#the walking dead universe rpg

[boardgametoday]

The Walking Dead Universe RPG Coming to Kickstarter on March 14

The Walking Dead Universe RPG Coming to Kickstarter on March 14 #ttrpg #thewalkingdead #walkingdead #twd

Free League Publishing has revealed that the official The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game is coming to Kickstarter on March 14, 2023, offering early PDF access to the Core Rulebook long before its Fall 2023 retail release. The Walking Dead Universe RPG is a co-production between AMC Networks and the award-winning tabletop publisher, who are working closely with key forces behind the…

[naly-rpg]

13e design pour WHAT LIES AHEAD

(FORUM RPG INSPI THE WALKING DEAD & DYING LIGHT)

CHAPITRE A - A REBIRTH

Kelowna n'est plus. Après un départ précipité, la Colonie se présente à vous. Il vous faut à présent faire un choix : rester à la Colonie ou partir de votre côté dans l'inconnu.

[starsisstars]

Pointless ISAT Headcanons

Hi I have to get up for opening shift tomorrow but who CARES it's time for headcanons. Except not the normal or angsty ones, it's goofy ridiculous hours ONLY. (Please send me more goofy niche headcanons I want to consume silly details like candy.) Filled with spoilers despite the sillies.

Bonnie invents potato chips 10 years after the end of the game after many failed attempts to make Sif like potatoes (Sif LOVES their chips, so this is Bonnie's win in the end).

Immortality fiction is super popular in Vaugarde because they're witnesses to change over decades but are prevented from changing themselves. Tragic wisemen usually. This got way less popular post-King.

Teachers get paid good wages in Vaugarde because they help kids through the period of the most change in their lives.

I think it's so funny everyone in fanfic thinks Sif sleeps in trees. It's universal and y'know what? Sure. I'm adopting that. Y'all had me scrolling through dialogue for ages just to make sure I didn't miss any tree nap mentions.

Loop spent the majority of Sif's first run through Dormont and the House training their voice so that it wouldn't be a dead giveaway to their identity when Sif showed up. They wanted it to sound like Odile. It does not even a little bit.

Mira is RED. Bonnie is ORANGE/YELLOW/BLUE. Odile is PURPLE. Isa is GREEN/BROWN. Sif and Loop are MONOCHROME.

Mira has a notebook FILLED with edgy poetry from when she was small. She buried it somewhere but knows exactly where it is and once every couple years digs it up just to make sure nobody found it.

Bon is a reptile person. Wants a bearded dragon as a pet.

Mwudu is Acadia (in the same way Vaugarde is France, etc.). Not a colony of Vaugarde or anything though, just a lot of cultural exchange. (Vaugarde is NOT imperialistic.)

Post-canon Sif sometimes has such a tight grip on Isa in his sleep that Isa can get up and walk around with them still latched onto him. One morning Isa even brushed his teeth and styled his hair before the Sif on his back woke up.

Nille is swole af. Taller than Odile too. I like it when people give her a braid.

I changed my mind; everyone has really ugly colors because they can't see them and they all look terrible. I do not care about the practicalities of more colorful dyes being difficult to obtain; this is fantasy logic and I say they all should cause eyestrain.

Sif's all-black look under the cloak and hat (both of which he didn't choose) is the only good fashion choice they're capable of making. If you ask them to get creative it's a disaster. Isa indulges this anyways because hell yeah fashion disaster rights, but Sif will inevitably ask for help once he actually sees the design in person.

Isa was a hardcore STEM person, while Odile was properly studying anthropology/writing but is actually SUPER into linguistics.

Fishermen from the Forgotten Country were given additional pathways to easy fishing crabs on Vaugarde's shore because Vaugarde didn't want 'em. The overfishing caused a minor ecological crisis that was then fixed by Wish Craft.

Pre-canon Sif tried to make some money via an eating competition in one of the unnamed countries but was so uncomfortable with the attention from winning first place they refused to ever step foot in the country again. They don't even remember why they refuse to visit anymore but still don't wanna go. It wasn't even that big a contest nor a big deal emotionally long-term (like the party would suspect) for Sif, they're just stubborn.

Since we have a classic RPG setup I think the party's inventory is not limited by logic and they carry around 78 tents and 23 cottages somehow.

[samirant]

Dungeon Crawler Carl & You

*taps microphone*

Okay, so I've been going off about Dungeon Crawler Carl for months now and I do not see it stopping at any point, so let's see if I can entice one or two of you to join in my madness.

DCC is Lit RPG and written like a video game come to life, from the point of view of the contestants trapped within the game. There are levels to conquer and loot boxes and quests and an AI running things that has a very tenuous hold on stability to begin with and doesn't keep it for very long.

Carl is just... a guy. He's just a guy with a traumatic backstory that he's squished deep down inside himself because he doesn't like drama and he thinks he's doing just fine because it's done, you know? It's in the past, can't change it, can't hurt him anymore.

(It can hurt him. It does hurt him.)

The world as we know it is destroyed in a split second, Carl surviving by mere happenstance and the only reason he goes into the dungeon is that he will literally freeze to death otherwise. At no point is this guy searching for glory or thinking he's a savior, he's just trying to survive another day. That Carl happens to have his ex-girlfriend's prize-winning tortie Persian cat with him is a coincidence - and it turns out to be his major lifeline in the entire series. Princess Donut is his partner in crime, his bestie for life and if he ever loses her, he will lose everything. Goodbye to the last vestiges of his sanity.

The first couple levels are pretty contained, Carl & Donut learning the ropes and how to survive every encounter with increasingly powerful enemies who want nothing more than to see them dead, the eyes of the universe and the corporations running the shitshow ever focusing on them and trying to eke out as much profit as possible at the same time.

Then they meet other survivors - both good and misled - and the beauty of humanity comes out, the sacrifices they are willing to make for one another, the knowledge that they aren't likely to survive, but they make the right choices anyway because dying might be bad, but letting each other down is worse.

The secondary characters grow in complexity with every level. Where it was once just Carl & Donut, it becomes dozens of characters, from all over the world, all of them gifted in their own way, all of them fighting as best they can, some of them betrayed, some of them dying, some of them choosing to go out on their own terms. Men and women and animal alike, they are individual and committed to the greater good.

Matt Dinniman has written a series that takes an emotional toll on its readers: pain, loss, horror, humor, desperation, walking through life with an unrelenting grief. There are dick jokes and drug-dealing, lava-spitting llamas and riffs on Wonderwall and lines like: Trauma does that, I thought. It's an explosion with your heart at the center. It changes everything all at once.

Also, there are velociraptors.

And a decapitated, talking sex doll head that wants to kill everyone's mothers.

It's a LOT of stuff going on, all right?

And just as you think the story can't get any better, enter Jeff Hays. Our audiobook narrator, our man of a hundred distinct voices. Good god, he's phenomenal. I've listened to so many books and while there are some very talented narrators out there, Jeff Hays leaves them in the motherfucking dust. I honest to god thought he was using an app to manipulate his voice for different characters until I saw him narrating in real time and I was utterly blown away by his talent.

The combination of this story by Matt Dinniman and narration by Jeff Hays has me going back, time and time again. I recommend the experience wholeheartedly and hope you'll give it a chance.

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Another independent Palestinian terrorist attack happened today, wounding two Palestinians who happened to drive by the terrorists, who intended to shoot at Israeli soldiers. The IDF neutralized them, while one soldier's life was saved thanks to his gear (I found the report on the shooting terrorist attack in both Hebrew and English, I only found the info on the two wounded Palestinians in Hebrew).

During the International Court of Justice's decision regarding provisional measures against Israel, only the majority opinion was read out loud. The minority opinion was published separately. The short of it is that the judge from Uganda found that South Africa didn't have a right to make this case at all, and therefore decided against every single provisional measure SA asked for, while the Israeli judge had the same conclusion, and a few words to add, as a child survivor of the Holocaust. He wrote, among other things, "Genocide is not just a word to me" (a sentiment that should be shared by everyone, not just survivors of genocide, IMO) and that essentially, the ICJ became a stage to put Able on trial for having been murdered by Cain, or in Barak's words, by focusing on Israel instead of on Hamas, South Africa "wrongly sought to impute the crime of Cain to Abel."

This footage aired a few days ago, but since I couldn't find it anywhere in English, I ended up editing it out of an article in Hebrew. What you can see here are two things... First, you'll see the Israeli Air Force following a Hamas squad, where the terrorists are carrying RPGs and going into a building. The IAF then strikes from the air that building, and what really stands out is the secondary explosions after the initial hit, indicating that the building was full of explosives. Second, you'll see Gazans evacuating to safety. As they do, they chant against Hamas. But what really got to me is how they're moving slowly next to Israeli tanks. If they were scared that the Israeli army would shoot at them indiscrimintaely as part of some attempted genocide, they would be rushing it out of there, and likely they wouldn't have even stepped anywhere near the tanks. They can walk slowly next to the IDF, because they're sure that the Israeli soldiers are NOT going to fire at them.

In the last couple of days, we've had repeated reports of Israelis being injured by Hezbollah fire into northern Israel (after civilian communities were continuously targeted, and people got killed by this Iran-funded terrorist group), and that IDF units which have concluded their fighting in Gaza, are now starting to train for a possible war in the north. Let's hope it won't come to that, but the only thing that might stop that option is a diplomatic agreement leading to Hezbollah leaving Israel's border, and there are no signs of those efforts succeeding for the time being.

The final warning before a subponea that the House committee investigating antisemitism had to issue Harvard, because the university hasn't produced the documents it was asked to, sure does make it sound like Haravard has nothing to hide...

Today, 4 months and a day after the Hamas massacre, they started removing the ruins of houses in kibbutz Be'eri, where over 100 members of the small, agricultural community had been slaughtered on Oct 7. This is a first step in re-building the kibbutz.

And this is one of the kibbutz members, Meni Goddard.

In continuation of yesterday's info on the number of Israelis already murdered by Hamas, and their bodies held hostage, today it was confirmed that Meni was murdered on Oct 7, and his body was kidnapped to Gaza. It was already known that his wife Ayelet was also murdered during the massacre. Kibbutz Be'eri currently has 11 members who are known to have been kidnapped to Gaza, of which 6 are bodies held hostage, depriving the dead of their right for decent burial, and their families and community of closure. May his memory be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[vintagerpg]

This is the second volume of the Gamer’s Handbook to the Marvel Universe — Eel thru Mad-Dog (1988).

These books, encyclopedic though they may be, are not entirely original. Much of the material, including the big full-color model sheet illustrations, originated in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe series of reference comics. This was a deeply confusing line (and collection of sub-lines and one-shots) that ran in different formats from 1982 through 1993, then again in the aughts. The original 15 issues were comic sized, with distinctive wrap-around covers where a mass of characters on a white background were walking left to right. That run included a book of dead characters and a book of tech. The second series ran 28 issues and was updated and reconfigured and also included Marvel’s licensed characters, like GI Joe. The '90s version switched formats to three-hole punched comic-sized cardstock sheets with custom binders. There are 36 of those and I suspect they took their cue from the format of the TSR books.

That was a mountain of source material for the RPG. I can’t imagine processing it all. Or owning all the Official Handbook issues — the worst thing about them was the fact that it was so difficult to get them all out of the back issue bins. Or the crummy printing. Maybe that was the worst thing about them.

Anyway, this cover makes me laugh for some reason. So many Iron Mans! Also, this volume has Hobgoblin in it, so it is probably the best one.

[sl33py-day]

Erised…continued

-After the events of last night, you searched up about the game. Only to find out that the game did indeed exist yet they banned it for reasons unknown.-

A/n: I have no idea where the fuck this fanfic went at the end. Gives me a bit of a Jumanji vibe. There’s more lore and stuff behind everything, I’m not good at part twos I have found out. This isn’t good, trust me

The room was dark with only the lights from the streets outside the window. The computer screen was black as it laid on the table in front of you. If you paid attention you could hear the cars moving around down the streets. But your to focused on what just happened. 

‘It’s a horror game, this is what’s supposed to happen’ you tell yourself, your mind tried to make sense of what happened. Giving the events a reasonable explanation. Like what you would do if you seen something paranormal. 

‘This is just how the game works.’ Taking some deep breaths as you look around your dorm room. From the floor where some clothes laid, to the window where the night stars shined. Your eyes landed on the clock.

“1:30 am….I should head to bed.” You whispered to yourself as you walked to your bed. Figuring that you’d deal with whatever happened in the morning. Maybe you could ask Xiao about the game? He knows a lot about video games, or maybe you could search up and see if anyone else had a similar experience?

With that thought you fell asleep, still kinda freaked out about the game. If only you knew….You should probably keep playing the game. If you’re smart enough maybe you’d realize that it has more similarities to your friends then you think.

The next morning was nothing new, getting ready for school and walking down the hallway to the commons area. Some people were already on the couch either reading or talking with one another. 

Walking towards the main building where all the classes were. It was still a bit early so there weren’t many people there. You headed towards the library, it was a really big and beautiful place. The roof had some glass panels that made morning sun shine in the room. Tall bookshelves were along the walls as it reached to the ceiling. There were some tables in the middle of everything, so you walked to one of the many tables and started to get out your laptop.

“Erised….RPG horror…game.” You said while typing out the words in Boggle. Though nothing that came up was really helpful. It had articles on other things like ‘Best RPG Horror Games’. You looked through that to see if there was any good info about Erised. But sadly there wasn’t. 

“Good RPG games…..Horror Games….Ah! I can’t find anything about the game!” Laying your head on the table in defeat. It’s almost like the game doesn’t exist! 

“I’ll try one more time then I need to go to class.” Typing some more words into Boggle and hitting the enter button. Only a few searches were completed. A few articles about the recent killings around the school and a few articles about the missing students. 

“Why is it showing articles about the stuff that’s been happening…….” You continued to scroll down the page looking at each thing that showed up. 

‘2 More Students Goes Missing At Teyvat University.’ 

‘A Girl Found Dead At Teyvat University, Police Suspect It was Suicide.’ 

“What’s this?” You stopped scrolling when an article catches your attention. ‘Police suspect that RPG Game Is Related to the Recent Killings.’ You were about to click on the link when a voice called out.

“Good morning Y/n!” Kazuha called out while he walked up to your table. He had some books in his hands. “Good morning Kazuha.” Closing the laptop so Kazuha doesn’t see the screen. The red eyed boy sat his books down on the table and pulled out a chair. 

“How are you?” Kazuha asked, you took a quick glance at the books he put down. Kazuha seemed to notice that you were looking since he grabbed the books and put them in his bag. Not thinking much about Kazuha’s actions.

“Just doing some research is all.” The H/c student stood up and started to pack up their stuff. It was almost time to head to classes, the library also got a bit dark. Grey clouds covered the sky and blocking the sun from shining. The librarians turned on the lights for when this happens. 

“What’s the thing you’re researching?” Kazuha said as he followed Y/n down the hallway. His eyes looked like they were hiding something, but it wasn’t shown due to the smile he had on his faces. 

The sky outside started to get darker, rain started to fall down and people who were walking ran to the nearest cover. “A game I found, nothing more nothing less.” Y/n responded to Kazuha’s question. Kazuha hummed as a sign that he heard the H/c students response. 

“Is the game Called Erised…?” Kazuha said, 

Y/n stopped walking even though Kazuha was still moving forward. He walked a few more steps before turning around to face Y/n. 

“Yes….It is called Erised. Do you know anything about it?” The sky outside got more dark, almost like it was night. Rain hit the windows in a harsh manner. People walked to their classrooms quickly, leaving the hallways empty. It was just Kazuha and Y/n in the hallways now. 

“Yes, I suppose I do. Do you want to know?” Kazuha turned around fully and faced you. You nodded your head, Kazuha began to tell you about what he knows of the game.

“Erised is banned in many countries, all for the same reason. People believed it was connected to a string of unknown killings and missing people that happened about 10 years ago. Because of that people banned the game and got rid of anything related to it. Videos, shirts, artwork, articles. Everything.” Kazuha took a pause before continuing to speak.

“There’s not much information about the game, or how it was supposedly connected with the crimes. The murders and missing people stopped when a girl bought the game. Apparently there was a rumor going on around her school.” Kazuha looked at the time before walking towards the classroom right across from where they stood. 

“I will tell you more at lunch.” With that Kazuha walked into the room. Y/n was confused, surprised, and slightly scared. How did they buy a game that was banned and never was meant to sell again? Was the thing they saw apart of the game? 

10 years earlier 

A girl sat at her desk, with her computer screen on with the Ersied game intro.  The room was dark with the street lights shining through the windows of the room. A opened game case sat beside the computer.

“Surprised that they gave me this game, even if they didn’t know they had it.” The girl spoke while the game loaded. Tevyat university college was were the girl was, but in the old building of Khaenri'ah that burnt to the ground later that following year.

Amare, the girl, put in the game and started to play it. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, she choose a twin and continued the story line. At first the game didn’t seem suspicious or anything, just a few laggy moments. 

Although, Amare played it for a few more days until the game started to get glitchy. It would freeze every now and then, the characters seemed to be looking at the camera of the screen. 

She was playing the game one night before going to bed. The computer was left in by accident and was running while the girl slept. That same very night, the Khaenri'ah building burned down with the girl in it. 

Some may think that this was the start of Erised becoming cursed because the girl died in the fire while the game was running. However that’s not the case, The game was already self aware and knew that they were just codes from a computer. 

The characters didn’t really care, they existed so there wasn’t anything to be mad about. All of them liked the person controlling them, in this case was Amare the girl. So they weren’t complaining. 

When Amare died…….they got angry. They all were angry for some time, from blaming the girl for not staying up longer to then starting to blame the people who started the fire. But after some time they got over it. 

After 10 years, the game suddenly appears in the game store near Teyvat university. A person finds it and buys it out of pure curiosity. The cycle begins again……this time is more of a necessity though. The game becomes self aware right away and gives hints to the person that they are in danger. 

When Y/n didn’t get the hints, Erised went to more desperate lengths to show that you’re in danger because of your own friends. The commissions that you have done, your friends have done the same thing. The quests in the game? It’s each of your friends problems with having you to themselves. 

The thing that made the game crack was when you accidentally left the game on to go grab something. Aether climbed through the window and went through your things in a hurry. Almost like he was looking for something, when he didn’t find anything he left. Albedo did the same the next day but had a knife in his back pocket that had dried blood on it.

That’s when they showed the ‘cutscene’ so they could outright tell you to get the fuck away from your friends. Why did the little you talk about frogs and ducks! Albedo and Aether had a frog and duck hoodie on! Seriously, they started to think you’re more stupid than the girl. 

————End———For now————

Taglist: @izayumi-chan @yuyuzi-ling @alextheknight707 @yandematic

Didn’t follow a plot or anything, sorry for it not meeting expectations and ending suddenly. Have a good day!

[audiofictionuk]

New Fiction Podcasts - 18th August 2024

Crucible - A Byron Chronicles Tale Audio Drama The final segment in the Master of Sorrow Trilogy. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240809-01&check=Yes RSS: https://www.spreaker.com/show/6260327/episodes/feed

https://media.rss.com/multiversallymisplaced/20240727_030715_279ca89029d1ee64525bc1a9356e1a05.png

Multiversally Misplaced Audio RPG A podcast that travels throughout fandoms in a great TTRPG style with 4 friends, if you love comedy, crude humor, and fandoms like Fallout, Walking Dead, Jimmy Neutron, and Spider-man then this is the pod for you! New Episodes on the 10th and 20th of every month. Starring: Fey Wild as the DM and Host, Juan Reyes as himself and the Editor, Oz as themselves, Tian as himself. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240809-02&check=Yes RSS: https://media.rss.com/multiversallymisplaced/feed.xml

Walkie-Talkie Audio Drama Walkie-Talkie is a scripted narrative comedy podcast that follows Katie, a young asexual woman, who decides to meet and connect with new people by hiding a walkie-talkie in a new place each week and then going on a walk with the person who finds it. Essentially, she sets herself up on platonic blind dates. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240812-01&check=Yes RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/f9b81c18/podcast/rss

Dungeon Masters Audio Drama Dungeon Masters takes a behind-the-curtain look into the world of Dungeons & Dragons, told through the lenses of the creator of the game, Gary Gygax, played by Wil Wheaton and of private investigator, William Dear, played by Jon Hamm, a swashbuckling tough guy in 1979. Gygax guides the audience through this incredible true story as our Dungeon Master, as we follow Dear on his quest to find Dallas Egbert, a Michigan State student, who supposedly disappeared in the steam tunnels under his University while enacting a real-life version of D&D. What Dear encounters on this journey and ultimately discovers, defies all expectations, and changes the culture as we know it. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240812-02&check=Yes RSS: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/QCD9312075181

MERCY: A Queer Eldritch Western Audio Drama Wayne Sawyer is a grizzled jack-of-all-trades, helping the folk of Mercy for a mere pittance. When he meets the bizarre and enigmatic academic, Doctor Daisy Gray, they are both thrust into dangers beyond human comprehension. A queer eldritch audio drama set during the tail end of the wild west. For adult audiences only. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240813-01&check=Yes RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/mercy-a-queer-eldritch-western

Palace of Mirrors Audio Book A narrative podcast about a mysterious talking sword that leads a boy on adventure across a dying moon. About a woman seeking her revenge at any cost. About a scarred pirate, broken and twisted, who can see the future and will stop at nothing to meet it. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240813-02&check=Yes RSS: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2393496.rss

The PMRP Podcast Audio Drama The Post-Meridian Radio Players (the PMRP) have been performing audio dramas in front of an audience since 2005. This podcast will showcase some of our past performances from our almost two decade history, along with some new material and surprises! https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20231011-10&check=Yes RSS: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2245345.rss

The Last Floor Audio Drama Four people at different seasons in their lives answer a job ad. They have no idea what the job is or what it will entail. They have no idea that they were chosen...for a reason. Follow them as they go up to the Last Floor. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240814-01&check=Yes RSS: https://www.spreaker.com/show/6244913/episodes/feed

https://media.rss.com/the-lzr-project/20240802_090852_fb97640c26640c6005746f81304343a8.png

The LZR Project Audio Book For years, Mr. Big terrorized the city of Lysallis and most of Enera, carving a path of destruction and chaos through most of Western Anaisha. To put a stop to him once and for all, the teen heroes known as the Lazerblades decide to form a joint venture with the Enera government to enact The LZR Project in the hopes of bringing Lysallis's crime lord - and his thugs - to justice. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240805-03&check=Yes RSS: https://media.rss.com/the-lzr-project/feed.xml

SHOT fictions. Audio Book Découvrez SHOT, votre micro dose de fictions.SF, thriller, drame... serez-vous prêt.e.s pour la chute ? https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240725-05&check=Yes RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/shot-fictions

Nuka-Tales Radio Audio Drama Dive into the irradiated world of “Nuka Tales,” where every episode unveils a new story from the Fallout universe. From the desolate Capital Wasteland to the glitzy New Vegas Strip, our narratives explore survival, betrayal, and redemption. Join us as we unravel forgotten secrets, encounter mutated creatures, and grapple with moral choices. Whether you’re a Vault dweller or a wandering wasteland wanderer, “Nuka Tales” delivers post-apocalyptic tales that resonate across the digital wasteland. Tune in for immersive storytelling, captivating world-building, and the haunting echoes of a bygone era. Because in the wasteland, every story is a fight for survival—one episode at a time. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240802-03&check=Yes RSS: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/nukatales

Boohouse Books, Short Horror Stories Audio Book Audible tales of horror written and narrated by Mark Steven Nordlund. New story every month, more information available at boohousebooks.com https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240808-03&check=Yes RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/boohousebooks/feed.xml

Shelterwood Audio Drama Shelterwood: A Suburban Gothic is a Docu-Horror Podcast written and produced by Stephen Indrisano. Join one man’s quest to find his long-lost sister in an infinite, monster-infested suburb beyond the veil. Shelterwood is one part Gothic, one part Found Footage, and one hundred percent terrifying. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240815-01&check=Yes RSS: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/BDA2155394596

The Bad Spot Audio RPG Join Matt Risby as he plays Ironsworn: Starforged by Shawn Tomkin. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240807-02&check=Yes RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/thebadspotcast/feed.xml

What's Poppin' Penny? Audio Drama Welcome Trusted Adults & Brownstone Buddies to What's Poppin' Penny? A Whimsical Podcast for Preschoolers and Families! Join us as we embark on enchanting journeys with Penny Wright, a curious preschooler with brown skin and curly hair who lives in a cozy multi-generational household filled with love, laughter, and learning. Penny's life takes a magical turn when she finds a teddy bear in a box of her grandfather's belongings during a game of hide-and-seek with her grandmother, Spicy. Thanks to a familial poem her grandfather taught her, Penny learns that when your past is just your beginning, your ancestors' gifts can always find you! https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20231014-02&check=Yes RSS: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2256958.rss

Beyond Awakening Audio Drama In what seems to be the far future, the crew of a Galactic Confederation spaceship must learn to distinguish fact from fiction before they go insane. Full cast science fiction stereo audio drama. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240816-01&check=Yes RSS: https://www.quietplease.org/awakening/podcast.rss

Morsectomy Audio Drama Morsectomy is a 4 part philosophical mystery podcast following the endeavours of Eli Smalldale, a journalist after the truth behind what he believes to be a corruption scandal in the justice system. PLEASE NOTE: Morsectomy is an interactive experience. You must uncover the 4th and final episode yourself by solving a series of puzzles. Hints for these puzzles can be found in the Episode 3 Description. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240813-04&check=Yes RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/f77b9164/podcast/rss

Silvertongues Audio Drama On the tranquil shores of the Kalalani Island Chain, two lost souls discover they have no past. But paradise turns deadly when Roscoe Talbott and Tavi Jones uncover a conspiracy that blurs the lines between truth and lies. Silvertongues is an indie science-fiction podcast produced by Acorn Arts & Entertainment. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240815-02&check=Yes RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/f2bcc1fc/podcast/rss

Survivors of Johanum Audio Book An audiobook adaptation of the novel ”Isolation” by Tiffany Aurora. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240814-03&check=Yes RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/survivorsofjohanum/feed.xml

[argentumcor]

Starting Phantom Liberty on replay. I was going to do it before the parade, but I felt it was a better fit if Johnny and V had done the Silverhand Farewell Tour. There's an understanding between them, and Johnny is more in line with his late game development, I think. Also I wanted to get to the party with a lot of side quests completed and Takemura alive after the parade (he was dead last time).

Songbird is definitely leaving things out to V from the start and she is desperately trying to gauge V from the start. I like to imagine Johnny is losing his shit the whole time she has him shut up, well aware of everything going on but unable to say anything about it. I wish that was played with a little bit more, because V would totally screw with him before it all goes nuts, knowing he can hear but not respond.

I talk a lot about Johnny, but V's characterization is excellent in general. The game really pushes for you to act like a decent person. Unlike a lot of action RPGs, V is in many ways a defined character. She is human, really just one of many scrambling in the dirt, not a chosen one of any kind (in a traditional sense). V has no illusions about being able to save the world. V likes nice cars. V is snarky and tells stupid jokes. V is capable but not hyper-capable. I know a lot of players- well, media, at least- were mad they didn't get this total blank slate of a character, but I think it's a strength.

Reed and Alex are great. The way they speak, move, how they handle situations...these are competent adults living in a world without clear-cut answers. I'd been sitting shotgun for my husband's playthrough of BG3 before playing PL the first time, and the quality of character writing in PL was such a shock compared to BG3's band of theater kids.

Johnny's angst is a nice use of him in this. I get it a lot being a veteran myself, though GWOT is a whole different flavor of issues for veterans than his (no matter what university activists like to yammer on about). The fact he's willing to bare this piece of himself to V is part of why I thought I needed to wait until they're closer. "I was fine with it until now"...right buddy. The way he curls around his cyberware shoulder at the tree...it's so unlike him and it speaks to the depth of what's going on in his mind. V still needles him in PL, even at that point, but she hits the target unlike the earlier insults. I'm really glad Johnny was not neglected in PL in favor of hanging out with Songbird the whole time.

What's particularly interesting to me- and another part of why I waited until after the Farewell Tour to do PL- is what the journal entries say about Johnny and V. Johnny by this point is being open about his sympathy towards people and knows V is just a good person who helps people out, and he likes that about her in his snarky way and also doesn't want her getting herself (and him, but he doesn't say us) killed.

Balls to the Wall:

Two BARGHEST pups're in way over their heads and, of course, who else but V to the rescue? I always had a soft spot for tragedies and this one's already got me hooked. You're taking this gig - end of discussion. Think you can pull them outta this shitshow? Got my fingers half-crossed.

No Easy Way Out (not finished this one yet):

Look, V. This Aaron choom is a big-handed bastard who knows how to handle himself in hot water. Sure, we gotta help each other out and all that, but watch your back. You're about to walk into the lion's den. I know you're all about helping lost souls and walking elderly ladies across the street, but please, PLEASE don't get killed assisting some lesser Dogtown boxer.

With Balls to the Wall, he does say "oh, V..." in that way of his when she takes the hallucinogen, which I think is more about the drugs then the helping given the journal entry, an interesting bit.

[cosmicangst]

tags you're it

personal blathering space ft. mostly psycho-pass, joseimuke, (j)rpgs, and video games, lit, vibes, and some misc romance-adjacent stuff. maybe writing and some art. 

i don’t tag everything but i will tag content/trigger warnings so drop me a line. i also collect tropes/themes:

#god’s not dead; she’s just very tired. catch-all religion, spirituality, and mythology

#they used to shout my name; now they whisper it. prophets, martyrs, and made heroes

#après moi le déluge. witch grandma à la strega nona and/or neighbor who communes with goats and that old dead guy who lives in your cupboard

#those who do and those who don’t. cyberpunk, machines who dreamed themselves into sentience, (non)binary states.

#upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand. decaying empires, beasts slouching towards bethlehem, and crumbling concrete in the backstreets of the city

#tragedy is clean. it’s restful. it’s certain. the ontology of tragedies, loop storytelling, doomed endings, and good old-fashioned classics

#half daughter / half apology. kind of an ‘about me’ tag— mixture of queer-ing, gender-ing with monster theory and being slightly off from that mental illness luv <3

#diaspora blues. soul-weary homesickness when home doesn’t resemble home anymore

#whatever walked there walked alone. ghosts, hauntology, places that are born rather than built

#romance novels are good actually. because they are!!! also featuring romance novels that i’ve recently read

#💌. future love letters for me and you <33333

#growth. revisit and repeat

#provocations. other food for thot

#footnotes. arbitrary to-read list, mostly history or critical theory/activist texts

fandom-specific things:

#secondhand smoke. tsunemori akane and kougami shinya from psycho-pass (this is THE blog essentially)

#hawya. my fic, “here, and where you are”, a shinkane pride and prejudice/regency au

#pp. psycho-pass meta, memes, discussion, etc.

#sims. my long lifespan sims 4 playthrough ft. shinkane and their descendants

#one single thread of gold. artem wing and rosa/mc (named “elle finch” in-game) from tears of themis

#got your six. shepard and garrus vakarian from the mass effect series because no universe exists where one is without the other

#shepard. my mass effect oc, augustine jane shepard. she’s a pinay earthborn sole survivor with a paragade streak.

#if he is not the word of god. god never spoke. tomas ortega and marcus keane from the exorcist

#please picture me in the weeds. five and viktor from the umbrella academy, and the loving oroborous of the apocalypse that is their family.

#there was the poetry. a dot ham and a dot burr from hamilton. yeah i know

other:

#jm. catch-all liveblogs/notes for all my joseimuke playthroughs

#🌙. my book, the moon eaters, which is magical realism set in contemporary los angeles with elements of filipino mythology! really love this novel, hope to write it someday

#for a rainy day., #drafts. prompts, ideas, fic fodder/memes, and works-in-progress

#notes., #fic rec. media reviews, notes, and recs

#weekly reads. my round-up/reviews for what i read the past week

#audio. mostly showtunes, my middle school emo phase, etc. that i downloaded from limewire

#🇵🇭. philippines and filipino diaspora-related art/text

#gif., #edit. non-fic/art related things i’ve made

#reply. answered asks/replies

[dundunny]

Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened

And within the same day, I beat another game. When my friend watched me playing, he commented how he recently read the breadth of the works and could not recall any scene in which Holmes walked on invisible rocks in a nightmare world, and that is because this game is melded with Lovecraft. It starts with Holmes and Watson investigating a missing servant and ends up with a cult set on resurrecting Cthulu. I think Chapter One remains as the studio's magnum opus, partially because The Awakened is actually a remake, and judging from the wikipedia article, they remained rather faithful to the original. Chapter One was pretty open world and there were tons of investigations to the point I felt I was stumbling upon a new one every block, whereas this has a linear and relatively short plot. I haven't played the original 2007 game so I can't say how they've updated the gameplay or clues, but I would put this on par with Chapter One in terms of difficulty. I didn't like how they dealt with the mind palace with the neurons dealing with small issues. I prefer all the clues laid out at once to show the overall picture, but I guess this game was just one case (as opposed to Crime and Punishment and The Devil's Daughter having a different case each chapter), so we would be left with one mind palace screen the entire time. There was also a lot of Watson action in this installment, and he wasn't a pain in the ass like in The Devil's Daughter so that was pleasant.

I'm willing to cut them all the slack in the world though because the developers reside in Kiev. I supported the Kickstarter for this and occasionally they would send apologetic emails about delays due to cut power from airstrikes and I'm like... it's OK. You're OK.

One interesting note is, judging from the wikipedia article, The Awakened deviates significantly from the original in chapter III, when the pair travel to the insane asylum. For one, Watson was supposed to be waiting on the outside whereas here he stays as a guest doctor and provides pivotal help in Holmes' plan. For two, the wikipedia article states, "Holmes unexpectedly discovers that his nemesis Moriarty is a patient, though a weakened shadow of his former self having survived the fall at Reichenbach. Using Moriarty as a distraction, Holmes extricates himself from the asylum." That is very different from what I played. Moriarty wasn't there at all. I'm bringing this up because of an interesting sidequest. In Chapter One, you can solve a bunch of crimes organized by this individual named "M," whom the player can easily deduce is Moriaty. In The Awakened, Mycroft asks Watson to investigate an agent of his, who is found dead and an M is written in his notebook in different handwriting. Upon reporting this to Mycroft, he immediately orders Watson to forget about everything and do not mention it to anyone, again hinting Moriaty. Considering this remake The Awakening takes place immediately after Chapter One, I'm wondering if the studio is leading us somewhere with this and there'll be another addition in the series where Holmes and Moriaty go head to head.

I did like playing it, but it's my least favorite in the series just because I'm not a big horror fan. I still say go for it, but I would recommend playing Chapter One first because they make lots of references to it, particularly when Mycroft talks about Sherlock's mental illness. (I wonder if that was in the original? They hadn't made Sherlock's dissociative disorders with Jon yet in this universe.) Just as I finished it, I saw they released The Testament of Sherlock Holmes on PSN, so I guess I gotta get that next. After, you know, Diablo IV, Tears of the Kingdom, and Final Fantasy XVI. Too many games released this year, man. Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario RPG is coming out later too.

[boardgametoday]

Free League Publishing teases its 2023 releases

Free League Publishing teases its 2023 releases #ttrpg #miniaturegames

Free League Publishing has lifted the veil as to what we can expect in 2023 with new games and expansions! This isn’t everything, there’s more to come but already there’s a lot to be excited for! Announced Games From Free League Publishing 2023 Dragonbane Release: Q3 2023A legend is reborn. Dragonbane is the new and reimagined edition of Sweden’s first and biggest tabletop roleplaying…

[krakenoid]

APRPG Rules: Revision 3.0

Alan Aubrey's

 APRPG

All-Purpose Role-Playing Game

Version 3.0

Introduction

The APRPG is my attempt to create a universal rules-lite RPG. The intent of this system is best summarized in a single word: Accessibility. Anyone, new or old, should be able to play, in any setting, any genre, however they want. High fantasy, survival horror, and anything in-between, without 300 pages of rules getting in the way of every player having fun--their way. 

Fiction First Philosophy

    As with any rules-lite RPG, this system is designed with collaborative storytelling in mind. The rules are there to enable the fiction, and as such can be bent or even broken when the story demands it. This is not to say that the GM has free reign to ignore the dice rolls and strip agency from the players; quite the opposite, in fact. The players and GM should be working together to construct a satisfying narrative.

The Basics

This game follows in the tradition of Powered by the Apocalypse, where the GM (usually) doesn't need to roll. The players (ideally, around 3-5) will be rolling 2d6 plus any applicable modifiers. The number you roll will indicate your degree of success. Anything above a 10 is considered a Full Success, the equivalent to a natural 20 in other systems. It's the best possible outcome for your character, achieving exactly what you set out to do with no (or at least minimal) drawbacks. It's a perfect bullseye, it's landing a triple backflip on your first try, it's getting an A+ on a test you didn't even study for. Anything from 7 to 9 is a Mixed Success. You still do it, but there are complications. You hit the target, but not exactly dead-on. You stumble on the landing of that backflip. You still get a passing grade on that test, but didn't get any extra credit. A Mixed Success is the most common type of success, and it gives players and GMs alike interesting consequences to their actions. Any roll of 6 and under is a Failure, which, well, fails. Depending on the context of the situation, a Failure could be anything from mild embarrassment to a drastic injury. You don't even hit the dartboard. You faceplant. You walked into the wrong classroom the day of the test.

The roll isn't the end of the process, though. You can modify it through Skills and Aspects. You have five Skills to increase or decrease your final roll. 

Strong concerns your character's physical fortitude, whether it's their strength or their toughness. If you wanted to punch out a goon, stop a runaway train with your body, or resist the effects of a deadly poison, you would roll using Strong.

Swift concerns speed, dexterity, and sleight of hand. If you wanted to pick a pocket, pick a lock, or pick your nose without anyone seeing, you would roll using Swift.

Smooth concerns social acumen and the ability to keep cool under pressure. If you wanted to charm someone, tell a convincing lie, or construct a clever disguise, you would roll using Smooth.

Sharp concerns mental acuity and lateral thinking. If you wanted to hack into a computer, analyze an ancient manuscript, or investigate a crime scene, you would roll using Sharp. 

Strange concerns the weird. Magic, psychic powers, knowing things you couldn't possibly know. If you wanted to summon a demon, crush a car with your mind, or hear someone's thoughts, you would roll using Strange. Strange is unique among the five Skills in that it is mostly optional, since not every setting has magic or psychics. If you want to use Strange in a more mundane setting, I recommend flavoring Strange as a unique "knack" that the character has, which can't entirely be explained by mundane logic. Never losing a coin toss, always knowing which way is North, that sort of thing.

These skills come with modifiers to distribute among them, adding or subtracting from your roll. The modifiers are as follows: 

+2, +1, 0, -1, -2

Each modifier can only be used once. For example, if you started with a +2 to Strong, you couldn't add that same bonus to Smooth. 

In addition to Skill bonuses, you also have your Aspects. Aspects are what make your character unique. They are divided into Traits and Flaws. A Trait is something positive about your character (a unique skill or proficiency, a natural talent, something about them as a person) while a Flaw is something negative (a past trauma, an addiction, a family curse). At character creation, I usually insist upon two Traits and one Flaw, but this number can be changed based on GM ruling and/or group consensus. Some players might be thinking, "If I can pick my own Flaws, what's to stop me from giving myself something minor and convenient?" Nothing is, really, except your own sense of integrity. After all, what makes for a more interesting story: a character who is competent, but has a dark secret they have to struggle with, or a perfect specimen who can do no wrong and has no narrative conflict? This game is about telling a story, and perfect characters aren't interesting.

As well as Aspects, your character will often take on Conditions. Conditions are like temporary Aspects that the GM can assign to a character, something that influences a character's physical or mental state. Physical Conditions can be anything from "out of breath" to "missing an arm," depending on the circumstance. Mental Conditions, similarly, can range in severity from "frightened" to "gibbering lunatic." Keep in mind, the Conditions should match the circumstance in which they were acquired. Being punched in the face isn't likely to break your legs.

It's worth noting that Aspects are not intended to be flat numerical bonuses, as that goes against what this system is designed to be. Instead, you can invoke these Aspects during play to justify your character being able to do something, or to aid them in taking that action. It's less "Jim has a +1 to attacks using rifles," and more "Jim's time as a soldier has made him familiar with all the ins and outs of rifles and military hardware." Your Aspects aren't just what your character can do, they're who your character is. They should be rooted in the very essence of the character. 

Using the above example of Jim, let's take a look at a possible Aspect setup:

Trait: Old Soldier- Jim served in the Army in his youth, and his time as a soldier has made him familiar with all the ins and outs of military hardware.

Trait:  Bloodhound- Jim is a private investigator, his naturally inquisitive mind catching the details that nobody else notices.

Flaw: Can't Save Everyone- Jim is haunted by the ghost of his wife, the one murder he couldn't solve.

Let's see how this would play out in a scene:

GM: Alright, you open up the door and there's a gruesome crime scene right there in the front room. Blood everywhere, signs of struggle, and a woman's body in a peculiar pose. And there, sitting cross-legged on the coffee table, wearing the same clothes she was killed in, a ghastly wound torn across her throat, is your wife. She grins at you, and her smile is too wide.

Jim: "Leave me alone, Moira. I'm working."

Moira: "You could have saved her, Jimmy. You could have saved me."

Jim: Right, so I'm ignoring her and taking a look at the crime scene. Any clear signs of what happened?

GM: Sounds like you're gonna need to roll a Sharp check.

Jim: Okay, so that's a 7, my +2 gets it up to 9...I'm gonna invoke Bloodhound to bump that up to a 10.

GM: Okay, so it looks like she died of blood loss following a gut wound, but there are signs of struggle. Bruising around the neck, evidence of strangulation. 

Jim: Does the gut wound look like a gunshot or a knife wound?

GM: Roll Sharp again.

Jim: That's...shit, that's a 5. I'm gonna invoke Bloodhound, but that'll only bring it up to 6. Can I use Old Soldier too? Maybe whatever it was was army surplus.

GM: Oh, I love that. Okay, so with a mixed success, I can tell you it was a knife wound, but if it's a military weapon it's not one you've ever used. The wound is ragged, sort of triangular.

Jim: You said the body was arranged in a weird position. Any significance to it?

GM: I think you can roll either Sharp or Strange for this one.

Jim: 6. Can I use Bloodhound on this?

GM: I'm not sure how you could. You don't know much about the occult, so you'll probably need to seek outside help on this one.

Jim: "Damn wizards."

As established above, Aspects can only be invoked if they make sense. If you can make a convincing argument for it, odds are you can use it, provided your GM agrees. 

Harm, Stress, Luck, and Experience

Whether you're playing a 1920s bootlegger or a space pirate, odds are you'll end up getting in a scrap or two. One thing about the APRPG is that it makes very different assumptions about combat than, say, Dungeons and Dragons.D&D assumes that the players will have multiple renewable healing resources and methods to prevent (or even return from) character death. This system, on the other hand, doesn't have those same safety nets, or at least it doesn't always have them. Combat is dangerous. Anything and everything can kill you if you aren't careful. To that end, you have a series of counters that track your physical wellbeing, your exertion (both physical and mental), experience, and fortune. 

The first counter, Harm, tracks your physical health. It is how many steps you are from Death's door. However, just because you haven't hit your Harm threshold doesn't mean you're out of danger. Halfway down the Harm track is your Harm Benchmark. Once you reach your benchmark for a certain track, you cannot heal past it without resting. In addition, upon reaching your Harm benchmark, you will receive a negative physical Condition. Upon filling your Harm counter, your character is either dead or in need of serious medical attention.

The second counter, Stress, tracks your physical and mental exertion. Stress is more of a resource than Harm, and can be used in a variety of ways. Its primary use is invoking Aspects in combat, but it can also be used to negate Conditions. When receiving a Condition, you can mark Stress equal to the severity of the Condition, depending on GM ruling. When you reach your Stress benchmark, you will receive a negative mental Condition. Upon filling your Stress counter, there are no immediate negative consequences, but you will be unable to use Stress until you rest.

    Experience tracks how your character grows and changes over time. Experience can be gained in two ways: rollinga 6 or below, or answering one of the following questions at the end of a session:

Did we complete an objective?

Did we win or avoid a fight?

Did we save someone?

Did we learn something new and important about the world?

Did we learn something new and important about one of the characters?  

Rolling a 6 or below grants 1 experience, answering "yes" to one or two questions grants 1 experience, answering "yes" to three or four questions grants 2 experience, answering "yes" to all five questions grants 3 experience. At 5 experience, your character levels up and you select one of the following options:

Add +1 to a Skill of your choice (Maximum of +3)

Add a Trait

Lessen or remove a Condition

Instantly heal Harm or Stress up to the nearest benchmark

    Once you've leveled up, remember to clear your experience track.     Despite the benefits of experience and leveling up, there are often opportunities where rolling low is the last thing you want. To that end, you have the fourth tracker, Luck. Luck can be used after any roll to retroactively change the result to a 12 or ignore all Harm and Conditions from a wound. As you mark more Luck, your character's fate grows steadily worse, incurring worse and worse Conditions and Flaws as the game goes on.  

Coin and Commerce

    Money, as they say, makes the world(s) go round. While there is nothing stopping players from tracking every penny, credit, or gold piece to their name, the Wealth tracker offers an alternative. It's another 8-part tracker to go along with Harm, Stress, and Luck. Unlike the aforementioned trackers, Wealth doesn't have any sort of disastrous consequence for filling it, but instead sets a maximum limit on an individual player's savings. When you reach 8 Wealth, you can't acquire any more until you spend what you've got. To that end, here's a reference guide for Wealth.

0 Wealth: Insignificant things/flavor items, such as a bottle of perfume, a stick of gum, a newspaper

1 Wealth: Things of minor value, such as a piece of modest jewelry, a hint from a shady character, a meal at a decent restaurant

2 Wealth: Things of moderate use, such as a common piece of gear, a week's stay at an inn, a very nice hat

3 Wealth: Useful items, such as a specialized piece of gear, a hunting hound, a very nice hat

4 Wealth: Slightly more expensive items, such as a common car, a significant bribe, a truly magnificent hat

5 Wealth: Expensive items, such as a custom-tuned supercar, a decent apartment, a trained bear

6 Wealth: Very expensive items, such as a suit of bespoke power armor, a mechanical prosthetic limb, a piece of advanced spellwork

7 Wealth: Prohibitively expensive items, such as a yacht, a squad of elite mercenaries, a favor from an influential figure

8 Wealth: The rarest of the rare, such as a literal king's ransom, a nuclear missile, the Kohinoor diamond

Downtime

From the strongest dragon-slayer to the cockiest fighter pilot, everyone needs rest. Downtime is the most effective way for characters to heal their injuries, come up with new plans, or just relax. Downtime could be anything; a night at the bar, a stay in a hospital, a power-nap. Regardless of the circumstance, Downtime affords you the following options:

Heal Harm and Stress up to the next Benchmark

Remove one negative Condition

    Keep in mind, the healing should match the method and time taken. If your arm is broken, a quick rest isn't likely to fix it. 

Combat

    Occasionally, combat is unavoidable. Combat is settled with competing dice rolls between opponents. If the attacker rolls higher, they successfully strike. If the defender rolls higher, they successfully dodge.

    Initiative

    Initiative must always be a sequence of player and enemy turns. The players can pick what order they want to attack in, but it is the GM's duty to place enemies between each player slot. Keep in mind, the number of enemies does not have to match the player count; the number of turns does. Combat will always progress as:

Player>Enemy>Player>Enemy

  But each of those enemy slots doesn't have to be a different enemy. To that end, I recommend keeping track of two separate initiative orders: one for the players, and one for the enemies. For example, if there are more players than enemies: 

Track 1: Player 1, Player 2, Player 3

Track 2: Enemy 1, Enemy 2

This would make the initiative order look something like this:

Player 1>Enemy 1>Player 2>Enemy 2>Player 3>Enemy 1>Player 1>Enemy 2

This ensures that the enemy has a fighting chance. In the event that something goes terribly wrong, and we find a player making a last stand, the system works in their favor as well. Let's take a look:

Track 1: Player 1

Track 2: Enemy 1, Enemy 2, Enemy 3

This would make the initiative order as follows:

Player 1>Enemy 1>Player 1>Enemy 2>Player 1>Enemy 3>Player 1

This would give the player time to escape, fight back, or perform some truly legendary strategic actions.

    The Player's Turn

    A player character has two Actions on their turn. The first and most obvious way to use an Action is to attack, which is accomplished by rolling a Skill check against an enemy's competing check. If the player succeeds, they successfully carry out the attack, dealing the appropriate damage for the weapon they are using. If their roll meets or exceeds a 10, they may pick an option from the following list:

Hit 'em Where it Hurts: +1 Harm dealt

Keep Your Guard Up: -1 Harm taken

Take Advantage: +1 to your next roll

Reveal a Weakness: +1 to another player's roll

Knock 'em Back: Force the enemy to change locations

Cause Lasting Damage: Inflict a Condition

The player can also choose to invoke any number of relevant Aspects to either increase the value of their roll by 1 per Aspect, or pick an option from the bonus list above. Even if the player misses, they can invoke Aspects to pick options from the bonus list. For every Aspect invoked, regardless of purpose, the player must take a point of Stress. Should their Stress reach 8, they will be unable to use any more Stress until their next Downtime.

The second way to use an Action is to move up to 6 +/-Swift squares on the battle map. Given that the player has two Actions, they can use both to move, or both to attack, or one for each. 

The third way to use an Action is to, well, just do something. Reloading a weapon, drinking a potion, performing emergency first aid, all of this can be accomplished by using an Action.

Should the target of the attack manage to evade it, they will have the option of counter-attacking. They may then roll an attack against the one who attacked them. It is not possible to counter-attack against a counter-attack, to prevent a single turn lasting until one or both parties are dead.

    The Enemy's Turn

    The enemy's turn functions more or less identically to the player's turn, rolling a Skill check against the player's opposing check. Should they succeed, they deal damage. Should they fail, they leave themselves open for a counter-attack. The enemy also has the option of invoking Aspects and using Stress. 

     Morale

    When enemies attack in a group, they're likely to have some sort of leader, whether it's the biggest and strongest, their ranking officer, or their charismatic gang leader. When this leader dies, all other enemies must roll a Smooth check unless their Aspects dictate otherwise. On a Full or Mixed Success, they stay in the fight. On a Failure, they attempt to run away.

    Weaponry, Weapon Tags and What They Mean

    Each weapon or attack in the APRPG has a series of tags that define what it does and how it works. Generally, the weapon has a Harm tag that defines how much (if any) damage it does, a Range tag that defines its effective range, and tags that define the details and drawbacks. Let's take, for example, a sword:

2-Harm Hand Messy

The first tag, 2-Harm, shows how much Harm the weapon can inflict. The second tag, Hand, defines the range (specifically within hand-to-hand combat range, any adjacent square to the attacker). The third tag, Messy, indicates that it will cause a mess when used, on account of all the blood being spread about.

    Weapons and attacks can have multiple tags if it makes sense for the weapon to have them. For example, a pistol: 

1-Harm Close Loud Reload

The Harm tag functions the same as on the sword, inflicting 1 Harm to targets. The Range on this is Close, meaning it can be used on any target within 2-5 squares. The other tags, Loud and Reload, define how the pistol functions. It is, of course, loud when fired and that noise may attract attention. It also has a finite amount of ammunition and may need to be reloaded. 

    The following list is all the tags that may become relevant during regular play, but feel free to add your own! 

X-Harm: How much Harm the weapon deals.

 X-Armor: How much damage is absorbed.

Hand: Within hand-to-hand combat range, any adjacent square to the attacker.

Close: Within 2-5 squares of the attacker.

Far: Within 6-10 squares of the attacker.

Loud: This weapon produces a lot of noise, potentially drawing attention.

Messy: This weapon spreads blood and gore around. 

Concealed: This weapon can be easily concealed on your person.

Suppressed: This weapon makes very little noise. Someone in the same room might hear it, but someone the next room over won't.

Useful: This weapon can also be used as a tool.

Unreliable: This weapon has a tendency to break down.

Restrain: This weapon can be used to restrain a target.

Heavy: This weapon is heavy and cumbersome.

Stun: This weapon can stun an enemy.

Recharge: This weapon must be recharged between uses.

Auto: This weapon fires full-auto.

Volatile: This weapon has the potential to harm the user if damaged or used incorrectly.

Fire: This weapon sets things on fire.

Electric: This weapon is electricity-based.

Disposable: This weapon is single-use.

Piercing: This weapon can penetrate armor, or go through un-armored targets.

    Special tags, like Stun or Restrain, can be used to inform what kind of Conditions it can inflict. 

Game Structure

    Missions

    The main structure of the game is missions, which are tasks that the player characters can complete to gain experience, earn money, or gain reputation. While every mission can and should be unique, there are five main types of missions to use as a jumping-off point. These types are Heist, Transport, Assassination, Sabotage, and Rescue. 

Heist missions require the players to break into or enter a location and steal or retrieve something, preferably without getting noticed and getting away clean. 

Transport missions require the players to move goods from Point A to Point B, or retrieve them from Point B and bring them to Point A. For best results, the players should ensure nothing happens to the cargo.

Assassination missions require the players to kill/injure/defeat a target. These missions can come with extra objectives, such as "Don't get caught" or "Make it look like an accident." 

Sabotage missions require the players to infiltrate a location and leave something there or destroy something.

Rescue missions require the players to save someone or something from a dangerous situation. 

    Keep in mind, all these mission types are merely suggestions, and should not be taken as the definitive way to play the game.

    Research

    Before every mission, players will have the option to do research on the upcoming task. Every player will have the option to roll a check of any Skill, and invoke any relevant Aspects, provided they can explain how their methods obtain the information they acquire. The result of the roll determines what the information can be:

A Full Success allows the player to come up with some sort of beneficial circumstance for the upcoming mission. Perhaps a security guard is known to fall asleep at their post, or a car has been left unattended.

A Mixed Success allows the player to come up with a minor detail about the mission. Perhaps the site is rumored to be haunted, or the wizard you're kidnapping is a terrible hypochondriac.

A Failure allows the player to come up with a negative circumstance for the upcoming mission. Perhaps the building is being fumigated for pests, or the only opportunity to strike is during a fancy gala.

    This approach to research allows the players to feel involved in every aspect of the story, and ensures that each mission is unique and involved.

    Scenes    Scenes are the main way to keep time in the APRPG, but are unfortunately difficult to define. A scene could be a conversation, a combat encounter, a journey. The best advice for splitting scenes is to consider it a new scene whenever the metaphorical "camera" cuts away to something, someone, or somewhere else.

[dollycas]

Special Guest - Dave Dobson- Author of What Grows From the Dead #AuthorInterview / #Giveaway - Great Escapes Book Tour @GCDaveDobs @davedobsonfromiowaon @frosthelmbooks

What Grows From the Dead by Dave Dobson I am delighted to welcome Dave Dobson to Escape With Dollycas today! Hi Dave, Please tell us a little bit about yourself. What are three things most people don’t know about you? I lived in Dublin for a year in 5th grade and attended public school in a two-room six-grade neighborhood elementary school. I learned a good bit of Gaelic, although I retain little of it now. In March of that year, we went to then-Soviet Russia for a week, because Russia in the winter was the only tour we could afford. I have played the largest tuba in the world in concert back when I graduated college in 1991. I played Asleep in the Deep with backing from the Harvard Band. One of my favorite experiences. If you’re curious how it sounded, I have a recording here. I have drunk a two-liter of Mountain Dew in under two minutes (1:54.84). That was a very stupid thing to do.  LOL - Mountain Dew is my drink of choice.  What books/authors have most inspired you? In mysteries and thrillers, I loved Dick Francis’ horseracing books. My wife shared them with me shortly after we met, and I just loved his dogged characters pursuing what’s right while often being beat up or pushed around. Learning more about horseracing was fascinating too. I also really like Harlan Coben’s early work and have tried to emulate that in what I do. I am also a big fan of lots of fantasy and science fiction. As a younger reader, I loved Tolkien, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Heinlein, Andre Norton, Ursula K. Leguin, Harry Harrison, and many others. More recently I’ve gotten into John Scalzi and Nnedi Okrafor. I really love Barry Hughart’s Bridge of Birds and his other books, and William Goldman’s The Princess Bride (book and movie). Both of them are exciting adventures in their own right, mixed with humor and gentle observations about people.    What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book? I write in a very seat-of-the-pants style without a lot of outlining or plotting ahead of time, so most of my research comes up as I go, as I discover a need for it. When I’m working on a project, I actually post a thing I call “This week in author Googling” on Facebook with all the weird facts I’ve had to look up. For What Grows From the Dead, I spent a good bit of time researching complex bits like what happens when you’re arrested and taken to jail, how search warrants work and are executed, and how cell phone towers are identified. I’ve also enjoyed consulting with friends about specific more detailed elements of books, like sailing and guns, neither of which I was very familiar with but wrote myself into. I’m lucky to have friends with a wide range of expertise, many of whom I’m in contact with through my college class of alums. Do you ever suffer from Writer’s Block? Not usually when I’m in a groove, but sometimes after I pause a project (for a vacation, or because a big event comes up) I have trouble restarting. This has gotten better for me as I’ve written more books. I think I’m no longer daunted by the prospect of trying to finish something. When you are not writing what do you like to do? I play a lot of video games and watch a ton of movies. I have been performing improv comedy at my local comedy club for the past 18 years, which lets me enjoy wonderful and fun group of people doing something really silly. I love boardgames and play any chance I get, sometimes including D&D or other RPGs. I’ve designed a few boardgames also, and I’ve self-published a series of puzzle card games. I enjoy walking and going places with my wife and visiting my kids, who are grown and launched into interesting lives. I have been in a couple of community theater productions recently, too, and I’d love to do more of that. I also enjoy trying to conquer the universe on my Attack From Mars pinball machine (from 1996). I still play tuba sometimes with the oompah band at the college where I worked for 25 years. If you could travel anywhere in the world where would you go and why? I have always wanted to see the pyramids and other sites from ancient Egypt. I love ancient places. My favorites in Europe were always the crumbling castles, and the ancestral Puebloan sites in the US like Chaco and Mesa Verde have a special magic for me. Figuring out how to get to Egypt, set up a tour, and avoid risks from regional conflicts is a little daunting, but I’ll get it done before long. What is next on the horizon for you? I just released a new fantasy novel, so I’ve been working a bit on promoting that and also reaching readers for What Grows From the Dead. I haven’t decided whether my next book will be another mystery or whether I’ll do sci-fi next. I do enjoy writing in multiple genres, although that can make it a bit tricky trying to establish myself in any of them. Thank you, Dave, for visiting today! _____ Keep reading for more information about  David and What Grows From The Dead. About What Grows From the Dead What Grows From the Dead Mystery Stand-Alone Setting - North Carolina Independently Published (March 9, 2024) Paperback ‏ : ‎ 367 pages ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8884545977 Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CXN1KQ1B Morris Drummond is not at his best. Well, he hasn't been at his best for a while now. But having just suffered two crushing losses, he's almost at rock bottom, which for him means driving ride-share in his mom's beat up Chevy, drowning his sorrows in tacos and spray cheese, and avoiding anything related to ambition, self-care, or laundry. Morris is about to learn that he didn't even know what rock bottom looked like, and it's all thanks to his mom. A secret she left behind comes to light, and that brings down a lot of unwanted attention on Morris, the kind that looks likely to send him either to prison or to the hereafter. Blood and treachery from long ago rise to the surface, and Morris has only his lawyer Annie, who's an old high school friend, and a few unexpected allies to call on as he tries to figure out what his mom was up to and why so many people want him out of the picture. A humorous mystery with elements of suspense and thrillers, What Grows From the Deadis set in present-day small-town North Carolina, not far from the mysterious Uwharrie Forest. Content warnings: Coarse language throughout; some gun violence (not graphic). Great Escapes Praise for What Grows From the Dead by Dave Dobson Warning: Choose carefully your location before beginning What Grows From the Dead. It is known to cause audible chuckling, chortling, guffawing, and even hooting on occasion. Highly recommended. Five Kitties! ~Jane Reads About Dave Dobson  A native of Ames, Iowa, Dave loves writing, reading, board games, computer games, improv comedy, pizza, barbarian movies, and the cheaper end of the Taco Bell menu. Also, his wife and kids. Dave is the author of Snood, Snoodoku, Snood Towers, and other computer games. Dave first published Snood in 1996, and it became one of the most popular shareware games of the early Internet. He's recently published some puzzle card games in the Doctor Esker's Notebook series. Dave taught geology, environmental studies, and computer programming at Guilford College for 24 years. He does improv comedy at the Idiot Box in Greensboro, North Carolina. He's also played the world's largest tuba in concert. Not that that is relevant, but it's still kinda cool. Flames Over Frosthelm was Dave's first novel, released in 2019. He followed it a year later with Traitors Unseen and The Outcast Crown, then Daros in 2021, The Woeling Lass in 2022, and Got Trouble and Kenai in 2023. He released his first mystery novel, What Grows From the Dead, in 2024, and he's currently at work on a humorous epic fantasy novel. Author Links Website   Facebook    Facebook Author Page    Instagram   Twitter/X    BlueSky    Mastodon     GoodReads Link     Purchase Link Amazon  Also Written by Dave Dobson TOUR PARTICIPANTS - Please visit all the stops. June 18 – Jane Reads - REVIEW, AUTHOR GUEST POST June 19 – Mystery, Thrillers, and Suspense – SPOTLIGHT June 20 – Sapphyria's Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT June 21 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT, INDIVIDUAL GIVEAWAY  June 22 – Elizabeth McKenna - Author – SPOTLIGHT June 23 – Brooke Blogs – SPOTLIGHT June 24 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT June 24 – Celticlady's Reviews – SPOTLIGHT June 25 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT June 26 – StoreyBook Reviews – CHARACTER GUEST POST June 27 – Christy's Cozy Corners – CHARACTER GUEST POST June 27 – Baroness Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT June 28 – Maureen's Musings – SPOTLIGHT June 28 – Ruff Drafts – AUTHOR GUEST POST June 29 – Guatemala Paula Loves to Read – REVIEW June 29 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – AUTHOR INTERVIEW a Rafflecopter giveaway Have you signed up to be a Tour Host? Click Here to Find Details and Sign Up Today! Want to Book a Tour? Click Here Your Escape Into A Good Book Travel Agent This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using my links, I will receive a small commission from the sale at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Escape With Dollycas. Read the full article

[jcmarchi]

Every Big Announcement From The Game Awards 2023

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/every-big-announcement-from-the-game-awards-2023/

Every Big Announcement From The Game Awards 2023

The Game Awards 2023 was full of announcements big and small, so if you’re having trouble keeping track of them all, we’ve gathered up all our stories here in one place. You can also check out the full list of award winners here. Let us know which announcement excited you most in the comments!

Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons Unreal Engine 5 Remake Revealed

Pony Island 2 Is The Next Game From The Creator Of Inscryption

Dead Cells Developer Motion Twin’s Next Game, Windblown, Revealed

Metaphor: ReFantazio Gets Fall 2024 Release Window In New Trailer

Harmonium The Musical Is A Sign Language Music Adventure

Usual June Is The Latest From Finji

Big Walk

Exodus Is A New Game Starring Matthew McConaughey

God of War Ragnarök Gets A Free Expansion Called Valhalla Next Week

Get A Look At Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II’s Visceral Combat In New Gameplay Trailer

Check Out Big Walk,The Next Game From The Devs Of Untitled Goose Game

Ori Team Moon Studios Reveals Action RPG, No Rest For The Wicked

Ikumi Nakamura Reveals Her Studio’s First Title, Kemuri

The Casting Of Frank Stone Is Supermassive’s Single-Player Horror Game Set In The Dead By Daylight Universe

Sega Is Remaking Some Of Its Best Games

No Rest for the Wicked

Team Ninja’s Rise Of The Ronin Gets March Release Date In New Gameplay Trailer

Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero Is The Next Budokai Tenkaichi Game

After 15 Years, Visions Of Mana Revives The Series

Hideo Kojima Is Making A New Game Called OD With Jordan Peele

Black Myth: Wukong Gets August Release Date In New Gameplay Trailer

Get Another Look At Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden In New Cinematic Trailer

Jurassic Park: Survival Is A Stunning First-Person Adventure Set Right After The First Film

Jurassic Park: Survival

Here’s The Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League Trailer From The Game Awards

The First Berserker: Khazan Is A Single-Player Action RPG Set In The DNF Universe

Don’t Nod Reveals Mysterious Adventure Game Lost Records: Bloom & Rage

Hoyoverse’s Zenless Zone Zero Gets 2024 Release Year In New Gameplay Trailer

Marvel’s Blade Is Coming From The Makers Of Deathloop And Dishonored

Last Sentinel Is A New Triple-A Game From Former Rockstar Devs

GTFO Makers Announces New Co-op Heist Title, Den Of Wolves

Marvel’s Blade

Hello Games Celebrates 10 Years Of No Man’s Sky With New Trailer

Hello Games Announces Light No Fire, A Massive Multiplayer Exploration-Based Fantasy Game

Multiplayer Tactical Shooter Exoborne Wants Players To Extract Loot While Fighting In Tornados

The First Descendant Gets A Full Release Next Summer

The Finals, Embark Studio’s Free-To-Play Shooter, Is Out Right Now

Monster Hunter: Wilds Revealed At The Game Awards

Monster Hunter: Wilds

Tales of Kenzera: Zau Is A Magical Metroidvania Inspired By Bantu Myth

Final Fantasy XVI Is Getting Two DLCs And One Of Them Is Available Now

Narrative Adventure Game As Dusk Falls Heads To PlayStation In March

Battle Mechs In Battle Royale Or Alongside Friends In Mecha Break

Alan Wake 2: ‘The Final Draft’ Update Includes New Game Plus And New Ending, Out Next Week

The Outlast Trials Goes 1.0 And Comes To Consoles In March

Baldur’s Gate 3 Is Now Available On Xbox Series X/S

[raguna-blade]

As I carefully put aside some immense immediate frustration vis a vis some private matters i am more happily reminded of my dear beloved Wild Arms.

Wild Arms, a series of games that really said "Ok So we're going to make a Narrative RPG that's a western and really stick to that aesthetic and vibe, but also, we're going to have all the normal RPG Nonsense"

A Series of games that, despite the increasingly bizarre and strange beasties and big bads which includes, in rough order and as I recall it through some haze and the hazard of serial incompletion:

1: Actual BioMechanical Aliens From A Distant Star that were also, kinda sorta also demons (and were, in fact, called so. By themselves If I recall.

2: Both a Sentient Universe that Ate Other Universes, and Also An Actual Literal No Bullshit Demon Lord who you duel on the moon and beat with the power of friendship

3: Another Actual Fucking Demon, this time of Dreams, that Hijacked the Planet that you had to fight and ultimately beat so badly that it fucked up reality for the better

4: The Ghost of Your Extremely Dead Dad that was being puppetted by Rogue Nanomachines, which later discarded this and decided fuck this planet actually. Your dad never actually showed up in the game. He was dead the whole time. Kind of. Sort of. But Yes.

5: Aliens Again. Except this time the Aliens are from your planet, and they left because shit was fucked and I'm pretty sure they weren't actually expecting anyone to be there, and Also their leader got like...Possessed by an Evil Magitek Spear? I'm definitely forgetting something.

Tactics: The Planet I think. I never really completed this one or 5 if i'm being honest.

and it's just, yeah ok but those are westerns and yeah man. Yeah they definitely are westerns. They're extremely western. 3 Especially. BUT ALSO

There's just vampires. There's a race of vampires that show up in basically every game, and they're exactly as out of place in universe as they are else wise. In general they're also like, the original people who lived on the planet? Which might be the same one across all the games, but also might not be. Really every single game that brings it up just kinda has them be these figures of legend, except for the times when they, you know, show up and basically don't do anything because they're just kinda chilling I guess.

There are Giant Robots. Indeed, Giant Robots are in basically all of the games, And the Main recurring one is a notable in that he's not really like a big fuck off sword wielder or weapon of destruction that you'd expect by like having a fuck off gun or something. Like he IS a weapon of destruction, but that turns out to b because when you're able to project a near unbreakble shield and are also built like a skycraper, just walking forward and LMAOing is a completely valid and terrifyingly effective tactic.

Cyborgs show up in like...All of the games actually. Cyborgs and Robots. Extremely human robots. These are distinct from the metal alien demons, but when the cyborgs do show up, it's usually about as you'd expect from cyborgs in a western, in that they're the coolest fuckers around, but also there's usually something fucked and tragic going on.

I might just be projecting the one cyborg, but Robot People? That's super frequent actually. Artificial Humans in general really.

Magic is a thing. But not just like, one kind of magic. There's usually like at least two different kinds of magic in any game, one of which is like this classy advanced sorcery thing, and the other is invoking the spirits of the land to fuck things up.

I forgot to mention the spirits of the land actually. Like they're a constant thing. They show up in every game, they're always a big deal one way or the other (4 has them be like...Giant nanomachine clusters that PROBABLY aren't magic actually except like...You're tapping into magic power of the land to summon them so maybe?) They're deeply tied to the magic....Native Americans is factually WRONG here, though that's what they're invoking, although given it's from japan maybe it's Ainu people? I factually don't know enough to make that call, there may be a kind of overlap thing going on based on what little I know on the subject, but regardless yeah.

Dragons Show up....WEIRDLY regularly, but they never just look like fucking dragons. They're usually either Extinct and you're using their fossils to power up your guns (which are UNIVERSALLY some kind of weird magic weapon of which most people can't use or if they can they're still like...Excavated ancient weapons.) and the few times they show up in person theyre horrifying biomechanical horrors that absolutely fuck everything up. And one of them is usually Trask, which looks like a weird turtle thing.

And actually i wanna circle back to the spirits of the land thing again, because the most powerful ones are like, what you'd probably expect. They stop being elements relatively quickly, but the top 4 are CONSISTENTLY every time the same 4. The Extremely Understandable Hope, Love, Courage, which are cool and heroic and all that and then you have LUST. Just straight up desire, not actually necessarily sex stuff (but maybe? the games don't touch on it but there's no reason it couldn't be) and that guy just kinda...One is a big badass wolf, so yes good excellent, but he's like ALWAYS shown off as a neutral guy at worst, which has some funny implications with the other 3, which we can kinda see in one villains plan to fuck over another villain which basically amounts to I'm going to use the power of love to make you suffer until you die so you know, maybe they had something going there.

The Main Characters from the mainline games are Actually a pretty eclectic bunch, considering both the era and in general

1: is an Actual in universe mute outcast which ok not too odd, but also he's a literal ancient war machine that just kinda showed up as a kid and got raised human

2: Dudes basically a mercenary, but critically he actually just wants to open up a bakery with his sweetheart until he accidentally get's posssed by a demon which turns him into a toku hero under duress

3: A very Idealistic Young Girl who proceeds to Go Through It, Remains steadfastly idealistic, and also a wanted criminal

4: One Literal Child Way In Over his head struggling against a not so ancient conspiracy that is trying to save the world but also, personally, actually, fucked his life all the way up. He also has super speed. He's just so fast. HES SO FAST GUYS

5: Actually the most normal protag here. He just wants to go on adventure so badly guys you don't get it, but haha careful what you wish for. We were THIS close to having a guy go ham with a shovel as his main weapon.

And just...Dude. Dude I love these games so much, I hope the one that got kickstarted manages to live up to them.