#for example these are so the undead won’t just attack each other when they’re in the same dungeon

[lichposting]

This happens when you follow me btw

#image #tes #oblivion #perso #I love the mechanics of factions in oblivion #it’s present in fo3/nv/skyrim too #so many little things working behind the scenes #for example these are so the undead won’t just attack each other when they’re in the same dungeon #except liches who are only their own faction to add the tags that they fucking hate all necromancers and vampires #but are still cool with random ghosts and zombies and stuff #ok goodnight #the posts

[maledictusrp]

VAMPIRE  ( vampyr )

A vampire is an undead creature that feeds on the life essence of the living. They are known to be night dwelling monsters without souls, a predatory species with little regard for their prey. 

It started with a demon, a demon that held the blood of the seven sins and the mind of pure rage. Its desire and envious feeling drove the demon insane, violent in a cold, red rage of unholy malice. Eventually, the demon had met its final day, breathing its final breath. The carcass would remain in its spot, rotting away as natural as it can be, but it would soon be discovered upon a group of wandering scavengers. These scavengers feasted on the demon’s body, eating all flesh and blood of the ravenous beast until it was merely a meager set of broken bones. Once they had consumed the demon they laid down to rest, unaware of what was to come. It would be then that in those few hours of rest in the day that the scavengers began to grow ill into a strange, violent fit of rage and bloodlust. They had begun to feel a harsh need for darkness, hiding away from the sun to keep it from driving them further into illness. They would attack anything that had come in the way of their path, draining of their victim’s blood. Though if the victim was lucky, however, they too would seem to become ill within the few hours of the attack, undergoing these painful symptoms and passing it along to those who have come in contact with them if they were lucky to survive. They became a silent and deadly epidemic. The humans infected would become ravenous and end up cannibalizing themselves. It would be years before the first few humans became immune to this sickness and managed to survive the transformation stage. No one really knows how old vampires actually are but according to the Sanguinem Verbum ( the Vampire Codex ), the first vampires appeared in Ancient Mesopotamia circa 4000 BCE. During the first few millennia, vampires were not immortal but simply lived longer. Typically a few hundred years before they started to desiccate. Then slowly, vampires started to adapt and evolve until they became gifted with true immortality.

EACH VAMPIRE BLOODLINE HAS A SPECIFIC ABILITY. INFORMATION ON BLOODLINES WILL BE POSTED LATER. 

BASIC STRENGTHS

ENHANCED PHYSICAL STRENGTH - Vampires are gifted with superhuman strength. They are capable of bending steel and breaking a human body in half with a single blow. This strength is influenced by age but also by blood consumption. Vampires who are on a particular diet are weaker than those who feast on human blood on a daily basis.

ENHANCED SPEED - Aside from strength, vampires can move at incredible speeds that are undetectable to the human eye.

ENHANCED SENSES - Vampires are able to see, smell and hear far better than humans. They are able to hear a heartbeat from miles away, smell blood at distances, recognize scent of prey and have night vision. When first turned, vampires can get overwhelmed by their senses for everything is heightened.

IMMORTALITY - Vampires cannot die of natural causes.

ADVANCED HEALING - Vampires will heal from any wounds as long as they are still alive. Healing speed can be affected depending on how much blood the vampire has consumed. Starving vampires heal at a much lower speed.

COMPULSION - Vampires possess a natural charisma and can compel humans and supernaturals, including other vampires (if they’re Regium), into doing whatever they want through suggestion. These effects can last up to years but will go away if the vampire is killed. Hunters can be trained to resist compulsion, but some minds are more susceptible than others.Compulsion is largely influenced by age and experience, therefore a fledgling or a vampire who has rarely used compulsion throughout the years would have a much lower chance to succeed at compelling a 100 year old werewolf, for example. Furthermore, compulsion cannot be overruled by another vampire, only added to. Attempting to overrule compulsions can be dangerous, however, for it can cause brain damage or dementia so it does more harm than good. The only ways to break someone out of compulsion are: a) if the vampire responsible for the compulsion lifts it; b) if the vampire responsible for the compulsion is killed; c) if a witch can break the victim out of it, though it is a painful process that takes hours and only certain types witches who are strong enough to perform such a task can break someone out of compulsion completely. NOTE: COMPULSION AFFECTS ACTIONS BUT IT DOES NOT AFFECT EMOTIONS.

BASIC WEAKNESSES

SUNLIGHT - Vampires will be set aflame when in contact with sunlight. A vampire cannot be out in the sun unless they are in possession of a daylight ring. Daylight rings can be obtained through their sires or directly from a witch who’s familiar with the spell. Attention: since daylight is the deadliest thing to a vampire, do not obtain daylight rings from witches you do not trust. They can remove the daylight spell at any time, though their deaths will not affect the spell.

BEHEADING - The head must be completely removed from the body for this to take effect.

STAKES - vampires can be killed with a wooden stake to the heart. They will immediately cease functioning and turn into lifeless corpses. This is called desiccation.

WEREWOLF BITE - Vampires that are bitten by werewolves are essentially poisoned, becoming weaker and weaker until they cease functioning and turn into a lifeless corpse. This may take up to 24 hours to take effect, but no more than that. The cure to any werewolf bite is to drink the blood of an alpha.

VERVAIN - While vervain cannot harm vampires, it’ll protected people from vampire compulsion. There are different ways of using it: some people dilute the plant and digest it, some spray it on, others may carry the plant with them. The most efficient way is to drink it consistently so that it stays in the system. Vervain is very difficult to find and witches sell them at a very expensive price.

INVITATION - Vampires cannot step into the home of the living without an invitation.

STARVATION - Vampires need to feed on blood in order to survive, there is no way around it. A vampire can slowly desiccate from the inside out if they don’t feed.

NECK BREAKING - This won’t kill a vampire but it will immobilize them for some time.

DEAD MAN’S BLOOD - A poison to vampires that incapacitates them for a short period of time. When the blood from a dead human is injected into a vampire it induces a blood sickness, causing them to become very weak.

CREATION

Only humans and witches can be turned into vampires. A human who has consumed vampire blood in some way (whether by drinking it, having it poured into an open wound or being injected with it) and has subsequently died with it in their system will be revived as one of the undead, just like the vampire who sired them. The exact nature of the human’s death is irrelevant to this process; the only condition that must be met is that the body has to be more-or-less intact and able to function once they reawaken in transition. In order to complete the transition into a vampire, the person must then consume a significant amount of human blood, at least a sip’s worth, within the next twelve hours, or else they will simply die. The transition period can be an uncomfortable experience: their senses and emotions are already heightened and their system starts to crave blood. It is an uncontrollable hunger that can stay with the fledgling even after they complete their turning. They are also transitioning into their Bloodline and it can be very painful for a vampire to go through that on their own. This is why new vampires are considered to be dangerous without proper guidance and typically require the assistance of a sire for the first 20 years of their rebirth. Vampires who have not been assisted by their sires during this critical time are referred to as ORPHANS.

VAMPIRE BLOODLINES & ORPHANS

Vampirism began as a virus. A deadly virus that killed everyone who came in contact with it. It took years but eventually humans who were infected started to survive, giving birth to a whole new species. This period would later be labeled as the period of transition. From here, the virus mutated into four distinct strains that are transmitted through blood.

Bloodline is a term used to describe a group of vampires who share a common lineage. While the term can be used to refer to vampires who share a sire, grandsire, or so on, it usually refers to those lineages that have some inherent distinction between the four traditional Bloodlines, be it in their weaknesses, characteristics, abilities, etc. These vampires share a common characteristic passed on by the blood. Each Bloodline has their own organization, culture and characteristics and even though there have been conflicts between them in the past, Bloodlines typically work together out of necessity for a common goal.

ORPHANS IN BLOODLINES: Orphans aren’t an abnormal occurence in the vampire universe. However, depending on the bloodline they come from, they can be considered an oddity.

FUROREM produce the highest number of orphans, they are not known for thinking before acting and they turn many humans only to leave them to fend off for themselves. However, most of them don’t survive past the ‘infancy’ period. REGIUM orphans are extremely rare, and subject to death as they can be considered an offence to their bloodline. Regium only turn those they deem worthy of their blood, so an orphan is an unacceptable reality. CUPIDITAS usually have an attachment to their progeny, so their numbers are lower than Furorem, but they are emotional creatures so there’s always a chance things will go wrong between sire and fledgling. And PROELIATOR usually have plans for their progeny, but sometimes they turn people that won’t go through with them, becoming essentially useless to their makers.

Orphans will still contain the gifts from their respected bloodlines but they will have trouble controlling them. A REGIUM might not be able to compel larger groups without becoming weakened. A CUPIDITAS orphan might not have a good grasp on their suggestive gifts and either be unable to do so properly or have that backfire and have the opposite desired effect. PROELIATOR are physically stronger than other vampires but an Orphan might be slightly weaker and not have as much stamina or take as much damage as a pure Proeliator can. FUROREM are cursed the moment they are turned. Most Orphans become too unstable to live and unable to stand their vampirism. Their blood can become so hot during their first few years that they could potentially liquefy from the inside out. Some have gone mad and killed themselves. The ones who survive are more prone to going into frenzy and their poison is not as deadly as a full fledged Furorem.

Orphans are outcasts and are not protected by any bloodline. If any war between the bloodlines were to happen, they would be left to fend for themselves and they can’t ask for asylum within them own. They have no voice, no claims to any rank and they will never be welcome inside the Kindred. It is against Kindred law for an Orphan to mingle with a “pure” vampire.

LIFE STAGES

Vampires have four life stages:

NEWBORNS - A vampire is considered a newborn from the day they are turned to their 100th birthday.

FLEDGLING - Vampire adolescence lasts 500 years.

ASCENDANT - Adulthood starts at age 500 and ends when the vampire reaches its senior years at age 1000 

ELDERS - This is the last cycle for a vampire and it begins when a vampire reaches their 1000th birthday and ends once they reach 2000 years of age. Most vampires die before reaching then end of this cycle.

ANCIENT -  2000+ years. Ancient vampires are a rarity. When a vampire reaches this cycle they slowly begin to turn to stone and will only wake up every 100 years for a few nights at a time. 

#horror rp #supernatural rp #vampire rp #jcink rp #jcink premium #preview #site buzz #member group

[brokehorrorfan]

DVD Review: Shark Bait

Shark Bait collects six schlocky shark movies - Swamp Shark (2011), Ghost Shark (2013), Zombie Shark (2015), Ozark Sharks (2016), Mississippi River Sharks (2017), and Santa Jaws (2018) - along with a bonus alligator flick - Alligator Alley (2013) - for good measure. The fin-tastic DVD set is available now from Mill Creek Entertainment in celebration of Shark Week.

Although Mill Creek presents the features in no discernible order, I opted to view them in chronological order to see if there were any patterns or growth over the seven years spanned. They're all cheesy, but it's interesting to see which of the movies embrace their inherent absurdity, which makes them easier to swallow. Case in point: Sharknado became a cultural phenomenon because it went all-in on the concept.

In viewing all seven of the movies over a short span of time, the formula is apparent. A cast with a couple of celebrities past their prime and a bunch of wooden, inexperienced actors play one-dimensional characters that spout unnatural dialogue (usually with an obligatory Jaws reference) in between animal attacks accomplished with laughable CGI.

Another fascinating fact is that a mere two directors are responsible for all seven movies. Griff Furst (Lake Placid 3) was in the director's chair for Swamp Shark, Ghost Shark, and Alligator Alley, while Misty Talley helmed the other four. I imagine making these movies is good fun, although it likely becomes tedious after a few. But their work was clearly successful enough to warrant repeat hirings, so more power to them.

Swamp Shark is an example of a pre-Sharknado creature feature that takes itself far too seriously. An animal smuggler accidentally releases a rare shark with a virtually impenetrable exoskeleton into a Louisiana river. Despite the swampland being infested with the added threat of alligators, the opportunity for shark vs. gator action is sadly missed. While the shark is predominately created with crummy CGI, a couple of shots admirably utilize a good, old-fashioned rubber head.

Kristy Swanson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) toplines the film as the person tasked with stopping the flesh-hungry shark before it wreaks havoc at the annual Gator Fest. The cast also includes Robert Davi (The Goonies), D.B. Sweeney (Spawn), and Baseball Hall of Famer Wade Boggs. After years of independent and made-for-television work, Swamp Shark cinematographer Lorenzo Senatore recently shot the new Hellboy.

Ghost Shark is a strong contender for the most entertaining movie in the set. It starts with a practical, fake great white in the prologue until it's killed, after which point it becomes the titular, translucent Ghost Shark. It can materialize in any water, and its appearances become increasingly more outrageous, from the ocean and a swimming pool to water pipes and a slip and slide. I won't give away the most ludicrous highlight, but it's a rare unforgettable moment in a Syfy movie.

Levity is key, which is why the last act becomes more tiresome when it focuses on the why and the how, although I appreciate that its mythology is taken seriously despite the silly premise. Mackenzie Rosman (7th Heaven) stars as a girl with a personal vendetta against the specter. Richard Moll (House) brings surprising nuance to the role of the alcoholic lighthouse keeper with a dark past. Thomas Francis Murphy (The Walking Dead) plays the small town’s sheriff.

Zombie Shark (also known as Shark Island) finds a shark - named Bruce, of course - escaping from the scientific facility in which it was the subject of experimentation. It proceeds to find food on the shore of a nearby, secluded island. The shark spreads its undead virus to other sharks and, eventually, to humans. There's no shortage of voracious fish action, including a first victim that caught me off guard; a rarity in these oft-predictable films.

Cassie Steele (Degrassi: The Next Generation) stars as one of four friends on the quaint island for a getaway, and Jason London (Dazed and Confused) co-stars as the facility's head of security hunting down the shark. Although not a "name" actor, Roger J. Timber provides solid comedic relief as an islander who serves as host to the guests.

Ozark Sharks follows a family's long-weekend trip to an Arkansas cabin that holds a special place in the grandmother's heart, only to find that bull sharks have invaded the nearby lake. This happens while the town is gearing up for a big firework festival. Much like Zombie Shark, the first kill is a welcome surprise, but the film culminates with an unnecessarily melodramatic finale.

Allisyn Ashley Arm (A.P. Bio) stars as the angst-ridden lead who becomes the final girl of sorts. Thomas Francis Murphy is back, this time playing the soothsaying owner of the local bait shop. He owns an arsenal of homemade weaponry that adds a dash of fun to the bland proceedings, including a giant air canon, an oar turned into a high-voltage cattle prod, a double-bladed katana, and a crossbow that shoots dear antlers.

Santa Jaws not only has the best title, but it may very well be the strongest effort in the set. Although it lacks the star power of the other movies, it offers a radical deviation from the creature feature formula; it's a coming-of-age movie. When a dorky teen boy receives a magic pen that turns its drawings into a reality, he uses it on his comic book, Santa Jaws. Soon there's a killer shark with glowing, red eyes, a candy cane horn, and a Santa hat on its dorsal fin targeting his family amidst their Christmas gathering.

The result is something like Jaws meets Krampus by way of Ruby Sparks, if it were produced by the Hallmark Channel. Shark excitement takes a backseat in this one, and there’s a whole lot of unintentional camp present, but the youth-driven approach to the material is a breath of fresh air. With no hackneyed military or science roles, the characters feel more natural and developed.

Though not quite as far a deviation as Santa Jaws, Mississippi River Sharks spices things up a clever meta element. Jason London plays a fictionalized version of himself, the star of the Shark Bite franchise. He's the celebrity guest at a podunk town's fishing competition, and his inflated ego leads him to believe that he's the most qualified person to save the day when sharks start attacking. Unlike his blase role in Zombie Shark, London lights up the screen in this supporting role.

The real hero is Cassie Steele's Tara, but it's Dean J. West (The Hunt) who shines when London is absent. In the comedic role of Tara's friend, Wyatt, he's an overzealous Shark Bite fanboy who relishes the opportunity to live out his favorite movie... even if he doesn't know what he's doing. A brief cameo from Jeremy London (Mallrats) - Jason's twin brother - furthers the meta aspect.

Alligator Alley is included as a bonus film. Thomas Francis Murphy plays another pivotal role, this time as a bayou redneck who brews chemically-enhanced moonshine. He dumps a string of bad batches into the river, mutating the local alligator population to the point where they can shoot spikes from their tails. He has a long-standing family feud with another local Cajun family, with two star-crossed lovers - one played by Jordan Hinson (Eureka) - caught in the middle, but they must band together to stop the gators.

The first half of the film is a bit dull, as you're essentially waiting for all of these annoying characters to get eaten, but the pacing picks up when concept that can only be described as weregators is introduced. The left-field plot point is so preposterous that it makes the film vastly more interesting. And maybe it's because I had just watched six shark movies and water is hard to animate, but the CGI isn't half bad considering the time and budget.

Shark Bait crams all seven films onto two discs. Compression is apparent in every movie (particularly with murky underwater footage, for whatever reason), and of course there are no special features, but it still beats watching them with Syfy's incessant commercial interruptions. Each one clocks in at under 90 minutes, so even the poorly-paced movies - of which there are several - are over before you know it.

Although far from high art, the best films in the collection - Santa Jaws, Ghost Shark, and Mississippi River Sharks - subvert expectations by mixing up the trite formula, and they don't shy away from levity. If you're lamenting the lack of a new Sharknado film this year - the franchise concluded with its sixth installment last year - fill the shark-sized gap in your heart with the Shark Bait collection.

Shark Bait is available now on DVD via Mill Creek Entertainment.

#shark week #sharknado #syfy #jaws #santa jaws #swamp shark #ghost shark #zombie shark #ozark sharks #mississippi river sharks #jason london #article #review #mill creek entertainment #gift #dvd

[homebrewcatalog]

Being a dungeon master can be intimidating, especially if you’ve never done it before.  However, it can also be an incredibly rewarding experience that boosts self confidence.  Running a session (let alone a campaign) is a lot different than being a player, but there are only a few things you need to know in order to be labeled a great DM.

Plot Line

Develop a main goal

Have purpose

Come prepared... but not too prepared

MAIN GOAL - When it comes to developing a plot line for an entire campaign, I see two ways of doing it: having a complicated main plot where 90% of the time is dedicated to solving/working through the main plot, or, having a simple main plot with lots of room for sub-plots. I’ve seen the first done really well, but I am personally a fan of the latter.  It leaves so much more room for player character development as they navigate through the NPCs and the diverse set of problems thrown at them. On the contrary, I find that running complex campaigns without subplots is more focused than the other type.  

An example of a complicated campaign plot would be a political scheme plotted between all of Faerun to rise Tiamat from her slumber.  The party knows this, and they travel around the land in search of answers.  They have the same goal in every town they visit, and everything they do is centered around stopping (or aiding) the rise the primordial goddess.  

An example of a general plot with many subplots would be that the party has to light the hearths of a multitude of villages to prevent a celestial attack.  They have time before this attack happens, and they run into other villages that need their help along the way.  Maybe a woman’s daughter was taken? Or there is a cursed well that spits out an undead creature every once in a while that needs to be taken care of?

There is a difference between the two styles, and deciding what kind you want to run before you go into running your session is crucial.  If you change midway, things can get confusing, or feel rushed.  

This page is for novel writers, but it is extremely useful for developing a plot and taking your PCs into consideration when planning.

This video is centered around RPGs and goes through plotting step by step.

HAVE PURPOSE - Know how you want your campaign to go before you sit down in the DM’s chair.  Understand your main goal, and where you want your players to be at the end of the campaign.  Do you want them fighting an all powerful fiend? Maybe competing to be the rulers of an all new nation? Are they going to try and save the world? Once you have that, you can build the stepping stone to get them there: sessions.  

Each session should bring them closer to the end goal. So, have a plan for each session. Make each session have a purpose, and make sure it relates somehow to the end goal.  Do they need to be here to meet an NPC who will give them information? Is there a magical item that will help them on their journey? Is there an enemy or an ally to be made?

COME PREPARED - Walk in knowing the environment you will present like the back of your hand. Know (or have notes) on everything your players could potentially have access to in the area you drop them in. 

Have NPCs ready to go with their stats in case they need to fight, have the map of the location so vividly in your mind that you could draw it half asleep. Place the NPCs in their proper locations.  Many people think when they’re just starting off that they need to have a plan for anything their players will throw at them. I thought that too. But turns out, that’s not true.  You just need a plan for every place your players could possibly go.  Understanding this is a lot less stressful and will take a lot less time.  You probably didn’t have a plan for your friend’s dwarf running headfirst into the chimney.  But you know the location, the building, and the attitude of the NPC. That is efficient enough to figure out on the spot what happens to the PC.  Was the building of sound structure? Maybe in your mind it wasn’t, so the whole thing comes crumbling down and everyone needs to make a dex save. Maybe it was of sound structure in your mind, and the PC bursts right through. But you’d decided that these woods are infested with elementals. So, time for the party to roll initiative.

Come prepared when it comes to the location and setting, but don’t try and prepare for what your PCs are going to do once they’re in it.  Players do weird things sometimes, and sometimes subliminal messages aren’t received.  So there was a murder in town and you mentioned a sketchy looking character with blood on his clothes walking around the tavern??? Well, your players want to investigate the victim’s husband instead because you described his mustache for a suspicious amount of time. I cannot stress this enough, this happens all the time. It can be frustrating, but you just have to follow them through what they want to do and adjust what you imagined to fit their decisions. If you have your NPCs and locations fleshed out, then that won’t be hard at all.  

People think the DM is the one who controls the game, but not really.  And in my opinion that’s the way it should be.

Quick and easy NPC stat maker.

Encounters

Balance

Making enemies

Distributing XP

BALANCE - Encounters need to be balanced. You don’t want them too easy, but at the same time you don’t want to have a TPK. I personally use the CR system. In general, the way to use the CR system is that you take the average level of players in the party should equal the CR of the creature/added total of the creatures.  So, if you have level three creatures, it’s okay to have them fight a boss CR 3 insect. It would also be fine if they fought two CR 1 quadrones and two CR 1/2 Ambush Drakes. Fighting one CR 1 quadrone would be far too easy, but fighting a CR 5 Hulking Crab would wipe them out.

This system is built for 4-5 players, so aim a little less if you have 2-3 players, or a little more if you have 6+.

D&D Beyond has a great selection of official monsters as well as other people’s homebrew monsters.

MAKING ENEMIES - Whatever idea you have for a creature, especially if it is something out of other folklore, has probably been made into a 5e creature by someone somewhere. A lot of the time though, it isn’t balanced for your party level. So, you have to adjust it.

When it comes to adjusting official or other homebrew enemies, I always recommend looking at other creatures of the proper CR and adjusting the values. Maybe make that 4d8 damage just 1d8 damage? Or take away the fact that this creature can make 3 attacks.  It’s all what you make it.

If you decide to create something entirely from scratch, draw inspiration from other creatures of the same CR needed for you party.  Make sure you take into account the party composition to see what the party can handle.

Matt Mercer explains this really well in this short video.

DISTRIBUTING XP - This point is a bit controversial, but it can be used for the sake of realism (even if it is a fantasy game). Experience is relative, and shouldn’t be limited to fight scenes.  Think about how experience goes in real life? What makes people grow? For most people, the answer isn’t anything physical.  Give experience points for trying to learn a new trade or making a connection with another character.

Take their backstory into account too. Maybe there is a PC who has never killed before. The first time they kill someone would be a big deal and a major life event for them, as opposed to someone who is an assassin who has been killing since they were a teenager. And maybe that assassin has never had a true friend, so forming a bond with someone would be major character development.

This also accounts for enemies. The ranger who specializes in killing the undead should earn less XP than the monk who is encountering them for the first time. It is an eye opening and probably terrifying experience for the monk, but for the ranger it’s just another day at the office forest.

Attitude

Be confident

Listen to your players

BE CONFIDENT - Being a DM is a performance. You are playing different characters and creating a story for the rest of your group to enjoy.  Not to put anyone under pressure, but if you’re going to be the DM, you’re going to be the star of the show.  People’s entertainment depends on you.

Now, with that being said, there are an infinite amount of ways to DM. You can speak mainly in descriptions and simply summarize the main point of what the NPSc are trying to say as an indirect type of DMing. Or, you can take on the voice of the NPC and have full fledged conversations with the PCs, a more direct approach. One is not better than the other; it’s all a matter of personal preference. Me? I like the indirect way since I suck at doing voices, and two people in my group like playing that way while the other two prefer the more direct approach.  It’s a toss up really. You just have to decide what you want to do and own it. Whether you decide on the direct or indirect way, the choice isn’t going to make a huge difference on how much fun the party has.  The deal breaker is how well you sell it.

Have a strong voice. Be confident in what you’re doing. If you seem confused or nervous, your players are going to sense that and absorb it.  So, just fake it til’ you make it.  You may have no idea what is going on or why, but neither do they. If you throw a dragon at them just to keep them busy so you can plot something really fast, they’ll have no idea as long as you make it seem like it was intentional. Remember, they don’t know what is supposed to come next. They don’t know what’s inside that boarded up cottage, so how can they tell you that that they find wasn’t supposed to be there?

Here is an excellent link that describes the different types of playing and DMing.

LISTEN - This is the most important part of being a DM in my opinion. The whole reason you’re able to put on this story is because of the people playing with you. They are who you do it for, so make them matter. 

Incorporate the PCs’ backstories into the sub-plots or the main campaign.  Maybe something in their background is the reason why only they can defeat the Big Bad™? Or, what I find to be more thoughtful, take obscure details about each character and make them a central part of a session without the player even knowing it.

In my campaign I took the party deep within the woods, where they stayed in a small, flourishing village. The village was a sanctuary in the middle of a dry and dying forest. Turns out, the main villains had captured a celestial and was draining it’s power in order to feed the land. The three villains (A wizard, a sorcerer, and a warlock) bound the celestial and locked it underground in a cell that could only be opened by dropping three objects that contained the blood of the binders in the ditch above the cell. The celestial was able to send mind controlling insects into the town so they could possess civilians and have them look for the three objects that could set the celestial free. 

The party knew what was going on with the possession, and they noticed since the beginning that the possessed people were drawn to one PC in particular. In the end, the necklace that specified PC had (and had since childhood) was the object that contained the binding sorcerer’s blood, and that was the final piece to release the trapped celestial.

That whole session was centered around one PC without them even knowing it until they end.  They played a huge part in a session because I used a minor detail in their character backstory to my advantage. The whole party loved it and talked about it for weeks.  People create characters and write backstories because they care about them, and the best thing you can do as a DM is to acknowledge and respect that character and your player’s work as much as they do.

You’re creating a world for your PCs to react to; you’re not writing a novel. Make their choices mean something. Even if you want them to go right, let them go left. Don’t let them go left and give them the same scenario they would have had if they’d gone right. Players can see when you’re railroading them into doing what you want them to do, and it is disheartening and discouraging. Why would they care what their character did if it didn’t matter anyway? Why should they think about the outcomes, or try and figure out the riddle?  From what I’ve observed, this is the biggest in-game issue that tends to make groups dissolve.

That was a really long post, and I thank you for reading it until the end. I hope everyone took something away from this guide and that those just starting to DM or who are thinking about it feel more comfortable going into it.  

#Dungeons and Dragons #d&d 5e #d&d #d&d homebrew

[homebrewsno1asked4]

2B 2

Welcome! Today’s subclass – inspired by 2B of Nier Automata, for those who just walked in – is the Planar Adjudicator.

What and why is a Planar Adjudicator, you may ask? I didn’t just want to make the 2B class a construct-killer; unless your DM’s world is teeming with robots, that won’t be particularly useful. So I reflavored the androids’ crazy superhuman combat maneuvers as laws of physics they’re allowed to break. And YoRHa as like interdimensional hitmen of balance.

Kinda like “if the Horizon Walker Ranger joined a Paladin order.”

I don’t remember the exact thought process, tbh.

Commence!

Clearances

As Planar Adjudicators climb in rank, they’re allowed to bend certain laws of reality, or waive them altogether.

When you first gain access to these clearances at level 3, you may take three. You may take two additional clearances each levels 7, 10, and 15. At these levels, you may also replace a previously-established clearance with another one of equal level.

See list of Clearances at the end of the class.

Save vs. your Clearances is 8 + proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier.

At level 3, the fighter usually gains multiple features with their subclass: 1) Each archetype's primary mechanic; 2) a coin toss between an exploration or interaction feature, usually packaged with an extra skill proficiency.

To fit with the Planar Adjudicator's "spacetime cop" theme, I made the main mechanic Clearances - or laws of reality that the Planar Adjudicator's allowed to break to better hunt their quarry. In an earlier draft, I tried to directly base these Clearances on the various Pod abilities; but after a few false starts, I realized that most of the Pods either don't translate well into D&D mechanics, or would provide game-breaking stat increases/extra attacks. So instead, I looked to the Warlock's Eldritch Invocations for inspiration, and the Clearances scale/stack similar to the Eldritch Knight's spellcasting. (I think... I'm sorry, I really need to be more careful about crossing out my design notes, not deleting them entirely.)

The Clearances are supposed to reflect Nier Automata's flashy combat; encapsulate more of 2B's skills and android abilities not covered by my earlier choices of Race, Background, etc; and beef up the Planar Adjudicator's flavor.

Basic Planar Knowledge Database

Take proficiency in either Religion or Arcana.

As an action, you detect the distance and direction between you and any creature involved in your goal, such as a person you seek vengeance against or someone you pledged to defend. You must be familiar with this creature – i.e. have met them personally, or you know more than passing knowledge about that creature. If the target is on another plane of existence, you instead discern the distance and direction of the nearest portal to that plane, though you don't automatically know which plane it leads to.

The Planar Adjudicator's other starting feature - Basic Planar Knowledge Database - bundles one of two lore-intensive Intelligence proficiencies with a barely-changed version of the Revenant's Relentless Nature. I don't think it's too OP because it's mostly for flavor, but Hey! I've been wrong before.

(Maybe BPKD should at least be 'use x times between rests’?)

Database Upgrade

You hone your insight into your extraplanar quarry by level 7, analyzing your deep repository of lore for weaknesses.

Your melee attacks (not ranged, not spells) now count as magical for the purposes of overcoming resistance.

You gain proficiency in Religion or Arcana, whichever you did not choose from Basic Planar Knowledge Database. Except for critical failures, you can treat any Arcana or Religion roll of 9 or below as a 10.

Fighters' level 7 abilities usually go one of two ways: an attack/defense buff; or an exploration ability packaged with a new skill proficiency. The Planar Adjudicator's Database Upgrade is bit of a mix of both.

This is a melee-only version of the Arcane Archer's Magic Arrow, as well as the other half of the Basic Planar Knowledge Database - while also borrowing a little of the Rogue's Reliable Talent. I'm hoping that's not too much, as religion and arcana are mostly fun roleplay skills anyway. Who knows; the way you run your games, this might be OP.

Executioner’s Clearance

At level 10, you gain two types of Favored Enemy. One is always humanoids. For the other, choose from aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, or undead. You gain a +4 bonus to damage rolls with weapon attacks against creatures of both types. Additionally, you have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track your favored enemies, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about them.

When you gain this feature, you also learn two languages of your choice, typically one spoken by your favored enemy or creatures associated with it; for example, elvish for humanoids and deep speech for aberrations. However, you are free to pick any language you wish to learn.

You also have advantage on saving throws against the spells and abilities of both these enemy types.

Fighters' level 10 features are exclusively combat-focused. Usually, they're an improvement to a pre-existing feature.

I borrowed the Ranger's Favored Enemy + Greater Favored Enemy for Executioner’s Clearance. Since even the stacked version of Greater Favored Enemy is still conditional, and it's already only a level 6 ability, I thought it fair to throw the Planar Adjudicator another bone.

Hammerspace

You can equip up to three weapons at a time, in any combination of weight class or ranged/melee. You can swap these weapons in and out as a free action, including in between attacks.

You stow any of these three weapons you cannot feasibly hold in a personal void not unlike a Bag of Holding.

Hammerspace adds a bit more Nier Automata-ness to the Planar Adjudicator's playstyle, what with the giant weapons floating behind you and switching between these giant weapons in an instant.

I can't for the life of me remember what I used as a base for Hammerspace. Honestly, I might have made it from scratch, but I wouldn't give me that much credit.

Unchain Protocol

Against your favored enemy types, your weapon attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20.

While the planar adjudicator is at half their hit points (rounded down) or below, they score critical hits on 18-20 for all enemy types, not just favored enemies.

While the planar adjudicator's hit points equal 10 + Constitution modifier or below, your criticals gain a damage bonus equal to your level in this class.

At level 15, Fighters gain a variety of types of combat features. Attack spells/spell-like abilities and attack/damage buffs are common.

I think this is another weird fusion of a couple different class abilities. Like Champion/Barbarian’s Improved Critical plus one of the Brute’s abilities, maybe?

The first part of Unchain Protocol stacks with Executioner's Clearance. The second and third stages of the Protocol affect all critical hits, for the trade-off of inching closer and closer to death.

Evasion System Overclock

When an enemy misses an attack against you, you may incur the effects of Time Stop as a reaction. All restrictions of Time Stop still apply. You take the turns afforded by Time Stop immediately upon using this ability. You may use this once a day.

I know 2B has the whole slow-time-when-you-dodge ability from the beginning of the game; but there’s no way to give the player its D&D equivalent at an early level without tipping the game balance like the fucking Titanic.

My thinking is, assuming the player tries to use this ability to hit or run, Evasion System Overclock only affords them one extra strike, or a get-out-of-combat-free card if the player’s okay with ditching the rest of the party and appearing 1000 feet away. Hopefully, this forces your Planar Adjudicator to be a little more creative and strategic with their extra turns.

Clearances

Law of Applied Force. All ranged attacks have a maximum range of 300 ft.

Law of Auras. You can cast Detect Magic at will.

Law of Darkness. You can see normally in darkness, both magical and non-magical, to a distance of 120 feet.

Law of Healing. Whenever you regain hit points from a potion, spell, or ally’s class feature, treat any dice rolled to determine the hit points you regain as having rolled their maximum value for you.

Law of Inertia. Whenever you successfully deal damage to a creature, you can push the creature up to 10 feet away from you in a straight line.

Law of Interspecies Communication. Although limited by the intelligence of the beast, you can understand and speak with beasts.

Law of Linguistics. You can read all writing. You can comprehend any written word or symbol, should it hold any linguistic meaning.

Law of Natural Cycles. Within a minute of its death, you may ask a recently deceased creature one question. The dead creature’s spirit provides the answer to the best of its knowledge, translated into a language of your choice.

Law of Resilience. Your AC becomes 13 + your Strength or Dexterity modifier while not wearing armor. You can use a shield and still gain this benefit.

Law of Rest. You no longer need to sleep and can't be forced to sleep by any means. To gain the benefits of a long rest, you can spend all 8 hours doing light activity.

Law of Vitality. You can cast False Life on yourself at will as a 1st-level spell.

Law of Warfare. Over the course of 1 hour short rest, you can bond a weapon to you. You can bond up to two weapons at once. These weapons gain a +1 to attack and damage rolls. You can summon or dispel these weapons as a bonus action.

Prerequisite: Level 5

Law of Conservation of Energy. For one minute, you can double your speed, gain +2 to AC, roll advantage on Dexterity saves, and take an additional action on each of your turns. The action can be used to attack (one weapon attack only), dash, disengage, hide, or use an object. You can use this feature once every long rest.

Law of Elemental Order. Every long rest, pick a type of elemental damage. When you hit a creature with a melee or ranged attack, you can use a bonus action to unleash an eruption of this damage type. This eruption is a 20-foot-radius sphere, focused on the target you just hit, and deals 8d6 of your chosen element. You are immune to this eruption. You can use this feature once every long rest.

At level 11, this feature recharges with a short or long rest, and the extra damage increases to 9d6.

At level 17, you can use this feature twice between rests, and the extra damage increases to 10d6.

Law of Proportional Might. Once per turn, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon, you can add 4d8 force damage to your attack, and you can knock the target prone if it is Huge or smaller. You can use this feature once every long rest.

At level 11, this feature recharges with a short or long rest, and the extra damage increases to 5d8.

At level 17, you can use this feature twice between rests, and the extra damage increases to 6d8.

Prerequisite: Level 7

Law of Opacity. Once per rest, you can use an action to gain the ability to see through solid objects to a range of 30 feet. Within that range, you have darkvision if you don't already have it. This special sight lasts for 1 minute. During this time, you perceive objects as ghostly, transparent images.

Law of Motion. For one hour, you are unaffected by difficult terrain, and spells or magical effects can't reduce your speed or cause you to be paralyzed or restrained.

You can spend 5 feet of movement to automatically escape from nonmagical restraints. Additionally, being underwater imposes no penalties on its movement or attacks.

Prerequisite: Level 9

Law of Gravity. At will, you can rise vertically up to 20 feet. While suspended, you have no momentum of your own and you may grab on to other objects in order to move as if climbing. You can change your altitude as part of your movement each turn.

Whenever you deactivate this clearance, you drift safely to the ground per the spell Feather Fall.

Law of Proportional Athleticism. Your jump distance is tripled.

Law of Spirit-Mortal Communication. You can speak to spirits - per the Speak with Dead spell - at will.

Prerequisite: Level 15

Law of Physicality. As an action, you and everything you wear and carry become invisible for up to an hour. If you drop an item or remove it, the item is no longer invisible, and if you try to attack or cast a spell, you're visible again. You can activate this clearance at will.

I don’t have an ending besides thank you for reading, hope it doesn’t suck!

#d&d 5e #5e homebrew #fighter #2b #toobs #nier automata #eldritch invocations #kinda #critical grohl

[monstersdownthepath]

So what ARE Kaiju?

Both Vorgozen and Agmazar are creatures known as Kaiju. They are far from the only ones in existence, and in fact Agmazar is one of the weaker ones despite topping the Endgame Undead week.

But what are Kaiju? Kaiju are special Magical Beasts (normally), monsters that rise from hibernation every few years to wreak havoc for one reason or another. Some of them, such as Agmazar, have a specialized ‘trigger’ that awakens them, causing them to stalk relentlessly towards the stimulus and attack it. Agmazar is drawn to massive acts of necromancy, while Vorgozen is drawn to huge gatherings of arcane energy. Once they rise, the citizens of the area they’re lumbering towards likely won’t be able to stop them, because not one of them is below CR 25.

They’re so powerful that, most of the time, the only thing players facing them can do is awaken another one to fight the first and then pounce on the weakened loser. Two (or more!) Kaiju clashing can make for a fantastic climax to a campaign if done with the right amount of flair. So, to help give you the right amount of flair, and to set the proper mood, here’s some answers to the question “What are Kaiju?”

Kaiju are HUGE.

Kaiju are all Colossal in size, pushing the boundaries of the size category (which covers monsters 64 ft and up) to sometimes stand at heights exceeding 200 feet--so immense that some characters aren’t able to hold the entire monster in their field of vision. They’re rivaled for Biggest Monster by less than six other monsters, only dwarfed by the Titanic entity that is Atropus (who cheats because it’s technically a planet).

They’re so huge, in fact, that they have a special rule called Massive. Massive means that their movement is impossible to impede, ignoring difficult terrain and bypassing cover entirely... But also means that they cannot make Attacks of Opportunity against enemies that are smaller than Huge size, a mercy given to players and citizens running for their lives.

The Massive rule also means that Huge and smaller characters can actually climb onto Kaiju’s bodies to attack them or cast spells directly on them, though doing so is a difficult task... and Kaiju may make AoO’s against enemies climbing them if they alert the beast to their presence.

Kaiju are RESILIENT.

It is extremely hard to put one of them down. At base level, they have Fast Healing 30, DR 20/epic, immunity to ability damage and drain, immunity to death effects, and Resistance 30 to Sonic, Fire, Acid, Cold, Electricity, and negative energy, with specific Kaiju being even more resistant to certain energy types.

All Kaiju possess the Recovery ability, which allows them to make new saving throws every single round versus effects such as being polymorphed, petrified, paralyzed, hypnotized, minimized, lacking eyes, stuck in ice, or even trapped in temporal stasis. With their legendary stats, such effects may only impede them for a round or two.

Recovery also gives them a special resurrection mechanic they can use once per year: Taking fatal damage instead allows them to recover health equal to twice the damage that would have killed them, though this damage demoralizes them to the point that they become permanently nauseated and seek only to return to their lair to hibernate for a year or two. While it may be tempting to attack them as they retreat, taking any amount of damage while they’re nauseated instantly ends the condition and allows them to fight back once more.

Kaiju are FAST.

You may think that lumbering colossi would be incredibly slow, but the fact of the matter is that longer legs lets you cover more ground. Mogarou, the King of the Kaiju, the Paizo answer to Godzilla, can move 100 feet each round, a far cry from the slow, ponderous plodding of his inspiration. The rest of them aren’t much slower, either, which makes them a nightmare when combined with their huge space (some up to 60ft on each side!) and massive reach.

Most of them possess some form of movement trick, as well. The pterodactyl-esque Agyra, for example, can suddenly blitz one mile in six seconds once per hour. Vorgozen, already discussed, can Infuse Terrain and then choose a destination, slithering inexorably towards it at 50 miles an hour. Yarthoon, which typically spends her time on the moon, can go from the moon to the planet in as little as two hours.

Kaiju are POWERFUL and DRAMATIC.

It goes without saying. At CR 25+, Kaiju can clash with demigods like the Archdevils, Empyreal Lords, and the Four Horsemen and still come out on top. What they lack in flexibility due to not having spell-like abilities, they make up for in sheer force, their damage output being among the highest across all six bestiaries due to their reach letting them make full attacks against enemies almost a hundred feet away.

All Kaiju not only possess powerful natural attacks, but often have beam-like attacks to supplement their range. All of them have a long (1200 feet!) line attack dealing variable elemental damage (though usually dealing a combined total of 40d6 damage), while each beam usually has a secondary effect. Vorgozen’s acid jet shoves enemies along, while Mogarou may instead convert his beam into a cone to shorten its range (to 600 feet) but quadrupling its area. The scorpion-like Bezravnis can fire three such beams from each of its three stingers, either all at once or broken up over a few rounds.

And finally, each of them also possesses specific and painful combat tricks beyond merely attacking, all of which are breathtaking to see in action. Mogarou can fire off volcanic bolts of energy one round after using his breath weapon and can use his breath as part of an AoO. Vorzogen’s Polluted Magic aura reduces how effective spellcasters are. Bezravnis’ sticky webbing seeks out and grapples nearby creatures. Agyra can conjure a four-mile-wide hurricane on her location once per day. This is just to name a few.

#Creature Lore #now you too can fight Godzilla

[vael]

Die2nite Teardown

Estimated reading time: 15 minutes, 3 seconds. Experienced players should skip to the Ethics section. From there, estimated time: 9 minutes, 4 seconds.

A teardown is a document that dismantles a competing company, service, or product with the goal of informing business decisions. My business is tinydark, a microstudio that produces ethical, experimental indie games. Today I’ll be tearing down a game known as Die2nite, a game released in December 2010 by Motion Twin. Prior to this release was the French-language version known as Hordes, released on July 2008.

Overview

It's the zombie apocalypse.

A town is randomly generated and players are assigned to it with the goal of surviving as long as possible. The game begins once 40 players have entered. Each player will play a self-determined role for the survival of the town: some will scavenge outside of town, others will construct buildings, and brave souls will risk their lives camping overnight in the World Beyond for a copy of a building's blueprint. These player decisions are enacted using AP: Action Points, which are given at the start of each new Day and are replenished through food, water, alcohol and drugs.

The Attack

At midnight, the zombie horde attacks. Defense is up to players inside the town walls. Some will stand on the battlements as Watchmen, risking their lives and inventory to personally defend the town, while others cower in their homes. Defense is simple: 1 Zombie eats 1 Defense. Any zombies over Defense enter the town and terrorize the citizens, leaving personal survival up to luck and the citizen's Home Defense. When the attack is over, the loop begins again, with a greater number of zombies in the next wave.

The World Beyond

Leaving the town presents the player with a grid and coordinate-based system of travel. Taking a step in any direction will cost 1 AP, meaning each step costs a total of 2 AP if they plan to make a return trip. Once on a new tile (or "square", "coordinate"), the player is given the ability to scavenge or camp. Players have limited inventory spots to hold supplies and scavenged items.

Scavenging will immediately search to find an item, and then start a two-hour timer to continue searching while the player sits on the tile. The player will autosearch while offline, with the responsibility that they must return to town before the gates close. Zones eventually become permanently depleted and return only scrap materials. Scavengers and the loot they return with are critical to the success of a town and it is a thrilling, if not dangerous, role.

Camping allows the player to survive one night in the World Beyond, enabling farther trips and rewarding a scavenging bonus the next day. When a player finds a good spot, they can spend AP to improve the area and camp out there. There is a risk of death that scales on how far you are from the town, and only Survivalist heroes can max out at 100% safety.

Every move to a tile presents a risk of being outnumbered, and immediately trapped, by zombies. In that case you can either wait for help, try a hard luck challenge to kill one with your bare hands, or escape but leave with an injury. For this reason, it's best to travel in groups, which can be difficult in PUG towns.

Finally, buildings known as ruins exist in the World Beyond. Campers often only camp in ruins, which provide protection and reward a blueprint when finished. Blueprints are used to unlock buildings in town. Examples of ruins include an abandoned bunker, cave, destroyed pharmacy, and a restaurant.

Heroes

Heroes are premium (cash) players. Being a hero costs $11.50 for 31 Days at the time of writing. The 200 Day pack costs $69 and rewards a very useful item. Days only tick down when you actually play a day in-game.

Being a hero allows the player to choose one of six classes:

Scavengers find many more items when searching in the World Beyond.

Scouts can go through zones with zombies in them undetected.

Guardians have more control points in a zone and contribute defense to a town just by being inside the gates at night.

Tamers can use their dog to send objects back to town while in the World Beyond, effectively doubling their inventory size. Their dog provides a little more defense when acting as a Watchman.

Technicians have an additional action bank: Construction Points, used to construct buildings.

Survivalists are able to find food or water in the desert once per day, and are capable of having a 100% camping success rate.

In addition, Heroes unlock skills the more time they spend as Heroes. Some of these are very powerful and give incentive to keep paying the Hero subscription: it really sucks to lose these abilities when you run out of Days.

It is possible to earn Hero Days without payment. The Last Man Standing in a town will receive free Hero Days based on how long the town survived. Only one person can receive this; this incentivizes selfish play, meaning the undead are not always your biggest threat. It could be poisoned food, you may be locked out of town, or perhaps even eaten by a half-zombie player. One must work toward both the survival of the town and the preservation of one's self to receive an abundance of soul points and hero days.

Game Loop

Each day, the player will log in and spend their AP. 6 are available by default, and a player can receive 6-8 AP from food, water, alcohol, and drugs, giving a max of 30-33 AP. (at least without drug addiction) These can be spent as follows:

Directly building constructions

Converting materials

Repairing items

Moving around the World Beyond to scavenge

Misc. uses, such as Guardians spending 1 AP to temporarily increase town Defense through the guard tower

As 40 people spend their AP, each player's personal agency improves the town's chance of survival. It is critical to have diverse roles in the community: scavengers bring in materials. Buildings won't be built without builders. Advanced blueprints won't be found without campers. Players often take on multiple roles during a town's lifespan.

Other Elements

Die2nite's a complex game. A few other notables:

Water supplies can be sparse, but it is both essential to life and a powerful weapon vs. zombies: they absolutely disintegrate at the touch of it.

The Shaman is a democratically elected role which allows a player to work with the souls of the dead; a sort of recompense for losing fellow citizens. They can summon rain to fill water reserves.

Ghouls are players who've engaged in cannibalism — eating players' remains or certain rare items — and come out of it half-zombie. They can devour one citizen per day and will be awarded a Hero Day for each. A single punch from a citizen will kill the ghoul.

Drinking alcohol results in nonsensical speech on the forums, and items sent through the mail will sometimes end up at the wrong person. Similarly, becoming Terrified during the night attack will cause one's speech to become erratic, and head injuries result in slurred speech. Sadly, these can all be circumvented through posting the same message multiple times.

Distinctions are a huge part of D2N culture. They're effectively achievements and they award titles once you've done something enough times. They can affect player behavior and sometimes communities will raffle off the ability to build a certain item for a distinction.

Ethics

Die2nite’s core engagement and monetization are unethical.

Realtime Dedication

The most egregious offense is baked directly into the game's core. Because so much of the game is dependent on realtime interaction, optimal play requires that the player is engaged throughout the day. The best players will log in as soon after the attack as possible so that they may begin their duties.

Scavenging is the most problematic. Since areas deplete after so many searches, and it is never known to any player how many searches are left, you could set your character to search overnight but deplete at the first tick. The player implicitly understands this and may check in throughout the day, or even night.

If in the World Beyond, the player has to manage when to return to the town. This is usually an hour before attack so as to maximize efficiency. If they don't make it, it's instant death and they earn no distinctions for that Day. Navigation in the World Beyond is Flash-based and the the player must be at a PC, or technically apt enough to get it running on the phone, in order to move.

Things are quieter in town, but someone still must close the gate. As the population dwindles, fewer people are available for this critical task, meaning those who are less able to do it are forced to check in, or die. Organized play usually makes gate-closing a trivial task, but the point stands: when you require players to check in at a certain hour, they could be anywhere and it could be any time. In-law's for Christmas, birthday party on the weekend, engaging in an activity in which they simply cannot use a device for a while.

More than a few times I have inconvenienced my real life just to return to the game. Add into it the guilt of letting your town down, and the simple act of returning can be more than a chore, but also a matter of duty. Players often set alarms to remind them to return. It is only unethical games that punish players for not logging in. ("your castle will be destroyed in 15 minutes") A push notification for a potentially missed opportunity, such as capitalizing on a temporary 2x resource bonus, is not unethical engagement.

Pay 2 Win

Heroes are very powerful. One could argue they should be — the game would not exist without them — but the power disparity is far too great. Returning to resident class after six months of being a hero was so hard that I ended up quitting; one becomes accustomed to being an all-powerful sentinel. The moment I quit was when I was trapped by zombies in a zone and reached for an escape-hatch item that I'd earned by spending $60 in Hero Days. When I went to use it, I learned I had to become a hero again, and the game even taunted me about it.

While we strive for self-sustainment, it will not be achieved by intentionally dooming the player and offering them a life-saving resource for real money. — tinydark monetization pillar

Heroes are just as eligible for earning Hero Days as residents are by being the last survivor in a town, but with an added bonus: they get extra personal defense, they get easy access to certain items, and even a way to avoid death that they might otherwise have suffered. This makes it harder for f2p players to become heroes; the rich become richer.

Design Concerns

The ethical problem of realtime dedication is a huge game-defining concern. Player churn is high and pug towns often do not entail playing with 40 people, but anywhere from 25-30 after three days of inactivity causes them to dehydrate.

An immersive tutorial would probably help, but there’s enough information in the Newbie Mode UI that anyone should be able to get by. Still, often the first question a newbie has is what to do.

Motion Twin’s achilles heel is luck-centric design, and it shows in Die2nite. Indeed the majority of items and buildings are randomly discovered, and the map is randomized such that important locations can spawn very close or far from a town.

Finally, the game encourages passive aggression. The gate is one of the worst mechanics in Die2nite, and the game would be wholly better without it. The implications that Last Man Standing brings are worth having, but a scaling reward system for highly successful towns would be welcome: give 2+ players some hero days if they managed to be highly successful.

The tinydark Takeaway

Given Adobe's announcement of discontinuing Flash in 2020 and Motion Twin's disinterest in the Twinoid platform, it is assumed we will completely lose access to Die2nite before 2021. If proven viable, tinydark could create a spiritual successor to D2N. Our proprietary game engine's development turns toward multiplayer experiences, a spiritual successor to D2N is a strong possibility for the studio.

Die2nite's design is experimental and the experiment wasn't a huge success; for how many people sign up to towns, many go inactive soon after and D2N in particular has had a lot of exposure it hasn't been able to capitalize on. What makes D2N great is also its greatest weaknesses, and overcoming those obstacles while still retaining the feel of the game may be impossible.

But there’s a ton of value in trying. For a small studio striving to one day be full-time, filling a void left by a dying game can provide a good opportunity for growth. The game design also lends itself to a subscription model: Die2nite isn't a game you pick up for three days and drop for a month. You're surviving sometimes as long as 21 days with the same character in the same town, to do it all again next time. To this day, some top players have never had a long stretch of time where they'd actually quit. Subscription models are sustainable and we could charge significantly less for “hero time”.

Proposed Design Improvements

Here are some cursory, macro-level changes that I have in mind.

1, 5, 20, 40, 100 Players

The game should be able to be played in small groups, with scaling difficulty. Truthfully, supporting a 1 player map is a dream, but I would like to strive for it. Organized play will not require the “coalition jumpers” that D2N does. 

Each tier of segregation will allow the creation of a character: you’ll be able to have a solo character, a character each in a small 5 map or an epic 100 map. This will allow the player to stay engaged with the game even if they are waiting on others’ actions. I am considering a means of hotjoining a town.

The Attack

I am having a lot of difficulty imagining an ethical system involving one single attack phase per day. What may happen is that hordes work their way toward the town, Walking Dead style, organically. These hordes would be composed of existent, killable zombies. Advanced notice would be given for this event. The town falling will send the map into panic mode.

Direct zombie combat will be handled by the engine’s encounter system and will be auto-attack, though not necessarily simple. The town’s defense will likely be handled by the same system, with everyone joining a “party” and the zombies aggro’d to defensive structures first. Walls may not initially be built for the players.

Immersive Design

There’s a lot of potential in the environment that videogames rarely realize due to the nature of 3D environments. As I sit in an office typing this teardown, I see a desk that can be used a barricade, dumbbells as weapons, furniture that could be deconstructed, electronics that could be used to confuse a zombie horde, and some food. Not only is it nonsensical that five players hitting Search on a building removes every useful thing from it, but it does the design an injustice: our real world is littered with useful objects, but in the apocalypse, it’s a matter of what we can carry. Inventory management and deconstructing objects will be a focus.

Explorable areas should have multiple buildings, if the locale allows, and I would like that to be the default means of finding useful items.

Soul XP and Composite Classes

There will be soul experience similar to how Die2nite works: the longer you survive, the higher the score. I want to offer bonuses based on levels of participation, but that will be dependent on how participation is defined, and that’s difficult to measure. Soul experience will be level-based and each level will offer new options to build out your future survivors.

From Level 1, the player will be offered only the ability to be a basic survivor. Even modest success in their first town will reward enough exp for Level 2, which will give them a few options to choose as a class. As the player progresses, more classes will become available for play, and eventually I expect that we will offer a perk slot in addition to the class. This offers both horizontal and vertical progression, but with an emphasis on the horizontal once the perk slot is unlocked.

"Heroes” will be rewarded with the ability to specialize their class; a tamer’s dog could return sooner, a looter may be able to find an object in a depleted building, a cook may spawn with ingredients. Alternatively, simply offer them the ability to take a second class.

There is one problem with accruing soul XP: I want people to be able to play multiple characters across town types. This experience system would encourage people to make as many chars as they can, to progress quickly. I may have to limit XP earned, and perhaps unlimit it for subscribers/heroes. Another suggestion has been to award XP to characters themselves, who’d be persistent entities.

A Town At All?

More likely to be a game mode than the default gameplay, but people could random spawn anywhere (safe) on the map. I like the idea of towns being organically created around anchor buildings, but I fear the system’s far too ambitious for one tiny dev.

Other Mentionables

There will be distinctions. (already built into The Orbium) Distinctions that encourage self-centric play should not exist; players should not earn distinctions for fixing certain broken items, thus using resources.

I am considering different types of zombies, maybe horde leaders. Think of the special infected from Left 4 Dead.

More support for roleplay, writing character descriptions and nick-naming people.

The game should be good at telling game stories. The time the player took a risk, searched that extra spot, found that crucial item or building, made it home just in time.

Similar Games

Grimmwood (dead)

Successfully iterated on d2n’s design, and a Steam release is fantastic progression for the genre. Unfortunately it collapsed under financial weight. Die2nite’s formula is too niche to rely on a hit-based model and the game was not popular enough to keep the servers running.

Arctic Lands

Inspired by Die2nite, but snow where there was sand. More emphasis is placed on personal survival and I suspect The Long Dark was an inspiration for the developer. Unfortunately its development appears to be stagnating and the game is technically unimpressive.

#die2nite

[elanska]

Newlyweds in atlanta, part 2 (a KHR!OC - TWD crossover, kinda. More of my research notes about camping/survivalist prepper tips, my wish fulfillment for +1 mil motorhome, and how I troll the TWD cast with my OC, and the awesomesauceness that is Hibari Kyouya, and equally awesome Kusakabe)

(oh, and also human’s conflict, because I swore I just want to mention it casually in 1-2 paragraph, and somehow there’s this wall-of-text’s Huang Shaotian’s worth of rambling about it. so most important stuff should be in next post actually)

Dude, I can't even stated the title without rambling. Okay, so summary so far:

KHR!OC stuff: (you know about Hibari and Kusakabe, the OC’s name is Kobayashi Risa) - man chase woman to usa to say 'don't go!', boarding the same airplane (y'know, like those rom-com movies) - while man fidgeting about what to say, ZOMBIES happens! awesomesauceness battle within airplane ensues! (or not actually, considering, well, it's zombies, so it's kinda curbstomp battle since Kyouya pissed enough that he didn't get to say the 'stay in namimori with me' before woman went to sleep. And then all this crowding, crying, screaming, and zombies (in that order) happens. so Kyouya annihilate the zombies and the shaken pilot decide to land the plane in nearest airport, Atlanta. - airport is having zombies problem too, so they can't get their luggage (their bags in overhead compartment cabin is fine, but not the luggage, since hey! airport attacked by zombies!). Kyouya contacted by Tsuna (Vongola must have their own satellite communication to avoid being hijacked by government or something like that) who inform him there's a global plague problem and to go to their base (USA mafia HQ seemingly either in NY or chicago). Kusakabe went to procure a car from airport rental and off they go. Security/military might try to interfere at this point, but gets ignored. They  managed to gets outside town and stuck on the highway when city gets bombed. - Risa wakes up, gets briefed by what's happen so far, and suggest they go to Bellwood Quarry since it's: 1. high vantage point and natural defense line to the slow walking undead + have water + have woods around (so shelter and probably hunting food!).

now, the start of the trolling, I meant, crossover truly began

The quarry has other people also evacuating there. 

Good points = more people means more human resources to do lots of useful stuff. 

Bad points = people are still shocked, so doesn't really want/ready to do anything and need to be prodded and since they're all strangers, there's no real chain of commands, so it's chaotic for a while (and Kyouya has deep aversion to crowds, so to not makes him goes off beating anybody, she and Kusakabe camped a bit far from them, about 100 metres away. both camp can still see each other, but not in 'oops! I carelessly stumble into your space tee-hee' range)

Quarry campsite power struggle:

when people first arriving, there's no structure of who is in charge. Hell, people are just in shock, grief, and angry, and demanding to know what just happens? Infections? virus? where's the government? where should they be going now that the city is bombed?

Risa trying to calm people down and said, "well, maybe government caught with surprise too! and not handling it very well! let's just make do with what we have on this camp. We can fortify this place while waiting for government to collect themselves, taking care of the problem and then declaring it's okay to go back home. For now, have to make do with this extensive camping trip."

She got full brunt of people's anger - complaining about government's incompetencies and what's our tax paid for, etc, etc, and now they expect them to do /their/ jobs? fucking useless, etc, etc

Risa pointed out that she's a tourist here, not government agent (no matter how snappy Hibari and Kusakabe's dressed). but let's see it this way. "Let's say that you're in the zoo, and some faulty railings make you fall into alligator enclosure. will you only stand around demanding apology for the broken railing, or will you secure yourself first by climbing up or whatever to ensure that the alligator cannot reached you?" "securing ourself is for our own benefit. You can demand apology from government later (or tax refund), but it won't do you any good if alligator chow you down because you're not doing anything to ensure your safety first" "remember, your safety comes first. so while waiting for government to do their job, let's protect ourselves first! starting with making simple DIY fences and making watch patrol"

People do it grumblingly, shoddingly, half-heartedly. Well, at least, they're working at it, but there's still grudge of being wronged somehow!TM - so their work result is varied. Some is good, some......well, let's say that Ed Peletier's work is absolute crap compared to even what children makes. It fell apart easily, and when pointed out how poor his work is and how it'll make an easy hole in camp's security, he blows out, saying "this is not my job! I don't do this stuff."

People scoffs at him, but Risa interjected, saying, "well, everyone has different talent. maybe you're more talented in being watcher or do patrol." However, she also notice that this likely to encourage other people to also start skipping and so, adding:

".......however, as we have noted earlier, each safety's first. People are expected to secure their own camp first. if they still have time and material after that, they can choose to help with what others lacking."

the implication is very clear, you can be lazy and expect for charity, but only if people have time (and willing) for it.

Protest erupts. "You can't let him get away with that!" "what if he does shoddy jobs on patrol as well?"

"we don't know that, we're all strangers here, so Ed might be very good at patrols. I meant, I can't cook." Risa said, "it'll took time to know what everybody's talent is, but for now let's work with what we have. First, we secure the area around each our own tent/camp/car. Then we make list of everyone’s here so can decide the patrol rotation. Then we also need to scout for quarry below to see if the area safe enough to get the water....."

after bombing people with all the ever-growing list of what they need to do. Risa also makes suggestion of trading between people. For example, Risa herself can't cook, but she's good at making the fence she demonstrated earlier and so can trade her 1x1 meter makeshift fence with one portion of food. If there are people who can hunting animals/food/fish, they can trade it too with what other people currently haves. This idea while supported by some, also rejected by some (namely, Dale) who thinks it's better and humane for them all to pooled their resources together instead.

Then somebody pointed out, "you don't seem bring much luggage. This whole hardwork-fencing stuff is not just your trick for getting free food, right?"

//At this time, Kyouya & Kusakabe were going away to find some camping stuff and food (they get out of atlanta without bringing any, but kusakabe remember they passed such store), so both men going out while Risa said she will try to put some semblance of order on the camp.//

"What? noooo. Just to be clear, I'm not your boss or leader of this camp. I'm just giving suggestion on survival camping since I have bit of experience, that's all. If you think making fences is a bad idea or just a tactic for me stealthily stealing your food, you have option to not doing it at all. You are the one benefitting if you're making fences around your camp since us three will make separate camp over there."

There's a bit of panic and "what? why?" but Risa reveals that Hibari and Kusakabe are in mafia and not really handling being in crowds very well, so best to separate their camps. Since Hibari and Kusakabe are having experience in dangerous stuff, their separate camp also serve as first line in defense against undead (their location a bit closer to the entry), but since the location is very big and many multiple entries/exit, your own watcher and patrol are still needed.

"Hibari (the one with short hair and bangs) especially, really, really, really doesn't like crowds. It's big peeve of his. He'll be beating you if you approach him in crowds. Talk to me or Kusakabe (you know him, the guy with amazing hairdo) if you want to say something, but don't ever crowd around Hibari. There's nothing I can do about it, there's nothing you can do about it either. Seriously, why pursuing conflict while we have bigger problem of undead menace? Separate camps = we won't thread on each other toes while helping with security while your government gathers himself. Oh, and I will be helping you with survival camping - free of charge - since you seems a bit not experienced with that."

This met with grudging approval. Until Hibari and Kusakabe returns with a van full of camping supplies (they don't think there'll be another bombing, if there are, well, they can stay in Kyouya's reverse sphere needle for a while). People are doubting the cover!mafia story 

"I think they're government agents and just making those mafia shits so they don't need to help us!" 

"Those men look foreign."

"Glenn looks foreign."

"hey, that's racist!"

"anyway, let's see what they brought."

Risa just reported to them two about separate camp which she thinks its best for everybody (the other camp are not namimori citizen (which Hibari automatically lorded over), if they don’t choose to be under him, it’ll be pain in the ass if Hibari attempted to lord them over, as he’ll need to constantly watch if they really do what he says. Pain in the neck for both side, really. so best is separate camp and show them by result). Hibari raises his brow at the crowd of people approaching behind her. Risa sighed, knowing they can't avoid from giving painful example.

"I know you're lying about that mafia shits! You're really government aren't.....!!!!" the man who said that hasn't finished his sentence when Hibari kicked him in the stomach. He usually use his tonfa, but it currently slathered with the zombies' gunk (since y'know, he and Kusakabe just raided the camping store and it's full of AWESOME zombie slayin'! Hibari might be violent, but he's not psychopath). So he reach to the downed guy, casually ripped his shirt and use it to wipe his tonfa (okay, he might be a liiiitle bit of psychopath, but his tonfa is dirty and hey! free rag material!) okay, I might be little psychopath too (but that guy just assault him vocally, so that's kind of fair)

//by the way, Hibari and Kusakabe actually took quite a great risk to head over the town so quickly, but hey, since they’re so early, other people hasn’t recovered from shock yet/still tentative to go out. They met with one clerk, who shakily told them, they can’t just rob the store. Kusakabe flashed their credit card, “you still receive payment? fine by us” (I don’t need to mention that Hibari is rich and can buy entire store, aren’t I? I think his family is old money in Namimori, adding the fact that he has Foundation and work for old mafia famiglia like Vongola, yeah, he can pretty much buy anything, but those can’t buy him love *snerk*). the clerk opt to do clever way and offers to help them picking and packing stuff they need (since he’s more knowledgeable in camping stuff) if they helped him to get to his home. Hibari contemplating this, seems waste of time, since they can just knocked him out and take the stuff if he refused to sell, yanno? but that’s daylight robbery. But Risa is alone in the quarry. The clerk cried, “my house really near! 15 minutes by car! and I can show you where the food place is along the way! You need them too, right? I...I’ll need them as well for my family”. Kusakabe whispered to Kyouya that it’s best to get food while they’re in town and a local that can show them the place, also Kobayashi should be fine since the place looks secure enough, and worse come to worse, she can hide in the car (they left the car for her, and just take random car in the highway). Kyouya glared at Kusakabe but check his watch, “pack the stuff - identically - in two separate cars. You will ride with Kusakabe. We’ll be leaving in 30 minutes.”. So they pack some awesome shits (I kinda wanted the solar powered generator, but don’t know if they’ll stock that in camping supplies store? seems pretty expensive, so probably not always in stock. OTOH, this is WISH FULFILLMENT, but damn, I want to go about survival stuff, can’t make it too easy for these guys... hmmm, hmmm, ah, I’ll keep secret of what they actually brought back in the van since it’ll give me free access of ‘experienced store clerk packed it for them’. Food place turned to be small, abandoned minimarket. The clerk there shot by people desperate enough to brave bomb threat. Clerk refuse to give, get shot, people take stuff and run, and now they’re back on second/third run? (it’s day 1 or 2 after bombing) and found the clerk reanimate and bit them, and zombies multiplied and/or drawed by the sound of scream. That’s where Kyouya arrives. Camping clerk horrified and want to go home, but Kyouya steps down from his van and proceed to CURBSTOMPED! the zombos. There’s still some stuff on the warehouse on the back (the looters just focused on clearing the shelf), so they take those (Kyouya let the camping clerk guy take the leftover stuff on the shelves. Anyway, Kusakabe told the guy, “I’ll be loading the stuff into my boss van. You load unto yours. We’re leaving once my boss finished loading, so you better pack fast.” They drop the guy in front of his apartment/house and return to quarry (no, they didn’t help to check/sweep his house for zombies, that’s not the deal and it’s his own problem. Guy have weapon from his camping store anyway and Kyouya worried about his little bird left unsupervised) 

Swore the above super loooong paragraph was just meant to be 3 sentences at best and then okay, one paragraph, but I can’t help myself! Ahem! anyway, Kyouya kicked that guy and Kusakabe follows with "it's best if you return to your camp now, people" and Risa sighed, "I'll talk to them again. I'm sorry, I think they will really listen now."

People gets angry (and scared), but they get the point by Risa basically saying 'I told you so' and what's that just now? people grumbling a bit about ‘should share the stuff’ and Risa pointed out that 'you grumbled about /me/ trying to trick you out of your stuff earlier and now you want to take our stuff???' 

She paused for an uncomfortable silence to sink in and then continue, “I'm open for trade, and after sorting the stuff I can spare, perhaps a charity. But aside from that, let's keep each of our stuff separate"

Dale openly objects that it's better for all of them to share with each other. Risa pointed out again that she didn't really want to interfere with how your camp is run, but she suggest in order to do that, everyone in this camp should give honest list of what they bring, so it can be tallied and shared with everyone. Dale can make the list and she'll help sort, arrange, and organize stuff to share between all of you ('no, I won't take anything from your camp'), but she doubt many people will like strangers going through their stuff thoroughly like that. "I think you need to familiarize yourself with each other before making decision for that. You can always donate if you think have more than enough. Anyway, you guys should continuing your work with fence making? and prepare 3-5 people in 1 hour and containers, we'll be going to quarry to fetch water. Kusakabe will help us to see if coast is clear, and dispatch the undead, if any"

//by the way, Kyouya a bit distraught since they're managed to get 3 tents and Risa said they should use one tent for dew/rainwater collection, she can sleep in the car. Kusakabe offers to sleep in the car instead. Risa rejected the idea because Kusakabe needs his restorative sleep after an exhaustive day and the car will be too cramped for him since he's tall (while she's small). Then Risa said she can sleep with Kusakabe in his tent (Kyouya sleep by his own is a firm default) since she's small and won’t take much space “don't worry! I have a little brother, so I'm pretty much used to bunk together in same tent"

Kusakabe, sensing his boss silently raging inside for not being considered for the tent-sharing (HAHAHAHAHAHA! poor guy!), saying he'll be up for guard duty anyway. 

"but.."

Kusakabe pointed out that somebody need to take watch of the surrounding so the zombies doesn't sneak by. Hibari is out of the question, and Risa had her uninterrupted 8 hours of catatonic!coma sleep condition, so Kusakabe is the one that have to be guard duty. "It's okay, I'm used to it. Lack of sleep just for one day is nothing."

Risa apologizes about her idea of separating camp and thus making Kusakabe taking this sole duty (the idea that Kyouya need to take guard duty never occured to both of them) and maybe she can ask somebody on the other camp to help relieve Kusakabe ("I'm sure I can trade something for it") but Kusakabe shakes his head, "we're not sure if we can trust them yet, so no need to do that. I'll just take a nap before guard duty tomorrow"//

Damn, I forgot about Shane and Lori on this conflict. Well, I think not all people came at the same time at the quarry, so let's just say that Shane, Lori, and Carl arrives after two camps had been separated. Were he present at this time, Shane will agree with 'your family came first!' idea then perhaps watch when Lori disagree with Risa for having selfish 'each their own' thought. Risa will clarifies that 'each their own' can still donate stuff. If you have plenty and therefore want to donate, that's nice. If you have less and still want to donate, that's super awesome. What she wants to avoid are just people forced to give up their stuff because a gang told them to. Lori pursed her lips at the 'gang' word and said about 'ways of respectful and proper society' and Risa (who admit she's part of mafia) just smiled cheerfully at her, "Great! glad to hear your camp will be fine then." (also, since Kyouya is OP-as-fuck, after the 'you're lying!' man kicked and shane move instinctually to take him down, he’ll be also downed from a casual (but lightning!quick) hit to solar plexus. and hey! two free rags for tonfa wiping!)

Lori will gets angry 'what's THAT for?' 'crowding and attempting to manhandling Hibari.' 'You're saying that man will be beating anybody that TOUCHES him?' 'sounds about right. Keep your distance and don't crowds generally okay with Hibari.' 'crazy people!' - later she would ask Shane to steer clear from the crazy trio and not do any business with them. Shane bit of angry but choose to let things go, since he's kinda believe they're from mafia, they're clearly not your usual lowly thugs, that’s for sure. I think he will try to topple the frickin mafia grasping over the camp when Rick arrives, but goodie-goodie Rick will try to talk things peacefully first, but since talking is Risa’s job, he will left disoriented and half-brainwashed 

#newlyweds in atlanta #khr x twd crossover

[pcinvasion-blog]

New Post has been published on PC Invasion

New Post has been published on https://www.pcinvasion.com/monster-slayers-preview

Monster Slayers Preview

Monster Slayers is a wonderfully misleading name – not because this game doesn’t involve slaying monsters, but because it’s one of the most generic names I’ve ever heard, while the game itself is one of the least generic games I’ve played in a few years. Take a short-form RPG, add in a pinch of roguelike elements like permadeath and unlockable upgrades, and then marinade it in a deck-building system, and you have Monster Slayers.

A roguelike dungeon-crawling deck-builder. “Unique” seems a pretty good word.

Here’s how it works: you pick one of six classes, each of which have a different starting deck and (generally) different cards available. Your job, as a rookie monster slayer, is to go into three of six woefully dangerous dungeons in such of legendary monsters. Kill three, and you win! Die, and you, uh, die. On the plus side, a tiny percentage of your gold and any equipment you weren’t actually using carries over to your next character, as does your “Fame” – the currency you use to upgrade classes or unlock new features.

The problem with this is that it’s so innately unique that I suspect I’m going to have to spend about five dry paragraphs explaining how it works. Bear with me, eh?

It looks complex, but Monster Slayers is really incredibly simple to play. The cards at the top have been played this round; the cards at the bottom are in your hand, and everything else is just raw information.

Dungeons themselves are made up of interconnecting rooms, each of which contains one encounter – be it a shop, a monster, treasure, or whatever. Planning your route through the dungeon matters: you don’t want to use up every healer you find immediately because you might need them later; equally, as levelling up instantly fills your health, you want to keep a careful eye on your experience and try to level up right before you take on a tough fight.

Fights themselves play out in turns, with you and your opponent drawing a hand of cards from your deck, playing them, and then drawing more before the opponent’s turn begins. When you’ve drawn your entire deck, it’s reshuffled and the fight continues.

Cards are divided up into three types, with Attack cards generally doing physical damage, Magic cards being a mix of offence and defense (fireballs and magic shields, say), and Support cards playing with card drawing mechanics or having more indirect effects. That’s a very rough summary: not everything ties into that. There are Attack cards that inflict fire damage or make opponents discard their cards, but it’s not a bad rule of thumb.

This is also where classes come into it. While each class starts with a predetermined deck, and while any class can use basically anything you find, they’re heavily skewed towards particular playstyles. Rogues can build up massive chains of cards with the ability to routinely draw more cards, and use previously played cards to inflict more damage – the Backstab card, for instance, inflicts damage based on how many other cards you’ve played that turn.

HERE BE DRAGONS. And also bears, orcs, spiders, jaguar people, and a dizzying array of other bastards with decks full of cards that will make you weep.

To paraphrase an old meme, while Rogues do it naked, the more wizardly types seem a lot more reliant on equipment. Magic cards cost mana to use, and this recharges turn by turn… unless you have a lot of Mana Charge cards, or equipment which grants bonus mana, in which case they’re a powerhouse of possibility. Barbarians can rush down foes with powerful strikes that also put themselves in harm’s way, while Knights can specialise in either offense or defense. Etc.

The real key, though, is the deck-building, and this is something you can’t really “master” because so much of how you play depends on what cards you find. Shops sell cards, treasure grants you cards, and levelling up often gives you a choice between more, but you can never be quite sure what you’re going to get. That Frostblast spell might look amazing, but if you’re a Knight then you’re unlikely to ever have the mana to actually use it, so all it’ll do is clog up your hand if you draw it. Fill up on cards that require large amounts of mana or action points, too, and you’re only going to be able to use one or two cards a turn before it flips over to your opponent – but if you don’t have any you’re not going to inflict any real damage at all. It’s not a surprise that the two options a healer offers you are either to restore you to full HP or to delete a card from your deck, because these are two of the most useful things.

This is what makes Monster Slayers both incredibly more-ish and incredibly frustrating, in the most delicious of ways. Getting lucky and winding up with just the cards to perfect your deck is great… but then you make a dumb mistake, die, and wind up with an absolute shitter of a deck on your next run, due either to bad luck or poor planning. Even then, though, there’s enough leeway to just about make it succeed if you plan out your path through the dungeons carefully, choose companions wisely for the buffs you need, level up right before each boss, and make the most of the limited resources. And hey, even if you fail, you’ve got some equipment and some Fame for your next run.

Pretty much everything is a trade-off, and often, not taking the cards is the right choice.

It also helps greatly that every single enemy feels entirely unique. An Undead Knight doesn’t play like a Priestess or a Gold Dragon, and nor should it. Undead are immune to bleeding effects and resist poison, while Gold Dragons are all about lightning attacks that screw over your action points. Then there are the sods that inflict poison, which damages you every time you play a card, making Rogues weep in the corner. Each enemy poses a unique challenge for the different types of classes, and you’ll rapidly get an appreciation for – and fear of – each type of enemy.

Also, fuck Priestesses and their ability to make you discard all cards of one type from your hand. Seriously.

For all of that, its randomisation and focus on quick playthroughs rather than extended campaigns means that Monster Slayers isn’t the deepest of games. It’s about getting in, playing until you win or lose (usually less than an hour later) and then either starting up again or quitting out and coming back a few hours later. On the other hand, it’s pretty finely tuned and while it may not have too much depth, it’s got a fair amount of breadth in terms of how you can exploit its systems – and how the game exploits them against you. Although it had trouble against my immortal Cleric who had a deck full of Mana Charge cards, and gained block and dealt damage whenever one was used.

As an example, I’ve played for 12 hours and beaten the end boss (whose strengths and abilities are different on each playthrough, but hinted at as you proceed) with three of the game’s classes. I’ve got a pretty good grasp on how Monster Slayers works, I’m not done with it yet, and I’ve spent half a day with the thing.

As you progress in each run, you can acquire two companions, each of which offer up powerful buffs that recharge over the course of several battles. Considering how swiftly death can come and how even easy encounters can wear you down, saving them for the right moment matters.

The closest comparison I can make, I think, is to perennial oh-let’s-just-play-for-five-minutes game Desktop Dungeons. As with that, there’s a general strategy to how you play each class, but said strategy needs to be modified based on what the game throws at you. And – depending on how things shake out – you may wind up in a situation that’s borderline impossible. Them’s the breaks, but it doesn’t really matter because you’ve probably only wasted 10 minutes and you can start up a new game with a couple of clicks.

At this point, it feels pretty close to finished. I mean, I’d be largely satisfied with this if I bought it right now, but I’m also a little glad that it’s not out just yet. There are a couple of noticeable (albeit not game-breaking) bugs, some concepts are poorly explained, and some of the text might need to be fixed (like the game asking you to pick a reward for levelling up and then not offering any to you, although this may also be a bug).

After 12 hours, I can say I’m having a rather good time with Monster Slayers – and hopefully, launch won’t be the end of the road. This is a game ripe for expansion with new monsters, new classes, and new cards, and considering it’s purely single-player and focuses a lot on playing your hand the best you can, it’s not something where balance is of paramount importance. If you’re looking for a coffee break game, or something to idle with while watching a video, keep your eyes on Monster Slayers.

Monster Slayers is due to launch on 23 March.

#Monster Slayers