#well see if its just wotr or if its gaming in general

[celticwoman]

realising my wotr hyperfixation is gone and i havent even finished a single playthrough because for some reason i decided it would be a good idea to buy the last sarkorians and kiss ulbrig. killing myself

[ravel-puzzlewell]

Hi! Do you mind elaborating on what you meant by "tiefling politics" on that wotr vs bg3 post? Just curious, ignore if you want

its about the fact that bg3 has a lot of tiefling characters, somehow more than wotr, and huge theme of like hells and connections to demons\devils and somehow manages to say absolutely nothing interesting about it.

in wotr we have examination of tieflings fitting into human society, ostracization and (literal) demonization of them, where even if some of them would want to help in war against hell, they are scared (frex, group of tieflings thieves you save which you can ask to help u and they are like are u kidding me, crusaders will torch us). woljif in particular is a deconstruction of selfish chaotic neutral tielfling rogue archetype, his story both exploring how both he was pushed into being a criminal bc he had no other options, but also interplay with how he then himself tends to dismiss his own agency in being able to decide for himself and choose better, forever excusing himself with "well this is a crappy hand dealt to me", his survivalist attitude of everyone for themselves vs desire for community, how when given a smidge of stability and access to decision making in council, he tries to awkwardly, but eagerly advocate for societal improvement for all tieflings, and this is one of his most sincere moments - and gets laughed at immediately, etc etc. and speaking of community, v interesting intersection between "good" and "bad" marginalized groups of mongrels vs tieflings, with Lann being self-righteous about both his moral superiority and how mongrels "have it worse", while ignoring that mongrels - and he himself specifically - are mistreated literally bc they are mistaken for tieflings.

btw if anyone wants me to talk more about mongrels vs tieflings thing, hit me up, i think there was a interesting stuff, even if not properly dramatized

meanwhile in bg3 being tiefling largely means nothing? like the refugees would sometimes like drop a line out loud about how tieflings should stick together bc humans won't help them, but like that's it. the refugees could literally be humans running from war or blue cat ppl from avatar running from capitalism and nothing in the plot or characters would need to be changed. tieflings is just cosmetics for them, like idk its cool to have colorful NPCs with fire eyes and sexy horns. And even companions wise, you know I love Karlach and tried to romance her, but being tiefling is just looks for her, its not meaningful. It doesn't matter for her backstory, she could have been a strong human from poor background who was sold out to idk, underdark. like it sucked bc she was forced to do violence and everyne was an asshole and she couldn't see sun, but otherwise it being Blood War specifically doesn't come into play. and like. Blood War has famously huge effects on ppl with hell heritage! I'm not saying she should have been Valen Shadowbreath with entire plotline about struggling with blood war calling, but like. idk, something?

my point is that tieflings and hell has a lot of lore and like, FLAVOUR in this setting, which were not explored at all. these are just ppl with horns and generic Bad Place.

and then like. devil essentialism. bg3 has central motive of how evil races are not ontologically evil, but like, devils are. sdfghjk. apparentely mind flayers can fight actual mind control if they are V Special, but all devils/demons are evil with no exceptions. karlach was in hell for 10 years and never met a single sympathetic devil. the closest one he had mocks IS Evil when we meet her in game. and I actually liked Raphael (transition could've saved her), but there is nothing particularily interesting about him, he's also straighforwardly evil. this severely limits how interesting interactions with hell are. in wotr there is a wide range from reformed succubus to most evil sadists, with every shade in between, which allows for complex stories, like that that fucked up love between that betrayer dwarf and demoness who seduced him. she's legit evil, but she also has actual twisted affection for him, and he knows she uses him, but he was pushed too far by humans and chooses her anyway. this background story is honestly has more depth than wyll's and mizora relationship, where shes just evil and he's straighforwardly martyr. when mizora offered to have fun wink wink, i immediately knew she's gonna Evil It. and she did. and she didn't even get anything out of it! it was just staining your soul to be evil:3 like ok, but boring tbh.

and like yeah war with hell is central plot of wotr, obviously it has a lot more to say and explore about it, but like. bg3 didn't HAVE to have to include so many tieflings and have us follow their stories through all acts. it didn't have to include hell in "no race essentialism" game if it didn't want to talk about it. it chose to, and when game has big chuncks of content about smth connected by a theme, i expect it to say smth about it? anything interesting? eh.

btw, this is not to say i think wotr's writing is perfect, far from it, i can talk for ages of my problems with that game's writing, but this initial phrase was from shitposts specifically comparng things in wotr to bg3, so

[rollofleaf]

Hello!! I hope you're having a great day! I saw that you played W40K: Rogue Trader, and I've been thinking of buying the game myself for quite a while, but mixed steam reviews threw me off a little bit. Care to share your general impression of the game and its gameplay? :) Would you recommend?

People are saying that it's so buggy it's almost unplayable at certain moments. But I know better than to take steam users' word for it, I shall put my trust in tumblr instead :]

Thank you for asking! So, I think every Owlcat game has been shaky on launch, and Rogue Trader is no exception. I haven’t played the game much since I finished my first playthrough in March, and I did the bulk of it in January. I imagine a lot of the bugs have been fixed since then.

I personally never encountered anything gamebreaking, most of the bugs I ran into were flags that didn’t get applied and locked me out of dialogue or endings I should have gotten, as well as some bugs of abilities not working correctly and one softlock that was fixed with a reload. The bugs were a bit frustrating at times, but never stopped me from playing.

I found the gameplay to be a lot of fun, for the most part. The system of action points feels a lot like Pathfinder 2e and gives a ton of flexibility in how you go about your turns. My biggest gameplay issue would be the difficulty, where you tend to breeze through a lot of combats but sometimes an enemy will just walk up and one shot half your party. The wound system also doesn’t feel very fleshed out (most of the time characters just wouldn’t accumulate them). The massive amount of choice when picking talents could also be disorienting for new players.

The story is great for people who enjoy Warhammer 40k, and while the setting is a big mixed bag for me, I enjoyed it. The romances were excellent, even if the endings to them were broken when I played and Owlcat are cowards for not letting us romance Argenta. I would have liked to see Orks and T’au appear somewhere, iirc the only get a single mention in one throwaway line. I think the story itself is passable, but as usual with Owlcat the characters are all compelling and fun.

Personally, I’d probably hold off on buying the game until the DLC comes out in August, but you can always play it now and try the DLC later. The game is replayable enough for that, though I do think it lacks the replayability of WotR.

[dmagedgoods]

Enderal for the fandom ask? (Because I'm sure someone else will ask for WOTR and IWTV)

Enderal

((No Interview with the Vampire yet 😁, but that's such a great choice, aaa, one of my favorite games in the history of ever. <333))

Favorite Male Character Jespar Dal'Varek, my beloved boy. Mercenary (and noble who really doesn't like that fact) and the character with the second-best romance I ever played in my life. I'm definitely drawn to hedonists with a melancholic side. He's much ... softer than Daeran though, if you're wondering, with a similar bitterness underneath but still ... gentle. I should also mention the Father. But how to talk about them at all without spoilers ... Leader of a secret cult who believes that the mind should defeat the body. Highly intelligent, highly mysterious and related to my favorite quest. I could write a whole essay about them, but I realize every word I mention about their personality takes away from the pleasure of discovering them yourself, so I'll stay silent for now. 😁 (Also, they are neither a male character nor a female character but agender.)

Favorite Female Character Natara Dal'Veram. Do I have a weakness for conceited, intelligent women in power? You bet. She's the Truchessa of The Holy Order. Sounds important? Is important! She fights the protagonist on every turn. Once more I can't go too much into detail without giving away plot twists, only that she's devoted and hard working and loathes the main character because they step into a high position without doing much for it (or so she believes).

Least Favorite Character The High Ones and what they stand for. I rarely ever hate the antagonist(s) of a story, this time I did. Also Grandmaster Tealor Arantheal for being a fool and slightly Yuslan Sha'Rim for making a certain decision. (I love-hate him though.)

Favorite Ship The Prophet (player character) and Jespar. The romance is so good. So good. You asked me once if there is an existing character Eneas would fall for. He was my Prophet and fell very hard for Jespar despite him being different from those he's usually interested in. I have to add that I played a very young Eneas to fit the story. Very angry, very lost. He changes over the decades. On the other hand, he will change in the Enderal universe too while growing older, and in similar ways ... Ah, so much to think about always.

Favorite Friendship Very weird answer I would love to explain should you ever play the game: The Prophet (player character) - or well, mine at least - and the Father.

Favorite Quote "The world would be a much better place if everyone could just acknowledge that the only reason we're here is that we want to be happy." (Jespar) "All those “heroes” and self-declared messiahs are no better than everyone else. In the end, we are all selfish, because we always act in accordance to what we think we have to be like." (Jespar) "… I've always considered responsibility and being happy to be contradictory. But actually, that's wrong, it's the exact opposite. In order to be truly content, we need... connection. To a person, to a cause, to anything. If you never find that, you'll never find yourself." (Jespar) "I led them into the light. I alone." (Tealor) Ah dammit, I could transcribe the whole game actually.

Worst Character Death (if any) SPOILERS: All of them. So many dead, so much despair, it hurts to even think of it. How to even pick, they'll follow me forever, this game goes so deep. Rynéus, I will never recover. Calia, she deserved the world and he couldn't save her. Lishari, why did it need to come to this, it broke my heart and his as well.

Saddest Moment It's a very sad game in general. Bittersweet. Heavy on the shoulders. SPOILERS: Rynéus' death after this flicker of hope. He would have adopted him. The ending and the last decision and to see it in all its cruelty.

Favorite Location Ark! I fell in love with the city and its people. Also Whisperwood. The atmosphere is beyond amazing and always makes me shiver.

Bonus, because Enderal needs its songs: I picked Eneas without knowing how well he'd fit into the role of the Prophet. German for those who like to hear the Original.