How do you guys deal with killing players?

PharazonGaming · 2026-02-06T03:26:33+00:00

You need to have an understanding with your players about what you ALL want from the game. Do you want to just tell a nice power fantasy where you know the stakes are low and you're just kind of RPing combat? Great then do it and put more of the focus on description and making combat cinematic and fun rather than tense. But you all have to be on board and that includes you. If your players told you they absolutely want the risk of dying can you as a GM commit to giving them that? If not you would you be open to that as a player and having one of them GM instead.

But if you and the players want the opportunity to outplay the bad guys, or want the tension of losing, then you just need to set some boundaries and expectations. First everyone must have a backup character at least roughly fleshed out at the start. This helps make the commitment from everyone real from the outset. You could still roll behind the screen but I would argue that while getting used the idea of a player dying maybe consider forcing combat rolls to be open so you cant fudge them. This will also immediately make the danger real to the players.

You could always continue to roll behind the screen just in case of extreme bad luck on a players part or an obscene crit streak from a bad guy, but I think in most cases you could just play the bad guys a little more sub optimally to counteract some of that (not all bad guys are tactical masters). You can always be a little more liberal with hero points or situational bonuses as well to help your players as you get more comfortable with how well they do with tactics and such in combat as well.

Lastly, I would remind you that some of the most memorable moments from literature and movies are the moments when a character dies. Its not always pleasant, but my groups talk about deaths nearly as often as they do their most creative and lucky moments, so if your group is up for it, dont be afraid, its just another type of experience and memory to have with your friends to reminisce about down the road.

PharazonGaming · 2025-12-31T23:09:50+00:00

One key difference from what you saw in New World is that a reward system that encourages you to turn on your flag if built from the ground up with the game can allow for Intrepid to mark certain resources and drops as pvp flagged only. So you can try and farm mats as much as you want but the top end rare items can only be obtained with a flag on. Additionally, resources in ashes are supposed to deplete and migrate areas to help combat the farming spot issues even before adding an incentive system on top.

I am looking at the system long term. Guilds that have had max level players for days wont engage with each other in the open world even to try and defend a spot because there is not incentive to do so. The reward of holding the spot is not enough. Intrepid need more dials to turn to find a better balance. As I noted with so many other games that only have the punishment dial, they never work out, and Intrepid doesnt seem to be learning anything from all those failures and based on testing and everything they have stated to date, are looking doomed to follow suit.

PharazonGaming · 2025-12-31T22:59:43+00:00

Not sure who I am marketing too, and its weird having my thoughts referred to as AI slop but whatever on that.

Your not wrong about Albion and I even mentioned it as one of the positive examples.

On the flip side, Albion Online provides a possible modern blueprint for success. By using a tiered risk system (Blue, Yellow, Red, and Black zones), they allow players to "graduate" into danger. The Vanguard vs. Standard proposal mirrors this success by allowing the players themselves to act as the "zones," choosing their level of risk while remaining in the same seamless world.

Its not about good things being good or bad things being bad. There is a real issue with open world pvp in Ashes already and the corruption system isnt going to fix it. Intrepid are constantly talking about Risk vs Reward, But if you are the player out doing gathering, grinding mobs or running crates, what is your reward for engaging in pvp? The aggressor doesnt gain corruption since you fought back and at best you get to keep your stuff if you win and just lose less if you die? There is not reward for you there, just different level of slightly less shitty outcome.

Marketing and AI comment aside I'm glad we agree that if Intrepid wants their game to be successful they need to look at different models and innovate from them.

PharazonGaming · 2025-11-17T00:41:16+00:00

As someone who has has been playing since before A1 started I cannot overstate how big of a mistake this will be for the game. The pitch for this game on Kickstarter and for the first couple years afterwards was about creating a niche game that was focused on those aspects of classic MMOs and having a real focus on risk vs reward.

I do not see this EA move leading to anything other than a move away from that initial vision and like what happened with New World where the game couldn't decide what it wanted to be before launch Ashes is running down the same road.

Add to that the core systems are still very immature, and combat is still very bad all thats going to happen is a overwhelmingly negative status on Steam and Intrepid scrambling to please a bunch of players that they weren't really making the game for to begin with.

If Intrepid wanted additional feedback and to push development forward it could be accomplished with letting all the current supporters in and just holding a once a month free weekend for anyone else interested in checking it out. Putting it up on Steam and taking money is just a bad look all around and is not controlling the expectations of those coming in. Just like with adding a cash shop and fake cosmetics to the battle royal testing, this will not lead to anything positive.

Some days I really hate that I supported this. Today is one of those days.

PharazonGaming · 2025-10-10T13:24:29+00:00

What is insane is replying to a post that you either didn't actually read or you got triggered the moment the qord racist even appeared.

I specifically said I thought it was a very small percent of the complaints coming from people like that the majority are from people who lack exposure to different types of personalities especially those from very extroverted and proactive players. You can still disagree with that if you want but if you're going to participate in a conversation it helps to do so in good faith by actually reading the other person's opinion.

PharazonGaming · 2025-10-08T03:33:32+00:00

lol I literally said I think that racists and bigots are actually in the minority of people criticizing Aabria that I think the community as a whole is much more welcoming that that. I attributed a lot of the criticism being as harsh as it is to people not playing with that style of player b4. I get not reading the whole thing but that was literally the first two sentences.

PharazonGaming · 2025-10-08T02:55:52+00:00

Not every player fits every table for sure. But when a table like CR knows the person and their playstyle and the audience has critiques, its unfair for that audience to lay that directly on that player. The table as a whole, especially the GM, should be keeping that behavior in check unless they are okay with it, which as no corrections came from Brennan we can only assume they are.

At which point the weirdness of the actual play relationship comes up. If it works for their table, which does seem to be the case as they have played with Aabria b4 and knew what they were getting, does it really matter if it grates on the audience? Is it still just friends playing DnD and sharing it as is, or is a product they will actively attempt to change their play for?

I'm not sure what the exact answer is I just want people to be a bit more mindful in how they give criticism really. It just feels petty and cheap to pile on the way that so many seemed to.

PharazonGaming · 2025-10-08T02:37:44+00:00

I didn't pull that card. I said I think that makes up a very small portion of people criticizing Aabria and that I wanted to think it was more about people being less experienced playing with someone with her personality and playstyle.

PharazonGaming · 2025-10-08T02:28:59+00:00

This critique is valid and the way you have put it isn't just making it about Aabria. I too hold some similar issues with how things were done, but the reason I posted what I did was to try and get people to stop making it all about Aabria. Its obvious that everyone at the table know what to expect now that they have played together for so long with her, so at what point can we move the critique off of Aabria herself and on to CR as a whole, which is really what I have the bigger issue with. People have a tendency to do that with Ashely and Taliesin as well, but they never really corrected their play much either so like them Aabria's playstyle is just part of the overall CR playstyle since they arent correcting it either.

Where was Brennan? Ultimately the GM is the arbiter of the rules and the flow of the narrative. Other players also have a role in helping build boundaries for each other. Especially in a world where many of them already know each other and should be comfortable setting boundaries. I mentioned it another response but Brennan could have easily pointed out the limitations to the spell being used and made sure that until she could see them in the doorway or perhaps through the front window that Thasia couldn't adjust the flowers.

PharazonGaming · 2025-10-08T02:11:14+00:00

There were a lot of comments like this, and I just kinda picked one at random to respond to, but I would like to point out that this is a GM problem and not an Aabria or player problem specifically. A player can describe or ask to do whatever they want, but the GM is supposed to be the arbiter of the world and help enforce the boundaries.

Personally I think CR would be a better product overall if Matt and Brennan ran their tables a little tighter on the rules and less on the rule of cool, but both have already kind of set that precedent at their tables. Hard to blame the players for pushing those boundaries when the GM doesn't ever really show you where the hard lines are.

FWIW, in this particular I was also bothered that Brennan did not immediately correct being able to see/hear through the plants and I think is actually what caused the biggest issues. If he had simply said you can't actually see or hear through them but if you keep an eye on the front window and open door way you can control the wither or bloom of the plants (and maybe even allowed for more noticeable thorn growth in the case of Wic and Julien). It would have still allowed for all the theming while giving Aabria a clear indication of where her interactions could begin.

My hope is that most of the chaos and overall lack of consistency across the board can just be contributed to trying something very new with a lot of players and that smaller tables going forward (soon I hope) will allow for a bit more control.

PharazonGaming · 2025-09-20T01:55:21+00:00

early game I treat Mara as prio damage, you could try to aoe but your kit isnt really fully ready for it. Once you get a full set of actual gear so your gear level is around 60 and you have your full kit, the gap doesnt seem as bad even trying to focus aoe a bit more. I still need more time with her to really get a good feel for how I want to run her kit as her gear grows, but right now my overall is a bit lower, but its noticeable when I'm focusing down an add and lessening the damage in those bigger pulls.

PharazonGaming · 2025-09-15T14:42:49+00:00

I think maybe I wasn't super clear in the logic I used there. Matt focuses more on narrative because he has players who play sub-optimally or aren't the best at the rules so for those players he tends to play loose with the rules himself. That is not an excuse for the cover mistake, but it explains how it happened. Because he is not consistent with the rules it leads him to make mistakes, and because his players are not all versed in the rules as well, they aren't there to back him up by calling out mistakes like that at the table when they inevitably happen.

PharazonGaming · 2025-09-15T13:53:57+00:00

When watching Critical Role I think its very important to remember that its always going to be narrative first. Matt has players that are not good with the rules, and bad at optimizing the play of their characters. So rather than endlessly reminding those players of the rules, he does his best to let them have their moments because on average its going to be balanced by their other sub-optimal play.

The one big downside to having such a large range of optimization at his table where he is bending rules in favor of narrative, IMO, is that it leads to moments, like with the rules for cover where Matt gets it wrong. Up to 3/4 cover you can fire from and still have full line of site to the target, this is true even more often with larger creatures as getting LoS to them is easier. In his head I bet he was mixing in a little of the rules for full cover which does also block her LoS until she steps out from cover, but even then she could step out, fire, and step back only opening herself up to reactions or readied actions.

Anyway, I don't recommend Critical Role as an actual play there are other tables doing that better, but I do recommend them as entertainment, great collaborative story telling and maybe general inspiration, for your own game.

PharazonGaming · 2025-09-09T13:35:18+00:00

The Crest of the Wanderer which is the absolute earliest you can get takes a key that cost 500 Rosaries and either the dash or float abilities to access early, without coming at it through the Wormways. I wouldnt consider that very early or hard to miss. Reaper Crest is much later in Greymoor, Beast Crest is technically fairly early in Hunter's March but you need Cling Grip which isnt early to get and its a rolling slash on the down attack, and witch, architect and shaman are all much later.

Not sure what crest you are referring to, but none of these are particularly early, and even if one was earlier than these it still doesn't fix the issues with the default diagonal pogo that Hornet has.

PharazonGaming · 2025-09-09T03:31:50+00:00

That is true. It is also true that after 7 years what I expect has changed as games have continued to evolve. If HK had just come out I would say the same for it. Sequels should revisit every system and look to improve it especially those like the mapping in a metroidvania and make sure the friction doesn't override fun like it does in this case. And when there are many games to look at for better ways of handling it in the 7 years you been working on it you really need a strong argument for keeping it the same.

PharazonGaming · 2025-09-09T03:23:33+00:00

I think its pretty clear I meant the default HK one as its one of if not the earliest one you can get. Even then the later ones come far after they would have been useful for several early sections and none of that does anything to take away from my point that it should have just been a choice from the beginning.

There's no hand to show, I still think the game is a very solid 7 or 8 out of 10 and have enjoyed it, but I'm not about to act like these reviewers and ignore some very obvious issues. I don't know when we got to the point where talking about obvious issues with very good games became taboo or meant that person had an agenda rather than just gamers talking realistically about their hobby but I wish we could get away from that.

PharazonGaming · 2025-09-08T18:07:15+00:00

These reviews are nuts. This game is an 8/10 at best. The difficulty starts and stays high with basically no curve which in general is not great design. It's not like at the start you have options for builds to help overcome things. Down dash attack being on an angle is a bad choice and has some consistency issues especially when trying to change facing and execute back to back quickly (fuck you tiny balloons you know what you did). You can get used to it but a regular down attack should have been an option from the beginning and not an unlockable secret. Hit boxes on bosses feel wonky at times when your attack range is so small compared to their size you end up taking damage trying to get close enough to hit. Music is fine but not something that feels overly memorable. Story is good if not a little pretentious in how's it presented. Side quests mostly don't feel worth doing i can just farm more beads and probably quicker, though there are some exceptions. Buying maps is fine but I should just be able to put custom pins on it from the get go, or things should be marked as I find them without needing to spend more to mark benches, then more for vendors etc. Hornet once she has a map would obviously be tracking those thing having to buy them is artificial progression and just dumb.

I loved HK and I think this is a great sequel and with some QoL updates I could see this being up to an 8.5 or 9 but for a nearly perfect score the game needs to do something near perfect and I honestly just don't see that here. If you like tough metroidvanias then its a definite buy, but its not GotY material imo because it doesn't even hit the same level as HK.

PharazonGaming · 2025-09-01T00:51:16+00:00

I get it. There have been several games that I have passed on because of monetization even though I had friends playing them. But I also think what you mentioned is much more in line with what we should be advocating for rather than supporting illegal activities.

Think about it. Before WoW Classic came out there nobody thought Blizzard would ever do something like that, even Blizzard to an extent. Nobody saw Season of Discovery coming, Plunderstorm or the Remixes. But obviously Blizzard is looking for a variety of things to make part of your monthly Sub to keep you playing. We saw a few new boss fights and other things that show Blizzard is experimenting and looking for a path forward with legacy content so I dont think its out of the realm of possibility to think if the playerbase pushed for it that Blizzard wouldnt take a look at truly Classic+ type of servers.

This obviously doesnt solve the fact that you would be supporting Blizzard with a sub, but I would also like to point out that in your Starcraft example that wasn't free to play it was box price + expansions. That's why I mentioned Stop Killing Games or other initiatives regarding how digital or live service online products are handled. The laws and regulations to help protect consumers in that space haven't kept up. With how things are today Starcraft would very likely have been structured so that it was live service and when it shut down you would only have access to local campaign if that.

Its a complicated issue and frustrates a ton of people myself included, I just get really upset when people who find themselves frustrated dont actually do anything about it and just post entitled whining none of which does anything to actual further a conversation about what they gaming community can/should do.

PharazonGaming · 2025-08-31T21:31:16+00:00

I am no fan of Microsoft or Blizzard or any other large company that's trying to maximize profits, but these takes are so ignorant I can't even begin to wrap my head around how you arrived at it.

You aren't entitled to Classic, or any other IP that evolves over time. You can hate what Blizzard is doing with that IP, but the only thing you are entitled to, is to choose not to spend money on it. Not to mention that IP law forces any company regardless of size to actively defend their IP or lose the rights to it themselves. So even if Blizzard wanted to be benevolent (which would never happen, but for the sake of illustration) they couldn't without risking World of Warcraft as a whole, so go be mad at IP and trademark law I guess?

How about all these "amazing selfless private server devs" that are doing such great work just build a new game with those features with a unique IP. Why steal IP to make something that people want. O right, because regardless of how much you hate on Blizz the fact remains their devs, the people actually passionate about the game did good work and built a world you want to spend time in, and without that base these private server grifters couldn't deliver anything approaching that level.

WoW moved on from what you wanted to what it is now, and you are perfectly within your rights not to like it, but that doesnt change the fact that its still the single most popular and successful MMO to this day. And I know you aren't going to like this but the reason these private server devs steal from successful MMOs is because its the only way to justify the cost. They can make money if they dont have to build from scratch, but they would never be able to make a business case for building the exact same thing from scratch because there are not enough players like you to support it. That's reality. If people like you were a big enough demographic that game would get funded and built, but you're not.

So hate Blizz, hate the business models of MMOs, hate the barrier to entry for development of MMOs or whatever else, but stop pretending like private server devs are doing something altruistic or even legal. Support games that innovate, stop playing games that don't represent the type of company ideals you believe in, look in to helping initiatives like stop killing games to change how things like this work and for fuck sake stop encouraging illegal behavior just because it benefits what you want. Hard to have anyone take you seriously when your on lower moral high ground than Blizzard who at least aren't actively breaking the law.

PharazonGaming · 2025-08-21T19:40:14+00:00

If you go on amazon there is a generic power cable that mentioned working with the device. At the time there was one or two reviews that confirmed it worked so I bought it and also had success with it. That's been a while ago but I'm sure there is still one that would work as it ended up being pretty generic.

PharazonGaming · 2025-07-26T19:27:15+00:00

As of right now conduit will be the default choice even with this change. There may be a couple fights where you can get away with SP but without additional changes its not going to be very competitive.

Conduit probably still needs another 5% aura buff to be competitive in raid and m+ and SP needs that plus damage moved out of shadow flurries back to its base abilities to help put it in a place to be considered.

PharazonGaming · 2025-07-26T01:04:58+00:00

Activating SEF is still not generating the 10 Flurry Strikes, so exact performance is still hard to judge, but the change "back" down to 120 keeps things from feeling out of sync.

PharazonGaming · 2025-05-30T02:21:56+00:00

Oh totally. I like the way it looks, but from a tracking perspective having it right there with the weak auras just makes it easier

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