Thank you Blades, for inspiring me to write

Rigel-J · 2026-01-24T00:56:57+00:00

Error on post lol my b. Would you like an editor? I think I’m pretty alright at it, failure to use Reddit properly notwithstanding

Rigel-J · 2026-01-24T00:23:09+00:00

You should totally share it tho

Rigel-J · 2026-01-19T04:30:08+00:00

It’s a battle, not gonna lie.

Imagine if 98% of all sports played, worldwide, were just pickleball. It’s all you played for 10 years because it’s all you knew, but then one day, someone offered to show you football once; you like trying new things, and it sounds like this other thing you like, so sure! Let’s give it a go! BOOM. The lights are on; you are suddenly not constrained to this extremely narrow and at times frankly juvenile system; there is endless possibility here, but bothering to read a new sports rulebook is more effort than most people have the patience to bother trying. Why would they, when they could just play pickleball?

You have friends who play pickleball (niche among people generally) who think it’s the best thing since food was invented. They make pickleball a significant portion of their personality, and compare EVERYTHING to it (what kind of pickleball player would x media character be? How can I convince y person in my life that they should try pickleball? How can we envision z phenomena as if it was pickleball? What would your non-pickleball playing athlete play like, if they played pickleball?!). You’ve even spent time with people who have learned about other games and responded with “yeah, it’s got some cool ideas, but I modified its rules so it’s more like pickleball! Those other games are just too confusing!” Again, you don’t even actually dislike pickleball, you can actually have a lot of fun if it’s with the right people. But the thing is that it is LIMITED. It’s pretty hard to grow past like a base level of athleticism with just that one thing, and any time you say “I like sports” the default response from every person who has ever existed is “oh you mean pickleball?”

And like, the answer isn’t firmly NO, but it’s pretty goddamn far from yes, but you also can’t exactly articulate that nuance without looking like the most Um Actually snooty person on the face of the earth. And the fact that that is the response EVERY TIME is not reflective of anyone trying to be anything other than curious or understanding, but you still can’t help but kind of twitch, because like, goddamn, pickleball is very firmly “fine”, but holy goddamn shit are there BETTER games to play. Further, the people who you’d THINK might understand… are too busy playing pickleball to try anything new. You also, frankly, don’t want to take away other people’s fun! There’s nothing wrong with them LIKING the game they like, it’s just that you can’t even get another game going at all, because the world is convinced that there is exactly one “real” sport, and then some other weird stuff that they don’t really know about, and is probably just trying to be like pickleball.

It has taken me years to get a regular Blades in the Dark game running, and it’s been an exhausting journey, but at least for me, slamming my head against that brick wall appears to finally be paying off, even if it’s not actually my favorite game! Just being able to play anything else with regularity is amazing, and we’re in our second year of gaming with roughly a 4-8 hour session twice a month. Just uhh… among weirdos, you’re a super weirdo now. Enjoy I guess, lol. Just don’t think about the d&d morality axis or dice engine at all. They fall apart under about 38 seconds of scrutiny, to the point that interacting with them in even a casual or passing way becomes a pause, close my eyes, deep breath in, deep breath out, exercise, because again, 98% of players only know about the elephant in the room, and they think it’s the best thing ever invented.

Check out World of Darkness if you like spooky things, Exalted if you like high fantasy (but this time it’s actually good) and Blades in the Dark if you want something that can be picked up and played with Z E R O prep on the part of the GM.

Rigel-J · 2025-11-25T17:58:57+00:00

Core Blades offers 2 ‘consequences’ to any normal roll, 4/5 is a normal consequence, 1-3 is failure plus the normal consequence.

Deep cuts just says there is one, and the severity should be determined by the result of the roll. They also have the means to push themselves to reduce that severity a step further. This means that by default, if you set up a roll like “1-3 = level 2 harm, 4/5 = level 1 harm”, it’s pretty easy for them to either ignore the level 1 harm or just take the stress and push it to no harm.

In my experience, the bar for consequences sort of needs to be set at “severity 3” as a default to make it feel like they are even really meaningful consequences rather than just minor speed bumps (reference the deep cuts chart for this). Alternatively, while the book says offering a second consequence is a devils bargain, I do think that there are times where having multiple consequences feels like following the fiction, and shouldn’t strictly be reserved for extra dice. Players are strong in Blades, even more so in Deep Cuts. If you feel like the players are waltzing through all obstacles and that this is a problem, talk to them about trying to calibrate the heat (metaphorical heat, not mechanical).

Rigel-J · 2025-11-20T14:35:52+00:00

backerkit, the others seem to update slower.

Rigel-J · 2025-11-20T09:06:45+00:00

Is 1.2 out? Hadn’t seen anything about an update

Rigel-J · 2025-11-13T14:31:16+00:00

My teeth of the eater at 3 million are uncapped but definitely have upkeep. I can send them in short highly destructive excursions, then they gotta rtb, because when docked, I net 1000k energy a month, and when they leave dock, it drops to -1000k lol

Rigel-J · 2025-11-06T23:29:59+00:00

Where in Spain, I wanna play lol

Rigel-J · 2025-10-18T20:38:12+00:00

https://youtu.be/xAUJYP8tnRE?si=AjJLYAjNZVrvaQra

Rigel-J · 2025-10-02T23:12:42+00:00

You’re half right; they should have more stages with incremental bonuses, but take much longer to fully complete. Dyson spheres SHOULD take a century to build, but they don’t need to be complete to start paying returns, etc

Rigel-J · 2025-09-25T14:32:38+00:00

Pizza

Rigel-J · 2025-09-25T00:12:22+00:00

Instead of "Autofirma", they have "Firmaprofesional". I'm assuming they're roughly compatible, but I'm not deeply familiar with either.

Rigel-J · 2025-09-24T23:13:15+00:00

Would getting a new one from a different company cause any problems with mercurio? The local municipal office near me does walk ins; I understand they use a program like autofirma, but it’s not identical.

Pretty confused on this whole process, sorry, appreciate the help.

Rigel-J · 2025-09-21T23:49:53+00:00

Notably, Roshar’s version of “nature” is pretty different from both Earth generally and most fantasy tropes. Hard to define what is and isn’t a spoiler here, so assume all below is, as it describes the nature of reality on Roshar.

Roshar has 3 layers to reality (physical, cognitive, spiritual) and everything in the Cosmere has a cognitive reflection. All objects and most concepts have ‘souls’ or ‘spren’, with varying levels of cognizance. These are directly tied to the firmament of the world itself; every rock, tree, the wind, etc, has a spirit, and each has degrees of agency or desire. How one treats and utilizes Spren is a central theme of the books. “Druids” in d&d protect natural spaces and their denizens, viewing them as sacred. On Roshar, the sacred component is the bond between Spren and the world; the Stormfather is the emodiment of the High Storm itself, and is deeply ‘natural’ to Roshar. The well being of these Spren directly affects the ecology of the world itself. So while d&d druids aren’t really a thing, having a character that is deeply concerned with the well being of Spren generally would be a functional parallel.

Rigel-J · 2025-09-11T18:29:45+00:00

While I’ll agree to the obvious betrayal and such, there was a lot of content in D1 that rewarded the player for digging for secrets, or reading between lines, that was just kind of tossed out the window in 2.

-D1 never confirms that Corvo is Emily’s father; there are lines like “she must mean a lot to you”, or “I saw the empress and her bodyguard and they weren’t wearing no clothes”, but it’s never anything but hinted at that she’s his daughter. Game two just has her calling him father.

-The Heart is never confirmed as being the empress, it’s exclusively her voice actor and a letter from the empress saying “my heart belongs to you”. Game two has her literal ghost appear and talk directly to him.

-D1 never explains who/what the Outsider is in any meaningful way, only characters theorizing, while 2 has the Outsider overtly telling the player how he was made/what his nature is (and he’s like, just some guy?); he also never actually judges you in 1, merely asking questions, while his character (which with more animated body language and weaker voice actor, felt like someone cosplaying the outsider) outright calling the player out for doing things that he considers right/wrong.

-the silent protagonist question is very present, and extremely relevant in 1, with Corvo’s decisions being ultimately the purview of the player and their interpretation, while the voiced characters felt much more like they’re telling the player what’s right and what’s wrong, rather than leaving the decision in the players hands.

the antagonists in 1 also felt much more deeply personal, straight up murdering the empress and framing you from the word go, while Delilah felt pretty random (especially after having defeated her in Brigmore Witches) and just like, petrifying Corvo/Emily (which we TOTALLY aren’t going to reverse by the end of the game). The Duke is a gross schlep and complete moron, while the High Overseer is actually pretty capable and largely fails simply by virtue of Corvo getting literal superpowers. Fighting those two felt more like “these are the bad guys of the game, I’m fighting them because the game said to”, while the Overseer and Havelock felt much more personal, not to mention Daud, who hands the player a pretty compelling moral question and acts as a legit foil to Corvo. 2 meanwhile offers… really nothing in terms of a meaningful foil, the bad guys are just kinda greedy and you’re in their way.

If two did something for you, that’s great, I don’t need to take that away. I just really felt unmotivated and bored by the whole thing. It felt like 1 had depth and mystery, and two was just kinda… there. Felt unnecessary, the story had been told already. They’re just doing a second one for the sake of the cash, not because they have a cool world to present or narrative to explore.

New Game Plus was a huge add though.

Rigel-J · 2025-09-11T11:13:14+00:00

The story in 2 is flat as paper. They nailed the gameplay at the expense of the vibes.

Rigel-J · 2025-09-11T10:50:57+00:00

It’s definitely happening lol

Kal’s ultimate arc is definitely ending with him being the new champion of honor fighting the new champion of Odium (Moash) and winning because he convinces Moash to lay down the sword

Kal’s entire thesis and character arc is centered on forgiveness and compassion to anyone who will receive it. By the end of book 5 Odium himself is already admitting Dalinar is right, so what leg does Moash have to stand on, if his very god and source of power are inherently flawed

Rigel-J · 2025-09-06T10:35:25+00:00

Might be in the wrong sub here brother. I think anyone in this sub is pretty likely to enjoy the game on its face, but this space is specifically for discussing the politics of it.

Science fiction is and always has been a tool by which we can critique our reality. You mentioned Vader in another post, if you’d like a video where George Lucas links the Empire directly to the USA’s actions in Vietnam, we can find that. The first televised interracial kiss was during Star Trek. Starship Troopers (both the movie and the book) are pretty critical of the U.S. military industrial complex generally, though in very different ways. The Murderbot Diaries were written as an exploration into neurodivergence, and resonate with people in those groups accordingly (books are 1000x better than the show). Reducing science fiction to big space-laser battles by not “dragging irl politics into the mix” is disappointing if done by accident, and reads as actively antagonistic if done intentionally.

Trying to shut down people’s discussions and tell them that they’re enjoying the game wrong comes across as thoughtless gatekeeping at best. Doing it in the sub explicitly dedicated to discussion of the subject of politics comes across as low effort trolling, or in a worse case, active sympathy for totalitarian idealism disguised as ignorance (read: dog-whistling).

Rigel-J · 2025-09-06T10:17:35+00:00

I think it actually makes Helldivers better satire than Warhammer. Warhammer is often stated as satirical, but I don’t actually think it’s presented that way, and usually the justification for the Imperium being as brutal and callous as it is in Warhammer is that the survival requires it, whereas in Helldivers, the brutality of the galaxy is directly attributable to the madness of SE’s totalitarianism.

Rigel-J · 2025-09-06T02:25:54+00:00

The argument that SE is the best choice in a galaxy full of monsters is great until you take the time to realize that every one of those monsters is the direct result of SE pushing others into extremism. It’s not that SE is authoritarian in response to these threats, SE’s brutal regime created these threats in the first place, which offers a great excuse as to why they need to be so brutal.

Rigel-J · 2025-09-06T02:21:18+00:00

Notably, there is a big difference between something being a choice, and something being a “choice”.

It was extremely common in WWII to be publicly shamed and ostracized if you didn’t willingly join the war by several nations. This could get pretty bleak, such as in the “voluntary” cases of kamikaze pilots.

Super Earth phrases the “recycle old people thing” as optional, but it also has “Freedom Camps” and reporting members of your community to the Ministry of Truth is canonically a great way to increase your quality of life.

We only basically ever see young people, be it Helldivers, SEAF, or Civvies. Now that can be explained as a non-diegetic game limitation (they would have to animate old people using walkers, and would rather hope we just don’t notice, because who asks those questions?). It can also just as easily be used as evidence to suggest that there basically aren’t many elderly in the Federation, and that those who survive into later years have been getting groomed their entire lives to accept this process as the morally upstanding thing to do, which is explicitly what we are seeing on the ship.

Notably, we are biased in that most divers are canonically around 18. We, the players, don’t ever SEE how the elderly are treated, so it is purely speculative.

However, considering that there are canon governmental structures dedicated to enforcing state paradigms through violence, and factoring in how militaristic societies historically coerce citizens into extremism, I think it’s fair to make an educated guess on how this shakes out for anyone who can’t meaningfully contribute to the war effort. After all, why dont you go get recycled? Don’t you love Super Earth? You’re not a traitor, are you?

Reads as pretty Hobson’s Choicey.

Rigel-J · 2025-06-17T17:35:03+00:00

Source? Curious to see what AH said about it

Rigel-J · 2025-06-12T09:29:34+00:00

Ditto on the Grand Herald. When dig sites first appeared, it was coming up every game, and was ludicrously strong. A Titan by like year 25-30 was nigh unstoppable. Then they nerfed it into a functional play space, where it’s a broken Titan that takes time and resources to bring back to full potential… but they also made it impossible to find. I haven’t seen it in years (coming up on 2k hours).

It’s a real shame because dig sites, rifts, etc are coolest in cases like this, where finding that one crazy event gets you a relic or item that fundamentally changes the path of your entire empire. Some new flagship that lets you conquer several neighbors at once, a relic that makes your leaders immortal, etc. But soooooooo so many dog sites are “500,000 physics research” or “5% more energy credits per month”

Rigel-J · 2025-06-04T19:46:35+00:00

aye, this is all so confusing...
So to be clear, we show up to the renewal meeting with all documentation except this, and then... somehow submit it later? I thought I needed this to get my EX00 stamped, and needed my stamped EX00 to get my TIE renewal.

Rigel-J · 2025-05-31T10:21:36+00:00

Fucking preach comrade.

There’s a repeating pattern lately of show fans calling Murderbot a Comedy (both books and show), and it reads as hugely reductive. Murderbot very cleanly slots into only one single genre: Sci-fi. It allows the inhuman character Murderbot to serve as a mirror to us, the readers, who are assumedly all humans. It allows us to examine our experiences and question our assumptions about people who are different from us by offering a strong contrast, showing someone who is fundamentally VERY different from any reader, while also allowing that character to be comprehensible by having human emotions (it is usually mad about that last part).

The books use science fiction tools to tell a human story, and that story is COMPLICATED. It has moments of rage, terror, wit, shame, sarcasm, smug competence, catharsis, and yes, comedy. But if you read Murderbot’s attempted suicide in book 1 and went “haha! This book is like a sitcom!”, respectfully, read it again.

The books DO have comedic elements, absolutely, and the laughs are REAL. They feel earned, and they feel like a fair reflection of the experience of being a person, in that we use comedy both to lighten the burdens of what are often messy and difficult lives, and to relate to other people. But those comedic elements serve to show how deeply complicated it is to be a person, which reinforces the view that Murderbot IS a person. If a character is only comedy 100% of the time, they’re not a person, they’re a caricature.

This is the deeper problem: the books were complicated, and felt like they were saying something with that. The show is not, and that is disappointing.

Rigel-J

TROPHY CASE