#with the new systems and developments in the game

[elfwreck]

Things D&D sucks at:

Leverage as a TTRPG - even if you put it in a high fantasy setting instead of the modern world, the problem with Leverage is that the characters are all experts in their field at the start. They are acknowledged across the world as being Best of the Best. And yet they're not on the edge of retiring as 15th-level thieves (hackers, hitters, grifters) - they grow and change over the course of the series, in both their core skills and their new ones.

Ascendance of a Bookworm - Myne is 1st level (or 0 level) physically but has the knowledge and mental skills of an experienced adult, albeit of a different setting. Her social skills are a mix of "young child" and "adult woman." D&D assumes knowledge skills & physical ones will advance together.

John Wick/Indiana Jones/Kill Bill/Terminator - anything with a single badass protagonist. D&D is designed for parties that cover each other's weaknesses, not a single heroic character that can survive anything thrown at them.

Superhero genre - to be fair, the TTRPG hobby as a whole struggles with superhero games. But D&D is particularly bad at it; it's not designed for characters with innate world-shaping (or world-breaking) powers.

Slice-of-Life - Daria, Friends, Parks & Rec, The Office, Simpsons, etc. Any setting where the characters don't particularly progress, don't get "better" - they just develop relationships and bounce off each other.

Murder Mystery - Again, like superheroes, pretty much everything's bad at the Sherlock Holmes/Poirot/Murder She Wrote/Benoit Blanc genre. (There are some good X-Files/SPN "monster-hunter mystery" games.) D&D is very much not designed for "you almost never have combat and when you do, it's probably a bit of fist-fighting."

Any of these (and several other settings for shared-story games) are very much "just find another game system."

With a bit of tweaking, D&D can do Star Trek or Star Wars, can do steampunk, can do zombie apocalypse, can do Dragonriders of Pern, can do Stranger Things.

It can't do Golden Girls, M*A*S*H, the Arrowverse, or Psych.

There's something I've repeatedly seen with posts TTRPG blogs like @thydungeongal or @anim-ttrpgs make/reblog - most recently with that "mental gymnastics" meme - where the post will tell people to play another game instead of going through the effort of squeezing D&D's square block into their campaign's round hole, and inevitably, people will comment "or just pirate D&D books!", which just... doesn't make sense? Pirating the books doesn't make the game better! It's like seeing someone eat soup with a fork and instead of telling them to use a spoon, you tell them to shoplift their forks.

But then I realized something. That's just another symptom of D&D players seeing playing TTRPGs as activism. When they see someone saying "play another game", they mentally add "...because WotC is a bad company!" even if the post very explicitly says "...because D&D is a bad game (for this kind of gameplay)!"

I have no real conclusion for this. It's just stupid.

[demifiendrsa]

MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls | Announce Trailer

Developer Diary: From Japan to the World

MARVEL Tokon: Fighting Souls will launch for PlayStation 5 and PC (Steam, Epic Games Store) in 2026.

Screenshots

First details

PlayStation Studios, Arc System Works, and Marvel Games have joined forces to realize the latest in tag team fighters, MARVEL Tokon: Fighting Souls! Experience the Marvel Universe like never before with reimagined characters and stages, a heart-pounding soundtrack, intuitive gameplay mechanics, and jaw-dropping visuals that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Whether this is your first fighting game or you are a veteran of the genre, Arc System Works has incorporated gameplay controls and mechanics that are easy to pick up and play, and yet still offer the depth and versatility for high level competition.

“From the beginning, we aimed to make MARVEL Tokon: Fighting Souls a title that could be enjoyed by a wide variety of players,” explains game director and lead battle designer, Kazuto Sekine.

“Generally, a team VS fighting game requires the player to learn multiple characters, but for MARVEL Tokon: Fighting Souls, you only need to master one character in order to play the game. We have designed the mechanics in such a way that you can perform a variety of actions with either traditional fighting game inputs or simple inputs. With the press of a few buttons, multiple characters can appear on screen to provide backup or attack together—creating a new and exciting team VS battle experience.”

“Since day one, our long-time and trusted collaborators at PlayStation and the team at Arc System Works have poured incredible amounts of talent and passion into reimagining the Marvel Universe in a way that only they can,” said Michael Francisco, Senior Product Development Manager, Marvel Games. “MARVEL Tokon: Fighting Souls demonstrates that they are absolute masters of their craft and are true Marvel fans at heart. Players are in for a wild ride.”

Characters

Enter the fray with iconic Marvel heroes and villains such as Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Doom, Storm, Ms. Marvel, Star-Lord, and Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes)—each with Arc System Works’ unique twist on their character designs and gameplay styles.

Arc System Works Producer, Takeshi Yamanaka, states, “There are so many amazing Marvel characters that it was quite a struggle to choose our roster, but we did have some criteria for the selection process. First and foremost, we wanted to include characters who we feel to be the ‘face’ of Marvel. At the same time, we also needed to select characters that would give us a balance of battle types and styles. Lastly, we wanted to sprinkle in a few surprises and leave room for characters who have never been playable in a fighting game before.”

Yamanaka-san continues, “Early on in the project, we experimented with a shader to recreate a more western comic-book visual style, but the Marvel team expressed a desire for us to lean into something more [Arc System Works]-like. It was then that we switched our approach to the game’s visuals and began to lean more into the Japanimation style [Arc System Works] is known for.”

Gameplay Mechanics

From short-ranged jabs to the cinematic Ultimate Skills, each character features a bespoke set of Normal, Special, and Unique attacks inspired by their abilities and powers in Marvel lore. Arc System Works has gone to great lengths to ensure that gameplay style, movement, and feel of these legendary characters is fresh, new, and wholly unique to MARVEL Tokon: Fighting Souls.

But it’s not just the individual gameplay of the characters that has been enhanced; significant dedication has gone into reimagining and redefining what it means to be a tag team fighter.

“Team VS fighting games have a long tradition of two-versus-two or three-versus-three team formats, so this is something we discussed in-depth within the development team. We went back and forth many times, from thinking we might be better off making a one-versus-one game or sticking to the established three-versus-three format.”

Sekine-san continues, “At its core, we felt that the appeal of team VS fighting games is the intensity of battles with multiple characters on screen at once. Additionally, one of the appeals of Marvel comics is seeing the vast cast of characters coming together to create all kinds of unique team-ups.”

“With these two ideas in mind, we concluded that creating a four-versus-four team VS system would be the best way to not only create those over-the-top moments, but to further evolve the tag fighting genre.”

Stages

The stages come to life in MARVEL Tokon: Fighting Souls, filled with easter eggs for eagle-eyed fans to find. Most stages also feature multiple areas. These transitions between areas are not just action-packed and stunning to witness, but they also play a strategic role. Check out the screenshots from Marvel’s New York City to see what you can find.

More to Come

Today’s announcement is just the beginning of our journey. From characters and stages to gameplay modes and the online experience. There’s so much more we can’t wait to share with you!

[theomeganerd]

The Witcher 4 Tech Demo Debuts

CD PROJEKT RED and Epic Games Present The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo at The State of Unreal 2025!

At Unreal Fest Orlando, the State of Unreal keynote opened with a live on-stage presentation that offered an early glimpse into the latest Unreal Engine 5 features bringing the open world of The Witcher 4 to life.

Spotlight:

Tech demo showcased how the CD PROJEKT RED and Epic Games are working together to power the world of The Witcher 4 on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, and bring large open-world support to Unreal Engine. The tech demo takes place in the never-before-seen region of Kovir.

As Unreal Fest 2025 kicked off, CD PROJEKT RED joined Epic Games on stage to present a tech demo of The Witcher 4 in Unreal Engine 5 (UE5). Presented in typical CDPR style, the tech demo follows the main protagonist Ciri in the midst of a monster contract and shows off some of the innovative UE5 technology and features that will power the game’s open world.

The tech demo takes place in the region of Kovir — which will make its very first appearance in the video game series in The Witcher 4. The presentation followed main protagonist Ciri — along with her horse Kelpie — as she made her way through the rugged mountains and dense forests of Kovir to the bustling port town of Valdrest. Along the way, CD PROJEKT RED and Epic Games dove deep into how each feature is helping drive performance, visual fidelity, and shape The Witcher 4’s immersive open world.

 Watch the full presentation from Unreal Fest 2025 now at LINK.

Since the strategic partnership was announced in 2022, CDPR has been working with Epic Games to develop new tools and enhance existing features in Unreal Engine 5 to expand the engine’s open-world development capabilities and establish robust tools geared toward CD PROJEKT RED’s open-world design philosophies. The demo, which runs on a PlayStation 5 at 60 frames per second, shows off in-engine capabilities set in the world of The Witcher 4, including the new Unreal Animation Framework, Nanite Foliage rendering, MetaHuman technology with Mass AI crowd scaling, and more. The tools showcased are being developed, tested, and eventually released to all UE developers, starting with today’s Unreal Engine 5.6 release. This will help other studios create believable and immersive open-world environments that deliver performance at 60 FPS without compromising on quality — even at vast scales. While the presentation was running on a PlayStation console, the features and technology will be supported across all platforms the game will launch on.

The Unreal Animation Framework powers realistic character movements in busy scenes. FastGeo Streaming, developed in collaboration with Epic Games, allows environments to load quickly and smoothly. Nanite Foliage fills forests and fields with dense detail without sacrificing performance. The Mass system handles large, dynamic crowds with ease, while ML Deformer adds subtle, realistic touches to character animation — right down to muscle movement.

Speaking on The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 tech demo, Joint-CEO of CD PROJEKT RED, 

Michał Nowakowski stated:

“We started our partnership with Epic Games to push open-world game technology forward. To show this early look at the work we’ve been doing using Unreal Engine running at 60 FPS on PlayStation 5, is a significant milestone — and a testament of the great cooperation between our teams. But we're far from finished. I look forward to seeing more advancements and inspiring technology from this partnership as development of The Witcher 4 on Unreal Engine 5 continues.”

Tim Sweeney, Founder and CEO of Epic Games said: 

“CD PROJEKT RED is one of the industry’s best open-world game studios, and we’re grateful that they’re working with us to push Unreal Engine forward with The Witcher 4. They are the perfect partner to help us develop new world-building features that we can share with all Unreal Engine developers.”

For more information on The Witcher 4, please visit the official website. More information about The Witcher series can be found on the official official website, X, Bluesky, and Facebook.

[mimiyanna]

Stealing this image from twitter and bringing it over here, because holy shit, some of the clowns I have been seeing talk about the game lately.

[ruvviks]

PLEASE DO NOT TAG AS YOUR OWN OC OR PAIRING.

Nathan and Ruben share a bond more powerful than most; mutual understanding through past experiences no one should ever have to go through, and through past actions so horrible they cannot be spoken of. Their grief and the blood on their hands binds them to the STEM technology they created, which has alienated them from the rest of the world— but they give each other the comfort they have both longed for so desperately for years, and that is all they need. They are each other's counterpart; you cannot imagine one without the other, like two sides of the same coin. Through their pain, their grief, their desire, and their regret, they have become one.

anna akhmatova, the guest // bones; equinox // 'i won't become' by kim jakobsson // agustín gómez-arcos, the carnivorous lamb // by oxy // achilles come down; gang of youths // czeslaw milosz, from 'new and collected poems: 1931-2001' // 'extended ambience portrait from a resonant biostructure' and 'migraine tenfold times ten' by daniel vega // a little death; the neighbourhood // marina tsvetaeva, from 'poem of the end' // by drummnist // katie maria, winter // 'nocturne in black and gold the falling rocket' by james abbott mcneill whistler // micah nemerever, these violent delights // body language; we are fury // 'the penitent' by emil melmoth // chelsea dingman, from 'of those who can't afford to be gentle'

taglist (opt in/out)

@shellibisshe, @florbelles, @ncytiri, @hibernationsuit, @stars-of-the-heart;

@lestatlioncunt, @katsigian, @radioactiveshitstorm, @estevnys, @adelaidedrubman;

@celticwoman, @rindemption, @carlosoliveiraa, @noirapocalypto, @dickytwister;

@killerspinal, @euryalex, @ri-a-rose, @velocitic, @thedeadthree

[silver-horse]

as much as I am enjoying Kingdom Come Deliverance, I am losing my patience with it a lil bit because of the save system. The game doesn't allow me to save whenever i want to like most RPGs, I need to gather these "saving schnapps" and there aren't many/enough so i don't want to waste them. But this means whenever I get attacked on the road and die, I lose entire hours of progress. This is bullshit tbh. Since I started this game, most quests I had to do 2-3 times... just redoing every dialogue etc. If this continues , completing this game will take a million hours. Maybe I will have to regularly quit the game and restart, just because at least it saves when we quit the game.

[chibishortdev]

Mapping is pretty tedious… I’ve made a little floor plan to make it a bit easier, but it’s far from final. Likely will have some downsizing done to it.

Having this in the program itself is fun because I can set the starting point in this at any time and test how nicely each of these rooms flow together. It’s also pretty surreal since it’s all placeholder tiles, smaller scale, and no separation between rooms.

Hmm I already see a couple things I want to change about it—

[zincbot]

spoke too soon abt the ttrpg dog in me being smaller these days because if i don't play a game in the next 1 second i'm going to eat probability

[ellraiser]

Hey! I am absolutely IN LOVE with Mudborne. I played the first demo but I think I'm gonna reinstall it to see the new demo. I LOVED Apico, and I think I'm really gonna enjoy Mudborne. I can't wait till it comes out!

Thank you so much! Lots have changed since that first gamejam version, the new demo is much closer to what the game will be like - albeit a little bit information overload in some parts just so I can show off all the main mechanics in one go The starting region of the full game is what the demo is loosely based off but it'll be a bit more slower paced and handholdy before it then kicks you on your slimy butt and tells you to go work out the rest!

[demifiendrsa]

FINAL FANTASY TACTICS - The Ivalice Chronicles | Announcement Trailer

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC (Steam) on September 30, 2025.

Players who pre-order will receive the following bonuses:

White Equipment for Ramza

Weapon: Mythril Knife

Accessory: Spiked Boots (Increase a unit’s Jump attribute while equipped)

Consumable items: High Potion x10

Consumable items: Ether x10

Players who pre-order the Deluxe Edition will receive the following bonuses, including a valuable accessory that increases the speed at which characters can learn abilities:

Weapon: Akademy Blade (Raises a unit’s speed attribute slightly while equipped)

Headwear: Akademy Beret (Prevents the Charmed status while equipped)

Combat Garb: Akademy Tunic (Grants Shell while equipped)

Accessory: Ring of Aptitude (Boosts JP earned while equipped)

Consumable Items: Phoenix Down x10

Black Equipment for Ramza

Red Equipment for Ramza

Overview

About

The dramatic tale of ambition, betrayal, and honor will come to life with an updated and enriched script with fully voiced dialogue, alongside improved graphics that bring a new level of immersion and playability to the battlefield. Additionally, the enhanced version brings quality-of-life updates like new difficulties, a revamped UI, auto save, and more that make the game more accessible to newcomers. The game features strategic, turn-based combat and an elaborate character progression system that makes every battle exhilarating and filled with unexpected twists.

Hailed as one of gaming’s greatest stories, in this standalone game, players will step into the Kingdom of Ivalice—a medieval world steeped in political conflict—in which players uncover the truth behind the young noble Ramza Beoulve, whose role on history’s stage has been buried from view.

The new key art of Ramza and Delita, the two heroes of this story, is drawn by Akihiko Yoshida. The art depicts the complex relationship of the two individuals—whether they stand together to protect one another, or the start of a departure as they walk divergent paths. Above them, Ovelia and Alma, both of whom have strong ties to Ramza and Delita, solemnly look into the distance, foreshadowing the direction that fate will lead them.

Legendary developers from the original game will make their return in Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, including Kazutoyo Maehiro (director), Hiroshi Minagawa (art director), and Yasumi Matsuno (original script, scenario writer and editor).

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles will include both enhanced and classic versions of the game. The enhanced version features modern upgrades and quality-of-life changes, including fully voiced characters, a ground-up graphical overhaul and an updated user interface that make Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles the perfect entry point to the tactical RPG classic for new players. The classic version is a nostalgic recreation of the game, developed for players who want to experience the original Final Fantasy Tactics from 1997.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles‘ voice cast featuring an all-star lineup of new and returning Final Fantasy cast members, including Joe Pitts (Ramza), Gregg Lowe (Delita), Hannah Melbourn (Agrias), Timothy Watson (Cidolfus), Harry McEntire (Mustadio), Ben Starr (Dycedarg), and cameos by Cody Christian (Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII Remake series) and Briana White (Aerith Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII Remake series).

Key Features

Challenging, Tactical Turn-Based Battles – Experience the addictive tactical turn-based combat and deep character progression system that made the game an instant tactical RPG classic. Players will test their battle acumen against a host of powerful enemies, and use the various terrains, characters and customizations, as well as their strategic thinking, to achieve victory.

Customizable Job System with Dynamic Character Progression – Players can master a robust roster of over 20 jobs—including black mage, dragoon, geomancer (who can use the environment against foes), summoner (who can call forth the iconic Final Fantasy moogle and other espers), time mage (who uses time magick), thief, and more—and over 300 character abilities to strategically build endless party combinations.

Enhanced Gameplay Features and a Faithful Classic Version – The enhanced version features a revised script and fully voiced dialogue, offering a new level of enjoyment to this classic story. Additionally, a brand-new user interface, improved graphics, as well as additional character conversations and dialogue create a new level of immersion. Additionally, many new features have been added to make the game even more approachable including the ability to confirm unit turn order with the press of a button, scout the battlefield from afar with the tactical view feature, speed up battles with fast forward, auto save during battles, adjust game difficulty to match your play style, and more. The classic version faithfully recreates the 1997 release of Final Fantasy Tactics alongside the acclaimed War of the Lions translation—perfect for fans who wish to relive the original experience.

[bigboobshaunt]

Finished RER2! I'm happy I finally got to the end, after stopping late into it the first time I played it.

I find it and its predecessor to be really underrated, especially in the story department. It doesn't help that they never developed the massive bombshell that they dropped in the stinger to the true ending, and seeing how 7+8 turned out... I don't think they ever will, and that bums me out.

[mystybelle]

shameful shilling mystybelle here to feign shilling sans shame so salicuously she succeeds in selling her sauce to the supreme sight of the masses -

HI Do you Roleplay? Do you RP with mixed company sometimes, and get worried about fairness?

You should try World Seed! It's a set of rules, or SRD, that'll make it a lot faster to start playing! I made it myself, so it can actually fit any setting, and get up and running really quickly.

If you're insane, you can even use it as a starting outline for a full pen and paper game of your own, or as the basis of a template for a video game design document! It uses the GNU GPLv3 (a better version of D&D's OGL if you know what that is), so as long you share a raw copy of World Seed SRD alongside your work, you can share/edit/sell it or anything you make with it freely!

World Seed, at its core, is built as an immersive sim system, so all of it's rules are simple, and function best when the only thing you need it for is deciding how an interaction resolves when everyone is unclear. So it can handle anything you add to it!

[chronurgy]

I know I know clown nose clown shoes honk honk but da4 getting a name change and confirmation of another villain just days after I posted about how the name made me worried about the game being overly Solas focused is just.... Damn I cannot stop winning

[the-maladjustedjester]

The inherent eroticism between a condemned and their executioner

[boundless-ut]

For this week's smaller update, a look at how the dev environment has changed! I figured out a method for making skyboxes I like and made the environment look a bit more unified, just to have something nicer to look at while I work. A few new objects have also appeared to test and develop several systems. It's unfortunately a lot of code based work and not a lot of visual based updates to show off.

[fanfictionwritterwannabe]

my dude you said can of worms.

The thresher Maw is a big ass worm with anger issues.

yeah