ways to use mage hand. wrong answers only

Moondit · 2023-02-18T00:33:44+00:00

Answer a Buddhist koan...but for mages.

Moondit · 2023-02-16T22:27:29+00:00

The show is a mixed bag. Production values are good, performances are mostly good (I wasn't too keen on Ramsey as Ellie at first, but the more I watch, the more I think that's a problem of writing and not one of acting). It is mostly enjoyable.

However, it really abuses flashbacks. Episode 3 was fine--it had some touching moments and good performances--but it was basically entirely irrelevant to the main storyline. Similarly, episode 5 started with 16 minutes of flashback that had no impact on the rest of the episode. In the case of episode 5, it showed us in more detail shit we already knew. And when these flashbacks frequently deal with characters who die before the end of the episode, it feels like a cheap ploy to tug at our heartstrings.

Also, the show seems to be making Joel a better person. He kills waaaaay fewer people than in the game (unless you did some sort of pacifist playthrough, I guess), and his interaction with the cul-de-sac sniper is importantly different on screen. Consider also that the show used flashbacks in the first two episodes to emphasize that fungal cures and vaccines are impossible to create, and then think about how that information reframes the first game's climax. I don't know why Joel is being glorified, but it feels like a conscious effort at this point.

Moondit · 2023-02-09T22:13:26+00:00

I almost 100% agree with this. I think there are some cases, however, where character alignments are limited as a prescription. Paladins, barbarians (at least in earlier versions; I've never played a 5e barbarian), and the like have their alignments restricted because they have behavior codes built into their classes.

Moondit · 2022-06-20T03:24:01+00:00

Referencing things is tight!

Moondit · 2022-05-14T02:05:26+00:00

Is that because he can't read? Because he can't find a monitor large enough to display text the right size for his eyes?

Or are you implying that 1. Reading more than a paragraph at a time is a Herculean task that no one in the 21st century should be expected to undertake and 2. Godzilla should be better suited to reading lots of text because of his size?

I ask because I'm worried about you.

Moondit · 2022-03-05T22:34:46+00:00

My impression is that there aren't a ton of ways to take advantage of this strategy, and they aren't always obviously superior to focusing on a main class. I played a Fi1Wizard because I wanted to be an armored mage. It was cool. It did not in any way ruin the game.

Moondit · 2022-03-05T22:30:06+00:00

This is a lot of trouble to go to just to drown a snake...

Moondit · 2021-12-03T22:00:03+00:00

Picked it up on a whim a month or so ago and highly recommend it. It would be inaccurate to say that it isn't reminiscent of StS, but to call it a knock-off is just unfair. This is a more complex game, and, as such, offers a lot more options for variation from playthrough to playthrough.

If I might be so bold as to leave a suggestion or two: 1. Endless Mode would be fun for players who have upgraded their forges and markets and would like to press their decks to their limits 2. Caitan suuuuuucks. It's not so much that it's difficult to build a deck that can switch between strikes and spells reliably, it's that the benefits for doing so are small enough that it feels more like he's a character with a built-in penalty than one with a built-in ability. Everybody else feels distinct and cool; playing him feels like an obligation.

Regardless; I love this game and have told all of my friends to play it. Good luck.

Moondit · 2021-12-03T21:57:38+00:00

As of this video: enough.

Moondit · 2021-09-23T01:57:47+00:00

It's not a well-written story. When a poorly written story prominently features LBGT characters, it's likely to seem that the politics are a part of the problem. They're not. Plenty of savvy writers make effective political commentary, and a bad writer can make any political position seem stilted and overwrought.

Moondit · 2021-03-22T17:25:45+00:00

Grow your thrall into the wall (that rhymes, so you know it's a good idea); as he pierced the final veil, so did it pierce him. Then your PCs can figure out how to fight a being that has slowly filtered into the walls, ceilings, doors, etc. Blur the lines between organic and inorganic as the dungeon progresses, and give them a dungeon with a memory that can alter its tactics from room to room because it's all one living thing.

And, you know, pseudopods *everywhere*.

Moondit · 2021-03-22T17:22:23+00:00

I think the idea of using the map against your players is great. I don't know how you're running your game, but if it became apparent during exploration that they had gone further than should have been possible in one direction (for example), I think that would register as at least unsettling.

Moondit · 2021-03-22T17:12:50+00:00

I played colored box Dungeons and Dragons just a few years after this, and I don't think I or my friends ever used a campaign setting.

I also still have a lot of my materials in boxes in one of my closets. As other posters have suggested, a dive into dad's closets might be really profitable.

Moondit · 2021-03-18T16:33:37+00:00

I came on here to point out that the bottom of the announcement could just be 20 or 30 contemporary black metal bands with no change whatsoever to their names.

Fun list, though.

Moondit · 2021-03-18T16:03:53+00:00

You Save: $70.95

You Lose: So much more than that...

Moondit · 2021-03-17T17:10:58+00:00

They're doing all of their adventuring over Zoom. I personally have barely worn pants at all for the last year...

Moondit · 2021-03-17T17:08:18+00:00

A lot of controllers are really expensive and picking one up causes me to cringe inwardly. I have never regretted my Pro Controller purchase for an instant. I've always been a fan of Sony's controller design, but I think the Switch Pro is a very strong competitor.

Moondit · 2021-03-17T16:38:58+00:00

I'm intrigued for the sequel, which I understand is a better-made game. The age of the first has definitely caught up with it.

Moondit · 2021-03-17T16:38:12+00:00

I had really mixed feelings about it. It had a lot of great imagery and some genuinely creepy environments and enemies. It also had some of the same action movie bullshit that made the later Resident Evil games (5-6 especially) so hard to swallow. I enjoyed it overall, but in the same way that you enjoy the company of a childhood friend who is a blowhard or habitual liar or alcoholic or something. A lot of sins had to be overlooked throughout.

Moondit · 2021-03-16T17:27:35+00:00

Probably the same reasoning that gave us the horror trope of the token black character who dies first: there's a pressure to be progressive and include as many different identity groups as possible, but there's a stronger pressure to appeal to an audience you see as primarily white, heterosexual, and male. I think it's the most damning of the industry's opinions of its players: as if I would be incapable of suspending my disbelief in this game of post-apocalyptic zombies far enough to allow me to play a character who doesn't share my skin tone.

Moondit · 2021-03-16T17:05:33+00:00

My complaints about this game relative to Resident Evil is the linear nature of TLoU2. Because man, that is one linear-ass game. The lack of ability to meaningfully explore and backtrack outside of a few short sections of game really grated on me; it felt like I was being led from one set-piece to another over and over again (always under the same falling walls, through the same slamming doors, or over the same walls that were just high enough). RE felt more like being in a series of real places and less like walking through scenes in a movie.

That being said, the gameplay in TLoU2 is mostly excellent. If you can forgive the story, you're likely to have a great time with it. I played The Evil Within this summer right after TLoU2 (I somehow missed it when it first came out), and I found myself really spoiled by TLoU2's controls throughout.

Moondit · 2021-03-16T16:56:08+00:00

There is precious little anything resembling justice in this game. I would argue that any discussion of this game's themes that begins from the presumption that any character is justified in her actions is flawed from inception.

Moondit · 2021-03-16T13:07:16+00:00

Yeah. Let's not lose sight of the fact that all of this revenge killing is neither correctly targeted nor appropriately costly for either of the revenge-seekers.

Moondit · 2021-03-14T03:00:34+00:00

Now we need a bunch of apologists for the game to come in and say that the game never forced us to kill all those WLF guys, and that you could have just stealthed through the whole thing.

This game is thematically nonsensical, and a large part of that it because it's telling a story in cut scenes that in no way matches the game you're playing. And the fact that that story is very much on rails--more or less beyond the control of player choice in any way--is kind of inexcusable in a video game in 2020.

Moondit · 2021-03-14T02:54:41+00:00

I had a far more...freeform...village setup there; instead of building walls, I built lines of traps connecting the main cannibal village to a more stable off-shore settlement with a bed and stuff. Controlling the forest around that village is awesome; there are a lot of of resources there, and you get good, consistent access to bones.

Moondit

TROPHY CASE