I'm not selling these at present since a 17 card deck is such an awkward length, but maybe i could add to it in the future? I love rods/skyfish so much man they're so dumb.

[prokopetz]

The way The World Ends With You handles equipment-gating ends up having some very fun implications.

First, equipment is level-gated, but rather than being tied directly to character level, it's instead tied to a levellable stat called Bravery (BRV) – which makes some narrative sense, since equipment in The World Ends With You consists of fashion items; in narrative terms, you're literally building the confidence to pull them off.

Second, equipment is also gender-gated, at least in theory – but since there's all of one playable girl in the original game (the sequel is better about this), rather than building in any special mechanics for this, the game just gives all of the "for girls" clothing inflated BRV requirements, and the sole playable girl a massive starting BRV score.

In practice, this achieves its objective, for the most part. The inflated BRV for girls' clothing means that even once a male character reaches the BRV level required to wear it, he'll usually have access to gender-conforming options with better stats.

... in the main game.

In the post-game, however, there are many more options for grinding BRV, and the stats for girls' clothing start to better reflect their elevated BRV requirements, to the extent that many post-game optimisation guides genuinely recommend putting your entire party in maid dresses if you can grind out the BRV to equip them.

I thought that was something this blog's followership would appreciate.

[lockheed-martin-unofficial]

Some exercises to get to know an oc!

(I’ve designed this list so that it requires no art or proper writing at all, it can mostly be done by doing picrews, describing and answering questions. )

1. Your oc as a playable video game character, (special abilities and stats). Bonus: write dialogue or one-liners.

2. If they played Dungeons and Dragons, what would their character be like?

3. Evil version of them

4. contents of their bag/ items they always carry around.

5. Average shopping list

6. various outfits for scenes or occasions

7. character’s wedding dress (yes, put that man in a dress.), or any other fancy outfit they would have

8. Graphic design: advertisement for their (perhaps nonexistent and/or illegitimate) business, wedding invite card, cult pamphlet,etc

9. Your oc is on the news for something they did. What did they do‼️

10. Mess around with the incorrect quotes/ headcanon generator

11. Take “what x are you” quizzes as them

12. what crimes are they most likely to get caught for? And what crimes are they most likely to get away with?

13. Describe or show how they would take notes for their studies, research, job, etc. this is better than a diary page, because it doesn’t demand you to get into character so much. Also less awkward.

14. A little known skill they have

15. Your oc watches Transformers. Which version of Megatron would be their favorite? Go on look all of them up right now and decide which one they would vibe with the most.

16. Need to prepare a really quick breakfast/lunch/dinner. What do they go with?

Feel free to send me asks with these and optionally the name of one of my ocs, and I will answer them.

OR you can give me a canon character and I’ll answer in a way I think would be accurate to them.

I hope other people can have fun with this as well. Feel free to repost!

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I'm curious about your thoughts about the OB cards. Personally I was REALLY hoping they weren't actually gonna happen because they overblots are supposed to be like super strong and they can't really do that without breaking the game because most things would be too easy or balancing it out which would make everything too hard for people who don't have the cards. So they’ll probably be weaker and it’s just a personal pet peeve of mine when strong bosses are weaker when they’re playable.

Also I know the characters that do overblot are like coming to terms with that or something (I would assume anyways I play on the English server) but it rubs me the wrong way that they're making cards of what's literally the characters trauma incarnated into really strong versions of themselves. Like maybe I'm overthinking it but even with everything with the Vil in book 7 I still think it's weird to let the form he takes from having a mental breakdown after almost killing someone be playable??? Though most people don’t seem to agree with this so maybe I am overthinking it lol

[Referencing this news!]

While I understand the frustration with watering down what are meant to be powerful people in canon and/or balancing new battle content around the more recent cards, power creep nothing new for these types of mobile gacha games, or even for Twst itself. For example, Malleus is canonically one of the top 5 strongest mages in all of Twisted Wonderland, but it's not as though all of the Malleus cards are OP to reflect this lore. As another example, events will often grant an item drop boost or a status buff to the limited time banner characters as a means of incentivizing you to pull for them. I find this particular egregious for the recently introduced Arcane Combat Drills/Magic Assault Practice events, which feature progressively arduous battle maps and are made easier if you happen to pull the featured staff SSR. The devs cannot just drop an OP character that will break the game (even if they would canonically) to maintain balance and keep the game fun for players. I honestly don't think power creep is a huge issue with Twst. It happens, certainly--but it's not as bad as other games I've seen. Cards now considered "old" are still considered good today (Dorm Uniform Trey is still a great healer, it took several years for someone else to topple Dorm Uniform Riddle in terms of highest attack stat; even then, Riddle is excellent for offense, etc.). Older cards also introduced new buffs and debuffs which enhance battle complexity and potential strategies. For example, there was previously NO way to stop the enemies from healing... until Dorm Uniform Vil was introduced. He was the first card to have Curse, which applies a debuff that prevents the enemies from healing for a set number of turns. Since then, other similar additions have been made to tweak combat.

This is a spoiler for EN only players (though it sounds like you saw the Malleus OB card preview/JP server content, so I'll assume it's safe to spoil you), but the OB forms end up being framed differently (more heroically) later in book 7. It's not a clear-cut case of Twst glamourizing poor mental health and trying to sell it to us. Overblots are, of course, initially presented as the characters' trauma made manifest, at their lowest points and succumbing to their inner darkness--and they still are. However, in the dream world of book 7 (plus some hacks + cheat tool support from Idia), the OB boys are able to assume their OB forms and use these to combat Malleus. The OB forms are referred to as the "strongest versions of themselves", and they even portray the shift from their normal forms to OB sort of like magical girl transformations. In this case, their lowest points ultimately become moments of triumph, as they all manage to confront that "darkness", embrace it, and then tame that power for themselves. (To be clear: they can't OB at will in reality or control their own OBs in reality; it's only possible in the confines of the dreamspace.) The narrative around the OBs is retooled to be empowering and a symbol of how far each of them has come rather than staying static as something to be ashamed of. The idea seems to be promoting acceptance of the past but also learning to grow from it. I don't see an issue with this. Even without this particular context, I don't think I would see an issue? Many of the characters have done very questionable things even outside of OB (Leona tries to sand Ruggie, Riddle attacks Ace with rose trees in an attempt to literally behead him, Vil tries to poison Neige, etc.), but there aren't protests about those character variants (Dorm Uniforms, School Uniforms, etc.) being playable. Twst is a game centering on Disney villains, so there's for sure going to be dubious actions being carried out and dubious morals on display.

I hope this helps to ease your worries or at least provides you with a different perspective ^^

[attollogame]

CHAPTER 4: PARIAH (Patreon Release)

Hi everyone! It's been a long, long time LMAO. I'm pleased to say that the Pariah update is now ready to (tentatively) play through and sits at about 39k. Shorter then anticipated by 1k, but I think the playability (depending on your persuasion and anxiety stats) makes up for that. Public release will be announced once I have it run on Patreon for a while and I clean what I want to clean :)

Those who go to Patreon to play... make note that you will need to replay. So enjoy a reintroduction to the world!

This update includes:

Driving a car, or being chauffeured

Strange things are happening on old McDonald's Farm

An intimate look at the diet of livestock

An equally intimate look at what might happen to you nasty little slime eaters (finally)

Murder. The not so fun kind.

Other house business:

An absence of a year means there are things to clean. I will be editing Deadlocks text in the Chapter 2 scene, and then working out some of the other issues I found in terms of pacing of text and playability

I removed the music from the game to work on that

The back button is absent (I know, sad) so I'll be reinstating that

Attollo now sits at 530, 680 words. Next up will be Suha's route.

PATREON

[puckpocketed]

Preds propaganda time!!!!!

It's so much fun being a fan of a shit team since it's always a treat if they win and it's never too hard when they lose

It is also investment for the future when we figure out what is wrong with us and then fix it and become Super Mega Good (I am coping)

Our notable achievement of the year is that to date, we are the only team to have beaten the Jets twice!!!! We killed a 5 on 3 penalty when they have the best pp in the league in the second win!!!!!!! I will never get over this!!!!!!!!

We are brightass yellow and I have convinced myself this is a perk

I mean our vibes aren't like on par with the Sharks' level or anything but it's Smashville man it's hard to have a truly shit time there's always fun to be had

Ok time for OUR GUYS!!!!

Our goalie tandem may not have top 3 stats but they are certainly top 3 in vibes!!!!! They are both Juice!!!! There is a big juice (Justus Annunen, who we got in November from the Avs) and a little juice (Juuse Saros who is my precious beautiful talented boy. I could go on about him for ages. He is (I'm pretty sure) the smallest goalie in the nhl, he is one of the most played goalies in the nhl, his team lets him get killed every night, I love him)

Our captain is the most beautiful captain in the nhl!!! Roman Josi when will you return from IR I MISS YOU

We have Filip Forsberg, known talented goalscorer and mustache haver!!

We have Preds Edition!Steven Stamkos, which is not the same as Regular Lightning Steven Stamkos!! The former is like the playable character version of the latter's video game boss. On one hand he had a hot week recently and is a goal away from sole possession of 22nd most goals scored in the nhl all time and on the other he scored an own goal that was credited to the Islanders' Sorokin for his first goalie goal the other week.

We have Ryan O'Reilly, who everybody wants BUT NOBODY WILL TAKE HE IS OURS AND WE HAVE HIM (He was a hot topic at the trade deadline because he's so good at hockey)

Currently our top dpair is noted silver fox Brady Skjei and noted cutie patootie Nick Blankenberg (he is literally my comfort Blanky)

We have so many full time children (23 or younger) and part time children (regular callups) right now I can't go into too much detail but trust me they're all swell

That is all I have for now thank you for your consideration as always I am preds ambassador come visit me any time at my embassy (my blog) <3

~@ittybittyjuice

HELLO!! I have been saving this one I’m sorry it took so long!! Lots of things on the back burner and life is ticking on <33 Thank you so much for taking the time to write this up and send it to me I will peep at the Preds tag soon I am so excited to get to know your little guys. Some thoughts about them:

Their tragicomedy calls out to me like the scent of a home cooked meal I love when things are so sad they’re a little bit funny. wdym your gm went all-in during offseason on big fish free agents and the team exploded anyways I’d call that hammy if it happened in a TV show <- JUST REALLY FUNNY AND INTERESTING TO ME

Roman Josi.

Comfort Blanky <- ur so good at this wwhy isnt preds lb yuge

I really need to know about little Fyodor Svechkov if you have anything on him. I’ve seen two (2) silly clips of him in media and he’s my point of reference for the Preds he’s the face of the franchise to me

You’re cool as hell for reaching out to other teams on here and trying to grow your community!! (I’m a supporter of everyone’s right to be a hater of course. Personallyyyyy I think the hockey communities on tumblr become smaller, meaner, less fun spaces when we isolate ourselves. Cross-pollination is KEY!!!!)

Thanks for coming to hang out <33 you make hockeyblr a warmer and brighter place for everyone !!!

Roman Josi

[indierpgnewsletter]

The 1980 Dallas RPG was a Soap Opera Wargame?

In 1980, SPI, a company known for its wargames did a strange thing and published an RPG based on the Dallas tv show. If you don't know anything about the tv show, don't worry, I will protect you. It's too late for me though. You go on ahead. Basically, it was a hit TV show of big money family feuding. Imagine Succession but it was written in the 1980s and instead of TV news, it was an oil company. Unlike the show, the RPG wasn't a hit. The art director of the game famously wrote that they printed 80,000 copies and that was 79,999 more than people wanted. That one person seemed to be this person's grandma who bought it for him to save his soul from D&D/Satan.

What is this game though? Well, James F Dunnigan, founder of SPI and designer of legendary wargame, Panzerblitz, seems to have applied his analytical mind to the internecine squabbles of Dallas and decided that, if you think about it, petty family drama isn't so different from CIA covert ops. And he was right.

As you'd expect from a wargame, the rules are dry and clinical to a fault. You start by picking one of the 9 characters from the show - JR, Jock, Sue Ellen, Pam, etc. They all have stats like Persuasion, Coercion, Seduction. And these stats have attack/defend values. For example, JR has a Coercion of 24 because he's a real jerk. Sue Ellen has a Seduction resist of 18, but it's 20 against JR, because again, he seems to have been a real jerk. This game genuinely went out of its way to make sure you know JR's wife really really doesn't want to go near him.

Each character starts the session ("episode") with a secret story-based objective. Jock wants to run an angry former employee out of town, JR wants to cheat an Arab oil magnate out of 100 million dollars, Sue Ellen wants to do a favour for an old boyfriend. Yeah, what can I say? Some of these objectives feel more important than others. Regardless, you achieve these objectives by controlling 4 or more specific minor characters and organisations by the end of the game. For example, to enact his 100 million dollar plan, JR has to control the Ewing Oil Company, Mustafa Quattara, Professor Bayard, the reporter Mary Cleef, and so on. But characters' objective overlap so Pam also wants Mustafa Quattara and Jock also wants Professor Bayard. These conflicting goals means players need to scheme, negotiate and attack each other so they can win.

The sessions play out in five rounds. Each round, the GM sets the scene. Then, the players can negotiate and make deals. Then, we enter the conflict phase where each player makes three moves - either trying to gain control of uncontrolled NPCs, or attacking another player to steal an NPC from under them, or protecting their own NPCs. And the game throws in little curveballs every round: Oops, some of JR's drinking buddies are in town and he can't say no to them, so his character is out of this round. Hopefully the player has some NPCs that they can use to act instead. Oops, Mustafa Quattara is being chased by assassins. Whoever controls his card has to give it up as he disappears for a bit and comes back uncontrolled. The end result is somewhere in between Vampire the Masquerade (or rather, Undying) and Blood on the Clocktower.

Sure, the math is dense (you roll 2d6 under the difference between the attack value and the defense value, plus or minus any currency spent). Sure, it takes 9 players to really sing. Sure, multiple people can complete their objective so you need to track victory points separately to decide the real winner. Sure, you have to take the homophobia out of the Seduction rules. Sure, roleplaying is completely optional. Sure, sure, sure. The game is a mess. But it's a very playable mess. I'd go so far as to say it's an electric mess. It's shockingly (sorry) fun to play. I think the secret lies in a very clear agenda for the players, a tight boardgame-like action economy, a premise that supports hilarious degrees of pettiness, and an inter-personal experience that demands everyone pay attention to what their friends are doing.

So. Am I planning a full 9 person play-by-post game of this? Yes. Am I thinking of changing the setting and the math? Yes. Is that basically designing a new game? Yes. Should this game be labelled "Powered by Dallas" or, as one of my players suggested, "Hornswoggled by Dallas"? YES.

(This was first published in the Indie RPG Newsletter.)

[anim-ttrpgs]

The Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy October 17th Beta update has launched today on itch.io for free!

Happy Halloween! We pulled out all the stops just to get the update out in time for you to prep and play it for your group’s Halloween game! The free adventure module that comes with it, “Horror Harry’s Haunted House”, takes place on Halloween after all! In it, your investigators will solve a “murder mystery” in a charmingly spooky haunted house escape room. It serves as a sort of investigation and survival training ground for you and your PCs to learn the ropes before jumping into more Call-of-Cthulhu-esque adventures where death is around every corner. (You can even get two more adventure modules over on our patreon)

Download the new rulebook here on itch.io! Even if you download it for free, just checking it out, talking about it, reblogging this post, etc. helps us out immensely. We are a diverse, largely queer team setting out to slay a dragon, we’ve already been working on this for four years, and we need all the community support we can get!

If you’re wondering what Eureka even is, watch this trailer, or read this post if you don't wanna watch a video.

If you’ve ever tried to run a murder mystery in D&D, what you really needed was Eureka.

If you’re coming from the August beta release, which I assume you are, lemme tell you that a lot has been improved. I’ll go over some of the highlights, and post the full changelog under the cut. It’s still free, but if you could throw a bit of money out way on the itchio page, even if you’ve paid before, that would be a massive, massive help. We’re actually a bit over budget even with the relative success of the Kickstarter, plus for one of us this is their primary source of income.

Trait Overhaul

There’s a few new Traits, and nearly every single existing Trait has been redone to make them better and/or more interesting. Each Trait will now have an even more significant effect on your gameplay experience.

Combat Overhaul + World's Best Grappling Rules

Combat in Eureka is now better than ever, and it was already really good - plus, now you can actually comprehend the dang rules! The previous combat rules, I admit, were a dense and confusing slog to read through, even if they worked really well once you understood them. Now, thanks to our editor, you can understand them! Instead of being split across four chapters, it’s now just two chapters. One chapter explains weapons and is mostly just for stat reference, and the other chapter is focused on telling you everything your character can do during “dangerous situations,” which are not just combat, but really just any kind of scenario where a character can get hurt. As a special highlight to the combat overhaul, Eureka now boasts the first ever set of grappling rules that are viable, realistic, and fun to employ at the table! I’m serious when I say I have never seen them done like this before, and think they offer an actual leap forward in something that TTRPGs have struggled with since early editions of D&D! I also put a lot of my own judo and other martial arts experience to work here.

Monster Overhaul

A lot of what I said about the pre-overhaul combat sections of the rulebooks were also true of the monster PC rules. They were dense, hard to reference, and disorganized. Well not anymore! All six playable monsters in Eureka have been completely rewritten using the skills I have gained as a game designer since first writing them, and, like the regular Traits, they have all been at the very least tweaked to be more interesting and have a greater effect on gameplay, and some have been changed entirely with all new subsystems! Witches brew potions now, fairies actually have stuff to do with the names they collect, and more! Plus, speaking of Traits, every monster can have more regular Traits now, to really help flesh out their personality!

CHANGE LOG 

Copy-editing Progress: Thoroughly copy-edited up to p. 302. Half-ass copy-edited up to p. 322.

WHOLE BOOK

Stuck most of the $42+ kickstarter backer submission info into the very back of the book just to get it out of our email inbox and to allow the whole team to be able to more easily see it and work with it. Going to be doing more to integrate this stuff into the actual rulebook soon. 

Changed the headings to hopefully be more legible. Please give us feedback on what you think of this change.

CHAPTER 1

Changed the limitations on how Comfort is used to restore investigator Composure. 

Fixed a typo in the investigation example of play. 

Made it so that Composure rolls for fears in the “Ridiculous” category don’t even always need to be rolled when these things are encountered. 

Moved Character Health and Status, Grievous Wounds, Healing, and Healing Example sections to Chapter 1. 

Changed Partial Incapacitation to give -2 modifiers instead of -1. 

Overhauled the rules for injuries, incapacitation, and grievous wounds completely. A ton of it is changed. 

Added codified rules for medical facilities and what to do in the case of investigator death. 

Added “The Creeps” optional rule. 

Tweak to When is the Party “Split” section regarding how long to go before jumping between groups.

Lots of new art has been added.

Tweaks to Be Prepared to Lose section.

—---------------------------------------------------

Additions to the What is Eureka For section

Changed comforting factors and exacerbating factors for Composure rolls to be +/-2 instead of +/-1 so they make a real difference.

New snoop

Changed the font of the section headings in the Ticking Clock section. Let us know what you think of these headings compared to the other headings, because we are considering changing all the headings to be like this.  

Better clarified some stuff about how Ticks work when an adventure starts at some random time of day.

—-------------------------------------

More art has been added

Made travel take more time and matter more

CHAPTER 2

Changed the CQC skill to Close Combat, as this is more clear and obvious what that means at a glance

Made lots of copy-editing progress. Many paragraphs are shorter and convey the rules more clearly. 

Changed the way the Burnout Trait works. It now causes the investigator to lose flat Composure each day rather than affecting their Composure rolls. 

Changed the Death Wish Trait to not suck.

Changed the Elementary! Trait to use Visual Calculus instead of Social Cues.

Changed Go With Your Gut Trait to not suck. 

Added that wallets and like basic clothing and stuff have a WP cost of 0

Added glasses to item list

Added rope to item list

Added hand warmers to item list

Changed Arithmomania trait to where it only gives a +1 base bonus to Paperwork, and the bonus for having a lower Ignorance of Quantity Tiers of Fear rating is more investigation points. 

Changed Femme Fatale to add a +1 Seduce bonus instead of +2. 

Totally redid the Hardy Trait. 

Added -1 modifier to I’m Okay You’re Okay Trait

Redid the Just Built Different Trait. Now it allows a character “no sell” an incoming Superficial Damage attack once per Scene, reducing the damage to 0, among a few other things. 

Added Renaissance Man Trait. 

Removed Love Me Trait. Might try to reword it another time, but it was too similar to too many other traits and wasn't very interesting. 

Completely reworked Lover Trait. 

Many new snoops have been added.

Changed the Mad Genius trait to be called Lovecraft Protagonist and changed what it does. 

Removed the investigation point cap on Man of Action Trait. Also changed the name to Ask Questions Later. 

Changed My Glasses Trait to only provide bonuses to Knowledge Skill Investigative Rolls. 

Changed Nightstalker Trait so that it provides a bonus to all Interpersonal Rolls while trespassing 

Changed None of My Business Trait to suck less.

Changed Not Finished Yet Trait to suck less.

Changed Showboater Trait to suck less.

Changed Skeptic Trait to suck less.

Smalls is now a real Trait instead of just a joke Trait. 

Removed the +1 Bonus from the Unpredictable Trait.

Changed Wicked Trait to not suck. 

Changed Wizened Trait to suck less. 

Woo-Woo Trait no-longer based on Blacked Out Skill. 

Moved “Deadly Combat, Permanent Consequences” here and changed the title to “Disabilities are Disabling”

Changed Basic Physical Therapy on the Wealth Point Item List from 3WP to 2WP. 

Added new section “People Change”

Made Blissfully Ignorant trait immune to “The Creeps.”

Made the Technically… Trait have a +2 bonus instead of +1.

Updated the Hard Boiled Trait to work with the new way that injuries and incapacitation works.

Moved the Hardened Hearts snoop to be the Wicked snoop instead. 

Changed “Empath” Trait to be “Empathetic” instead. 

Made “Did You Know…” a better and more usable Trait

Made Hard Under Pressure a better and more usable Trait.

Changed how the WP cost of an item affects the modifier for rolling for it in-adventure. The modifier is now half the WP cost rounded down. 

—--------------------------------------------------------

Gave a proper name to the Wealth modifier attached to certain homes and vehicles, it is now called the Property Modifier(PM).

Lowered the price of firearm ammunition by 1WP

Lowered the price of desktop computers by 1WP

Lowered the price of cameras by 1WP

Combined various hand tools into one entry on the item lists and moved them to Misc.

Made hotels something that is prepaid in WP similar to food budget. 

Made Large Apartment less expensive and Tiny Apartment more expensive

Moved Baseball Bat and Axe out of Weapons and into Misc. 

Changed how Food Budget works.

Removed Net Skill Limit mechanic entirely

Edit to the duration of the bonuses for Femme Fatale

Changed Ninja Trait to a +2 bonus instead of +1

—----------------------------------------------------------

Made “Sleep On It” Trait give 1D6-1 investigation points, and still give Composure.

Added “Real Capybara Hours.” Sometimes jokes are just for us.

Added animals to item lists

CHAPTER 3

Moved the section “Deadly Combat, Permanent Consequences” into chapter 2. 

More art has been added.

Moved Character Health and Status, Grievous Wounds, Healing, and Healing Example sections to Chapter 1. 

—------------------------------------------------

Changed the name of Chapter 3 to “Dangerous Situations.” We are planning to put all the combat and other dangerous stuff into one chapter called “Dangerous Situations” and merge combat, chases, etc. into one thing rather than splitting it up and having it in a bunch of different chapters.

Made it so that the Speed mechanic works with Theater of the Mind as well, and removed that other awkward mechanic with rolling Athletics for how many turns it takes for a character to cross a large distance. 

Complete restructure of the way the mechanics for movement and action are explained, as well as defining things as both Movements and Actions. 

Created a Chapter 2.5. In the future when we are ready to shift the chapter numbers, Chapter 2.5 will become the new Chapter 3 and the current Chapter 3 will become Chapter 4. Chapter 2.5 currently houses the statistics of weapons and other combat items. The plan is that a first-time reader will read the weapon statistics in Chapter 2.5 before they read the combat rules in Chapter 3, which will inform the way they understand Chapter 3. 

Changed damage value and special attributes of pepper spray. 

Made brass knuckles do 1 penetrative damage. 

Made stun guns do 2 superficial damage.

Made it so that bulletproof vests do protect against 1-damage weapons. 

Moved and rearranged like everything from chapters 3-6. 

Close range bonus for guns is now +2 instead of +1

Simplified Stopping Power rules (the actual way it works has not changed, we just rewrote it so that it gives the same mechanics in like a tenth of the word count)

Separated open-faced helmets and full-face helmets, and made it so that wearing a helmet along with body armor gives a -1 penalty to incoming attack rolls. 

“Single Load” is now called “Internal Magazines”

Shotguns at extremely close range now have similar stopping power to a rifle, but at 5-10 yards they still have their double stopping power. 

Changed how Rate of Fire works for guns. Just making it a number instead of distinct actions. 

Made it so that Quick Cycling affects basically all guns except automatics, meaning characters with high Firearms skill can now fire semi-automatic pistols at 3 bullets per Action.

Streamlined Stabilization. It is no-longer a roll and instead a penalty that worsens the more bullets are being fired at once. 

Made Bipods give +2 Contextual bonus instead of +1 to single stationary targets.

Changed Reactions and made them more broadly applicable and usable as a rule.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Overhauled Grabs, Throws, Holds, and Escapes to make them a viable option in a lot more scenarios.

Defined “On the Ground” and made it its own section.

Made knock out blows and throws ignore Armor. Knock-out blows are still somewhat penalized by helmets.

Added A Real John Woo Film Optional Rule

More art has been added

Hastily updated the random chase obstacle tables for the new Movement/Action system.

Updated the example obstacles to be more in line with how we designed obstacles for the obstacle tables. 

Redid how Poison works. We meant to make it less convoluted but accidentally made it more granular instead. We did write it better so it will at least feel less convoluted. 

CHAPTER 4

Merged this chapter with chapter 3

CHAPTER 5

merged this chapter with chapter 3

CHAPTER 6

merged this chapter with chapter 3

CHAPTER 7

Added “Psychological Warfare” mechanic. 

—--------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER 8

The Blacked Out Skill has been changed in two major ways. First we made it more obvious that the Blacked Out Skill applies even to knowledge of the supernatural that is not necessarily true. And also rather than working the way that every other Knowledge skill works, the Blacked Out Skill now gives leads to where answers might be found rather than immediate concrete answers. 

THE GORGON IS FINISHED AND FULLY PLAYABLE!

Added that Alt. Witches have to make their supernatural ability composure rolls at +0 instead of +3. The +3 was a typo.

Started work on the complete monster overhaul.

Vampires have been completely rewritten. Most of their abilities and themes are the same, but the way the abilities work has been overhauled and improved in many cases, as well as now being formatted and structured in a sane and easily-referenceable way. 

More art has been added. 

Changed the +2 Contextual Close Combat bonus for the Werewolf Trait to a +1 Base Bonus

Wolfmen have been completely rewritten. Most of their abilities and themes are the same, but the way the abilities work has been overhauled and improved in many cases, as well as now being formatted and structured in a sane and easily-referenceable way. 

Fairytale Witch is currently being rewritten/overhauled. 

Changed Incredible Strength Mage Trait to have a +2 Close Combat bonus instead of +3.

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Clarified that gorgon blood does not heal gorgons.

Changed the way that monsters interact with Composure and their Tiers of Fear during the act of preying on other people. Instead of just ignoring it or having a bonus (i somehow left both of those conflicting rules in and no one told me), a relevant Composure roll is still made when a monster eats someone, but they do not lose Composure points from it even in the event of Partial Success or Failure. This keeps the narrative benefit of a Composure roll to show the monster’s emotional state, but without making hunting numerically pointless.

Finished the complete fairytale witch overhaul. 

Made the Close Combat bonus for superhuman strength be just +1 for the vast majority of instances. The only exception is wolfman forms. They get a higher Close Combat bonus because their transformations actually make them bigger and taller and this helps a lot in Close Combat.

Reduced Athletics bonus of Incredible Strength trait to +2. 

Merged the Alt. Witch with Mage, and made Mage a Misc. supernatural category instead of its own separate thing. This is going to be a really messy transition for chapter 8 so please bear with us. I am making a brief run though the chapter to clean up the biggest discrepancies this change creates, but I probably won’t get them all until the editor and I have time to actually go through and copy-edit it. 

“Mage” is now its own trait, and what were previously called “mage traits” are now called “mage powers”. Mages now have between 1 and 6 mage powers as part of their mage trait, with worse composure rolls the more powers they have. 

When they engage in their True Nature, monsters now have a chance to recoup some or all of the Composure they lost as a result of using their powers to hunt prey. 

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fully overhauled the fairy rules. Just one more monster to overhaul! Woo! 

Changed the Curse of Slumber to take effect the next time the victim falls asleep rather than knocking them out spontaneously.

Overhauled the changeling rules to go along with the overhauled fairy rules. 

Clarified something about the vampire’s In Lizard Fashion ability, they wouldnt be able to use this to stop a speeding truck.

Removed the hard limit on how many people a wolfman could eat at once, and also added rules for what happens if they shift to a smaller form with people in their stomach. Made similar tweaks for vampires. 

More art has been added 

Fully overhauled the Thing from Beyond, and that completes the full monster overhaul. All Monsters now consist of a single Trait, rather than needing a pair of Traits. 

Gave vampires’ “wearing the evening” ability a maximum distance of 50 yards and also it is a Movement now 

Made a few more adjustments to some of the monster sections to bring them up to date with the new Movement/Action mechanics. 

Adjusted all instances of poison in the monster sections to account for the new poison rules.

[taffywabbit]

oops i accidentally wrote a review for zelda II: the adventure of link

(originally posted to Cohost on Feb 22, 2024. you can ignore this if you want, i just wanted it archived somewhere before that site disappears)

Finally beat Zelda II for the first time last night (I forced myself to finish it before starting Splatoon 3's Side Order DLC, because I knew if I didn't push through to the end of the Great Palace THIS time then it'd be years before I tried beating it again. This is probably my 4th or 5th attempt at this point). Not that this is a particularly hot take by most people's standards, but I don't think it's all that good, at least from a gameplay standpoint.

I don't regret playing it though, because I think I'm finally able to put my finger on the stuff I actually disliked about it vs the stuff that was honestly fine, or even (very rarely) actually good? I'm kinda fascinated by it, honestly. Sequels where they immediately screw around with the first game's formula (to mixed results) are neat! FE Gaiden is another example that comes to mind (hey they should give Zelda II the Shadows of Valentia treatment, that could be really cool actually).

Obviously Zelda II has a reputation for being kind of a rough experience. It's an NES game, and NES games are often susceptible to being frustrating, buggy, hard to control, or overly punishing. Sometimes, all of the above! And for what it's worth, the original Legend of Zelda was a tough and sometimes very cryptic experience as well. But I feel like the two games are challenging in drastically different ways, and I think TLoZ ended up being the formula that was retained in the long term primarily because its method of challenging the player overall did a better job of inspiring curiosity and exploration. Despite narratively being a direct sequel (with a really badass story premise that is unfortunately not really conveyed at all in-game) Zelda II took a different approach to nearly every element of the original's gameplay, which is a pretty bold move I suppose. Whether or not it succeeds at anything is fairly subjective, but it's undeniably had a lasting impact on the series, as well as the people who grew up with it (and then they went on to make some really excellent mid-2000's flash games inspired by it that I frankly enjoyed a lot more than this... and also a weirdly solid licensed Adventure Time game on the 3DS? I should go back and play that sometime, it's really fun).

Where to start with this...? Uhhh, the EXP-based leveling system where you choose what stats to put your points into is interesting! It creates a risk-and-reward system for fighting enemies instead of avoiding them, whereas in most other Zelda games besides BotW/TotK, the only reward for killing monsters is "they are no longer bothering you while you solve puzzles, and also sometimes they drop rupees/hearts/ammo". It also introduces a bit more player choice in what areas you'd like to get stronger in first, which is cool! I just wish it actually mattered in a way that let you feel powerful for even a moment. Instead, leveling Life (which is functionally just defense) is never enough to actually make you feel like you can afford to take a hit - the expectation seems to be that leveling Attack, Life, and Magic is something you do purely to keep up with how badly every single thing in this game wants to stomp you into the ground and soak up a million hits and waste all your magic. You CAN skip out on leveling one stat to prioritize another, or even try to evade tough combat situations entirely, but if you aren't leveled enough and in the exact things the game expects you to be WHEN it expects you to be, you'll immediately bump into some new asshole who jumps out of nowhere and can cut you down in 2-3 hits. Leveling doesn't make you tangibly stronger, it merely keeps the game barely playable.

This actually ends up being the core problem I have with Zelda II's design, far more than just the combat being clunky and overly punishing or the levels being visually samey and super hard to navigate. In most Zelda games (and also in a lot of other RPGs!), you get a better sword or a new power or item, and it opens up exciting new options for both exploration and combat. In Zelda II, you level up or earn a new item/spell, it's useful for maybe 20-30 minutes, and then it's immediately nullified. Wow, you got the Fire spell! Now you can finally deal with Tektites and Basilisks (which are immune to all other attacks) on the way to the next area! Well, I hope you had fun with that, because Fire doesn't work on most things you run into afterwards.

Easily the biggest game-changer is when you unlock the Downward Thrust sword technique, and finally have another option for combat besides just crouch-hopping and poking monsters with a dull butter knife. It's satisfying to use, it looks cool (by this game's standards), and it even has some utility for crossing hazards or defending yourself against swooping enemies! Cool! Unfortunately, they don't let you play around with that for long either, before nearly every enemy you see starts rolling up with helmets or shells that make them immune to attacks from above, and you never really get anything like that again (the Upward Thrust exists later, but it's far more situational and frankly not very fun or intuitive to use). Rather than feeling like you're being given tools to overcome challenges and stay above the difficulty curve, it feels like you're constantly just slightly underequipped for everything (even if you grind to earn extra stat levels) and any edge you're given is swiftly taken away from you. (Except the Reflect spell, which is ALWAYS a banger after you get it because it makes your shield Actually Do Its Damn Job after nearly every enemy starts shooting projectiles you can't block. Good work, Reflect spell.)

I feel like I grew up hearing plenty of people talk about the overall difficulty of Zelda II, though most of the complaints about its puzzles were surface-level jabs about the short cryptic NPC text, and none of that prepared me for just how ridiculously obtuse its mandatory puzzles/secrets can be. I genuinely have no idea how anyone would EVER find the Life spell - pretty much your ONLY source of healing outside of towns, since there are no hearts to pick up in this game - without some kind of guide. I was FURIOUS when I finally looked up where to find that lady's mirror and discovered that you have to walk into one of the houses, go over to the table that looks EXACTLY like every other table in every other house in the entirety of Hyrule, crouch, and press B, and you'll just pull the mirror out of nowhere. This type of interaction does not exist ANYWHERE else in the game and there's no in-game hint to indicate that you should try this. Absolutely maddening.

This and its predecessor are both games that seemingly expect you to have the physical manual on hand to help you find secrets, but at least in the first game, the way the game was designed was consistent enough that you COULD feasibly find your way to the end of it without a guide. Bombable walls in dungeons always being located in the center, things like that. It had rules and it could generally be trusted to follow them. Zelda II, in comparison, has a final level (the Great Palace) in which there are numerous rooms that look IDENTICAL and if you make one wrong turn you can go through the entire [very difficult and dangerous] dungeon on a path parallel to the one you need to be on, only to hit a dead end and be able to see the spot you're supposed to be reaching on the other side of a wall. Except you would also never KNOW you need to get there, because it looks like another dead end full of monsters but there's actually a completely invisible hole somewhere in the floor over there that drops you into the hallway leading towards the final boss. Also there is no map. TLoZ had a map. I don't know why this game doesn't have a map. Possibly because if you try to look up maps online, most of the dungeons feature non-Euclidean spaces? Idk, even a Super Metroid-style grid map would've done wonders here.

The combat is... fine? I truly don't understand how anyone thinks it's GREAT though. Zelda II is kind of like a version of Castlevania where you don't have a whip and instead have to stab everything at extremely short range, and also sometimes enemies have shields so you have to crouch sometimes to stop them from blocking you. It feels tense and high-stakes but only because, as I mentioned earlier, you really cannot afford to take stray hits in this game. Most enemies chew through your health at an alarming rate, even with the Shield spell active, and there's almost no way to replenish it unless you use a Life spell (which costs a huge chunk of your magic, possibly softlocking you if you end up in a place that requires other spells to progress). I got better at the combat over the course of my playthrough, but I never felt like I got good at it - most of my victories against strong enemies felt like pure luck and there were rarely consistent strategies for success. All of this combined with the fact that Zelda II has limited lives (and I mean LIMITED - there are only six 1-UPs in the entire game, which can each only be collected once) and getting a Game Over anywhere outside of the final palace will send you all the way back to the starting area, and it makes for an incredibly stressful experience. Even making use of savestates to lighten the fear of death can only do so much to improve it.

Overall, I think that Zelda II is a game that has a lot of really promising ideas, but then just absolutely flops when it comes to the execution. I didn't have a better way of organizing these but here are a few examples of elements I DID particularly like, even if they didn't always stick the landing:

I like the idea of the RPG leveling system in theory, but wish it was more empowering in practice and actually let the player make meaningful choices instead of just being required to survive. Choosing to hold off on a Life upgrade and instead save up just a little longer to boost your Attack feels awesome, until you time one of your inputs wrong and get destroyed. In a game with better-tuned difficulty and combat, this system would be great!

I REALLY like that Zelda II introduced a magic system to the series! I think it's cool as hell to have Link learning and casting spells to protect himself, solve puzzles, and exploit enemy weaknesses, instead of relying purely on items. (It's honestly weird to think that a system I associate so strongly with classic Zelda gameplay has only actually showed up in 4 of the games?? I guess you could consider the runes/hand abilities in BotW/TotK to be kind of like modern spells, or the slowly-refilling energy gauge in ALBW to be the most recent iteration of a Magic Meter, but both are highly debatable. Anyways I just think they should let Link shapeshift into a fairy again, that was cool.) But most of the spells in this are fairly situational and your access to magic refills is so limited that you rarely have the freedom to experiment with the spells' secondary functions (hey did you know the Spell spell turns most enemy types into slimes? that's wild. I wish I'd known that sooner).

The overworld functioning like a traditional JRPG, with top-down exploration broken up by semi-random enemy encounters, was something I honestly didn't hate. It's a little weird for Zelda, sure, but I could see it working well to support other systems in a more polished game. Overworld encounters that switch you into a type of gameplay other than turn-based JRPG combat are something I've always been fascinated by!

Anyways, weird game! I'm glad I finally got closure so I could figure out how I personally feel about it, independent of whatever the random youtubers I watched as a teenager thought. And now I never have to play it again :)

[anthurak]

So with Gundam The Witch From Mercury having just been announced to be in the upcoming Super Robot Wars Y, I thought it would be fun, as someone who has played a number of SRW games over the years, to do some theorizing about how the game might handle G-Witch.

To begin with the obvious big question we’re all wondering about: How will the game handle SuleMio?

Now to get one big thing out of the way that I know some people will be worried about; I highly, highly doubt that Sulemio will somehow end up being ‘downplayed’ due to any kind of ‘corporate mandate’ from Sunrise. Something that is important to remember is that the production SRW games almost never have much if any involvement from the owners of the various included series’, certainly not on the writing side of things.

The other important thing to remember is that Super Robot Wars games have pretty much always been FANFICTION in the purest sense of the word. Both in terms of the wilder changes they can make (more on that later…), and also that basically everyone making these games are themselves massive fans of the source material. With just how popular SuleMio has been both in Japan and abroad, I have no doubt the creative team will be including their content. Not to mention, SRW has not been squeamish about adapting WLW content in the past. Like when Cross Ange was introduced in SRW V, it absolutely included Hilda’s big love confession to Ange and Ange’s reciprocation.

The only way I can see SuleMio getting in any way ‘downplayed’ is due to simple logistical issues, ergo; SRW is a game focused on mech combat, and Miorine obviously isn’t a mech pilot herself.

This actually brings us to what I think makes the question of how SRW Y will handle SuleMio so interesting. Because yes, historically speaking, because SRW is a mech-combat focused game, characters and plot points that aren’t related to mech combat do tend to end up being downplayed to some degree.

At the same time though, Miorine happens to not just be the big main love interest of G-Witch, she’s also pretty much the other main character of the show. Meaning that the creative team will almost certainly be trying to make her, and her relationship with Suletta a prominent element.

Like at minimum, I have to imagine we’ll be seeing Miorine be included in the Supporter system that we’ve seen in the last few SRW games. For those unfamiliar, it’s basically a bunch of non-combatant characters who can be assigned to provide various active and passive support buffs during missions, which feels like a pretty straightforward gameplay role for Miorine. As an aside, I have to imagine this is how the other non-pilot members of Earth House like Nika, Aliya and... that other guy will be included in gameplay.

But then we come to more unorthodox options, particularly when we consider SRW’s penchant for including some rather wild Secret Unlocks for characters and mechs.

Consider the following: There is a good chance that we will see a VERY briefly playable Miorine as a PILOT when she steals Aerial for the duel against Guel. I wouldn’t be surprised if we as the player get to ‘experience’ just how inexperienced a pilot Miorine is for a few turns, or until Aerial takes a certain amount of damage, at which point Suletta makes her big entrance. This sort of thing is actually pretty common in SRW games. Like Miorine as a pilot probably has horrible stats, a Spirit Command pool consisting entirely of support abilities and can only use Aerial’s most basic beam rifle attack. But! That still leaves us with Miorine as a pilot.

So now just picture: Miorine as a later secret unlockable CO-PILOT for Suletta? XD

I can even just picture what the requirements might be; something like ‘keep Miorine alive for three turns against Guel until Suletta shows up’ or something more tricky like ‘avoid being hit by Guel for three turns’, or even something rather nutty like ‘actually land hits on Guel with Miorine’.

Which in turn leads to a narrative twist of Miorine becoming more emboldened and confident in her piloting ability, which later leads to her becoming available as a co-pilot for Suletta. Probably when Aerial receives her REBUILD upgrade. Though admittedly that also depends on how the whole ‘Slap’ incident is handled. Heck, maybe one of the requirements for getting Miorine as a sub-pilot for Aerial is to somehow AVERT the ‘Slap’ and allowing Suletta to save Miorine in such a way that she isn’t traumatized.

I mean, you want something really fun? Obviously, the whole ‘Aerial Tomato Paste Special’ is absolutely going to be referenced in one of the Aerial Rebuild’s attacks. Maybe just as a ‘Dynamic Kill’ animation, or even its own dedicated attack. But, what if one of the requirements for getting Miorine as a sub-pilot actually prevents you from unlocking that attack? Meaning that the player is effectively forced to choose between getting the ‘Slap Attack’ OR getting Miorine as a co-pilot for Suletta.

And really, this would be far from the first time an SRW game has done anything like this. Really, Miorine being a secret unlockable sub-pilot for the Aerial Gundam would actually be very reminiscent of Tifa Addil being a secret unlockable sub-pilot for the Double-X Gundam back in the first Super Robot Wars Z game.

So yeah, could be a lot of fun XD

Now speaking of Aerial Rebuild, that leads us to another interesting question of what G-Witch pilots and mechs might we expect to even be playable?

Because G-Witch, particularly in Season 1, is in an interesting position amongst Gundam and other ‘Real Robot’ series’ in SRW in that the heroes are pretty much a one-woman/mecha show. Outside of Suletta and Aerial, the only other ‘standard’ options for pilots and mechs would be Chuchu and her Custom Demi Trainer, and conceivably Lilique, Till, and/or whats-his-face using the generic Zowort suits we saw used in the team battle against Grassley house. Outside of that, the only other ‘standard’ option is maybe seeing Elan 5 and the Pharact become available towards the end of the game.

But then of course, this could be where SRW’s penchant for crazy rewrites and secret unlocks to once again come into play.

For example, I would not be surprised at Chuchu’s Demi Barding suit that she got in Season 2 is available as a Secret Unlock.

And of course I’d frankly be more surprised if Guel wasn’t a secret unlock along with his custom Dilanza and maybe even his Darilbalde.

And considering SRW’s mechanic of allowing certain pilots (generally ‘Real Robot’ pilots from shows like Gundam) to be swapped between certain mechs, I wouldn’t be surprised if ‘generic’ mobile suits like Beguir’s, Dilanza’s or Zoworts were made available as unlocks or purchase to be used by the other members of Earth House.

Finally, we come to what is probably the most wild and yet still entirely PLAUSIBLE option, given SRW’s history:

I have a pretty good feeling that it will be possible (albeit probably pretty difficult) to save Elan 4 and recruit him as a pilot, along with the Pharact.

You may find that crazy, but honestly SRW does shit like this ALL THE TIME. They’re actually kinda well known for it at this point. Like this is a series that has, among other things; completely rewritten the second half of Gundam SEED Destiny into something basically everyone agrees was a massive improvement, rewritten Code Geass so basically nobody dies, and has repeatedly adapted the End of Evangelion in the form of repeatedly punching Human Instrumentality in the face, and/or smacking it with a Jupiter-sized hammer until it KNOCKS THAT SHIT OFF.

And I have no doubt it’s going to do some fun stuff with the Witch From Mercury too XD

[alt-wannabe]

MCSR D&D

silver r(ogue) runs

silver r(anger) runs

Soulknife Rogue 10 / Fey Wanderer Ranger 5

we're back! ik this one took a little longer compared to the last few i've just been real busy with lab stuff! planning on having reign's sheet made next :3

I went for rogue for the general unbothered energy they tend to have, which silverr seems to have in spades. Rogues also have extremely high dex which we determined was gonna be silverr's highest ability score. I picked up ranger because the adept terrain knowledge is something that's really fitting for a speedrunner. I picked half elf for the race because they get a boost to charisma and that was voted as silverr's second highest ability score (note the charisma score of 18 that has exactly zero benefit to either of his classes lmao)

Ranger spell choices are extremely minimal so this is what we ended up with. Cure Wounds and Hunter's Mark for general playability, Longstrider for the SPEEDrunning joke, Locate Animals or Plants as a dupe for finding spawners.

Equipment time! Some smaller items of note include 20 obsidian (in 2 stacks of ten because dndbeyond is weird), navigator's tools for routing, pearls, a potion of healing, a fire resistance potion, and a pearl of power. To be fully honest Gray Bag of Tricks is entirely a joke based on gray=silver. The Eyes of Minute Seeing basically make you see better and give advantage on intelligence checks within an area around you and that was fitting to me bc silverr is pretty damn observant. The Ivory Goats were a pick entirely based on his old MC skin with the horns. Then I hope the Boots of Speed, Dragon Scale Armor, and Dragon Slayer Sword are fairly obvious connections.

Class featuresssss. Favored enemy was humans because that's just straight up other players and the dragonborns as a joke about the ender dragon. Speaking of the end, I chose Underdark for favored terrain as sort of a dupe for the End. Then two weapon fighting is the style I chose basically entirely thinking about the off-hand mechanic in minecraft.

This is a fun feature of the Fey Wanderer subclass that would legitimately give him horns in game.

Primeval Awareness is another D&D dupe for finding spawners or the stronghold in my eyes. A huge part of why I chose the Fey Wanderer subclass is because of the Otherworldly Glamour giving a huge boost to charisma checks. The common consensus of a lot of people is that silverr would have a really high charisma stat FULLY without realizing or having it be intentional and I figured that having him fey adjacent would be a realistic way of implementing that.

Finally here are his feats! Both of these picks were motivated by getting a plus one in the strength and charisma ability scores respectively. Slasher fits both because silverr is a strong pvper and because the soul blades from his rogue subclass can deal slashing damage. Shadow Touched seemed really helpful for a rogue with the invisibility spell, and also gave me access to False Life which kinda makes me think of the extra hearts given by a golden apple (and also silverr NEEDS those extra hit points he has a very low constitution score).

Again I hope y'all are liking these! Reign should be coming next but it may take me a little while to figure out what his deal is lol.

[demi-shoggoth]

2024 Reading Log, pt 2

006. Gardening Can Be Murder by Marta McDowell. I honestly thought that this book was going to be about something else. With the subtitle “how poisonous plants, sinister shovels and grim gardens have inspired mystery writers”, I thought it was going to be about, you know, that. True crime themed to gardens, discussions of poisonous plants, that sort of thing. The book is actually about the mystery books that have gardening as a theme. And while the author’s dedication to not spoiling anything (seriously, anything, even 150 year old stories like The Moonstone or “Rappacini’s Daughter”) is admirable in its own way, this leaves the book feeling like endless buildup without any payoff. Big fans of murder mysteries might enjoy this—especially the last chapter, which interviews writers about their gardens—but I found it more boring than anything else, and finished it only because it was very short.

007. Antimony, Gold and Jupiter’s Wolf by Peter Wothers. This book is about how the elements got their names, and most of it deals with the early modern period, as alchemy transitioned to chemistry and then into the 19th century, when chemistry was a real science, but things like atomic theory were not yet understood. The book goes into fascinating detail, and has a lot of quotes from primary sources, as scientists then were just like scientists now, that is, opinionated and bickering with each other over their preferred explanations. And names! Many of the splits between elements and their symbols (like Na for sodium) are due to compromise attempts to appease two different factions with their preferred names. A book covering arcane minutia of history always has the risk of feeling like a slog, but this is a fast and fun read.

008. Doctor Dhrolin’s Dictionary of Dinosaurs by Nathan T Barling and Michael O’Sullivan, illustrations by Mark P Witton. This book is an odd concept, but one that I was immediately on board with—a D&D book written by paleontologists with the intention of bringing accurate and interesting stats for prehistoric reptiles to the game. The fact that it’s mostly illustrated by Mark Witton definitely clinched my backing that Kickstarter. And this book is a lot of fun. So much so, that I read it all in a single sitting. I don’t know how accurate the stats are (like, a Hatzegopteryx has a higher CR than titanosaurs or T. rexes), but they seem like they’d be fun in play, and the writing does a good job of combining fantasy fun with actual education. Even for someone not running a 5e game, the stuff on how to run animals as not killing machines, and the mutation tables, could be useful. There are multiple types of playable dinosaurs, all of which seem like they’d work well at the table and avoid typical stereotypes, and a lot of in-jokes and pop culture references (like the cursed staff of unspared expense, which looks like Hammond’s cane in the Jurassic Park movie).

009. Romaine Wasn’t Built in a Day by Judith Tschann. I’m a sucker for books about etymology. And this one, on food etymology, is a pretty breezy read. I had fun with it, and it even busted some misconceptions that I had, etymologically speaking. Like, there’s no evidence that “bloody” as an explicative originated from “God’s blood”? Wild. Etymology books tend to be written in a sort of stream-of-consciousness style, where talking about one word may lead down a garden path to the next one. The book also has a couple of little matching quizzes, which is something I haven’t seen in a book since like the 90s.

010. The Lives of Octopuses and their Relatives by Danna Staaf. I was previously a little disappointed in The Lives of Beetles, another book in this series, but I knew I liked Staaf, who wrote the excellent book Squid Empire about cephalopod evolution and paleontology. I’m pleased to report that this book is also excellent. Staaf takes the “lives” part seriously, and the book is arranged by ecology, looking at different marine habitats, the challenges that they pose to living things, and the cephalopods that live there. Cuttlefish get slightly short shrift in this book compared to squids and octopuses, but that’s about the biggest complaint I had. I like how the species profiles cover more obscure taxa, and information about the best studied (like Pacific giant octopus and Humboldt squid) is kept to the chapters.

[djgamek1ng]

MTG x Final Fantasy Card Discussion (Pt. 2.75 - Hildibrand Manderville)

Okay, so I was wrong in thinking that we wouldn't get any reveals from the commander decks before the debut stream in 2 days. However, I'm very glad to be wrong, because this might be my favorite card shown off in terms of both the character and the rules combined. This time, we'll be talking about Hildibrand Manderville, the most gentlemanly gentleman out there!

I'm not gonna address colors here too much, they are working within the limitations of the color identity of the deck. That said, White is perfectly fitting for Hildibrand, it is just the Black part that doesn't make super sense aside from his brief stint as a zombie.

Let's get to the card. A 2 mana 2/2 is perfectly on rate. Then he also gives creature tokens you control a +1/+1. If that was the entire card, he'd be perfectly playable in lower commander brackets. Not great, mind you, but definitely playable. However, we got more to discuss. When Hildibrand dies, you may cast him from your graveyard as the Adventure side until your next turn. Let's first talk about the Adventure before I go into gushing mode. Very simple, it is an Instant spell with Adventure as subtype. 3 mana to create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token. Then, after you cast the Adventure, you exile the card and are allowed to play the creature side at a later point.

Okay, I will just immediately say it: I love this card already. Whether as your commander or in the 99 of a White/Black(/whatever) deck, he's gonna be really fucking annoying to permanently get rid of. 2/2 certainly aren't combat stats, but you can swing with him without much fear, since after he died for 3 mana you get a Zombie token (which I'll show off later) and then he's back in exile and recastable for 2 mana again. This is definitely a card that has some shenanigans going on without being overpowered. He's mainly a buffing piece to get all your tokens stronger by +1/+1. Also, if he's your commander, the easiest way to "protect" him from pesky exile effects is to have a way to sacrifice him or blow him up yourself, again because of the loop you can take with him.

I also love how on point the flavor is, because Hildibrand is genuinely allies with Zombies in FF14 and has been a zombie temporarily, so he's disgustingly tough to get rid off and this cards shows is perfectly.

Overall, quite a good card. As your commander, there will definitely be games that the only time he's in your command zone is on turn 1 and afterwards he dances between the battlefield, the graveyard and exile a bunch from him dying, casting the adventure from the graveyard and then having him in exile to recast into the battlefield. In the 99, same until someone exiles him directly.

Now for the art. Credit to Akagi. Link to their Twitter. This card can't stop winning. Hildibrand striking his classic gentlemanly pose with that damned smile, while Nashu in the background is throwing a bomb at him and holding another one in her other hand. Also, all of this is taking place somewhere in Thanalan. The only small critique I have is that if I zoom in really close, Hildibrand seems to have eyebrows, which... isn't currently the case in-game, but man, I don't care, he should have eyebrows. All male Highlanders should get eyebrows. This is fantastic, I love this art. It is completely on model and everything, it is genuinely great.

As for the Zombie creature token (specifically the art, there is nothing to discuss rules wise):

Credit to Anton Solovianchyk. Link to their ArtStation. It is a gentlemanly Zombie from the Hildibrand questline! Also somewhere in Thanalan. I love it. Only the face is a bit uncanny valley territory for me, where it is a bit too realistic, but man, it kind of works. Zombies somehow get more realistic in Eorzea, that's the thing that makes them disgusting to Eorzeans haha! I wish, but definitely not the case. Oh well, still a great art and a fun headcanon to think about.

And that's the review! Definitely a big fan of this card and I had not expected that at all. If you had asked me what you'd have Hildibrand do before today, I'd say "idk, make some clue tokens I guess and do damage to people when you crack them." This design is so much better. It really shows that they were having fun with gameplay designs, this is fantastic. Anyway, thank you for reading and have a nice day! o/

[satoshi-mochida]

Scott Pilgrim EX announced for PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, Switch, and PC - Gematsu

Tribute Games has announced Scott Pilgrim EX for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC (Steam). It will launch in early 2026.

“Scott Pilgrim EX is the culmination of years of experience working on brawlers combined with our intimate knowledge of Scott Pilgrim,” said Tribute Games game director Jonathan Lavigne in a press release. “It’s a full-circle moment for us. The original founders of Tribute Games all worked on the first video game incarnation of Scott Pilgrim before launching the studio in 2011. Coming back to this world feels like the most natural thing ever. This game is about friendship, our love of video games, music, and hitting robots in the face with a volleyball. It’s full of lore, references, easter eggs and passion. It’s the Scott Pilgrim game fans have been waiting for.”

Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley added, “Working on a game like this is a dream come true, especially with this team of old friends and new collaborators. Scott Pilgrim fans won’t know what hit them in the slightest! EX-pect the un-EX-pected!”

Here is an overview of the game, via Tribute Games:

About

Scott Pilgrim is back in a brand-new brawling adventure. Toronto, 20XX. The city has been taken over by three rival gangs—the VEGANS, the ROBOTS, and the DEMONS. But who’s behind this madness? When Scott Pilgrim’s bandmates are abducted by shadowy forces, a brand-new adventure begins! Scott Pilgrim EX is an action adventure game where players can fight as Scott Pilgrim, Ramona Flowers and more as they battle through the fractured time and space of Toronto. The combat gameplay is driven by instinct and improvisation – a hectic ballet of fists and flair that rewards strategy, spontaneity, and a good bit of brawling chaos. String together stylish combos, experiment with wacky weapons and unleash over-the-top special attacks. Characters can be upgraded with special badges that enhance their stats and grant special bonuses. Players will explore a whole city of interconnected levels to meet old and new faces, complete quests, and discover hidden areas. multiplayer cooperative play, local or online, lets up to four players join in on the action, making it a fun, dynamic experience.

Key Features

Seven Playable Characters – Step into the shoes of seven fan-favorite fighters, each with their own distinct combat style.

A Brand-New Adventure – Venture out on epic quests and battle new enemies and bosses across interconnected levels in a new story by series creator Bryan Lee O’Malley that will appeal to longtime fans and newcomers alike.

Madcap Melee Mayhem – Master creative combos, wield wacky weapons, use your surroundings to your advantage and conquer the chaos!

Power Up! – Spend your hard-earned coins to customize your fighter! Equip special items and upgrade your stats to create a unique build for every playthrough!

New Anamanaguchi Music – Known for their explosive blend of 8-bit energy and hyper-melodic rock, the band returns to their roots with all new music crafted for this Toronto-hopping adventure.

Four-Player Cooperative Mayhem – Join forces with up to three friends, locally or online, with easy drop-in / drop-out cooperative paly. Battle solo or hit the streets together.

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.

Announce Trailer

[quacks-reviews]

Playable on PC, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch

Played on PlayStation and Switch

Game Time: somewhere between an 1hr 30min and 8hrs

Alright, I guess I lied. To make sure I’m actually able to semi-regularly post, in-between reviews about longer games I’ll be doing ones about smaller games in-between. First up in that regard is a game about probable the most reasonable hear-me-outs a monsterfucker could ever say. Unless one of them has a knot or something…?

I felt gross typing that out… fuck it, I’ll keep it in.

Anyway, it’s the funniest gateway drug to becoming either a monsterfucker or getting into dating sims; Monster Prom XXL

So what is Monster Prom?

It’s a 1-4 player co-op Dating Sim where you try to boost your stats to meet the demanding expectations of some “high schoolers” before they accept your promposal. They’re all over the age of 18 so it’s less creepy than it sounds.

To start with, in the XXL edition you can choose to play the “First Term” (base game) or “Second Term” (DLC). I’ll talk about differences between the two terms as the come up.

Once you choose the term, you then get to decide whether you want to play in 30min or 1hr chunks. I wouldn’t worry about the playtime though, the amount of choices and endings makes replay a blast. After game length has been decided you’ll get to pick 1 of 4 characters to play as: Oz (Yellow), Amira (Red), Brian (Green), Vicky (Blue).

This doesn’t really affect the overall game, so feel free to pick whoever you want… I’m partial to Brian.

Now the game can start, and it introduces you to the people you’re going to be able to pursue.

The rich kid and literal mermaid princess, Miranda Vanderbilt; demon bad boy, Damien LaVey; Jock and goodest werewolf, Scott Howl; hipster vampire and possibly future/former literature major, Liam de Lioncourt; party girl and ghost-with-the-most, Polly Geist; and finally HBIC and Queen gorgon of my heart, Vera Oberlin. The second term does add two new characters to pursue: Calculester Hewlett-Packard for the robo-fantasies and Zoe; an eldritch horror who likes anime and fanfiction. Each one of them prepared to make you your worst self

From here it slides you into a multi-choice test from a magazine to help determine your stat spread and the first bit of interest one of the characters may have in you. Stats are the second most important thing about this game, they’ll be the deciding factor on if you get your date to prom or not.

From there, you’re dropped off at Spooky Academy and allowed full freedom to build up your stats as you see fit for the next 3-6 weeks (30min to an hour depending on short or long game).

You get to go to two rooms and lunch each week. The rooms you can choose to go to increases one of your base stats by two: the class makes you smarter, library makes you richer, outdoors makes you funner, bathrooms make you bolder, gym makes you a charmer, and the auditorium makes you creative-ier (There was a pattern and I wanted to complete it). Once you get the stat increase, you’ll enter a small event with the character you’re interested in that (if done correctly) will deepen their interest in you, provide a bonus stat increase, or set you on the path of a secret ending.

After every morning class, it’s time to decide where you want to sit at lunch. Are fun enough to sit with Polly? Bold enough for Damien? Are you good enough for Vera (my queen)? Or you know just sit where you want…

At lunch you’ll get an event to increase a specific character’s interest, this is usually between two different characters and deciding if you want to agree with one or the other.

Once time runs out, you get to make the final choice: who do you want to ask to prom? Have you boosted the needed stats? Or has your heart drifted to another? Or did you decide to go alone? Hope Monster Prom succeeded in its promise to make you your worst.

The Good

Ability to replay is massive, with a large number of variations to make sure your 12th play through is fairly different from your first.

Vera Oberlin

Characters are each unique and bring something for everyone

Vera O.

While I would recommend keeping a guide open at least to know what stats you need, Blind playthroughs are probably the best feeling I had after stumbling into the family ending

Vera Oberlin (I swear it’s not a “step on me” thing, it’s more of a “he asked for no pickles” thing. I hope…)

The Weird

Trying to figure out which stats are needed for which choices during events may be a little confusing during the first few runs through the game.

The humor might not be for everyone: leaning more towards jokes about beheading enemies, party drugs, monsters indulging in niche kinks, and armed robbery by gnomes then anything else.

The Bad

Go on, get outta here! I mean who hasn’t wanted to fuck a monster before!?

Score: Be your worst self and get that guy, gal, or pal for your date to prom. Or just take yourself, that’s always great choice as well.

Next Up: I don’t know for sure but I’m still always off from completing Expedition 33, probably Monster Camp?

[youngerfrankenstein]

I dunno man. My copy of Baldur's Gate 3 is looking a little weird.

;P Just thought this would be fun to do now that I know how to import custom portraits! They are a functional team in the game now lol. For some possible questions:

Why is Wyll a bard? Warlocks didn't exist in 2E, they were added in 3.5. My initial thought was to make him a fighter/mage but I'd have to tweak stats (already had to a bit with Gale) and also that sounded annoying. So I went with what I thiiiiiiiiiink is the closest mechanically (swords and magic, charisma focused). Also I thought it would be funny to make him a Blade.

Lae'zel and Karlach as Half-Orcs? Tiefling and Githyanki are not available races in OG Baldur's Gate. I basically went with Half-Orc because "beefy" and "green" respectively. There is a Tiefling companion (though a 2E Tiefling, which are very different) and some Githyanki enemies in BG2, but not playable.

The Alignments? I seem to recall there being official alignments somewhere, that said a cursory Google search mostly showed off people guessing so I just went off of what I remembered from that and the vibe I personally got from them.

I spent too long on this honestly. Enjoy!