Thanks, I’ll check it out!

I really enjoy the possibility of dying at any moment, but one of my players seems a bit frightened by it. Sounds like he doesn’t want to put too much thought or care into a character that is maybe going to die and be replaced a few sessions down the line.

It’s funny, because he and I constantly lament the fact that our current DM is too scared of killing our characters, and constantly pulls something out of his ass to save us at the last minute.

I dread the reactions of my other players, those who are more accustomed (and are even okay) to the narrative-heaviness of our current campaign and its inherent plot armor magic.

Thanks, this is a very thorough answer.

I was a bit skeptic of the character building aspect as well. SD looks a lot simpler and barebones even compared to DnD, which is already peetty barebones if you don’t pick a caster. My players really enjoy building a specific character and most of us homebrew their own class/subclass (with the master’s consensus). Hopefully they’ll be able to embrace the more freeform playstyle of SD.

Your point about different OSR tables having different gameplay is interesting. I was under the impression that the dungeon was the entire point of OSR. At least at first glance, Shadowdark doesn’t look like a game where the social/investigation aspect has time to shine - there is no skill system, and the spellcasting rules seem balanced around the assumption that you’re dungeon crawling… That’s probably me being a bit too tied to the familiarity of DnD though. I’ll look up some gameplay videos and see how other people who are more skilled than me do it.

Thanks a lot for the tips!

If you were to listen to the internet, it would seem that AAA studios are be on their last gasp, with indie devs dancing on their graves.

The reality is that, aside from the big indie game of the moment (think Silksong or Expedition 33, if you want to count the latter as indie), most gamers don’t care or don’t even know indie games exist in the first place.
I have a few gamer friends (each of whom spends a few hours daily on games), and only one of them plays maybe one indie game per year, and only those who manage to breach through his bubble via influencers and streamers.

There’s no such thing in 5e/5e2024.

Closest thing is a feat that player characters can take, which allows them to make one opportunity attack when a caster casts a spell.

People tend not to click on links without info about what it is, so I’ll copy-paste the video description here:

Think “Diablo Lite meets Stardew Valley” and you’ve got a good starting point in mind for Emberville, the just-announced pixel-art action-adventure-RPG from developer Cygnus Cross. It features Doug Cockle (The Witcher series) and Alex Jordan (Cyberpunk 2077) as voice actors, and it’s due to be released in Early Access on Steam in Summer 2026.

If anything, I feel like it’s the exact opposite? You can’t drive more than 50 meters without the game gifting you a new car or some shit.

I stopped playing FH3 because of that lol
Don’t know if the new games introduced gated progression though.

Minecraft started as a building game, NMS started as an open-world sandbox, or is it an aesthetic planetarium? Does that mean expecting good dogfights is unwarranted?

It’s a sandbox exploration/crafting game, not a combat/flight sim game. The survival aspect in Minecraft is barebones and monsters are stupid and useless, so what? Why is Minecraft “crystal clear” about being a “building game with a survival element” but you still insist on NMS being a “space game”? What does space game even mean? Can’t two space games provide different experiences, a different focus on different mechanics, or is good dogfighting a prerequisite to all space games?

Would you please check their original promotional material on what they are selling?

I did. I could count the number of SECONDS space battles featured in their pre-release trailers on one hand. The major focus was always on exploring planets, taking in the sights and gathering resources.

Because it is a common tactic for NMS fans to claim others have “different expectations”, which you have done twice already.

I’m not a NMS fan. I think the game sucked. I hate sandboxes.

You, however, had different expectations.

You can always press S to win.

Don’t do that? I recently replayed the remastered versions of the old PS1 Final Fantasy games, and they have built-in cheat codes (press left and right stick to turn on God mode). I didn’t do that and played the game normally.

Thanks for proving my point.

You are strangely confrontational for some reason. But anyway, my point was that the game is, and always has been, exploration first, and everything else is complementary to the main gameplay loop. You were setting your expectations up for some sort of grand RPG dogfight game that never was, and are now telling us that it’s HG’s fault.

I don’t know exactly what you mean with “functional dogfights […] with functional AI”, but from the looks of it, it’s there already:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djIOoTjayKs

There are also different factions in the game that the player can interact with and gain/lose reputation. According to the wiki, entertaining relationships with the in-game factions net the following benefits:

• Availability of certain blueprints to purchase.
• Faction specific dialogue options.
• Possibility to start missions, which require a minimum faction standing.
• High standing will grant the player aid at times when under attack by pirates.
• Discounts on technology modules in Space Stations.

Maybe it’s not as in-depth as you (and I) wish it was, but it’s there already.

Your argument is that the game doesn’t fit its “space tropes”, but somehow that’s not you having different expectations than what it was actually promised and delivered?

I like Minecraft, MC is crystal clear about what it is trying to be: a building game first with an open world and survival element.

I cannot say the same with NMS and its space tropes and exploration loop.

Sounds to me like you had different expectations and are saying that it’s somehow the game’s fault.

Instead of completely changing the game into something else, they opted to add features that complement the original gameplay loop, and lots of people love what the game has to offer.

There’s nothing wrong with not liking NMS, and as I said, I don’t like it either, but I wouldn’t say that the game doesn’t fit the promises made just because you don’t like it. From what I remember, they promised a sandbox game with a big universe and tons of planets to explore along with your friends. NMS currently has that, plus base building, ship customization, and more. All these systems are subservient to the main gameplay loop of going to planet -> gathering resources -> building more stuff, but it’s like that for every sandbox game. I don’t like Minecraft and Factorio either, but like, it’s my opinion. NMS never promised a 10 hrs story driven experience and cinematic cutscenes.

A redemption arc implies fucking up in the first place and working to rectify the previous mistakes.

They lied and the game was missing a lot of features at launch, but now all those features (and more) are in the game, which is still being updated for free a decade later.

I don’t like the game, and I wish the devs acted differently so that a redemption arc wasn’t needed in the first place, but it is what it is. The devs worked their asses off, the game is now playable and feature complete and is still being updated, and from the looks of it Hello Games have learned from their mistakes and are not promising the moon for their next game.

In a world of subscription services, Bandcamp’s a breath of fresh air. You pay, you own it. You can download it and store it wherever you want and play it to your heart’s content. Their cut is reasonable and the artists are well paid, it feels great to own stuff and reward the people making it.

It’s a bug in our simulation. If you’re poor and you lose a little money, you go bankrupt. But if you’re rich and you burn a fuckton of money, you can buffer overflow into richness and go back on top.

I don’t know you, but I have more games in my library than gaming hours in a month. I haven’t touched anything released in the past three years, and mostly replay older games and emulators. The entire PS1 and PS2 library, as well as Nintendo 64, GBA, DS, etc… can be played on your fridge, and you can pirate those games for free, or buy their remasters (if they’s any) for cheap.

I played this game years after its release, luckily without spoilers, but I had heard a LOT about it and how great it was.

It’s one of the very few instances of a game living up to its hype. Loved every second of it! The humour is always on point, gameplay is unique, soundtrack is on fire, and the story’s not bad either. I only had minor grievances with it, but nothing that made it drop below a 9/10 for me.

I played the old available build and, although the game is clunky and the soundtrack gets old fast, it’s still an incredible accomplishment and something the team should have been given the chance to be proud of.

The dubious canyons missions are some of the best missions of the franchise, so I’m definitely not complaining about those :D