#Fun free single player rpg games

[sadagios]

Icarus, and the Sunflower

A Desert Duo/Scarian AU about an avid player meeting his favorite, comfort character in a death loop video game.

I can’t write a fic, nor have time to draw comics like i used to, so we are doing bullet points on a tumblr post

PART ONE: BEFORE THE ALPHA TEST

PILOT: PART TWO

2.1k words below the cut

SOME BEGINNING NOTES: - This AU is only character shipping, and references a lot outside the life series events (evo, hermitcraft, empires, etc). This is not meant to ship the CC’s themselves and if anything alludes to it, it is purely unintentional. - This is not canon-compliant ermmmm i do what i want and i will put every idea i have into this - Tags for this part? Game dev AU, Grian is whipped for Scar, some characters are real and some are fictional, this is only the pilot, absolutely not beta'd i only have one impulsive braincell

A. Gria

Gria is a single man in his late 20s; he works at a game company called E.V.O. Games (Entertainment Virtual for Everyone). He was an architecture graduate who dabbled in game dev in his spare time during his undergraduate studies. Although he didn’t pursue that path, he utilized his skills in level design. He used to work in several indie game companies, one of which was a company founded with friends, before he was hired by E.V.O. Games. He was excellent at his job, and his ideas and inputs always improved whatever project he worked on. Because of this, after a few years, he was promoted to creative director.

His latest project was “The Evolutionists’ Portal,” a 3D pixel-style puzzle game in which the player has to navigate the world to find portals hidden in each level, and these portals progress the game. With each portal traveled into, the world becomes bigger and more complicated, making each portal harder to find. However, with multiplayer, this task is easier through working together (and doing fun shenanigans together).

It had a buggy release, especially for multiplayer, but it built a decent player fanbase; the story itself was short and simple, but it was replayable thanks to its multiplayer mode.

For visualization, it’s 3D with a top-down perspective like “Pokemon Diamond/Pear/Platinum” but has gameplay similar to “Stardew Valley”

Gria and his team get along well, and he is quite close to some of them:

Martyn: an audio engineer. This is the first game he’s worked on since he was first hired in the company.

“Big B”: a VFX artist. He and Gria joined the company around the same time and bonded over stressful deadlines and annoying seniors when they started out.

Jimmy: the project manager. Although Gria takes a lot of joy in teasing him, he is hardworking and great at keeping everyone in check with the calendar. Out of everyone, he is the one Gria is closest with. He also works on another game by the company called “Empires.” 

Pearl: an environment artist. She joined the company a bit later in the development. It is her first time dealing with pixel graphics but she did it incredibly well. She also works on “Empires” with Jimmy.

“Empires” is a free-to-play fantasy open-world action gacha RPG. It is the biggest game of the company and their title game. 

For visualization, it’s just “Genshin Impact” and “Honkai: Star Rail”.

Recently, there was a buzz around that their game, “Empires”, will have a collaboration event with another big name. Gria was too busy and overworked to take notice of this, though. 

The fruits of his labor later came as game nominations for “Best Multiplayer” and “Best Audio Design.” Gria was happy their work was acknowledged by players worldwide, even if they didn’t win.

B. Hermitopia

After so long, Gria finally took a week off. It was foreign to have no obligations for even a day. He doesn’t use this time to travel; instead, he sits at home and lurks on the internet to keep up with gaming news and updates. He uses the username “Xelqua” with a red macaw as his profile picture.

He stumbled upon a “Redstone tutorial” post by the user ”Potatonutshell”. Curious and intrigued by how such a complicated contraption is possible in a game (and bored out of his mind), he asked this user what game it was for. Potatonutshell briefly, and over-excitedly, DM’d Gria with a huge wall of text about this game called “Hermitopia 6.”

In the beginning days of his break, Gria spent time messaging this Potatonutshell fella, named “Mumbo.” Mumbo named himself after a character named “Mumbo Jumbo”, who is one of the most skilled “redstoners” in the game. He related heavily with the character and took a lot of interest in the redstone circuitry game feature as he is a programmer in real life. Gria thought the game was interesting, but not enough to install a 36 GB game for $39.99. He changed his mind when Mumbo told him more about the game, especially its base-building mechanic.

“Hermitopia 6: Hermit Civil War” is an open-world fantasy action RPG known for its base-building core mechanic. It is the sixth game in the franchise, and each game starts in a brand-new world. The player and the lovable NPCs are called hermits, a band of humans, fae, hybrids, and other species who live together on an island and work together to live a sustainable life amidst the hostile creatures that roam the world. 

For visualization, it’s like “Skyrim” with “Baldur’s Gate 3” graphics and dialogue UI.

Gria planned to try it for a few hours, only humoring his new internet friend, until he met this beautiful NPC named “Scar Goodtimes” — a human-vex hybrid with scars all over his “handsome face and carved body”, as Gria would personally describe him. He was also a builder who lived near Gria’s very odd underwater base. Throughout the remaining days of his break, and his weekends after that, Gria played Hermitopia 6 religiously.

Scar calls him “GRIAN”, which was a typo error — Gria pressed enter early in the name selection screen and he didn’t realize it until Scar first mentioned his name 3 hours into the game. He can’t be bothered to fix it, though (and he's grown fond of it.)

Gria continued to play the game in his free time, slowly falling in love with the game as he kept on playing. He also kept talking to Mumbo, who he fanboyed about the game with. He found out that Mumbo lived close by too, so they hung out frequently and bonded over the game.

Gria: I genuinely thought you had a big mustache, y’know, like Mumbo Jumbo. Mumbo: I do too! It’s... it's there! [he shows his very faint mustache] It's there! Gria: sure.

Xelqua started off as a lurker, to an active Hermitopia fan account. He was interested in the base-building aspect of the game and shared his designs online.

Hermitopia is not a dating simulator. There is no romance mechanic in the game. Anyway, Gria installed (and tweaked) a romance mod because no one can stop him from flirting with his fictional vex boyfriend.

Mumbo: Grian, if I hadn't met you personally, I would've pictured you as a crazy Scar fanatic. Gria: Wha— How— I’m not crazy. Mumbo: You downloaded a romance mod just to flirt with Scar and commissioned an artist to draw a scene from it, and now you have it framed on your bedroom wall. So, Grian, I think that’s crazy behavior. Gria: … I do what I want, Mumbo!

Gria's love for the game and Scar grew more as another hermitopia game was released (Hermitopia 7). Then, he, as Xelqua, became a notorious name because of a supposedly harmless poll about the sexiest character in the game. He was known as the insane Scar fan.

He's got every Scar merch, though there isn't much Hermitopia merch released in general. However, if someone posts about a new Scar fan merch, a certain username might appear in their notifications, like a hound trailing a scent. Haters and trolls are also dragged to hell and back because, if they aren't regretful after being berated by this insane man, they will not be able to surf through the web in peace as long as Xelqua holds a grudge. 

As insane as this Xelqua person is, Scar had become a popular character within the fandom, compared to his old status as an underrated sweetheart without much attention or fanfare thanks to Xelqua constantly (for years without missing a day) talking about him. Xelqua also organized or helped some Scar fan events and constantly supported merch creators with hermitopia merch (especially if it involved Scar.)

User Xelqua, about Scar: He is my little sunshine, my precious sunflower. He might’ve killed some men, but he was hot while doing it.

C. The Collaboration Event

Back to Game dev stuff, Gria isn’t open about his current obsession with his coworkers. When the collaboration event with the “Empires” games was finally announced, two representatives from the other company came to visit. “Skizzleman” has been a writer for Hermitopia since the 3rd game. A character from Empires, Gemini, will become a new character in the next Hermitopia game, and there will be a DLC that will add a new small map with many biomes and new materials. In Empires, Hermitopia characters will be featured in a limited-run gacha banner and a limited-time story event. 

Now a Hermitopia fan, Gria tried to interview Skizzleman about the game (while making it not obvious how obsessed he is with it). Skizzleman was the one who wrote the lore for “Impulse” as well as most of his dialogue throughout the games.

Another representative for Hermitopia, the lead designer Joel, came to visit for the collab event. He is a fanatic of Empires and a diehard “Shadow Lady” fan, which is why he is so excited to work with E.V.O. Games for the collab.

Accompaniment art for this here: link

Gria was never into gacha games, but with a mix of Pearl and Jimmy convincing him to try the game they worked on (not to mention the fact that it is free-to-play), and showing him an initial sketch of what some hermitopia characters will look like in the game (this isn’t allowed, but Jimmy and Pearl found the thought of their serious coworker playing a gacha game amusing), he finally caved. Little did they know, showing a topless concept art of Scar is more than enough to reel him in.

When the collab update was finally released, Gria grinded Empires just to get Scar. He practically paid his own salary back to his company just to get Scar to max level and his additional skins. (He loved his new “HotGuy” skin the most)

With the release of “Hermitopia 8: Moon Collision” and the introduction of co-op multiplayer mode, Gria invited Pearl to play with him with the excuse that they're only going to see how Gemini looks in the game. Gria successfully got Pearl hooked on the game.

D. The Watchers Studio

Before Gria properly applied to a game company, he developed small-scale games with his high school friends. They called themselves “The Watchers.” He met them in a small art club and they bonded over their favorite games. Gria’s favorite game growing up was an old zombie game with a title he can no longer remember.

One of their unfinished games was “The Life Game.” It was a battle-royal death game where the players had to gather resources and have limited lives.

Two of their old friend group recently reached out to Gria to catch up. They said they wanted to work on “The Life Game” again and wanted to ask Gria if he wanted to join again. Of course, Gria already had a job himself, so he declined. However, he hung out with the two and checked in with their progress, nostalgia hitting him as they relived their old game ideas.

The two invited Gria to do an alpha test and asked him to invite any friends who might find it fun. Gria invited Jimmy, Pearl, Martyn, and Big B, as well as Skizzleman and Joel who he’s been acquainted with. He also sent an invite to Mumbo, who was unfortunately busy with his job at the moment. 

To Gria’s surprise, the two had turned their game into a VR game. All seven of them played in a medium-sized studio, and although the game was fun, it was nausea-inducing, especially for Joel. They all lost to the Computer-AI characters, which concluded their Alpha Test.

After the meetup, the two lent them their CD copy of the game with the VR Headset they used (which was suspiciously generous of them).

Skizzleman liked the game a lot and asked if they could do it again sometime, which Gria relayed to his two old friends. Pearl shared the same sentiment but is too caught up with work which makes her unable to join their next session.

The gang kept discussing the game they played and its potential to become a hit with a little more polish. This made Gria feel proud of his old team and his past self, reminding him of the time he was passionate about making games despite his lack of experience. 

With limited coding knowledge and a little help from Mumbo, he made a server to host “The Life Game” online instead of LAN. He sent copies to Mumbo and Pearl in case they’d join later. According to the two, the game had more improvements to it since the last time they played it, which was months ago.

Gria had a small voice in his head telling him this was a bad idea— well, he did get a bit sick in the last session, but everyone had fun. So, he ignored the warning bells and hit “Join World.”

This marks the End of Pilot Part One Next Chapter > PART TWO: UNFIXABLE ERROR

ENDING NOTES: I've been brainrotting and hyperfixating on the idea for a while now, and I don't know how to let it all out so I'm going to try out this format. Hopefully I could add more to this! Thank you if you've read this far into the post. :) Made a spotify playlist too in case anyone is interested (I'm still working on this though)

[anim-ttrpgs]

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy Itchio Beta Update January 30th 2025

You can now get a much more polished version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy on itch.io! Payment is optional, but greatly appreciated!

I’m proud of this update despite it not really being quite as extensive as I would’ve liked it to be considering the three months in between the last big public update and now, but as if my some act of God, nearly every single member of our team had some kind of personal life issue (moving, illness, etc.) across all of November and December, which really slowed down our progress on Eureka. We were back full steam ahead in January, and that allowed us to at least push one really big improvement through in time for this update: The mystery-writing guide.

It was important to me to release a big public update this month because January 2025 is when we stated on the Kickstarter that Eureka would be releasing. Well, underestimation and unexpected complications have meant that the game isn’t finished yet as of January 2025, but this big update that you can download and play is us making up for that at least partially, it shows our fans that even though we haven’t met our deadline, we haven’t been slacking off, and we do have a lot to show for it.

In addition to new art, new traits, and rules clarifications, the Eureka rulebook now sports an in-depth mystery writing guide. This comes just in time for those of you participating in our mystery module game jam. (Sign-ups are open now, submissions are open from March to April of 2025.)

In addition to a rulebook update, we have released two previously patron-exclusive Eureka mystery modules, “The Eye of Neptune” and “FORIVA: The Angel Game.” You can find them at this link here. Payment is optional but highly appreciated!

Patreon updates will continue monthly as we work steadily on the project.

Oh and one more thing before we get to the full changelog. As many of you know, we run a “TTRPG Book Club” where the club votes on games to play and then splits off into groups to play them (it’s very schedule-flexible), and discusses them as we go. Well, at the time of writing this, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is currently in the lead, which means we are very likely to be playing that next. Join the book club during the sign-up period in the next couple of weeks if you want to play Eureka and discuss it with the developers!

Here’s the full changelog!

Copy-editing Progress: Thoroughly copy-edited up to p. 302. Half-ass copy-edited up to p. 322.

We also released Eureka adventure modules “The Eye of Neptune” and “FORIVA: The Angel Game” into free beta on itch.io. Scroll up to find the link and a game jam!

WHOLE BOOK

CHAPTER 1 

Better clarified Unconsciousness. 

Better clarified the penalty negation of Grievous Wounds, gave guidelines for what aid may negate what Grievous Wounds, and made it so that these aids can stack to a penalty negation of up to 4.

Edited and simplified the travel time math when using Ticks.

Worsened penalty for using Medicine on oneself from -1 to -2.

Added some quick fix patches to the Assistance Roll section to make it more clear when Assistance Rolls should and should not be allowed. May end up completely rewriting some parts of this section in the near future to make it so that the divide is less based on Investigative vs Non-Investigative, but instead provide clearer stipulations. One potential issue is we really have to be careful not to write the rules so that every character assisting with every Investigative Roll is the optimal strategy, because that would make the game less fun. 

CHAPTER 2

New Traits: The Truth Comes Out, Poser

Buffed Believer Trait

Nerfed I’m Okay, You’re Okay Trait

Un-Nerfed I’m Okay, You’re Okay Trait

Made vampires and characters with the Arithmomaniac Trait immune to the “Click” Woo Roll effect

Added Crutches to Item List

More art has been added

Buffed Elementary! Trait

Buffed The Ascot Trait 

Buffed The Other Trait 

Buffed Poser Trait

Added Nobody’s Fool Trait 

Added That’s No Way to Feel Trait

Made some clarifications on Tiers of Fear

Made it so there is a flat PM penalty for investigators that are living out of their vehicles. 

Added RVs/campers/trailers to Homes

Lowered the PM of vans and SUVs

Moved Police from Optional to Mandatory on Tiers of Fear

CHAPTER 3

Added a Compromise Armor attack that is also a Movement and can only be done starting from a Grab

More art has been added

CHAPTER 7

Added “How to Write a Mystery” section, a big step-by-step guide on how to write your very own Eureka mystery module. 

Added “Starting an Adventure with Disaster” section

Added more guidelines for Eureka’s tone, setting, and lore.

CHAPTER 8 

Made it so fairies have to make a reflexes roll to be able to spirit away people with extremely brief contact. 

Better clarified some other things about Spiriting Away and “voluntary” skin-to-skin contact.

Added that a Potion of Healing can also cure non-chronic disease. 

Added that more potions than just the curse potions can be made curative by adding an extra Table 3 ingredient, and that curative potions can be bought with WP just like other potions. 

Clarified that gorgons can’t eat rocks.

Clarified that advanced curses can override each other.

Changed Monsters Eating Monsters section to Monsters vs Monsters and made it a more generalized section about all kinds of edge cases that might come up when monsters interact with each other. The section is kind of disorganized right now but will be cleaned up in copy-editing. 

Clarified that all wolfmen have a human form as one of their three forms.

Redid the hunting tables and added the tables for the Bar/Nightclub, Gay Bar/Nightclub, and Gaming/Hobby Store. They are not fully complete but they are at least functional at this time. 

Vampires now have a chance to start partially phasing through objects when they are at 0 Composure.

Changed the standard Stealth bonus vampires have at max Composure from +3 to +2.

Adjusted the mechanics for how to permanently “kill” a vampire. 

More art has been added

Buffed Learning by Example TFB Ability 

Clarified fairies taking voices 

Clarified the animal options for the Curse of Transformation

[zinjanthropusboisei]

You walk into the apothecary, easing the heavy door shut behind you. The little bell above the door still rings, but quietly. There is no one at the counter or browsing the shelves. You're looking for…a potion? a poison? a curse? a cure? But there's no one here to mix one up for you…

I've been wanting to get into writing more interactive fiction, and I always have a lot of fun writing potion descriptions when I do my little potion paintings, so here's my first attempt at a solo rpg! You meddle with a poor apothecary's wares and come up with your own eldritch combinations to suit your own puckish purposes. This is a hack of @no-road-home's Alone Among the Stars (https://noroadhome.itch.io/alone-among-the-stars); available for free/pay what you want here as both a digital version and one formatted to print and fold as a minizine:

[blueskittlesart]

pleeease give a review for infinity nikki ive been thinking about downloading it but i dont know if i have the space and if its worth it to clear some up for it !!!

as someone who spent HOURS on flash-based dollmakers as a kid, i absolutely love it. the gameplay hits somewhere between dressup game and open-world RPG, in that there's a large botw-like open map to explore, but the express purpose of exploring it is to unlock new clothes for your character. The exploration itself feels very calm and cozy most of the time, with the emphasis being on small collection tasks like fishing, bug-catching, and foraging. again, all of this is specifically to craft new outfits for nikki which you can both coordinate with no limitations to wear in the open world and use in scored styling contests with npcs, some of which reward you with game currency and some of which help you progress the story quests. the only place where i feel the gameplay truly suffers is in combat. you have one attack, and it's a ranged shooter, but there's no aim-assist whatsoever, and the mobile joystick isn't NEARLY sensitive enough to justify this. aiming in combat is one of the most difficult parts of the game, and nikki can only take 5 hits before she dies and has to respawn, making combat decently frustrating. However, there are very few places where combat is strictly necessary in-game, and both of the boss battles i've done so far had hitboxes large enough that it wasn't an issue; it's really in the open world against hordes of smaller enemies that the lack of targeting becomes really frustrating. other than that, though, the controls are fairly well-designed and intuitive, especially if you've played similar games before.

The clothes themselves are the star of the show, of course. I've yet to see a single clothing item in the game that I don't want. there's a good mix of fancy intricate outfit pieces and basics to obtain early-on, and without even touching the gacha you can coordinate some really cute outfits via in-universe boutiques and quests that reward you with clothes. Even the very obviously themed ability outfit sets that you craft early on almost always have a few pieces that are easy to mix and match with, so there's a TON of styling potential even for free players! As for the gacha, it's actually one of the more generous games i've played in terms of rewards and pity systems. My one complaint so far is that the 5-star gacha outfits especially seem to be very accessory-heavy, meaning it's possible to pull shoes, multiple necklaces, gloves, socks, and hairpieces before ever pulling the dress they're very obviously designed around. there is a pity mechanic to prevent this, but it requires you to pull a few too many times before your guarantee imo.

The story is ridiculous in a good way. It kind of reads like a 2000s-era barbie movie to me right now, in the best way possible. there's an amazingly predictable sexy villain, cute little flying creatures that follow you around, and every conflict is, of course, solved via clothes in one way or another. My absolute favorite thing about the writing, though, is how blatantly earnest it all is. at no point does the game poke fun at its own wacky concept or even attempt to make some self-aware joke about it to the player--it plays everything completely straight, and in this aspect it almost feels MORE self-aware. it knows that the kind of person who wants to play a dressup rpg is also the kind of person who does not, under any circumstances whatsoever, want to be questioned or made fun of for their love of fashion or their engagement with that game. It very much feels like the devs know that they're working with primarily girls and young women and a subject matter that those girls and young women are often looked down upon or made fun of for seriously engaging with, and so it promises to engage EXTRA-seriously to make up for that. (side note: there's one point in a story quest where, when asked to make a wish, nikki wishes that all girls never get cramps again. that was when i knew this was a game that knew its audience.) If I wanted to nitpick, i might say that every quest so far has sort of felt like an increasingly ridiculous trading sequence--you learn what you need to do very early on, but you'll always spend several hours of gameplay encountering obstacles and doing other smaller tasks to circumvent those obstacles so you can reach your original goal. this might annoy me more if the game was trying to market itself as a serious RPG, but it seems very self-aware to me, and despite how i'm describing it none of the quests ive played have actually FELT tedious. I think the fact that it's such a wild concept to begin with gives the writers a bit of leeway in how they handle the story quests, and because I as the player am aware i'm playing a dressup game I don't really expect quests to immediately get to the point and let me fight something. I will say that there are certain things that aren't super intuitive especially if you aren't a seasoned gacha rpg player, particularly the features relating to advancing your skills and the styling points of your clothing. though the game does technically explain what you need to do, it doesn't explain the RELEVANCE of the feature, just that it exists, so I had to lose multiple styling contests before I realized i could upgrade my clothing to get higher scores.

The final thing I'll talk about is performance. I'm playing the game on my iphone 13, and the performance is.... not great, i'm ngl. Off the bat, if you play the game on a mobile device, you're going to be getting a HEAVILY scaled-down version of the terrain graphics. all of those screenshots you see online of beautiful terrain full of flowers and particle effects are from ps5s or custom pcs. truthfully, the mobile app looks like a game from 2012 and it will still turn your phone into an incinerator. I've also encountered multiple graphics bugs, some during pivotal scenes, and I get consistent lags when playing for longer than a few hours, likely due to the strain on my phone's hardware. it's also an INSANE battery drain, so i only play when my phone is plugged in. All that being said, the game has been out for less than a week, so visual bugs are inevitable, and the developers have stated that mobile optimization is a priority, so hopefully we'll at the very least no longer have to overheat our devices to play it soon. Also worth noting, from what I've seen the rendering of the CLOTHING doesn't suffer AT ALL on mobile devices. presumably they sacrificed terrain rendering to allow for such beautiful texturing on the clothing itself, which, given that the clothing is the main focus of the game, I can't fault them for. Basically, if you're going to try to run an unreal engine game on your iphone, be aware that it will run like an unreal engine game on an iphone. and prepare yourself to have to let your device cool down every few hours.

tldr: i love the game so far. i'm really excited to keep playing and see where the story goes, and I think they should make more games for girls <3

[youhavethewrong]

Yuiview: A Eulogy for Tribe Nine

On March 25th, I posted a review for the game Tribe Nine, a gacha Action RPG created by Too Kyo Games. In it, I mostly focused on the fact that as good as it was, I was nervous about its future. I ended my review with this statement:

Fast forward to May, 76 hours into Tribe Nine later, I started writing "Tribe Nine - Why Some Gachas Are Worth Your Time". I was gonna use the same title as a neat little callback and to cheekily acknowledge the fact that the game was so good it had proven me wrong.

But last night, the official Tribe Nine twitter account posted this

So now, what was meant to be a heartily recommendation of a fantastic game, has become a eulogy. I'd like to reflect on why Tribe Nine didn't succeed, why it hurts me so, and what we can do going forward.

On the original version of this Yuiview, I was gonna make a lengthy list of all the things Tribe Nine did well. How it allowed you to play the game completely for free, how its fast-paced reaction-based gameplay let you beat it with the free units, how in unlike other games the story was leading towards a specific conclusion. Now, looking back, I realize that all these things that made Tribe Nine great as a game, are what made it bad as a gacha.

Each character is unique, all of them bringing a different approach to the action RPG gameplay - meaning there's only 16 playable characters, and not the hundreds that gachas usually have, disincentivizing constant rolling.

The game is very kind in giving you free currency and rolls for just playing the game - so players aren't forced to spend money on it.

The default characters that you get for free, rather than being stuck at being clunky and weak (like a lot of other gachas do), are fast and reactive, meaning that being good at the game lets you play without performing a single gacha roll - ...yeah, you can see where I'm going with this.

Every aspect that made Tribe Nine a good, non-predatory game made it a bad gacha game. Gacha games depend on forcing players to continue spending money by way of halting their progress, putting up difficulty walls, and overall mechanics that go against players having a smooth experience. Therefore, a game that's more focused on fun and quality of player experience can't survive as a gacha, as it goes against the idea of constantly squeezing people for money.

So why is it even a gacha?

Well, the thing about gacha games is that if they're profitable, they give the company that developed them a loooot of money. After all, why develop a game that people pay for once and get a full experience out of, when for the same development time you can make something people sink hundreds of dollars into, and will continue spending money on indefinitely as long as you keep jangling keys in front of them?

I'm not here to make fun of the people in the above screenshot. If anything, I think they're victims. But think about it from a developer's perspective: these sort of numbers make publishers salivate. A gacha game that does well can take a company out of the red.

Right, I should mention that. Too Kyo Games is in the red.

I've tried to leave that out of my other reviews of their games because I don't want people to play these games out of a sense of pity. I want them to play them because the people at Too Kyo are brilliant creators who have delivered nothing but unique, meaningful experiences since their first game. But it is undeniably a looming dark cloud that has been hovering over the whole topic for a long time. And you can see why a company in this situation would be tempted to make one of their biggest projects a gacha game.

And in spite of the fact that i despise gacha games, I still decided to give Tribe Nine a try, based on the fact that Too Kyo haven't disappointed me yet, and I've known them to prioritize player experience over money making for a long time now. So I trusted them.

And I was right. They did. And that was Tribe Nine's downfall, that it wasn't scummy.

So now that we understand what happened and why, one question remains: What's in the future for Tribe Nine? As of now, its development stopped cold turkey, including the cancellation of already-announced characters, story chapters, and even game fixes. The way the game is right now will remain as its current state until November 2025, when it finally becomes unplayable. This means that the next chapters won't release, the story will not conclude, and we won't be able to meet these characters again. The tragedy of it all is... difficult to put into words.

As much as this breaks my heart though, the one who seems to be taking it the most harshly is the man himself, writer Kazutaka Kodaka. Today, he posted this to his bluesky account:

TL: "It's annoying that this is being spread so much, but even though I wasn't involved in the development, it's frustrating to see everyone's sadness! If I was a super popular person, I could have done more. Thinking about it, I guess it's because of my lack of ability. And even after it ended, I could have done more if I had the financial means. I guess you can't do anything without making money. That being said, there are definitely things that can be done. I make games to entertain everyone. I'll keep trying and not give up. Also, please forgive me for advertising other games in this situation. You need funds to try."

Sadly, he seems to be blaming himself and his lack of popularity/money for being unable to rescue the game. As someone not in the industry, it's hard to imagine what it feels like to put time and resources into coming up with an idea and developing a story, only to see it be dashed when it's not even halfway done.

However, to me it also seems that there's a tinge of hope in his words. The line "There are definitely things that can be done" sounds like there are some resources at his disposal to continue telling the story. Me personally, I'd be happy with a light novel. I just want to know what happens to these characters. Also, I really appreciate and admire the fact that he refuses to give up, in spite of the company's current financial situation and the failure of this project.

I would also like to bring up this post from May 3rd, regarding Too Kyo Games's financial situation

At the end of the day, his main goal is still for people to enjoy playing his games, and that's something that I'll never stop finding commendable. Even in dire financial straits, his sole focus is people having fun with his art, without worrying about the company itself.

You can probably tell that I really admire him as a creator, which is why it breaks my heart to see him not have the recognition and success that him and his team deserve. But he wouldn't want me to be worrying about that, just about the quality of his games. So that's what I'll do. I'll keep playing Tribe Nine to see if I can finish it 100% before it goes out of service. And instead of focusing on its inevitable demise, I'll focus on enjoying the characters, tight gameplay, and silly dialogue until the last possible moment.

I'm sure most everyone who works in a creative field is doing so because they enjoy it, and they love making things. But I'd encourage everyone to remember Kodaka's words: "You need funds to try". If it is within your means, try supporting your favorite artists financially, so that they can keep making things you love. And if it's not, just talking about their projects with your friends or leaving positive comments that remind them people enjoy what they make can make a huge difference. Don't take the art you enjoy for granted, it takes someone an incredible amount of effort to deliver it to you.

[falciesystemessays]

Alright, let's make this quick. You're playing a dress-up game, maybe Style Savvy, maybe Love Nikki, because you want to express yourself creatively. The game gives you some explicit goals, it is a game after all. Maybe it's to dress up in a certain theme, maybe it's to max out certain stats, but the goal is to use incentives to make you try different outfits. Fair enough, right?

Here's the problem though: Players will naturally gravitate towards the solution with the most reward. There's a common joke in RPG spaces about wearing ugly armor for better stats, but it is so much worse in a game where dressing nicely is the primary appeal. Love Nikki is especially nasty in this regard, giving you an exact score on how fashionable it thinks you are.

This is what game designer Alex Jaffe calls the "Quantified Creativity Problem," and it is one of many Cursed Problems in Game Design. As he lays out, a cursed problem is one that is unsolvable, because it comes out of a contradiction of two core promises. In this case, you come into a game like Style Savvy (but this also applies to other games like The Sims) for intrinsic goals of creativity and expression. But these extrinsic goals inherently detract from the intrinsic joy of creation.

If you want to deal with a cursed problem, you have to make some kind of sacrifice to one of the promises.

You could

Embrace the bastard behavior and say "this isn't about creativity, you're dressing up for explicit goals." This is what the Hitman reboots do, for instance. You're not dressing up for aesthetics, you're dressing up for stealth.

Incentivize creativity like the games I've described try to do. This does certainly give a variety of ideas for nice outfits. However, as I've laid out, this does still detract from the intrinsic motivators.

Simply make it impossible to minmax, which here would manifest as clothing options having no mechanical attributes at all. This is what Picrews and doll-makers are, and while they're fun in their own way, I personally feel a sense of aimlessness and overchoice with a lot of these.

Make the extrinsic motivators less intense, although still there. This is what Artificial Fashionista does, which is my favorite of all of these and the reason I'm writing this essay.

So, this game is very nice, for a variety of reasons. The game is free, with regular DLC rather than scummy microtransactions. Its writing is genuinely well-executed in making every character delightfully annoying. But more than that, it's the first fashion game I've played that gives me direction without making me feel pressured.

Simply put, the game still has Nikki-style stat requirements, for example the starting Office Lady mission requires 4 points in Cool and 6 points in Formal. However, you are shown every single clothing item's exact stats in advance, and the game will straight-up tell you when the outfit you've made meets the requirement, as well as its equivalent of an S-Rank.

And the game has no actual scoring system above that rank, so you can dress in any way as long as it meets the threshold. Which means that this

and this

are both equally valid in the game's terms. I call that second look "violating the dress code but no one seems to mind," by the way.

What this all amounts to is a dress-up game that gives you just enough direction to come up with unique outfits, while giving you the room to be creative to your own liking. Sure, you probably won't make the "expected" outfit, but that's part of the fun of it! Artificial Fashionista confidently cuts through the Quantified Creativity problem by making the game easier than most other games of its type, and honestly? I appreciate that.

I'm talking about fashion games like this because I think it's a sorely needed discussion in our discourse about game design. Like, most of the Game Analysis I've seen on social media and YouTube tends to be very focused on challenge. Level design, systems design, and pacing tend to be made with idea of "game as challenge to overcome" as the primary appeal. But there are many different appeals a game can have, and expression is a big one. So why don't I see dress-up games brought up more often in these discussions?

I say, knowing the answer.

(Also, check out "Why Fashion in (Most) Games Sucks, and Why You Should Care", a GDC talk by Victoria Tran that I like a lot!)

[thydungeongal]

Hey, I've had an idea kicking around in my head for a while about a dice system wherein you assemble a D6 pool, but instead of anything fancy like certain sides representing different degrees of success, you just add up your total result and compare it to a target number. I've never made a game before, and I've also never seen a system that uses this system. I was just wondering if you had either any insight as to why nobody uses this system (too swingy, too consistent, etc) or some examples of games that do, and what it specializes in. Thank you very much in advance.

So, this is in fact how West End Games's proprietary system, the d6 system, used to work! An early version of the system was what powered their officially licensed Ghostbusters RPG and the system was also adapted for their Star Wars RPG. It was finally released in 1996 as a standalone game and has since seen intermittent support. As far as I know, there is a version of the system released under the Open Gaming License which is in free circulation.

Another game that uses a similar system is RISUS, a free comedy RPG. RISUS is very much influenced by the d6 system, especially its Ghostbusters incarnation, and it is explicitly meant for silly, comedic gameplay.

A couple of obvious benefits to such a system: it is simple and it's actually quite fun to roll lots of dice. It also has quite easily calculable probabilities. Like so.

The biggest issue with such a system is that it does not scale in a way that is very elegant without some work. Where do you set the floor and roof for player character attributes? If the minimum attribute is a 1, you will still obviously want there to be difficulties that can be achieved with a single die. A target number of 5 or higher will mean that a character will have a ⅓ chance of hitting it with a single die, but with two dice that chance of success jumps up to ⅚. And so on. Almost whatever number you set up for a certain number of dice as an appropriate challenge, the addition of a single die into the pool will almost invariably alter the odds to trivialize that challenge.

Which may not actually be undesirable, depending on your goals! In fact, what it will almost invariably result in is very clear character growth. If a difficulty of 5 is very easy, while it will present some difficulty to characters with a rating of 1 in the relevant attribute, it will almost literally be trivial for anyone with a rating above 1. In that sense it avoids the issue of d20-based systems where even moderately competent characters will fail at "very easy" tasks 20% of the time.

Also, since you're already rolling lots of six-siders, why not make it even more fun and make them explode? Idk, I just wanted to make the following program.

[willknightauthor]

I'm so stoked! I've had so many breakthroughs simultaneously on this system!

I've been churning through RPG after RPG, trying to find everything useful, see every way it's been done. It's been a whirlwind, and I'm still in the middle of it, but I've been surprised at how little variation there is. Even the free form, "roleplaying forward," GM-less jam games do a lot of the same things as each other. Even if the mechanics are technically different, using different dice, the goals and ethos of the designs are identical. And we're all aware of the hoard of OSR/NSR games.

It started out with my fascination with balancing simulation and character-driven storytelling in a fun way, eventually becoming a desire to fix my frustrations with the World of Darkness. While I enjoy the campy, B-movie side of horror in the World of Darkness, I myself am more of an A24 type of writer (e.g. Midsommar, The VVitch, Under the Skin). The worlds I like to build, even when surreal, have solid internal logic. I crave that balance between the impossible and the gritty, between the beautiful and the horrifying.

I figured out how to tie everything to one health system, which itself is tied to one 10d6 dice pool. Now stress and health are one thing, and it directly affects what type of dice you roll, which changes odds and side effects. Your stats and your combat exhaustion determine the number of dice rolled, which means the more you do in combat, the fewer dice you have, and the lower your odds of success.

Because it's a d6 pool with success on one 6, the probability changes roughly linearly compared to other dice pool systems. Because there's only one vector for probability--more or less dice--difficulty is an easy thing for the GM to determine, and the probability of the roll quickly judged.

By tying actions to the dice pool via fatigue, I realized I can encourage scrappy, gritty, tactical combat by rewarding players with a second wind, meaning they get dice back. Now there's momentum between attackers and defenders. If you get backed into a corner with no options you start getting exhausted, but if you find a way to scramble out of it, jab them in the eyes, utilize the environment, make them hit their ally, then you recover and turn the tables. Even the initiative system ties into this scrappy back-and-forth, since initiative changes non-randomly during combat. And this is all in a zone-based “theater of the mind” combat system.

I've completely eliminated experience. Instead when you do difficult things and take risks, you get temporary boosts to that skill for future rolls. To permanently advance it you must engage in training, either as a side activity or during down time, over a realistic amount of time. At the highest levels you have to go on personal quests to advance your skills. Thus your skill advancement is tied to roleplaying.

Going up a single point in anything is very difficult though. Most of the "character advancement" instead is about character change. You gain new skills and abandon others, and via your new skills you can acquire a new "class." Basic advancement is quantitative, but all significant advancement is qualitative, using skills themselves as currency. You don’t just advance, you adapt.

Your "class" is advanced through a customizable narrative achievement tree. Thus to become a better mage, you must pursue life goals, narrative turning points, and personal transformations, based on their own ambitions and your ambitions for them as a character.

Almost every stat is an abstract representation of the character's internal qualities and state. Those internal states then have mechanical effects during the game if you can roleplay them: goals, passions, memories, knowledge, social ties, reputation, etc. It's conceptual, but it's not the loosy-goosy LARP style. There are mechanics with numerical and statistical effects, they're just tied to qualitative stats driven by roleplaying.

Importantly, there are many hooks for alternate or additional systems, especially weird and supernatural ones. I hate it when "magic" just amounts to a list of very narrow spells and their usages. Now there are many mechanical hooks for supernatural things tied to capabilities, knowledge, motivations, social role, self-image, core memories, etc.

I designed it backwards from multiple future games which will be very weird and abstract. The system as it stands represents the gritty foundation of any number of future games emphasizing social intrigue, personal horror, heart-pounding combat, and Lovecraftian worldbuilding. It's the ruleset for the regular, mortal humans, doing possible things in the real world… but with mechanical possibilities for much more.

Here are the games which inspired or influenced the design. I think it gives you a sense of how diverse and specific the design choices are.

Wraith: The Oblivion

Alien RPG

Over the Edge

Heart

The Wildsea

The Burning Wheel

Fate

Thousand Year Old Vampire

Na Ratunek Marsowi

Feng Shui

Barbarians of Lemuria

Mythras

Exalted

Fireborn

Delta Green

Reign

Gumshoe

Shock: Social Science Fiction

The True OSR: Obsolete Shitty Rules

The Devil, John Moulton

Cyberpunk RED

Dune RPG

Mothership

Streets of Peril

His Majesty the Worm

The Cypher System

Next I need to look into more (genuinely) experimental systems, especially ones involving memory and investigation. "The Between" and "Brindlewood Bay" are next on my list. The closest vibe design-wise I've gotten is from "Broken Empires" (which I'm so stoked for).

It's getting to the point where the overall rules are all set enough that I can drill down to specific numbers for everything, make some premade characters, and start playtesting. Fuck yeah.

[eemamminy-art]

Hi, I've been seeing you post a lot of FFXIV stuff, and I've been kind of interested in trying it for a long while but am absolutely broke. Do you think it's worth getting into even if it's just the free trial version?

Omg yes!! The free trial honestly has a LOT in it, it takes you through the base game (A Realm Reborn) and the first two expansions (Heavensward and Stormblood, the latter of which is my favorite in the whole storyline), which goes up to level 70. You have a few limitations on the free trial, such as being unable to send private messages or join free companies (guilds, basically), but you can still party up with people and fully engage with the story and gameplay! They also have made it now where if you want to have a solo experience, the main scenario has support for partying with a group of NPCs instead of other players too, though there are a few parts where you'll need to play with real people. But I might be presuming too much, maybe you like the social aspect of MMOs :D

The character customization is really nice! There are a bunch of different races to play as, though sadly two of them will be locked behind a paid subscription (viera, which are bunny-people, and hrothgar, which are like a lion anthro race), but all the others are available on the free trial. I love making OCs in it, it's a lot of fun! I'm really fond of roegadyn, which are giants basically, and elezen, which are elves but if the elves were weird gangly pointy things. There's also cat and lizard kemonomimi (miqo'te and au ra respectively), chibis as the smallfolk race (lalafells), and stock standard humans in two varieties (midlander and highlander hyurs, one is like a normal human and the other are like bodybuilders). I'm probably forgetting something but.... Yeah!

The story is really good... ✪ ω ✪ Like extremely good!! I have been a fan of Final Fantasy for my whole life and not really ever much for multiplayer games, but FFXIV's story grabs hold of you in a way that a single player rpg does!! It's amazing! I've played it on and off since the ps3 beta of the game a decade ago, it's really special to me :3

I might be biased because I have like, nearly 12000 hours logged of playtime but.. yeah I think it's worth getting into ahaha

If you had specific questions about it I'd be glad to answer! I'm honestly kind of surprised to get an ask like this since I have been posting my art from ffxiv for the last few years, but I'm assuming you followed me for something else since I draw a variety of things! But always glad to share the gospel about this beloved game ahaha

[satsu004]

Games where your choices truly matter

I've loved decision-making games for as long as I can remember. Over the years, I couldn't help but notice that lots of these games lie to you, only giving you the illusion that you have a choice. So here's a list in no specific order of games I've enjoyed, including for each game how much your choices actually matter. #1 Detroit become human

Starting with my personal favorite, dbh is quite transparent with how many choices you can make. It does suffer from some writing problems, but it is easily overshadowed by how much content the game has. The choices you make have actual consequences and the different characters you play as influence the state of the world as much as each others fates. Some might complain that this game lacks gameplay, to which I'll reply that the decision making IS the gameplay. #2 Baldur's gate 3

Takes place in the world of dungeons and dragons, it gives you lots of freedom and makes you almost feel like you're playing an irl dnd game. You can play the game with irl friends and/or the companion npc's you can recruit throughout the game. These npc's each have a story of their own with their own choices to make and most of them are also romancable. I recommend this one for those that enjoy roleplay and want to go on a memorable adventure. It also has a turn-based combat system which is very well done and lots fun.

#3 The Stanley Parable

This is one of those games with a short game loop and lots of endings. It's pure comedy and doesn't take itself seriously at all. It's lot's of fun to try out every single choice, not for the endings themselves, but for the narrator's reactions during it. I recommend this one for the gremlins that enjoy chaos. #4 Until dawn

This one is great if you enjoy horror. The story itself is pretty linear and can't be influened much. Your choices matter not to the plot itself, but to the survival of the different characters. You will control different members of a friend group and the goal is to make them all survive through the night, each choice matters. The game will also adapt itself to the player as to make it scarier to you specifically.

#5 Mystic Messenger

This game is in my top 3 fav romance games. It's a free mobile game with a virtual currency that can realistically be farmed through different means, so it's very accessible and doesn't make you feel forced to use real money. You communicate with the different characters through a chatting app in 'real time', which makes it feel much more personal than other otome games. The dialogue options you choose will first define which romance route you've unlocked, and then will define which of the different possible endings you will get. #6 RPG Maker horror games

Mad father, the witch's house, Ib, Pocket mirror, Corpse Party,... I can go on like this for a while. There was a period during which games like these were quite popular, and lots of them are still great. Most of the choices in these games were pretty straightforward, choose wrong and you die, but they also had more subtle choices. Actions that may at first seem unimportant, actually influenced which ending you will get. Special mention to Little Goody Two Shoes which is heavily inspired from these and also happens in the same world as pocket mirror. #7 Slay the princess

Another one of these short loop kind of games, but this one has a much different tone and a bigger overarching story. It's a horror visual novel with an interesting story. It's mostly dialogue options but each one you choose has it's importance as it influences the personality of the protagonist and his perception of the world. I can't say much more without spoiling but it's definitely worth checking out.

#8 Papers, Please

It's pretty chill and straightforward. You're an immigration inspector hard at work to provide for your family. You will be faced with complex situations questioning your morals. Your choices will influence the state and safety of both your family and the country you live in. #9 Please, don't touch anything

This one is very silly but I felt it was worth mentioning. You're sitting in front of a table with hidden puzzles, each leads to a different ending. Some of them are pretty funny, that's it, that's the game.

#10 7 days to end with you

It's a bit of an acquired taste as it can be quite difficult. In this game you will have to figure out a fictional language with little to no handholding. Your ability to get the different endings will be dependent on your ability to figure out the language and communicate with this kind woman who houses you .

[game-boy-pocket]

Today I finished Super Mario Party Jamboree

This is actually the first Mario Party game I've ever owned. Not the first one I've played, but I have a hard time clicking with the series. I do not like board games. And while I am a Mario fan, I feel like every time the Mario cast is in a Mario Party game, it's like the difference between classic Mickey Mouse shorts and Clubhouse Disney. They seem so sanitized and bland any time they're in this type of game. This on top of the fact that even Mario Party fans seem to feel like Mario Party is not the A list series it used to be, it made me hesitant to give the series another look.

But I've heard good things about Super Mario Party Jamboree. Some people claiming it's the best one in years, if not overall. I needed a little more variety in my marathon besides just RPGs, Platformers, and Racing games, this was on sale, so I took the plunge.

So how did I like the game?

's alright.

The mini games are fun. The board game sucks ass. I feel like your skill doesn't matter if someone is just able to roll better random numbers than you, because everyone gets coins anyway, and if you do have the skill to get more coins, someone can just steal those coins. Like, I really don't like luck based mechanics. They don't even award a bonus star for number of mini games won. That should totally count for something.

It is a little better with multiplayer, I've played with my nephews so far. And it makes the misfortunes sting a little less but like, I am mostly a single player guy.

I would like to play with with my adult friends some time. But as of now, i'm not likely to play this one on my own very often.

I am glad there was a sort of story mode though. I was able to do a free walk around the boards and solving the problems of NPCs, which essentially had me playing nearly every minigame at least once, so that was an okay mode to play. And it gave Kamek a pretty nice little moment, he doesn't get enough love.

Now, will I try other Mario Party games? I might try one of the N64 games, going to have to see which other ones have single player modes that I can beat to activate a credits sequence, because I very well can't consider a game "Beaten" if there's no credits screen.

[the-nwah-embassy]

>Morrowind remaster announced

>"Hey fellow 'Rimmers! It is I, Todd Howard! We've remastered Morrowind due to overwhelming community request!"

>"For starters, we've removed the 'fog' effects since they're no longer needed! Vvardenfell is now fog free and you can see all over the map!"

>"We realize hidden things may still be difficult to find in the foliage, so we added radar blips to points of interest! Both on your map and on your new radar system! No more looking around for that pesky tax man's body! You've got a pin point right to it!"

>"We also removed a lot of the 'alien' architecture to make the game more friendly and welcoming to prospective modern high fantasy RPG players! More castles and forts and roads like Skyrim™ has! Baldur's Gate 3, right fellas?"

>"Speaking of making the game more streamlined and friendly, we removed the table-top dice roll combat system and made it more in line with Skyrim™'s combat! Isn't that great? No more needing to actually think about what weapon you might want for a playthrough! Just pick it up and swing like a master from the first go! Want to use that esoteric Sixth House Bell hammer? No more need for the blunt skill to be remotely decent! You just know intrinsically how to use it!"

>"We've added quest markers too, since having a journal and needing to immerse yourself in the world isn't very user friendly. You can now fast travel to anywhere with the click of a button! Who wants to plan around those ash-storms and corprus beasts, am I right?"

>"NPCs are now far more friendly and less hostile! No one will refer to you as 'outlander,' and the culture is far more welcoming as a whole! We've retconned the Armistice! Dunmer love the Empire! Patrick Stewart! The Empire never wronged anyone! Dunmer are happy and hopeful and helpful to everyone! They also refer to you as 'My Lord Nerevarine' in Dialogue after you've done the quest! Everyone loves you!"

>"Speaking of dialogue, we've voice acted it now! Well, not all of it, obviously. We took out all that stuff that isn't important and used AI to voice the rest! Who needs all of that world building and extra immersion when you can have voices, amirite?"

>"No more birthsigns or silly shit like that! We have more stones! Stones! Pick your bonus whenever you want, no thought required! Who cares they don't make sense with the lore? Who gives a shit about the lore?"

>"Rather than having to plan out your playthrough and roleplay, you can now join and become the head of every single great house! Who cares if it doesn't make sense that you're the grandmaster of both Hlaalu and Redoran and Telvanni!"

>"We've removed level/skill limits from all factions! You can now become high level in the Morag Tong despite not knowing a single thing about swinging a blade or lead the Thieves Guild even if you can't sneak for shit! We've also removed where the quests conflicted so you can lead every faction too!"

>"No more reading! You're here to play, not read! You no longer have to seek out books in quests or read to understand what to do! Our friendly AI voiced NPCs will tell you exactly what needs to be done and you'll have a map marker straight to it! No thinking required! Who reads all those silly lore books for fun?"

>"There were too many complex spells in the original Morrowind, so we definitely needed to tone that down to make it easier! Now, you have 6 damage spells (two fire, two frost, and two lightning! Wow!), 2 healing spells, and even a conjuration spell that conjures a Draugur from Skyrim™! We thought about giving you more spells and the ability to craft spells as well, but that's way too complex and dangerous! Being a mage has never been simpler!"

>"You no longer have to levitate to meet any of the Telvannis! How irritating was that? Where before you had to have a potion of Float or the ability to levitate, now you can simply climb up a staircase! How immersive for the Telvanni clan quests is that? Telvannis now love non-mages and are very welcoming, just like Skyrim™! In fact, there are no specific requirements for anything! The entire game is open to you even if you have zero idea what you're doing and can't be assed to learn it! To hell with roleplay and other nerd shit! No more need to plan and buy certain potions or become adept in certain spells because of cultural barriers!"

>"We redid the entire main quest to be more user friendly! Don't know the lore? Who cares? Who the fuck is Sotha Sil? Who even is Dagoth Ur? Why does Almalexia want you dead? Who gives a shit! Who cares about Dunmeri culture or Resdayn or why Dagoth Ur has gone mad? What's a Sharmat? What are the tools of Kagrenac? What is a Kagrenac? Why is Yargrum Bargarn so significant? Why is it so funny when Archmage Trebonius asks you to solve the mystery of the dwarves? Why should you care? You shouldn't! Fuck engaging with media! Just go braindead and play!"

>"We have obliterated Snowy Granius with a ray gun! No more filter to ensure you're ready for the Dwemer ruin! Just go in there and fuck shit up! It's the same with the entire game! No need to understand mechanics! Just point and click!"

>"Morrowind multiplayer! Always online, even in single player! Can't afford always online? Get a new computer and a new job, you useless loser!"

>"More incredible changes upcoming after the break! I'm Todd Howard, and remember: Buy Skyrim! Give me your money, you inept fucking dorks! I ate Elder Scrolls Six with a side of beans and you're never getting it!" >Twitch commercial for Oblivion Remastered plays 4 times.

[galpalaven]

After Veilguard did not meet my expectations, I've seen a lot of recommendations for FFXIV. Should I try to play it? This is coming from someone who lost money from purchasing Veilguard, does not have much money for when I eventually reach the threshold of the free trial and DLCs (and also despises monthly fees and games that will shut down at any time), and doesn't always have a stable wifi connection.

i mean jfksdl personally i think FFXIV is a beautifully written and fun game that does an excellent job of both storytelling and having engaging gameplay and fun armor / gear / minions / mounts / etc.

but if you hate subscriptions and live service games then idk? esp if your wifi fluctuates a lot it could be annoying?

that being said, FFXIV is alive and well and likely not going to be shut down anytime soon. it just released its 5th Expansion in June and is actively adding stuff every few months.

The free trial currently goes through the 2nd expansion, 3rd part of the story, which is the equivalent of 3 full length RPGs for like. nothin. and even buying up through Dawntrail I think is like the same as Veilguard, maybe less, but that gives you 6 whole RPGs worth of game (including the first part of the game) for that price. It is a LOT of content for the price -- monthly its like.... 15 bucks which isn't bad imo but I also really love the game

Unlike most MMOs, FFXIV can also be played mostly solo so it's not as scary, though I enjoy playing with others now, if thats something that might bother you

The story arc from A Realm Reborn to Endwalker is honestly some of the best writing I've ever seen in a video game, it made me cry so many times, I was always engaged and it is my very favorite game in the world and lives rent free in my brain all the time.

It is also more linear than a traditional single player rpg — your choices are mostly flavor text — but it does such a fine job of making you feel important and included that it doesn’t really feel like you have no control. There also ARE callbacks to side quests and things you said to characters previously, which is… more reactivity than veilguard lmao

Ultimately, though, it's up to you. I did the free trial first and was hooked pretty fast -- but since the free trial goes for so long, you can easily do it and get past the admittedly slow first part of the game and into the Oh Shit this is Great part without paying for anything, which like.... 3 whole RPGs as a demo is kinda fantastic imo

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

tl;dr -- up to you. the game really loves its players and the lore is fun and the music is fantastic and the characters are wonderful and i think about it all the time as one of the best and most lovingly crafted pieces of media ive ever encountered and my only regret is not trying it sooner

[mindstormpress]

Illusory Sensorium ran a game of Barkeep and their writeup is one of the clearest signs that the hard work we put in was worth it.

Here's the recap. I genuinely was laughing out loud a few times. Highly recommend: https://illusorysensorium.com/b1-wand-of-embiggening/

If you want to delve into the design theory of Barkeep, keep reading! ⬇️

When we were working on the book, we came up with a sort of mantra for the encounters: Is it sticky? Is it toyetic? Do the NPCs have means, motive, and opportunity? Is there information, choice, and impact?

That's a lot of jargon, and it's been synthesized from across multiple sources. Prismatic Wasteland summed it all up here:

Sticky means that the encounter isn't something the characters can avoid. It sticks to them.

Toyetic came from false machine as well, but also from a post now lost to time from Rebecca Chenier. Basically—will the players and GM want to pick up and play with the encounter?

MMO is just a way to conceptualize NPCs in a simple, understandable form.

ICI is from Bastionland. We can't make informed decisions without information, and there's no point to making decisions if our choices don't matter.

Building the encounters meant looking at each of them carefully and considering those foundational elements. Not EVERY encounter needed every single thing. In fact, with the way WFS wanted to write the book, each encounter had to be relatively short and packing a punch.

A really really sticky encounter didn't need to be as toyetic, and a really fun and interesting encounter that the players would NEED to investigate didn't need to be all that sticky. Everything is a gear of a different size that turns the whole engine.

Illusory Sensorium thinks that they ran the game "wrong" and I disagree. They used the tools provided by the book and had fun! Mission Accomplished!

But one thing they point out very early on is how they "trusted" the encounters in the book as written. The very first one they got is quite simple: 54 skeletons in a conga line, labeled like playing cards.

Incredibly toyetic, not sticky. But the players immediately joined in!

They could have moved on, but that situation was too tantalizing to skip. The rest of the game unfolded from that first encounter, and was filled with shenanigans. The work we put in—hand crafted encounters—worked out!

I'm incredibly proud of the work everyone on the team put into Barkeep, from the writers, artists, and fellow editors. I'm especially proud that people are playing the adventure and having fun. People playing the stuff you've worked on and made is the best feeling as a creator.

Thanks for reading. There's a lot of links in this thread, because I love tracing the history of things. It's no surprise that blogs are the home for so many of these ideas—word of mouth and common practice are easily lost forever when not documented!

The bloggies, a celebration of rpg blogs, are happening now! I've got a post in the running, and I'd love it if you voted for it. My competition is FIERCE (and I recommend all the nominated posts as reading material!)

Vote for RANSACKING THE ROOM today!

[enarei]

the levelling experience in retail WOW is so mind numbingly dull. like I understand that they have a complex problem in their hands and leaving it unchanged wouldn't work. I understand the game has literally two decades worth of content, and just forcing new players to go through all of it as close as it was on release would not only be extremely technically challenging to balance, but also an insurmountable task to anyone with a job. but their solution to it shows such an utter disregard for the very core of what makes MMORPGs fun, and all the work they put into previous expansions.

it's actually sad to me to go Outland and see that everything scales to my level. that the bonechewer orcs on the cliffs to Hellfire Ramparts are the same level as the ones that patrol the road proper. that the handcrafted experience of surmounting each tier of orc progressively through questing, until you are powerful enough to climb the Hellfire Ramparts and take on a dungeon with a group of friends, and so on for each new area of TBC, all that has been sacrificed in the name of "current content". all of it has been homogenized such that it doesn't matter which area you do first, which class of enemies you choose to pick fights with, what quests you prioritize with each new level, it's all rendered equally (un)challenging so that players can speed through all of it to get to current expansion without a care in the world. there's zero incentive to care about the world besides the promise that once you're close to the end of your levelling journey, it'll get really good.

people might say that's always been the case since expansions became a thing, once new gear comes out, the old world is irrelevant. and I don't have a reason to disagree, except that I'm still presented with meaningful choices when levelling in classic WOW. the level 65 quest rewards might not be remotely relevant to {current max level content} Ice Crown Citadel in that game, but just being in the overworld itself is fun because the journey feels authentic instead of merely being there as "legacy" content to fulfill the requirement of some levelling experience in an RPG.

it's quite ironic that in an attempt to 'free' the player of the burden of being forced to level through every expansion linearly, so they can Have Their Own Adventure, they completely ruined the sense of autonomy that encourages you to actually do that. you wanna do a really hard quest 6 levels higher than you so you can skip the boring gathering ones appropriate to your level? or maybe you'd rather go to this other place that is full of beasts that you can skin and ore you can mine, so you can train your professions at the same time. have a friend close by? try to do this insanely stupid escort quest and get suckered into world pvp for half an hour when the Alliance shows up to ruin your day. like you get this very organic interaction between game and social systems by virtue of level ranges providing irregular bumps to perceived difficulty and thus how seriously you need to engage with your class's mechanics, how efficiency you need to use your cooldowns to survive an encounter — you get to pick the difficulty, and it turns out it's incredibly fun to challenge yourself.

In retail that barely ever happens, because every single enemy you'll fight in the overworld will be scaled to the same level as you, its health and damage output will never allow them to be exceptionally trivial or meaningfully challenging, which means you barely have to change your tactics.

I know the carrot is real. I know the class design has considerably more depth and the gameplay has the potential to be much more fun just by virtue of dungeons actually having interesting mechanics when they never did in classic. But it baffles me how much of a slog they expect you to push through to get to it as a new player. I find it very hard to believe I'd have gotten into WOW if this was my first experience with it and I didn't have friends telling me how awesome Dragonflight is.

[verynaughtyboy42]

Treasure Hunter Egypt - Tabletop RPG Zine

This Table-top RPG Zine is set in modern-day Egypt, and you play a Treasure Hunter exploring a newly discovered Tomb. However, this being me, I couldn't make a "serious" version of that idea, so this zine is packed with (hopefully) funny references to items, characters and stories and even songs "inspired" by other franchises, such as ... well, I don't want to spoil the surprises! Let's just say that spotting all my little jokes might be almost as much fun as playing the game itself!

To play this game you need a blank crossword (taken from a newspaper or magazine, or printed from one of the many free online crossword sites), a copy of the Playsheet (spare copies are included, and you can photocopy as many more as you need), two six-sided dice or an app that can generate dice rolls, a pencil and an eraser (you can use a pen too, but as there will be a lot of crossing out as you play, a pencil is easier). The length of the game depends on the size of your crossword and how lucky (or unlucky) you are. In play testing, most games on an average newspaper crossword lasted around 30 minutes.

The rules are not difficult to learn and are given in a step-by-step format. Some optional rules are included if you wish to make the game more challenging. Whilst designed to be a single-player game, there is a "score" you can calculate if you finish the game, which you can then challenge yourself or a friend to beat.

There is no offensive language or content in this zine and as such can be safely played by anyone of any age. However, many of the jokes and references relate to things younger players may not recognise or know of. If you're a parent and your child is playing this game, it might give you a fun excuse to show them where the reference comes from :)

The Zine itself is printed on nice quality 120gsm paper. It has 24 pages, measures 10.8x14cm, and is staple bound.

You can purchase it now from my Etsy store: https://lindsaybakerart.etsy.com/listing/1641449651