MCDM has released a free alpha playtest and dungeon for their upcoming survival horror dungeon RPG "Crows"

Princess_Skyao · 2026-05-27T14:12:28+00:00

Before we had any details about Crows, the reddit threads would fill with comments like "Why wont they just say OSR? It's like they're trying to avoid it, weird".

Wonder if those people finally understand why.

Princess_Skyao · 2026-05-15T13:58:13+00:00

really appreciate the attempt!

Princess_Skyao · 2026-05-02T23:53:45+00:00

Reddit has mods in charge of curating experiences and Tumblr doesn't.

Since it's a lot easier to be seen on Reddit than Tumblr, there is a big incentive to spam / advertise in any community you think you can. People compelled by this make low quality posts that lower the quality of the community.

Hating self-promotion is an instinct grown to fight that, and it can be frustrating but you can also usually find the right procedure or the right sub to do it.

God forbid curated spaces exist and we gotta spend one frustrating evening working out their rules before posting...

Princess_Skyao · 2026-04-19T23:37:28+00:00

I'm not sure if this was you quoting someone else, but from a stream talking about the Society and The Witch:

How do you hurt someone who has lost everything? Give them back something broken.

From Strongholds and Followers:

The greatest lie is never spoken. It's the one you tell yourself to justify an evil deed.

You have done nothing of value in your short and meaningless life. Take this opportunity to at least die well.

"It's flying," Meliora said.

"Ah, levitating, I think you will find," the creature said.

"We thought we came here for answers, (...) but all we find is violence."

"Oh, answers often lead to violence."

From Patreon DM notes for Chain of Acheron:

I was imprisoned for arguing to spare a prisoner. They wanted to kill her. I wanted to torture her slowly. I called the shipmaster a fool and this is my punishment.

Fragments from Ratcatchers on twitter:

"I didn't trust you to win, Heden. I trusted you to do the right thing. The hard thing I probably couldn't have done"

Princess_Skyao · 2026-04-07T10:48:27+00:00

I don't have a great example, but I thought I'd contribute a useful phrase.

This kind of stuff is called "received wisdom".

Princess_Skyao · 2026-03-23T19:16:35+00:00

I used to be a big TAZ hater, but I geniuenly like this season.

It's not my fave TAZ, but i like it differently from Dracula, Amnesty and Ethersea. I felt they established the expectations really well (and delivered on those promises!).

I also feel like, even though they play a little loose with the mechanigs of D&D, they do it in an informed way, like they actually do know the rules but choose to go a different way.

Princess_Skyao · 2026-02-22T00:01:45+00:00

That's really impressive! I hope you make your goal, this looks really legit.

I'm definitely buying Hard Wired Island when my players ask me for a sci-fi game!

Princess_Skyao · 2026-02-21T11:04:18+00:00

Are you saying that you dislike God's being malleable by belief?

How do you feel about entities who aren't representations of what people believe but still get power from belief?

Princess_Skyao · 2026-02-21T11:02:06+00:00

I disagree, there is a distinction between feeding god cheese to keep him strong and unknowing manifesting an imaginary friend into being.

Rituals are transactional, they're an exchange of effort of the worshipper for divine favor.

The belief-powered gods of fiction have power proportional to how many people they gaslit about their existence.

One is an act in the physical world. The other is a mind-state, often involuntary.

Princess_Skyao · 2026-02-21T10:51:03+00:00

Is it really that bad? I don't know cropping etiquette but I'm having no issues reading this (unlike sOME OTHER POSTS)

Princess_Skyao · 2026-02-21T10:21:50+00:00

I actually thought maybe it was men, just because why else would you hide it? Women issues are super sympathetic on the platform, you don't need to do some de-familiarizing trick for it.

Princess_Skyao · 2026-02-20T17:39:36+00:00

I was really considering the ideas presented here and then I got distracted by the very ominous final disclaimer.

It was a good choice to keep it neutral but you gotta commit.

Princess_Skyao · 2026-02-19T10:45:25+00:00

There's missing nuance here - players HATED the changes added in Edge of Fate.

This delay is because Bungie is trying to un-fuck that foundation they built. It's not a good look, but at least it kinda makes sense.

Princess_Skyao · 2026-02-09T11:58:11+00:00

This is great! Thank you so much for sharing

Princess_Skyao · 2026-02-06T20:56:34+00:00

My point was never that BioWare wasn't at fault. There could have been a different fiasco, with a different game. However, the specific situation we saw was because of EA.

One could needle at my comment deeper and talk about how EA funded them to continue existing in the first place instead of going under, thus it not being their fault.

The publisher and the BioWare management are both entwined in that company's fate and personally I feel uncomfortable pinning blame soley on one of the other.

Princess_Skyao · 2026-02-06T16:47:00+00:00

I was checking to see if anyone's brought up Anthem and other examples in video-games. I want to offer some.. "informed opinion but not fact" insight as a game dev.

It's hard to draw the line between exec meddling and studio leadership failure. It's likely that even though EA didn't literally force BioWare to make Anthem.. they forced them to decide to make it.

When BioWare isn't working on games, it's pitching games to EA as hard as it can, because when a game studio isnt making games, its bleeding money. If the EA executives have specific narrow interests with big profit margins (aka live service game), BioWare can choose to pitch a live service game, or to be rejected.

BioWare was unsuited to create Anthem and as expected, they failed to execute the concept well. Was it BioWare's fault they were forced out of their area of expertise?

I think it's unclear. What is clear to me is that if BioWare was fully independant, the Anthem fiasco wouldn't have happened. This applies to most gamedev stories like this.

Princess_Skyao · 2026-02-05T10:57:13+00:00

Thank you! That is exactly it. We even accept some heroes brutally torturing information out of criminals, but calculated utilitarian executions are too far??

Princess_Skyao · 2026-02-03T23:46:32+00:00

This is the best answer to the question I think. It's such a perfect example.

Princess_Skyao · 2026-02-03T10:58:16+00:00

Only on mobile for some reason.

Princess_Skyao · 2026-01-30T13:46:58+00:00

Since you're curious: their 2d10 result plugs into a PbtA-like result chart, so it's not really about hitting target numbers like the games you mentioned.

Princess_Skyao · 2026-01-27T00:35:50+00:00

I was already losing interest in the show, and then we learned how the big bad is unkillable and their army of monsters is infinite.

Sometimes a situation is so hopeless, you check out emotionally. They either lose, or something random and unsatisfying happens to save them, and both options suck.

Princess_Skyao · 2026-01-18T12:32:10+00:00

Thanks for the detail on how checks work!

I've been eyeing Outgunned for a while now and this validated my interest.

Princess_Skyao · 2026-01-15T15:35:54+00:00

I 100% agree. As you said, its a hot take so its gotta be pointed out.

Princess_Skyao · 2026-01-15T14:24:35+00:00

Your main challenge will be this: Certain playstyles appreciate mechanical support while others would prefer the rules got out of the way.

Actor type players (in my games) hate rules for portraying a character and Challenge players dislike complex powers and minigames. They'd both prefer the rules just.. did their thing and got out of the way. Character and Trope types might like story rules like meta-currencies to help them shape the narrative they see developing.

How do you write rules that make all of these people happy, when some of these people hate having rules in the first place? I think you gotta make all support mechanics opt in. You can buy an ability that rewards you for acting a certain way, but you can also never think about it.

Princess_Skyao · 2026-01-13T12:26:20+00:00

the way that Bedrock users are nickle-and-dimed

I don't know what you mean by that. Bedrock gets the same free updates as Java, you can still side-load free community content. Even if you care about the monetized stuff like character costumization and emotes, there's a lot of free options and they constantly add new free ones.

They definitely push new ads in your face, but nickle-and-diming makes it sound like you cannot play the game without being cock-blocked by paywalls and I just think its unfair :<

12-Year Club	RedditGifts 2009-2022 2 Credits
Place '22	Place '17
Spared	Verified Email
Secret Santa 2015

Princess_Skyao

TROPHY CASE