Seeker of Carcosa

Baldur’s Gate is part of a setting several decades older than the game franchise of the same name. It was an official setting of D&D a decade before the first game. In the sense of a ROLEPLAYING game, fidelity to the source material is paramount.

The original games were developed at the end of the life cycle of the edition they used for the mechanics. The ruleset got a major revision the same year BG2 was released. There have been several major editions since. Edition warring aside, no one can argue that the Forgotten Realms played in 5th edition isn’t the same Forgotten Realms played in AD&D 2E. The tone and continued narrative of the setting is the key feature in maintaining the soul of a property, not mechanical fidelity.

The game respects the official canon of the Forgotten Realms, including the canonical ending to BG2 where Gorion’s Ward rejected divinity and eventually led to Bhaal’s revival. Characters from the original series return as companions for BG3, with stories acknowledging the Bhaalspawn crisis. One of the origin playthroughs is the exact same story as the first Baldur’s Gate.

If your only complaint is lack of real time with pause then I reckon it’s you who isn’t the real Baldur’s Gate fan.

Yes because mechanical fidelity is the lowest priority in continuing the series. Continuation of the story and tonal fidelity matter a lot more. The Fallout series went from a turn based 2.5D isometric RPG to a real time action RPG, and one of the best instalments in the series follows the latter formula.

Same IP; returning characters from the original series; revisiting important locations from the original series; uses a D&D ruleset for resolution; expands upon the story of the Bhaalspawn crisis over a century after the incident, especially via the

All of this is apparent through playing the game.

I like Assess the Situation/Open Your Brain/Discern realities etc. Ever since playing Disco Elysium I treat those kinds of moves as Shivers from Disco Elysium. It tends to get a really good response.

Maybe there should be a piece that tells a story beyond “nyah, I’m evil!”

Any manner of wizard should really have a personal ritual site, allowing them to bask and practice at astrologically appropriate times. Sacrifices on the equinoxes to ensure a bountiful summer and a mild winter; Fires on the solstices in appreciation of said summer/winter; charge under the waxing moon in anticipation of a particularly challenging ritual; dampen troublesome magical side effects under the waning moon; clear your mind under the new moon; channel power of the full moon into your key rituals.

With larger groups I tend to stick to less mechanically complex games.

Most OSR games can be run on the fly with any number of players. I had a fixed group of 9 run through Keep on the Borderlands, with 1 or two extras jumping in for a session here or there.

My absolute favourite is Savage Worlds. It’ss great as the maths isn’t tight and “balancing” an encounter is just a matter of throwing in more mooks, throw in a wild card per 2 or 3 players. It can fit to any setting, though I strongly recommend Deadlands.

My close second favourite is Call of Cthulhu, which I’ve run with 8 players. There’s not a combat focus so sessions are unlikely to get bogged down, and even then, most combat actions are a simple contested roll. Investigations tend to resolve as people splitting into pairs and following different leads; two go archiving at the library, two visit a sanitarium patient, two head over to the local paper to see if any stories have been published or even blocked by an editor, two stake out points of interest.

Ubuntu 23.04 for my laptop. I experiment with other distros from time to time when I grow bored but getting back to Ubuntu is like putting on my favourite pair of jeans.

I just go for completed series nowadays. It’s just not worth the time ranting and actively waiting for the completion of certain series. I’ve made a conscious decision not to start on Rothfuss’s trilogy until he finishes the final book.

I also find that recently I go for books with more mature themes; not gore- and sex-fests where everyone is morally grey for the sake of it, but stuff like Robin Hobb’s books which explore feminism through a fantasy lens, or stories with characters who confront their flaws rather than being some ideal version of a character archetype.

I’m looking for community engagement without the homogenised superculture. I’d like to be able to discuss books on a small book community without someone jumping in with “I also choose this guy’s dead wife” or “not my proudest fap” because it’s a low effort way of garnering meta-points. I also like the lack of an account-based point system.

So far Lemmy is delivering and so I’m engaging here a lot more actively than I ever did on Reddit.

The site defaults to sorting by active posts. There are options for hot, new, and top over the past day. I tend to sort by new.

Currently Reading The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Also trying to get a Lovecraft book club off the ground over at [email protected]

At the university I run Halloween sessions for new players, and by far the best scenario I’ve run is the first one: House of the Midnight Violet. It’s a 3 hour scenario for a party of 4th level. I’ve run it twice for a party of 3rd level with no adjustments. It’s plays very well as is, though I’d personally suggest running the groups of dolls and cats as swarm creatures rather than individual creatures, for the sake of your own sanity.