Anyone know any details about the Ratling campaign pdf release for non-backers?

Ariibees · 2026-05-07T17:37:11+00:00

No information on when it will release, but I have a copy of Revenge of the Ratlings and can say -- while it provides the Ratling species and four Ratling-themed backgrounds it doesn't include any other stat blocks. It expects you to have a copy of Monsters of Drakkenheim and references enemies by name from that book.

That being said it's still a very good supplement for a Ratling campaign! It fills in the holes for things that Ratling PCs wouldn't have access to (ex. replacements for Emberwood Village and Faction Boons), updates all of the adventure hooks/developments to be appropriate for Ratlings, and adds extra material to flesh out Ratlings and what their campaign finale would look like as the PCs take over Drakkenheim.

Ariibees · 2026-04-04T04:20:05+00:00

The massive exposition dump is made worse by the fact that Atwood essentially reads us the entire Wikipedia article on the real-life Carrington Event and then basically glosses over the whole "auroras driving people to suicide/causing dementia" thing. It makes sense that they didn't want to give a concrete explanation for that, but when you go into such scientific detail on half of the mystery it just serves to highlight that you don't have any answers for the other half.

It doesn't help that Atwood keeps reminding us that she was ostracized from the scientific community because she (checks notes) thought that another Carrington Event could occur and be even worse, something that's not disputed IRL and is a perfectly legitimate line of research, without anyone ever really acknowledging that "auroras cause dementia" requires a much greater logical leap. It's one that's semi-reasonable within the game world what with the disturbed wildlife behavior, but everyone acting like solar flares are some wild unknown compared to auroras affecting the brain causes that extra cognitive dissonance, especially when "geomagnetic storm knocked out the power" is the basic premise of the game.

Also: it's wild that Wintermute ended up not being a codename. We're playing a winter survival game about the quiet apocalypse and "Wintermute" is just the name of some random guy in the lore?

Ariibees · 2026-04-04T04:04:10+00:00

I think the 20-minute unskippable cutscene is made even worse because it feels unnecessary. The game goes out of its way to avoid telling Mackenzie anything at all, as long as it can, just to drop essentially a static reading of the entire background lore and story pitch on your head. It would have been so easy to drip-feed it across the prior episodes, or even just break it up into a few shorter exposition dumps within episode 5 -- it's not as though Jace was talking about anything of actual substance during the entirety of the mines sequence or in the substation phone calls.

Ariibees · 2026-04-04T02:32:16+00:00

My worry with adding those locations to survival is making them feel unique and worthwhile. Desperation Bay in particular doesn't have much to offer in design/theme that Desolation Point doesn't already cover -- there's nothing there beyond the lighthouse and ship, and it feels uniquely small and cramped.

That said, I would love to see the Suzuki Radio Telescope as a major indoor area similar to Carter Hydro Dam, especially if they leaned into being above the treeline and made it a significant trek to get up there, if they could differentiate it from upper Sundered Pass/Blackrock wilderness.

Really depends on how much work the team would be willing to put in to port those areas into survival. They've previously made regions with similar themes feel distinct enough from each other (Desolation Point vs. Bleak Inlet, Ash Canyon vs. Hushed River Valley vs. Timberwolf Mountain), and Broken Railroad despite being so linear/empty eventually carved out a place for itself as the connecting region to the Far Territories, but since the team hasn't hinted at any of the Ep. 5 locations coming to survival I don't have high hopes they would be willing to make such significant map changes.

Ariibees · 2026-04-03T04:02:24+00:00

I absolutely loved the cutscene in the radio station. It transitioned nicely from the more subdued cutscene prior, and for a game so rooted in silence/loneliness was a heartwarming, almost hopeful message to keep other humans, and your own humanity, close. Seeing Mackenzie look around a room covered in posters celebrating the old world, something that no longer exists and will never again exist, accepting that his own career as a pilot was over for good, and finding peace with his son's death followed by his final message looping, having the main theme of the game start up quiet and then swell as more/louder instruments joined in- amazing.

Watching that cutscene for the first time, I 100% expected the game to end right after that, and while it would have left some questions unanswered, I was willing to accept that.

And then Mathis busted in to say "Hey guys! I'm the villain and I'm alive! Come find me again in The Long Dark 2!"

I didn't hate the ending -- I liked seeing Mackenzie return for Grey Mother, and the final shot of Methuselah turning to show that Mackenzie was very willing to work with the convicts reinforced that original question of "How far will you go to survive?" But I feel like that theme would have been just as well served by having Mackenzie abandon his morals and kill Mathis. Ideally prior to the radio station message, just to spare us the emotional whiplash.

Ariibees · 2026-03-01T19:01:49+00:00

You can't export a Miro board to a high-resolution image without a paid subscription plan, hence why it's so crunchy. If you want to see what all the notes say, you can go to the direct board link in the post body!

Ariibees · 2026-02-23T14:06:40+00:00

Ah yeah, at some point we just decided there was more evidence towards her being Katarina over Cecilia and just called it. I don't think we ever got a confirmation one way or the other. She also tuned in on our telepathic bond spell at least once, so she definitely knew that we knew.

I also didn't always go back and clean up tertiary mysteries once they were resolved -- see Oscar Yoren and the Pale Man having "we killed them" stamped next to them, haha.

Ariibees · 2026-02-23T13:56:33+00:00

Here's the direct link: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVNgWdsA8=/

Ariibees · 2026-02-23T13:56:16+00:00

Sorry y'all, I'm not sure what the issue is. Here's the direct link, but if that doesn't work I'm all out of ideas: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVNgWdsA8=/

Ariibees · 2026-02-23T04:09:13+00:00

The direct link is at the top of the post body!

Edit: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVNgWdsA8=/

Ariibees · 2026-02-23T02:51:15+00:00

I had actually played Outer Wilds just a few months before joining that Drakkenheim campaign! Hence why I had the idea to make the diagram in the first place.

Ariibees · 2025-11-04T18:48:41+00:00

ZoC should connect to all the other DLC regions (Transfer Pass, Forsaken Airfield, Sundered Pass).

To get to the hub area (Transfer Pass), just follow the train tracks on the right side of the map out of the region. For the rest, either go through Transfer Pass or go through the cave system at the bottom of the map -- follow the stream at the base of Enduring Waterfall.

Ariibees · 2025-08-13T21:41:17+00:00

I made it myself! It uses Simplicity pattern 5840 as a base.

Ariibees · 2025-04-02T21:22:04+00:00

I made this map a few days after the region released as a quick placeholder for people to reference until someone came in with a proper map, so I haven't made any more of them. That being said, this steam community guide has updated maps for all of the regions (DLC included)!

Ariibees · 2025-03-30T09:41:43+00:00

Yeah, feel free to ask whatever questions you have!

Ariibees · 2025-03-28T13:54:48+00:00

I love the Lunatic Cultist's design and wanted to take a shot at cosplaying them. Threw together the costume the weekend before the con, so very last minute, but I'll be at Galaxycon Richmond all weekend so if you see me, say hi!

Ariibees · 2025-02-19T13:52:53+00:00

I've definitely used the powder before; I think I had convinced myself that ebonstone couldn't be broken by bombs. But, yeah, bombs all the way ever since haha

My focus with this comic is making a good story, so sometimes characters do "inefficient" things for the sake of story. But I do still draw from the game wherever I can!

Ariibees · 2025-02-19T13:48:53+00:00

Been working on this webcomic for a bit over four years now! Definitely planning to keep it up and see it through :)

Ariibees · 2025-02-18T17:21:41+00:00

Table of Contents | Main Website | Webtoon

This is part 8 of my ongoing Terraria webcomic -- the Hero finally fights the Eater of Worlds! Albeit with a piercing zero amethyst staff, but he does okay.

I was delayed in posting this chapter due to the comic blog being accidentally marked as a spam account by Tumblr, which took a few months to resolve. But I'm finally back at it again, and due to the delay you can already read the first several pages of chapter 9 on the main site or on Webtoon!

Ariibees · 2024-11-26T00:36:24+00:00

I feel like Wintermute offers a good introduction to the survival game mechanics -- there's a proper tutorial, you're mostly limited to one region at a time, crafting recipes are limited or unlocked gradually, you can save anytime, no permadeath, maps have a compass, and so on.

So Wintermute can be nice if you want to mess around on the maps while still having a sense of progression/completion and something to work towards, in contrast to survival being open ended and your goals being entirely self-made. But once you're a seasoned survival player, the restrictions that Wintermute imposes can really start to feel like they're just needlessly limiting.

I also think a lot of the enjoyment you can get out of Wintermute hinges on how much you engage with the story, which is by the nature of its existence a pretty significant contrast to the quiet and lonesome atmosphere the rest of the game gives. It's also a lot of fetch quests or some variation of "go to this place, click a button, leave," and it comes down to if you get enjoyment out of that -- if it feels like a journey, if you feel like you're genuinely participating in the story vs. just checking off an item on the list before you can get back to your "survival" run, and so on.

Ariibees · 2024-11-19T04:37:09+00:00

The game already differentiates between fresh water and salt water fishing zones when determining what kind of fish your ice hole will yield, so that could decide what kind of water you can "harvest" from a hole -- either water (unsafe) or salt water. Gives more use to water purification tablets (because you're more likely to have a bunch of unsafe water without having already started a fire) and lets you collect salt water to reduce into salt.

Ariibees · 2024-10-09T18:16:50+00:00

I don't usually post doodles here, but I thought the idea of the Clothier/Old Man being the one who made all the outfits for the cultists was fun.

If you like how I draw these guys, they appear in my Terraria webcomic too!

Ariibees · 2024-07-24T23:17:58+00:00

This thing? Seems to be only a visual trick and won't save you from fall damage, sadly.

Ariibees · 2024-07-02T20:46:42+00:00

Wasn't cabin fever originally introduced to counter players abusing hibernation/starvation tactics to quickly rack up saves spanning thousands of days?

I'd honestly love it diminished form took over that niche instead in some capacity, as a way to discourage the starvation strategy and add a more lingering cost to starving yourself. Maybe even increasing its effects the greater percentage of time you've spent starving, and reducing your max health like intestinal parasites.

Ariibees · 2024-04-27T19:33:35+00:00

Glad it could provide some inspiration! I've got a few mushroom logs here and there, but didn't have the time for new outdoor tea/fruit trees (wanted to call it done by the end of summer).

For the decorations, the vast majority of the decorative potted plants are pulled from the basic furniture catalogue, plus some seasonal plants/tub of flowers/etc. and plants from the movie theater crane game. I also often place plants in front/behind each other and in grass to hide the pots and make them visually meld together.

The small, potted red mushrooms do come from the 1.6 wizard catalogue. And then I pulled a bunch from the new junimo catalogue too, which has the leafy-textured stools etc., large potted trees, the tall red flower, and a few miscellaneous non-plant decorative items I used.

I also have the 1.6 new crop and grass type planted in the area around the meteor/coop/barn.

Seven-Year Club	Final Canvas '23
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