#Cornerstone RPG

[kaznaths-thoughts]

I don’t know what to call Rothbard and Gazpus’ magic system other than "mnemonic." It relies on you remembering the spell at hand and employs rhyme in order to achieve that end. Mnemonic magic makes sense when surveying Rothbard and Gazpus’ entire philosophy. It is also quite unique in the TTRPG space. It does have its competitors though, and they have their own benefits and drawbacks.

Vancian magic is most common due to Dungeons & Dragons’ popularizing of the system. You have prepared spells with a certain number of spells you are allowed to cast per-day, materialized as spell-slots. Its benefit is its clearly defined perimeters, its limitation of spells which can be presently used, and its openness with regard to selection of spells. The drawbacks, on the other hand, are philosophic in some sense. What, in fiction, does the spell slot mean? What, in the fiction, is the explanation for the limitation of the spell slot and not individual spell use [which more aligns with Jack Vance’s use of magic]? And why in fiction do spell slots reset after use if magic is something outside of the caster being tapped into? It is hard to philosophically justify, though it creates a good systemic balance for spellcasting characters and their non-spellcasting compatriots/enemies. 

Psionic magic has become more popular post-3e Dungeons & Dragons and is often used in place of Vancian magic. Psionic magic is any system which uses a resource-like token or point system in which points are expended for use of magic. Skill, of course, defines how many points a character may have or expend. In fiction, this makes good sense - magic is a resource that can be expended and recharged like a form of energy in a person. However, mechanically it can be quite frustrating. This is true of all of D&D’s magic systems - magic users are often weaker than everyone else in every other area, so when their magic is expended, the character becomes rather useless and this can be frustrating to the player. 

"Allomancy" or "resource magic" is another form of magic, which sees far less use, and in some ways for obvious reasons. Allomantic magic relies on the player’s use or expending of a physical resource like metal or clay or some other good [see Sanderson’s Mistborn & World of Dungeons], and was meagerly incorporated into Dark Sun as a part of a pseudo-Vancian “Defiling Magic”. In essence, if you run out of the resource, you run out of magic. This lacks favor because it involves an intentional management of inventory, something which most players and Storytellers dislike. For this reason, it is often incorporated into a system, rather than being allowed to stand on its own - Dungeons & Dragons, as noted, has flirted continuously with Allomantic magic, even in use of the modern “spell components”. 

Lastly, one magical alternative is Eugenic magic. Eugenic magic is magic which is innate to a character due to their family genetics. Magic in this system is an inherited trait. This sees use in fictions like Harry Potter, Dune, and Star Wars; and in TTRPG’s through the influence of “Kids on Bikes”. Eugenic magic usually makes magic one of the defined stats of the player’s character - like Charisma and Strength. In “Kids on Bikes”, they use the “Weird” stat; other systems like “the Window”, “ Cornerstone”, and “Stormbringer” use it in this manner, substituting their own term. This is often the preferred method for those who either don’t like Vancian/Psionic magic or who often are on the receiving end of magical damage within a game. There is a sense of “leveling the playing field”  when magic becomes a stat like Strength or Charisma. It has its mechanical problems of course, such as how does one determine what spell effect takes place when using a “spell check” and how extreme the effect is allowed to be. If it is the Storyteller/Dungeon Master, it lies squarely outside the user’s control and this can be extremely irritating to players. And there are some notable philosophic problems with the system and its effect on the story; essentially some characters are just genetically more special than others in one way or another that gives advantage. A world of Eugenic magic is a world of hard-fast genetic traits, where genes can determine one’s abilities to do this or that, which is fine if the Storyteller and players are willing to reckon with that as a reality in their world. But they cannot simply ignore it. 

Sword & Backpack’s Mnemonic System is great because it places magic firmly in the hands of the player. It is a do-or-do-not way of doing things. Outside of combat, it acts like any other trait though a bit more complicated in execution. Which is fair, because magic is not a trait, but something else entirely. In combat, it can be dispelled by a spellcaster though; avoiding its effects is then equally in the hands of players. Its use and consequences in combat therefore, remain fairly balanced while distinct. It also makes the firm statement that magic is not a sword and a sword is not magic, while still balancing its use in combat such that it is not an automatic success. Furthermore, Mnemonic magic can be picked up by anyone throughout the game, as Rothbard and Gazpus note; a Wizard is only a Wizard because his character is devoted to magic, he can learn fighting and fighters can learn magic as well. Its downside, of course, is its complexity for the player and its lack of limitation in use. For a Storyteller, a spell that can be used as many times as the player wants can feel unfair and counterbalancing it feels equally unfair to players. 

So what system is best? My Thought is that it entirely depends on the sort of story you want to tell and the sort of players you have at the table. If your players hate memorizing things or struggle quite a lot with doing so, Vancian or Psionic magic may be better. But if they hate stats and figures, and keeping track of rests and so on, it may be better to employ Eugenic magic with an openness to what they choose to try to do. 

Story-wise, one should consider how the magic is going to shape and effect play, as well as the world you are playing in. A Vancian world of knowledge is different from a Mnemonic and experiential one. Both are different from a Psionic world, and a Psionic world is different from a Eugenic one. How we treat magic as a fact of our universe unfortunately has major ramifications for how our whole world functions as a result. So pick carefully; and make sure your players are onboard.

[tabletopalypsepod]

Sometimes in life you have important questions to answer. And sometimes you have questions like: what happens when I try to talk to an incorporeal carrot?

[sugar-spice-and-everything-dice]

So of the (current) four remaining systems on my "check out" list, here's where we're at:

Genesys - looks cool and I think it would be worth getting even if it's not right for a campaign system switch; found a detailed review that I'm in the process of (re-)reading, but so far I'm intrigued by the mechanics and success/failure thresholds; unfortunately the review also mentions that there aren't many actual tools for making stuff, it's focused more on rules and aesthetic and then goes "the GM can make up the other stuff"

Cypher - haven't found a ton of info on it, and mostly only in the context of Numenéra, but I'm leaning away from it based on what I have found; it seems too simple and maybe I need to watch some actual play for it or something, but I'm not fully on board with it (yet)

Pathfinder 2e - this has been on and off the list a few times; frequently-recommended as better than dnd 5e, but also seems very close in concept and I'm not sure if that's really what I want; I have also heard that it is either less crunchy or more crunchy than dnd so. hm. what's the truth

ICON - saw a post on this a few hours ago and was intrigued; haven't looked into it at all yet but the post was convincing enough (and had a link, thank god); seems like it's still in the playtest stage at this point? it's still fantasy genre, but has a detailed RP system separate from its (also-detailed) combat system, so at the very least it could have some good stuff for a franken-system...

Obviously I am still open to suggestions for a system that fits a long-term, high-magic, low(ish)-combat, science-fantasy homebrew campaign, if anyone's got them.

Sidenote: I feel like (of the ones I've looked into) ttrpg design tends to see "customizable" or "flexible" and goes "oh, then we'll leave it vague and up to the GM to decide what they want" when that's. not really it? I don't want abstraction, I want a toolset. Give me options of things that will fit into this system and let me build from there. I want Legos, not clay.

[prokopetz]

I don't think every sword and sorcery fantasy RPG needs D&D-style mimics, but I do think there's value in having something that's incongruously carnivorous, just to keep players on their toes. Pack-hunting rabbits that swarm their prey. Ambush predator sheep. Yes, monsters you can have stupid arguments with are a cornerstone of the genre, but sometimes you've just got to hit 'em with some seemingly innocuous critter which uncomplicatedly wants to eat faces.

[vintagerpg]

Ah, here we go now. This is Dungeoneer (1989) by Marc Gascoigne and Pete Tamlyn, with lovely art by the legendary John Sibbick on the cover and throughout the interior. Dungeoneer is the cornerstone of Advanced Fighting Fantasy which, despite the name (which really serves to distinguish from yesterday’s post and the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks rather than the game’s inherent complexity), is an excellent introductory RPG. It also provides the basic mechanical framework for the highly weird modern RPG, Troika.

So you get the standard three FF attributes: skill, stamina and luck. You get special skills, specializations basically, that augment regular skill rolls. You get a magic skill that runs on stamina (health) to cast spells with (love that) (I could swear there was an arcane misfire table in here too, but if there is, I can’t currently find it). You get opposed rolls for combat (combat against multiple foes is…tedious). The broad category of other stuff, like jumping and poison, that was sort of handwaved in the previous FF RPG are here, accompanied with robust situational modifier charts that…are probably a slight over correction. Oh, dwarves and elves are playable too. There is guidance for experience and advancement, character downtime and a nice general primer on how to run and play these sorts of games. It is pretty robust!

Oh, and two adventures, the first a pretty good if actually physically linear dungeon crawl and the second a more open-ended city scenario set in Port Blacksand. I like the city stuff in that one, but its dungeon bit is a little rough around the edges.

What is not at all rough is the treasure trove of John Sibbick art. A feast for your eyes!

[open-hearth-rpg]

Ludography: Great RPG Mechanics #RPGMechanics: Week Nine

Continuing on with this week of meta-elements, I want to talk about ttrpgs and history. In the 21st Century, Old School Renaissance games would focus on the "Appendix N." As Dungeon Crawl Classics tells it, “Appendix N is the list of books that inspired Gary Gygax to create D&D. This bibliography first appeared as an appendix in the AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide—specifically, Appendix N—which is why the list is known by that name...The books in Appendix N are a who’s-who of classic fantasy, sci-fi, and sword-and-sorcery fiction.” See this Goodman Games page here.  

That’s a useful read for non-game sources. These dtories show where Gygax got the inspiration which helped him reshape the material he and Arneson had developed. If you want to bore down to the absolute specifics, Jon Peterson’s Playing at the World, hunts down many of the specific fictional sources and how they impacted design choices and art. 

Peterson’s work is a real ludography, pulling together the various game design streams existing at the time and showing how they provided a foundation for what would become role-playing games. He analyzes the importance of Kriegspiel, play-by-post Diplomacy, and more to the community which would eventually arise. Is it useful for playing D&D (and its descendants)? Probably not unless you’re fetishizing originalism in ttrpg play.  

But when I’m looking through a game, I appreciate when the designer spends time talking about their game sources. A bibliography is great– telling me the movies, comics, and novels which inspired the game helps. It helps center me on what the designer feels is the tone and genre we’re going to be engaging in. I can read the rules through the lens of those tropes– and I can often find something new to read. Sometimes it will tell me that a game isn’t really for me– or that the expectation set by the blurb isn’t quite what the game actually aims for. 

But a ludography, a list of games (ttrpg and otherwise), is also really interesting to me. By this point there’s a huge body of work out there– some of it completely vanished. I appreciate these kinds of lists for three reasons. First, seeing what kinds of games the designer feels have operated in similar spaces. A game which cites Monster of the Week and Buffy: The Roleplaying Game, but not Hunter the Reckoning tells me something about the expected play.   

Second, it can offer an acknowledgment of other games. If your rpg is about vampiric lives, power-plays, and coteries, ignoring the legacy of Vampire & World of Darkness feels a little disingenuous and a 1990s/2000s. By that I mean the host of copycat games where designers would deny any inspiration or influence from earlier rpgs. It was weird but I remember it happening more times than I would have expected. I also like this citation better than bashing other games (something we see less of these days in blurb text). 

Third, it can give me a sense of the mechanical evolution of your game. It shows what kinds of systems it might draw on or the designer might have seen. That’s particularly useful for games building on a core system like Powered by the Apocalypse or Forged in the Dark. That can offer some context for the system choices. The “Gratitude” page at the back of Apocalypse Keys does a dynamite job of this. Though I can’t find it right now, Marshall Miller for a long time was doing meta-work with this– asking PbtA designers about their sources and inspirations. The +1 Forward Podcast also made this a cornerstone of their work. 

But there’s another kind of tangential ludography I want to talk about, more important to me than these earlier forms. The “what’s different?” entry in ttrpg books. If I’m reading a second, revised, accelerated, or whatever version of a game: tell me what has changed. Reference the earlier game and talk about the design choices you’ve made. If it is just about adding in lore or expanding the timeline, that’s fine. But tell me so I’m not hunting through for the mechanical differences. Clearly the designer and/or publisher had some reasons for needing a new edition. They should be proud of those– and make clear how substantial they are. And if it is just a 1.5 with some errata corrections, they should be willing to say that. Buyers shouldn't feel like they’ve been tricked. Honestly when I see a new edition or version, this is the first thing I look for. 

The other version of “what’s different?” comes from games working with an established system or OGL. If you are writing a PbtA or FitD game, it's super helpful to me as a reader if you tell me how your version of the system varies from the “core” or at least the typical version. This doesn’t have to be exhaustive, but I think it is important. If your game doesn’t have stats, does away with stress, inverts the rolling, etc. If I’m coming in with some system expectations from having played these kinds of games before, what should I be looking out for? I put two pages talking about this early on in Hearts of Wulin. Again, it is something I look for when I’m checking out new games. 

(h/t to Evan Torner who has talked about the importance of ludographies before).

[pomrania]

Bernie's Gods (working title)

"2. the god of war died in a bizarre trebuchet accident several decades previously; a coalition of other gods have been playing Weekend at Bernie’s with their priesthood ever since, doing their best to answer their prayers with variable plausibility and success." ~ @prokopetz, "Standard fantasy RPG pantheon, except"

This is just me getting my thoughts written down and out there; actual presentation will come later.

The base concept is that you play as the gods who are "filling in" for the dead god, doing the best they can, within their own domains. Think "trying to do a job, with the tools and skills for a completely different job". There's no state of "failure" here, as the opinions of mortals don't matter; rather, it's judged on style by other gods.

By default, the dead god is the god of war, and the setting is somewhere between Mythological Ancient Greece and Fantasy Medieval Europe. If you're doing something different, that needs to be clarified at the beginning of play.

I'm writing this with the concept that there's no GM (which I'm pretty sure is workable as I've had the idea for working it, for a while), and also that nobody has a specific character they're playing (which I'm less sure about, but it's the cornerstone for the rest of the concept which came to me last night, and without it I wouldn't have a full game idea).

As the first or second thing to set up before the game, everyone writes down two things that the dead god is asked for or about. (Proper term is yet to come; something like prayer or petition or request. Also yet to come is stuff an talks about what kind of stuff that could be.) One of those things gets given to the person on their left, and the other gets given to the person on their right. This is what I'm doing instead of "having a GM"; the "problem setup" is distributed; if you'd want to have a set GM, then just disregard this part.

As the second or first thing to set up before the game, work out what gods -- or more specifically, what domains -- will be active here, and write out a numbered list of them, such that one can easily be selected randomly. (Yet to do: write up some examples.) My current thought is that there should be fewer of them, than there are people playing the game, but that's subject to change upon examination.

So, at the start, once things have been set up, there's a list of the involved domains that can be rolled on (or number-generated, but I'm just going to say "roll"), and everyone has two 'prompts' from two different people.

Play begins, and it's the same for each person's turn ('turn order' doesn't really matter so I'm not going to get into it here). You look at the written thingers you were given, and pick one (or pick the remaining one if you've only one left). That's the thing you have to do. Then you roll on the list to see which god you're acting as. ('God-selection' is done randomly and independently, which means there's a chance that not all of them will be acting the same number of times. This is… not quite 'intentional', but once I realized it I was like 'oh yeah this works, and I like it better than making sure it's equal'.) If you have questions about the 'request', you ask the person on the opposite side of you from where it came from; that is, the one who did NOT write it.

So you have the thing you need to respond to, and you have the domain your powers are in. Come up with how you're going to respond to it, given the stuff you have access to.

Here's the stuff I'm not so sure about; I mean I think it's a good idea, but I haven't had much time to turn it over in my head (I just got it last night before falling asleep) so I can't be sure. The other players then judge your idea based on three criteria (as follows), which determines the dice you have access to. By default, that's a d6 on each aspect, and I'm not sure if a tie should go to "default" or "non-default", but that's a problem for future write-ups of this thing.

Aspects to judge it on: a) does it directly respond to the thing you were given; b) does it involve your domain; c) does it feel like something the dead god would do, specifically that domain, plausibility. If your idea 'fits' an aspect, you get to roll a d8 instead of a d6; if it doesn't 'fit', you roll a d4. So like, if nobody had any strong feelings on what you were going to do, you'd roll 3d6; if it was all-around great or horrible you'd roll 3d8 or 3d4 respectively; and if some parts were good and other parts weren't so good, you'd roll three dice in various combinations of d4, d6, and d8. (This needs to be phrased better and also positioned better, because I think "what dice you might roll" should go ahead of "how you determine which dice to roll".)

Example. Let's say you were beseeched for victory in battle, and you're acting under the domain of "storm". You decide to send a lightning bolt to fry the enemy commander while they're in their tent. You are very much acting with the stuff you have as your domain (lightning bolt to the face), so that'd be one d8 from there; and it also very strongly and directly responds to the thing you were given ("lightning bolt to the face" is a pretty obvious message that someone up there doesn't want you to succeed), so that's another d8. However, it doesn't fit with what a god of war would do, there's no implication that it's "war" instead of "storms" that's mad at the enemy commander, so that's a d4. All total, you'd roll 2d8+d4.

Now, the dice themselves and what they mean. (Keep track of stuff from the results, but it's tracked per god, not per player.) Write down each Low; my current thought is that it's "each time you have either 1 or 2 showing as a result", but the numbers are still iffy so I'm putting it as Low instead of encoding a specific value. Note that the fewer sides a dice has, the greater your chance of getting a Low. This is considered the number of mess-ups that the god did. For the second thing to keep track of, I'm not so sure about this one, but I'm tentatively putting it as "the sum total of the dice rolled". So, if you were rolling 3d6 and your results were 1, 4, 6, you'd write down that you had one Low, and a sum total of 11.

Play would end once all the thingers have been used up, which here would be once everyone's gone twice. Look at the list of domains (where the results were tracked), and see which one has accumulated the most Lows; that god gets mocked for messing up so often. Then add up each sum total, and see who's accumulated the highest results throughout the game; that god gets praised for doing a good job. It's very possible for those to be the same god, because that's the one who got rolled to act the most often; this is intentional. And because of the disconnect between 'player' and 'character', I don't feel bad about exposing a character to mockery.

So, stuff to do for future versions, aside from "make everything neat and clear":

come up with a name for the stuff that gets written at start of play, for things to do

write something up about what kinds of things the above would be, drawing from both fantasy gaming and literature, and my "I read an article on it once" knowledge of historical polytheism

list examples of domains

find a better way to phrase the aspects that an idea gets judged on; possibly write up a thing on voting for that

[rpgsocialservices]

RPG Review: Misao Definitive Edition

Ah, Misao. A cornerstone of 2010s rpgmaker games. Horror, parody, a genuinely fun vibe that is so derivative yet so distinctive and memorable. A remastered edition was published on Steam in 2017, and I'm here to go over the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Note: I am reviewing the remastered edition, not the 2011 edition; however part of the review will be comparing the two.

The Good:

The graphics on this game were probably the biggest upgrade from the original. It is still recognizably Misao, but the quality is clearer, the characters are more detailed and look like video game characters instead of dolls, and the backgrounds are simultaneously less cluttered and more detailed where it counts. Beyond that, there are the items to collect. I am, admittedly, ambivalent on the change from body parts to personal items, but it does provide a greater cohesion with the story. There are other minor changes (such as Aki hiding in a bear suit instead of a corpse), but nothing that detracted from overall experience. In fact, the updated game is well worth it for the increased detail and streamlined concepts.

I really enjoyed the differences between male and female Aki. Female Aki is the 'true' game experience, but playing male Aki highlights how unhinged the female version is. Like seriously, if you play the female version first and then the male (which is the best order) you feel like you just woke up the day after the purge. Male Aki is so normal compared to female Aki and it really comes off well both as two distinctive versions and as a humorous comparison. I played male Aki after playing female Aki and felt like a 22 year old coming to grips with the homoerotic friendship I had in school that was detrimental to my mental health. I felt like I had finished reading a manga about toxic yuri. I felt like watching Jennifer's Body. Female Aki is psychotic.

The Bad:

After talking about how great the new graphic are comparatively, this is going to feel kind of nitpicky. I actually think the older graphic lend a certain atmosphere that the new graphics don't quite capture. Don't get me wrong, there are certain elements I much appreciate, such as the floor tiles not being so busy and the character sprites not looking so wooden or having doll proportions. The rooms (if not the halls) themselves just look better. It's just that, despite all the demons and blood and general 'spooky' nonsense, I don't feel like I'm in an underworld demon realm like I did with the old graphics. It was a charm reminiscent of crt tvs and atari games that is becoming increasingly rare in modern game graphics.

The Ugly:

I hate the extra endings. Not the bad and true endings, but the after-game ending where you go save everyone from hell and help them reincarnate. Some were good, some were ok, but the teacher's story put such a bad taste in my mouth. For one, I was genuinely uninterested in his story or what made him decide to be a predator on his students. For two, honestly, this is a game that largely rests on being the video game equivalent of a bad haunted house. The teacher's story is the one element that doesn't fit the vibe of the rest of the game well, and that makes it stick out like a sore thumb. Honestly, I get what they were going for, but its clunky at best. I liked the entire rest of the game until this part which made me almost not play the male run.

Summary:

This is a fun game! Its not perfect, and personal preference will decide which version of the game you like best, but it absolutely holds up as a remake and is just as silly to play through as the other versions. There's a ton of theorizing to be done between this game, the earlier versions, and Mad Father (another game by the same dev which is referenced a lot in Misao). If I ever feel like playing all of those games back to back I might make my own list, but its fun to find what you can and come up with your own theories! Personally, my favorite part was collecting all the different ways to die like I was filling out my pokemon index, haha

[autisticempathydaemon]

Alright, let's do this, i guess

My ennagram is propably either 6w5 or 5w6 i'm not quit sure

I do watch a lot of video essays, too many to name any favorites, most of them about fiction/media analysis, a few channel examples being: cj the x, ragnarrox, lindsay ellis, ladyknightthebrave (though i've admittedly only seen her the haunting of hill house/bly manor videos), what's so great about that & hbomberguy (fuck tommy tallarico)

My favorite audio rn is probably "Your Chaotic Roommate Confesses His Feelings For You", for multiple reasons i probably can't get into in a post like this

In terms of who hold no appeal for me, mostly david but also vincent, he's just too idk clasically romantic for my tastes

Speaking of which, i'm generally not the most traditionally romantic person which sometimes makes me worried that i'm not affectionate enough/in the right way for people

I generally love horror and/or fantasy and/or mystery media of all types.

I used to watch a lot of rpg maker horror game lets plays during a generally rough time in my life (though i've still never played one of them myself) mostly the channel manlybadasshero and the german channel nesfatelp.

The professor layton series of puzzle/mystery games are a cornerstone of my child & and early teenagehood, the two with the spookiest athmospheres (the diabolical/pandoras box and spectres call) probably being my favorites if i had to choose. I also recently (finally) started getting into the ace attorny series.

In terms of platonic attraction: just the entire damn squad, including gavin.

I don't really have any guilty pleasure favorites i think, but for some reason i had this weird cheap dvd which was a fairy tale themed collection of german knock studio cartoon films as a kid. There where a few by this studio called dingo pictures (as i would later find out, here's the german wikipedia page since there isn't an english one: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingo_Pictures) on there including an alladin knock of (here's a clip of it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2u4h5STlXUc&pp=ygUVYWxhZGluIGRpbmdvIHBpY3R1cmVz)

It seems to be the same german animation team/studio as that film where the yeee dinosaur meme/clip comes from (this one:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q6EoRBvdVPQ&pp=ygUMeWVlIGRpbm9zYXVy)

Though the dino movie wasn't on the dvd, probably since it isn't fairytale themed, so i never saw that one as a kid.

And there also was a bambi knock of by dingo pictures called goldie that i even had as a seperate dvd of as well for some reason (here's a clip: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b_WNza6_Z2c&pp=ygUMR29sZGllIGJhbWJp) there also where films clearly made by other small studios on that dvd as well, it really was a weird mix.

And although i could even as a kid tell that these films were objectivly "bad" i still found some strange enjoyment and fascination in them at the time and looking up these clips gave me immense nostalgia, i even have to say i enjoyed goldie more than disney's bambi, simply because it was more intersting in it's strangeness while i found bambi always boring.

Well, there you go, hope that's enough/helpful

Addendum: As a kid i used to always just say my hobbies are reading and drawing/painting and while i still like these activities (and i still read a book every once in a while) it started to feel kind of dishonest since i haven't actually been doing these things as much anymore (especially drawing/painting, i really need to get back into that) so last year i started to get into new hobbies i had interested in trying for a while, like learning to play guitar as well as starting to do archery and now also wanting to get into general martial arts (i mean, i gotta get buff arms somehow, right)

Ooh, I like you. Type 5w6, the Troubleshooters, are such an interesting type, and you have fantastic taste in movies, interests, video essays, and games. You know who else would like you? Guy~!

The enneagram types you align with, plus the video essays and games you like, give me the vibe of someone really thoughtful and in their head, like Honey, and we all know what a fuckin great match they are with Guy. This also works because Honey doesn’t strike me as traditionally romantic or saccharine sappy either.

I’m imagining a really loving, lowkey in its intimacy kind of relationship, the kind that’s built on a companionable compatibility you two have. It’s lots of chill nights watching horror movies that he talks through non-stop, mystery movies where he always guesses the killer. Its trying new hobbies, sports, and classes together and getting adorably, lovingly competitive. It’s Guy being very cute but entirely unhelpful with the Professor Layton puzzles.

Song:

It's funny 'cause you drive me half insane/ A universe without you would be thoroughly mundane/ There's no one else I'd rather fall in love with/ And that is my best friend in the world

Yeah, I’ve just designated you Honey-kinnie, friends/roommates to lovers vibes, I hope you’re okay with that /lh Guy’s just the perfect guy (ha) for sneaking himself into your heart, you know? He’s there and silly and incorrigible and inexplicably charming, and then you can’t imagine home with him.

Runner-Ups:

Asher is a really cute choice for runner-up because he strikes me as a scaredy-cat who pretends to be tough, and I love to pair wimps with horror buffs. Ollie is also a good option because I think you, he, and Guy would like all the same things. That would be a really cute fucking friend group actually.

note: you have, again, excellent taste in video essays I highly recommend ladyknighttothebrave’s video about Sense8 it’s my favorite one about one of my favorite shows 💕 you’re also totally fine for sending in two asks, all input is helpful and valuable 💚

Read this post and send me an ask if you’d like a match-up of your own! 💌

[krawkpaladin]

Winning the Peace - Inspirations and Core Concepts

So, I've already posted about making a game for the first time, and to help organize some of my thoughts I'd figure I'd go through and explain what inspired this game idea narratively and mechanically, and a bit of delving into my ideas for the core systems in the game.

Narrative Inspirations

The idea from this game had always been kicking around in my skull since high school, after one evening when my parents brought home a DVD from the local library. That night, we watched the film Charlie Wilson's War, which is a highly fictionalized account of the book of the same name which talks about Operation Cyclone, or How the USA Managed To Destabilized Afghanistan For Decades To Stick It To the Soviets. While the film is generally uncritical of Operation Cyclone and the people involved in it, it does have a brief moment towards the end where Senator Wilson is shown trying to get funding to help rebuild Afghanistan, and because the Soviets have pulled out, so has any interest in funding. The narration goes "We won the war, but we lost the peace."

For whatever reason, that line stuck with teenage me. It was the first time I had ever heard that phrase as a teenager, and something about it was very compelling to me. After all, a lot of fiction just assumes that after the main conflict is over, things just sort of fix themselves (until the sequel, anyways). The story either ends with the audience safe in the knowledge that things will get better, or goes forwards to some distant denouement where the audience sees that yes, things did in fact work out.

Later, as I got more and more into the RPG space in college, I saw that in most games, the social/speaking component was not very involved. Of course, not everyone is an excellent orator when roleplaying, so it's a bit unfair to ask the bard to ad-lib their inspirational speech when they have a +12 on their sheet, but usually that was a few instances spread out between characters doing things. Not just combat, but feats of strength, adventuring, casting spells, unlocking chests, etc. There weren't very many heroes whose value lie primarily in their words in a lot of the early TTRPGs I encountered, those primarily being of the D&D and Shadowrun and Pathfinder variety.

To that end, I wanted to emulate stories that were more like Twelve Angry Men, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ikiru, and more recently A Memory Called Empire. The common thread that pulls all of these stories together in my mind is specifically that the protagonists are primarily speakers. None of them get deeply physically involved in the major issues in their stories. They accomplish their deeds through their words, their rhetoric, their ability to convince other people the right thing to do.

So with all that, I ultimately created the first idea of this game that I am calling Winning the Peace. A game where the players take on the roles of political figures in their city after its liberation from the Dark Lord. Where what they say and how they say it is what affects change, not how well they can swing a sword or cast a spell.

Mechanical Inspirations

I didn't really have the mechanical vocabulary to make this sort of game though until I was introduced to what I am going to call the mechanical cornerstones of the game: The Quiet Year and Free From the Yoke. Free From the Yoke has helped me to visualize and understand how to have the player characters and the people they represent (called Communities in the game text) interact, as well as how to construct them, and the Quiet Year forms the basis of how conflict is introduced into the game.

The Quiet Year is a cooperative storytelling game about a community that was forced to leave their homes and rebuild somewhere new. Using a deck of cards as prompts, players imagine their community and draw out important places and structures on a map, changing things as they go along and are prompted by the cards. There is tracking of projects, abundances and surpluses, and contempt within the singular community, but the game only ends when the Ace of Spades is drawn from the deck (and the deck is separated by suit, so you'll get through at least 3/4ths of the deck regardless). Still, this idea of the Oracle Deck, which is also cleverly used to delineate the passing of time, has hugely informed how Events that the players will have to vote on will be generated in the game.

Last year, at about this time, I had the opportunity to play in a game of Free From the Yoke. About one year later, we had finished the planned length of the game and I really enjoyed it. Free From the Yoke is based on Legacy: Life Among the Ruins from the same publisher, but instead of a weird post-apocalyptic future, takes place in a medieval Slavic land where the spirits of the Land are real and the people have just won their independence from the Empire. While the core concept of the separation between characters and houses is present in all of the Legacy games, one thing that really stuck with me in Free From the Yoke was the concept of quick characters, which are kind of minor PCs that can be made up on the spot so that you don't have to either wrangle all of the main PCs together for an adventure or just have a solo affair going on with one character. The primary construction of player characters (Representatives, in game terms) and Communities was primarily inspired by Free From the Yoke, and Representatives especially take more inspiration from quick characters instead of a full-playbook character. Ultimately, I do want more focus to be on the Communities than on the Representatives, as Representatives will come and go. Also, this is going to be a PbtA game, which Legacy games are also based on. So yeah.

The final thing I want to talk about is, well, kind of an anti-inspiration. If you're a fan of RTS games, you'll maybe be familiar with the term C&C-style economy. Named for the Command & Conquer series of games, a C&C economy is one in which the player has 100% control of all aspects of their base-building, construction, research, and pretty much anything else that affects the game. If you've ever played a 4X game like Civilization, you've engaged with a system like this. I want to avoid this in Winning the Peace. The idea that you can perfectly mold your Community does somewhat go against the core story tone I'm hoping to achieve, so while resolving events in certain ways (i.e. what is voted on) does directly affect Community stats, the Community moves are all reactive in nature and are not always positive. I want players to feel like they are controlling their Representative, but their Community is not necessarily something they can control, only act in it's best interests when possible. I'll get into this more when I discuss Community Moves in a later dev diary.

Thanks for reading everyone! If you are interested in keeping up with these, I will be tagging them as "Winning the Peace ttrpg dev diary" for easy searching. I'll try and get these out once a week until I submit for the game jam towards the end of the month.

Now that you've made it this far, here's a reward: my two cats, Baby (top) and Zuko (bottom), being totally adorable by the window.

[karamazovanon]

DUDE I still think about off an unreasonable amount for an obscure rpg that came out I think 15 years ago now?? like I forget it exists for a year or more and then I'm like damn. I should play it again. And then i do. I think I've played it maybe 4 times in English and once in the French before they patched it. Underrated cornerstone of modern existentialist/post-surrealist media if u ask me

THE OFF (GAME) TEENAGER TO CAMUS ENJOYER ADULT PIPELINE IS FUCKING REAL

[tabletopalypsepod]

Today we dropped our second trailer, offering a glimpse at the player characters in our game. We also have an official release date!

Episode 1 is dropping next week, November 10!

Because our campaign began a few sessions before we decided to begin recording, episode 1 will include a brief prologue to set the scene, and we will be dropping an additional bonus episode where our GM, Kessie, talks a little bit about the game system we use (Cornerstone Universal RPG) and the way we play.

After episode 1, we will be releasing new episodes every other Friday!

We've been working on this for a long time and we are delighted to finally get to share our chaos with you.

[officialambassadorfrisk]

Undertale is a 2015 2D role-playing video game created by American indie developer Toby Fox. The player controls a child who has fallen into the Underground: a large, secluded region under the surface of the Earth, separated by a magical barrier. The player meets various monsters during the journey back to the surface, although some monsters might engage the player in a fight. The combat system involves the player navigating through mini-bullet hell attacks by the opponent. They can opt to pacify or subdue monsters in order to spare them instead of killing them. These choices affect the game, with the dialogue, characters, and story changing based on outcomes.

Outside of artwork and character designs by Temmie Chang, Fox developed the entirety of the game by himself, including the script and music. The game took inspiration from several sources, including the Brandish, Mario & Luigi, and Mother role-playing game series, bullet hell shooter series Touhou Project, role-playing game Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, and British comedy show Mr. Bean. Originally, Undertale was meant to be two hours in length and was set to be released in mid-2014. However, development was delayed over the next three years.

The game was released for OS X and Windows in September 2015. It was also ported to Linux in July 2016, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in August 2017, the Nintendo Switch in September 2018, and Xbox One in March 2021. The game was acclaimed for its thematic material, intuitive combat system, musical score, originality, story, dialogue, and characters. The game sold over one million copies and was nominated for multiple accolades and awards. Several gaming publications and conventions listed Undertale as game of the year, and others have since listed it as one of the greatest video games. Two chapters of a related game, Deltarune, were released in 2018 and 2021.

Undertale is a role-playing game that uses a top-down perspective.[3] In the game, the player controls a child and completes objectives in order to progress through the story.[4] Players explore an underground world filled with towns and caves, and are required to solve numerous puzzles on their journey.[4][5] The underground world is the home of monsters, many of whom challenge the player in combat;[5] players decide whether to kill, flee, or befriend them.[4][6] Choices made by the player radically affect the plot and general progression of the game, with the player's morality acting as the cornerstone for the game's development.

When players encounter enemies in either scripted events or random encounters, they enter a battle mode. During battles, players control a small heart which represents their soul, and must avoid attacks unleashed by the opposing monster similar to a bullet hell shooter.[4][5] As the game progresses, new elements are introduced, such as colored obstacles, and boss battles which change the way players control the heart.[7] Players may choose to attack the enemy, which involves timed button presses. Killing enemies will cause the player to earn EXP (in turn increasing their LOVE) and gold.[8] They can use the ACT option to check an enemy's attacking and defending attributes as well as perform various other actions, which vary depending on the enemy.[4] If the player uses the right actions to respond to the enemy, or attacks them until they have low HP (but still alive), they can then choose to spare them and end the fight without killing them.[9] For some boss encounters to be completed peacefully, the player is required to survive until the character they are facing has finished their dialogue. The game features multiple story branches and endings depending on whether players choose to kill or spare their enemies; and as such, it is possible to clear the game without killing a single enemy.[10]

Monsters will talk to the player during the battle, and the game will tell the players what the monster's feelings and actions are.[11] Enemy attacks change based on how players interact with them: should players choose non-violent options, enemy attacks are easy, whereas they become less easy if players choose violent options.[5][11] The game relies on a number of metafictional elements in both its gameplay and story.[12] When players participate in a boss battle on a second playthrough, the dialogue will be altered depending on actions in previous playthroughs.[13]

Undertale is set in the Underground, a realm where monsters were banished after war broke out with humans, in the year 201X. The Underground is sealed from the surface by a magic barrier with a singular gap at Mount Ebott.[14] A human child falls into the Underground from Mount Ebott and encounters Flowey, a sentient flower who teaches the player the game's mechanics and encourages them to raise their "LV", or "LOVE", by gaining "EXP" through killing monsters.[d] When Flowey attempts to kill the human, the human is rescued by Toriel, a motherly goat-like monster, who teaches the human how to survive conflict in the Underground without killing. She intends to adopt the human, wanting to protect them from Asgore, the king of the Underground.

The human eventually leaves Toriel to search for Asgore's castle, which contains the barrier to the surface world. They encounter several monsters, such as the skeletons Sans and Papyrus, two brothers who act as sentries for the Snowdin forest; Undyne, the head of the royal guard; Alphys, the kingdom's royal scientist; and Mettaton, a robotic television host Alphys created. Most of the monsters are fought, with the human choosing whether to kill them or to spare and possibly befriend the monster. During their travels, the human learns that many years ago, Asriel, the son of Asgore and Toriel, befriended the first human who fell into the Underground. When the child abruptly died, Asriel used the child's soul to pass through the barrier, intending to return the body to the surface. The humans living there attacked and killed Asriel, causing a grieving Asgore to declare war on humans. In the present day, Asgore has collected six souls from fallen humans, of which he needs one more to destroy the barrier.

The game's ending depends on how the player handles encounters with monsters.[16][10][e] If the player completes a playthrough without killing any monsters (or killed some but not all of the monsters) they experience the "Neutral" ending. The human arrives at Asgore's castle and is forced to fight him. Sans stops the human before their confrontation, revealing that the human's "LOVE" and "EXP" are acronyms for "level of violence" and "execution points", respectively. Sans judges the human based on their accumulated "LOVE" and "EXP". The human then fights Asgore, but Flowey interrupts, killing Asgore and stealing the human souls. With the help of the souls, the human defeats Flowey and leaves the Underground. They then receive a phone call from Sans, detailing the state of the Underground after the human's departure.

If the player kills no monsters before completing a "Neutral" ending, they can reload their saved game to complete the "Pacifist" ending.[18][16] Flowey is revealed to be a reincarnation of Asriel accidentally created by Alphys's experiments. During the fight with Asgore, Toriel stops the battle and is joined by the other monsters the human befriended. Flowey ambushes the group, absorbing the souls of all the humans and monsters in order to take an older Asriel's form. During the ensuing fight, the human manages to connect with the souls of their friends, and eventually defeats Asriel: He reverts to his child form, destroys the barrier, and expresses remorse for his actions before leaving. The human falls unconscious and is awoken to see their friends surrounding them, each with the knowledge of the human's name: Frisk. The monsters peacefully reintegrate with the humans, while Frisk has the option of accepting Toriel as their adoptive mother.

A third ending known as the "No Mercy" or "Genocide" ensues if the player kills all the monsters.[13][18] When the player reaches Asgore's castle, Sans attempts to stop them, but fails and is slain. Flowey kills Asgore in an attempt to obtain mercy, but is killed by the player. Chara, the first fallen child, then appears and destroys the universe. To enable further replays of the game, the player must give their soul to Chara, restoring the universe and causing a permanent alteration to the Pacifist ending.

Undertale was developed by Toby Fox across 32 months.[19] Development was financed through a crowdfunding campaign on the website Kickstarter. The campaign was launched on June 25, 2013 with a goal of US$5,000; it ended on July 25, 2013, with US$51,124 raised by 2,398 people.[20] Undertale's creation ensued after Fox created a battle system using the game creation system GameMaker: Studio.[21] He wanted to develop a role-playing game that was different from the traditional design, which he often found "boring to play".[22] He set out to develop a game with "interesting characters", and that "utilizes the medium as a storytelling device ... instead of having the story and gameplay abstractions be completely separate".[22]

Fox worked on the entire game independently, besides some of the art; he decided to work independently to avoid relying on others.[19] Fox had little experience with game development; he and his three brothers often used RPG Maker 2000 to make role-playing games, though few were ever completed. Fox also worked on several EarthBound ROM hacks while in high school.[22] Temmie Chang worked as the main artist for the game, providing most of the sprites and concept art.[23][24] Fox has said that the game's art style would likely remain the same if he had access to a larger team of artists. He found that "there's a psychological thread that says audiences become more attached to characters drawn simply rather than in detail", particularly benefiting from the use of visual gags within the art.[25]

Game design

The defensive segment within the battle system was inspired by the Mario & Luigi series, as well as bullet hell shooters such as the Touhou Project series.[26] When working on the battle system, Fox set out to create a mechanic that he would personally enjoy.[27] He wanted Undertale to have a battle system equally engaging as Super Mario RPG (1996) and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (2003). Fox did not want grinding to be necessary at any point in the game, instead leaving it optional to players. He also did not wish to introduce fetch quests, as they involve backtracking, which he dislikes.[19] In terms of the game's difficulty, Fox ensured that it was easy and enjoyable. He asked some friends who are inexperienced with bullet hell shooters to test the game, and found that they were able to complete it. He felt that the game's difficulty is optimal, particularly considering the complications involved in adding another difficulty setting.[28]

The game's dialogue system was inspired by Shin Megami Tensei (1992),[26] particularly the gameplay mechanic whereby players can talk to monsters to avoid conflict. Fox intended to expand upon this mechanic, as failing to negotiate resulted in a requirement to fight. "I want to create a system that satisfied my urge for talking to monsters," he said.[5] When he began developing this mechanic, the concept of completing the game without killing any enemies "just evolved naturally".[29] However, he never considered removing the option to fight throughout development.[29] When questioned on the difficulty of playing the game without killing, Fox responded that it is "the crux of one of the major themes of this game", asking players to think about it themselves.[29] Despite not having played it, Fox was inspired by the concepts of Moon: Remix RPG Adventure (1997), which involved the player repairing the damage of the "Hero" and increasing their "Love Level" by helping people instead of hurting them.[30]

Writing

According to Fox, the "idea of being trapped in an underground world" was inspired by the video game Brandish.[24] Fox was partly influenced by the silliness of internet culture, as well as comedy shows like Mr. Bean.[19]: 1:27:30  He was also inspired by the unsettling atmosphere of EarthBound.[19] Fox's desire to "subvert concepts that go unquestioned in many games" further influenced Undertale's development.[29] Fox found that the writing became easier after establishing a character's voice and mood. He also felt that creating the world was a natural process, as it expressed the stories of those within it.[25] Fox felt the importance to make the game's monsters "feel like an individual".[26] He cited the Final Fantasy series as the opposite; "all monsters in RPGs like Final Fantasy are the same ... there's no meaning to that".[26]

The character of Toriel, who is one of the first to appear in the game, was created as a parody of tutorial characters. Fox strongly disliked the use of the companion character Fi in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, in which the answers to puzzles were often revealed early. Fox also felt that role-playing video games generally lack mother characters; in the Pokémon series, as well as Mother and EarthBound, Fox felt that the mothers are used as "symbols rather than characters".[22] In response, Fox intended for Toriel's character to be "a mom that hopefully acts like a mom", and "genuinely cares" about players' actions.[22]

Papyrus and Sans are named after the typeface fonts, Papyrus and Comic Sans, and their in-game dialogue is displayed accordingly in their respective eponymous fonts.[31] Both characters are listed in the game's credits as being inspired by J.N. Wiedle, author of Helvetica, a webcomic series about a skeleton named after the font of the same name. Papyrus in particular was conceived as a sketch in Fox's notebook; he was originally a mean spirited character named "Times New Roman" who wears a fedora.[32]

The game's soundtrack was entirely composed by Fox with FL Studio.[35] A self-taught musician, he composed most of the tracks with little iteration; the game's main theme, "Undertale", was the only song to undergo multiple iterations in development. The soundtrack was inspired by music from Super NES role-playing games,[19] such as EarthBound,[36] bullet hell series Touhou Project,[37] as well as the webcomic Homestuck, for which Fox provided some of the music.[19] Fox also stated that he tries to be inspired by all music he listens to,[27] particularly those in video games.[36] According to Fox, over 90% of the songs were composed specifically for the game.[21] "Megalovania", the song used during the boss battle with Sans, had previously been used within Homestuck and in one of Fox's EarthBound ROM hacks.[34][38] For each section of the game, Fox composed the music prior to programming, as it helped "decide how the scene should go".[21] He initially tried using a music tracker to compose the soundtrack, but found it difficult to use. He ultimately decided to play segments of the music separately, and connect them on a track.[36] To celebrate the first anniversary of the game, Fox released five unused musical works on his blog in 2016.[39] Four of the game's songs were released as official downloadable content for the Steam version of Taito's Groove Coaster.[38]

Undertale's soundtrack has been well received by critics as part of the success of the game, in particular for its use of various leitmotifs for the various characters used throughout various tracks.[40][41] In particular, "Hopes and Dreams", the boss theme when fighting Asriel in the Pacifist run, brings back most of the main character themes, and is "a perfect way to cap off your journey", according to USgamer's Nadia Oxford.[34] Oxford notes this track in particular demonstrates Fox's ability at "turning old songs into completely new experiences", used throughout the game's soundtrack.[34] Tyler Hicks of GameSpot compared the music to "bit-based melodies".[42]

The Undertale soundtrack had frequently been covered by various styles and groups. As part of the fifth anniversary of the game, Fox streamed footage with permission of a 2019 concert of the Undertale songs performed by Music Engine, an orchestra group in Japan, with support of Fangamer and 8-4.[43]

The game was released on September 15, 2015, for OS X and Windows,[44] and on July 17, 2016, for Linux.[45] Fox expressed interest in releasing Undertale on other platforms, but was initially unable to port it to Nintendo platforms without reprogramming the game due to the engine's lack of support for these platforms.[19] A patch was released in January 2016, fixing bugs and altering the appearance of blue attacks to help colorblind players see them better.[46]

Sony Interactive Entertainment announced during E3 2017 that Undertale would get a release for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, a Japanese localization, and a retail version published by Fangamer. These versions were released on August 15, 2017.[47][48][49]

A Nintendo Switch version was revealed during a March 2018 Nintendo Direct, though no release date was given at the time;[50][51] Undertale's release on Switch highlighted a deal made between Nintendo and YoYo Games to allow users of GameMaker Studio 2 to directly export their games to the Switch.[52] The Switch version was released on September 15, 2018, in Japan,[53] and on September 18, 2018, worldwide.[54] All the console ports were developed and published by Japanese localizer 8-4 in all regions.[1][2]

The Xbox One version was released on March 16, 2021. As with the PlayStation 4 and Switch versions, the Xbox One version features unique content specific to that platform.[55]

Other Undertale media and merchandise have been released, including toy figurines and plush toys based on characters from the game.[56] The game's official soundtrack, Undertale Soundtrack, was released by video game music label Materia Collective in 2015, simultaneously with the game's release.[57] Additionally, two official Undertale cover albums have been released: the 2015 metal/electronic album Determination by RichaadEB and Amie Waters,[58][59] and the 2016 jazz album Live at Grillby's by Carlos Eiene, better known as insaneintherainmusic.[60] Another album of jazz duets based on Undertale's songs, Prescription for Sleep, was performed and released in 2016 by saxophonist Norihiko Hibino and pianist Ayaki Sato.[61] A 2xLP vinyl edition of the Undertale soundtrack, produced by iam8bit, was also released in the same year.[62] Two official UNDERTALE Piano Collections sheet music books and digital albums, arranged by David Peacock and performed by Augustine Mayuga Gonzales, were released in 2017 and 2018[63][64] by Materia Collective. A Mii Fighter costume based on Sans was made available for download in the crossover title Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in September 2019, marking the character's official debut as a 3D model. This costume also adds a new arrangement of "Megalovania" by Fox as a music track.[65] Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai noted that Sans was a popular request to appear in the game.[66] Music from Undertale was also added to Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun! as downloadable content.[67]

Deltarune

Main article: Deltarune

After previously teasing something Undertale-related a day earlier, Fox released the first chapter of Deltarune on October 31, 2018, for Windows and macOS for free.[68] Deltarune is "not the world of Undertale", according to Fox, though characters and settings may bring some of Undertale's world to mind,[69] and is "intended for people who have completed Undertale";[70] the name Deltarune is an anagram of Undertale.[71] Fox stated that this release is the first part of a new project, considering it a "survey program" to determine the project's future direction.[71] Fox clarified that Deltarune will be a larger project than Undertale, stating it took him a few years to create the game's first chapter, much longer than it took him to complete the Undertale demo.

Chapter 2 of Deltarune was released on September 17, 2021, after Fox acquired a team to help him with further development.[72][73] Once all chapters are complete, the game will be released as a complete whole; Fox stated that he does not have an anticipated timetable for completion.[71][69] Deltarune is planned to have only one ending, regardless of what choices the player makes in the game.[69] Although the first two chapters were released at no cost, Fox plans to charge players for the finished release.[73]

Undertale received critical acclaim, and was quickly considered a cult classic by numerous publications.[82][83] Review aggregator Metacritic calculated an average score of 92 out of 100, based on 43 reviews.[74] Metacritic ranks the game the third-highest rated Windows game released in 2015,[74] and among the top 50 of all time.[84] Praise was particularly directed at the game's writing, unique characters, and combat system. GameSpot's Tyler Hicks declared it "one of the most progressive and innovative RPGs to come in a long time",[42] and IGN's Kallie Plagge called it "a masterfully crafted experience".[17] By the end of 2015, in a preliminary report by Steam Spy, Undertale was one of the best-selling games on Steam, with 530,343 copies sold.[85] By early February 2016, the game surpassed one million sales,[86] and by July 2018, the game had an estimated total of three and a half million players on Steam.[87] Japanese digital PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita sales surpassed 100,000 copies sold by February 2018.[88]

Daniel Tack of Game Informer called the game's combat system "incredibly nuanced", commenting on the uniqueness of each enemy encounter.[79] Giant Bomb's Austin Walker praised the complexity of the combat, commenting that it is "unconventional, clever, and occasionally really difficult".[78] Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of The Escapist commended the game's ability to blend turn-based and live combat elements.[89] IGN's Plagge praised the ability to avoid combat, opting for friendly conversations instead.[17] Jesse Singal of The Boston Globe found the game's ability to make the player empathize with the monsters during combat if they opted for non-violent actions was "indicative of the broader, fundamental sweetness at the core" of Undertale.[90]

Reviewers praised the game's writing and narrative, with IGN's Plagge calling it "excellent".[17] The Escapist's Croshaw considered Undertale the best-written game of 2015, writing that it "is on the one hand hilarious... and is also, by the end, rather heartfelt".[89] Destructoid's Ben Davis praised the game's characters and use of comedy, and compared its tone, characters, and storytelling to Cave Story (2004).[4] PC Gamer's Richard Cobbett provided similar comments, writing that "even its weaker moments... just about work".[80] Undertale's absurd humor attracted praise; Game Rant found the Annoying Dog's frequent interruptions a standout,[91] and Kill Screen considered absurdity a signature quality of Fox's humor.[25]

The game's visuals received mixed reactions. Giant Bomb's Walker called it "simple, but communicative".[78] IGN's Plagge wrote that the game "isn't always pretty" and "often ugly", but felt that the music and animations compensate.[17] The Escapist's Croshaw remarked that "it wobbles between basic and functional to just plain bad".[89] Other reviewers liked the graphics: Daniel Tack of Game Informer felt that the visuals appropriately match the characters and settings,[79] while Richard Cobbett of PC Gamer commended the ability of the visuals to convey emotion.[80]

About a year after release, Fox commented that he was surprised by how popular the game had become and though appreciative of the attention, he found it stressful. Fox said: "It wouldn't surprise me if I never made a game as successful again. That's fine with me though".[92] The character Sans has been well received by players, being the subject of many fan works.[93][94][95] Professional wrestler Kenny Omega has expressed his love of Undertale, dressing as Sans for the October 30, 2019, episode of All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite.[96] Sans's addition as a Mii fighter costume in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate garnered positive feedback from fans, although The Commonwealth Times considered his addition to be a "potential problem" due to the decreasing nostalgia factor for each new character and ever-increasing size of the roster.[97]

Undertale's fanbase has also been subject to controversy, leading to it gaining a negative reputation. After the game's release, some live streamers were harassed by fans of the game for killing in-game enemies and attempting the "genocide" route. YouTuber Markiplier refused to complete his initial play-through of the game, stating that he was "not having fun" due to fan demands.[98]

In July 2016, during a summit about the Internet held at the Vatican, YouTube personality MatPat gifted a copy of Undertale to Pope Francis. MatPat explained his choice of gift by referencing the year 2016's status as the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, and connecting this to Undertale's overarching theme of mercy.[99] Later, in January 2022, a circus troupe performed in front of the Pope during his weekly audience at the Vatican to the tune of "Megalovania", drawing parallels with MatPat's symbolic gift of the game to Pope Francis.[100][101]

Accolades

The game appeared on several year-end lists of the best games of 2015, receiving Game of the Month and Funniest Game on PC from Rock Paper Shotgun,[102][103] Best Game Ever from GameFAQs,[104] and Game of the Year for PC from The Jimquisition,[105] Zero Punctuation,[106] and IGN.[107] It also received Best PC Game from Destructoid,[108] and the Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award and Most Fulfilling Crowdfunded Game from the SXSW Gaming Awards.[109]

Undertale garnered awards and nominations in a variety of categories with praise for its story, narrative and for its role-playing. At IGN's Best of 2015, the game received Best Story.[110] Undertale was nominated for the Innovation Award, Best Debut, and Best Narrative at the Game Developers Choice Awards.[111] In 2016, at the Independent Games Festival the game won the Audience Award, and garnered three nominations for Excellence in Audio, Excellence in Narrative, and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.[112][113] The SXSW Gaming Awards named it the Most Fulfilling Crowdfunded Game, and awarded it the Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award.[109] The same year at the Steam Awards the game received a nomination for the "I'm not crying, there's just something in my eye" award.[114] In 2019, Polygon named the game among the decade's best.[115] In 2021, IGN listed Undertale as the 20th greatest game of all time, while in Japan, a nationwide TV Asahi poll of over 50,000 players listed Undertale as the 13th greatest game of all time.[116][117]

Why did you send. What appears to be the entire Wikipedia page. About Undertale. Are you doing okay anon

[prokopetz]

I know a lot of people didn't like it for understandable reasons but I really enjoyed 4th Ed dnds combat. Although this comes from a long time warhammer enjoyer. My current fave rpg is lancer which probabaly tells you about my proclivites

(BTW is tiny frog wizards compatible with like salamanders, newts and axolotl and other such small amphibians?)

From the perspective of pure design, Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition is probably the finest piece of work Wizards of the Coast has ever produced, and among the more accomplished examples of game design in the hobby as a whole. A certain subset of the hobby have made it a cornerstone of their personalities to performatively disapprove of what 4E does, but it does it very well.

(Also, the extent to which 4E was poorly regarded for its content is greatly exaggerated. I go into the timeline of events in some detail in this post here; the short version is that the greater part of the 4E "edition war" sprang from a marketing strategy by one of WotC's competitors, which ended up succeeding beyond their expectations due to a series of clownshoes blunders by Hasbro regarding 4E's rollout, promotion and licensing – a lot of people forget that the recent business with the OGL 1.1 isn't the first time Hasbro has attempted that particular brand of fuckery! The perception that 4E was disliked because it was badly designed is largely the product of a tiny but highly vocal core of edition-warring grognards taking advantage of the fact that most people don't remember the real reasons that 4E commercially underperformed to push a false narrative.)

[vintagerpg]

Grab your cape, but only throw on the Queen song if you absolutely must! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we’re talking about Champions, from Hero Games, a major evolutionary step in point-buy RPG systems, one of the best regarded superhero RPGs of all time AND the cornerstone of the broader, semi-universal Hero System. It’s a whole lot of four-color fun!

[alifetimeofgames]

Baldur's Gate + Tales of the Sword Coast

I thought Xzar was hilarious as a kid, so why not a meme redraw with the guy.

This game was important to me as a kid. I went through phases of being completely obsessed with it and trying out different characters for it. There's one I still kind of make in other games that originated from here. That said, I only finished it once - this game was damn hard. But yeah, I can see why this is considered one of the cornerstones of Western RPGs.

I enjoy the characters in it, but honestly there's just way too many of them. The fact that you still find characters to recruit in the final sections of the game is kind of crazy - and honestly, who even remembers them? It would probably have worked better if they'd worked on fleshing out the first couple of people you meet, since people tend to stick with them anyway.

I played the expansion pack so closely to the core game that I'm including it as part of this. I absolutely loved the wolfwere section. I had some false memories about it, though, as I remembered there being a whole romance with the wolfwere that helps you out of the village. They barely even spoke, now that I rewatch it. Other than that, I really enjoyed the dopplegangers in the basement of Candlekeep. Nothing like some good angst, even if it was all in my head. And I remember having a soft spot for Xan - after seeing sovonight's fan art for the romance mod with him, I might even have to go back and revisit it.

The art this time is not great, but I've been going through some weird art block lately and my self-imposed demands on what I wanted to draw for this might have had something to do with it. I wanted to make something huge and epic, but low-effort Joker Xzar is what we're ending up with today. Enjoy.