Total Pebble Knockdown

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:

* With Horizon Forbidden West and Elden Ring now released, media outlets have already begun the discussion about what shall be the Game of the Year. On this Soapbox, we make the simple statement: NO! And while it is far too early to be calling a contest such as this, we might as well discuss why GOTY is a thing and if we really need The Game Awards.

Horizon Forbidden West review: Game of the year already?

'Elden Ring' Is the Game of the Year | WIRED

* Alex has been playing Pokemon Legends: Arceus for many hours now. Being different from the main line of Pokemon games, this brought up many points on it's similarities and differences. A long conversation follows to discuss the structure of Arceus, the story and missions, the streamlining and mechanics, as well as things it does not do. Also, we float the potential Pokemon x Animal Crossing crossover event that you never knew you didn't want. There is much to cover in this Delving Deeper.

* We may have discussed the original question about when to have encounters, but there was another Discord Discussion that came up along the way concerning laying out the structure of gameplay. Some RPGs are more structured than others. Can we explain the basic structure of D&D? Can we determine which kinds of games lend themselves to more regimented structure than others? Does our show even have a structure? We sort of answer these questions.

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:

* And so, Nathan arrives at 77 hours into Cyberpunk 2077 and Alex has also been playing quite heavily. So, now we get to discuss the game you didn't think we'd play... as much as we actually have. Why was this the game we keep playing? What did CD Projekt Red do right that often gets overshadowed by a disastrous launch and company response? Could this still be known as one of the great RPGs in the future? Should it be? We discuss some missions, story, mechanics and world design to answer those questions.

* Something that was always perplexing to Nathan in D&D has been the relationship between character levels and challenge ratings. For the uninitiated, all of the things you fight in D&D will have a challenge rating (CR) to tell you how easily it will kill you. But how does that measure up against the level and size of your party? Would it just be easier to find an encounter builder online? Well, of course it would, but let's see if Alex can't shed a little light on what challenge ratings are in this Mechanically Speaking.

* Have you ever started playing a game and realize you're spending a lot of time searching through drawers? Well, you are not alone. And this feels like a problem with grind and pacing that needs to be addressed. So, in this Delving Deeper, we look at the design decision to make 6 separate loot spots on a single vehicle (looking at you Generation Zero) and ways this could be mitigated to avoid bogging down a game with tedium.

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:

* So, Activision Blizzard was acquired by Microsoft for a whole lot of money and now we have to discuss the biggest purchase in video gaming history. Mostly, we need to talk about whether this was a good idea. Will Microsoft be able to justify this price tag in the future and how would they plan on recuperating the cost? The good, the bad and the microtransactions on this Weekly Muse.

To prove we didn’t just make this up - Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion - The Verge

* This time on Discord Discussions, we are going to discuss how structured encounters like combat get triggered and what needs to occur for that to happen. We have had a long discussion regarding this in the forums to arrive at the question at hand and now Nathan and Alex can mangle it completely by discussing it on the show. But should we start rolling initiative the second a bar fight breaks out? And should we stop taking rounds when the goblins are fleeing the city? We sort of answer these questions.

* Okay, so we have to talk about Bruno. Nathan watched Encanto and got many songs stuck in his head. The biggest earworm for society at large has been “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” and it is not the typical hit song from a Disney animated feature. But it did inspire the topic of designing systems that work together… like making all the vocal parts blend into one. This will make more sense when Nathan explains it, we think.

Like you need a link… We Don't Talk About Bruno (From "Encanto") - YouTube

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:

* Techland has a big game coming out shortly called Dying Light 2: Stay Human. To promote the release, they sent out a message saying the game would be 500 hours long and a lot of people did not take that news well. Techland had to clarify that 500 hours would be specifically to do everything in the game and the main game would be 20 hours. So, have we come to a time where players want shorter games and why would that be? We discuss that on Weekly Muse.

It Turns Out Dying Light 2 is Not 500 Hours Long, Which is Obvious But Still a Weird Flex

* In our first ever Mechanically Speaking, we look specifically at a game mechanic (hence the name). This time, it's the UI and plug-ins systems used to determine your characters abilities used in Nier Automata. Did you know you can remove elements of your UI to make room for damage increases? Or remove your operating system and get an instant game over? We discuss why this works so well in the game and how you might use a similar system to build characters in a tabletop RPG.

* We never have enough games in our library, which is why we have wishlists. Alex and Nathan discuss 5 games on their Steam wishlists, taking us from the post-apocalypse to a different post-apocalypse. There's other stuff, but we talk more about that genre than you'd think. Which titles are on both our lists?

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:

* Have you ever wanted to be a video game character in real life? Well a new place called Bam Kazam is building experiences that let you live out your digital dreams in the analog world. What world would we explore and which ones are we trying to avoid?

Bam Kazam in Scottsdale turns you into a video game character, literally

Bam Kazam Homepage

* So Dark Alliance is back... well, kind of. What does this new take on the series tell us about companies, their IPs and what you should do if you want to change it? Because change is not always a bad thing, but a lazy rebuild of an acclaimed series warrants criticism, which we will give in a Soapbox while exploring how the game plays and the characters it decided to use.

* You may skip over a tutorial or sigh upon realizing you are currently playing them. But tutorials can be invaluable to introduce mechanics to a new player when done right. What tutorials did we benefit from the most and which ones were notably bad?

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:

* Really quick, imagine the most likely reality show star to get a video game adaptation. Now toss that idea out the window, because we're talking about the reality of playing a Dog the Bounty Hunter game. This is not a drill. The mullets are real. Let's discuss the fresh hell we are in.

The article with a mullet - Dog the Bounty Hunter Is Getting His Own Series of Video Games

* Well, it's come to this. NFTs are now everywhere and there are now entire games based around the idea. You can now buy virtual land in a game that hasn't released yet for nearly $1 million! Doesn't that sound... terrible? It's time to explain the problems with NFTs as they pervade games using a convenient list that has been made of the best(?) among them. Yes, there's even a top 5 list in this segment.

Money is pointless now and here's the article that explains why - A new video game project pulled in over $55 million in less than 1 week entirely through NFT sales of virtual land

5 reasons the world is terrible now - the-5-best-nft-video-games

* We have another Discord Discussion this week. This time we take a question about digital versus physical copies of game books. Who will rise victorious in this match up? You'll have to listen to find out.

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:

* It was only a matter of time. Nathan finally played Snowball the Rainbow Unicorn Detective in a live stream. In addition to discussing what happened when he popped up on The Inspectres and got transported to the magical world of Kittensville, we look at how Snowball was built using the normal D&D creation tools. Yes, Nathan built Snowball as an actual D&D character. How did that go?

* The kids these days seem pretty wild about Pop Its. What are they? Probably not important, but Nathan was forced to play the "Pop It Game" over the holidays anyway. Unfortunately, it was not interesting or fun. But, if we really think about it, could we make it fun? Time for a Crit Think!

* Who is the REAL Spider-Man? That is up to interpretation, mostly by those on the ground. So, are your heroes the REAL heroes to the people on the street? Do you even want the notoriety and attention that it brings? Will someone come along and steal your glory? Let's discuss if there is such a thing as the REAL adventuring party.

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:

* New Year, new opportunities to not follow through with resolutions. However, Alex and Nathan discuss the idea of "New Year's Themes" and what we would like to do in 2022. 

The idea of New Year's themes came from this CGP Grey video: Your Theme - YouTube

* On this episode, Nathan does the most dangerous thing in the Internet age: He admits he was wrong about something. More specifically, he discusses how he was wrong about his first impressions of Remnant: From the Ashes. Turns out, it's not a terrible game you should burn with fire, but a surprisingly engaging, souls-inspired game that you can easily end up spending dozens of hours playing. So, what changed?

Feel free to see Nathan ranking this toward the bottom of his 2019 Best to Worst list: Every Video Game I Played from 2019 Ranked Best to Worst - YouTube

* A new year is an opportunity to reflect on the last year. It's also an excuse for us to play Save, Bury, Reboot with the games we played in 2021. What deserves to be preserved, what can we get rid of and what desperately needs a makeover? Listen to find out.

You can listen to the original Save, Bury, Reboot from Delve in 2020 here: DelveCast Live - Save, Bury, Reboot (audio) - YouTube

* Recently, D&D released their new Strixhaven setting, taking the famous TTRPG into a school setting straight out of Magic: The Gathering. Time to think about all the school pop culture properties we could stick into this and what Rodney Dangerfield would be as a D&D character. Also, there is now an owl you can play and why does everyone have night vision?

Sources with more details on Strixhaven - Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos | Dungeons & Dragons (wizards.com), D&D: Your first look at the Strixhaven sourcebook – Owlin and mascots | Wargamer

* In Discord Discussions this week, we'll be looking at tool and language proficiencies. How often do these get used? Should it be more often? And really, how many players or DMs keep track of these in practice? We continue this conversation from our forums on this episode.

* Now at the end of the year, we have to bid a fond farewell to Delvecast as the site plans on powering down. We'll look back wistfully at the time we spent on Mad Adventurer's Society, through our own website and on to brighter horizons.

A look into the archives at Mad Adventurer's Society - https://web.archive.org/web/20160205010403/http://www.madadventurers.com/#content