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Total Pebble Knockdown episodes
- 42. Don't Listen to This Part
On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:
- It’s rare that we have good news to share regarding NFTs, but we’ve found some this week. Mojang announced that NFTs and blockchain will not be allowed in Minecraft. Yay! However, NFT Worlds plans on building their own Minecraft so they can make the crypto-paradise happen over there. Not yay! Let’s break some of this down in a Weekly Muse.
- We love our secret levels in video games. Take me back to Whimsyshire, please. But the question we have this week on Crit Think is: Could you have secret levels in tabletop RPGs? How would that work? How could you keep it from being obvious to the person running the game? Will cows be involved?
- It’s the little things that add up. When running a game, the small details can greatly affect the player experience. Most new DMs might not think about the word “miss” and how it is applied during combat. How can one little word mean so much? Oh, we will tell you. Don’t MISS it.
55 min - 41. Warlock-asaurus
On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:
The trailer for a new D&D movie just dropped at San Diego ComicCon. So, I guess that's what we're talking about on Weekly Muse. We discuss some of the monsters, classes and spells showcased in the trailer and if it looks good. Alex also attempts to explain that older D&D movies existed, although you likely don't remember them.
Nathan's character may have been affected by the curse of lycanthropy. But as many D&D players may know, lycanthropes are seriously broken. So, on this Mechanically Speaking, let's try to unbreak it. Let's see how we can change some of the rules to give the curse of lycanthropy a little more curse and a little less blessing.
A user's guide to lycanthropes - Embracing Your Wild Side: Playing As a Lycanthrope in D&D - Posts - D&D Beyond (dndbeyond.com)
An old Reddit post on some houserules - Lycanthrope mechanic redesign for 5e : DnD (reddit.com)
The way werewolves are presented in World of Darkness - Werewolf (WOD) | White Wolf Wiki | Fandom
If you've ever played video games, you probably played a fishing mini-game. However, you may have also noticed that those mini-games are not great. However, Call of the Wild: The Angler is coming out soon to be a dedicated fishing game and it makes us think there should be more than throwing out a rod. We'll discuss some of the examples of how it was handled in games we've played and how it could be far better if it's the main experience.
1 hr 20 min - 40. The Hum of Crabs
On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:
- When exploring worlds of imagination, you want to make them feel alive. But if we are escaping from reality, the worlds themselves should reflect that. How can we set our fantasy, sci-fi, post-apocalypse, etc. apart from the here and now? How do we introduce those elements? Let's discuss that in a Delving Deeper.
- We play our fair share of RPGs. Before you can start, however, you need to have a character. Some games do a better job establishing that than others. In this Discord Discussion given to us by Dadam, we'll discuss how this was implemented in tabletop and video games, some of the stand-out examples and what elements of character creation appeal to us the most.
- Norse mythology is a big thing these days and one small survival game became a big hit using that thematic landscape. Nathan played Valheim, exploring its' landscape and smacking its' monstrous residents with an ax. Despite his love/hate relationship with survival games, this one was more enjoyable than annoying. How so? Listen to find out.
The Let’s Game it Out video - I Turned Valheim Into a Physics-Defying Nightmare - YouTube
1 hr 8 min - 39. Deja You
On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:
- During a recent D&D session, the party ran across some wererats. This forced the mostly martial party to get creative with dealing damage and that led to a completely unorthodox usage of Heat Metal. What is Heat Metal? How are you supposed to use it? How did we change it? The answers may surprise and annoy you.
Heat Metal is an interesting spell
Wererats don't care about your swords
- The numbers are in and it appears that Diablo Immortal, like many mobile games before it, has made a Scrooge McDuck money silo in profit. But in this Soapbox, Nathan discusses how mobile games may be lucrative, but that certainly does not make them good. Having played some of Diablo Immortal himself, this is one thing he can testify to knowing. While we're at it, we discuss some of the other Diablo-style games we've been playing that are, frankly, much better and will cost you far less.
COD Mobile made a LOT of money
Diablo Immortal made a LOT of money
- Let's play a new game! In the first ever Side Quest Storming, we look at a random adventure list and start rolling dice. Three quests are picked randomly for Snowball and Hephaestus to get a quick lesson on how they would approach each scenario. It's sort of like roleplaying...
The lovely list we used from Mystic Waffle
1 hr 9 min - 38. 560/385 Squared: Remorse
On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:
- June was a big month for gaming. We’ve already talked about the Xbox & Bethesda Showcase, but on this Weekly Muse we take a look at the Summer Games Fest, a repository of sequels and remakes. Also, a few original titles. Some of it is likely worth your time, but exactly how much has yet to be seen.
- We mentioned in passing the oddity of choosing a barbarian lifestyle in D&D. In this Delving Deeper, Alex tries to make sense of why barbarian is a class so that Nathan can sleep at night. It takes a village to make a rage-fueled monster slayer.
The official barbarian rules - The Barbarian Class for Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) Fifth Edition (5e) - D&D Beyond (dndbeyond.com)
A breakdown of barbarian subclasses - RPGBOT - DnD 5e - Barbarian Subclass Breakdown
- Are you not entertained? Battle arenas, towers and caves have been a staple of video gaming. They are so common that you might want to utilize them in your roleplaying game. The reasons why are really up to you, but the way they would be implemented needs more thought. On a Mechanically Speaking, we look at how you would make that tower work and creative ways players might deal with it when the encounter one.
1 hr 8 min - 37. Vin Diesel Riding a Dinosaur
On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:
- The Xbox & Bethesda Showcase 2022 had many announcements, some of which were of particular interest to Nathan and Alex. So, let us discuss a new entry from Squanchy Games, a new cthulhu-vania title, Hideo Kojima, Hot Wheels, giant spiders and souls games for some reason. And, of course, we have an extended discussion of Starfield.
- One of the other titles we got at the Showcase was for Ark 2, featuring a very Vin Diesel-ly Vin Diesel. Funnily enough, Alex and Craeve had been playing the first Ark as it is now available for free on Steam. That did not go well and Alex wanted to get on his own Soapbox to discuss the problems with UI and game design it brings.
- If you got lost on the boot up choices in Ark, you might be experiencing choice paralysis. So, how could we mitigate choice paralysis in games from a design perspective? How can you avoid it in games you are running or playing? We delve deeper into the subject.
1 hr 10 min - 36. Audrey 2000
On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:
- In a less than angry Soapbox, Nathan makes the completely reasonable argument that your in-game store informs everything about your world. Alex has some disagreements about that and makes those very known. Who’s hill will we die on? Perhaps each others… perhaps!
- Since Nathan now has a Level 5 Bard in the TPK D&D game, he took a 3rd Level spell called Plant Growth. After reading through the description, he started thinking of new and wild ways to utilize the spell, primarily the idea of building his own hedge maze. So, Alex goes over the rules as written and discusses how this might work mechanically in the game.
- While everyone is busy talking about Diablo Immortal, Nathan went a different way and played the original Diablo for the first time. It did not go well. There might be a reason Diablo 2 is where most people jumped into the series. So, let’s discuss if you can hit or see anything in this very old game.
56 min - 35. Press E 3 Times
On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:
- E3 2022 is dead. We killed it... with shrugs. But in it’s wake, a whole bunch of game company streams will be flooding our lives over the next couple weeks. What companies are not having conferences? Do we know about any games being announced? Could we ever hope for a new IP? Will E3 2023 be more for gamers then the industry executives? Sorry, I made myself laugh there… Also, was Frostpunk good or bad?
E3 has ceased to be - E3 2022 - Digital and Physical - Has Officially Been Canceled - IGN
PC Gaming Show - E3 is dead, but the 2022 PC Gaming Show lives on with some big reveals promised (msn.com)
A list of streams to replace E3 - The Complete Schedule Guide For Every Not-E3 2022 Showcase (msn.com)
- What does the average PC on the street take as a class? Should your bartender be thinking about being a fighter, a rogue or maybe a monk (Way of Drunken Master obviously)? Alex goes over NPC classes from D&D 3.5E to show how this was handled in previous versions. Nathan looks at making Indiana Jones in D&D. And we discuss how this might work in other applications.
- There are some games that you go back to many times. The question becomes: Why? What qualities do games have to possess to draw us back into it’s world over and over again? We discuss the nature of repeat playability, the games we went back to and the ones that we will never revisit, regardless of how good they were.
1 hr 13 min - 34. A Trojan Unicorn
On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:
* It appears that video games are the new go-to medium for film adaptation. What a wonderful time to explain that video games and movies are different things. Is Super Mario Brothers a movie masterpiece? Why would you want silent protagonists to suddenly recite dialogue? Why has Master Chief not gotten to the freakin' ring world the whole game series is named after!? Oh, and are they actually gonna try making a Fallout series? Why?
* We grow very attached to our characters when playing RPGs. What aspects of their adventure can carry forward into the next campaign? Will you play an adversary or fellow student? Will you inherit their laboratory? Will you rebuild the town they set on fire? We go over our most memorable player characters and what their legacy might look like in this Crit Think.
* While Nathan enjoys playing life sims, he had stayed away from Farming Simulator 2022... until now. So, how exactly did that go and can Alex explain why he is wrong?
1 hr 19 min - 33. T.T.R.P. Gary
On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:
- Recently, Twitch was all ablaze with streamers playing an early build of Overwatch 2 and views were off the charts. Then, on Day 2, views were off the charts in a very different direction. So, why did enthusiasm for the game go away so quickly? We will look at a few possibilities and ask what Blizzard might be able to learn… from other Blizzard games.Overwatch 2 viewership drops - Overwatch 2 With Drastic Viewership Drop on Twitch | gamepressure.comSome concerns about the future - Why We're Seriously Worried About Overwatch 2 (looper.com)
- Nathan finally watched Spiderman: No Way Home, the film he has been looking forward to since the trailer. However, there was one thing he had to do first: Watch all the Spiderman movies that came before. And this led to a thought about building campaigns and RPGs. How can we avoid the pitfalls of making a game that’s just a giant series of references to previous works? Do we handwave storytelling and world-building by just saying “basically he’s Marty McFly”? What if your players have no idea what you are referencing? We delve deeper into this subject and the term “intertextuality”.
- A game preview popped up on GamePass and it looked vaguely like Stardew Valley. Of course, Nathan had to play it. This time on Games You Didn’t Think We’d Play, Nathan learned that Little Witch in the Woods was akin to watching grass grow. Faring slightly better, Alex played House Flipper to renovate your home while you weren’t looking. Find out why both these games feature cobweb cleaning mechanics.
1 hr 17 min
About Total Pebble Knockdown
From the publisher's feed
In weekly discussions that result in absolutely no clear answers, Nathan and Alex delve into the endless choices that make up games. What can we learn from video games, storytelling, and the real…
world, and how can we apply that to tabletop games?