Total Pebble Knockdown

What is happening with Embracer Group? First they buy up a bunch of game companies, then they lose 40% of their stock value, now they are selling off or shuttering the same game studios they bought. Let’s go over a timeline of unfortunate events and a cautionary tale of what large corporate investments could entail.

Bethesda recently saw their roadmap of game releases for several years leaked recently. What were they planning on releasing? How far behind schedule are they? Which projects are likely to still happen?

Cyberpunk 2077 just got a big update that is being touted as “Cyberpunk 2.0” which apparently makes the game feel complete for the first time since it released in 2020. What does it mean to say a game is “complete”? Are there games that simply will never get that label? Why do we have to wait years to see it happen?

We got a request to react to a video about creating a World of Warcraft expansion using AI, so that’s what we’re doing. Echoes of Azeroth is not actually an expansion to WoW, but how close to a real one does it get?

Nathan has been playing a little indie game by the name Starfield. The latest in Bethesda’s line of epic RPGs, it shares many similarities with previous games from BGS, but there are some interesting differences. What are the best and worst things Starfield does? And why should we stop comparing it to space games?

When talking about D&D 3E, we briefly touched on Prestige Classes and many people said that we didn’t do a good job explaining it. So, let’s attempt to do a better job by looking at an article on the subject and discuss the differences between prestige and subclasses.

What if I told you there was a multi-player horror game that you could pick up for the low low price of a million dollars? Great deal, right!? Developer Bloody Bear tried the strangest marketing strategy for their game Spooky Men and now we have to talk about it.

Well, it took months, but after all the procrastination, Nathan finished the Mass Effect trilogy. What was his take away? Is it as good as he remembered? Are the criticisms of it’s 3rd act warranted?

Players expect causality in games, but it can be tricky making their choices feel like they have weight to the story. This is especially important in terms of tabletop RPGs, where player characters have more options and agency. What are some things to remember so players feel their choices have meaning and affect the story you are telling?

It’s time to talk about Baldur’s Gate 3. Alex has been playing Larian’s new CRPG and has some thoughts on what the game does right in addressing central problems that have plagued the genre. So, we will be discussing pacing, combat and inventory management.

Recently, a Polygon article suggested that we should accept save-scumming as the best way to play RPGs after playing Baldur’s Gate 3. Josh Sawyer had an interesting response to it. Now, we’ll discuss save scumming in the current landscape of gaming and perhaps admit to cases where we have done it ourselves.

On the last episode, Nathan mentioned how much he likes Metroidvania titles, although he has a very mixed opinion on Souls-Likes games. However, there are some big similarities between the two. So, maybe we should discuss the reason they are different and why that matters.

Dadam inquired into games that we should have liked but really did not. We discuss some of the games that work for us IN THEORY but do not IN PRACTICE. Get ready to hear about some Souls-likes, Metroidvanias and Cozy Games.

Alex is very excited to discuss the first support spec for World of Warcraft and how it has affected the game. So much so that he brought charts. Does this fundamentally change the 20-year-old game and will it open the door to other support types in the future?

When we looked over One D&D classes last week, we started questioning what Weapon Mastery was. After looking further into the UnEarthed Arcana documentation, Nathan found information on this brand new mechanic for One D&D and how it can add additional functionality to your regular weapons. Let’s see how it potentially affects our old favorites like the Rapier, Spear and Longbow.

There has been more UnEarthed Arcana from Wizards of the Coast looking at updates to the One D&D character classes. We picked three we liked and get to discuss them on this episode as Wizards will be looking for feedback later in August.

We were a little unsure about the changes One D&D was proposing for Druids, mostly around how Wild Shape had changed. Luckily, playtesters had the same concerns and huge changes have been made. We’ll go over those changes and also the subclasses where we find out why Circle of the Moon is still so good.

Nathan really likes Bards. The new playtest material makes some important changes to Bardic Inspiration and also a welcome change to Cutting Words that makes him happy. Also, we get the College of Dance which is kind of ridiculously good.

Alex has played a Ranger once or twice and frankly, the class had some problems in D&D 5E. One D&D has the possibility of fixing that and we look at some of the new changes that have been made. We also see the new subclasses, including the Beast Master which gives us… oh, look, the Beast stat blocks have returned!

Nathan went back to play the Mass Effect Trilogy thanks to the recent Legendary Edition release. However, now facing the ending of ME3, he has gotten a sudden reluctance to finish the last leg of his journey. Why is that happening? What prevents us from finishing a game even when we really like it?

You wander into town and your party goes directly to the tavern or the shops or the castle… or maybe to the notice board? We rarely use the good old-fashioned idea of a town bulletin board, but there are many cool uses to expand the world-building, storyline and questlines by using them. What can we learn by going to check out random posts at the town hall?

Nathan has been attempting to do real world gardening for several years and has realized there are many missing mechanics from your typical farming game. Why don’t they tell you about over-watering? Why do I never need to pull out a PH or light meter? Are they suggesting all plants like the same kind of soil?

Photorealism is coming to games near you with the advancements in engine technology. But, perhaps it’s a good time to ask if realistic graphics are what we really want in our gaming experience. We talk about where we are going and what genres will benefit the most of photorealism. Also, which ones would be foolish to adopt it?

The weather affects our day-to-day life, but why doesn’t it factor into our typical roleplaying game? We discuss some of the ways we can use weather as a storytelling device and game mechanic to make the world feel more alive.

What if the GM loses control of their game world? Let’s discuss some ways we can create “chaos mechanics” to seriously randomize what happens in a game. We get into random encounters from 3.5E, how randomness was implemented in Adventure Zone and how the original framework of D&D lent itself to this type of randomness.

Imagine coming back from your epic adventure to find that you were a legend that existed 1,000 years ago. Now what do you do? Are your parents still there? Does anyone recognize you? What was the last quest you went on? We explore another adventure hook as Nathan leads Alex down a time trippy rabbit hole.

What if you took Stardew Valley and smashed it together with Dark Souls? Think about it. Now you don’t have to, because we spent time working out the pitch for such a game. What will be our farming/dying ratio? Let’s find out.

Perhaps it’s time to sunset the idea of the tragic backstory. It’s been a common trope among RPG characters for decades now, but it’s getting very boring. We discuss some of our characters and how their backstories were interesting without being tragic. Avoid heading down Crime Alley with us!