#which game has the best balance and use of their dungeon items…

[solargeist]

letting me ramble abt my favourite media is dangerous bc if u change the subject I Will use “Yeah, but uh-“ to bring it back around don’t Even girl we’re in it now hold my hand

[rupeenotruby]

I see all this discussion of who should pair up but may I suggest who should not pair up. (continued below)

Sure Hyrule has done dungeons but his puzzle solving techniques are:

kill thing(s)

push block

get key

bomb wall

walk through wall

maybe set something on fire???

Like there are a few unique puzzles (like the one with food) but in general... Yeah. And don't get me started on dungeon items. Very few of the items in loz1+2 are even necessary for completing the dungeon you get them in. (this is especially pronounced in aol as only the handy glove is used to complete a palace?? (I think??) The other ones just let you get to the next palace.)

Thus Hyrule would not be the best Link to pair with the one who's never done a dungeon. All he really brings is knowledge of dungeon monsters and the ability to kill them but I think Wars has the killing part covered. Might be a funny though...

Personally the most interesting Link to pair with Hyrule would probably be Wild as Wild doesn't have much traditional dungeon experience (and even less with dungeon monsters) but he does do a lot of unique puzzle solving. They balance each other out with Hyrule being able to kill things and navigate and Wild being able to better solve the puzzles. I mean Hyrule isn't stupid (or has at least 6ish years of Triforce of Wisdom radiation in him) and could probably solve a new-fangled puzzle but they are a team for a reason! Also Wild has infinite bombs. Which is very important.

Frankly the I'd like to see paired up the least are Warriors (for above reasons) and Legend. LOOK!! here me out. I like the downfall duo as much as the next guy. It's just when it comes to dungeons Legend outclasses Hyrule in every aspect. There's no puzzle Hyrule's done that Legend hasn't and there is no item Hyrule has that Legend doesn't (or doesn't have an equivalent to. Ladder my beloved). I feel like Hyrule wouldn't really have anything to do? Legend is just to op in this scenario. I mean if they do end up together I trust jojo to make it work. But right now... I think there are better options.

I also think that Sky and Twilight would work well with Hyrule (though I want to see Sky go with Time) as from my impressions of the games (still working on SkSw though) is that their dungeon items are used really well in the dungeons (I've heard that SkSw does it better though) which would contrast nicely with Hyrule. Plus Twi owes him one.

I don't think I'd mind Wind or Four either I just don't know much about their games and thus their dungeons.

(Also not the best text art I've done. This was supposed to be quick. Still took me two days. (lol))

Back to our regularly scheduled stuff after this!

[felassan]

Some snippets from DA dev Luke Barrett on the unofficial BioWare forum, cut for length:

DA:I -

User: "I am still convinced that Bioware cut the healing spells and went with barriers instead because of the Multiplayer." Luke Barrett: I can't speak to any other games directly but I can give a bit of historic context for DAI. The game was initially a more dungeon/linear delving - see how far you can get - experience and there was no barrier of any kind. As a side note: healing has always been a hot topic in design because as soon as you include it there are many other conceits you now need take into consideration for the gameplay - one of which I will call 'the Anders problem'. Anyway, as DAI got the date moved and shifted more into the pseudo-openworld the concept of attrition (see how far you can get before having to return to camp) became less relevant and we needed to help the Players have more moment-to-moment agency around their survival. Unfortunately for various reasons (one of which is the sad reality of designing a game with a shifting timeline) the healing couldn't be re-added so we ended up with more of a mitigation strategy in the barrier system. It went through a lot of iterations but eventually landed on what it shipped with which I would call... acceptable (but just barely). Now, I will concede that a part of the reason it didn't return after that shift was an aversion to holy trinity gameplay specifically for MP but it wasn't the core reason. As a side story, trying to balance the game (as that was my job on DAI - and yes, it could be much better haha) we had to all but force Players to take barrier. It is intentionally the first skill in the first tree for the Mage and all the autolevel (I also handled that) is designed to get it right away." [source]

User: "Merry Christmas Luke! Sooo what was the hardest class you had to balance? [DA:I]" Luke Barrett: "I feel like anyone who was around for the post-launch content will already know the answer to this as it was the bane of my existence when I got put exclusively on MP after launch but the Knight-Enchanter barrier absorbing was a pain. Stuff like that is very challenging to feel good without being broken as they are relative to damage so scaling is fairly open-ended. Too little and the casual players won't get use out of it, too much and the character builders will be wildly OP. We actually had a 'no nerfing' guideline for the SP side so it was a hard battle to fix that silly thing ���." [source]

"As a fun fact, I did all the logic for autolevel on DAI and the guideline I was given was literally "make functional builds, but don't make something optimal that you'd play"." [source]

DA:TV -

User: "If you can, say thanks to the people making the no die option possible." Luke Barrett: "Done! My team handles this stuff so I let them know 😊" [source]

"Comically, I designed the majority of the items and skills and I am still finding it fun making awesome builds (been almost entirely doing playthroughs lately" [source]

"Was really important to the team that everyone could play the way that felt best to them." [source]

"Each specialization has a focus around a few specific mechanics, some of which are the weapons or damage types but you can go off script and make it work for sure (this was intentional in the designs)." [source]

"I designed all the skills and so they're each enjoyable to me to some extent. I have been playing through the game over and over the last couple months for balance purposes so I've played them all fairly extensively." [source]

User: "Necrotic sounds like it could be either Spirit or Nature." User: "For Rogue, it replace "poison". For Mage, it replace spirit (Spirit bomb). For Warrior, it's more spirit (especially Reaper), but some skills could work as poison too. So basically they merged spirit and nature." Luke Barrett: "Thats pretty close to spot on. They were actually heavily iterated on throughout development - I can't (at least currently) go into specifics as to why though." [source]

"the target for the progression vision is that you can make a viable build out of almost** any aspect of the gameplay." [source]

"As for timelines, We started DA4 in October of 2015 roughly. The entire team was moved to MEA for about 3-4 months to help it ship and I also spent all of 3 weeks helping out on Anthem. But otherwise I've been on some incarnation of DA4 for about 9 years now - pretty ready for it to release 😅." [source]

"yes, years of working on the same thing can cause some burnout but I've played through the full game probably about 8 times in the last few months and it's still fun (though some of the specific levels that haven't changed in a long time I've done 50+ times easily and I could do without ever seeing them again 😂)." [source]

User: "I do kind of feel that at this point the DA team has put so much work into creating and improving their tools and learning the ins and outs of Frostbite [...] But who knows what the devs in the trenches really feel" Luke Barrett: "I will say it does some things very well and some things poorly, relative to other engines. Personally I really enjoy Frostbite but I've been using it since 2012. In an ideal world, many engines would be viable and developers would make games suited to the strengths of a specific engine." [source]

User: "Since this game is much more stat heavy than prior titles, specifically when it comes to skills and gear, there's likely a need for some balance changes to be made post-launch. Does the game being playable completely offline hinder the data capture side for your team (in terms of analytics), or is this a non-factor?" Luke Barrett: "Generally speaking, most people leave data analytics on so we get more than enough data coming in. Additionally, I'll personally be watching several channels for things that are underperforming (relatively speaking) and not have to nerf anything. The rpg side is vast though and I'm sure people will find OP combinations/synergies that might need 'adjustments' but as long as it's fun and not an "I win" button that trivializes combat I'm pretty cool with it." [source]

Luke Barrett: "I can safely say there are many builds for each class that will feel very powerful if you're not on the highest difficulty 😉. What I'm really excited for is when the guides comes out that show people the fastest way to get some of the uniques that unlock 'special' gameplay 😊. Let's just say I love the feeling of rushing to Patches in DS1 and kicking him off the bridge for the Crescent Axe (iykyk)." [source] User: "Speaking of guides. Will there be a guidebook like there was for DAI? " Luke Barrett: "Not that I'm aware of but I'm happy to help feed info to somewhere like fextralife or the dragon age wiki after a week or so to help with those pursuits. Have to leave some time for exploration and discovery before the optimizers streamline the experience 😉" [source]

"Effectively, at least until the game launches (and likely a week or so after), you won't get anything interesting out of any of the devs save Mike Gamble or John Epler. Longer term I hope to be very active, at least for build mechanics and all the combat/rpg nuts and bolts conversations." [source]

"I started "da4" in October 2015 and so after 9 years of effort (minus 3 months on Andromeda) I'm quite excited for tomorrow and the launch week. I don't know if I'd say nervous, I feel pretty confident in the product, but definitely that eager kid before Christmas feeling 😊" [source]

"As the person who did all the balance, I will say that if you are comprehending how to make a cohesive build and understand the combat mechanics, you should play on Underdog. One of the downsides to having a lot of power growth vectors is the difference between people who engage vs those that don't becomes a chasm quite quickly. If you start blowing enemies up rapidly, turn up the difficulty (or play on nightmare where that will not be the case) - basically if it ever feels super easy or like enemies are health sponges you're probably on the wrong setting for your skill level. The custom difficulty settings are there to make the gameplay enjoyable (for whatever that means to you)." [source]

"As a tip from me, the balance is subtly tipped in the players favor until the last fight of the 3rd combat mission. Be warned if it's feeling too easy you may want to wait until after that to decide." [source]

[on DA MP] Luke Barrett: "It was actually pretty fun but very much not what most people wanted us to make (including internally). Also we had, let's say, limited staff who had a passion and background in MP so it was definitely the right call to go SP only. Now, it would have been nice had we just started that way but so it goes sometimes." [source] User: "You still play it yourself from time to time (DA MP), or have you left it be?" Luke Barrett: "After playing variations of DA4 for so many years (9!!!) it's hard to go back to anything with DAI controls/gameplay speed. Even the initial Joplin prototypes I was doing were much more snappy/twitchy - for everything good about DAI the combat was definitely in the middle of two different styles." [source]

[on aiming bows] "we actually used to have separate buttons for ADS and ranged attack but it was wildly overloading the controller. These RPG games need controllers with at least 2 more buttons (fingers crossed for the next gen)" [source]

User: "After the last few games, I'm really surprised by the current skill... tree?" Luke Barrett: "I call it a skill graph - aside from the beginning where you have 3 choices the entirety of it is 2 choice splits and it'll essentially make a build for you. Just go a little at a time and aim for whatever specialization seems most fun to you 😄" [source]

"Loot is not random so theoretically guides with drop locations should appear pretty soon." [source]

"Yep, Spellblade is the only spec that directly impacts fire damage but you can get benefits from most of them and still go fire. As for the specs, yes it would have been nice to support all of them but just wasn't in scope unfortunately. Mage has Mourn-Watch, Shadow Dragons, and Antivan Crows specializations - only the Rogue has a Veiljumper one. Deathcaller left side you can go beam based and use a Fire weapon. Evoker you'd likely need to do a hybrid ice/fire build." [source]

User: "Bit of a side question, but for those who intend to make more characters, is BioWare considering upping the amount of playable character slots you can have (currently at 3)? Or is there a hardware restriction here given the game is offline playable?" Luke Barrett: "Don't quote me as I don't handle the technical side of this but my understanding is we have to allocate a specific amount of HD space on the consoles so we basically have to pick a limit, relative to our save file sizes, and then divide that by number of careers. I'll inquire if this is something we can increase with an optional download or something but I suspect consoles are stuck that way, unfortunately." [source]

[on Patch 1] "It's been awhile since I actually did the content for this patch so I'd have to check but I have a pretty anti-nerf policy for SP games. I know I fixed up a couple enemies that weren't as hard as they were supposed to be and definitely boosted a bunch of synergistic things though. I'll take a look tomorrow but for those that don't know, the turnaround time on these things is about a month of it's not an emergency due to certification process with consoles. Longer term my goal is to keep an eye in telemetry of any underused abilities and items (or enemies with too many kills under their belt) and audit them just to double check if they need a boost or if people just haven't figured them out yet 😉." [source]

"The equippable items are all predetermined with a minor exception*. Some items are class specific (all the weapons, a small amount of armors and accessories, 2 runes) so when you play a different class you'll see your classes 'version' of that item. Things that are random (from a table/pool) are valuables. Exception: Near the very end of the game we do a few checks on what equipment you haven't acquired. A bunch of those final drops, and inventory on the final merchant, simply find stuff you don't have and give it to you. That's basically the only major RNG we have with loot. If you notice even 99% of the skills and item mods employ an effect after a condition is met X times rather than a more traditional 'proc chance'." [source]

[on modding] "Once this starts to pick up, feel free to PM me if anyone needs help 'finding' assets or has questions about how one might mod something. We don't officially support mods buuuuut we don't have any kind of anti-modding stance either" [source]

"To give the high level gist of the resource economy: - each class starts off with minimal ability usage, this is intentional to force people to learn the other combat mechanics as they're a necessary skill and it's easy to lean on a crutch like ability spam and kiting - abilities are designed to feel powerful on use, thus they all have a decent cost and can't be spammed* - weapon attacks generate your resource - in the bottom right of the center skills area is a node to make each class's resource easier to manage - halfway down all starting segments (N, SW, SE) there is always a node that boosts generation - there are +max nodes on all sides of the skill graph for each class, this is particularly important for the Mage as they start each fight at max - each class can build into being ability focused but starts intentionally rounded - loastly, the first ability is always a resource spender and 1 or 2 of the next available ones will be cooldown gated. It is recommended to have at least one cooldown based ability slotted" [source]

"So loosely the rogue momentum works like this: - each ability costs 50 momentum - hitting enemies generates ~2 momentum per hit (base), you get extra for bow weakpoints - when you are directly hit, you lose 15% of your current momentum, this means the more you hold the more you will lose (this loss has a small cooldown so you don't lose a whole bar when you get hit rapidly) - momentum carries forward between combats (compared to warrior rage which decays when out of combat) If youre having issues, make sure you get that skill in the middle section that reduces momentum loss when hit. As a helpful tip, the Quicken buff generates small amounts of momentum each second so it's a good way to get more if you're having issues." [source]

"I highly recommend using the belt that grants Quicken early game until you can generate momentum faster yourself. And yes, the time dilation affects everything in the world except the Player so all your buffs and things still tick at normal speed" [source]

User: "If I knock an enemy off an edge, if they were supposed to drop something will it appear on the edge, or is it lost for good?" Luke Barrett: "It should appear on the ledge. I will say the 'real' loot from enemy drops are all hand placed. The actual random stuff is just valuables and materials." [source]

" The way it actually works is very complicated with a lot of necessary exceptions but loosely - each ability has a base damage and ones that hit multiple times have an offset multiplier. - That value is multiplied by the sum of all your stat bonuses, conditional bonuses, resist and layer modifiers. - We then subtract enemy defense and multiply by 1-resist (with penetration being calculated here). - this new damage then gets multiplied by 1+crit+weakpointpoint (so those bonuses always feel meaty) and then multiplied by a random number between .95 and 1.05 just to give a little range to the floaties (basically just a presentation thing) - we then multiply again for buffs and debuffs so they, again, always feel meaningful - lastly, we take all added damage and add it flat on top" [source]

"Specific enhancements make enemies immune to the matching affliction. For example, Fire Enchanted enemies are immune to burning. Juggernaut enemies are immune to being staggered but otherwise it should work in everything." [source]

[dailyadventureprompts]

The Mechanics of Baldur's Gate 3

As someone who's constantly tinkering with the mechanics of my favourite RPG, I LOVE a lot of what Larian has done with D&D; not only accurately translating the base system but improving upon in ways I never thought of.

Playing BG3 feels good, and I want to see how much of their work I can adapt for my own table. As such, here's a breakdown of a bunch of little tweaks they've made to 5e (taken from the bg3 wiki) and whether or not I think they're a good fit for regular pencil and paper d&d.

Shove is not a part of the attack action. It is a bonus action available to all characters. Shove only pushes the target back an amount that depends on the shover's strength and the target's weight. It normally does not knock them prone unless they are shoved off a high ledge.

This might be THE best design Larian implemented and is instantly going in my games. Bonus action shoving is such a natural addition to combat, gives so many more tactical options. My one protest is that I am NOT calculating the weight of every creature and object ( mainly because I'm terrible at guessing weights for things) so I'd go with the distance calculation based on the creature's size and con score.

Gaining inspiration based on backgrounds

Gee, a mechanical reward for roleplaying your character, one that's way more straight forward than the DM arbitrated "ideals, bonds, flaws," system. From now on I'm going to give each of my players an upfront " You gain inspiration when you ______" note on their character sheet based on their backgrounds.

The party is limited to two short rests per long rest. Short rests restore each ally's hit points by an amount equal to half their maximum HP (rounded down). There is no hit die rolling. Long rests require camp supplies, which are food items that must be looted or purchased. In towns you will be able to rest at an inn.

This is a mixed bag for me only because I like hitdie as a mechanical abstract and I don't want to see them removed. Tbh I wish more mechanics interacted with them and they were called something abstract like "stamina" or something. That said I ADORE the camp supplies idea because it not only gives you something minor to reward exploration with besides GP. On the otherhand tracking all those supplies without the game's inventory management would be tedious as hell so it'd need to be highly simplified.

I especially like the idea of limited short rests/supplies in larger survival based adventures where time isn't at a premium like it is inside a dungeon.

If you hide while not in a creature's sight cone, you automatically succeed. If you try to hide while in a creature's sight cone, you automatically fail. If you are hidden and enter a creature's sight cone, you must roll stealth against the creature's passive perception. This may be a straight roll, advantage, or disadvantage, based on the creature's senses and the level of lighting. Some creatures with different senses such as blindsight may follow different rules

Congrats on fixing stealth rolls Larian. No notes.

LOTS more opinions under the cut.

When a creature is at least 10 ft above their target and makes a ranged attack, they receive a +2 bonus to the attack roll due to high ground. When a creature is at least 10 ft below their target and makes a ranged attack, they receive a -2 penalty to the attack roll due to low ground.

This is fine, and quite inline with a lot of fixes I've seen for flanking rules. I'm fine with a little extra battlefield math in order to make moments of advantage (spending inspiration, reckless attacking etc) shine.

The game does not stop a character from casting a leveled spell with both an action and a bonus action

Mixed on this, on one hand I've played enough clerics to know how much it sucks to have to use your bonus action to do a necessary spell and then be stuck with a so-so cantrip or melee attack for standard. On the other hand there's some design balance issues at play here.

Help is an Action. This ability allows characters to aid an ally in combat and remove negative Conditions. Using the help action on a downed ally brings them back to 1 hit point and leaves them prone.

Love the idea of help doing multiple things AND being a solution to minor status conditions. and giving everyone the ability to help means I can be a lot more aggressive when it comes to knocking character to 0. if I had to further patch this, I'd say that this also allows for a medicine check to allow a creature to spend a hitdie when they're downed, or allows the helping character to make a "SNAP OUT OF IT, WE'RE YOUR FRIENDS" charisma roll for charmed allies.

Jumping is a bonus action which consumes 10 ft of movement speed. With a Strength score of 10 or below, a creature can jump 15 ft, and this increases by 5 ft for every two points in strength above 10. At 20 Str a creature may spend 10 ft of movement speed and a bonus action to jump, and can travel 35 ft effectively increasing the creature's movement speed by up to 25 feet.

This, combined with the prone rules (see below) is JUICY, as it allows for risk-reward battlefield mobility . That said I'd add some caveats/clarifications: The jump always succeeds in moving you, but if you're taking damage, jumping up or down more than 10ft, or into rough terrain you need to make an acrobatics check not to beef it and fall prone (ending your turn). Your jump is likewise a buffer for how far you can willingly fall before taking damage, but if you fall after your jump, you always land prone.

Weapon actions, 'nough said.

It's more complexity than I'd give to first time players but HOT DAMN if it isn't a great idea to give the martial characters some options instead of just making the same attacks over and over again. I've actually been sockpiling 3rd party versions of this for a while now and I can't wait to add them in.

All The conditions are great:

Blinded: In addition to the other effects, ranged attacks are limited to 15 ft range. Blinded creatures can also make opportunity attacks.

Frightened: Creatures which are frightened are unable to move at all (rather than being unable to move toward the source of their fear), unless the effect instead makes them "fearful" which gives them the frightened effect as well as making them flee.

Prone: Being prone gives disadvantage on Strength and Dexteritysaving throws, attacks against a prone creature have advantage out to a range of 10 ft rather than 5 ft, and ranged attacks against a prone creature do not have disadvantage. Your character cannot do anything while prone. Starting the turn while prone will cause you to automatically use half your movement to stand up. Becoming prone during your turn automatically ends your turn.

Wet: This is a new condition that prevents the character from burning (e.g. from Searing Smite) and grants resistance to fire damage, but also makes the creature vulnerable to lightning and cold damage

[greatwyrmgold]

Power Is Power

Thinking about two very similar lines from two very different fantasy series.

First, we have Cersei Lannister's "Power is power."

Littlefinger crudely alludes to a certain secret that could ruin the Lannisters and says "Knowledge is power". Cersei responds by ordering her guards to (nearly) kill Littlefinger, then do a series of pointless orders. She follows this up by dropping the line "Power is power" and giving Littlefinger an order.

The message here is simple. To Cersei, power is the power to make others follow your commands, and in particular to threaten or inflict violence on others. She says this to deny that Littlefinger's knowledge could have any power, which is odd when you consider that she had Eddard Stark imprisoned to prevent people from learning that very knowledge.

Yeah, this is one of those scenes where David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (aka D&D) had two of their great actors monologue at each other to fill time and generate pseudo-philosophical quotes that sound good out of context.

To their credit, the nature of power is a running theme in Game of Thrones and its source material, and even if the show doesn't seem to realize Cersei is wrong, she's wrong in an in-character way. Sometimes, D&D do two wrongs that make a right.

Speaking of D&D, though, there's a Dungeons and Dragons webcomic which has a very similar line, under very different circumstances. I am, of course, talking about The Order of the Stick and one of Xykon's best monologues.

You seem to have an interest in power, so let me educate you a little while I search for you. It's sort of this thing I like to do sometimes, especially for learned wizards such as yourself. Power, it isn't something that you put on or take off like a jacket. It's something you just ARE. [...] I used to think spells equaled power, too, back when I was alive. I've learned a lot since then. You know what does equal power? Power. Power equals power. Crazy, huh? But the type of power? Doesn't matter as much as you'd think. It turns out, everything is oddly balanced. Weird, but true. For example: Right now, power takes the form of a +8 racial bonus to Listen skill checks.

The biggest difference between the two scenes is that it's hard to discuss this one without spoiling stuff; Rich Burlew puts these character-thesis-statement monologues at plot-critical junctures, you see. But the next-biggest is that it makes sense in context.

Xykon isn't a master manipulator, and he isn't being written by someone who thinks he is; he's a drama king (complete with crown), bragging about his victory to a wizard who arrogantly thought they could beat him.

Said wizard showed up to Xykon's castle with "a big pile of spells"—somewhere around twice what Xykon had, and with access to a greater variety of spells. In terms of pure, violent firepower, the wizard should have won. But they didn't, because firepower isn't the only kind of power. Sometimes power is listening to your allies' advice. Sometimes power is thinking to prepare magic traps or items ahead of time. Sometimes power is a +8 racial bonus to Listen checks.

(That's Perception for you 5e whippersnappers. Back in my day, there were different skills for hearing invisible wizards and spotting silenced rogues.)

I'd say that's the biggest difference between these two scenes. Cersei has overwhelming violence, rejects all other forms of power, and keeps failing upward until rocks fall on her. The wizard tried to do the same thing, using their overwhelming violence to overpower their enemies, only to be defeated after two pages due to a mixture of their hubris and Xykon's unexpected power.

Cersei believes that authority and violence are the only power that matter. Xykon knows power comes in all forms.

[pawborough]

Greetings!

Welcome back, we’re chugging along in our progress, and we’ve got some content to share!

First off, let’s take a look at art.

The Fyret

As a reminder, the Fyret is the result of the exclusive Kickstarter Design a Breed tier – the backer chose to merge our Ragdoll breed with a ferret. It’s serious business!

We can't thank the backer enough for adding their own flare to our game. The outcome is cuter and more fitting than we could've imagined! The Fyret will be available to the player base during beta and at launch, and will be obtainable with a Metropolis Stone.

Improved Assets: Shorthair and Ragdoll

These renders are similar, but small aspects have been adjusted for better weight balance, flipability, color coordination, and line quality.

It’s our intention to continue re-rendering all the breeds available in the demo in order to bring them on par with recent breed illustrations. With these efforts, we believe Paw Borough will be coming out of the gate with an objectively stronger and more cohesive presentation, and we will continue to best preserve the integrity of the original designs and poses.

The Guild

As promised, we’ve outlined the pre-production for the guild and how it will function.

The Guild is a "mystery dungeon" and "tabletop role-play" inspired section which allows you to interact with clients, go on missions, and level up your cats. Guilds consist of 2-50 members (or you can have one all by yourself!), and can be registered at any time. When registering a guild, users may begin taking jobs and going on missions.

What are Jobs and Missions?

When you register your guild, you will be responsible for taking jobs listed by cats around Mewmoia. Jobs consist of escorting a cat through a treacherous area, defeating and reprimanding an enemy, or retrieving/delivering a precious item that you must keep safe.

NOTE: This layout is rudimentary and exists for testing purposes only. It is not indicative of the final product.

All cats will have a base number of stats totaling between 0-130, which dictate how many chances your cat has to succeed at an action.

For every 5 stats you have, you earn a 50% chance to succeed at an action. A stat will max at 30, equaling a total of 7 chances.

Green chances are a guaranteed success or critical success, and red chances are a guaranteed fail or critical fail! Some actions may require multiple successes in order to proceed, providing your cat with a hefty amount of challenge or ease depending on your statistics.

Cats can grow between 1-5 levels, and may choose between 5 classes: Warrior, Ranger, Medic, Thief, and Bard, which all come with unique sub-paths for specialty.

Each sub-path will come with an exclusive move for your cat to use in combat, so you will have to think carefully about what path to take your cat!

NOTE: These visuals are, once again, rudimentary for the purposes of internal testing. This is NOT indicative of the final product!

In the world of Mewmoia, other cats may be vying for the jobs you’ve taken, may be the outlaws you are tasked with defeating, or may be out to get you or your guild! The Guild combat system will feature rival generated cats as enemies, and will not feature any alternative creatures (we have a system for companions planned for down the line!)

We are approaching the design of Paw Borough with the intention to create unique story experiences for each player. Players are more then encouraged to use the space to develop their own imagination. It is our hope that of the many reasons for why players may face rival cats, players decide for themselves the best reasoning to suit their roleplay! Guilds are encouraged to foster imagination and for players to place themselves in the world of Mewmoia – or imagine something entirely new! Meee-ow!

Completing a job will reward your guild with experience to level up, and reward each player with guild currency (name currently in progress.) Guild currency will be usable in a completely separate shop with guild-exclusive items, and the items available for you to buy will be unlocked by your guild’s experience level!

Outside of missions, guilds will also be given private forum boards, the opportunity to upload a custom logo, and backdrop scenes to decorate with fellow guild-members, in order for users to establish community within their own guilds.

Note that everything shown is a proof of concept. More information on the Guild is to come once we complete further internal testing of the system mechanics. We must first ensure that the homebrewed system we are presenting is sound. Everything regarding the guild that we present, up until the end of player testing, will be subject to change. However, we hope users will have a hayload of fun with the dungeon-esque “adventure mode!”

We hope you enjoy everything we’ve presented today! We're on the road to more asset creation and building!

To summarize: we shared the final render of the Fyret, improved Ragdoll and Shorthair renders, and a first look at the mechanics which will be available in the Guild!

What to expect next month: we'll continue to share new and updated assets as they are rendered, starting with the Snowfoot, which is almost done! We plan for March to be a very productive month, as we are wrapping up recording our complete and comprehensive list of on-site items!

[ladyirisreviews]

Deadly Sin - Review

This is an RPG Maker game initially released in 2009, and I gave it a try because the more recent games from this dev team, Dancing Dragon Games, seem promising, and you can see a lot of effort in some areas of this game too, but I can't say that my experience was all that positive overall.

The plot is simple, the protagonist, Lorelai, is the real heir to the throne and has been living in hiding since she was a child under the protection of a powerful mage named Winchester, he disappears one day leaving only a note behind, explaining to Lorelai her situation and how she must seek help to overthrow the fake empress.

The idea of the plot is fine but the game loses me in the dialogue, which is very stilted in my opinion, trying to balance both the old english trope and generic anime dialogue, you don't get to know the characters very well outside of their very basic characteristics, and the development of Lorelai, in particular, feels too sudden.

I also feel like the overall mapping is subpar, they mostly use default assets for the maps, which is not wrong in itself, but a lot of the time it feels like tiles were put in without much thought, and it is my belief that even if making custom tiles results in technically worse looking tiles, it really helps making the game feel unique and like a lot more effort went into making them.

Most of the enemies are also default assets, which clash with the clearly custom player sprites, the only custom sprites for enemies are those of 2 major bosses, which are actually well-made, I wish the rest of the game was made of custom sprites, but I can't know the conditions they were in when they made this game.

The place where most of the effort went into was completely overhauling the normal gameplay of the RPG Maker engine, the battle system is its own thing.

Fights are still turn-based, but character actions occur the moment you select the action, and not when all of the actions of the party are selected, like it would normally be in the RPG Maker engine.

MP regenerates slowly after every turn, and 2 out of the 5 characters have a completely unique skill system that replaces MP, one is called Overdrive, which increases the resource you would use for skills as the characters get damaged or use a normal attack, and the other one has a Stamina system, which regenerates each turn, but at a faster rate than MP.

The game also uses a Threat system, depending on how much damage a character deals, the Threat percentage for that character will increase, which is the chance enemies will target said character with their attacks, adding a layer of strategy to the combat.

The item variety for fights is very scarce, you only get access to 4 items, a 50 HP and a 200 HP potion, an item for healing status effects, and a revive item, the game intends you to deal with the resource management of magic without items at all, which is a unique take.

The game has an interesting way of dealing with random encounters, they exist, but they can be turned off near the end of all rooms by interacting with a crystal, which will also give you skill points, making traversing dungeons you already explored for hidden loot much much faster.

There's also a skill tree system, every fight you gain skill points, which you can then use to unlock or upgrade skills, which is quite cool, but it's quite obvious what skills are the best ones, which is probably why there is a restriction on what skills you can get depending on how many skills you have gotten or upgraded.

The system is cool but I feel like I ignored like 80% of the skills, most feel almost useless or they don't make enough of a difference, which brings me to the overall balance of the game.

Most of the game is incredibly easy, you will be using the same few skills to completely wreck all random fights, and even the boss fights won't be much different, the only difference is that bosses will have a very large HP pool, and sometimes you will be running out of MP which will only slow down the rate at which you kill the boss.

The end of the game is quite different. While you will still be wrecking random battles, the last 2 major bosses are quite the challenge, these are also the only bosses with unique sprites by the way.

These bosses boast an enormous HP pool, and use attacks that target the whole party, which invalidate the Threat system completely, the first one of those felt quite impossible to me, but I cheesed it by the end, it was vulnerable to getting stunned so I just stunned it over and over.

The final boss, however, I could not beat, no matter the strategy I tried it was just too hard, to the point I think it's impossible unless you grind for hours, which I also couldn't do anymore because I foolishly activated all the crystals in the final dungeon, which blocked me out of grinding, quite the oversight.

So yeah, while I was not able to finish the game, and I am not willing to replay the whole game to then grind away for even more hours, I like a lot of the ideas the game had, and I am very interested in checking out the sequel, which I will definitely be playing.

I can't recommend this game, but at least I can say I appreciate the work that went into it, I am excited to see how the studio grew between each game.

[slightly-gay-pogohammer]

Hi question: Is Fear and Hunger supposed to be this hard? I've played for almost 7 hours and feel like I've made like, no progress. Am I missing something? Q-Q You really seem to love the game so there's gotta be more to it than my experience of infinite leg breaking

dasfdsfn no yea funger. IS super hard. sometimes to the point of unfairness, since it heavily relies on RNG. consider that, despite making no progress in the story, you're learning more and more stuff about the mechanics of the game, where to go and which enemies to avoid. even now, sometimes i have "hopeless" runs, where i force myself to continue not because i feel like i can win, but because pushing a little more means i get to understand a little more how the game works.

buuuuuuut if i may give a little hints, going as spoiler-free as possible:

for an easy start, pick mercenary, be a burglar and rush into the dungeon. that's by far the easiest way to play the game

go left

avoid enemies at all costs as long as you're alone

the bed next to the statue is a one time free save.

every bed become free saves as long as theres no enemy left alive in that floor. if you fail the coin flip just leave the area and return in here

guard can stop every coin flip attack, and enemies always use a specific pattern. learn their rhythm

O LORD, GIVE, WHITE ANGEL*

experiment with the talk option, because sometimes it can save you from very difficult battles*

don't go directly for the head, it has too much evasion as long as the enemy's balance is stable

learn which part of the body does which attack

fire and poison on enemies is OP to the point to be broken

talk just once to the man in the library

know where to pray to which god*

boss souls can be taken by soul stones, and some are much more valuable than others*

protecting your arms is much more important than protecting your legs

infection is such a bitch of a status. get rid of it as fast as possible*

red vials can be used against enemies

dont use blue herbs unless you have no other choice. if you find the right books you can turn them into mix of red and blue or blue vials, which give you way more HP

if the crow enters the room, simply changing screen despawns him

let the girl throw rocks

the mines have a one time free full hunger area, the courtyard one where you can regain all health. all the other times you'll have to coin flip

:)

...and since some are very cryptic, under read more more explainations on the ones with the *. i go a lot more in details, but read it only if youre, like. very desperate

if you find an empty scroll and a feather, use the scroll and write O LORD in the first menu, GIVE in the second, WHITE ANGEL in the third, in all caps. it's a very powerful late-game accessory that allows you to have two turn

very important examples for talk options: in the mines, Moonless can become a party member if you talk to her and give her rotten meat twice; the hounds will get distracted if you talk and throw a stick; you can sell people to Trortur if you talk to him; the yellow mages may give you a good item; corpses won't attack you if you tell them PREPARE TO DIE

out of every God, Alll-mer can unlock very cool stuff. Pray to him in one of the circles on the ground, sacrifice the crucified man in the torture chamber (kill the priests around him, they give you access to the level up room) and pray to him at the big statue in the courtyard where you find Ragnvaldr and the Butterfly. If you have a Soul Stone "charged" with an enemy's soul, this should be enough to unlock Teleport in the hexen circles

by far the best bosses to Soul Stone(tm) are the Salmonsnake and the White Angel's. the Black Witch and the Old Guardian are quite good too, but if you have to pick two go for the former

infection is a status that insta-kills you after 7 screen change. Fix it as fast as possible either with green herbs or by cutting off the infected limb. Having no shield is much better than restarting the whole game

[flagboi-whotookit]

Reviewlike #1

Fortune Favors the Fortunate (Dicey Dungeon) 1. The set-up This is a very innovative roguelike... In setting at least, we'll get to the rest later. You play as one of six people who entered a competition run by Lady Luck herself, where if you win, you get your heart's greatest desire. Said people are promptly transformed into dice and forced to traverse a dungeon. The cast is just as colorful as the setting, some of the best include; A workaholic playing to remove his need for sleep, the cut-throat and competitive type vying to win a billion dollars, and a curious inventor here by accident because she was interested in the bus headed to the show. Still having said that, we still have... 2. A glaring problem Yeah... I know I was hyping the setting up, but the gameplay falls flat compared to the rest. Which is a shame since that's the part you really have to nail to make a good roguelike. But, why? Why is Dicey Dungeon so bad? Well... it's too luck based. Wait, wait, put the pitchforks down. I don't mean it has luck in it, I'm not someone reviewing Shotgun King on Steam. Most good roguelikes have luck in them. I mean that it is ALL. LUCK. This game has next to no skill involved. The majority of this game is combat, and how do you fight in this game? Roll dice. Wait, that's it? Sadly, yes. Sure, you can reroll dice, or add a pip (the little dots on dice) to one. You can also choose how to spend the ones you do get. But a lot of the weapons/tools need specific, or a specific range, of numbers. Pretty much every item in the game either has a max number cap, meaning it just won't accept higher dice, or mandates you use an even or odd die. I understand this was in an attempt to balance the game, but the fact you're beholden to a Yahtzee cup is balance enough. The amount of times I've got a bunch of useless dice, or my opponent got a perfect set that I had no way to counter, is unparallel. Even with all that, I still feel inclined to ask... 3. Is this salvageable?

Answering this question means we have to answer another first: Where does being salvaged end, and being scrapped start? Stay with me! I promise this is going somewhere. If the dice aesthetic stays, it would have to be *purely* aesthetic for the gameplay to work. Which would make it blend into the sea of dungeon crawler roguelikes. Instead, I offer a better solution: Broaden the scope from simply dice, to all luck based things. This way, they could keep Lady Luck, but kick the luck-dependent combat. The issue here is; is this too far from the original vision? I mean, it's called DICEY Dungeon, die are kinda it's thing. I can't answer this, I didn't make the game and don't know the people who did, so I don't know what their vision was. All I know is the final product.

So, where does this leave us? Well, wherever it's lead you. I don't care for conclusions, I won't tell you what to think about this. I'll just leave you with my take, feel free to add on, or tell me why you think I'm wrong. I'm all for discussion. Anyway, enjoy your day or night. If you aren't busy, get comfortable, grab a drink, throw on a podcast, and roguelike until your mouse dies. And once again, stay tunned, as long as there are roguelikes, there's my opinion. Is it a good opinion? That's for you to decide...

[youngerfrankenstein]

force you say something nice... how about game recommendations! Or just games you like?

You got me into ghost trick, psychonauts and to finish the great ace attorney! Currently go through the curious village again thanks to you as well!

You got great taste in games!

Oh! Interesting :D

(Which reminds me I really need to get back to Bug Fables it was really cute I’ve just been doing a lot of game-hopping recently 😅 Which is nice in its own way!)

Hmm. I’ll try to think of games a liiiittle less well known.

First off!

Shadow Hearts is a bit of a strange game in that it is both one of the most stereotypical JRPG’s ever made and one of the most distinctive (at least from what I’ve seen)

A lot of this comes from the setting; Europe shortly before WW1. Albeit in a world very different from the one we live in, since this one has quite a few more monsters. In fact it takes quite a bit from the horror genre, and a lot of its enemy encounters are pretty horrific. The whole game is a blend of creepy and silly, which could easily go bad but it balances them pretty well! The game also plays fast and loose with real historical events and people (one of your party members is technically Mata Hari. No really.) And you travel around fighting demons and trying to protect a young woman being pursued for unknown reasons. (Like I said, JRPG.)

The combat system is also pretty neat! Basically every character and ability hits based on button presses timed to a line swinging around a ring:

Closer to the edge gets you more damage but also if you wait too long you miss the hit. Sort of a risk/reward thing. There are also a bunch of debuffs and items that mess with the ring which can make things easier or harder for you. You also have to manage Sanity Points, which go down every turn and can be used on abilities, but if you run out that character becomes incapacitated.

That’s not even mentioning the music, which is… I’ve heard it described as a mix of Final Fantasy’s music and Silent Hill���s. Somehow both melodic and discordant, but definitely interesting. I may replay this in October actually, it’s a good spooky season game.

There’s definitely some humour that.. isn’t great as well. (Oh boy! I sure do love pervert jokes!)

It’s technically a follow-up to the game Koudelka, and a couple of characters from there show up here. But it’s its own thing and not necessary to play that one at all. I haven’t, though I may try someday. From what I gather it’s a surprisingly well-written and well-acted game with an ungodly mashup of turn-based combat and survival horror for gameplay. There are also two sequels. I’ve played the first which… I still mostly enjoyed. But while I know a lot of people like it better I was not particularly fond of how it went much farther into silly territory and less creepy (though the spider made of human fingers was a neat boss) and as much as I LOVE Joachim and find it funny to have Anastasia Romanov on the team the cast felt weaker. I have not played the third and I hear it is bad.

There is also a spiritual successor coming out… sometime (supposedly next year) called Penny Blood and I’m curious how that will turn out. But overall I really like this one!

Next!

…I am going to be honest, I still do not really understand a lot of the story with this one. It’s here on atmosphere alone.

You play as Ashley Riot, sent in to a dead town to take out a cult and what follows is… something of a hack-n-slash dungeon crawler, but a more slow and methodical one. Part of the game involves crafting your own weapons from the ones you find to best exploit enemy weaknesses and getting your timing right. It is not perhaps the most spectacular, but it can be satisfying.

But you really do play it for the atmosphere. The Shakespeare references, the melodramatic tone, the unsettling feel of the town.

It’s also technically set in Ivalice but that doesn’t really play into anything.

Next!

If I’m being honest, this is a really basic game. With basic gameplay. …But it has SO much charm! You play as a gang of Sky Pirates! Who find a mysterious girl and set off to find out why she had been captured. Again very much genre staples but dang if they ain’t being adhered to with joy. The characters are loveable, the palette colourful and the music lovely! It just feels like a nice world to be in.

You probably won’t be in for much of a surprise, but you’ll probably have fun.

I will say that personally I found the airship battles could get a little slow, but they are there to break things up a bit and, I mean, if you emulate it… (it’s uh. Expensive.) And at least on GameCube the skip button for specials is holding down “z” and you WILL be using it.

Also side note that the GameCube version has some stuff added, including most of the backstory for one of the game’s main villains. So maybe go for that one.

Also!

While I know you’re familiar with this one, still briefly bringing it up.

Don’t play this game while you’re depressed.

The gameplay is kind of neat in how it takes elements from shoot-em-ups in that you have to dodge waves of projectiles while hitting back (albeit much easier) but really this is a game carried by its main characters. The core group are just, really enjoyable to watch, even as worse and worse things happen to them and they do worse and worse things. You want to see them get through things even though this is very much a world where EVERYTHING FUCKING SUCKS. Also some very neat meta writing!

It’s odd because I normally hate things like this. Really bleak tones just lead to me not caring and if characters drop like flies why should I invest in them? …And yet.

But mostly I wanted to bring it up because I’m like 80% convinced that Papa Nier and Monkey from Enslaved: Odyssey to the West have the same character model. That one is a game which I’ll only really recommend to people who want to see Ninja Theory’s earlier work but it’s alright.

Lastly YES! The game propaganda is working >:D (I’m really flattered you think my taste in games is good!!!)

Edit: GRANDIA!

Honestly similar comments to Skies of Arcadia it’s just very fun and colourful!

[blubberquark]

Self-Synergy, Anti-Synergy, Pools

In a roguelike-like game with skills and pick-ups you need to choose between, such as The Binding of Isaac or Nuclear Throne, or in a drafting and deck-building game, such as Slay The Spire or the "arena" and "dungeon run" modes in Hearthstone, there is the possibility of self-synergy.

Self-synergy is the opposite of balancing a game for one-off units, or one-off cards (sometimes called "one-of" tech cards because you only need one of them in your deck at most, even if you could have more; I do not know if that is a malaproprism). Let's start with some hypothetical examples: Say you have a buff that makes healing cheaper, and then you level up again and encounter a choice where one option is to pick more spell damage, and one choice is to make healing more effective. If you already have cheaper healing, there is synergy between cheaper healing and stronger healing. But why stop there? If you have one buff to healing power already, picking a second copy of that buff to healing power has the same potential for synergy. If you get any healing spells, they will be better. Maybe they will be better by roughly the same amount. Another example: You are playing a (hypothetical) drafting card game. You have a card that lets you draw a card when you play it in beast mode. You don't have any beast mode activating cards yet. If you pick another card that has an extra effect when in beast mode, it will make your first card that activates beast mode that much better. Another example: You are playing a role-playing game with random loot. You are wearing an amulet of fire damage, a ring of ice damage, and a crown of poison damage. If you find a ring of fire damage. Obviously having +2 to fire damage is better than having +1 to fire damage and +1 to ice damage, unless your ice spells are levelled up already. You would rather use the best spell all the time, unless fire and ice have cooldowns.

If picking the same thing again multiple times is a good move, even if you have nothing that enables the synergy yet, it's self-synergy. If a thing just has a synergy with itself, like a murloc that gives +1 to other murclocs, and would thus give +1 to another copy of itself, that is just regular synergy.

The clearest example of self-synergy in an actually existing game is Risk of Rain (at least the first one). There are so many items which can stack, and which you should pick multiples of when you can, to enable synergies that much harder. Faster attacks stack, and enable items that have a chance to cause an effect on attack more often.

On the other hand, many games have upgrades, skills, or items with mechanics with a mutual anti-synergy. Let's call the anti-synergy version of self-synergy anti-self-synergy. Anything that casts from hit points has anti-synergy with other things that cast from hit points, including itself, because casting from hit points too much runs the risk of running out of hit points.

Games often prevent self-synergy effects by having upgrades drawn without replacement from small pool (Nuclear Throne) or limit it by making it risky to pick a card purely speculatively (Slay the Spire) or prevent it by making effects not stack. Some games have the potential for self-synergy, but in the Hearthstone arena mode, it's never the right choice to pick a second Murloc just because you already have one Murloc, even though the upside could be amazing. Some types of pick-ups like "tears up" items in The Binding of Isaac have strong self-synergy, making subsequent tear effects that much more effective, while "damage up" items are not really synergistic, but just good, individually, and their effects add up in a linear fashion. In Diablo and derived games, there is no game design pressure for these kinds of things, because you can keep around set pieces, synergy enablers, and combo items in your chest or inventory on the off chance they might become useful later. It's less of a "speculative pick" and more of a "don't sell, yet" situation.

Self-synergy is often a "win more" thing. You don't need more of one thing when enabling a synergy even once would win you the game or at least give you a competitive edge.

In FTL: Faster Than Light there is anti-synergy between picking multiple missile weapons (because missiles are a scarce resource) or between using multiple beam weapons (because beams can't take down shields for other beams), and for most species there is no benefit to picking a second crew member of that species over picking a different species - with one exception. Every subsequent Mantis crew member increases the viability of buying a transporter and switching from a ship weapons play style to a boarding party play style. Having two Mantis makes it really tempting to pick a third, even if you don't have a transporter yet. Having three Mantis will make reconstitutive teleport that much better with a transporter.

Imagine you are designing additional content for Slay the Spire, FTL or Hearthstone. Adding underpowered cards to Hearthstone will probably not change the meta-game in the "constructed" format. They would just never be played. Adding underpowered and individually weak cards that enable synergies on the other hand might change the metagame in the "constructed" format, but not "arena". Card pools in Hearthstone are rather big, so players can't count on finding a card that completes a combo during their draft. Adding weak cards with potentially strong synergies widens the gap between arena and constructed. Adding unequivocally strong cards just breaks the game and leads to power creep.

Contrast this with Binding of Isaac, where adding a strong item to the shop pool is Isaac makes shops stronger, creates incentives for saving 15¢ and spending a key on a shop door, but adding a weak item to the boss or treasure room pool just makes the game harder. Synergies are too random to plan ahead.

In FTL, pools for weapons, crew, systems, and augmentations are rather small. The only pools that are big are events. You can't count on getting a beam weapon or cloaking when you need them, but you usually get something. You can easily add more events to FTL, but you can't add more species, or more weapon types, without completely changing the balance of the game. In the same vein, adding more cards to Slay the Spire would trash the existing potential for synergy or self-synergy. One way to keep the potential for synergy would be to add the existing synergies to the new cards or items, but this could easily result in power creep or overly complex card text.

Just adding more stuff to a game would cause the difficulty/power levels of random decks/builds, drafted decks/builds, and constructed decks/builds to diverge drastically. This can be counteracted by changing around certain pools, making certain items/cards a guaranteed find, increasing the size (shelf space) of shops, and so on, but all those game design tweaks have knock-on effects.

The existence of random items, speculative picks, self-synergy, synergy, item pools, item rarity tiers, and randomly populated shops creates a dynamic where there is an optimal size of certain pools, an optimal amount of content for certain game modes, and adding or removing content will affect different game modes differently.

Most games that have multiple game modes, like Hearthstone with "arena" (draft) and standard (constructed) mode, or The Binding Of Isaac with a normal mode and "greed mode", are struggling to keep the power levels of items/cards and the size and shape of pools consistent. Adding more stuff and changing pool sizes pushes different modes in different directions, and requires counter-balance patches to cards or enemies that affect different modes differently, but in the other direction.

There is an optimum amount of stuff in a game design, and it's often less than 20. Whenever you add more stuff to your game, you should ask yourself: Am I adding a card? Am I adding a skill? Am I adding a sword or gun? Or am I adding a random encounter with flavour text?

[justaboutdead]

Why Escape the Dark Castle is pretty cool

Escape the Dark Castle is a 2017 1-4 player board game published by Themeborne, and its damn good. First shoutout goes to the artist, Alex Crispin, who did an amazing job. The art is all very reminiscent of old school rpgs or choose your own adventure books, and im here for it.

The art isn't the only thing that's inspired by old school rpgs. Everything about the game, from the campy dark fantasy writing, to the gameplay itself feels like an interesting take on the osr, and honestly works best when you treat it as such.

The mechanics are simple (its successor, Escape the Dark Sector is a better fit for people who want more complexity), but there's actually quite a bit of depth. Basically, you slowly reveal scenarios on cards that have been randomly set aside before the game, read them aloud and then roll dice to resolve actions. You loose health if you do bad, and if anyone in the group dies you all fail.

There's actually quite a bit of depth to the system, each character has different traits on their dice, which mean they are good at different things. Before you flip over each scenario You choose a player to flip it. That player is you for the duration of the scenario, and any effects that specify You affect that person. Encounters can award players with items that they can use and pass around to other players between combat. All of this results in a lot of micro decisions across the course of the game.

Combat consists of rolling dice, trying to match the dice the monster has. If you match them you can roll dice. Monsters attack every player after the players attack. If you roll a double, you block and take no damage. Additionally, you can place one character at a time, on rest, restoring 1 HP each round, but taking them out of combat.

While all of these factors individually don't account for much strategy, together they make a huge difference. The odds are stacked against you in Escape the Dark Castle, so every little difference count. In fact ive found that good planning and careful strategy can lead to fairly consistent victories even against some of the harder challenges we've attempted. The game also balances itself for more or less players, giving you less health and the enemies more the more players you have.

Here's the example they give of a monster in the rulebook. The bottom left shows the health of the monster, thevplayer simble meaning to roll s number of dice equal to the player and add that to the monster's HP.

The most important part of Escape the Dark Castle, however, is the mood. The game is all about mood, it even has an official soundtrack (here's it on spotify: https://spotify.link/MVbjH3GkZDb ). This is perfect for setting the mood, and I'd highly recommend it.

The game is packed with flavor text and lore. Every card has a flavorful description of what's happening, which are best read aloud in your best dark fantasy voice. There's also the lore book, which has 2-3 page descriptions of every boss and character, aswell as the Death book, which has unique death descriptions for every card in the game (that can kill you). This is all written with the tone you'd expect from the game's setting.

Due to the nature of the game, they've also been able to publish 3 similarly well designed expansions for the game. Also, if you feel overconfident after a clean victory, you can add more cards (or even more bosses) to your deck and play a longer run.

The game acomplishes a lot for its simplicity, and part of my love for it probably comes from my love for old school revival rpgs. It ultimatley offers a fast, pretty simple but satsfying, definitley quite tense gaming experience that does a lot with its simplicity. Randomizing the control of a dungeon crawl to a deck of cards isn't exactly a new idea but it is executed very well.

(Note: i kept bolding escape the dark castle bc thats how i say it in my head: w all the bravado of a mortal combat announcer)

[roscvcins]

get to know the mun ! repost, don’t reblog.

——— BASICS ! ♡

NICKNAME : Ro <3

PRONOUNS : She/Her

ZODIAC SIGN : Libra sun and Virgo moon, never figured out what my ascending is hhh

TAKEN OR SINGLE : single pringle not rly lookin to mingle but open to the possibilities XD

ANYTHING ELSE? : Fluent in mandarin, read mostly in mandarin, and would write in mandarin if that's easier for someone!

——— THREE SERIOUS FACTS ! ♡

I can be slow to warm up sometimes. It's not that I don't like you or I don't want to get to know you, but sometimes I get caught up in my own head regarding other people's boundaries and then I'm overly careful and come across reserved or distant. If you give me permission and assure me of that permission, I will be in your dms yapping NONSTOP.

I love pitching you aus at 2 am. Sometimes things just pop into my brain, and the later I pop into your dms the wilder the au, honestly. I've pitched people everything from slight canon alterations to straight up cyberpunk. Related to this, I also really love long-winded plotting. I like developing extended universe things and fleshing out our characters within the au or setting we have decided on.

I'm very much about matching energy and balancing what we plot. I am so very happy to fulfill your wishlist items and I hope you'd be willing to look over mine! After all, rp is all about what we want to do with our muses, both of us. It's only fun if everybody is having fun!

——— THREE RANDOM FACTS ! ♡

I have been drawing for 10 years! Well, 10 plus if you really want to count the earliest attempts, but seriously and digitally, 10 years.

I play (WILDLY HOMEBREW) dungeons and dragons and dm a (also probably wildly homebrew) call of cthulu campaign for my musical theatre groupchat. We're looking to start a (ABSOLUTELY GOING TO BE WILDLY HOEMBREW) vampire the masquerade game too but honestly we've been stuck halfway through the last dnd session for two months bc somebody had to go and now none of us have coinciding free time and at this rate we're never going to finish any of the campaigns XD

When I'm gone from dash for long periods of time, I'm most likely sewing. Hobby I picked up from the cosplay (Tm) days, which is really not surprising.

——— EXPERIENCE ! ♡

It'll be a decade officially in Jan. 2025 that I've been doing tumblr rp!

My first tumblr rp blog was in L.es M.is playing E.njolras. Historically I've written for a lot of broadway fandoms (some of which branched into classic lit and some nostalgic lit), and this particular blog that I am currently on first started as a kdrama blog, became a cdrama blog, and then took a turn straight into "obscure cnovels only Ro reads because they aren't really fully translated" land.

I was doing deviantart notes rp long before all that though. I'm from the 1v1 OCxCanon you write someone I want to write against I'll write someone you want to write against era. Not my proudest moments / best writing but...I remember having fun as a 13 year old, so really, that's all that matters, probably. If I cringe about it now maybe it's cause I'm now a killjoy adult , etc. etc.

It's really cool to me that I've got rp friendships coming up on like...8 years now. When I think about it it's crazy that it's been so long, but also it feels like time has hardly passed. If we make rp friends we'll probably be rp friends forever. People come out of the woodwork from years ago and I'll welcome them back like no time has passed. I'll probably even still remember all our plotting because I'm NOSTALGIC and I mourn my inactive comrades by rereading our old stuff.

——— MUSE PREFERENCE ! ♡

My own muse type is fragile but vicious and beautiful and venomous and overall morally gray bois who would sell you to the devil through sending you to hell by their own blades for complicated and painful likely circumstantial reasons, after much internal conflict. Conversely though, it is also genuinely Good-Hearted, understanding, sunshine (if sometimes overly mischievous) ladies who are ultimately unafraid to chase the fate they want and remain true to themselves and their values despite sometimes questioning if they're asking for too much when they stand up for themselves, putting up with a lot and having a tinge of abandonment issues.

The muse type I'm generally a sucker for across my own muses and other people's muses is tragically unhinged. I love me a tiny bit of unhinged in a character. There's so much meat to an unhinged character and a lot of juicy dimension to get into. Plenty of potential too, for basically any genre of plotting.

I find myself writing a lot of female ocs recently! Don't know if that's just how the way the plotting falls or if I'm just like...hanging on like that.

——— FLUFF / ANGST / SMUT ! ♡

FLUFF : Fluff is soul food! I love a good soft thread (especially after some heavy angst hhhh). I personally enjoy the idea of acceptance and care when it comes to fluff. There's something quietly intimate about fluff that I enjoy picking out of my threads, and I enjoy letting my muses be cared for and caring for others! There's also development to be had here tbh, and I enjoy the contrast of quieter emotions and expression.

ANGST : Angst is my bread and butter. I think I enjoy angst more than I enjoy any other genre of writing, and I have a sneaking suspicion it's about emotional intensity. I think both the hurt and the comfort come from and are big emotions, and I think development most frequently comes from big emotions. So, in general I think I tend to be able to wrangle the most development out of angst threads and therefore the most satisfaction. I'm generally not here for hurt no comfort! Though I do also sometimes enjoy killing a random character off and just...seeing how the pieces grow back together.

SMUT : I feel like I've gotten laxer/how I feel about it has changed a bit as time has passed. Reassessing, I think I'm not entirely opposed to writing smut, actually? Maybe not on tumblr though. I overthink what I post on tumblr a lot, so if I'm actually going to write smut I think it has to be somewhere I feel like it's less likely to accidentally shove it in someone's face. Also, I'd need a ridiculous amount of rapport with the other mun to feel comfortable and not super embarrassed. So! That's how that goes.

PLOT / MEMES : I'd love for it to be both, actually. I think memes can create plot hooks, and on the other hand, plotting can inspire memes. The caveat is that you have to be willing to talk about it in the end, I guess! I think having context for an idea, a verse, or something between our muses, and then sending a meme about it is like the flexibility and spontaneity we need to keep a plot fresh sometimes. Like if you've hammered out all the details, throwing a meme into it makes it a little less rigid, you know? And on the other hand, if we have no real concrete ideas for a muse relationship or plot, throwing a meme into it could spark the correct questions to ask so that we can arrive at some kind of plot, and give us some inspiration to jumpstart where we want to take a dynamic. So bottom line is: please do both! If we can talk about it and spin it out more in the end, that's all that really matters.

tagged by : stole it from the tag cause I wanted to do it tagging :

[cagemasterfantasy]

DM guide: Running The Game: Know your players

While your players role is to create characters breathe life into them and steer the campaign through their actions your role as Dungeon Master is to keep the players immersed in the world you've created and to give the characters the opportunity to do awesome things. Knowing what your players enjoy most about the DND game helps you create and run adventures that they will enjoy and remember. Once you know which of the following activities each player in your group enjoys you can tailor adventures to your players preferences. It's rare to gather a table of players who all enjoy the same aspects of the game. The trick is to find a balance so everyone can get some enjoyment out of each game session even if certain encounters don't match their preferences. At best a group of players is a lot like their characters in that having different interests and capabilities enables them to handle a broad range of challenges.

Acting: Players who enjoy acting like to embody their characters personalities perspectives and attitudes. They might like dressing up or using their characters voices while playing. They enjoy social interactions with NPCs monsters and their fellow party members. Engage players who like acting by:

Giving them opportunities to develop their characters personalities and backgrounds.

Allowing them to interact regularly with NPCs.

Highlighting the roleplaying elements of combat encounters.

Incorporating elements from their characters backstories into your adventures.

Exploring: Players who desire exploration want to experience the wonders that a fantasy world has to offer. They want to know what's around the next corner or hill and like to find hidden clues and treasure. Engage players who like exploration by:

Dropping clues that at things yet to come

Letting them find things when they take the time to explore

Providing evocative descriptions of exciting environments and using interesting maps and props

Giving monsters secrets for the players to uncover or cultural details for them to learn. Fighting: Players who enjoy fantasy combat like the excitement of battling villains and monsters. They thrive in situations that can be best be resolved in combat favoring bold action over negotiation or investigation. Engage players who like fighting by

Springing unexpected combat encounters

Vividly describing the havoc their characters wreak with their attacks and spells

Including combat encounters with large numbers of less powerful monsters

Instigating: Players who like to instigate action are eager to make things happen even if that means taking perilous risks. They would rather rush headlong into danger and face the consequences than cautiously plan their actions. Engage players who like to instigate by

Allowing their actions to affect the environment

Including things in your adventures to tempt them.

Letting their actions put the characters in a tight spot.

Including encounters with NPCs who are as feisty and unpredictable as the players are.

Optimizing: Players who enjoy optimizing their characters capabilities like to fine tune their characters for peak performance by gaining levels new features and magic items. They welcome any opportunity to demonstrate their characters excellence. Engage players who like optimization by:

Using desired magic items as adventure hooks and rewards.

Including encounters that let them leverage their characters most potent abilities.

Providing quantifiable rewards like Experience Points for noncombat encounters.

Problem Solving: Players who want to solve problems like to scrutinize NPC motivations untangle a villain's machinations solve puzzles and come up with plans. Engage players who like to solve problems by:

Including puzzles and tricky situations that require thinking

Rewarding planning and tactics with in game benefits

Creating NPCs with complex motives.

Socializing: Many groups include players who come to the game primarily because they enjoy the social event and want to spend time with their friends not because they're especially invested in any part of the actual game. These players want to participate but they tend not to care whether they're deeply immersed in the adventure and they don't tend to be assertive or very involved in the details of the game rules or story. As a rule don't try to force these players to be more involved than they want to be.

Storytelling: (:D) Players who love storytelling want to contribute to a narrative. They like it when their characters are heavily involved in an unfolding story and they enjoy encounters that are tied to and expand an overarching plot. Engage players who like storytelling by:

Using their Characters backstories to shape the stories of the campaign.

Making sure encounters advance the story.

Making their characters actions steer future events.

Giving NPCs characteristics and connections that the adventurers can explore to uncover new adventure opportunities.

Including plot elements that call back to decisions the adventurers made earlier.

[ceardaw]

How To Use Quality Diablo 4 Unique Items

Items are an integral component of Diablo 4 that can significantly increase your character's stats, from normal, magical, rare and legendary options.

Masterworking items is also an effective way of unlocking powerful affixes for players. There are five systems for masterworking items: Legendary Aspects, Greater Affixes and Rerolling an Affix.

Mythic Uniques

fMythic Unique items are extremely powerful gear pieces that can significantly change existing setups. Although not as build-defining as Set diablo 4 items, Mythic Unique pieces still make an impactful statement about who owns what. While rare Tormented bosses will drop these gems on occasion, Mythic Uniques may also be crafted.

Diablo 4 offers five systems for customizing your gear. While regular items have one modifier, magic items have two. Magic items are sometimes overlooked due to having only a limited selection of affixes; however, these diablo 4 items can often be salvaged to earn Reusable Parts that can help improve other parts.

Rare equipment offers several random stat modifiers and is an upgrade over magical gear. Rare pieces can even be disenchanted to create Legendary Aspects which add additional enhancements beyond their base Item Power rating.

Legendary Uniques

Uniques are among the most powerful pieces of gear in the game, providing class-specific powers as well as often providing powerful secondary effects. Diablo 4 unique items   have the potential to become Best-in-Slot items when equipped - though with lower drop rates than Legendaries they tend to become harder to obtain.

Uniques do not possess the capability of being extracted and imprinted onto other gear at an Occultist, making it much harder to find that ideal Unique you have been eyeing off. Change would help balance out and maintain an exciting hunt experience!

For maximum chances at finding rare items, MMOGAH suggests engaging in high-level endgame content like high-level dungeons and boss encounters such as those found in Helltides. Furthermore, Foil Uniques are available through certain supporter packs and Reliquary Keys that may allow you to reroll modifiers for improved results.

Nomal Uniques

Season 3 saw the introduction of several diablo 4 unique items designed to offer generic effects across classes and are class-independent, meant as an way of bringing back popular seasonal content into the game.

These uniques resemble those previously offered under Uber Unique's former system and typically have very low drop chances and are extremely rare. Most have only a single socket that cannot be upgraded through Occultist Enchanting or Tempering techniques.

These uniques have predetermined names and properties (with possible roll ranges). Many include special abilities not found elsewhere in the game such as Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike, Open Wounds, Ignore Target Defense, Freeze duration or +Fire Skills which is indicated with an asterisk on their property sheets.

Sacred Uniques

Sacred and Ancestral Unique items are among the highest-grade gear in the game. While sacred uniques offer extra item power that can boost stats, Ancestral uniques come equipped with a Greater Affix that adds one of four Legendary Aspects that make their gear truly remarkable.Discover all the details about diablo 4 items for sale xbox by clicking here or visiting our website.

At present, these powerful diablo 4 items can only be obtained by completing Nightmare Dungeons or opening Tortured Gifts during Helltide events. No matter how players acquire them, these powerful pieces are invaluable and will significantly bolster any build.

Diablo 4's item system has undergone significant revision in its latest update, so that you can better understand its various categories and loot acquisition methods here at MMOGAH. Our friendly customer support is here to assist in building up strong characters no matter which class they play!

Ancestral Uniques

Diablo 4's latest installment introduces new diablo 4 items that can drastically change a character's gameplay, from weapons and jewelry to armor and resistances. These innovative additions provide various effects ranging from offensive stats for weapons, defensive stats for armor, and resistances for accessories.

Unique equipment differs from its Legendary and Rare counterparts in that its stat affixes are fixed while it also boasts special abilities, enabling game-defining builds.

Purchase of Diablo 4 items can save players both time and money while giving them an advantage in PvP and Dungeons. MMOGAH as a reliable G2G marketplace to purchase Diablo 4 items, offering safe delivery at quick speeds as well as multiple payment methods for customers.