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theonyxpath · 7 years

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Hello Hunter fans!

The team and I are doing everything we can to move the needle to second drafts, and I cannot wait for this game to come out. We’re working through my developer’s feedback, so we can clearly proceed with vigor. Plus, we’ve got some great collaboration going on and I personally think you’re going to LOVE Mysterious Places. As you know, I am keen on tapping into why you fell in love with Hunter in the first place while ensuring second edition rules enhance your experience at the table. One of H:TV2E’s setting conceits is the idea that there are more monsters than ever before, and this has affected hunters in many ways. Is there one tried-and-true methodology to fighting monsters? Will they ever be destroyed? What happens when you’re forced to deal with the devil-you-know to fight the devil-you-don’t?

As it turns out, these questions are a wonderful source of conflict that can be resolved thematically and by rolling dice. Today, I’d like to share with you one of the ways we can facilitate gut-wrenching personal conflict via our first draft of The Code. I’m posting how The Code works utilizing Integrity, Conditions, and Breaking Points; I did not include them here, but Touchstones for hunters also play into this as well and will immediately follow in the text. This first piece is crucial to helping you see the direction we’re taking, and anyone who’s familiar with second edition rules should have a clear idea on how The Code will work in game.

The Code will be part of regular gameplay. The draft I posted below will continue to evolve, and we’ll make surgical edits for clarity. One of the ways we’ll define The Code further, will be to highlight how you, the player, can shape your hunter’s experience by crafting a one sentence statement to define your views. This will further accommodate your personal take on the Code, but also draw in powerful, thematic moments over the course of your chronicles.

I hope you enjoy this preview!

The Code

Hunters have an Integrity trait that represents the health of their souls, just like ordinary people do. Psychological stress can destabilize a hunter’s self-image, and in fact this self-image is the crux of the Code. It’s just a question of what constitutes “psychological stress” for people who kill monsters for a living.

For the average person, excessive violence and exposure to the dark supernatural underbelly of the world cause trauma — she questions her sanity or the truth of everything she’s ever known. Brutality shocks her, numbs her. This is true of hunters when they start out, too, but at some point they make the choice to stop being victims. They draw a line in the sand and say, not me. Not my people. Never again. They may not realize it at first, but they have dedicated themselves to the Code, trading away their safe worldview for the unforgiving mentality it takes to fight the impossible.

The Code is sometimes an unspoken understanding, and sometimes a tangible set of principles that hunters vow to each other to uphold. It could be a mission statement for a conspiracy that every member signs. It could be an oath a cell swears over a freshly dug grave. Some just wax philosophical about it over beers late at night. Whatever the form it takes, when two hunters’ interpretations of the Code come into conflict, they’re willing to shed tears and blood over it.

The Vigil

When a hunter takes up the Vigil, she vows — whether out loud or just to herself — to abide by certain precepts, ones that separate her from common murderers and unnatural predators. She justifies her life of violence, crime, and paranoia with strict rules which, if followed, keep her from being like them: the monsters that prey on the innocent, kill for fun, leech off society, and care about nothing but themselves. The hunter tells herself she’s different, that she’s doing it all for the greater good. If she can cling to her Integrity, she might even be right. The more she violates the Code, the hollower her insistence rings. She builds a wall of scars around her heart so she can live with herself. Do the job, slay the fiend, save the day. But the more Integrity she loses, the less she knows herself anymore. The further she falls, the harder it is to see the difference between herself and any other killer.

A hunter’s greatest saving grace is her companions. A lone hunter doesn’t make it far before she spirals into self-loathing or forgets what she’s fighting for, living from one bloody thrill to the next. She needs people — not just any people, but people she can trust. People she can open up to and be vulnerable with, even if it’s just for a night here and there. Without the occasional reprieve from living on a hair trigger, paranoia consumes her. Confidants, called Touchstones, help remind her why she took up the Vigil to begin with and who she is behind the flamethrower.

Integrity

A hunter has an Integrity trait that ranges from 10 to 0 and represents his psyche’s stability. Characters start out with seven dots of Integrity. Whenever a hunter character violates the Code or experiences something that drastically shakes his confidence, his player rolls a breaking point (see below) and risks degeneration, or losing a dot of Integrity. A player can buy Integrity dots with Experiences (p. XX), but to purchase a dot of Integrity, a character must first spend a scene opening up to someone in a frank and honest manner, trusting that person with his rawest feelings and deepest secrets, or with his life or the lives of those he cares about. It could be anyone — a fellow hunter, a Touchstone, even an enemy, as long as he’s genuine. This trust must not be betrayed before the player purchases the Integrity dot. Characters with high Integrity (7-10) see themselves in more or less the same way they always did. The Vigil is a major part of their lives, but they can see beyond it to pursue other things — relationships, hobbies, even careers. They can draw a clear line between themselves and the monsters they despise.

Characters with middling Integrity (4-6) fully internalize the hunt, reacting more instinctively to perceived threats. They tend toward the paranoid, and are more prone to violence and/or Machiavellian behaviors. They wonder whether their actions are justified while the Code pushes them to keep hunting anyway, or they double down on their lifestyles and become cynical. Characters at this level of Integrity gain the Vigilant Persistent Condition (p. XX).

Characters with low Integrity (1-3) allow the hunt to consume them utterly. They lash out at the slightest hint of a threat, throw themselves gleefully into bloodshed at every opportunity, or scheme like a spider to take out the enemy before it makes a move. They can’t remember or imagine being anything but a hunter. Some hate themselves for what they’ve become. Others steadfastly refuse to admit they’ve fallen from grace, thoroughly fixated on the job. Still others survive more than they live, jaded to the point of single-mindedness. Characters at this level of Integrity gain the Merciless Persistent Condition (p. XX).

A hunter who falls to Integrity 0 is barely recognizable as human anymore, a relentless engine of violence and obsession. Characters who drop this far usually become Storyteller characters, and are prone to becoming slashers (see p. XX).

Breaking Points

Characters in Hunter suffer two types of breaking points. Innate breaking points are those a character carries with her from before she took up the hunt, and those that remind her of just how unsettling her life has become. Most innate breaking points involve doing or encountering something traumatic for the first time; even the most seasoned hunter hasn’t seen everything that’s out there, and surprises in her line of work are never pleasant. A character also reaches a breaking point when she violates the Code, the set of tenets that every hunter instinctively recognizes as sacred duties of the Vigil.

The Code may be universal, but no two hunters interpret it exactly the same way. They argue over what constitutes a “monster” or a “person” all the time, although the Code draws a few indelible lines that, deep down, no hunter can deny. In system terms, the Code considers any creature that wields Dread Powers a monster, including slashers. It never counts ordinary humans or other hunters as monsters, no matter what kind of terrible deeds they perform. For anyone who falls between the cracks, individual characters must decide for themselves where they draw the line.

Whenever a character suffers a breaking point, her player takes a Beat and rolls Resolve + Composure, with a modifier based on the level of the breaking point (see the list below). Only breaking points at or below a character’s current Integrity score apply to her. Other modifiers may apply to the roll as well, at the Storyteller’s discretion; modifiers can’t exceed +/-5.

The following are some examples: [begin table] Situation Modifier Deliberate act of significant personal sacrifice +3 You have more than one Touchstone attached +3 Acting in defense of another person or on behalf of cell/compact/conspiracy +2 Interacted meaningfully and positively with someone you trust within the last full scene +2 You have one Touchstone attached +2 Acting in accordance with your Virtue +1 Acting in self-defense +1 Acting in accordance with your Vice -1 Acting under duress or coercion -1 You have no Touchstones attached -2 With no control over your actions -2 Betrayed by someone you trust within the last full scene -2 Actively and willingly helping a monster -3 [end table]

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The character loses a dot of Integrity and experiences a moment of awful clarity, as the full weight of what she must do to keep the Vigil descends upon her like an avalanche. She gains the Demoralized or Violent Condition. Take an additional Beat for the dramatic failure as normal.

Failure: The character loses a dot of Integrity and questions herself. She gains the Guilty, Shaken, or Spooked Condition (or a custom one with Storyteller approval).

Success: The character keeps her Integrity, forging scar tissue around her soul thick enough to take the strain. She gains the Obsession (temporary), Stoic, or Vendetta Condition.

Exceptional Success: The character not only keeps her Integrity, but pushes a wedge between herself and the rest of humanity, justifying it all in the name of the Vigil. She gains the Addicted Persistent Condition with regard to some visceral or unsettling aspect of the hunt, such as earning a monster’s flattering attentions, killing one, or causing one pain; or the Obsession Persistent Condition with regard to a particular monster. In addition, gain a Willpower point.

List of Breaking Points

The following list includes the tenets of the Code, as well as baseline innate breaking points. The Code allows for indirect actions in the spirit of its edicts, such as collecting or sharing information about a monster so that someone else can trap it. Storytellers and players should work together to decide whether a given action or experience in play constitutes an innate breaking point for a character, depending on his circumstances and his past. Estimate the level of such breaking points using the list below as a guideline.

If a single action or event would fit multiple breaking points at once, use the one lowest on the Integrity scale.

High Integrity (7-10; -0 modifier) • First time personally encountering a particular type of supernatural trait or power (Innate) • Causing significant harm to a person (Code) • Allowing harm to come to a person in pursuit of your Vigil (Code) • Causing a person to suffer a breaking point from exposure to the supernatural (Code) • Refusing aid to a fellow hunter in need (Code)

Middling Integrity (4-6; -1 modifier) • First time killing a particular type of monster (Innate) • First time enduring physical torture (Innate) • First time enduring psychological torture or a mental/emotional supernatural attack (Innate) • Killing a person (Code) • Learning that a monster harmed a person when you could have done something to stop it but didn’t (Code) • Putting the well-being or autonomy of a monster over that of a person (Code)

Low Integrity (1-3; -2 modifier) • First time torturing a particular type of monster (Innate) • Torturing a person (Innate) • Suffering a significant loss (e.g. a loved one, a home) at the hands of the supernatural or because of the Vigil (Innate) • Gaining or bestowing power from an obviously monstrous source (Code) • Betraying a fellow hunter (Code)

#Onyx Path Publishing #White Wolf Entertainment #Hunter: The Vigil #Hunter The Vigil #Chronicles of Darkness

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gamerszone2019-blog · 5 years

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Warframe Review (2019) - Re-Frame

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/warframe-review-2019-re-frame/

Warframe Review (2019) - Re-Frame

Editor’s note: GameSpot originally reviewed Warframe in 2013 and gave it a 6. Due to substantial revisions and new content since its debut, we have re-examined Warframe as it is in 2019 and produced a new review to reflect its current state.

To play Warframe is to reconcile yourself with the sensation that you’re always a bit in over your head. Even six years after its debut, it’s still something of an oddity within the realm of online action-RPGs. With an expanding universe housing a wealth of content, the free-to-play game offers a stellar amount of freedom to explore, uncover loot, and take on missions with its cast of stylish space ninjas. It takes a decidedly unorthodox approach with its non-linear adventure–sometimes frustratingly so–yet journeying across Warframe’s massive universe is as satisfying as it is endearing.

In GameSpot’s original 2013 review, we praised the game’s agile and hard-hitting combat but criticized the lack of meaningful features that effectively took advantage of those strengths. In the broader sense, the Warframe of old was a promising sketch of an idea that lacked reasons for investment. The Warframe of today, however, has filled out the bigger picture. Its vision is clearer, and it’s now so much more than just space ninjas brawling in corridors. Some of Warframe’s best moments involve venturing into the realms of deep space, exploring open worlds and, yes, engaging in combat to power up and take on greater challenges.

When it comes to its gameplay and narrative, Warframe always seems to chuck you into the deep end. The larger story focuses on an interstellar clan of warriors known as the Tenno as they reacquaint themselves with a grander universe in perpetual conflict. You take control of a reawakened Frame–revitalized Tenno fighters from the distant past–to engage in missions against a myriad of enemy factions. This conceit of spacefaring ninjas slashing and shooting across the universe holds the loose narrative together while also giving you an impressive amount of freedom. Several cinematic quests shed light on the history of the Tenno, leading up to some profound moments that reveal a surprising depth for your character and their place in the galaxy.

Warframe is a massive game with numerous, complex systems to dive into–but therein lies the rub. It’s a challenging game to crack; even with hundreds of hours under my belt, I can still feel overwhelmed by how much game there is to unpack. However, the trick to understanding this game lies within finding your own focus in the nebulous grind–whether that’s taking on a variety of side-activities and missions on a series of planets or investing time to customize, experiment, and tweak your favorite Frames.

It can often feel like playing catch-up, considering there is six years’ worth of content in the package, but it’s a game that rewards taking the time to soak it all in, instead of rushing through. How you get accustomed to this surprisingly sink-or-swim structure will determine the mileage you get out of it. Most missions are singular, discrete encounters across the solar system. This piecemeal structure ultimately makes the massive game more digestible. There’s a staggering amount of activities to dive into, and with over 40 hyper-stylized Frames to utilize, there’s a constant sense of fun and surprise when discovering how deep it all runs. However, while the opening missions do well to get you into the basic swing of things when it comes to its core gameplay, the more in-depth systems are left for you to decipher on your own.

The overall speed and flexibility in its action is something that it continually excels at, and there’s a constant sense of grace and finesse that can make even the ordinary missions thrilling.

This mostly hands-off approach in getting you acclimated can sometimes manifest feelings of aimlessness. And it’s magnified when it becomes apparent that there isn’t a traditional endgame to work up to. There are higher-end missions and stories designed for more experienced players, some focusing on endless fights against waves of enemies, but there isn’t anything like raids to unlock later on. In many ways, you’re introduced to that familiar endgame grind from the onset, and that often entails fine-tuning your suite of Frames to tackle many of the game’s tougher challenges.

The true star of Warframe are the various Frames, with each possessing their own unique designs and abilities. The pursuit of new characters to play as is one of the many constants in your journey, often dictating where you should invest your time. It always feels rewarding when you find a new Frame, especially when it’s one that stands apart from the others. Some are highly specialized, such as the stealth-oriented Ash or the aquatic, alien-tentacle-summoning Hydroid. Another standout is Octavia, a Bard-like Frame that lets you craft custom music to amplify your abilities and attack enemies. One time, a squadmate of mine used Octavia’s skills to effortlessly clear a hallway full of enemies–all to the tune of Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It.”

There is a ridiculous amount of room to experiment, and it can be especially fun strengthening one of the beginner Frames with powerful mods and armaments that can melt through enemies. It’s also impressive how in-depth customization and personalization is in Warframe–you can apply different shaders, accessories, and even alter their particular animation set, and it’s rare to find another player who has the same style and loadout.

It’s a necessity to get your Frame to reach its potential for them to be viable for more advanced activities. If you don’t apply the correct mods and buffs to your character, it can often stop you in your tracks at some inconvenient moments in your progression. If you’re committed to figuring out the intricacies of the game, then using online guides to understand these advanced mechanics, much like with other aspects of the game, is a must. These resources are a big help, but it’s disappointing how often you have to use them, as opposed to the game teaching you the same information. Without them, learning these systems on your own can be a significant test of patience.

You’ll quickly find yourself in a rhythm of cutting down mobs of enemies and boosting your Frame’s strength by collecting mods and earning experience as new gameplay systems and events open up. While the core gameplay is often satisfying, it’s still common to see a streak of highly repetitive missions, most of which re-use tile-sets for procedurally-generated levels and objective types. This repetition can create a recurring feeling of déjà vu throughout, and there were times when this left me feeling exhausted after an extended play session with the game.

To help ease this sense of repetition, Warframe does inject a number of variations on standard missions, as well as adding in new activities. Along with Nightmare challenges, harder versions of previously completed levels, several missions even remix past stages by including multiple enemy factions within one level, making some standard objectives far more hectic. Some objectives feature totally different gameplay modes, in particular incorporating the Archwing, which switches up the familiar action sequences with Wing Commander-style shooter levels. There’s even a set of PvP game types, such as the Conclave and Duel modes, with the latter letting you invite another player to a player-made clan dojo to engage in a solo fight. Unfortunately, the PvP activities come across as exceedingly basic and clunky compared to the core PvE experience.

Despite how much the game has grown over the years by adding in game-changing features, Waframe’s roots are still planted firmly in its fast-paced and satisfying core combat. The overall speed and flexibility in its action is something that it continually excels at, and there’s a constant sense of grace and finesse that can make even the ordinary missions thrilling. It often shows similar shades to a fast-paced corridor shooter by way of a stunning character-action game, with your squad tearing through enemies using myriad skills and armaments.

The core combat and general traversal of Warframe can move at a blistering pace. Despite how complex they can get, they’re still intuitive enough to dive into, and you can pull off Warframe’s advanced acrobatics like gliding, wall-runs, and the appropriately named “Bullet Jump”–which darts your character in any direction–reasonably quickly. Melee combat also features its own complexities, allowing you to use an assortment of combos and aerial abilities to cut through legions of foes in flashy display. Over time, chaining together slick parkour leaps into fast strikes with your weapons can become second nature, resulting in Warframe’s most gratifying and stylish encounters.

Warframe can be daunting for newcomers, yet it can also prove a challenge for players–like myself–who take an extended break and have to learn the basics of new features while simultaneously unlearning outdated ones. Such is the case for online games, and fortunately, Warframe does have an active and open community to trade with and seek assistance from, and you can directly interact with others at various social spaces across different planets. It’s common that you might have to consult outside resources in order to figure out what to do next, or else your progress might come to a halt abruptly.

Stick with the game long enough, and you’ll unlock access to the more involved cinematic story missions and open-world settings that best show the game’s considerable growth. Unlike the fragmented storytelling in most of the game, these two pillars present a more guided plot that offers memorable narrative and character moments. Some of these missions even include the surprising addition of a dialogue system, which can result in some slightly different events in questlines.

In the open-world settings of the Plains of Eidolon and the Orb Vallis, which open after you reach the planets they’re located on, you can take in the sights of the large-scale worlds, take on dynamic bounties and events with squads, and even learn more about the brewing conflict within each setting. The Vallis’ story is especially engaging, dealing with workers’ rights and the perils of late-stage capitalism in the interstellar age. Though these main stories set in the open worlds tend to end far too quickly, the amount of nuance and narrative packed in was impressive, which left me wanting to spend more time in the settings to continue interacting with its characters.

I’m continually pleased with the flexibility of Warframe’s many systems, and how it allows for you to attain a variety of rewards and unlocks at your own pace. Of course, there is an assortment of items, weapons, and even Frames to purchase with real money or with Platinum, Warframe’s premium currency. Fortunately, most items in the game are attainable through gameplay, allowing you to get into the nitty-gritty of the game’s content mostly unabated. The in-game economy of Warframe is very active, and if you’re resourceful enough, you can even trade some of your own gear and blueprints with other players for Platinum as well.

When new content is introduced, the pathway to experiencing the quests or acquiring the next Frame is available to all players. This relaxed approach is reassuring, especially for a game of this magnitude. I generally find acquiring gear and new classes to be quite manageable. However, there are still some time-sinks that feel mostly arbitrary, resulting in the expected and sometimes lengthy grind that’s commonplace in free-to-play games. To that end, the primary intent of Platinum is to circumvent both investments of time and resources.

Thinking back to GameSpot’s original review, it’s interesting how much the game has improved, yet also how much has stayed the same. The game still has issues with repetition and lack of explanations for its more complex systems, but it’s managed to overcome their severity by introducing so many events and revisions that continue to elevate it. While there are inevitable bouts of frustration here and there, I always manage to center myself once I move on to other opportunities. In a lot of ways, that’s what Warframe manages to do best. One moment you’re taking part in a random spy mission on Saturn, and the next, you’re partnered up with a powerful squad of players that help you through several void fissures. Just when you feel like you’ve hit a lull, a better, and more fulfilling opportunity will likely present itself. Perhaps most importantly, Warframe makes sure that the time spent in its world is almost always well rewarded.

Source : Gamesport

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gamerszone2019-blog · 5 years

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Warframe Review (2019) - Free To Frame

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/warframe-review-2019-free-to-frame/

Warframe Review (2019) - Free To Frame

The overall speed and flexibility in its action is something that it continually excels at, and there’s a constant sense of grace and finesse that can make even the ordinary missions thrilling.

Source : Gamesport

#Game Reviews

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gamerszone2019-blog · 5 years

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Warframe Review (2019) - Space Oddity

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/warframe-review-2019-space-oddity/

Warframe Review (2019) - Space Oddity

The overall speed and flexibility in its action is something that it continually excels at, and there’s a constant sense of grace and finesse that can make even the ordinary missions thrilling.

Source : Gamesport

#Game Reviews

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