#rpg rant

[theonefairygodmother]

Who would imagine the role-playing about racism in magic realm would be ageistic and ableistic in real life?

[einstein-von-newton]

So, the Anima rpg system

first off, it's a super combat-centric system, it has more pages devoted to tables of combat modifiers than it has to noncombat skill checks as a whole.

but it's also really clumsy ABOUT combat. RAW you reroll initiative at the start of every round (which, on one hand, prevents you from being shafted by being stuck at the bottom of the order by a single bad roll, but also it's a real pain to keep track of.

additionally, your median level one commoner starts with 70 hp, and a gold-standard hard-hitting weapon (a two-handed sword), has a base damage of 90, which you need a strength of 8 (which increases your damage to a 100), which in a normal system means that if you hit they're just obliterated, easy peasy. But in this system attacks are measures in degrees of success, so realistically to 1H-KO the average guy with median health and no armor you need to beat them (on an opposed d100 roll) by at minimum *70*.

And armor is NOT hard to get, you can passively buy up your "wear armor" stat, and can arbitrarily stack soft armors (quilted armor, chain mail, ect) and they're all directly additive. there are also spells and psionic abilities that give armor that stack w/o any penalties or stat requirements (beyond the investment to get them)

Additionally, there are two separate defensive skills, block and dodge (technically you can use psi and magic projection, but those are their own rants). You have to buy them up separately, so realistically can choose one or the other. That being said, dodge has better circumstance modifiers that block in almost all circumstances, but block can get a flat boost from using a shield.

[contrary55]

The more and more I read about the changes that have happened to BG3 since its "full release" to now it's crazy how people treat it as some massive artistic acheivement when Larian's artistic integrity begins and ends at who whine the loudest o thier forums

[crazyforclones]

I am so ill over Mario and Peach

Continue reading to listen to me absolutely lose my mind over these goobers

Establishing character:

I just adore Mario and Peach so much. And before I get those funny people always like “oh Mario hates peach,” or “peach never “gives” Mario anything for saving her! He probably only does it to get something from her-“ Ima need yall to shut your trap ok 👹

First of all, Nintendo, especially with Mario characters, had no idea how to characterize their characters in the beginning. Peach changes in almost every single different medium. Take the old Nintendo power (I think) comic called the “super Mario adventures.” in which Peach is a lot more outgoing, strong, sassy, and a literal general.

Not saying this is a bad rendition of peach I actually like it! But I use it as an example of how these characters have changed over the years. And also, often times in games or stories like these where they focus more on the characters than gameplay, we see a more accurate and fleshed out character. Which is why in some other Mario games, characters often say things that might seem rude or out of character but is put there for comedy. (Nintendo obsession with making fun of Luigi in every rpg game is an example 💀). And the same goes for Mario, he’s changed a lot. But I feel in the current renditions of the characters, they have a much more stable idea of their character.

Also another cute picture from the comic-(sorry quality poopy I took it from mine)

This is peach dreaming about marrying Mario btw.

Mario’s character:

From what we see now, Mario is just an average blue collar man in his late twenty’s who is quite short and also plump. Despite this he is still THE most brave, athletic, talented, determined, occasionally hot headed, and an overall idol to the entire mushroom kingdom. He is often labeled as THE Mario. And people also express their surprised when they actually see what he looks like 💀. But the reason I bring this up is Mario is quite literally just some guy. He’s some guy who entered this foreign kingdom, heard there was a Princess in trouble, and as a New York Italien blue collar worker he could’ve easily just went on with his day or ignored these random peoples pleas, but instead, he immediately decides he will travel multiple worlds so he can save this princess and help the kingdom (also cause the game needed a incentive but still-). From the get go mario was ready to help people. He helps them not expecting anything in return, but because he has a good sense of Justice. There’s hundreds of side quests you can do with Mario, sometimes they’re ridiculous. But you know what? Mario will do it. Because he likes helping people. Because he’s a role model. And because he’s just a good guy.

Mario and Peach as a couple:

Most of the time, people who criticize or make fun of their relationship are often doing it as a joke which is fine, but this is for the people who genuinely think Peach is a jerk for not giving Mario “more” for what he does.

People often say “Mario has saved her so many times and all he gets is a kiss on the cheek!”

Now despite the fact Peach doesn’t owe Mario anything just because he saved her, I can see why people might be upset over this. However, like I said before, Mario does things not expecting rewards, but just because it’s the right thing to do and he has a duty.

People forget one dire things when it comes to love like this:

Love can be shown in many different ways

Peach kissing Mario in the cheek wasn’t proof that they were in love or together. I’d argue they weren’t really at all in the beginning. Except maybe a slight crush. A kiss on the cheek is often just a gesture of gratitude. Peach usually kissed anyone who saved her. It’s just her way of saying thank you.

What really shows that Mario and peach love one another is how they interact. The things they say and do. They don’t need to kiss to prove they’re in love, it’s simply implied with how they interact with one another. Whether it’s small gestures like holding one’s hand before a big game, or something such as trusting the other person to give you a boost so you can save your partners rabbid version of themselves from an evil space fish.

Or! It can be something more direct, like peach literally looking Mario in the eyes and saying this:

Or when she is scared but assured herself she will be ok as long as she has Mario!

It’s these little things that speak larger than words. Mario and peach simply have a relationship that is there but doesn’t need to be forced down your throats to convince you that they’re in love. They simply are. And their love is shown in many ways. Love comes in all shapes and sizes, and so does Mario and Peach!

Now have Mario dancing like a middle aged dad snapping his little fingers to make Peach laugh :)

[okaydrawboy]

this is the base i made for the centurion skeleton and it just screams for me to make a million skeleton warriors i just don't know how bones work and sizing them off of references on google feels clunky, also idk how many ribs you are supposed to have or what size the skull is vs the body and if its different for everyone... lots of work to do? still skeleton soldiers are so fucking cool

[sliipppy]

Earthbound is one of those games that just makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Like Ness gets homesick on his adventure and needs to call his mom? You can just call a pizza whenever you want? Silly jokes? Power of friendship? Relaxing and soothing soundtrack? I get emotional whenever I hear Pollyanna. The Mr. Saturn's font is the handwriting of the creators toddler daughter? The eldritch being at the end symbolic of the loss of innocence and childhood trauma? Cute. I love Earthbound

[blackberry-sage-tea]

Apologies but I have another stupid long analysis post. Been thinking about this and I think Veilguard defenders aren't necessarily wrong that Veilguard's main choices "matter" about as much as prior game choices matter--that is, in that they have a superficial impact on dialogue and story paths, while the core narrative is ultimately unchanged (albeit it has way, way less of those superficial changes). Dragon Age's main appeal as an RPG series (imo) is that it tries to balance player freedom with having a coherent and emotional narrative in a way that a lot of RPGs can't (either because they let you kill major NPCs if you want or because the endings diverge so heavily the next game has to be 100 years later), so it's always been more limited in what you can do. It's mostly always been down to dialogue, cameos, and side quests.

But the thing about Veilguard's major story choices is that it doesn't give you any context to appreciate what you're choosing or why you're choosing it. And so they FEEL like they don't matter in a way that prior games never had a problem with.

In DA:O your major choices come at the end of a quest chain. Harrowmont or Bhelen, werewolves or elves, mages or Templars. These choices have very little impact on the rest of the plot, your story is not significantly different for picking one or the other (except for, again, the superficial things). The thing that makes these choices feel weighted is not the consequences of which ally you have at the final battle or a single paragraph at the end, it's that you spend a lot of time building up to them--you are given the full context for what you're choosing, the game is asking you to make a decision on a topic that you are now very well informed on. You know what the stakes are for this choice, even if you don't see it outside of an epilogue blurb.

Awakening, similarly, has its main story choices near the end--Do you save Vigil's Keep or Amaranthine? Do you side with the Architect or against him? These impact the plot almost not at all because of their placement, it's a "future consequences" thing, but it feels like it matters because the game has spent its whole runtime telling you what choices you're making and building them up through its side quests. It's asking you what you think is most important.

DA2, same deal. The lesser story impact on your choices is, in this instance, more of a technical constraint this time around (the game is very unfinished so you're pretty much press-ganged into the Templar route for a good chunk of it) but all of the choices you make are based around things the game is constantly giving you context for. How you feel about the Qunari, how you feel about Templars and Mages, how you feel about the Chantry, these are things the game is ABOUT and so there are no major story choices where you ask yourself, "why should I care about this?"

Inquisition fumbled this a smidge, I think. The mage-Templar choice is a very early one, and it's given to you without much time to build context for it (if you're a new player, that is), however that's the choice that has a little more story impact than normal and unique quests for each so it's not as big a deal. The other choices though, they also come at the end of questlines where you get to know the stakes and the characters involved. Who do you leave in the Fade? Do you wish to redeem the Grey Wardens or not? Who do you think is the best ruler of Orlais? Should you drink the Well of Sorrows, given what you've learned of Elven history? I have my criticisms of the writing for these quests but like most people I appreciate in hindsight that it still followed the pattern of "your choices matter because you know what you're choosing and why it's important".

Veilguard doesn't do that, and that's why its major choices (what few there are) feel like nothing despite arguably getting the same amount of story impact that previous games did (ie, its mostly dialogue changes and slightly different side quests).

Who do you pick to help you in the opening? I mean, does it matter? The situation is dangerous whether they're helping you or fighting demons alone, there's not really any way to anticipate that the one who comes with you is getting seriously injured outside of "this is a video game". Should you help Treviso or Minrathous? Well, I mean in-universe as Rook I'm doubtful that there's anything I can actually do to save a whole city given my lack of resources (plus each city has a collection of warriors about as capable as me) and tbh I barely know anything about either one because this is pretty early game, I've just been focusing on recruitment thus far. Do you punch the First Warden or not? Yes…? I mean I get that it wants to give you a choice but I've been given no indication that there's a guy capable of reason in there--even the whole "You're hearing your Calling" thing is given AFTER the choice is made, and it's not like punching out the First Warden would have major consequences for the Wardens as an order, he's just a politician. Do you pick Davrin or Harding for your secondary team? Am I supposed to know in advance that this is going to get them killed? I'm picking the person I think is best for the job, and sure enough they successfully do the thing I picked them for. It's only later, after the choice is no longer relevant, that the consequences bear fruit. Do you pick Neve or Bellara to undo the wards? I mean there's no reason why that choice leads to Elgar'nan grabbing one or the other, it's literally just who is standing closest to the mirror when he shows up.

And this isn't even going into things like "Who should be Archon?", which is relegated to a single fucking side quest (unless you saved Treviso in which you have no choice) and your options are "reformist who wants to use dirty tactics" and "reformist who wants to use naive tactics" given to us after having 0 development on Tevinter's actual sociopolitical system and how it works other than "it's bad". Oh, and both candidates promise to support each other with no hard feelings and none of the people you ask have strong feelings one way or the other, just vague preferences.

You see where I'm going with this, right? The ONLY major choice the game has you make that it has spent the whole game building up to is how you want to deal with Solas, but to a long-time player who got more, BETTER context for who he is in Inquisition and Trespasser, it feels painfully unfair and lackluster in execution (it's not an exaggeration to say this game told me nothing about Solas as a person that I didn't already know going in, except for the things that directly contradicted his prior characterization). And of course, that's just one character--you're not being asked to make a decision that impacts the world (because the world consequences are the same no matter what), you're just deciding what flavor of Solas you want for your ending.

Your major choices don't matter not because they have less impact than prior games (which is a separate argument), or because there's less of them (this is true but it's not the point I'm making here), but because these choices are arbitrary as hell in the moment you're making them. You're not given the tools to care about them. All the reasoning people give for one or the other? Entirely meta or based on future knowledge. The narrative doesn't inform the decisions, the mechanics do.

[justag0at]

So you know that pre-cannon Mirabelle RPG everyone's talking about? I think it's be cool to have a scene, right before the act 5 "familyquests" where you get forced to check the stat menu. Mirabelle is like "maybe I should check on my friends/family" so you open the stat menu and Siffrin's jumped from level 45 to 99. You don't know when, you don't know how, Mirabelle doesn't notice because the stat menu isn't diegetic, and when you close it Siffrin starts walking up from the bottom of the screen.

[marioboyy]

"mArIo Is 4 KiDs! DoNt ExPecT cHiLlS!"

How many times did we have to hear this BS? It is a family series, so yes of course it relies heavily on the players of tomorrow, big scoop! But is it a 'Dora The Explorer' of videogames? No. If that was the case there would not be a tear-jerker origin story skillfully hidden in Mario Galaxy, and you certainly would not remember Paper Mario titles so fondly. Chills are always on the menù in this colorful multiverse.

[theonefairygodmother]

Eu perdendo meu tempo com a porra de um joguinho que tá sendo administrado por uma porra de um grupo de adolescentes. Eu, uma mulher de 22 anos brigando por bosta, me importando com pouco

Porque será que eu me importo com coisas tão pequenas? Essa é a nossa próxima fala na sessão de terapia 😉 boa noite a todos!

[kaffykathy]

Sometimes I look at Lancer's core book and just think about how lacking it is in significant details for all the factions, like who is the current leaders of Union, to founders and owners of the many corporate entities.

I know that doesn't sound like exciting lore to anyone, but for Union, there's no one like the Camerons from Battletech or the Karl Franz from Warhammer Fantasy. And I can see that it was probably purposely implemented like this for the reason that these entities are bigger than the identities that lead them, and that's why when a name like Johnathan Harrison pops up along sith a small blurb of who he is, we start to realize his significance and why Harrison Armory is the way it is. He was basically a fascistic General from Seccomm that fled and made his own Union how he saw fit, and his clones still live up to his legacy to the current setting of Lancer.

At the same time, Union doesn't have any of that. There's no lore about some, or any politician of government in the Core Book at least other than the seats and chairs that they fill. The reason for this is to give the players the ability to make their own interpretations with the world, but it's really saying something when your big government super power claiming to be in a utopian golden age doesn't have a face to its actual organization.

(Side note: if anyone ever tells you that their realm is a Utopia, you should be taking that the same way that someone says that a ship is 'Unsinkable'. Sorry to burst your bubble Pilot NET, but some of you really need to read between the lines about this. Especially with how much of a bureaucratic nightmare DoJ HR is.)

I know that it's very much the case that Massif press could have done this intentionally to show in the Lancer setting that the sum is bigger and more significant than all the parts added together. The world of the setting is too big to care too much about one individual or planet without weeding in a reason why in most cases because unless you're playing a mission book like Solstice Rain, you probably wouldn't be visiting any of the planets or people brought up in the first place. But the thing is, to me, is that this really makes Lancer less lively than I think it should. When I read about the Albatross, I wanna know about their heroes and significant feats and journeys. I could just play and Albatross, but having record of the daily life at the perspective of a nomadic Lancer would have been told so much more than I think the actual descriptions give.

It's why I love the blurb of text on the Sisyphus NHP. It builds a character, tells a narrative, and humanizes this being most probably would only be used to get a better roll. It also implies how cycling actually works for an NHP and the significance to it. And from all this, we can see that Sisyphus knows that his fate is to be cycled and die over and over again. Something barely given full page and it's just text on equipment.

And yet we don't have anything like that for the bigger picture. We don't know that the leaders of Union generally feel or think about the world surrounding us. We don't have a set uniform for Union or any other of the major players. And as a person who was fascinated with historical things like what soldiers wore during the battle of waterloo, or what camo patterns did a certain tank use, I feel like it's a significant diservice to not give us official uniforms and outfits for Union.

Imagine what cultural reflections that could have impacted the clothing an officer would wear.

I don't know, Lancer really likes to skim on the actually interesting descriptions, but I still love it. It's just that it really doesn't give me enough reason to care about things like Cradle or the Solar System in its current timeline. There is a lot of telling, and not showing in the lore for me, but they don't even tell things that historical nuts like me might be interested in.

[contrary55]

I'm at a point where I'm 95% sure when people keep talking about how Veilguard "didnt respect the lore" it is then telling on themselves for not paying attention or that it didnt conform to the head canon they have been working on for upwards of a decade. Like sure you can say that but dont hide it under a veil of it being not lore accurate when it consistently touches upon lore that hasnt been mentioned since origins

[dingodad]

to be fair i think the reasons why i believe quadrants r fake versus why i believe classpects r fake are pretty crucially different. like homestuck kind of goes out of its way to trick you into thinking classpects could be real whereas i genuinely dont think hussie ever expected anyone to read about moirallegience and think wow... so romantic.. i want that in my life ❤ LOL

[grayve-mistake]

this is just kind of a big tangent but like I fucking hate when nerd ass losers see a game with even vague similarities to another game and go "ERMMM. HOW ORIGINALL (SARCASTIC). THIS IS JUST ANOTHER GAME IN THE STUPID TREND OF-" and then they list every genre/label under the sun to try and discredit the game as unoriginal by comparing it to other games. 90% of the time they haven't even played the game they're complaining about. they just see pixel art and get angry ig.

like look at this image. look at this and tell me it's not just alphabet soup. what do half of these words even mean. congrats on discovering what a genre is I guess?????????? good for you?????? do you want a fuckin award or something???? a little handclap??? shall I pour you a little glass of wine for being oh so smart and sophisticated for figuring out that Things Can Have Little Similarities Sometimes?????? just say that 7 years later you're still bitter that undertale got popular and leave oh my god "quirky dialogue" oh I'm sorry did you want your dialogue boring and soulless yeah let me just remove the personality from the game. here's your Nothing Burger I hope you're happy. "pixel art" oh so i guess like almost every game that came out in the 80s and 90s is actually just part of a so-called "2010s-2020s trend". These people genuinely think earthbound and celeste are "Basically The Same". it's not even an rpg. You had to throw in platformers in your disgusting word smoothie because otherwise you couldn't even find any real similarities besides "has a story and contains pixels". they think the psychological horror game Omori is just Undertale 2. yeah sorry guys Super Fuckin Mario Brothers is part of the quirky rpg metroidvania fjhksdgjhlkfgsdhkfgh-like diarrhea trend. cant play it now or you're cringe and bad. do you people ever get TIIIRRREEDDDDD. DO YOU EVER ENJOY THINGS. ON THEIR OWN MERIT. DO YOU EVEN GIVE THINGS A CHANCE. YOU'RE NOT SPECIAL FOR NOT LIKING THINGS YOU'RE BORING AND ANNOYING AS FUCK. I'm so fucking done

[samueldays]

I have made the mistake of letting myself be talked into running the Exalted RPG again. Rereading the 3e corebook, I am reminded that the mechanics are bizarrely bad in so many different ways.

Like many RPGs, Exalted has abstract skills that cover wide categories, as a matter of gameplay convenience and character archetypes. "Melee" skill applies to both dagger and polearm. "Perform" skill applies to both harp and trumpet. "Larceny" skill applies to both disguise and pickpocketing.

except for the "Craft" skill!

Craft is bought as a series of narrow subskills like Craft (carpentry) or Craft (woodwork) - yes, those are canonical examples. Some are oriented to a material like Craft (gemcutting), some are oriented to a result like Craft (weapon forging).

This is dumb in its own right, to have one skill which is sliced much more finely than the others, and so costs much more XP than the others to achieve similarly broad competence.

This is super dumb in the context of the previous edition, which tried dividing Craft only five ways by element: Air, Earth, Fire, Wood, Water. But then the previous edition quickly picked up esoteric elements like "Vitriol" and non-elements like "Necrotech" in splatbooks, and they had a great test case in Craft becoming bloated with too many subtypes, and a hint that Craft should be unified into a single skill. They did not take the hint.

And then there's Excellencies.

Exalted 2e was already suffering a problem of Charm bloat. ("Charm" is the name of a single discrete superpower, a character will have many of them.)

Exalted 3e made an attempt to slim that down by declaring that Excellencies, the basic dice-adder Charm, should not have their own rules entry and should not cost XP, being instead a side benefit of knowing a proper Charm in the appropriate Ability. It was not very effective, but there was an attempt.

And then I see that Exalted 3e reversed this decision for the Dragon-Blooded Charms, for some godforsaken reason. DB Excellencies were turned into a sort of Minimum Viable Product that is dice-adder + a tiny benefit like "a stunt award for this roll also gives a silver craft point". The benefit varies by Excellency.

So we are back to Charm bloat, PLUS de-standardization as an ass-backward reason for why Excellencies should exist as separate charms, PLUS inconsistency between Solar Excellency and Draconic Excellency mechanics in use, PLUS inconsistency at the abstraction level of character progression and learning Charms.

[mintyeve322]

as someone who is not confident enough in her art to draw let alone post, fanart, i have one request for the Outer Worlds fans in this coming year.

LOCK TF IN WHEN THE OUTER WORLDS 2 COMES OUT!

idk if im just not looking hard enough or what but there is so little fucking fan content for the Outer Worlds it sickens me! the game is so good but the fanart and fanfiction is SO limited omfg! and i can only really consistently find fanart here bc idk how to use twitter and i refuse to learn.

anyway. im gonna cry if i dont see more the Outer Worlds fan content. i joined this fandom late but jesus christ i adore the characters so much man.