#tula plays rogue trader

[neotula]

upon summoning marazhai to keep you company during your ablutions

Marazhai: Marazhai does not look pleased by your summons. He smiles ominously. "I have been told that you seek entertainment, Amanita. Well, since you dmenad my time... I have a few ideas for you. How does bloodletting sound? I will not drain you completely, I promise. Rogue trader: "Sounds... intriguing."

[Toughness test succeeded] After half an hour of torture, your body is bloody and mutilated. Your mind shudders at the thought of any further suffering. Nonetheless, you remain silent in the face of Marazhai's mistreatment, and endure the horrible pain without making a sound.

[neotula]

i don't think i've ever played any game that made it feel so satisfying to nail the prerequisites for a difficult line of dialogue.

(rogue trader and pathfinder: kingmaker spoilers)

locked in marazhai's romance and as someone who's playing iconoclast i cannot express how relieved i was to see this dialogue option.

It's all worth it to pull this off.

Owlcat manages to nail this every time: I know it's hip to hate on alignment in rpgs, but I'm a big fan of alignment as a roleplay tool and enjoy being locked in to an alignment that reflects my actions, and owlcat manages to make it feel so damn cool every time.

I'm reminded of the encounter with the lantern king in Kingmaker:

Your dialogue is locked to your alignment. I was true neutral the entire game, because I consistently played the game that way. In that moment, I had only one thing to say, and it was what I was. It represented how I had lived my life in the game. It would only make sense to say what I said.

Alignment fluctuates based on choices in Kingmaker, a living thing that moves with you. What you say and do has consequences, but in a moment like this, it's part tool, and part achievement: I have become this thing. I have lived how I have lived, and it may save me, or it may damn me.

So often, it feels like owlcat is able to draw the best out of these tabletop rpgs: there are many elements that are dated and rooted in or branched from deeply harmful stereotypes, coming from flawed people who imparted hurtful beliefs into the systems they created. Owlcat manages to respect the games and systems and stories that they craft their games from, but also lift them into something better, a thing that I think is genuinely incredible.

I'd always been hesitant to play a Warhammer game: when I saw that owlcat was making rogue trader, I felt reasonably comfortable that I'd enjoy the game, especially after playing pathfinder: wotr.

(an excellent game, and one of my all time favorites.)

Warhammer just hasn't been my thing prior to this: I don't enjoy the sort of "everything is fucked no matter what" setting, and even after, I can say that I'm still not sold on Warhammer as a whole.

I think I do honestly still dislike the same things I disliked before about warhammer, but I think owlcat has made an incredibly wonderful and complex game, especially considering the source material. Also, it's made me give warhammer a genuine shot, and while I'm still iffy on it, I've found a lot to love.

anyways: play owlcat games. they're the best of tabletop rpgs, delightfully horny, respectful to the characters in them in ways that consistently surprise and please me, but also, just so damn fun and over the top in the best ways. 10/10, would romance a drukhari again.

[neotula]

never has dialogue in a video game felt as high stakes as any conversation with whatever the fuck is going on with marazhai

[neotula]

going to deal with [potentially big plot heretical situation] [i am the perceived heretic] and i'm saying fuck it and bringing my favorites, hope i don't have to reload!

[neotula]

also, my favorite squad!

i like jae too but. favorites gotta come first.

[neotula]

by talos this can't be happening

[neotula]

y’know what would make this fight better? some holes in the veil!

[neotula]

I know just enough warhammer lore to know when to be scared shitless

[neotula]

yay! woohoo! yippeee! last minute recruitment!!!

[neotula]

getting close to the end in rogue trader (I think) but trying so hard not to fuck things up in pathfinder wotr/kingmaker has me so gunshy for messing up things here too.

(I would say spoilers for other RT things, but only if you’re not familiar with how owlcat does these games)

also I did everything right for two of the secret characters but one of them was still bugged when I did it so I’m not getting that one! But the other one better work!

[neotula]

owlcat games do manage to capture that most timehonored tradition of dragon age: origins (and I’d also say baldur’s gate 1+2) of “really good rpg but oh god fuck that one section”

[neotula]

how can i not want to video game tap that