The blaze has officially ignited!

• Quicklink: Backlog Bingo

Etiquette:

• It is fine to make multiple top-level posts throughout the week.

• It is also fine to respond to your own posts.

• If you are playing Backlog Bingo, you can share your table either by markdown or through screenshots.

Gameplay guidelines:

• Goals for this event (if any) are entirely individual and self-determined.

• Playing Bingo is optional and not required.

• You do NOT need to finish games unless you want to. The point is to try out games and have fun, not force ourselves to play things we're not interested in.

Backlog Burner FAQ

Backlog Bingo FAQ

Important: All data for your Backlog Bingo card is stored on your device, not the server. Clearing your browser data will delete your card. You can use the export feature to make backups or move your card between devices.

The sun was barely peeking over the horizon as you stumbled out of the mansion. Behind you, the ominous cackling gave way to agonized shrieks as the sunlight ignited the shadowy figures in the doorway, the noise echoing until the doors slammed shut.

After a long and hectic night, you survived and made it out of the mansions. Even better: you were able to call a repair service from a phone you repaired in the mansion.

You trudged across the yard slowly, the grass and dirt squishing under each step due to still being damp from the dark and stormy night. Beyond the fence awaited your newly repaired car, a mechanic patiently waiting for payment. You tossed him the requested totem, and he nodded at you before disappearing into a wisp of smoke.

You climbed into your car, and just took a moment to sit and gaze at the sunrise. Your thoughts returned to all the companions you met last night, who failed to survive long enough to see this beautiful dawn with you. A pity, but hey. At least you survived.

Probably.

You might have been replaced with a clone or occult copy with your exact memories. Hard to say, the night got really convoluted sometimes.

Eh, whatever. You're out now.

Shrugging it off, you turned on the car and resumed your grand adventure. Oblivious to the face watching from the window of the final mansion...

The Spooky Mansion Adventures have come to an end! A day late, sorry about that. But I'm sure that extra day didn't kill anyone. Probably.

As a reminder, spoilers are fully permitted without hiding them in this thread. And on that note, I do have one question:

What is your canonical death?

The first death you had in any game. That is how you would presumably die if you were actually there. Though of course, you didn't actually die on this adventure. You're still alive and free to continue to the next leg... Probably.

I hope you all got to enjoy exploring at least one spooky mansion. Whether you dealt with mad scientists or cults, puzzles or monsters, I hope you had a terrific time...

If you're still up for more adventures after that harrowing night, the next adventure should take us to Mother 3 with u/kfwyre as our host.

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.

Let's talk...

• Remember that bundle you bought with the best of intentions and then never played any of the games from?

• What about that 90% off deal that you just HAD to have but now it's been three eight years and you still haven't done anything with it?

• That Humble Choice subscription that you still redeem every month but haven't actually touched since 2024? Those Epic freebies you redeem then ignore?

• And let’s not forget that you wanted to be charitable (of course) so you donated for a mega collection that had 2 games you've actually heard of and 200 you haven't. Meanwhile, you have played 0.

Well do I have a deal for you!

The biannual Backlog Burner is back with the sale opportunity of the year: a Reverse Bundle! That's right: instead of paying money for a NEW bunch of games, you can pay NOTHING for an old bunch of games that you already have! What a bargain!

Whether it's a soon-to-be recent release like GTA VI (of course a game can be on your backlog before it's come out -- you've already been thinking about it for YEARS!) or an icon of yesteryear like Galaga or a niche itch.io find like Ginseng Hero, it all counts for the Backlog Burner.

Play whatever you like and build the REVERSE BUNDLE of your dreams!

If you're new to the Backlog Burner, check out our previous events to get an idea of what's going on. The Backlog Burner is a chance to try out games you've always wanted to play but haven't yet (for whatever reason):

• 2026 - May
• 2025 - November
• 2025 - May
• 2024 - November
• 2024 - May
• 2023
• 2022
• 2020

Backlog Bingo is back, baby!

• Backlog Bingo

It's no secret that Backlog Bingo is the most functional and elegant website on the internet.

After winning dozens of industry awards and being celestially immortalized by being etched into golden records that were sent into the sun on the Voyager 3 mission, Wes decided that, in fact, there were still more improvements to make on his already perfect website.¹

He got to work. He squashed some bugs. I also squashed some bugs, but those were real ones, and it was an accident (sorry bugs). He also made the website more accessible, so if you're using a screenreader, it's even more functional and elegant. He also, in his words, allegedly "converted a JavaScript library [he'd] been using over to a new native browser API" which is either a super legit improvement or he's trying to pull one over on me (you decide, because I legitimately can't on account of a lack of background knowledge and tech understanding).

It's the same Bingo site we know and love, made once again better by the inimitable Wes we know and love.

Notification List

If you are interested in participating in the Backlog Burner, please comment in this topic. Anyone commenting/replying here will automatically be added to a notification list for the Backlog Burner, unless you specify otherwise.

Start Planning (or Playing)

Technically the event starts in two days, so you have time to roll your cards (if you're playing Bingo) and plan out what you'd like to play for the month. That said, if you're eager to jump right in, and start early, I certainly won't stop you!

Let's get ready to burn through these backlogs!

Backlog Burner FAQ

Backlog Bingo FAQ

Important: All data for your Backlog Bingo card is stored on your device, not the server. Clearing your browser data will delete your card. You can use the export feature to make backups or move your card between devices.

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.

Schedule

Discussion Topics

Each month will have two discussion topics:

• "Insert Cartridge" - 1st of the month
• "Remove Cartridge" - 28th of the month (25th for February)

Insert Cartridge topics are primarily for getting the game set up and running. Remove Cartridge topics are primarily for reflecting on the game once you've played it. However, the game itself and anything else related to it can be discussed in either one.

Hosting

Each month, the discussion topics will be posted by a different "host" who will act as the emcee for that month.

Hosting is not required, but it is encouraged that people host months for games that they are either already very familiar with or that they are strongly interested in playing.

People who nominated a game will be given preference for hosting, otherwise it will be given to whomever claims it first.

Check out old months to get a feel for what it's like.

If you would like to host a month, let me know which one and I will add you to the schedule.

Before your month begins, I will send you a "Hosting Package" featuring templates that you can edit to your liking.

If no one claims a month, I will host it as a fallback.

Voting Results

The top 6 games from the voting round were chosen to be played.

Of the remaining games:

• The top 50% will advance to the next round. They will start the next round with a base score of 30% of their vote totals.
• The bottom 50% will be removed from the list.

Removed games will be able to be re-nominated in future rounds if someone chooses to do so.

In the spirit of "what are you reading?", "what are you playing?" etc. threads I see regularly posted in other groups, come tell us about your campaign! Whether you're a GM or a player, share with us what you're playing and how its going.

What game system are you using and what do you think of it? How many sessions has your current game been running? How's your group doing? Did something cool or funny happen in the last session? What are you looking forward to in the next session?

There are certainly a few people here, who will be buying Steam Frame VR headset.

I enlisted myself a few days ago for the first wave lottery reservations. After a bit of thought, I also enlisted my daughter, to double my chances from almost 0% to double of that but still near zero in my eyes.

A few minutes ago I got e-mail. I'm on waiting list after first wave goes out... Well, maybe this year?

My daughter checked her e-mail as well. And what do you know? Doubling of the chances paid off and the chance was actually higher than near 0% - her account got picked by Valve! It seems we are getting the headset in upcoming days/weeks.

Now the question is: Should we get the head and handstraps also? I think we should. But I don't knowbif I should get also new foam/seal. I'm not spending 170€ on color camera, at least not for now.

Sorry for this kind of post, we are just so happy and I wanted to share the happiness. I hope some of you got on the list for first wave as well.

You start at max level with everything unlocked. As you play the game, you slowly level down, choosing which attributes to reduce and which skills to forget.

Obviously, it will have to be tied to the story - maybe you are poisoned/cursed in a fantasy game, or an implant is malfunctioning in a sci-fi game. I'm sure a good writer can come up with something really cool to justify it narratively.

It will solve many problems modern RPGs have:

1. Solves "the world-saving heroes are a bunch of murder hobos" issue. If killing levels you down, players will avoid killing as much as possible. Like, you know, actual heroes would.

2. Fits the actual player skill level. When you start a new game, you are bad at it. Makes sense to compensate by giving you powerful abilities. Late game you know how to play well, you know the enemy weaknesses, you know how everything works. You can successfully kill the enemy with a much weaker character.

3. Allows you try out stuff. You can try the abilities before you forget them, see what you like to keep. In current RPGs you don't know which are the cool (or needed) abilities so you might spec into something you dislike. The current "fix" is to allow players to respec later, but that always felt like a bandaid solution. And a bad one at that, as it removes the weight of making choices, as you know you can always undo it. And respeccing rarely makes sense narratively.

4. Fixes pacing. Current RPGs start strong with the story, but then people put it on hold to do lots of side content. 80 hours of chasing question marks and 117 games of gwent later, people barely remember what the story was about and kinda speed through it just to finish it, because they are already kinda done with the game. But if you had leveling down, people would be naturally incentivized to move on and not level down too much in the same area.

5. Creates urgency. I hate the ludonarrative dissonance in RPGs where the world is supposedly about to be destroyed, but the heroes are busy solving every rando's basement rats problem. It's ridiculous.

6. Gives side-quests weight. Do you wanna help that orphan and level down, even though they won't give you anything? Or help the rich asshole who'll give you a powerful weapon you'll need late game? Or maybe you help both and spend hours on the next battle because you were underleveled, making you think twice before helping everyone in the next village?

7. Solves item hoarding. People love to keep potions and scrolls for later "just in case". But that "case" never comes because you only get more powerful later on. But if you were to get weaker, those items are actually needed late game. A lot more uses for that stamina potion if your stamina actually is shit.

8. Creates replayability. Instead of doing one run of a 200 hour bloated game, where you kinda got tired of it a while ago... you could have a regular 40 hour run and only do small part of the side-quests. Then you play something else. Then you come back to it and do another run, do a different set of quests, maybe this time spend more time in a different area.

Obviously I doubt any major studio will do something like that. I'm asking them to punish the player for playing the game. But maybe as the tools to create good-looking games become more accessible/cheaper, some smaller team can make something like this, I do think it has a lot of potential. I wouldn't be surprised if it already exists as a passion project in RPG Maker or something, but I kinda want to play something with actual graphics.

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.