We're at 59 days until Gencon and its one of my favorite events of the year. Wondering if anyone else is going and what you're excited for.

It seems like Lorcana is set to the be the buzz of the con this year around. While I'm interested in getting my hands on a deck or two to give it a go, I'm more looking forward to when BGG posts their games that will be releasing to sift through and try to find a hidden gem or two.

I've been playing ARPGs since Diablo 1 and have over a thousand hours in PoE, was wondering what everyone thought of D4?

I think the slower gameplay is a fun change of pace and that the legendary affix system is an elegant solution to always making drops interesting.

Surprisingly, as much as I didn't really care for D3, it's game feel was excellent. D4 has taken an odd step back in that regard. In D3 when you bashed an enemy to death with a barbarian they flew across the stage, or melted into a pile of goo if from poison. D4 everything feels kinda bland visually during combat.

Excited to see what end game is like, still only level 35 so we'll see how this so scales later on.

Thoughts?

I'm interested in buying one of the new PC gaming handhelds, and I'm torn. If I went for the Steam Deck I'd be buying the 512GB version, so the price difference between it and the ASUS is only about £50/£100 more. The ASUS seems to do a lot better in benchmarks, has a nicer screen, and comes with Windows 11. I love Linux but there's several games I'd want to play on it that the anti cheat just won't work with Linux. I know you can dual boot the Steam Deck, so that could also be an option. The main thing that is making the decision more difficult is that the Steam Deck has touchpads, and the ASUS apparantly has inferior thumbsticks and D-pad. But then again the ASUS is sleeker and lighter, so potentially more portable? Sorry for the ramble, I just wanted to express my thoughts so far, and hear what you all think. Help me decide!

I've recently gotten into Too Many Bones.
I've been into tabletop for years and painted many minis, but now I find myself floored by hoplomachus and too many bones...and there's no minis to paint. But the gameplay is so so good I'm in love.
I'm waiting on unbreakable to come in. All I've played is undertow but man is there a lot going on in such a small box.
What's the best gearloc?

The long-awaited Starfield Direct is streaming in about 30 minutes.

I'm a life-long science fiction junky, and space sims have always been my great escape. Naturally I'm very excited to learn more about Starfield and I'm wondering who else is tuning in today.

What are you looking forward to? Personally, I'm hoping that the 'Skyrim in Space' description is spot-on. I've gotten years of entertainment out of Skyrim, so if Starfield is as anywhere near as expandable and long-lived as Skyrim, I'll be a very happy person. I'm definitely looking forward to losing myself in another universe.

Link to Livestream, 1PM ET

Personally, I would recommend Pixlriffs. A few days ago, he has started a new season of his Minecraft Survival Guide series coinciding with the release of Minecraft 1.20. The series goes over each step, including the basic ones, to get yourself started and beyond on a Minecraft world. Here is a direct link to the start of season 3 inside a playlist. If you are a new or returning player to the game, I think it's a very nice resource to get the hang of it.

The channel has been going for quite a few years now so there's a lot of content to watch, including a separate channel that he handles the writing and narration for dedicated to recapping the event of the Hermitcraft multiplayer server. The Hermitcraft players are themselves content creators I'd recommend checking out.

What recent announcements caught your interest? Video games or board games, indie or AAA, new release or expansion, fangames or mods, all are welcome!

Please also include a link to the trailer or blog post, press release, steam page, etc. so others can check them out as well.

I started playing Rocket League at the beginning of Season 9, and am only plat (1s/2s) and gold (3s), so take with a grain of salt. However, knowing that it's very difficult to adjust to new controller bindings, I took a lot of time to find a layout that was as ergonomic and low-effort as possible. I think this is objectively better than the alternatives.

These bindings are for a DS4 with the official back button attachment. They can apply to any traditional controller layout with at least one set of back paddles.

The key points:

1. Reverse is moved from an analog trigger to a binary button, freeing up an analog input for boost
2. Boost is moved from a binary button to an analog trigger, making feathering the input easier
3. Directional air-roll is bound to the right thumb-stick, giving analog adjustment precision

Full control bindings:

• LB: powerslide
• LT: drive forwards
• L paddle: drive backwards
• RB: jump
• RT: boost
• R paddle: toggle ballcam
• LS: pitch and yaw
• RS: directional air roll left and right

Camera bindings can be put on the face buttons or sacrificing some of the d-pad buttons. If you're using DS4Windows, you can also do a macro to make holding L3 toggle RS into a camera input. In either case, you lose precision since the camera input is no longer analog, but I think that tradeoff is worth it because most camera use is just checking teammate position before kickoff.

I've been GMing games for years and over the last few transitioned to Online VTT, first Cypher System, then PF2e. My first online campaign was a little off the wall, magic versus technology, barbarian party learning that guns and space battles were a thing, aliens and robotic overloads.

What's more my party tended to blow up stuff and wreck most maps in one session, so in the end I got into making maps or desperately looking for maps everywhere I could.

So, I thought maybe people could use some of what I've found in their own searches (disclaimer, I don't sell any of my maps, free to all, and I have no connection with any of the pay-for ones, but I've subscribed to most of them at one time or another!)

Map Tools

The idea in VTT RPG is to make a map image and import that into your game tool (Such as Roll20 or Foundry) then overlay tiles, tokens, walls etc onto it. The single map image is most, if not all of what you need.

Map styles

There are a couple of popular styles if you are picky about that sort of thing, though mostly important if you want to make your own maps and are looking for asset packs.

The asset styles you find seem to fall in roughly two forms:

• Dungeondraft default style. Flat. Line art, less detail
• Forgotten Adventures (short form FA) Still hand drawn (not rendered) but more detailed computer art style

Some people prefer the first style due to simplicity, others like the second but some may find it more gamey.

There is also the "rendered" style that Dungeon Alchemist uses, but that's REALLY gamey to my eyes. I believe there are third party libraries for it but never really looked.

Lastly, there is the unique art style of hard drawn art that lots of artist draw their battle maps in.

When I chose a style I went Forgotten Adventures. You can't really mix the two main ones when making your own map, looks horrible. I also found that of the various styles, FA could be matched with many hand drawn styles.

Maps

Ok the meat, and what I meant to post before I got side tracked!

Note most of the sites I am posting above can be used offline on a table top game by just printing the maps out, though I've never tried this.

My own maps tend heavily towards space and the magic/tech mix due to the campaign. They are in the Forgotten Adventures style. Free to use, including the ones on my Patreon (DON'T SUBSCRIBE TO IT! I started working on making more maps but then got too involved in GMing the game and ran out of time)

• My main free library ~35 maps, space, ground, some bunkers and others. All in WEBP for faster loading
• My Patreon, no subscribe! Only take! Only a few maps and then the campaign finished, space ships mostly and then it gets weird if you go back further and find it was a MMORPG Kit tutorial Patreon :/

Other peoples maps amazing I've found!

Science Fiction or Modern

Fantasy

Speciality environments

Phased Battle Maps

Asset Libraries

Tokens

Animations

There is more than this of course, but I just wanted to put down what I'd found. Hope it helps someone!

I like to play games. So I guess I'm a "gamer"? But: I'm not into arena shooters, MMORPMRPORG grinders, anything with endless cutscenes of exposition and absolutely nothing that needs a "pass" to play... so where's my games? I feel like there's nothing for casual-but-not-candy-crush-or-clash-of-clans players like me out there.

I want something that takes me back to the days of Roller Coaster Tycoon, Sim City 2000 or more recently, Stardew that's not going to make my blood boil or nickel-and-dime me to progress. That doesn't mean it needs to be cute or easy, but more... meditative? Or goofy?

Given the crowd here I figured you lot would probably have some good recommendations. So: fire away!

Background

The 2023 Norway Chess is an elite over-the-board tournament in Stavanger, Norway. The event starts on May 29 at 10 a.m. PT/19:00 CEST with a blitz tournament, followed by a classical event beginning May 30 at 8 a.m. PT/17:00 CEST.

This edition of Norway Chess features a kr$2,500,000 prize fund, roughly equivalent to $234,000 at the time of writing.

Players

Below is a list of the players confirmed to play in the 2023 Norway Chess tournament:

• GM Magnus Carlsen
• GM Alireza Firouzja
• GM Anish Giri
• GM Wesley So
• GM Hikaru Nakamura
• GM Fabiano Caruana
• GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
• GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov
• GM Gukesh D
• GM Aryan Tari

Source: Chess.com

Welcome to the discussion thread for the BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023, the last Big Event before the summer break. The event will feature eight of the world’s best CS:GO teams competing for a $425,000 prize pool and a spot at the BLAST Premier World Final 2023. The event will take place at the Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington, D.C., from June 7-11.

The teams attending the event are:

• Heroic (From Spring Groups)
• G2 Esports (From Spring Groups)
• FaZe Clan (From Spring Groups)
• Natus Vincere (From Spring Groups)
• Vitality (From Spring Groups)
• Astralis (From Spring Groups)
• Cloud9 (From Spring Showdown – EU)
• Imperial (From Spring Showdown – NA)

The event will start with two double-elimination GSL groups, followed by a single-elimination playoff bracket. All matches will be best-of-three.

The event will also mark the return of Vitality to LAN for the first time since their Major triumph in Paris, where they won without dropping a single map. They will face Imperial in their opening match, who might be playing their last event with Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo as rumors of his move to FURIA are rampant.

Other interesting matchups include G2 vs Cloud9, who both had disappointing runs at IEM Dallas and the Major cycle, and Heroic vs Astralis, who will clash for the Danish supremacy.

You can follow the event on BLAST.tv, YouTube, or Twitch. The schedule and results can be found on HLTV or Liquipedia.

This is a bit of a test thread. I will try to post a comment for each match, under which you can share your thoughts and comments about each individual game. As such, it may be preferable to sort the thread by new, in order to see the most recent match-ups. Also, in case I miss any match feel free to post the results yourself!

Do you prefer kinetic VNs (where there are no choices, just story), choices that slightly alter the dialogue but don't impact the story much, or choices that result in new scenes/routes/endings?

Personally, I'm a fan of having choices in the game and having them impact the narrative -- either by unlocking a new route, a special scene with a character, or getting an alternative ending. Stein's;Gate was a lot of fun for me.

I do enjoy a good kinetic novel when I just want to listen to music and read, though. Queen Beast is a great recent example -- go check it out!