#(actual roleplaying and exploration and character customization)

[sir-sillybunny]

i love skyrim. truly the video game of all time

[kcdodger]

Starfield: A review by KCDodger.

No game has ever touched me the way Starfield has. I firmly believe that it is Bethesda's greatest product and achievement, but I've been here before. I've explained it many times to many people why Starfield is good, actually… but, will you listen?

Maybe this time it'll be different. Maybe this time I can change things. Maybe not.

Starfield is every bit as good as No Man's Sky, Elite Dangerous, or whatever other space game you've spent hours on. In the following overview, I am going to use a series of shapes to represent what each game does, and doesn't have.

Starfield: ⬤ Star Citizen: ■ Elite: Dangerous: ▲ No Man's Sky: ⬧

I need you to trust me when I say that I am being objective about this. Starfield does have its problems, but they have been exaggerated. I really do mean that. So, let's begin.

Interesting Worlds - ⬤ ▲⬧ Well thought out Characters - ⬤ ▲ A good story - ⬤ A thoughtfully constructed universe - ⬤ ■ ▲ ⬧ Good Gunplay - ⬤ Good Piloting - ⬤ ■ ▲⬧ In depth Ship Customization - ⬤ ▲⬧ Replayability - ⬤ ■ ▲⬧ Roleplaying Mechanics - ⬤ Base Building - ⬤ ▲(colonization counts honestly) ⬧ Meaningful Progression - ⬤ ▲⬧ Character Customization - ⬤ ▲ ■ Loading Screens - ⬤ ■ ▲⬧

Starfield's not lacking in any of these.

Worlds

Starfield is rife with beautiful worlds that are absolutely photo-worthy, and all of them are procedurally generated outside of specific instances. If you think Star Citizen's are not procedurally generated, you really may want to think that one over. Core instances are not, but the rest absolutely is. (Probably serverside. But you know not every mountain and field is hand crafted.) Starfield's biggest problem there is that it has such a limited array of POIs and interactions. Yeah, it's really weird to find a cave with bones on Luna, and there really should be measures to prevent that. But, that's what happens when you build a single player game designed to compete with overhuge MMOs. I'd have narrowed Starfield's focus quite a bit were I in charge. Be that as it may, my gallery of amazing sights only grows.

I can not overstate the level of achievement Bethesda managed to pull off here, with Starfield's "Settled Systems". The amount of thought and effort put into each planet's properties, orbits, the ways they interact with each other, it's some really mind boggling stuff. Elite's is easily the best of that, but their engine is designed for it.

Somehow, Starfield did that on Creation. I still do not know how.

Characters

Constellation's cast is fantastic. As is The Vanguard's. The Freestar Rangers are great too. UC Sysdef and Crimson Fleet are if nothing else, memorable, and Ryujin's characters, while honestly odd in the context of a space exploration game, was really good too.

I don't know many characters from Elite. Everything they do happens in the background with no meaningful impact on the world. I've never heard of a character from Star Citizen, and No Man's Sky is anathema to the concept of characters. All three of those games are big open worlds where you and the other players are characters. I know that NPCs you can run into in NMS are apparently memorable, but nobody's ever given me a name.

But I can tell you the story of Sam Coe, a single father who's really struggling with it. I can tell you about Andreja, the displaced member of House Va'ruun. I could go on about Sarah Morgan, a woman who's had a lifetime of adventures in the last decade. Goodness knows I can talk to you about Barrett. That's just four examples. They're very well acted, well thought out, meaningfully interactive characters. They'll call back to actions of yours, things you've said, even their romances feel really good. I'm a very married woman who loves my wife very much, and it's actually quite impressive to me how genuine the acting and presentation of interpersonal relationships feels. Given the game is about how we all effect one another, how we deal with loss, moving on with the world and life, this shouldn't come as a surprise, but the characters of Starfield deserve recognition. I really like them all, even the utter bastards.

Story

Elite doesn't really have a story. It has a developing narrative that the devs guide gently. Yeah, the Thargoid invasion happened and those of us who participated in it had an effect - but to say it's a story is… lacking, I think. Star Citizen wholly lacks one, and frankly I'm not sure what No Man's Sky's is.

Starfield, though? Starfield is about discovering a mystery beyond your comprehension, but you get wrapped up in it. Starfield is about becoming part of something more and meeting new people, about learning who they are and what they've been through. You're likely the youngest gun in Constellation outside of Cora Coe, but your accompanying cast is all in their 30s and 40s, some even beyond that in their 50s and 60s. Walter Stroud is a rare character that way. I know this is the story section, but I have to go off about how aged a majority of the case is. Nobody's truly new to the job, but everyone's going into this mystery unprepared and ill equipped. The characters are all mature, and have beliefs and convictions informed by their lives.

You end up discovering what the story about the artifacts is, what they lead to, why they're being collected. It's a cosmic mystery without much of a definitive answer, but the answer really lies in how it makes you feel. On my main, I won't go into NG+. but going through just one NG+ has left a profound impact on me… and that's not even getting into what happened to me when The Death, occurred.

Few games have made me stop everything to put it all down and cry. Starfield has, and continues to. Fallout can make me sad, The Elder Scrolls can make me think and maybe even be mad, but Starfield can make me cry.

Universe

Elite, NMS, and Star Citizen do all have well thought out universes with factions and characters and gameplay that is informed by it. I won't deny that. It'd be intellectually dishonest to assert otherwise. Elite's is far future and a bit blase to me, Star Citizen's world is… I mean as unfinished as the product, and truth be told I know little about NMS' world. But I do know about Starfield's.

Starfield's world, its universe (and beyond) is a NASA Kid's playground (Hi, that's me! NASA kid! Through and through.) Starfield is for the stargazer. For the kid who wanted to be an astronaut, who wanted to be aboard a space shuttle. Starfield is for that person. It isn't for the person looking for a sci-fi military epic or a huge war, it's about the wonder of space, and the universe informs that. I could go on about the "Set design" of the ships, particularly Nova Galactic's interiors (AUUGGHH SO GOOD), about how the food is all thoughtfully packaged, about how the CHUNKS brand is inspired by existing space foods (technically, it ought to be some kind of hexagonal shape. But a cube of Sauvingon is just… chef's kiss), about how the spacesuits are big, baggy, clunky. About how almost every door is an airlock (even if that IS annoying!). The whole world is built around not just exploring space, but living in it. Which I just… don't get from the other games, who feel Transient by comparison. It's such a shame then, that Starfield's outpost building is quite lackluster.

Gunplay

I can not speak to NMS' gunplay, so I will not. Last I played it, it had about ten weapons or something. Elite: Dangerous' gunplay? Don't even bother, it's hot ass. I'm sorry, but Odyssey's release is seen as the game's lowest point for a reason. Star Citizen's? I've dawdled with it, it's very whatever, fairly standard. Oh, but Starfield…

I love Starfield's gunplay. Oh my goodness. As a shooter, it plays wonderfully. The control you have over your character can be iffy, but actually pointing and shooting feels really good. The best any gunplay in a Bethesda game has ever felt, and given how good Fallout 4's felt, that's actually quite impressive. It's helped quite a bit by how fun and interesting many of the gun designs are (and how bizarre some are. No, there are no square bullets in Starfield, you have been lied to, big surprise.) I will complain that there's definitely a set of guns Bethesda *wants* you to use... but that doesn't mean they aren't all a joy to shoot. Except the Disruptor that thing's feel is just garbage.

Piloting

Every single game on this list has good Space Combat. Elite's is thorough and well thought out, Star Citizen's is fast and arcadey (it is), and No Man's Sky is casually simple, accessible and fun. (It reminds me of Starlink.) and Starfield's is also very simple. It's quite ambitious, though, and it does something that none of the other do. It's not that you can disable ships system by system. It's not that you can enter a VATS-like targeting mode to do so. It's not that you can allocate power ala the old X-Wing games and contemporary sims. It's not that you have full control of your movement in all directions and can even maintain heading while turning. It's that you can do all of that, while near-seamlessly boarding with an enemy craft at any time, once you've taken their engines and shields out. I can't put into words how bonkers that is, dear reader. Because not only can you do all the regular space combat stuff, even if it is SLIGHTLY simplified, but you can use all - all the ground stuff you use, in space, when boarding an enemy ship. You don't enter another map, either. No. Yeah, your ship interior probably deloads, but the battle in space rages on outside. The world outside does not stop existing while you clean out an enemy ship (and if you took out their grav drive, you get to even fight in Zero-G aboard a ship, it's VERY cool!). The world continues. Yes, this is true for Star Citizen. But I'm pretty sure you can't do any of that in No Man's Sky, and Elite is honestly just pathetic this way. No shot has ever been fired aboard a ship in the ten years Elite's been alive, but Starfield's ships are riddled with bulletholes. And you can take them. You can own them. You can do hijacking, piracy, you can scrap the ship for parts, sell it, you can loot the contraband the pirates had - reader, that is not something you can do in any of the other games. Not even Star Citizen, because the mechanics in Starfield work consistently, and it's a finished product. Starfield is not scamming you. I can not emphasize enough how excellent the interplay between ships and the space combat itself is. What's even crazier is you're not glued to your seat. You can just... get up. At any point. No, you can't EVA - that does suck! But you don't really need to at any point, as funny as being a bug on a windshield would be. All of this interacts seamlessly with all those RPG mechanics. It's actually insane to me, and they did this on the engine that powered Morrowind. The one everyone keeps saying that they need to replace. I have no true idea what smoke and mirrors make everything work, but I do know that when my camera's clipped around, there are people walking around in my ship while I am flying in any of those eight degrees I can move in. I'm sure the trick has to do with only one ship having a "Real" interior at a time, but it is actually wild to me that they still got all of that rotating in space realistically within the player's reasonable perception. Starfield also lacks Elite's Engineering and unlike SC, is a finished product so... that puts it into the best here, for me, in this category especially.

Ship Customization

Nobody does it as good as Starfield and I'm going to be blunt. Yeah, you can equip whatever modules you want on the ship frames you buy in Elite, yeah you can tweak the ships in Star Citizen, yeah there are even custom ships you can play with in No Man's Sky now. But every... single part in Starfield, is customizable. Color, rotation, position, no matter what you want you can make it work. It does all get blocky and funnily shaped, but it all works. The habs exist inside and out, the geometry can be walked on, you can fit in the gaps of your ship... You can color your ship, name it, rearrange it any which way you want, you can decorate the interior and it'll stay that way (Gods Forbid you move a window, though, whups.), it's actually insane. The thing is, these ships exist inside and out, fully traversible. Elite cannot do that. NMS only does that with bigger ships. Star Citizen can do that, but it's just not a finished product and what, you buy the ships for actual money? Are you really going to spend ninety dollars for a low-mid grade ship with the paintjob you want? For an unfinished game..? Starfield has none of those problems. Yeah, you have to load into the ship but it's a short load, and the outside world continues to exist. It's a non issue. The customization is out of this world. Now, I will be real. There are issues. You don't have strict control of the doors and ladder placement. That is bad. That must be added. But the customization in this game is genuinely astounding. I can't get enough of it.

Replayability

Starfield has a genuine, narrative driven New Game Plus. It's really cool and it's really good. Anyone who gripes about the fact you lose money and weapons and ships - are sort of missing the point of a NG+ anyway. So long as you like Starfield - any game really - it's very replayable. Are E:D and SC replayable? Well, you can always load them again or start a fresh character, but the persistent universes makes that kind of a doozy. I do know that NMS has a kind of reset once you get to the center of the universe, so if you like NMS, it's very replayable too. But yes. Starfield's replayability is very good. Lots to shoot, lots to loot, lots to do.

Roleplaying Mechanics

Starfield is Bethesda's best Roleplaying game. Elite, NMS and SC, are not Roleplaying Games strictly. You may play a role, but it is not necessarily roleplaying. It's hard to be nonlethal, it's hard to be a talk-first-shoot-later character, but you can flavor your game any number of ways. You can smuggle and trade goods, you can play delivery person, you can play mercenary, bounty hunter, you name it. You can even be a lawman, soldier for hire, any number of things, and there are dialogue options, skills, modifiers, even literal powers, one of which lets you see what the other NPC is GOING to say, to facilitate your style of play. Starfield is a true, honest Roleplaying game. It's one of the most easily accessible space RPGs out there, too. If you want a Space Roleplaying game, it's this one.

Base Building

I will level with you. Starfield has an intricate Base Building system that is honestly needlessly complex but if you really like that kind of thing it's pretty intense. And tedious. Much moreso than Fallout 4's base building and truth be told not nearly as rewarding. It is a step backwards... If only for the reason that you can't build an actual colony. The biggest reason to build an outpost is for infrastructure and manufacturing. To what end? This is one of the moments where I believe the vestigial bones of Starfield comes into play. They wanted fuel to be a mechanic, they wanted outposts to be important, they wanted you to network your way through the settled systems. I am simultaneously glad and sad that these features were left on the cutting room floor, because it would have been really cool, but it also would have been very tedious. There's an entire faction - LIST, they even have a quest that introduces you to them, where their whole thing is about buiding colonies on the fringes of Settled Space... and the game just does nothing with them. It kinda' sucks. I hope they add that stuff someday. I'd like to play a version of Starfield where I do actually need those enormous fuel tanks.

Progression

Every quest has a good end reward. You can level into the actual thousands (though, ~314 is where you're going to have every skill maxed out!), and Starfield is pretty cumulative by nature. So much so, that you can very easily run into long term storage problems. Very few containers have limitless mass (and it's why armor and weapon stands are great, because they can store limitless ammo and a few guns. Great way to reduce mass taken in your cargo hold!). Starfield has an issue with inventory. Everything has weight. Some things are stupidly heavy. It's not the most enjoyable system and will pressure you into building an outpost/depot to store your stuff eventually, but that takes resources and Bethesda saw fit to add the *entire* perodic table into the game as harvestable materials. There are 108 crafting materials in the game, and you can't make guns, armor or clothing and that is honestly bizarre to me. Amazing game with some odd choices. But the character progression really is fantastic. Instead of linear "You do more damage!" perks (it does have those, but it's not all it has), Starfield ends up offering effects, every skill has 4 tiers, and you level those up by completing specific challenges. For instance, to max out stealth to get the most (or anything!) out of your sneak attacks (fun fact, you don't even GET a stealth bar without the stealth skill! Love that.) - you have to get 75 melee sneak attacks. Not kills, fortunately. So you genuinely can't just sit there on your stealth archer stint, you have to learn that melee can do x10 damage if you want that x4 gun sneak attack damage. Roleplaying!!

Character Customization

You've all heard it before. "Fucking Pronouns". Let's cover it. Elite is binary, single body type for each, has a solid face customizer. You basically never see it. Star Citizen has an alright customizer, but you rarely use it. NMS, you are just a helmet. Starfield gives you a huge array of body choices. Wanna' be shredded to shit? Go nuts. Want to be wiry, or really fat? Go crazy. You can get huge. You can customize your gait, you can put on a beard at any time, there's an entire vendor in the game dedicated to letting everybody in the world pay 500 credits (cheap as shit!) to change their ENTIRE body. Good golly holly what a bright future we live in to have such autonomy! Body type, face type, skin color, hair type, voice, pronouns (Those two might be tied together?). He/Him, She/Her, They/Them, you get choices. More than most other games. It doesn't ask you if you're cis or trans, it just asks you what you want to be. Isn't that just... Really nice? That all that matters is who and what you want to be and that can change at any time if you so desire? I love that.

Loading Screens

You. Have. Been. Lied. To. Elite: Dangerous is full of them. Star Citizen is full of them. NMS is full of them. They are all just really good at obscuring it. It just doesn't seem like a loading screen. I know Elite best, so I will talk about it. Leaving your ship? Loading screen. In an elevator? Loading screen. Getting in or out of your SRV? Loading screen. Getting into your ship? Loading screen (with big blue circles, at that!!), jumping to low wake? That is a load. High Wake? That is the biggest loading screen of all. Entering a POI, like a conflict zone? Loading screen. Leaving low orbit? Loading screen. Elite, oft compared to Starfield, literally has more loading screens. In Starfield, you can actually get into your buggy without a loading screen! You can leave it midair, try it, it's really fun! Push comes to shove, you are having loading screen after loading screen thrown at you. In No Man's Sky, when you dock, when you enter orbit, you are loading. It has the least loads of all, but Elite has more. I'm dead serious. Can't speak for Star Citizen, but what's there to load? A broken mission? I flew free for a weekend, and everything I did was broken. Who cares if there's no or low loading screens, if the game won't even load in the first place? No, you can't truly seamlessly fly between worlds, and maybe that does suck. No, you can't seamlessly land, but what difference does it make? You will always land at the POI. Maybe the middle man is important, but Starfield saw fit to cut it out, and perhaps that was the wrong move. But goodness it's honest.

Conclusion

Starfield is it. It is the Space game you wanted. But you have to give it a chance. It's exceptional. Just stop letting yourself be lied to. I have had to tell people the truth of the starfield sandwich so many times, and that lie has damaged the game irrevocably. That's just one example. It's all pendantry, that hurt the game. "Fucking Pronouns" this. "Square bullets" that (lies), "Endless loading screens" ad infinitum (just as many as any other space game. It's just honest.) Play Starfield. There will be parts that frustrate you. There are parts that frustrate me. But Starfield is a comfort game for me. It's a game I love. It's also a game that truly challenges me. It's good. It means so much to me. I have a constellation pin opposite to my pride pins on my leather jacket. I have a Nova Galactic mug that I drink out of regularly. I have a Constellation hat. I'm gonna' get that Constellation wall art piece, and I'm gonna' get my hands on that Chronomark edition someday. (If only I knew, reader.) It's not a 10/10 game for me. It's a strong 8/10. But that missing 2 isn't so bad. To Bethesda Game Studios, thank you for the gift that is Starfield. It'll stay with me forever.

[jadeitewren]

🔸𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐞'𝐬 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧

We are a new 21+ Roleplay Server, currently running a heavily modded custom 1.20.1 fabric pack.

While this is a spiritual successor from a previous SMP, this will be our first season. Despite being new, our staff are experienced-having a combined number of years running various different communities and minecraft servers.

We seek to build a mature roleplay community tailored for older adults. For people who desire to explore various themes in roleplay while also of course being queer friendly and not tolerating any bigotry.

🔸𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐥𝐨𝐭

Around five hundred years ago calamity struck. An apocalypse that ravaged the worlds and its people. It is known by many names, the specifics have been lost to time. Exploring the truth of the matter has become a huge taboo-as many believe finding out the truth will lead to another disaster.

Whoever you are, a land far from the reaches of civilization seems to be the hot gossip. But to drop everything you have ever known, to chase a pipe dream that may not exist? But what if there is an actual haven to be found? There is only one way to find out, and fate seemingly tugs on you to go.

🔸𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠

Each species and origin we offer features lore made for the server. While we don't want others to feel restricted, we encourage others to use lore as inspiration or create unique ideas without contradicting it.

The world here is a fantasy Victorian, essentially being a real world timeframe of late 1800s to early 1900s. The dominant species on the surface are humans, but there are many unique cultures and species that live among and away from them. Preview our origins and power lists beforehand to see what inspires you! Also if you want to be something else, please feel free to suggest it.

🔸𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐤 & 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬

- Master technology. Build machines, trains, cars or planes.

(Create & Addons. Immersive Aircrafts. Automobility.)

- Get creative with decorating! Build furniture, paint pictures, work on a custom skin.

(Immersive Furniture. Joy of Painting. Exposure. Figura. Chipped.)

- Explore the world filled with various biomes, structures, dungeons and different mobs to fight and tame.

(Dungeons Now Loading. Yung's Series. Mythic Mounts. Naturalist.)

- Use various weapons and magic to make your character feel unique and fun.

(RPG Series. Better Combat. Upgraded Mobs.)

- Various ways to cook and eat food-including a removal of species locked diets for more roleplay variety.

(Farmer's Delight. Croptopia. Let's Do Tea & Vinery.)

🔸𝐉𝐨𝐢𝐧 & 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐲

We are a whitelisted server with a small application (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScpXoCvmfK6kkgPiy83FxX2svsM8NaySS-SvBudlWqFGPVTsA/viewform?usp=send_form). We require you to get approved before you see the server's lore and worldbuilding. However, feel free to join and hangout on our discord (https://discord.gg/zH2Ee2YydX) ahead of time!

We are excited to see who and what the future brings.

[theresattrpgforthat]

Hello! I’m sorry if you’ve answered this already, but do you have any recs (or anything you want to say for fun) about games with multiple GMs?

Theme: Multiple GMs

Hello friend, I may have recommended games similar to this but I don't know if I've actually fulfilled this prompt before! I'll do my best to show you some interesting games, and you can check out previous posts at the bottom in case there's something there that fits your tastes more.

Questlandia: Second Edition, by Turtlebun.

In Questlandia, you and your friends will invent a world from scratch. It might be fantastic or bizarre, from a remembered past or imagined future.You’ll paint a picture of your society and its people, their laws and customs, how they live and how they dream.

But your society is failing. As you play, your characters will attempt to find beauty and purpose amidst the chaos of a changing world.

Questlandia is a tabletop roleplaying game that creates fantastical worlds in states of change. It may be medieval fantasy in a ghost-haunted kingdom, neo-noir in a roboticized undercity, or microscopic slipstream suburbia in a puddle. The possible settings are boundless, but will always come from the interests of those at the table. Bring in real-world themes that intrigue you, references that inspire you, worldbuilding that follows your curiosity.

Questlandia uses dice and cards to help you create a society, as well as your character’s role in that society. I think this is a good example of a game where every person is a character, but every player is also a GM. You’ll roll against each-other to determine whether or not your society will be able to overcome their troubles. Overall, I think Questlandia is great for telling a story that spans a number of factions or nations.

Pantheon, by harpoon_gun.

4-6 GMs, who are distant Gods with their own desires and needs, and up to 3 players, champions of the Gods who are being forced to do their chores. Take turns toying with the champions, screwing over the other Gods, and building relationships of both the positive and negative variety. 

All I know about this game is what I can divine from the description, but I would hazard a guess that much of this gameplay is going to feel a little bit like PvP. The gods that your GMs are embodying will have conflicting goals and desires, so expect to run into a lot of backbiting and backstabbing. The game itself was designed for the Bad TTRPGS Jam, which encouraged designers to fuck around with rules and see where it got them. So no guarantees for a balanced game here - but maybe an interesting experiment!

Fool’s Errand, by Myles Wirth.

You are a group of questants, pledged to a seemingly-impossible task. You must set out alone into the world, each following your own path by which the quest might be fulfilled. They will be long and difficult journeys, with no guarantee of success.

Inspired by legends and travelogues, Fool's Errand is a single-page tabletop game about perseverance in the face of uncertainty and the joy of worldbuilding together. It is prepless, gm-less, setting-agnostic, and can be played on its own or as a setup or interlude for another game. Rather than flattening Player-GM distinctions entirely, it inverts the traditional balance of a ttrpg table; players take turns as "seekers", individual characters traversing the world in search of an impossible goal, while the rest of the table forms the "Chorus", building and refining the world around the seeker as they explore it.

Fools’ Errand asks you to make some travellers and give them a quest that they cannot achieve. The game occurs over a series of turns; on your turn you’ll control your Seeker and declare what you want to do. The rest of the table becomes the Chorus, and build the Location that Seeker is in. The Seeker may then attempt to convince the Chorus that the way in which they will attempt to solve the problem is something they would be good at; and then rolls 3d6. Your result may grant you a Boon or a Burden, which may draw you closer to or pull you farther from your character’s goal. Your characters also have a Resolve pool, which will diminish over the course of play.

I think success is still technically possible in this game, but it’s highly unlikely. What is more likely is that characters will slowly give up on their quest, and join the Chorus in telling the story of who remains.

Bleak Spirit, by potatocubed.

Bleak Spirit is a storytelling game where you and your friends create a brooding, cryptic tale about a stranger in a strange land. Everything is falling apart, crumbling, corrupted, and the wanderer carries the potential for a return to past glories – or the power to sweep away all that remains.

Everyone contributes to the tale, sharing the sense of mystery that comes from no-one knowing the entire truth of what's going on. Everyone takes turns being the world for a scene, introducing lore which hints at the history of the setting. After every scene everyone leaps to conclusions based on the lore which has been revealed – and these conclusions affect the sorts of lore they will introduce when it's their turn to be the world.

Bleak Spirit is meant to replicate the narrative beats of Dark Souls, Hollow Knight, and Bloodborne. It gives everyone at the table a chance to play the Wanderer, a chance to play the World - and a chance to sit as part of the Chorus. The game is very structured, which I think helps the table keep on track, since everyone is going to have a chance to contribute to the story. The Wanderer dictates the character’s actions, but never their internal thought or feelings. The World creates Areas and Locations that the Wanderer will visit. The Chorus will introduce themes, descriptions, and motifs that are meant to make the world full of grandeur, mystique and decay.

This is a game that you might be interested if you like melancholic tones, large gaps in historical knowledge, and collaborative world building. The creator has also created a Cat version of this game, called Cat Spirit!

Two Weeks One Summer, by Rick Cockram.

In Two Weeks One Summer the players take the role of a family visiting a rambling old house in the woods during a summer holiday. The game focusses on the activities of the children of the family as they explore the house, it's grounds and the surrounding woodland. It is a game about finding things to do, creating your own excitement and exploring an unfamiliar environment.

This game divides the participants into two roles: the Children and the Grown-Ups. Over the course of the game, each of these roles will contribute different things to the description of the house, and the events that happen as you stay here. I think this works well for a slice-of life game, but it also might be an interesting source of inspiration for telling stories that are more dramatic or fantastical.

I'd Also Recommend Checking Out...

Co-Optional Games Rec Post

Unique Player Responsibilities / Rotating GMs

Asymmetrical Games Rec Post

[findroleplay]

TLDR: 30+F looking for 20+ to roleplay fantasy setting. Ideally based upon otome isekai or manwas where there is nobility at play. Comfortable playing any gender as well as status of nobility. Hoping to have your character and mine build up a slow romance (albeit not looking for intimacy, story over smut). Would like to explore world building via wars, political structures, or even just internal interpersonal conflicts among staff in castle-nim. Would prefer to write paragraph style. I live EST however as a 30+ I do have a family and roleplaying will not be something I respond to multiple times a day.

--

Do you love the genre 'otome isekai'?

Have you not quite found the kind of story you're looking for? You don't mind if it's not drawn, a manwa or webtoon is nice but sometimes you just want to read, ya' know? Or better yet - WRITE IT!!

Maybe the Duke of the north really has your heart with his cold turned loving demeanor. Oh, wait, the fearless but maybe has different socail customs warrior has it? Oh no... do you want to read a reverse harem (well, maybe *shrug*)

Well, boy howdy, do I have something for you - WRITING IT WITH ME, MARLO!

I am a 30+ year old looking to roleplay ideally with someone 20+

PUH-LEASE (　ＴДＴ) LIKE THIS OR COMMENT SO I CAN DM YOU TO ROLEPLAY SOME TYPE OF FANTASY STUFF.

ILL BE A DUKE OR A WARRIOR OR A WAR LORD OR EMPEROR OOOOOORRRRRR EVEN EMPERESS!

Thaaaaaats right folks ( ´∀｀)σ)∀`) ! I can roleplay male OR female! That's not all, I am looking for MxF OR FxF and end game!!!!!

I am on my hands and knees ＿|￣|○ PLEASE let us create our own kingdom together!!! I'm talkin' multi-faceted, geo-political, violence across the board story. Enough with this reading about damsels in distress; BE THE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS. GASP BE THE VILLANOUS. BE THE ARCH MAGE Y'ALL LET'S MAKE MY CHARACTER AND YOUR CHARACTER KISS ATLEAST ONCE

👏 LET'S 👏 MAKE 👏 A 👏 STORY 👏 PEOPLE

DEMONS? BEASTMEN? DRAGONS? EVERYONE IS ACTUALLY FULLY HUMAN BUT THERES WIZARD 'N SHIT?

I. AM. GAME.

-

[anjelicawrites]

Cringefail Throuple 💡:

🍍 for the cringies?

🍍 Does your character like to roleplay? If so, what? Or suggest a role play and my muse will weight in on if they would participate. For the Cringefail Throuple.

NSFW and 18+ only please. Warning: various roleplay situations (teacher/student, master/submissive, rude customers/server), a dash of spanking, facesitting, masturbation, toys usage.

Michael and reader have this ongoing roleplay situation where he pretends to be a failing student and reader is a super strict teacher who has to punish him. There's loads of spanking involved and face sitting. Billy and reader act out this fantasy when he is very stressed and needs to be grounded and needs to be told what to do: reader dishes out orders that Billy has to carry out. It's orders of a sexual nature, things that Billy has to do to, like masturbate, or use certain toys on himself, until he feels like himself again. As Billy explores becoming less submissive and Michael explores his private love for Billy's brutish strength, Billy pretends to be a worker who has come to Michael's house (it's actually Billy's small flat) to carry out some manual work, and starts hitting heavily on Michael, who doesn't put up that much of a fight, before letting Billy fucking him on whichever surface he prefers. As a throuple, they start roleplaying this once Billy owns the pub, so that they have more freedom to act it out. Michael and reader pretend to be not so nice customers who act handsy with poor, soft Billy, who ends up fucked on the floor.

[autisticwriterblog]

Hello!! Hope you're doing good!! How about 7, 18, 30 for the video game asks?

Thanks for the ask!

7. Most recent game you played?

I'm currently replaying Final Fantasy XV. I have no idea what compelled me to play it again after 6 years, but I'm 36 hours in and having lots of fun.

18. A game you started, but never finished.

Loads, because my ADHD makes actually finishing a game a challenge, and I often find I don't click with games. For example, let's go with Skyrim. It's just not for me and I bounced off it after playing for a couple of hours.

30. Favorite aspect of a game (e.g. exploration, combat, fashion/customization, environments, graphics, bosses, roleplaying, etc.)

I love exploring in games. My favourite thing to do is poke about the map finding secrets, doing side quests and just exploring every inch of the world. Not part of the examples in the question, but in the last couple of years I've grown to love using photo mode and taking pics in games that have it. I also like the combat in games where it feels amazing to control the character and do all their moves (like Control or Sekiro), but bad combat often isn't enough to turn me off games I love for their story.

[traaanskimkitsuragi]

games i played for the first time this year that i liked

mass effect legendary edition - technically started this near the end of last year but finished it in january. originally tried it to fill the hole bg3 left in my heart, and while i didnt have quite as much fun with it i still thought all 3 games were really good (despite their issues. of which there were many). liaras romance was lovely and i really loved how interconnected the overall experience felt with so many choices carrying over. i didnt really care for the gameplay but to be fair im not really big on shooters. the highlight was definitely the companions, most of whom i got very attached to. also i wish more rpgs/companion oriented games had something like the citadel dlc (the patched in epilogue party in bg3 filled that same role for me and was just as if not more satisfying).

dragon age origins - beloved. soooo much better than i expected. i was desperate for more stuff like bg3 and mass effect and remembered someone recommending the series to me on reddit forever ago, so i thought id give the games the shot and theyve altered my brain chemistry in irreversible ways. origins is my least favourite out of the first 3, but it was still very good, i loved most of the companions (minus one) and the roleplaying was deeply satisfying, especially with the origin mechanic. i absolutely loathed the gameplay but the writing was so engaging that i kept wanting to play anyway despite that. awakening was also very fun despite how short it was, the companions felt like they had a ton of personality and depth with what little they had to work with playtime wise.

dragon age 2 - my personal favourite of the series, soooooo good. hawke was just so fun to play as, i loved the personality system and the fact that you get given actual family members as major characters with preestablished dynamics with them, i was so invested. the companions were of course wonderful (especially a certain someone. who ive been very normal about ever since) and i loved the passage of time element. the rivalry-friendship system despite its issues is also something i miss still, i wish more games tried more unique approaches to companion relationships like this. and while the story absolutely fell apart in the third act i still think it had the best concepts out of the series.

dragon age inquisition - despite hating the open world aspect and the combat, i still loved this game. i loved the storyline of the inky (especially in trespasser which i thought was fantastic as a whole) and adored the companions. i loved seeing little references to my worldstate and getting to customize little bits of skyhold. also the judgements were very fun.

dredge - i fuckin love fishing games. gorgeous little game with some neat lore and soooo many cool creature designs. i loved the bestiary/pokedex/collection aspect and really enjoyed hunting down all the aberrations. the dlc was okay, just wish both had more content and didnt end so abruptly.

divinity original sin - forgettable companions, bland writing and annoying voice acting, but im still putting it on here for the sandbox-y exploration and the amount of freedom it offers. it was really neat how much the game just let me do whatever i wanted and go wherever i wanted for the most part.

dragon age veilguard - this one im very mixed on. i liked the companions even if they didnt feel as well written or multilayered as the ones from the previous games, and i loved some parts of the story, like everything to do with solas and things like the weisshaupt siege sequence. the exploration was very fun (i loved looking for all the chests), the environments were gorgeous, and while the combat got really boring after a while its still the most fun that ive had with the action the series. i also personally loved the new artstyle, there were so many gorgeous armor sets, the customization options for rook were very really nice (despite being overhyped and startlingly sexist in terms of the options provided). the hardening mechanic i know some people are mixed on but i thought was neat. but despite that, there are also all the retcons, the disrespectful way some returning characters are treated (looking at especially isabela), the incredibly lackluster faction "storylines" (if you can even call some of them that), the companion quests/storylines which as a whole are not great (apart from davrin who i thought was the real standout), the general lack of interesting character conflict and the flat and uninteresting way the game tackles its politics/lore. also the worldstates being thrown out was a real shame. overall i had a ton of fun playing it but the more i thought back on it the worse and worse my opinion of it has gotten over time. putting it here regardless because the good parts were just that good, at least for me.

the forgotten city - a smaller/shorter experience that was really refreshing and fun! i loved the timeloop mechanic, it felt really streamlined in a way that made it so much less tedious than what id have expected, and it was really cool how much freedom it offered in terms of the exploration. despite the large cast everyone was really easy to differentiate/remember thanks to their memorable personalities and the excellent voice acting, and while im a little mixed on the ending twist the ending sequence itself felt very satisfying.

slime rancher - very cute game, the gameplay loop and exploration was very fun (despite some tedium in the middle prior to being able to automate chores), i loved the artstyle and all the designs of the different slimes. achievement hunting for it was quite fun too. i loved getting to optimize my setup to be more efficient. the stamina bar and inventory limit are probably my biggest complaints apart from the aforementioned grindy bits, but thankfully theyre easy to mod out which made the experience much smoother.

divinity original sin 2 - currently still playing through this one but putting it here anyway since im more than halfway through it. definitely an improvement over the previous game in basically every aspect. the writing is better and the companions are more memorable (not quite on bg3 levels in my opinion but theyre likeable enough), and playing as lohse has been really fun, i love all the unique little story touches and interactions it adds. the romance seems more of a side/flavor thing for the most part so far, which isnt a huge deal. it wont become one of my favourites or anything but its fun enough so far.

[wobblyprinny]

Thoughts On An Indie Game I've been playing....

So, for anyone who likes indie games, lewd games, and lewd indie games... I present to you, 'Evalia: The Lust Kingdom'.

It's a genuine sandbox style game made using the Ren'Py game making software. Y'know, the one optimized and spec'd out for making visual novels and adventure games.

You are thrust into the role the fully (insofar as the options will allow at least) customizable and recently, seemingly randomly handpicked, monarch of the floating island city-state of Evalia. A very, VERY sex positive kingdom.

You are free to interact with any NPC you like, engage in the day to day politicking of court sessions to build rep with the various factions that make up Evalia, build relationships with whomever you take a fancy too, work to solve the many secrets eValia has hidden underneath the surface(though, admittedly, the narrative has taken a backseat after the initial polt hooks get laid down for the sake of building up a solid feature rich gameplay loopfoundation), explore the various areas of your kingdom, and shape jsut what kind of place you want it to be.

Not only is it your PC and relationships you have control over to customize, but the very makeup of the kingdom's populace too!

Ever dreamed of having a whole harem of women to yourself? Well, now you can!

Want an island full of doods instead? Sure thing!

Futas? Why the hell not?

Mix and match? All good!

It's your kingdom after all, so go nuts.

As for myself, well... I'm very much into roleplaying, so I just filled it with women and futas bc, well... isolated island floating in the sky... so, the odd foreign traffic aside, them babies and population replacement rate gotta come from somewhere, right?

Point is, it's up to you.

Gay, straight, bi, non-binary, futa... it's all good

It's a game that has... a LOT of potential and has come a long way fro a game that's being developed by just one person... Everything from the coding to the art assets!. All just one guy in their free time!

I respect that so much and I use devs like them inspiration and a goal to strive for in my own creative aspirations.

I even subbed to show my support.

Gives me early access and voting rights, so yeah... worth it.

The dev is pretty responsive on the sites they're on but don't yet have a discord... which kinda sucks but, y'know... life.

Potential aside, it's a very ambitious project that will take a long time before it's done... Like, for example, 'The Last Sovereign' by Sierra Lee? That masterpiece of an indie game has been in the works for over a decade! So worth it though! A damn fine game in its own right!

...but I digress.

As for suggestions I've made, which the dev has confirmed an interest in adding at some point include, but are likely not limited too, magic to change genders of yourself and other characters, including other important NPCs, of which is gender balanced for plot purposes, which is fine... but I WANT MY HAREM DAMMIT!

more complex factional politicking both at home and with other nations, more interactive sex, combat, and exploration mechanics, and kinds... oh the kinks!

...Given my own preferences, you can bet your ass I asked if incest/inbreeding would be a viable suggestion... and y'know what? They were totally okay with adding such kinds in and even said that was already in the cards, just a matter of 'when, not if' kinda thing.

Made me pretty happy.

Now, to those who may not be as big into the indie lewd games or mod community... incest is both surprisingly popular and prevalent.

Naturally, degrees vary on how much that content has importance in the plot or is just a kink.

I'm personally fine with either bc, well, all publicity is good publicity in cases like this. Getting ppl to be comfortable with the idea as 'normal' or at least acceptable, is kinda the point here.... regardless of how much it actually exists already despite the 'common sense' of the present day.

Look up them stats. They will surprise you with how not uncommon it actually is. Remember, 8 billion ppl and all that.

But, in the land of fiction and entertainment, it's a good place to really explore those sides of yourself without all the stigma... unless, y'know, you gotta deal with judgmental pricks. I mean, we do, tbf, but fiction is fiction, so getting offended by fiction is just stupid... and honestly makes you look weirder than the ppl who like that fiction in my book.

Anyway, it's a game I recommend trying and keeping an eye on.

Another game I find myself liking is Lust n Farm.

It's more of a focused narrative sandbox/farming sim lite/harem builder, but it is very much an incest romance that, to the dev's credit and shameless lewding aside, is attempting to build a compelling narrative around.

It's got plenty of flaws and is buggy as hell, but it's another one that has a LOT of potential, isn't afraid to explore taboos, and has a decent foundation to work with.

Honestly, I'm a sucker for isolated city settings and interconnected harem building stories, so win-win.

Maybe I'll talk more about that game since I really do think it's good for what it is and who it's aimed at.

And yes, as an incest romance that at least is attempting to take itself seriously for the world it's set in, pregnancies are actual kinda plot integral here.

Made me actually rethink my view on one of the heroines/older sisters.

....Anyway, lewd game ranting and my lowkey kink shilling aside, that's all I guess...

[fazball]

I want to start this with why You should listen to Me about this :^3! Hi, I'm Chip and I have had a special interest in Minecraft roleplay since I was about 9 (assuming Aphmau's Minecraft Diaries was truly my first mcrp) and that would mean I have had this special interest for Nine Years and I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about.

Now onto what I actually want to talk about! I feel that Minecraft roleplay is simply not explored as much as it truly could be. There is so little of this genre, at least compared to things like let's play series and challenge videos, and it is so baffling to me that a game like Minecraft, an open-world sandbox game with little to no actual canon, would not have a surplus of content like this! Of course recently there has been a significant uptick in content like this because of the DSMP, and I am honestly overjoyed about that, but before this there has been almost nothing? Now obviously I cannot know every single mcrp series ever created, nor have I even watched every series I've seen come on my recommended, but I can confidently say there is a lack of content! Specifically a lack of intentional content.

There are so many series/servers that are completely non-rp, but include things with jokey moments where they allude to things in the past as if it was serious and affected their MC character, or are half-and-half. What I mean by half-and-half is that the series is not actually called an rp (or even just not intended to be and slowly became a thing that regularly happens), but there are many moments where there is clearly a story that everyone is following in some way. I think a good example of this is Hermitcraft, of course I have not seen every single Hermitcraft episode and cannot say if its always been like this, but, for example, in season 7 (which I have fully seen a few creators series) there is a semi-clear story with occasional rp moments, but it is still just a normal SMP. I honestly love servers like this as it's hard for me to actually sit down and watch something that could be considered a show, but the amount of wasted potential is so upsetting to me!!!

There are even many series and SMPs that have no rp at all outside of jokes and the push is from the fandom surrounding it. I unfortunately don't have an example from off the top of my head, but they do exist trust me!!!! I think I could, once again, loosely say Hermitcraft as the creators tend to be involved in the fandom. There are a few moments where they did not consider something as a story moment, they saw fanart or someone talking about it in a more serious way, then they bring it up! I love this aswell, I think it's so fun!!! (if i am completely wrong about this do not point it out :( simply believe me)

You could make any story you'd ever want, you have literally anything at your disposal and so little people actually go for it. In a game where you can: customize your character, literally build (and even specifically retexture) the world around you, have others join you as a character in your story, or make your own NPCs and dialogue, you could genuinely make any story you could ever want and I encourage everyone to dip their toes into it. If you have ever thought of making a story, try using Minecraft. I'd say it's even the perfect place to start.

Final messages!!!! If this all sounds like word vomit, thats because it is! I don't tend to make large posts like this and even struggle to make comprehensible paragraphs, I literally started talking about this on my Twitter account then drafted all of it in a personal discord server. Anyways, thank you for reading if you got this far!!! If you'd like any mcrp recommendations let me know, I will warn you that most of my favorites are Old and aren't the greatest quality Or could be considered a complete normal series. I just love mcrp so bad and it's my longest lasting spin, and I hope there are others who share this!!!!!! Okay goot bye :^3 thank you again for reading if you did

[lintwriting]

Undertale and Crow Country: More Alike Than You Think!

A lot of what’s sweeping about Crow Country reminds me of what swept Undertale into massive popularity. Great music, retro but in a way that plays with the source materials, a good story—but most importantly, one with time to breathe.

Like some of Undertale’s most memorable aspects were the way it played with the player in a way unique to video games and RPGs.

Genocide and pacifist routes play with the standard RPG violence that most games never question.

The player chooses to name a character at the beginning who is NOT your player character, but instead a different character altogether, and your player is actually a character in their own right (named Frisk) rather than a character you can project onto/role play as, as would be the norm in a ROLEPLAYing game lol.

(The RPG Disco Elysium was also famous for these kind of meta elements, with the game making it clear (through the narrative device of amnesia) that while you can customize the player character, he is not a blank slate/player insert either! Much like the way someone in real life will still find themselves predisposed to certain traits through nurture/their environment, even if they make their own choices. Read my thoughts here!)

Undertale I remember being considered very retro at its time for being an 8-bit RPG. Particularly memorable is that people clowned on the graphics, which I thought were cute as someone who wasn’t very familiar with video games, but I didn’t realize that the 8-bit stuff wouldn’t be commonplace for most gamers. So yeah, it was considered weirdly retro at the time.

Similarly, Crow Country plays with nostalgia in a way that I’m not familiar with at all. I’m unfamiliar with its influences—unfamiliar with Final Fantasy, unfamiliar with PS1 graphics (except as the new trend that’s been making the rounds as of late). As such, it’s not nostalgic to me beyond being a puzzle game like Undertale and a lot of RPGmaker games were. But yeah, both Undertale and Crow Country bring something new to the table to this nostalgic rehashing.

Undertale mostly with its meta storytelling/themes, though the combat system was unique. And Crow Country in its faux pre-rendered background, mimicking old survival horror games, that acts as an immersive-sim-like interact-able background that would’ve been impossible for its era. The ability to interact with objects you assume are just part of the background is a hugely pleasant surprise in a game like this, rewarding exploration—a key game mechanic. A positive feedback loop.

And like, the nostalgia is HUGE. A lot of the moments reviewers keep referencing are the bits where characters make cute jokes about how it’s weird you need to go through like 5 puzzles just to get a key, referencing in-universe how weird their world is. That’s the type of joke you only get once a genre has established tropes and cliches, aka when a genre has been around long enough to feel nostalgic. Undertale also made similar meta jokes that show a love for the genre it’s in, as does Disco Elysium, and it creates a sense of kinship between the player and the characters and the developers (because it’s an in-joke and a badge of honor).

Finally, the moments to breathe. The game encourages and rewards exploration, and it has story beats and moments that reward slowing down before a big moment and to just feeling what the characters are feeling AND appreciate the experience of this genre of game itself.

With Undertale, it’s the whole “filled with determination” save mechanics and the “you’re still you” mirror scenes.

With Crow Country, it’s Mara’s scene where she appreciates her key items (like a lot of survival horror fans do near the end of play throughs). Mara has her own quiet save room areas, too.

Along with the almost tonally abrupt Undertale lore dump of the echo flower room. A dump would be boring in a different game, but the echo flowers, thanks to its visceral atmosphere, instead feel like the intimacy of a child finding out their family secrets. To achieve this, rather than characters telling you, it’s just flowers echoing you secrets from the past—leaving you the player alone enough to really take in the info (as if you were Frisk) and letting you process it as you will, without any push from other characters. Not frisk (who doesn’t speak), not any other character else, just the player. Alone with these secrets.

Similarly, that scene where Mara is climbing down into the heart of darkness on that ladder. Just an endless view of her going down and getting smaller and darker, like Omori going down the stairs. Oh boy, it’s that same feeling of letting you really process what you’re getting into, of slowing down to feel the visceral emotions and enjoy the experience thanks to its intense atmosphere. But it contains that same heart pumping, introspective feeling of appreciation and excitement that Undertale has with its save points, with none of the dramatic fear that Aomori’s stair scene evokes, because it’s a slow moment to breathe.

(this gif and its texts via ElucidatedByFire's WONDERFUL video on Crow Country. Truly underrated and highly recommend!!!)

Cross-Demographic Appeal

I think under this lens, it makes a lot of sense why Crow Country is on such an "easy" mode despite ostensibly being a survival horror game. I feel like in a lot of ways, it has cross-demographic appeal, specifically connected to Undertale’s more RPG puzzle/newbie/young demographic. Undertale even has that horror level with the creepy amalgamations.

So while Crow Country’s survival horror audience is baffled at its choice to make "easy" mode the default, since the whole point of the genre is stuff like resource management and the adrenaline of trying to survive, an RPG audience is not quite as used to that level of anxiety while playing lol.

It would be forgiving to these undoubtedly beginner players who come for that RPG crossover appeal, who don’t know what to expect and therefore wouldn’t know to go on “easy” mode (if murder mode was set as “normal”). Though maybe this is a bit too coddling XD

[eastgaysian]

Hiiii!!!! As the resident baldur's gate 3 expert can you advise me on what is the best approach for a first playthrough? I saw the default playable character is the 'dark urge' so I wasn't sure whether to start with that character for a better story experience or use an OC from previous dnd campaigns I've played? Does it matter much?

tasha bg3 era >:) !!!! i personally went with an oc for my first playthrough then dark urge for my second, but tbh i think going dark urge first might make for a better story experience with the built-in ties to the main plot and unique roleplaying choices. you can customize race/class/appearance the same as with a custom character, so there's also nothing stopping you from splitting the difference if you want lol

the only caveat is that you'll get locked out of getting one of the best robes for charisma-based spellcasters unless you do some metagame-y bullshit, so depending on how you want to build your character (or wyll) i can try to give you as spoiler-free an explanation as i can for avoiding this (or you can install cheat engine and spawn the item in).

my general advice for a first playthrough is to save + quicksave frequently, explore around everywhere because you'll usually find something interesting as a reward, and long rest frequently, since there are a lot of story events that only play out at camp. you shouldn't ever have to worry about running out of camp supplies, and there are only a handful of quests that are actually time-dependent which are pretty clearly marked as such in your journal. i hope you have fun with the game ^_^

[regarding-stories]

When your backstory beats your story (Part 1): Aventuria

(This is going to be a bit of a crossover story between two of my blogs.)

You may not have heard of it, but Germany's best-selling role-playing game is called "The Dark Eye" ("Das Schwarze Auge"). Its first edition beat D&D to market in Germany in the early 80s and has been the dominant tabletop RPG there ever since - generating also several computer games, and finally an English edition that was able to create some hype in the US market, something which its publisher Ulisses increasingly targets (because more customers).

The game itself evolved from a very simplistic system that was fast to pick up over two more editions that revised and expanded it, only to become an overly complex monster in its 4th edition where most people needed a fan-made PC editor to create characters. I don't particularly like the system, which always tended to be "whiffy" (lots of rolling for little effect in combat) and has never been truly fixed, unable to let go of its poor game design legacy.

I have a soft spot for 1st edition, though. It's the first RPG I ever played. It's simple. You're not feeling like a complete idiot (like in many editions of D&D at the beginning). It quickly got you into playing. And there existed some decent adventures of the kind I like.

Sold by the stories

While I personally was more into dungeon-style exploration fantasy, Dark Eye adventures tended more towards stories. (I just happened to be led through an adventure of the style I loved when playing first.) The Dark Eye is probably the most-supported system on this planet when it comes to published adventures, numbering in the hundreds.

Most of these are story-based or focus on character interaction to a good degree, and in fact many Dark Eye gamers are kind of stereotyped as wanting to hang out in taverns and with nobles to have long conversations, invoke the setting gods in their exclamations, and generally be more like LARPers (Live Action RolePlaying - when you dress up). I've encountered way too many of them off- and online to disagree - just like D&D is known for its murder hobo power gamers for a reason.

But given the endless focus on dungeon adventures in D&D and saving the world, The Dark Eye can be a breath of fresh air for getting into well-rounded characters, finding solutions to complex problems, and generally, you know, actually role-playing your character.

You know, most of the things that these days make RPG streaming a thing.

A mixture of more low-key stories and various ideas certainly made it stand out compared to D&D, and to this day such preferences can make you chose one game over the other.

So it makes sense we're talking stories here. So why did the Dark Eye have a backstory problem?

Because it was like this

When you started playing in the 1980s, you basically came into a very settled civilization. There was a large "Middle Empire/Realm" which was the successor the original Empire, and it was a country spanning a big part of the map which was, politically, very static. So were most of its neighbors.

If you picked up the official zine of the setting you would hear of events such as the umpteenth "war" between two impoverished mini-states full of country bumpkins with long rivalries as a recent event. In the early 90s a part of the setting evolved towards the renaissance, but that made it seem even more static. (It was, in some ways, a mirror image of part of the history of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation. The not-so-exciting parts, depending on your tastes.)

There were tantalizing hints that some much cooler place existed beyond the ocean, the Golden Land (or Myranor), but they largely remained hints back then. Years later, after I lost interest, it was published as an alternate setting for the game, IIRC. Think about hearing of it being hinted for a long time in the 90s and then finally starting to appear in 2000 onwards. It was just too late for me, personally.

Stoking desires but not fulfilling them was a hallmark of The Dark Eye for a long time. Because interesting things did happen, but they either happened somewhere else, far away, or outright unavailable (like Myranor, a discontinued Hollow Earth setting with Japan as inspiration), or in an even less reachable place - the past.

Splendor Of Days Gone By

There is a temptation for any fantasy author, especially authors writing setting books for players, to make up grand chronologies of past events. People generally blame Tolkien for this, given that he created a grand mythological setting with several long ages as backdrop for his "Lord of the Rings".

The reason the "Tolkien did it too" argument is rather weak (in my book) is, however, that Tolkien created his mythology as the backdrop to an engaging, much-beloved story. Compare how many people have read "The Lord of the Rings" with how many have read "The Silmarillion" and you can immediately see how Tolkien did not slack on giving us a good, dramatic story when we first heard about it.

Not so most fantasy authors.

Reading the Dark Eye's history of the setting itself, you have to wonder about the state of mind the authors. Here they put all those exciting events that almost none of their adventures contained:

A royal family of the Old Empire that fell to demon worship and incest.

A march of 1,000 ogres that razed the biggest city in the world.

Wars of conquest, rebellions, the formation of nations.

Several orc invasions.

A sorcerer-king that was in league with demons.

A magican and philosopher-king who ended that threat and ruled a looong time.

A viking era.

Etc.

I really remember reading this back in the day and, being the newbie I was, just being desperate about how boring the present was. Basically the backstory often kicked ass. It had movers and shakers, big dramatic events, and what the Chinese might call "interesting times."

Fixed After All

Eventually the makers of the game (the editorial board, as they are called), noticed themselves. Somewhere around the year 2000 games with meta-plots became a thing, especially in Germany, and big events kept changing their settings, keeping them interesting and preparing the ground for new adventures. And eventually Aventuria, the world of the Dark Eye, followed suit.

For example by bringing the sorcerer-king back and letting players be the protagonists influencing the events that end up bringing him down. What a novel idea...

Looking at the time-line since you kind of think that maybe these people realized they had buried all the excitement in their own, made-up history, because now there are events in there that are clearly inspired by what "came before" as the setting keeps marching forward.

Why it took them up to two decades to realize this is anybody's guess.

The role of backstory is typically to establish the "why" of elements in your story - or here the why of the setting. In Aventuria's case, it did the job of explaining the borders and where the various nations come from, but somehow, and rather unintentionally, it painted the picture of a dynamic and exciting world that eventually solidified and ended up as a rather sclerotic, phlegmatic version of itself.

In the end, as an author, that would have been the point to ask yourself which makes the better story. And go with that.

[myreia]

Top 10 Video Games

Thank you for the tag, @thevikingwoman! 💗

I've been thinking about this for a few days. My top 5 has been in place for a few years now, but my top 10 tends to change from year to year depending on new things I've played and how much of an impact they made or games I've revisited and rekindled a love for.

Criteria is pretty personal: games I enjoy because I find their gameplay supports their story and vice versa; games I like because it's doing something cool with the roleplay aspect; games I like purely for the gameplay; games for nostalgia or personal importance; games I think did something interesting with an interactive format to tell a story.

I'm going to exclude interactive fiction or visual novels here for a few personal reasons.

tagging @lilas @greyyourwarden @coldshrugs @galadae @a-shakespearean-in-paris @hylfystt @allaganexarch @sunshinemage @impossible-rat-babies @roguelioness if you want!

10. Heroes of Might and Magic III

I grew up with the HoMM series. It was the first computer game I was old enough to understand; I spent hours exploring maps, building up my towns, getting freaked out when the enemy AI surprised me. Hours in the custom map maker and campaign maker trying to create playable stories. The third installment in the series has so much going for it--colourful world, really beautiful creature design, interesting and challenging campaigns that really made you think about the systems and utilize them in different ways. It's light on story, but the story that is there is interesting if you spend a couple minutes thinking about it.

This series is probably the basis of turn-based combat being my favourite type of gameplay.

The music is also really nice!

09. Persona 3

I feel like a Persona game needs to be on this list, but I wasn't sure which one. My introduction to the series was backwards: I played Persona 5 first, then P4, then P3. I think the thing that always stands out to me about Persona is how much fun the turn-based combat, combined with its sometimes bonkers monster design, the dynamics between the core cast, its in-depth storytelling, and, of course, the music.

There's something about 3's characters and story that always comes back to me. The conversation it opens about death, grief and loss is very raw but also very compassionate. I think it has one of the most thoughtful handling of existentialist and nihilistic viewpoints in gaming. It has the kind of ending that will haunt you after you witness it. You might not think about the game for years but you'll have a day where you remember Persona 3's ending and get pulled right back into thinking on it.

And Mass Destruction is here.

08. Dragon Age (Series)

I can't choose one! I can't!

Dragon Age: Origins was the game that got me into gaming. I hadn't really played anything since HoMM as a kid. The flexibility of its UI and systems to be a kind of cross between an action RPG-style and a CRPG style made it really friendly for getting used to gameplay mechanics I was not used to. The storytelling and characters pulled me right in, and I think DA:O still is one of the best examples of interactive storytelling where the player actually has an impact on the unfolding narrative to date.

Dragon Age 2 continues to fascinate me. There are obvious issues with the gameplay, design, and overall storytelling, but the foundation of what they were trying to execute is really unique. The three-act structure is very theatrical and almost Shakespearean, using Varric as a bookend to narrate the whole experience adds another layer (what is the truth? what is fabricated for entertainment?). Act 2 has some of DA's strongest storytelling and really digs into its dark fantasy roots even as it rushes towards a conclusion that is unavoidable, grotesque, and bitterly unfair. I played this one last so I knew what I was getting into when I played it, so I was able to temper my expectations a fair amount and enjoy it for what it is, rather than what it could have been.

Dragon Age: Inquisition was the second DA game I played and it's the one I have the most hours in. The combat is a lot of fun, it has one of the most versatile CC's to date. The landscapes are beautiful and were a lot of fun to explore on the first few playthroughs. I'm still very fond of the story and the characters.

DA's transition from a more CRPG style and dark fantasy genre to an action RPG style and high fantasy genre is a shift that will probably always fascinate me and I love to talk about it.

If I had to narrow it down: it's DA:O for the overall story, DA2 for the characters, DA:I for the combat and gameplay.

I don't have much to say about the music other than Trevor Morris went off for Trespasser's Lost Elf theme.

07. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

I'll be honest, I almost put Jedi: Fallen Order here because I wanted to talk about my favourite Star Wars game but it's been a hot minute since I last played it and I think Amalur has been on my favourites list for too long to kick it off.

Kingdoms of Amalur is really good and really bad and it is trashy and I love it.

If you go digging you can find its whole sordid history, but the reasons I'm very fond of it:

whacky, campy art style

colourful worlds

THE COMBAT

The combat in this game is excellent. It is freeform. You can respec at any time. There are three main classes (warrior, rogue, mage) and you can multiclass them whichever way you want. Warrior/Rogue, Mage/Rogue, Warrior/Mage, Warrior/Mage/Rogue... It's so much fun to change it up on the fly. Combat feels smooth, and once it clicks it's really easy to feel like a badass.

This game FINALLY gives mages a cool weapon. No more scepters or staffs, we're going for magic chakrams and I love it. Best weapon in the game, hands-down. Every fantasy game that has come out after 2012 that hasn't given their mage classes chakrams is missing out.

Amalur's a campy power-trip. The worldbuilding is really interesting if you want to take the time to dig into it, but you don't have to. Its MMO roots are there in much of its quest design, which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes a bad thing. YMMV with the main characters (there aren't any companions here, there are a couple of people who regularly pass in and out of your PC's life), but in general everything is just big goofy fun that shouldn't be taken too seriously.

Again, don't have much to say about the music other than Grant Kirkhope did Grant Kirkhope things. The Dalentarth theme has some nice atmospheric stuff happening.

06. Final Fantasy XV

I love Final Fantasy, it's one of my favourite game series/franchises, but I'm only allowing myself one FF game to be on this list and it has to be this one.

FFXV is a weird game. Troubled development history, troubled story, troubled execution. It has a lot of good ideas packed into it that may or may not be done well, kind of confusing worldbuilding, and a kind of confusing story that asks you to do homework in advance (you can watch Kingsglaive and Brotherhood if you want to; I didn't, but I did end up having to read a few wiki articles to make sense of things). However, the final version of the game (Royal/Windows edition) has so much heart and soul and love in it. This is my comfort game, and I find myself returning to its world a lot just to drive around.

I think it helps to reconfigure FFXV from a grand sweeping epic adventure fantasy to a character study. The four boys and the bonds of their very deep friendship are at the heart of everything in this game. And if it does one thing really well, it's that it makes you feel for them and everything they go through and you're going to be a sobbing little puddle on the floor by the end of it.

The ending is sad. I love it, but it makes me cry. About halfway through you get an idea of where this is going and I'm so glad they commit to it because Noctis' story hinges on it.

The world is a lot of fun to drive or ride (chocobos chocobos chocobos) around in. You can fly, but you may get the boys killed because crashlanding it very easy to do. Pitioss Ruins is a thing that exists and it breaks my brain. The combat is a lot of fun once you get used to it (the secret is to press and hold the buttons, button mashing doesn't get you very far).

It also has one of my favourite FF villains. Ardyn is delightful. The level of spite emanating off this man is just a wonder to behold.

Oh, and the music is really, really good. This is probably my favourite FF soundtrack.

05. Nier: Automata

Um. Hm.

I don't know how to explain this game.

It's uh...

I don't know how to put it other than the utilization of game mechanics and UI within its story structure blew my mind. This game has an ending I still think about because I can't untangle it. Your first 15 hours is going to feel like a pretty standard scif/fantasy JRPG. Then you're going to hit what feels like the end of the story, except it's not, be asked to do something and then you're going to make faces and throw your hands in the air and ask WHY is the game asking me to do this again.

You're going to get through that next 15 hours, hit another point that feels like it should be the end of the story--

And then.

And then.

I don't know how to say that the silly android vs robots game where you can blow 2B up to see her butt (yes that's a thing, ignore it) is one of the weirdest but most compelling gameplay experiences I have ever had. It's weird. But it works. But it's weird. But it works.

Also the gameplay is really fun but it's sheer chaos because it changes what it wants to do every 5 minutes because it gets bored. You go from bullet hell shooter to hack-n-slash action with combos, to hacking into a robot and running around in a pixel world dodging balls.

The balls are endless.

The balls are everywhere.

We become as gods balls.

Have I mentioned that the music is really good.

04. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

This is another comfort game. There's something about BOTW's world that is just so relaxing. I love exploring every nook and cranny, cresting the hill to see what's on the other side. I am content to ignore the main quest just to see if I can scale a mountain in the rain (no) or terrorizing an enemy camp by launching a burning tree trunk into the middle of their campfire.

I feel like all the systems work together cohesively, building off each other in a way that lets the player flex their imagination, test things, and see what happens.

I remember the score getting some flak because it didn't have the bombastic and catchy themes that previous Zelda games have, but the scaled back and atmospheric tone really works for the game. BOTW is a gently horrifying post-apocalyptic world. The moments when you do need strong themes, the score delivers in spades.

03. Horizon: Zero Dawn

I love this game so much.

Aloy is such a joy to play as. Her characterization is set in stone, but when you do have diverging dialogue options, everything feels like something she would say so it's really easy to roleplay her. She does talk a fair amount as she roams around the world, but Ashly Burch's voice acting is really lovely to listen to.

HZD has one of my favourite post-apocalyptic worlds. The worldbuilding is in-depth, the developers have thought everything through in how these societies came to be and now function. The combat system is so much fun; early techniques provide a foundation for later ones, and you have options in how you want to tackle various enemies or problems. There's a lot of flexibility in how to go about things, so one person's playstyle may be completely different for someone else.

The animations and sound designs for Aloy's assorted bows are so satisfying.

This is another game where I love wandering around the world so much I usually forgo fast travel because I love the journey, even if it takes me longer.

Not much to say about the music other than the themes for Meridian are very nice.

02. Hades

Hades is probably the most polished game I have ever played. It is virtually bug-free. The gameplay compliments the story and the story compliments the gameplay in such a way that you cannot separate them. It feels like every choice behind this game's design was done with purpose and precision.

The art style is gorgeous. The music is off the charts - sometimes you can't tell what came first, the level design or the music, they're so in-sync with each other.

The characters are delightful. Everyone has understandable motivations and desires; everyone is ridiculously likeable, particularly Zagreus himself.

It's so easy to fall into the pattern of "just one more run" because you want to stay in this world a little longer, you want to push yourself further, you want to challenge yourself again. And even when you don't complete a run, losing or messing up doesn't feel like a punishment because you have all your favourite characters waiting for you back at home with another opportunity to talk to them.

01. Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I don't know where to start because I love this game so much. Turn-based combat with an in-depth levelling system and a diverging storyline so there are actually FOUR separate stories in one? Catnip to me.

The combat system is exactly the kind of turn-based combat that I can get addicted to; I love the risk/reward, the chance of failure, yelling at the AI for getting the better of me because I put a unit in a risky spot and now they're permanently dead and I can't rewind time.

Each of the stories can stand on their own and give really different perspectives on unfolding events. How you view one character on one route will be completely different when you see them on their own and get a chance to get to know them.

The cast of characters is very large, but everyone has their place and everyone has their own journey and arc to go on. The character interactions are delightful. Because of the house and recruitment system, it is really interesting to see characters you recruited out of their houses and into yours and how they change when the story diverges and puts them down a different path--especially if that path puts them in direct conflict with a former friend.

The English dub for this game is out of this world, it is one of the best ENG dubs I've heard in years. The music has some absolute bangers for combat music, especially in the endgame. Shout out to my favourite, Chasing Daybreak and also Funeral of Flowers because it's underrated.

[dark-roleplay-finder]

{🥀🕊️} tldr about me; 24f she/her, novella multi-page writer, fantasy / zombie apocalypse / historical fiction, mxm & mxf and doubles-friendly, nsfw and dead dove friendly but will discuss limits and triggers, eastern time zone, plotting and worldbuilding heavy, discord pinterest and spotify are my best friends!

tldr looking for; heavily literate 18+ long-term rp partner, a lover of fantasy (fae, demons, dragons, chosen ones and dark lords, etc) or open to supernatural historical fiction or dark zombie-centric apocalyptic threads. replies preferably at minimum once a week, and please no ghosting–i am very understanding of real life and burnout so if we need breaks thats okay! discord + pinterest friendly, and must vibe ooc! romance is required, as well as being okay with lgbtq+ characters, dark themes, and nsfw content.

read below for more details if this sounds like your cup of tea~

hi friends, i’m 24f she/her, looking for someone similar in age (18+ required, absolutely no minors, preferably 20+) who loves fantasy, monsters, romance, and loooong lengthy replies. i’ve been writing for the past 15+ years with dreams of one day being published, and have been roleplaying for the past 10+ years, though i’ve been on an extended hiatus. i’m recently quit my job (living in EST) so my schedule is pretty open to start writing together! Even though i have a lot of new free time, i do have a partner and responsibilities, and am also aware of burnout, real life, and mental health so never be afraid to pull the breaks for a few days, weeks, or months if we need to but please communicate that. i almost exclusively write medieval high fantasy, but also enjoy historical fiction (absolutely nothing modern ie. 1930's onward) and lately have been into zombie apocalypses as i’m rewatching twd. i only work with originals, ocxoc, but am open to playing with a canon universe as long as we make it our own! i’m mainly looking for mxm and mxf romance since that’s what i have the most experience with, but i am lgbtq+ friendly. i prefer a partner who is open to writing a wide range of characters, not just female ocs or “submissive” types, just to ensure we keep the threads fresh for both of us. i’m more than happy to double and work on multiple threads as well. i like a heavy emphasis on troubled characters with real flaws, trauma, and their subsequent development, exploring interesting relationship dynamics both healthy and toxic, and extensive worldbuilding + magic systems. customized discord servers, fanart, headcanons, drawn maps of our worlds, couples playlists, pinterest boards–you name it, i love it and am here for it.

concepts in mind; while i don’t have any set plots, characters, or worlds (i generally enjoy figuring this out organically with my partner) there are some things that i like to write and cliches i love to see. Anything with fae, monsters, demons and witches, interesting takes on vampires + werewolves, i’m here for! i love fairytale retellings and mythology, and playing with religious motifs and inspiration (think paradise lost). themes of rebellion, war-torn kingdoms, corrupt monarchies, prophecies, racing against the clock to defeat eldritch world-ending monsters, dark overlords, magic always has a price, everyone is living on borrowed time just to name a few. when it comes to romance tropes, you can never go wrong with enemies to lovers, soulmates, forbidden romance, arranged/forced marriage, hidden identity, the hero falls for the villain. i foam at the mouth for soft ocs that snap and go feral, not a god’s chosen but a god’s cursed, the found family out of a band of ragtag misfits, complex villains who are actual people, i could literally go on for hours.

other tidbits; i don’t write canon characters or with fandoms, but i do enjoy my fair share of shows, books, and video games! i'm open to taking inspiration from any of them, so i’ll list a few if it helps give a better idea of what i’m into and possible interests we might share–

shows/movies: game of thrones + house of the dragon, outlander, the walking dead, pride and prejudice, stranger things, lotr, twilight

books: a court of thorns and roses + throne of glass, six of crows + shadow and bone, the night circus, and many more

games: animal crossing, legend of zelda, the sims, dragon age, stardew valley, the last of us

contact; if you are interested in any of this, like this post and i'll message you or comment with your discord username and i'll add you

Like this post and the asker will reach out!

[findyourrp]

{🥀🕊️} tldr about me; 24f she/her, novella multi-page writer, fantasy / zombie apocalypse / historical fiction, mxm & mxf and doubles-friendly, nsfw and dead dove friendly but will discuss limits and triggers, eastern time zone, plotting and worldbuilding heavy, discord pinterest and spotify are my best friends.

tldr looking for; heavily literate 18+ long-term rp partner, a lover of fantasy (fae, demons, dragons, chosen ones and dark lords, etc) or open to supernatural historical fiction or dark zombie-centric apocalyptic threads. replies preferably at minimum once a week, and please no ghosting–i am very understanding of real life and burnout so if we need breaks thats okay! discord + pinterest friendly, and must vibe ooc! romance is required, as well as being okay with lgbtq+ characters, dark themes, and nsfw content.

read below for more details if this sounds like your cup of tea~

hi friends, i’m 24f she/her, looking for someone similar in age (18+ required, absolutely no minors, preferably 20+) who loves fantasy, monsters, romance, and loooong lengthy replies. i’ve been writing for the past 15+ years with dreams of one day being published, and have been roleplaying for the past 10+ years, though i’ve been on an extended hiatus. i’m recently quit my job (living in EST) so my schedule is pretty open to start writing together! Even though i have a lot of new free time, i do have a partner and responsibilities, and am also aware of burnout, real life, and mental health so never be afraid to pull the breaks for a few days, weeks, or months if we need to but please communicate that. i almost exclusively write medieval high fantasy, but also enjoy historical fiction (absolutely nothing modern ie. 1930's onward) and lately have been into zombie apocalypses as i’m rewatching twd. i only work with originals, ocxoc, but am open to playing with a canon universe as long as we make it our own! i’m mainly looking for mxm and mxf romance since that’s what i have the most experience with, but i am lgbtq+ friendly. i prefer a partner who is open to writing a wide range of characters, not just female ocs or “submissive” types, just to ensure we keep the threads fresh for both of us. i’m more than happy to double and work on multiple threads as well. i like a heavy emphasis on troubled characters with real flaws, trauma, and their subsequent development, exploring interesting relationship dynamics both healthy and toxic, and extensive worldbuilding + magic systems. customized discord servers, fanart, headcanons, drawn maps of our worlds, couples playlists, pinterest boards–you name it, i love it and am here for it.

concepts in mind; while i don’t have any set plots, characters, or worlds (i generally enjoy figuring this out organically with my partner) there are some things that i like to write and cliches i love to see. Anything with fae, monsters, demons and witches, interesting takes on vampires + werewolves, i’m here for! i love fairytale retellings and mythology, and playing with religious motifs and inspiration (think paradise lost). themes of rebellion, war-torn kingdoms, corrupt monarchies, prophecies, racing against the clock to defeat eldritch world-ending monsters, dark overlords, magic always has a price, everyone is living on borrowed time just to name a few. when it comes to romance tropes, you can never go wrong with enemies to lovers, soulmates, forbidden romance, arranged/forced marriage, hidden identity, the hero falls for the villain. i foam at the mouth for soft ocs that snap and go feral, not a god’s chosen but a god’s cursed, the found family out of a band of ragtag misfits, complex villains who are actual people, i could literally go on for hours.

other tidbits; i do not write canon characters or with fandoms, but i do enjoy my fair share of shows, books, and video games! i'm open to taking inspiration from any of them, so i’ll list a few if it helps give a better idea of what i’m into and possible interests we might share–

shows/movies: game of thrones + house of the dragon, outlander, the walking dead, pride and prejudice, stranger things, lotr, twilight

books: a court of thorns and roses + throne of glass, six of crows + shadow and bone, the night circus, and many more

games: animal crossing, legend of zelda, the sims, dragon age, stardew valley, the last of us

contact; if you are interested in any of this, like this post and i'll message you or comment with your discord username and i'll add you

.