#Argh I love this game

[dish-licker]

Ah man, I've totally flipped on borderlands 3. Previously I bounced off it every time I tried to do a second playthrough, but this time I've gotten all the way to Eden-6, and I'm absolutely loving it.

Sure, I wish there were some in-canon excuse for the cutscenes where your character is unable to act, and some (most?) of the side quests are a big nothingburger.

But I'm loving the unifying theme of family, with the Calypo siblings and their cult, Katagawa, Hammerlock and his sister, and a bunch of other stuff that I'm not remembering at the moment.... even the B-Team goes into some found family stuff.

Also I realized I should be more grateful for the B-Team. To me, it was like 'well duh, ofc these three stuck together as a family unit'. (Partly because I've always associated Brick, Mordecai and Tina with myself, my wife and our daughter) BUT I realize it could have gone a million different ways. It was never a sure thing that they'd still be together in Borderlands 3, and I'm so happy that they are.

Also the game is so fun....the level designs are intuitive and linear whole still being open, guiding you unconsciously from one quest point to the next.....the environments are gorgeous and distinct.....

The first time I played, I was paying too much attention. This time I'm trying to ignore the bad jokes and weaker parts of the writing, instead running from combat to combat like I usually do in BLands 1 and 2, and I'm enjoying it way more this way.

Plus, since it's my second playthrough, I can tune in for the parts of the writing that I remember loving. Just listened to The Lizard audio recording today (favorite ECHO in the game) and got to hear Wainwright call Troy 'ratboy' a bunch. Good stuff 👍

[tinsil]

waking up on the beach

[pumpkinnkidd]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FORGOTTEN LAND!!! 🎊 🎉

( rambles in the tags! )

[fizzzyz]

guess who finally got a new obsession

[makapatag]

so hear me out right (and this is by no means a smart blog post thing, im just rambling at 2am)

a lot of combat heavy ttrpgs (D&D4e, PF2e, ICON, Lancer, Panic! At The Dojo) rely a lot on keywording and mechanical definitions to create this interlocking (and hopefully well-oiled) combat engine that rewards good tactical choices and forward thinking. 4e needs you to know that Ranged Attacks Provoke Opportunity Attacks, and so you need to move away first to avoid that (often by spending their Move action to Shift). this goes for other games as well. ICON needs you to know that if an Ability does not have the "Attack" tag then its explicitly not an attack, even if it deals damage. This is important because some classes and abilities benefit from not attacking, such as the Demon Slayer

the far end of this is PF2e, where almost everything is Keyworded. Classes, Races, even Feats have keywords, and some keywords have Keywords in them. this is not bad design in my opinion: mastery of this keywording can create for some really cool effects (and you can feasibly design something very BotW which also depends on a lot of interactions between elements).

now consider that so much of tactics trpgs (that is, Traditional/Tabletop Role-Playing Games) rely on so much of that interaction to create fulfilling scenarios. most of the time this is because tactics rpgs also depend on build-crafting. there are a lot of tactics trpgs that don't really care about build crafting or has less of a focus on it to focus instead on the grid combat: games like Rune, Valiant Quest, maybe even Blood Neon, so im explicitly talking about the variety of tactics trpgs that are build-centered: basically anything that comes from the vein of Fourth Edition Dungeons and Dragons

one of my favorite parts about TTRPGs is that you can play them based off of the fiction. writing Gubat Banwa, I understand that sometimes you have to create that fiction, especially if its not one thats well-represented. the created fiction or genre is the blueprint from which the play-fiction arises during the game: that's the fire-like collective imagination that arises from play.

There's a design and play philosophy (common among OSR, PbtA, and FitD) known as Fiction-First. This means that you follow what happens in the fiction first before the mechanics or anything else. Not to preserve the integrity of a "narrative" but rather, to preserve the integrity of the fiction.

What would a Fiction-First Tactics TRPG look like? This is something I tried to set out to do with Gubat Banwa. I haven't really succeeded, as of 1e.3.

so i've been thinking lately. What if a game was Fiction-First? It would work similarly to the Keywording of PF2e, but more open-ended in its interpretation.

Look at the Panabas from PF2e (a weapon present in SEAsia! From the Malay Archipelago all the way to the Philippine Archipelago). It has the Forceful (your second attack on your turn gains +X (X = damage dice, third up gets +2X.), Sweep (+1 to attack if youve alr targeted a separate character), and Two-Hand d10 (roll a d10 when you wield with both hands) tags.

I'm not going to be translating these one for one, but let's use the fiction-first style of writing and mechanics i'm concocting:

Panabas. A heavy blade. Using this, you strike with Bravery. The forward-curving blade can chop through tree, bone, and bramble.

Heavy Blade is a weapon type, so this is classic keywording. The text afterwards is also keywording: striking with Bravery means you roll your Bravery stat when making attacks with it. All well and good: there's always going to be some classical keywording in there as necessity (its this entanglement of mechanic and fiction that's made me love PbtA anyway).

The later text is more important, because say then I made an enemy like:

Walking Tree. A tree that uproots itself, and whistles to kill victims. Made of wood, so they lose 1 Stamina when they suffer chopping attacks. If they're struck by flame, they start burning. [Insert other combat-important stats here].

Now the fact that the panabas can chop through trees interacts with the description of the walking tree being vulnerable to chopping attacks.

Now these really aren't too different from the concept of keywording (really they're in the same concept park), the different thing is two things:

You can now apply that chopping quality to anything in the fiction. Find some brambles on your way, maybe even brambles as hindering terrain? Then spend a Beat to attack it to remove it! That's fiction first after all

It's easier to understand just at first glance with just natural language.

The important part here is natural language. In Play, a lot of the time, my players love picking up on little things about lore-bites of the items and techniques they have and seeing how that can apply to the fiction. So this is more of that: weapons, items, techniques, armor all become things that establish fiction. When two fictions interact, a new fiction arises!

Burning: A status effect. While you're burning, lose 1 Stamina when you start your Break. You lose burning when you're doused by water or you take time to remove it. Improvise: (A basic action). Do anything that does not inherently harm, as long as it makes sense in the fiction, and doesn't take more than 4 seconds to do (Beats take up 4 seconds). You can use this to stop drop and roll to get rid of Burning. Deep Water. -1 Elevation. Water reaches up to your shoulders. Moving into deep water costs +1 Speed.

Of course there's still going to be mechanical descriptions there, we're not going for FKR full just fiction thing. We're just blending fiction into the game part. Even PbtA still has stats and rolling and mechanics to further support their fiction.

I wanted to write this so that techniques and other widgets can be written with fictional wording in mind, and that wording would affect how its used in tactical grid combat. A technique that says: "You are surrounded by a barrier of tornado-force winds. Any attack from outside your adjacency is swept away, unless it cannot be buffeted by winds." Becomes a mechanical thing: perhaps a spell of concentrated curses pierces through this, but not arrows or weak fireballs?

The Arbiter

The last piece of the puzzle will almost always be: who arbitrates the fiction? There almost always needs to be a final word. For GuBa, this is the Umalagad, not so impartial arbiter. For Solo Play, this is still the Umalagad, but as the oracle: they ask a question, ie, "Would this area of effect attack be buffeted by the wind barrier if the origin point starts from outside?" and they would roll a d10. On a 6+, the answer is no, the target would not be buffeted because the flames overwhelm. On a 5-, the answer would be yes, it is buffeted because the target is not the brunt of the attack. And the final answer becomes the ruling for the rest of that scene.

Last last thing is this particular rule that sets things down that I might put into Gubat Banwa:

The Law of Phenomenon Pay close attention to the words that you have. These words will decide whether your blade can chop down a tree, or your abaka weave blunts edged strikes, but susceptible to piercing spears. These words will decide whether your dazzling spell can daze opponents, or if the opponent you fight ignores it due to them not depending on their senses to fight. The words establish the fiction. The fiction is the world in which your characters live: follow it always.

[the-chaotic-snek]

the amount of seratonin that hearing Memories and Dreams from sally face ives me SHOULD BE ILLEGAL.

[anton-luvr]

reading riize's weverse comments and posts are so cute its like we're besties sharing with each other what we did today <3 (im delusional)

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

I don't think I've ever really cared about shipping in my life. I'm generally just cool to go with the flow. If something is written well or drawn well then I'm for it.

But I will say. The DC writers trying to push Jon/Irey and Damian/Irey tire me. I am not impressed with the dynamics going on there and the idea of Irey being in the middle of a love triangle is contrived and upsetting.

I felt safe before because Irey is 9, Jon is an adult with a boyfriend and Damian is a teenager. DC wouldn't let that happen. I knew the shipping going on behind the scenes but everything was fine. It couldn't happen.

But then we got alt universe Supersons. The same age as Irey. And Irey blushing at them.

Suddenly everything was very much not okay.

Again, I'm generally cool with whatever but I'm putting my fucking foot down at this one.

No.

I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD.

NO.

[sidewalk-scrawls]

Fellow game devs who are fleeing Unity, what are your thoughts on Godot vs Unreal for making 2D games? I know Unreal is pretty over-powered for most 2D development, but given I'm used to Unity, how is Godot feature-wise? Are there any features it's noticeably lacking?

[marathedemonoverlord]

So just finished Lesson 17.... I'm sort of indifferent to the story but maybe now we're actually getting plot?

Kinda obsessed with Raphael and the cliffhanger left off makes me think we're getting content but we'll see. They might throw filler at us again this started strong but I'm getting unethused as it goes on (still gonna play it but the interest is dying are we going to address Nightbringer or drag it out for 3 Seasons so we NEVER go back to the future?)

Also I do feel bad for Solomon because I don't mean to neglect you Babes plot and my job as an attendant is forcing me back into the Stockholm Syndrome with them again I swear LOL (ಥ ͜ʖಥ)

[goodboytravis]

Awww, man, just thought about how awesome (/heartbreaking) Until Dawn style interrogation video endings would have been. Can you imagine??? All the different versions. Like Chris Hackett as sole survivor, for example, just breaking down. Or Travis if his entire family was killed? Laura if Max died?? Just Bobby’s statement in general (”Uh, my dad told me to stab him, so I did, why’re you askin’? Wait, I think I wasn’t supposed to say that... You should ask Travis, Travis knows what to say to cops, cause he’s a cop...”)???

[solradguy]

Ok I got the textures ripped for the Sol model, his sword, and the wanted poster Ky hangs up to get Sol's attention. It doesn't look like NinjaRipper was able to get the rigging for any of the models so Sol and Sin are both stuck in these weird poses. I might make a post on Reddit tomorrow to see if anyone on there's been able to get anything useful from this game or if they've run into the same issues I did with the static models and no rigging.

Some interesting details:

Sol's hair is all a solid part of his model but Sin is bald with his hair being a separate texture applied over it

That said, about 1/4th of Sol's texture file is just his hair. Ridiculous.

Sol has round pupils in this game and not slit pupils like he seems to sometimes in pre-Overture games

The ripper did not rip any of the assets from the enemy units on the first level. For whatever reason.

I wasn't able to get the DI Sol or sleeveless outfit Sol models tonight because of how the ripper works; it only rips assets that are being loaded by the game at that moment. So, to get them, I'll have to play Overture until a point where they load in. Izuna is another model I'd like to rip too. A project for another day.

[matchawhippedcreamlatte]

tagged by the wonderful @softwarmlight​! <3333

tagging @breadgrl​ @mhtyr​ @sadspicychilli​ @candlesoul​ @diospyros​ and anyone else that would like to participate (only if you would like to)

[nerice]

So what is court of the dragon about?

!!!!!!!!!!!!! court of the dragon is the noah/damia dynamic tag!! as well as refers to their death match at the end of dream game >:3!!

wanted to draw fresh art for the occasion but i'm low on wrist stamina so oc site icons are all i got ;w; the title is pulled from this trivium song which i am profoundly normal abt,,,,,

in spite of all the hate behind these eyes, i've seen that only one of us survives; i'm here to destroy you, i'm here to avenge, in the court of the dragon i descend....

^yeah. _(:3」∠)_

the tl;dr is that together they make up the true ruler of issei (a world that's 80% ocean) and they're stuck in their underwater lair bc they are not immortal enough to brave the water pressure. reina offered to bestow portal powers onto one of them, in exchange for aiding her in the war against azra. damia refused to condemn noah to a solitary life at the bottom of the ocean; noah accepted :) fwiw he had good intentions, utilizing their bond (bone rings forged from each other's ribs, which lets them see through the other's eyes) to show damia the outside world they always dreamed of !

oh also points of clarification, noah's natural form is that of a black dragon (he only gains a human form as another favor from reina after the war) and damia's pronouns are whatever/works. ww

noah genuinely planned on returning 2 damia after the war, but he keeps finding excuses (mastering a human form, hunting down maheloas, settling the score with garvith, being leah's bodyguard, atoning for displacing lucie into another world (issei, no less) chaperoning linn) a million sidetracks until the weight of responsibility and guilt slowly breaks him </3 and by the time he n damia reunite in dream game they are both changed beyond recognition in their own respective ways. (damia, for their part, LOATHES noah's human form bc without meaning to he made it to resemble damia's original body which damia spent centuries ship-of-theuseus'ing himself out of) + ofc never having forgiven noah for leaving, but also taking him back without question or judgment <3 complicated.

Court of the Dragon proper is their final endgame, after noah loses his human form when reina turns statue & damia bars the rest of the main group's way into the 3rd world cycle, meaning to chain them to dead world space alongside herself. ((taking linnea out in one shot, just btw. ask me abt vengeful girls trio next ;3c)) which ends in noah+damia having a grand showdown inside their lair [ open mouth / swallowing the king / gods devoured whole / light extinguishing.... ] and that's the end of it. or is it? >:^)

& ANWY THE REASON. why that cap is so funny for them is that damia, at the end of the day, is such a sensitive little bastard i love tagging them in shoujo caps. all he wants is to be with noah (more complicated than romance, though kissing is a great way to establish dominance. lol <3) they're extremely messy and complicated and full of hypocrisy! noah is even more annoying than jumie when it comes to loyalty concepts & damia knows exactly what she wants except she doesn't ww

[drbtinglecannon]

Why did my cat have to be allergic to the most common ingredient in all cat food (chicken) and why did it also have to be his most favorite thing in the world

He doesn't understand that not giving him his favorite numnum is for his own good, and he also doesn't understand that when he manages to steal some of his brother's food (who REFUSES to change food to something they can both eat to avoid this goddamn issue because fuck me) and he gets itchy and has catbox issues that it's a direct correlation to eating his favorite numnum (chicken) (which he is allergic to)

[astrxealis]

one day it'll be crazy if i meet someone irl who actually likes and plays ffxiv before meeting me