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    1. I made a tool to generate AI powered recaps of TTRPG sessions

      My party recently finished Descent into Avernus, which we played over Discord and FoundryVTT given how scattered across the country we all are. A regular party of the campaign was the DM poking...

      My party recently finished Descent into Avernus, which we played over Discord and FoundryVTT given how scattered across the country we all are. A regular party of the campaign was the DM poking and prodding players for "someone write up a recap of last session", helping keep us all in the loop, players who were absent in particular.

      A few weeks ago it occurred to me that this could be automated, and Scribble was born.

      Scribble is just a bash script wrapper that will:

      1. Take a .zip of FLAC files from the Craig discord bot, recordings of each player present for the session
      2. Use the tool whisperx to transcribe those audio files to text
      3. Compile a transcript of the session and send it off to Gemini to come up with the recap
      4. Parse the recap and send it along to Discord via webhook

      After some trial and errors and tweaking, I've got it in a pretty good place, it's working very well for our campaign. So I docker-ized it and published it to share with the world anyone else who might get use from it. I'm not sure where else I could put the word out about this for anyone who might want to use it, so here it is. If you might find this useful, please, enjoy!

      https://github.com/goose-ws/scribble

      23 votes
    2. Session report: 496-Seed-23, in which a halfling hurls boulders

      AD&D 1e the other night. Two sessions being packed into one report. Party Jeff, Half-Elven Druid 6, Fighter 4, Magus 4 (~50k XP) Lee, Grey Elven Fighter 5, Magic-User 4, Thief 5 (~46k XP) Moya,...

      AD&D 1e the other night. Two sessions being packed into one report.

      Party

      • Jeff, Half-Elven Druid 6, Fighter 4, Magus 4 (~50k XP)
      • Lee, Grey Elven Fighter 5, Magic-User 4, Thief 5 (~46k XP)
      • Moya, Halfling Thief 6 (30k XP)
      • Oryn, High Elven Magic-User 5, Thief 6 (~58k XP)
        • Henchman Takeshi, Human Ranger 4 (~13k XP)
      • Varda, Human Cleric 6 dual-classed into Magic-User 4 (~47k XP)
        • Henchman Rudy, Halfling Druid 2, Thief 3 (~8k XP)
      • Vordt, Half-Ogre Cleric 4, Fighter 5 (~38k XP)

      The party sets out on the 23rd, arriving at the Temple the night of the 24th. On an impulse, they decide to check out the Elemental Earth's main place of worship. It is a fairly massive room filled with dirt, the center containing a square pyramid with steps leading up to a stone pillar that has bronze manacles attached. As they enter the room, four Earth Elementals appear in the four corners, still and waiting. They discuss a game plan; Lee puts protection from evil on himself and then moves forward to the pyramid. On the other side of it is a stand with a small bronze box. Lee moves in to check the box for traps and the elementals move closer, to the four corners of the pyramid. He proceeds to check the box for traps, finding none, and his spell expires right as the elementals attack.

      (1st round) Two are close enough to try and smash him immediately as the others move in, and he takes a heavy blow. Oryn, Moya, and Jeff let off bows and slings while Rudy prepares their staff of slinging to hurl a boulder and Varda prepares to levitate Lee, who is trying to withdraw as Takeshi charges in. Missiles bounce harmlessly off the elementals, though the boulder does a solid chunk of damage to the elemental. Takeshi ends his charge early, opting to keep the ones firing missiles and casting spells safe. Lee backs away, but is followed, and then levitate goes off, lifting Lee ten feet into the air. (2nd round) Oryn begins casting protection from evil on himself, Jeff casts magic missile, Varda lifts Lee another ten feet up, who is trying to cast mirror image on himself, and Rudy throws another boulder. One of the elementals manages to strike Lee, disrupting his spell, but then he is lifted to a safe height. (3rd Round) Oryn rushes towards the box, Lee is levitated a further ten feet, putting him in contact with the ceiling, at which point he maneuvers himself along towards the exit, Rudy throws another boulder, Jeff catches some in a web, and Takeshi begins ushering the other members out of the chamber. Turning their attention towards Oryn, a couple of the elementals try to smash him but are wholly prevented from making contact due to the protection from evil surrounding him. (4th Round) The elementals continue to fruitlessly whale on Oryn as he snatches the box and leaves with the rest of the party; the elementals do not follow beyond the limit of the chamber.

      The party casts some curatives on Lee and decide to travel back to the second floor. They encounter some ghouls on their way but quickly dispatch them. They make their way into a large octagonal chamber with exits in each cardinal direction, some crystal braziers hanging from the ceiling, an altar with a crystal bowl and knives, and a shallow pit built almost like an inground pool. After some investigation, they locate a secret door in the southeast corner that they cannot find the mechanism for. Lee opens it with a knock, revealing what appears to be a wraith, but was actually a drelb. Either way, it gets hit with a barrage of magic missile, has amplify damage put upon it, and is put down in the first round. The hidden chamber it was in appeared to be empty, but after some further prodding, they find a loose bit of floor hiding a censer that they later learn is a censer of controlling air elementals. Moya takes the crystal knives and bowl. The party then comes up with a plan to remove the crystal braziers from the ceiling to bring home, albeit one at a time given their size and weight; worth 8k gold each if sold (they were). Though out of reach normally, Oryn having been polymorphed into a gargoyle hybrid by a curse helped out here. After the second brazier is brought out, they rest until dawn to reprepare spells and allow for some of Lee's health to regenerate through a magic item of his. Oryn throws an invisibility, 10' radius on everyone and they re-enter the dungeon.

      They eventually find themselves in another chamber with a sheet of crystal embedded into the wall, which lights up to reveal Lawful Good-aligned outsiders that ask some questions about the party's purpose and suggests they leave their magic items near before leaving the room, as these celestials intend to bless the items, but their method will sear flesh and blind eyes; however, this must be done quickly, as their ability to peer through the window is short-lived. Between their own suspicions and Varda's patron tulani whispering in their ear that something seems off, the party moves on.

      The party wanders into the living quarters of the Elemental Fire priests; the first thing they run into is a captain with a couple of bugbears, whom they surprised, partially due to the invisibility. Varda targets the captain with levitate and he fails the save, so up he goes. Between the surprise segment and their captain being immediately removed from the fight, the bugbears surrender, but are killed anyways for being bugbears. The captain begs for surrender and is told to drop his weapons. He does so, save for one sword that he claims is a family heirloom. One detect magic later, Rudy notes that his armor, sword, and a rope at his belt are radiating magic, so he's killed and looted. At this point, only Varda, Lee, and Takeshi are visible.

      They move on into another chamber where a singular priest is lounging. Varda happens to be wearing older Elemental Fire regalia, so with a positive reaction roll, he considers Varda to be part of the faith, that Lee/Takeshi are his entourage, and has an exchange with him. Varda reveals that the army of Good being gathered some sixty miles away is ready to march and will descend upon the Temple soon, leading him to try and take Varda to the head priest. Before this can happen, however, Moya, Oryn, and others lead an attack on him and are able to cut him down before he can raise the alarm or get a spell off.

      They're unable to move into the head priest's quarters without alerting him, however, but this ended up not mattering as initiative dictated the win goes to the party. One bout of looting later, they find a path they think will lead back to an area they've been to before, and lo, it does, albeit straight into the arms of a troll that they... kill quickly. A problem arises, however. They try to burn it, and it's not burning. Quick pat down in a mild panic reveals its wearing a ring. A dirty, filth-encrusted ring, but a ring nonetheless. One good pull later, it's off and they're able to burn it, and then they take their leave to head back to town. They decide to force themselves to march so that they can get back ASAP, and they arrive at dawn on the 27th.

      Notable treasure: censer of controlling air elementals, flametongue, ring of fire resistance, rope of entanglement, along with some magic armor, couple scrolls, and another ring. Gold share was about 6k each.

      6 votes
    3. Steam Summer Sale 2025: Hidden gems

      Inspired by the recurring topic every Steam sale over at /r/GameDealsMeta: What are some lesser-known Steam games that you recommend? Are there any genres you’d like hidden gem recommendations...

      Inspired by the recurring topic every Steam sale over at /r/GameDealsMeta:

      • What are some lesser-known Steam games that you recommend?

      • Are there any genres you’d like hidden gem recommendations for?

      If you're interested in previous Hidden Gem topics, you can find them here.

      For popular recommendations and general purpose sale discussion, please use the main Steam Sale topic.

      Optional: Feel free to categorize your recommendations by number of reviews (as a proxy for popularity)

      Category Maximum Review Count
      Shockingly Overlooked 20
      Under the Radar 50
      Buried Treasure 150
      Underrated Great 500
      Cult Classic 1000
      Gem Graduate 1000+
      59 votes
    4. Save Point: A game deal roundup for the week of September 7

      Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week! Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle...

      Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week!

      Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle are most worth my attention?”

      Rules:

      • No grey market sales
      • No affiliate links

      If posting a sale, it is strongly encouraged that you share why you think the available game/games are worthwhile.


      All previous Save Point topics

      If you don’t want to see threads in this series, add save point to your personal tag filters.

      10 votes
    5. Looking for some video game suggestions based off some specific parameters

      Sorry to be picky, but it's hard for me to find games I enjoy - and part of that is I don't really know where to look. I'm a fan of games with no/skippable story, no/limited exploration,...

      Sorry to be picky, but it's hard for me to find games I enjoy - and part of that is I don't really know where to look.

      I'm a fan of games with no/skippable story, no/limited exploration, no/limited unlocks, no/limited power ups - but high in strategy and/or skill based games that are pretty simple while still giving depth to it (aka something that can be picked up and put down without issue, eg picking right back off where you were after not playing for months). Online is okay but no login bonus/requirements and something that can be played at ones own pace.

      I think what I'm looking for and what I'm NOT looking for would be easiest by giving examples:

      One of the big things that makes me asks this is that I find collectible card games (eg Hearthstone, MTG, Marvel Snap) to really fit the mold that I'm looking for, but the toxic skinner box of their economy to not be worth having in ones life. I don't want "daily quests" to be something I worry about.

      I found Slay The Spire to be okay, and have mostly been jamming Balatro as of late...but it's very annoying that basically all card games I can find now are basically Slay The Spire knockoffs. Going back to the "no/limited unlocks" and "no/limited power ups", that rouge-lite aspect to them really ruins the games to me - I get that there's the macro strategy about picking the power ups and what not, but it personally ruins the actual gameplay aspect to me and just feels too much "am I going to high roll or low roll?". Runetera's Path of Champions also fits this mold that, to me, was ruined by the power ups. I've heard good things about Monster Train, but the fact it gets compared to Slay The Spire has led me to skipping it.

      To give an example of card games I enjoyed, Marvel's Midnight Suns I thought was quite fun. It was nice that you could completely ignore the story and RPG aspects of the game to solely focus on the card combat. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales has interested me since I've heard good things about Gwent, but since it's a Witcher game I don't know if that means it's mostly a story-based game and the gameplay is just a means to server the story. I've been enjoying the duet expansion of Wingspan and see that it has a video game counterpart, so that might be interesting to try out for single player (but I also don't want to get burnt out on the game to be able to continue to play the board game)

      Autobattlers (which I basically consider deck builders) like Hearthstone's Battlegrounds I enjoy, outside of the fact that by being an online multiplayer game you have to give 100% focus on the game. I also quite dislike the constantly changing cards and what not with just how much information there is to the game (it's a big reason I haven't picked up other autobattlers like the League of Legends one). Are there any good offline autobattler-type games?

      Going off card games for strategy games...I do enjoy simulation games like Civilization to an extent, but the "one more turn" aspect of them really hurts - very rarely do I want to go back to a campaign I've already started and have to re-figure out what my plans were. Something that is either a lot quicker of a loop or a lot easier to drop back in would be interesting to me though.

      Tetris is probably one of the easiest games that fit the mold I'm looking for - strategy game that has very simple game play but a lot of depth to it. Shoutout to the old tetrisfriends.com website, though playing on it so much kind of burned me out from the game (definitely used to get the Tetris effect lol)

      X-Com 2 has been of interest to me since I enjoyed the game studio's Midnight Suns as mentioned above, but it's been hard to get into the start of the game and it's not exactly the easiest to play on a Steam Deck. I do think I'd enjoy it though.

      Going more skill-based group, Cuphead and Furi are two of my favorite games I've played in the last decade. I've definitely been leaning more strategy games though as I've gotten older, but still down for anything that is pure straight awesome gameplay without any other fluff like those two.

      This post is probably getting long enough lol. But thank you for any suggestions/pointing in directions for me to look

      26 votes
    6. Humble Choice - September 2025

      September 2025's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games. Steam Page OpenCritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB WWE 2K25 80 79 / 67 Win 🟨...

      September 2025's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games.

      Steam Page OpenCritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB
      WWE 2K25 80 79 / 67 Win 🟨 Playable 🎖️ Platinum
      Destiny 2: Legacy Collection (2025) 84 56 / 79 Win ❌ Unsupported 🟥 Borked
      The Plucky Squire 82 75 / 82 Win ✅ Verified 🎖️ Platinum
      SpellForce: Conquest of Eo 77 73 / 81 Win ✅ Verified 🎖️ Platinum
      Return to Monkey Island 87 81 / 90 Win, Mac, Linux ✅ Verified ✅ Native
      Eastern Exorcist 76 63 / 86 Win 🟨 Playable 🎖️ Platinum
      Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks 70 -- / 85 Win 🟨 Playable 🟨 Gold
      Grapple Dog 78 71 / 89 Win ✅ Verified 🎖️ Platinum

      Does anyone have experience with any of the games and, if so, would you recommend them? Is there anything in here that you're particularly excited to play?

      22 votes
    7. Save Point: A game deal roundup for the week of August 31

      Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week! Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle...

      Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week!

      Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle are most worth my attention?”

      Rules:

      • No grey market sales
      • No affiliate links

      If posting a sale, it is strongly encouraged that you share why you think the available game/games are worthwhile.


      All previous Save Point topics

      If you don’t want to see threads in this series, add save point to your personal tag filters.

      11 votes
    8. Retro Video Game Club brainstorming and planning topic

      There was a lot of interest in a Retro Video Game Club. I'm thinking it would be cool to get it off the ground! Use this topic as brainstorming/planning for how we think it should run. 1. We need...

      There was a lot of interest in a Retro Video Game Club. I'm thinking it would be cool to get it off the ground!

      Use this topic as brainstorming/planning for how we think it should run.


      1. We need a facilitator/emcee.

      • Is anyone interested in stepping up and running this?

      2. We need to figure out logistics.

      • Schedule
      • Game selection process
      • Parameters on what counts as "retro" (if necessary)
      • Maybe a name for the club?

      3. Anything else?

      • Is there anything else we need to consider?
      38 votes
    9. Tildes' Colossal Game Adventure: Inauguration and nominations

      Introducing: Colossal Game Adventure Colossal Game Adventure is Tildes' brand new retro video game club. Each month we will play a different retro game/games, discuss our thoughts, and bask in the...

      Introducing: Colossal Game Adventure

      Colossal Game Adventure is Tildes' brand new retro video game club.

      Each month we will play a different retro game/games, discuss our thoughts, and bask in the glorious digital experiences of yesteryear!

      Colossal Game Adventure is a reference to Colossal Cave Adventure. It's one of the most influential games of all time, one of the first text-based interactive games, and one of the first games to be shared online.

      What do we want to do with this group? Play influential games; interact with each other through text; and share the love for retro games online!

      It also abbreviates to CGA (because we love chunky pixel art), and its name communicates the Colossal amount of fun and excitement that we have with retro video Games in our shared Adventure of playing them together.


      Nominations

      In this topic we will be gathering nominations for games to be played.

      If you're looking for ideas:

      Importantly, not all games for CGA have to be "significant" games. Zany, offbeat, and experimental games are welcome too. Anything you think might make for good discussions.

      We will also have some "Arcade Special" months where we play several smaller/shorter games together in one batch (e.g. Pac-Man, Frogger, and Galaga). If you're not sure how big/long a game is, HowLongToBeat can help.

      Single Game Nomination Rules

      • Choose any game you feel is "retro" -- there is no hard and fast rule on what does or doesn't count
      • Maximum of TWO game nominations per person
      • Link to the game(s) on MobyGames

      "Arcade Special" Nomination Rules

      An "Arcade Special" is a batch of games that you feel could be played together in the same month.

      (They do not have to be proper arcade games and can be from any system or genre.)

      You might choose them because they're shorter or don't have as much staying power. You also might choose them based on a theme, series, or franchise. You also might do a completely random grab bag! There's no wrong way to make an Arcade Special (except for choosing games that are too big to fit in a month together).

      • 2-5 games per Arcade Special
      • Maximum of ONE Arcade Special nomination per person
      • Link to the games on MobyGames

      So, one person can nominate up to TWO single games and ONE arcade special (of up to five games).

      Optional Extras

      None of the following are required, but they make things more interesting:

      • Explain why you're interested in nominating the games
      • Explain why you think they'd be a good choice for the group
      • If the game has multiple releases or multiple platforms, you can choose to specify which release/platform to target if you feel it's important. (Note: participants are still free to play whichever version they want.)
      • For Arcade Specials: list why you think the games would be a good candidate to be played together.
      • For Arcade Specials: give the batch its own cool name!

      Next Steps

      Nominations will be open for 48 hours from the time of this posting.

      The voting topic will open on August 29.

      Once the voting is over, we will post the schedule for the next six months and start our first official month on September 1st.


      Notifications

      If you want to be added to the notification list for our Colossal Game Adventure, simply comment in this topic. I will add all commenters here to the list unless they explicitly mention otherwise.

      52 votes
    10. Colossal Game Adventure: Voting topic

      IMPORTANT We now have a splash screen. (Thanks @Boojum!) ALSO IMPORTANT Please read all directions for submitting a proper ballot. Any improper ballots will NOT be counted, but you will get a...

      IMPORTANT

      We now have a splash screen. (Thanks @Boojum!)


      ALSO IMPORTANT

      Please read all directions for submitting a proper ballot.

      Any improper ballots will NOT be counted, but you will get a polite message from me before the count asking you to fix them. XD

      • All ballots must be top-level comments.
      • All top-level comments should be ballots ONLY.

      I will be using the Collapse Replies button to tally votes, so any ballots not in top-level comments will not be counted.

      After you submit your ballot, you can respond to your own post in a new comment to lobby for your choices (which is optional but highly recommended). It's completely fine to have conversations downthread from the ballots, but please make sure that the top-level remains clean.


      Submitting Your Ballot

      • Each person has 20 votes to distribute among games they see fit.

      • Each person can allocate a maximum of 5 points per Single Game/Arcade Special.

      • Arcade Specials count as one block (do not vote for each game in them individually).

      • Votes should be listed as NAME (VOTES) -- e.g. Pong (3)

      • Voting closes 48 hours from the posting of this topic.

      Please ensure your titles match mine exactly (copy/paste highly recommended). I will be using CTRL+F to tally votes u/Spore_Prince has written a program to tally the votes, so any different spellings will not being counted. See examples below, as well as my actual ballot in the topic.

      Example Ballot 1 - Valid Ballot
      Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing (5)
      Portal 3 (5)
      Half-Life 3 (3)
      Team Fortress 3 (2)
      Night Trap (2)
      Xexyz (1)
      Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon (1)
      Left 4 Dead 3 (1)
      

      Uses 20 points total, and no game exceeds 5 points

      Example Ballot 2 - Invalid Ballot
      Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing (10)
      Protal 3 (7)
      Wand of Gamelon (5)
      

      Uses more than 20 points; games exceed 5 points; titles do not match


      Voting Outcomes

      • The top 6 games/Arcade Specials will become the next 6 months of CGA.
      • Of the remaining games, the bottom 50% will be cut from the list.
      • The remaining 50% will stay on the list and will enter the next voting round starting at their current point totals instead of 0.
      • The next round of nominations will happen in 6 months, and participants will be limited to nominating 1 new game OR 1 new Arcade Special.

      Nominees

      Single Games Column 1 Single Games Column 2
      ActRaiser Racing Lagoon
      Another World Resident Evil
      Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden - Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa Sam & Max: Hit the Road
      Beneath a Steel Sky Seaman
      Burnout 3: Takedown Sid Meier’s Covert Action
      Carmageddon Sid Meier’s Pirates
      Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow Star Wars: TIE Fighter
      Chrono Trigger StarTropics
      Crystalis Super Castlevania IV
      Descent Tetris
      Duke Nukem 3D The Colonel’s Bequest
      Fighters Megamix The Last Express
      Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
      JSRF: Jet Set Radio Future The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
      Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls) The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
      Lode Runner The Secret of Monkey Island
      Lord Monarch The Way
      Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals Threads of Fate
      Metroid Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater 2
      Metroid Prime Uplink
      Populous

      Arcade Specials

      Arcade Special Games
      Back in a Flash Bloons Tower Defense
      Line Rider
      Motherload
      QWOP
      Stick RPG
      Behind the Wheel Lego Island
      Rally-X
      Sega Rally Championship
      Fixated on Fixed Screen Shooters Space Invaders
      Galaxian
      Phoenix
      Galaga
      Satan’s Hollow
      Hop Skip Jump Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
      Alley Cat
      Contra
      Flicky
      Prince of Persia
      Mr. Defaxxonobbleoid Arkanoid
      Bubble Bobble
      Defender
      Mr. Do!
      Zaxxon
      PlayStation WHAT? Incredible Crisis
      Irritating Stick
      PaRappa the Rapper 2
      Pepsiman
      Vib-Ribbon
      Recursive Repertoires Activision Anthology
      Midway Arcade Treasures
      Taito Legends
      rOGuelikes Beneath Apple Manor
      Scarab of RA
      Scroll Lock-on Einhander
      Ikaruga
      Paradroid
      Raid on Bungeling Bay
      Thunder Force IV
      The Grue That Binds Border Zone
      Twisted!
      Zork
      33 votes
    11. All things classic Doom

      When I made my post about Chex Quest, it got me thinking about the classic Doom games released from 1993-1997, and I thought it would be great hearing some fellows Tilders thoughts about these...

      When I made my post about Chex Quest, it got me thinking about the classic Doom games released from 1993-1997, and I thought it would be great hearing some fellows Tilders thoughts about these classic games that can run on just about anything.

      I thought of some questions, but please share anything Doom related! I think it's awesome seeing how this game has had such a lasting impact over the last 30+ years and how people continue to push this game in new and surprising ways.

      • When did you first play/"get into" Doom?
      • What is your favorite source port of Doom?
      • What are your favorite WADs?
      • What are your favorite total conversions of Doom/games built on the Doom Engine?
      • What are your favorite mods for Doom?
      • Do you still play Doom regularly?
      • Have you introduced anyone who plays more modern shooters to Doom, and how did that go?
      15 votes
    12. Save Point: A game deal roundup for the week of August 24

      Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week! Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle...

      Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week!

      Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle are most worth my attention?”

      Rules:

      • No grey market sales
      • No affiliate links

      If posting a sale, it is strongly encouraged that you share why you think the available game/games are worthwhile.


      All previous Save Point topics

      If you don’t want to see threads in this series, add save point to your personal tag filters.

      9 votes
    13. I had an idea for a Crusader Kings, but about rich families in Victoria-Modern Era. What could go wrong?

      I had an idea for a game some weeks ago, just as the title says. It would be something like Crusader Kings, it's all about dinasties and roleplay, but set in more modern eras, from the beginning...

      I had an idea for a game some weeks ago, just as the title says. It would be something like Crusader Kings, it's all about dinasties and roleplay, but set in more modern eras, from the beginning of the industrial revolution until today, or maybe the future, we'll see. And instead of kingdoms, it's all about businesses. It's all about owning global company empires. Being a kind hearted local chain owner, or a sociopathic cutthroat in the 1% that owns the world. Up to you.

      And this idea is still stuck with me, and I wanted to get back into game development, so I might as well just try it for fun and see what happens.

      I picked Godot, 1) because it's open source, 2) it's going to be fun to see how much it developed in the last decade and 3) it's free, and especially 4) I don't want to use commercial engines and risk being affected by something similar to the runtime fee fiasco

      I still have to finish some tutorials and make some simple games to get a grip on the engine and see how everything works, but as a data analyst I already have programming foundations and, I think, this project is monumental for someone like me, but I also think it's doable.

      I have a very rough idea of how the code will work for the AI. It will incorporate "ticks" like CK, each tick being a day, and some events fire weekly or monthly, where based on the stats and traits, each individual character will calculate how likely they are to accept or reject that event. This event can be about buying shares, accepting proposal marriages, going on a trip, etc.

      My main worry here is if GDScript is good enough to handle "intensive" algorithms. If not, I can always use C#, or C++ if I really have to, and adapt the problematic algorithms.

      Another is what would be the best database manager for this, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

      As for the world, initially I was thinking about being about the real one, but I realized that I may not want to deal with... Well, accuracies. For example, I don't want these businesses to exist in a vacuum, I'm going to try to make a system that interacts both the world's political events and these businesses. I want to create events, like, a country invades another, which creates demands for weapons, and if you own a weapon factory, good news for you! If you own businesses in the invaded country, well, sucks to be you.

      So, I want to do those kind of events, but without needing to worry about things like "Portugal would never invade Japan. What is your AI thinking!?" or "Why is Greece an industrial power house?". If a big studio like Paradox has trouble fine tuning their hundreds of nations in their games, me by my alonesome certainly will not be able to do it.

      So I'm thinking just making a fictional world, populated by several countries and empires but not as many as the real world. This way I can fine tune it to my liking and without worrying about being accurate with the real world. This is another challenge by itself, with its own cliffs, but it's more doable.

      And so far, that's it. After I'm done with the learning phase, I'm going to start a proper planning phase, lay down some key mechanics and develop a prototype.

      I wrote this post as a way to put my thoughts down, double check with myself if the idea is good.

      But also, to check with the tildes community if you have any inputs. It can be anything: ideas, suggestions, warnings, problems that you know that I'll face, etc. I'll appreciate anything that you can give me

      22 votes
    14. Letting younger children access Fortnite - Looking for opinions

      Not quite sure how to start this post, but I guess maybe a little bit of my own background could be useful? I'm 41, Father of two young kids (almost 8 and 5), been gaming my entire life. I have a...

      Not quite sure how to start this post, but I guess maybe a little bit of my own background could be useful?

      I'm 41, Father of two young kids (almost 8 and 5), been gaming my entire life. I have a PC games library that's well over 20+ years old and 1000 games deep (not to brag, just for context) that my kids mostly (curated for them) have access too. My first multiplayer game was at about 11-years old with the Quake demo in 1996, later got heavily in to MMO's (Everquest, DAOC, WoW, etc) and in the early 2010's, I was heavily in to World of Tanks/Warplanes.

      My oldest really wants to play Fortnite (which means the youngest will also play) and I'm a little torn on if I should allow that or not. They've played it a decent amount at their Uncles house and I'm well familiar with the game, though I've never played it or a Battle Royale style game myself and I don't really find anything objectionable about the content of the game itself, but I'm pretty reticent to put it on my own computers and make accounts for them to be able to play at home.

      I can't exactly put my finger on why that might be, but I'm currently attributing it to the FOMO mechanics with skins, as well as the generally addictive nature of online games themselves, given I've been addicted to them myself. My kids only have a limited amount of time to play games or watch TV on any given day anyway, so I'm not necessarily concerned that they'll play it all day, but I am worried about their mental health when it comes to it. They both already get frustrated with games (but in different ways) and I feel like that would be exacerbated when they have a bad match or when they're called away to do something (which is a primary reason I quit multiplayer games when I had children. It became too difficult to disengage from a "match" of something and I'd become very frustrated and angry.) Now, I'm not afraid to take away things if they become a problem (they have been banned from Youtube) and while there's some short term pain associated with that, they tend to get over it after awhile. Also, I do generally feel that it's more wholesome to engage with stuff like Subnautica, Minecraft and other games that they're currently playing.

      Anyway, I'm curious what other people's thoughts are on this subject. My wife proposed letting the older one have an account when they turn 8 here very soon, but I've told her about my reticence about it all, which she is understanding of. But I wanted to see if I'm being too anxious or paranoid about it and if Fortnite is actually fine for an 8 and 5 year old. I'm not generally one to wholesale ban things in the house and I'm open to all types of games and experiences, just not sure if it's totally appropriate yet.

      Side note: there is the side benefit that I might (probably not often) play with them, but that they also have the possibility of playing with their (much older) cousins and their Uncles. Though I'm not sure any of them are able to play during the times my kids have their screentime.

      25 votes
    15. Session report: 496-Seed-18, in which two PCs eat nightshade

      The Party Jeff, half-elf Druid 6 / Fighter 4 / Magus 4 Lee, gray elf Fighter 4 / Magic-User 4 / Thief 5 Oryn, high elf Magic-User 5 / Thief 6 Rudy, halfling Druid 2 / Thief 3 Takeshi, human Ranger...

      The Party

      • Jeff, half-elf Druid 6 / Fighter 4 / Magus 4
      • Lee, gray elf Fighter 4 / Magic-User 4 / Thief 5
      • Oryn, high elf Magic-User 5 / Thief 6
      • Rudy, halfling Druid 2 / Thief 3
      • Takeshi, human Ranger 4
      • Varda, human Cleric 6 / Magic-User 4
      • Vordt, half-ogre Cleric 4 / Fighter 5

      Ran the group through some werewolf hunting the other day. Thanks to the local army scouts, they knew where the hideout was; a chapel on a hill in the badlands, about ten miles from town. The party arrives, takes a look in one of the side windows, climbs the bell tower for a vantage point around the thing, including the graveyard and mausoleum, and then pushes their way into the building.

      There's no light inside, but Takeshi has a broadsword with continual light on it, as well as a ring that increases the radius of light sources he commands, so the hall and sanctuary ahead are well lit through the 80' of luminescence in his hands. As they enter the sanctuary, three people materialize behind the altar, outlanders in appearance, claiming to be using this building as protection from the elements. Some players noted the lack of a "lived in" feeling here, no bedrolls or typical litter you'd expect of a temporary living space, and these people appeared well-fed and hale. Sensing that the party is about to lash out, the werewolves attack pre-emptively and gain surprise.

      (Round 1) Takeshi and Lee ended up targets between these three werewolves. Four more tried to ambush from behind, but Vordt was in the back filling up the hallway, blocking their way. Oryn casts amplify damage at one while Varda fires magic missile and Jeff fills the hallway with web as Takeshi and Lee retaliate in melee; Rudy provides missile support with their sling. (R2) Oryn and Varda wait for an an opportunity to capitalize on while Takeshi and Lee continue trading blows, with Rudy continuing to provide missile support and Jeff casting a magic missile; Vordt is 5' deep in the web begins to leverage his obscene Strength to break free of them. One werewolf lies dead. (R3) Varda continues waiting, confident in their allies' abilities as Oryn charges in, Rudy provides missile support, Jeff supplies another magic missile, Takeshi and Lee continue trading blows with the two remaining werewolves, and Vordt is working himself free of the webs. Three werewolves lie dead.

      Over the next couple of minutes, Vordt breaks free from the web. Not wanting to try and jump through windows, the party opts to wait for the spell to expire, as the remaining four werewolves trapped in it yell muffled requests for mercy. Their progress was much slower than Vordt's, and they had to go through 8' of web rather than 5', but after about an hour they'd all suffocated. During the wait, both Takeshi and Lee ate some belladonna to stave off potential infection.

      The party finds a trap door to a cellar and checks it out. There's a wight hiding in the shadows, but it doesn't surprise them. It still slaps Lee and eats about 5k XP off his thief levels, but it dies by the end of the first round. In exchange, they found an iron chest, within which was 21k gold, 13 gems, a scroll of protection from magic, dwarf-sized field plate +1, and a pouch of dust of dryness.

      Then Takeshi and Lee both vomit up their lunch and pass out on the floor. Lee is no longer breathing. Ingesting belladonna does a few things: (1) small chance of curing lycanthropy if taken quickly after infection, (2) incapacitates you for 1d4 days, (3) has a 1% chance of killing you. Lee is the 1%.

      They get both of their bodies and the treasure out and back to town, then broker a deal with the local lordling MU to get Lee poked with a rod of resurrection, which drops him from 20 to 19 Constitution, removing his natural regeneration. Takeshi remains incapacitated for a day and Lee for a week, due to resurrection sickness.

      9 votes