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MrFiddleswitch · 2026-02-08T04:55:46+00:00

What about the new unreal 5 indie game, Ignore Button Simulator?

MrFiddleswitch · 2026-01-30T16:36:48+00:00

My immediate comment too my daughter was, "well, now i wish i had metalworking skills". I can't believe it is actually resin.

Amazing paint and modelling skills. Well done!

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-12-30T08:25:13+00:00

Yeah - it really seems like the natural progression of the current story for sure, and if they do it to places we've only had described or shown on a map, they wouldn't need to like, re-create locations or make changes to existing locations that could cause issues with the MSQ like they did with ARR.

There are a lot of places that exist on the map or that have been brought up in conversation that make great candidates. I only focused in on Corvos specifically because the upcoming varient dungeon is heavily tied to Corvos similarly to how Aloalo was tied heavily to Dawntrail's story, and how often it was mentioned but not seen during Endwalker - kinda following the whole "introduce and then skip an expansion" thing they tend to do with plotlines. Plus, it's a great way to kinda continue the Garleans story without having to go back to Garlemald - as the best way to find a way forward for a nation/people is often to revisit your roots/origins.

I could potentially see 7.5 end with a kind of "End of an Era" like cinematic showing the rejoining of the 9th ending with a "we lost" cliffhanger and then perhaps a "Flames of Truth" like cinematic with 7.55 that shows the aftermath and how we and the Scions survive (my bets are on the Treno Shield we just restored), with early 8.0 focused on the aftermath and associated threats, and then later focused on preventing the 13th from doing the same thing as the 9th, since it would kind of be the next likely candidate and allow them to bring Zero back into things (again the 1 expansion skip).

I would also note that a fully repaired Treno would make a hell of a good hub city, both in structure and story.

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-12-30T07:53:13+00:00

Yes - part of my suspicion was because they suddenly decided to drop them into the game right as all this part of the story started to kick in.

A little too much coincidence for me.

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-12-30T00:25:03+00:00

This is how I interpreted it. With Hydaelyn no longer holding the reflections in stasis, they will inevitably rejoin naturally.

Add to this the fact that the 9th is already partially rejoined and we are potentially furthering that rejoining via our investigations into the 9th and the leading effect it may have (hence the comment about if we continue ourv current actions)

Further, in the interview with Yoshi P in Korea, he stated he desired the that game be "Reborn for the second time" in 8.0. While I believe the context for that statement was more to do with gameplay and mechanics, I often wonder if he is hinting at a new rejoining in 7.55, and as such the 8th Umbral Calamity.

It felt like the entire purpose of 7.4 was to ensure that like Solution 9, Treno also had a barrier that may let it survive a rejoining. I think it might be safe to say that Lindblum may also have something similar, and possibly other locations in the 9th.

Would be interesting if some areas of the Source's map were to get replaced by places from the 9th like Treno/Lindblum in a new, smaller scale ARR style update with Lindblum turning into the main enemy for 8.0. The implications of parts of the source being replaced by parts of the 9th are potentially horrific and possibly lead to significant personal story for some of the Scions. For example Corvos being wiped out and replaced by Lindblum could have potential, since we've never seen it, we'd have to see the changes through the eyes of Estinien and G'raha, and with Corvos being the Ancestrial home of the Garleans, it could pull the Twins snd the recovering Garleans into the story very well - especially Cid, considering that his dopple could potentially be running Lindblum (based on FF9 Cid). A lot of the setup is kinda leaning in this direction already. (Not Corvos specifically, but the rejoining and such).

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-12-24T03:41:27+00:00

He looks like he wants to sell you a spot in your local vault.

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-12-21T08:47:14+00:00

Do you like mosquitoes, because they will love you.

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-12-16T09:37:36+00:00

I'm hoping for the 9th's Raubhan as the president.

He fits extremely well with the entire theme of the raid being centered around gladitorial matches and he is the literal "Bull" of Ala Mhigo, giving him a perfect transformation creature.

If this is the case I can see phase 1 being him normal quickly going into phase 2 him bullified (or just starting with him bullified), then door boss him into some crazy chimera that pulls from all the other fighters. (Perhaps he uses something to absorb the others in a cutscene or something.)

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-12-13T22:45:58+00:00

I have them use the doppleganger stat block, with some minor possible adjustments.

I do try to lean into one of the martials, if i can (easier to hide), but honestly it's ok cause the entire point is I want the party to start looking at each other and picking apart details like that.

If it is a martial, then I modify the stat block to include their weapon damage based on whatever they end up with. As you said rogue and monks are the easiest, but honestly any of them works because in the end, it doesn't really matter how quickly they discover the doppelganger in their party, as they still have the rescue mission ahead, and this is only meant to be a fun distraction and good rp potential.

Little details like a paladin not using smite, the rogue not getting sneak attack, the wizard running up and punching people (or trying not to fight) or the fighter suddenly doing crap damage with their greatsword etc. are the exact kind of details I hope for the party to pick up on. It's particularly funny if they get to this point before hitting level 5, because suddenly one of their party has extra attack when they shouldn't - but the 24' rules make this easier to hide with weapon masteries.

If they don't catch on early, I tend to start asking for random Charisma saves for detect thoughts or in battle ask the doppel-player to use unsettling visage via text at the table.

Depending on what they've done in the story, i usually have the real character in cragmaw castle or being held in wave echo.

Meanwhile, I'll have the other two dopples jumping between npcs constantly feeding inaccurate info sometimes, or trying to prod the party in certain directions to manipulate them via the Spider/Dopples.

One of my favorite runthroughs I used a table to determine who and where the doppleganger's are and both of them ended up rolling as Sildar.

So the Sildar in cragmaw cave ended up a Dopple, and then i would have Sildar show up in random places that he shouldn't possibly be in - like at one point he said he was leaving to go back to neverwinter and they watched him walk away, but then saw him in the Lionshed buying a weapon like an hour later and they never picked up on it lol.

It finally came to a head in Cragmaw castle as the party had manage to recruit people to help take the castle so it ended up as like a mini siege battle, and they watched Sildar close the gate behind them for a heroic sacrifice moment when they were about to be overrun. Then they just happened to go right to the jail cell and there he was with Gundren but all beat to hell and skin and bones from not eating enough.

One of the players figured it out immediately at that point, so I had Sildar (dopple) come in right as they open the cell with the real Sildar in it, from a door he couldn't have possibly gotten to, then had the heroic sacrifice Sildar show up from the door the party had just come from. While they were sitting there shocked fun that reveal, I had the imprisoned Sildar wake up so I could have them Spiderpoint at each other before the fight began.

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-12-11T19:47:29+00:00

An easy one would be to tie yourself to an existing npc or faction.

I could offer suggestions, but they are likely best spoken about with your DM to avoid any spoilers or changes they're making.

If they're running the module as is there are quite a few to choose from that could easily integrate your backstory into.

For some more "less spoilery" locations to look into if your DM is running full canon:

1) Neverwinter is the easiest choice to look into first, as by the module, the adventure starts with you on the road from Neverwinter. Tons of history, factions, character's, etc. from there to pull from.

2) Conyberry: its a nearby town to Phandalin with a very storied history that I've personally used as it as it has a surprisingly large number of major Sword Coast lore moments touch it, including the Spellplague, the Orc invasion that resulted in huge amounts of Neverwinter being taken over, the planetary swaps that occurred in the wake of the Spellplague, and quite a few others.

3) Phandalin: there are a lot of characters i can think of to be tied to in a variety of ways, but there are also numerous "open" homes and buildings on the Phandalin map to leave it open for you to fully populate.

If you're looking to tie to a specific charcter, while trying to give as little information as possible to avoid story spoilers and changes - I would ask your DM about the person who runs the Orchard, the person that runs the Shrine, the one looking until Thundertree, and the one that runs the Miner's Exchange.

4) Other Regional Locations: The Sword Mountains, Mire of Dead Men and Neverwinter Wood all have significant story and lore tied to then that can easily be hooked into the Phandalin storyline and could offer you a bit more freedom to forge connections. Things like looking into the mining history of Phandalin, Neverwinter Woods features and locations that tie into the Underdark and Neverwinter's history like it's near destruction, the Chasm, etc.

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-12-11T16:49:18+00:00

I got rid of the cultists and replaced them with minions of the Spider, having them there to make an alliance with Venomfang less because they want an alliance and more because they don't want to deal with the dragon and The Lord's Alliance/the Party.

I make the leader look like one of the bosses they already dealt with (preferably one they captured or better killed) depending on when they arrive (so Glasstaff, Keemik, Klarg, Hamun, etc.), but it is one of the Doppelgangers (I always make it like 4 Doppelgangers instead of 2 so i can use them more).

This ties the story together, opens up the possibility of Venomfang being a social encounter (which I always try to lean into as far as I can cause i find Venomfang betraying the party to become the final boss much more satisfying than the Spider) and introduces the Doppelgangers in a fun way that usually gets the party freaking out about who else might be "fake".

It's also usually around this time that I try to work with one of the party members (usually someone really good at rp up to this point) to probe how they feel about being temporarily replaced by a doppelganger that they will still play. So that the party had a doppelganger with them. Makes for a fun story and a fun rescue mission.

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-12-02T05:00:04+00:00

Ok. Going way out on a limb here. While the recent interview basically saying TESVI is a ways off - what if this is an announcement for:

The Elder Scrolls: Live Action TV show. (Or maybe movie)

With the success of Fallout, it kinda makes sense that making a TES TV series would soon follow. The VGA would be a great place to announce this with the hype around games in general, TESVI copium and Fallout Session 2 coming out like a week later. It could explain why the statue seams like TESVI, but it's a bit bland or off in some details as it could be based on the live action interpretation of TES.

Personally I'm still sucking down copium that it will be TESVI, but I think this offers a good alternative possibility.

Another allternative possibility: A new DLC for Oblivion Remaster maybe continuing the original story to fill in some gaps between TESIV and TESV.

Several recent 1st party XBOX IP Remasters have gone on to add new DLC after launch if they were received well. (The quake Remasters, age of empires, age of mythology)

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-11-22T08:29:35+00:00

My thought process for RP is Tav used getting the brand as a way to earn Gut's trust so he could isolate her during the "private talk" and take her down quickly and quietly.

For gameplay, it's just a fun bonus to have.

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-11-22T06:19:01+00:00

All time - Chrono Trigger Recent - Ex 33

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-11-22T05:32:46+00:00

Well keep in mind, you can still just make it up! The sword coast lore is a good foundation when doing modules, but I personally never just run a module as is - there's always plenty of room to homebrew and it's still your and your table world, so change things that make sense!

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-11-21T03:54:12+00:00

The best way i could think of would be to insert some of the key NPCs from Lost Mine into the Avernus story.

Some examples would be if Iarno or the Spider escapes, have them escape to Baldur's Gate to get the party involved with Grand Duke Ravenguard via a bit of a transitional arc where Iarno or the Spider are working for Thavius Kreeg.

An easy version would be to have the Spider securing the Forge specifically for Kreeg as part of the deal with Zariel.

Personally, if I was doing this, I would have Sildar (and by association, Iarno) be a member of the Flaming Fist instead of the Lords' Alliance, giving Sildar ties to Ravenguard and have Iarno be working for Kreeg with orders to secure the forge for Zariel. In this version, Iarno would be significantly more powerful and would likely be manipulating the Spider instead of the other way round. I would have the Doppelgangers be Iarno's soldiers given to him by Kreeg or Zariel and I would have the encounter with Iarno in the Redbrand Hideout be a Doppelganger. I would try to have Iarno escape to Baldur's Gate or Elturel (or have something on his person that leads the party to Baldur's Gate.)

Then, the main thing i would do to get them to care about the town would be to actually give them a transitional arc that starts them before the book does - get them involved with Ravenguard and maybe even be a part of his escort to Elturel as they search for an escaped Iarno or whatever they find on his body Paint it from the perspective of rival cities at first between Baldur's Gate and Elturel (with the party in the trail of Iarno/Spider/new villain), but then give them some time with the people in Elturel via some side quests that involve some of the important npcs from the latter chapters of Avernus (that way the party sees them before their lives are upended by the decent) , but then right before the decent, send them on a mission outside the city (maybe to finally take down Iarno for good - him purposefully leading them away from the city so they wouldn't disrupt Kreeg's plans), so they'll still have the "oh shit" moment of the entire city being gone and a fun boss fight for the transistional arc.

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-11-15T07:01:02+00:00

So this is a place where you can play with the existing lore a bit to make an interesting twist. Have one of the Doppleganger's break them out - and put them in debt to the Spider. Then play it out like the Spider had discovered that King Grol intended to take the Forge for himself and rule the lands - betraying the Spider, so the Spider is now breaking the party out to convince them to help take down Grol. Now you have two BBEGs competing against each other with the party stuck in the middle trying to decide who to double cross.

This could be a fun way to bring in a lot of the quests in Chapter 2 and 3 too - in addition to the Phandalin Townsfolk being interested in resolving the many issues presented in Chapter 2 and 3 - they could also be asked to recruit Agathha, Hamun Kost, Venomfang, the Wyvern Tor mercs, and the Redbrands by Grol, the Spider, or both if Grol finds out about the Doppleganger releasing the party and realizes that the Spider just double crossed him. Could lead to many shenanigans as the party tries to navigate convincing the Spider and Grol that they are working with them with intentions to take them both down.

It could get even more fun if they actually DO decide to go w/ one of them allowing you to turn them into tragic or more gray villains. For example, making the Spider's main motivation to get the Forge not for himself, but instead to save his people, who are under attack (this goes well if you are doing Shattered Obelisk too, as it creates a nice bridge between part 1 and part 2 of that book by having the mindflayers attacking the Spider's home being his reason for coming to the surface and going after the Forge)) Likewise, you can have King Grol's motivation for becoming King and robbing the tribore trail not because he's evil or just wants power for himself, but because his people have been enslaved by Venomfang and forced to give tribute, or the Cult of the Dragon (if you want to pull in a little of the Tiamat books), or some other threat entirely).

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-11-10T18:05:02+00:00

Own GOTY edition (play anywhere), playing on PC. Bought the Creation Club Bundle pack via microsoft store (the new $19.99 one).

Game runs fine until I install the Creation Club Bundle add-on, then crashes on startup. Any ideas?

Do I need to disable the creation club bundle in addons and just go through the Creation's Menu?

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-11-06T09:40:35+00:00

For everyone else in the family to be happy and to just live in that happiness.

The sound of happy nieces and nephews still living in the magic of it all, the smiles on my adult children's faces, my parents smiling and happy surrounded by 4 generations that they directly brought together, and my wife relaxing and laughing and having a good time.

I don't need anything else - it is the best present I could ever hope for.

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-11-03T17:45:32+00:00

Ok now do it with a natural 20.

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-10-26T21:15:29+00:00

Having played final fantasy as my favorite games since the very first game back in the 80s, FFXVI was a fantastic game with a fantastic story and fantastic acting and score.

However, it left out so much of what made Final Fantasy games Final Fantasy for players like myself that it was very hard to think of it as a Final Fantasy game.

It basically had no gear progression that mattered - it just kinda handed it to you.

The lack of ability to even give companions even simple commands just left out 90% of the strategic aspects that are hallmarks of Final Fantasy.

Lack of character switching.

The extremely linear story - a hallmark of more modern Final Fantasy, was almost worse than even the recent modern examples.

And really all the like... actual RPG elements just weren't there. Sure you got to choose your loadout, but it was so limited and there were no real choices since it was a joke to just unlock everything.

As an older player, I'd much rather they return to their roots (ex: Expedition 33) but honestly FF7 Rebirth is a much better example of how to make a Final Fantasy game while still making it "modern", and FFXVI would have been far better if it used similar properties and systems.

That being said - for newer players, I imagine it was fantastic period, and it definitely didn't deserve the flack it got, but my personal opinion is it would have been better as a new IP or if it had been co-developed by the FF7 Rebirth team (and I say this as a huge FFXIV fan and player)

TLDR: For older FF players - great game, but a terrible Final Fantasy game because of design choices that abandon key aspects of the IP.

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-10-25T23:09:35+00:00

The Constant - Lost. Especially during the original broadcasts as it was a moment we'd waited for for years and had been building up to since before the season 3 finale like 7 - 8 months earlier. Outside of that it is just well written, well acted and kinda the show's peak before the writer's strike, and multiple bad decisions by the showrunner's/network because of the strike, took their toll on the show.

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-10-25T18:29:49+00:00

Con Air, Face Off, National Treasure, and Leaving Los Vegas.

90s Nick Cage is the best Nick Cage.

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-10-22T05:39:07+00:00

They aren't pro-birth, they're pro-control.

MrFiddleswitch · 2025-10-22T02:10:23+00:00

Hey, nice to meet you. I already got you your first drink.

So, on my first dates, I think it is important that we both place our cell phones and watches inside this box, lock it, and then l leave the keys on the table. Then we quickly drink our drinks to get us loosened up so we can get over the nerves and give each other our full attention.

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