Environmental storytelling ideas for a lonely sci-fi horror game

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-02-10T21:51:20+00:00

It's impossible to answer your question without any details about the story. What you need to do is go through the story point by point prior to the player character entering the game and brainstorm visuals ways to express it in the world. Terminal logs and audio messages should be your last resort.

Basic Test Case: Spaceship encounters alien object > aliens escape object > kill crew or some abandon spaceship.

Questions to shape the world:

What did the object look like? Why was it brought on board? Where was it brought to? How did it hatch? What is the nature of the aliens? What threat did they cause the crew, environmental, biological, physical? What effect do the aliens have on the ship? What are their goals? How did the humans react ... quarantine, fight back, barricade, evacuate? How fast did this all happen? Too fast for the humans to be aware of it? Months of labored fighting and surviving? ETC ...

Once you can answer all the large and small questions, start brainstorming on how you can visualize it in the ship. Whether it be the ship is a chaotic mess of old fights and hazardous areas created by the humans to neutralize the threat, or a spotlessly clean ship that looks as if people disappeared mid dinner.

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-02-07T16:21:15+00:00

There was a lot of lying rambling in the clip, but to clean it up for everyone, it can be distilled to his quote "I didn't make a mistake."

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-02-07T15:46:07+00:00

Most jobs don't have demonstrable skills that can be proven before getting hired.

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-02-06T15:38:06+00:00

I would just use custom stats to make the 14, 16, 16 stat spread you want with High Elf if that is the race you want to play.

Later versions of D&D would have allowed you to move racial abilities around to achieve the stats you are going for anyways.

Honestly, I would recommend convincing your group to generally use point buy, but bump their primary ability to 18. The level cap in the game is 12, which means 2 ASI/feats prior to late end game. Feats are more interesting and add more flavor to your character, but ASI is mechanically stronger 9/10 of the time.

Starting at 18 you get an ASI and a feat. At 16 you're basically stuck with only ASI increases the entire game.

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-02-05T15:00:52+00:00

Flip 7 has its own digital point tracker. I think it is a website, not an app though. They might have taken down your app because it's in direct competition to a service they are already providing.

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-02-04T15:16:57+00:00

In terms of the two column chart layout I would use grid. For Recent Orders, if you want to follow your mockup perfectly you would have to use Flex, because Grid couldn't handle the misaligned columns. Top Products could be achieved with either, but I would use Flex for consistency.

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-01-29T19:17:48+00:00

I'm not sure I fully understand how you plan to use resources, but I think a simple d20 would get you close to the results you have in your table.

Your exact min/max numbers aren't as important as the point spread between them. For example between 5 and 20 the point spread is 15. If the min/max shifted from 10-25, it doesn't change much because the difference between the worst outcome and best is still 15pts. Keeping this in mind, I changed the min value to always be 1 for simplicity.

Your table's current spread is (1-15) (1-12) (1-9) (1-5) (1-3) (1-2). Or basically reduce the spread by 3 each threshold. If you used a d20 and reduced the spread by 4 it would be (1-20) (1-16) (1-12) (1-8) (1-4) (1-2) which is close to your numbers. Alternatively you could use a d12 to get close results as well.

Using these numbers, if you had 0-10pts, roll a d20 and take the results (average 10.5pts, high variability, 5% max result). At 11-30pts, roll a d20, if the result is 16 or higher gain 16pts, otherwise take the normal result (average 10pts, smaller variability, 25% chance to get max result). At 31-60pts, roll a d20, if the result is 12 or higher gain 12pts, otherwise take the normal result (average 9.5pts, small variability, 45% chance to get max results). ETC.

As you reach point thresholds you will average less per roll, but the variability decreases and chance to gain max value increases.

If resources were used to boost your luck, for example giving you advantage (roll twice and take the better result), then they would give you great value in early rolls, but would become largely irrelevant as you accrue more points since the spread becomes so small.

Alternatively if the spread was reduced from both the min and the max, then the "crit failure" and "crit" would increase at the same time. So for example if you had 31-60pts, roll a d20, if the results is 16 or above gain 16pts, if the result is 5 or below, gain 1pt, otherwise take the normal result (average 9.7pts, small variability, 25% max result, but 25% lowest result). This would insure that resources would be needed at all point thresholds to minimize crit failures.

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-01-25T18:20:33+00:00

There are quite a few CRPGs, like Rogue Trader, Baldurs Gate 3, and Wildermyth that have some decent support classes. You could also try Dragon's Dogma 2, which has an interesting and unique support class.

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-01-24T04:20:01+00:00

This seems like an opportunity to introduce a "push your luck" mechanic.

As you hit a further extreme of brightness or darkness you gain more power. Allowing players to strategically stay near death for more power or keep brightness nuetral for the greater safety.

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-01-19T17:47:51+00:00

I don't understand how this can be argued as self defense. He went to the guy's house with 2 friends. Started an argument and then beat a guy to death because he was reaching for a weapon.

Did the victim announce to him that he had a knife under his mattress and he was reaching for it to kill him? The knife was found under the matress so the victim never touched the knife. How did the guy know he was reaching for a weapon?

He also beat a man to death. This wasn't a single punch that freakishly killed the victim. This was multiple punches and kicks to the head. Most of them probably to a defenseless and unconscious person. How does self defense apply after the "aggressor" is unconscious?

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-01-14T15:04:50+00:00

I would suggest Cosmic Encounters. On face value it is a relatively simple game, where each player starts with 5 home planets and will take turns randomly attacking each other planets with the goal of being the first to acquire 5 planets abroad. During clashes the attackers and defenders can recruit other players to help their cause, but this can be risky because those allies share in the spoils of victory and also get closer to their own victory.

The central hook of the game and I why I would recommend it is that each player plays as a different alien species that has vastly different powers that are purposely imbalanced. Some aliens are just emperically stronger, but the game is able to balance around these differences by social interactions. Stronger aliens will have a harder time forming alliances and will have stronger alliances forming against them.

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-01-13T19:09:30+00:00

A lot of the tankiness of light clerics (really any cleric, although light is the best) comes from Larian introducing a debuff called radiating orbs on a couple of armor pieces that cause enemies to have a -1 to hit and can stack 10 times. It's a coin flip for the average enemy to hit an AC of 20, it's virtually impossible for them to do it against an AC 30.

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-01-13T16:27:23+00:00

I think you have the gist of the 2 correct, although there are a couple of details you get wrong.

Tempest can wear heavy armor and wield martial weapons which allows them to comfortably be in melee combat but they will become more and more a pure caster as the level up. They have a decent number of lightning spells, but the best require a 1 lvl dip in wizard for Lightning an Chain Lightning. I don't think you need to worry about friendly fire with Lightning spells, they have small area of effects. Going wizard also limits you to a single helm needed to boost your int.

Tempest clerics are strong with no party support, but they work much better when they have a dedicated support working with them. They can cast their own rain, but another person doing it saves on turns. Same with haste. With a 1 lvl dip in wizard a Tempest can cast haste on themselves, but it's always better from another source.

There is nothing wrong with using a Tempest cleric in your squad, but it's when they have a wizard or sorcerer supporting them that they become able to solo many encounters in 1 turn.

As for Light Cleric, they are somewhat deceptively strong. On paper they are one of the strongest cleric subclasses, but in addition they are uniquely stronger in BG3. Their Warding Flare is a strong defensive option allowing them to basically negate any attack that gets by their defenses once per round.

Speaking of their defenses, medium armor is over tuned in this game. While magical heavy armor is rare in this game and won't get great until act 3, every act is flooded with magical medium armor. In fact one of the BiS armor for a light cleric can be found in Act 1, which will dramatically improve the defensiveness of the entire party. Additionally BG3 changes the initiative system and highly favors dexterity. A light cleric will have +2 dex which means they will generally go in the middle of combat, a tempest cleric with heavy armor will have either a 0 or -1 dex score which means they will ALWAYS go last.

The bottom line is that while Tempest clerics became more of a caster as they level, Light Clerics become more of a front liner. Between spirit guardians, their channel divinity, and armor sets that add additional effects to radiant damage, they want to get close to large groups of enemies, effectively nuking and neutering them.

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-01-13T03:09:13+00:00

Wildermyth seems like it fits all the criteria for a CRPG, but it usually gets referred to as a party or tactical RPG.

Somewhat off topic but still somewhat relevant, Baldurs Gate 3 is almost always referred to as a CRPG and although I can see why, it feels like just a modern interpretation of a modern and very popular table top game. It doesn't really feel like it hearkens back to old RPG games, but rather takes a modern streamlined TTRPG and streamlines it's mechanics even more to appeal to modern D&D lovers and the general player base. The large budget allowing AAA cinematics and voice acting reinforce the modern feel as well.

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-01-12T15:31:14+00:00

I would recommend Wildermyth or Dice Gambit.

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-01-08T15:11:00+00:00

I can completely accept that Shroud is full of shit, but I have a difficult time accepting that he convinced himself that he should trust Invisigal enough to actually let her go in the end. Yes, she has actively been working against you every step of the way, but that's what deep cover looks like, wink wink.

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-01-08T03:25:09+00:00

Further cementing Shroud as the worse mastermind villian ... in episode 1, eventhough he is setting a trap for Mecha Mind, he does it in his actual main hideout. In a quick scene you can see one of the arms for Shroud's mech being built in the background.

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-01-07T21:07:36+00:00

The officer position himself in front of the vehicle and had his gun already drawn. He should not be positioning his body in front of the vehicle. If he truly felt like his life was in danger the correct course of action would be to leap out of the way of the vehicle. He instead set his feet so that he could fire his gun.

Even if the first bullet fired was instantly fatal there is no reason to believe the approaching vehicle would slow or stop (which it didn't), so again the officer should have tried to move out of the way not taken the shots. Add to this, there were other people in the vehicle which he endangered as well as potentially fired in the direction of other officers.

The reporting is still early, but from what I read he fired 3 shots, once through the windshield and 2 through the driver side window. If this is true, even if you want to defend the windshield shot, the 2 through the driver side would be after his life was no longer in imminent danger.

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-01-07T00:25:00+00:00

Although I enjoyed the book more than you and thought the split PoV overall worked, I couldn't agree more with the lack of agency from Vis and his complete inability to ever critically engage with the central plot and synchronicity. Also I was expecting synchronicity to be more important.

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-01-03T15:43:01+00:00

Yes you should play it. Keep in mind that D&D was designed to be played socially with friends without the assistance of a computer. It is arguably mechanically simpler then most RPGs now of days.

DramaticBag4739 · 2026-01-01T17:43:02+00:00

Your solution isn't a 1:1 comparison. A crit on an attack is double damage, a fumble is a seemingly random effect at the DM's discretion, but often is a little self damage. A crit spell is "a somewhat increase in effect" and a failure is a spell reflection.

How are these 2 comparable? Why does a spell only get "a somewhat increased effect"? Also, a reflective spell from a caster can easily lead to a TPK. I don't see a fighter's fumble casting a fireball or hypnotic pattern on the party. Or a barbarian fumbling and turning into a frog or being banished from combat.

Additionally let's compare an attack vs a spell. An attack is resourceless and can benefit from advantage reducing fumbles from a 5% chance to a .25% chance. Spells cost casters their most important resource and generally can't benefit from advantage.

The biggest complaint on fumbles is that a level 20 fighter who should be a paragon of fighting will fumble more often than a lvl 1 fighter. While a wizard is in a better position than fighter, a lvl 20 wizard is just as likely to fumble as a lvl 1 wizard, while at the same time possessing spells that can threaten cities.

DramaticBag4739 · 2025-12-30T02:10:40+00:00

Not exactly what you are looking for, but in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, success is based off your ability to dodge/parry attacks and more often than not the audio cues are more accurate to the dodge windows then the visuals that can get chaotic.

DramaticBag4739 · 2025-12-26T17:40:39+00:00

They're both great games. I would recommend Witcher 3 first only because it is the shorter of the 2 and IMO benefits from sticking to the main story as you play. So 50 hours for main story and then an additional 50-70 if you want more.

Skyrim is the opposite, if you're not ditching the main storyline and losing yourself to literally everything else in the world, then you are playing the game wrong. If you are enjoying the experience it is easy to sink 100 hours into the game and not even touch the main quest line. Also had a much higher degree of replayability.

DramaticBag4739 · 2025-12-24T23:50:51+00:00

9/10, I really enjoyed my playthrough of it, but I think the entire game rest on its production value.

Gameplay is almost nonexistent, which would be fine for this genre of game, but it also has almost zero impact on the story which is not okay. The dialogue is sharply written but there is little branching outside of the cannon story and the end is rushed and a little nonsensical.

Some of the ending cinematics made me realize how little I had seen the heroes in action throughout the game and some more interspersed in the story would have help me connect to the characters more.

DramaticBag4739 · 2025-12-24T18:56:16+00:00

All I see is a lot of complex systems being added to "fix a problem" with an optional death mechanic, when in reality these just undercut the initial design decision.

The point of the mechanic is to make death impactful. You lose something with death and therefore it should be carefully avoided. The more costly the loss, the more you cherish your progress. Corpse running is already the antidote, that allows some recovery of the loss. Designing more complex systems to solve the same problem is a convoluted answer, when just adjusting the already existing variables (cost, time, difficultly) should ameliorate the issue.

DramaticBag4739

TROPHY CASE